Good morning Dr Magnifico
Marley’s (Gainer) diarrhea started up again yesterday. Otherwise he remains himself and is eating well. I have Metronidazole on hand from the rescue. Would it be OK to give him some? If so, how much? How often? Thank you!
Sharon Gainer

Hello and thank you for anyone willing to share their expertise or experiences with toe amputation. My dog Theo is a 14 year old beagle mix and was attacked by another dog a month ago and sustained many injuries but the most severe was a broken 5th metacarpal bone on his front right leg. He has been wearing a splint/cast for a month and just had his 4 week X-ray to check healing and unfortunately it doesn’t appear that much healing has happened. Ultimately my vet had recommended that the fastest and most effective way for him to recover and walk again. Would be to amputate the tie up to the knuckle. I am just concerned about his ability to walk after the surgery and how other people’s dogs, particularly older ones have handled this type of surgery. Because of his age and a previous herniated disc in his back which causes some weakness in his back end he has been unable to walk since the injury. Just hoping to find the right solution to get him back to normal as soon as possible. Any information you can provide would be helpful. Thank you!

Hello Community. I have a wonderful 7-YO spayed female snowshoe named Poppy. Poppy has been the picture of perfect health since I first got her with her litter mates. at 7-8 weeks. She is an indoor/outdoor cat who leads an active social life, and has always had a healthy appetite powering her Alpha status in the household of 5 cats. She and her housemates only get the best food possible and carbs were cut out completely about 1.5 years ago. She currently eats Dr Elsey’s wet food (Turkey or Duck/Turkey), Stella & Chewy’s freeze dried raw morsels, along with some lightly roasted chicken meat with a multi-organ/glandular freeze dried blend for added nutrition.

Last week I noticed Poppy had a hard lump on her left hind leg on the outside of the upper thigh about 1 inches below the hip joint and just outside the leg’s leading edge. It is a hard mass about a dime in size, raised and moves with your finger just a little bit. It is under the hide and above the muscle and feels attached to the muscle or sinew tissues. I took her to her vet last week and they attempted to aspirate but got no fluids, and so have recommended surgery to remove the cyst and biopsy the tissue. While I await their cost estimate I got a second quote from a local board-certified surgeon and that came back at $2500-3000 not including any imaging, biopsies or panels.

I am asking if anyone knows what a likely market price is for such a surgery or has recommendations on alternative treatments? Poppy is behaving normally and has had no change in diet or activity, and does not react at all to touching the cyst. The cyst was first noticed about 10 days ago, and I am constantly handling this cat so it has developed very rapidly. I had first thought it must be from a playful bite from one of her wrestling matches with my 2-YO male, but there are not external signs of any such play. Any insight is appreciated. Especially a means to get this cyst removed and biopsied at a price much more reasonable than that already quoted.

Please respond fast I am not sure how long he hasMy cat pepper is a 2 and half year old male nurtured cat I am a 13 year old that tries his best to take care of him recently found out about his uti and don’t know what to do took him to a vet where we’re giving a bill of 500 dollars and pain killers for the cat we could also let him stay at the vet for 3k but our family can’t afford that and I don’t know how to help me cat if I ever loose him I will not be able to handle it

I have a 12 month old male rescue kitten that in the past three weeks has blocked twice. We’ve spent thousands to unblock him. The emergency vet hospitals in my area have all quoted me a price of over 8,000 dollars for PU surgery. He is currently not blocked but is having trouble and discomfort while urinating and his volume isn’t great. He’s on a prescription diet and we’ve done everything we can to keep him healthy. But we feel that PU surgery is inevitable and is our only option to save his life. The emergency vet told us that if we couldn’t afford surgery they would euthanize him for us. He’s the sweetest boy and deserves a chance at a long life. We are desperate for help. We would be willing to travel in order to get him what he needs if that’s what it would take. Please help us! We love our little Loki

What is this red thing hanging from her torso? I thought it was a swollen nipple but it gotten worse and now there is a red … thing coming out of it.

Hi I want a few options to give our teething 11 week old puppy to chew on safely. We do frozen soft rubber toys, frozen carrots always supervised with both. Could we offer a yak cheese chew to her as well? Our older dog loves them.

Hey, my 11 month, 5 week pregnant cat, suffered a very high fall yesterday, after she managed to escape from the house, and she returned with inability to walk properly on both her back legs, and i suspect it is a pelvic fracture, I’m a broke college student and Cannot afford a surgery, what limited research i did online made to think that euthanasia is the only solution, but I’ve been constantly monitoring her, she is comfortable, resting in her favourite place, she is purring, i fed her with a syringe and gave water to her the same way, i kept her litter box near here, and she did get up and pooped in it, what can I do, please help me save my baby????

Hello, our one year old male neutered cat (domestic shorthair) has been having soft bowel movements for the past few weeks. The vet prescribed him the Hills Z/D diet to help with it. He had some improvement but we weren’t told to stop other treats until recently which we did. He is now exclusively being fed wet Z/D and only a few pieces of the dry Z/D.

His blood test showed elevated eosinophils and the vet suspects IBD.

Three days ago we noticed a few millimeters of rectal prolapse after he had a bowel movement. The tissue went back inside and I gently wiped his backside. There was a little bit of blood. We called and took a vet appointment and he’s being seen in a couple of days.

Since then he’s had the prolapse each time he poops, and it retreats about 30 seconds later. I am very worried that this will become a chronic problem requiring surgery. I would like some advice please on what questions I should ask the vet. What if they suggest surgery? Should we get an ultrasound done, or a colonoscopy? Thank you.

Looking for personal advice as my husband got bit by a close friend’s parent’s dog yesterday unprovoked and it was a pretty aggressive bite. Her parent then told us he bit someone a month ago. I’m a nurse and am comfortable managing the wound, but as an animal lover and friend, I feel so guilty reporting it as I know what the outcome will be.