My year and a half old Great Dane had large lump on belly, took her to emergency vet where she put a needle in it and drained lump. Sent home with heavy duty antibiotics and pain meds. Now dog has diarrhea and trouble with her bowel mvmts. and has started puncture hole bleeding. Don’t really want to take her back to vet. Beginning to not trust any doctors as I read on your blog site that you don’t agree with draining and lumps should eventually absorb on its own. She doesn’t seem in distress or pain. What can I do to take care of her at home with giving her meds that will help her heal?

My 8 year old chow/lab mix got diagnosed with IVDD 7 days ago. She was chasing a rabbit when her back gave out. She stayed in the vet hospital over the weekend where they monitored those first few days. We are not able to afford the surgery, but we have been working with her since she has been home. I noticed over the last couple days that she is able to twitch her legs in her sleep, which she didn’t do the first 3 days of being home. Is this a good sign or is that just a subconscious reflex?

We have a very sassy beautiful 12 year old orange female tabby named Nala. She has been perfectly healthy until about a year ago when she started to sneeze a lot (that rapid-fire sneezing that cats do) and she started to make a snoring sound when she breathes. We initially thought it was just allergies but it didn’t get any better after several months. We took her to the vet and he diagnosed her with herpes and prescribed Chlorpheniramine 4mg crushed in her food. I’ve been giving her this for at least 6 months now and she has not improved. The sneezing has decreased, but the “snoring” has not improved at all. Searching online, we found a video of Dr. Magnifico performing surgery on a cat that had a nasal polyp and we are wondering if this may be what she has. The symptoms all seem to be the same as what she has been dealing with. So we’ve been searching for a vet in our area that performs this type of exam and surgery, and we have found this to be very expensive ($2000-$5000). She is otherwise a very healthy girl, she eats, drinks, uses litterbox and plays and snuggles all like normal. She has lost weight, but now seems to be putting it back on slowly. Dr. Magnifico’s office is only about an hour away and we would absolutely drive down to be able to have her exam Nala and if it is a reasonable price, have her remove the polyp if this was the diagnosis.

How long does my dog have to fast before having an abdominal ultrasound?

Hello, I’m currently fostering an animal whose been in limbo with two previous owners. The first owner wanted to put her down because she supposedly didn’t do well with their children. The second home it seems like they don’t have enough time for the sweet little girl. That’s where I stepped in to help. So long story short I wondered if it was possible there was a health issue with puppy and first owners didn’t want to deal with it. When the puppy sleeps, she breathes abnormal, she breaths so fast and hard. I have watched many puppies sleep and this is just different. It’s like she’s panting and breathing so quickly. It’s only when she lays down to sleep. I didn’t think much of it the first night but it okay today I’m concerned. She’s not hot, and she’s not cooling off from some sort of activity. I am not sure what to do. I can’t find any relevant videos or articles about this type of behaviors.

I had my cat to an emergency vet for a blockage yesterday. I’m pretty sure he’s blocked again. I can’t afford for him to get the procedure done again, as I spent every penny I had on the last one. What can I do?

I adopted a feral cat just over a year ago. My elderly father was feeding him twice a day for two years. He moved to a condo when my mother passed and the cat sat at the empty house day and night waiting for my Dad to come home. I ended up taking the cat and have worked on taming him. I’ve been making progress but not quite where I can pick him up.
He’s been mostly healthy up until 8 weeks ago. He seemed to be straining to urinate in his litter box and had decreased appetite. I took him to an animal hospital. At this time, I couldn’t touch him. He was anesthetized and examined. His exam and bloodwork were all neg. He was put on a urinary diet and given mirtazipine to stimulate appetite. I was not able to consistently get the stimulate in his ear but he would eat, just not a lot.
Followed up with my vet who said maybe he isn’t that hungry because he doesn’t have to worry about food and just watch his weight.
Weight continued to drop and found out last week he has tapeworms. He got a topical dewormer. Since then, it seems like he’s lost more weight and his lack of appetite is worse. He does eat enough to poop and pee daily.
My vet does house calls only and is coming Thursday. She’s limited in what she can offer for interventions. I am contemplating taking him back to animal hospital for evaluation,
It gets dicey though because he’s not completely tame. When I went with him before I could hear the attending talking to resident on other side of door saying, “he’s feral, what does she expect us to do,” I get that, but to a point. Is it unrealistic for me to want Pinky treated? He’s getting sweeter and sweeter and enjoys being petted.

My sister is stuck in Cordova Alaska. Her pet cat got a blockage in the urine and the local vet barely looked at him told her “ either he can be flown out to the emergency vet or be put down. “ she can’t afford to fly herself, the cat, and her 3 kids out to save this poor family member and she is devastated and just crying her eyes out.. is there anything at all she can do to save this poor little guy? She said it’s not in her heart to put him down and is trying home remedies..

Hi! I have two beloved cats who I rescued about 4 years ago at the age of 2. They are now 6 (biological brothers) one of them has always been on the more apprehensive side. This problem tends to go in phases but this time it’s lasting longer than usual. During the night time anywhere between 12-4 AM he is just a ball of energy and wants to play and will cry and run back and forth. Before we go to bed at night, I try to play with each of them for about a half hour. Is there anything else I can do? I feel bad that he has all this energy and just looking for love and attention in the middle of the night! I’m worried about when we go on vacation or something or that sorts because we won’t be able to comfort him when he is having these “moments”

Help!

-anxious cat mom

I have a one eyed cat who about 1.5 years old. He had his eye removed before we adopted him but know he had multiple eye infections that led to the enucleation. He has always sneezed A LOT since we’ve had him and we thought it was likely a side effect from his eye removal. In the last few months, every few weeks a very large pocket of air fills up in area surrounding his eye socket on the side with no eye. The first time it happened our vet was flummoxed when he aspirated it with a needle, expecting fluid but only air came out. Since the first time this happened, the area has continued to refill with air every few weeks. We continually take him in and they remove anywhere from 10-14ccs of air. It doesn’t seem to hurt him or bother him but it gets huge and uncomfortable. We took him to an eye specialist recently who said any exploratory surgery and tests would cost no less than 4k just to start and they had no idea what it could be. Since this doesn’t seem to bother him, are we crazy to think we could try to aspirate his eye at home when it fills up? Has anyone ever come across anything like this? Every vet we talk to has never seen anything like it. Would love any help or advice!