Ask questions and share about your pet's health to help others.
We have a WONDERFUL cat, who is destroying our furniture more, and more. Would someone please share some possible solutions to curb her scratching the furniture before we have no furniture left?
Hello, I just adopted a kitten and I had a few inquires about her and her health. Unfortunately, the previous owner did not know her age, therefore I do not either. The kitten is a Persian breed, at glance I’d say she’s about 5 or 6 weeks old. Please would you tell me what type of food to give her? Prior to my understanding of what cats eat, I have fed her cheese as meals for an entire day; I stopped upon finding out it is not good for them. I have then fed her boiled chicken, though she ate it she did not seem to enjoy it. I plan on buying cat food today however I do not know what brand to get; and since she was getting hungry I fed her smoked turkey rashers and I’m wondering if that would harm her?
Hi Zain
As she is a kitten – she needs building up like any new animal- get kitten milk -it is called that- NOT normal milk -at the supermarket- this is a food supplement- any good commercial “wet” canned food and you can get biscuits for different age cats
Also the local vet can give you advice – a lot of commercial biscuits are very salty- ask the vet
regards David
Is cat acne usually painful for the cat? Do they scratch at it?
Hi! I recently became foster mom for a very young rescued kitten. He is living in my garage until his first vet appointment. He goes anywhere he wants on the concrete floor. Is there a way to encourage him to use the box? Thanks!
Hi….you don’t say how young he is….but very young animals, like babies have no control over their bladder and bowels.
Give him some time, lots of patience and he’ll get the hang of it as he gets a bit older.
You can try and put him in the box, then take one of his paws and move it in the litter box. If you do it often he should understand it
Yesterday he came in the house to have playtime. After, my daughter sat him in the litter box and he urinated! Thanks so much!
Hello! My Gerbil (3 – 6 moths), Pregnant, and female, seems to be having some slight problems. She is bleeding in her anus (butt – hole), and a dark red blob (small) seems to be stuck in her anus, and is not budging. She is acting normal, eating normally, and all that. Does this have something to do with her pregnancy? Will she be okay? Someone please tell me… I don’t want to lose her and her babies 🙁 🙁
she needs a VET.
Take her to the vet sweetie! No matter if it’s an animal or person, bleeding from the butt isn’t good.. It could be many things, but with her being pregnant, you need to get her to the vet ASAP.
Sending healing vibes, and prayers your way.
Hope everything works out, and that she has her babies, and everything is perfect!❤️
She definitly needs a vet. If it really is her anus it maybe is her colon portruding. She needs an emergency vet. It also could be because of her pregnancy, that she tries to push to hard. If so she also needs an emergency vet.
No matter the cause, she can die without treatment.
She was sick about three weeks ago with a fever and slightly elevated numbers in her pancreas. After several days on antibiotics she started eating again. Then she sprained her toe 11 days ago while running in the park, and is now walking without a limp. Now this purple lump on her stomach just popped up out of nowhere. It doesn’t look like a bite. It’s in between nipples, so it doesn’t have to do with that. She was fixed at three months old, so it shouldn’t have anything to do with mammary glands. Does this look familiar to anyone? I’ve shelled out about $350 in vet bills over the past three weeks and I’d like to avoid another trip if this is something that could just go away on it’s own.
Thank you for so much for your help.
UPDATE: It’s only been a few hours since my post, but the thing ruptured. It’s gone from the dark purple to a clear ring with slight red around it. I’m guessing it was just a large pimple or blister of some kind. I’ve cleaned and disinfected it. I’ll keep an eye on it, but I’m guessing she’s going to be just fine.
Keep it clean probably and infected pimple like bump. I use peroxide on my dogs.
Hi, my dog whines when he lands on a hard enough surface.He was fine yesterday but all of a sudden hes not wanting to move alot now.Usually, in the morning he jumps up on my bed for a little bit but today he didnt so I helped him up.But immediately hes jumped down and squealed and the same for going down the steps to let him out to pee.I thought his legs might of gotten hurt but I checked all his paws and they were fine.Hes not walking as much as he did now and just lays in his cage and is hesitant to move.
My cat was spayed on Wednesday and it is now Sunday and she stil is laying around not active should I worry. She seams to be not in pain but lays around all day not doing much. She eats and drinks but not as much as before she went in.
Normally it will take 2-3 days after being spayed to feel better, if your cats is older then she might take a little longer to feel like herself again, but if you are worried then you could call the vet that you went to and ask them if you should be worried. I think as long as she is eating and drinking then she should be ok, and your baby will start to eat more when she gets back to herself again. Good luck
My pitbull has allergies and when she scratches she causes
skin infections. Is it safe to give her Sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim 800
mg / 160 mg ( The human kind ). What dosage is appropriate? Thanks for any help
you can give.
Please don’t give your dog human medication it could be toxic to her. Only give meds the Vet prescribes.
agreed with Julie. vet time. don’t give your dog human meds.
First, get all grain out of her diet — find a grain-free premium dog food. The first 2 ingredients must be meat — such as elk, chicken, turkey — words that you understand as meat. Meal means the whole animal was ground up and dried, so ‘salmon meal’ means meat too. Avoid any thing that has “by-products” listed such as “chicken by-products” this could be just chicken feathers! Not a good source of protein.
Be sure the treats are grain-free also! Stop sharing cookies and bread crusts! Grains impact the dogs ability to fight off allergens. If she is really chewing off hair or damaging the skin try a generic Zyrtec. Same dosage for a human (typically one pill in the morning, one pill at night.
Rinse your dog’s feed and belly when she comes in from outdoors to help remove pollen and mold spores, and to keep those things out of the house. I keep a tub of water at the back door and change the water daily. It can be plain water or a mix of water and vinegar (1/3 vinegar, 2/3 water).
You can rinse your entire dog with the vinegar mix — either just that, or after an Aveeno bath (Aveeno is an oatmeal soap that helps sooth skin). Allow the vinegar mix to dry on her skin and fur. This will help with itching and help heal the skin. Organic cider vinegar is best, but it may stain a white dog to beige.
If she has raw, wet spots (hot spots they are often called), I would take her to a vet for evaluation. You can help heal a hot spot with witch hazel with aloe and blot it on the spot to help with itch and heal the skin. You can find the witch hazel with aloe in any pharmacy over the counter.
Grain free, primo diet, reduce the allergen load of pollen and spores. These things will probably help over time. In the mean time, work with your vet to give her some relief.
Chicken is one of the more frequent dog food allergies out there. Anna needs to get the allergy bit sorted with a vet’s assistance.
As I stated in my reply
My dog is a 10 yr old schnauzer. she is drinking excessive amounts of water. it started almost a year ago. she doesnt have any accidents in the house and she eats okay. i can’t afford the vet. will she be okay?
If your pet has increased the amount of water for his or her diet and get plenty of excersis, eats, and sleeps, and pottys regularly then there’s nothing to fear
Hi Ashlyn….no disrespect to Erick but excessive drinking could be a sign of diabetes…..and its been going on a long time too.
You do need to find the money from somewhere to take her to a Vet and tell him whats been happening.
No disrespect tooken but isn’t it true that if ur pet has dieabities wouldn’t there be other symptoms like increased appatiet, lack of motivation, increased intake of water, etc.
Not necessarily Erick depending on the severity of the diabetes. If she were my dog I would have her Vet checked and tested.
Oh and kidney failure vision failure uti weight loss
But u said its been almost a year and it was only increase in your animals water intake I hostely think that her animal is fine but if these other systems accure I would bet it is diabetes
Ok lets agree to disagree lol
Agreed
It is just hard to tell because she has always drank a lot of water, but I just started to worry because I have read something about schnauzers being a weird breed and it is common for them to get diabetes when they get older
Okay. Thank you. Is there a possibility that there won’t be anything wrong? She has always drank a lot of water but its just been more water lately. I fill her bowl up using empty water bottles and i fill up the bowl with about 3 water bottles a day. I just don’t know if that’s a lot or not. I’m just concerned because I heard its common in schnauzers to get diabetes or something at an old age and that schnauzers are a weird breed.
Hi Sarah,
There are lots of things you can do to help your cat. First, here is a great link about it :http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/health_information/brochure_destructive.cfm
Make sure to provide lots of other options for her, scratching posts are great, or the rigid cardboard scratcher boxes–you sprinkle some cat nip on them to lure them and encourage her to scratch.
Clip her nails as short as possible. If you are not comfortable doing this, take her to a groomer or your vet. It’s important to do this every 4 weeks so they don’t get too long. This will help a great deal.
Make sure she has a lot of things to keep her busy,,cat tree, interactive toys, etc..that should help too.
Finally, if you catch her in the act. You can try sound as a deterrent. Take a metal can–like a soup or coffee can, fill it with a few pennies and seal it. When you see her start to try to scratch, loudly shake the can and say NO in a firm voice. After a few times of doing this , you may see her not trying to go near the furniture.
Good Luck! Make sure to check out the link I put in at the top of this, lots of good advice there.
~kelly
Hi Kelly- we have scratch posts on each floor of our house and scratch pads as well. This is the first time that I have had a destructive cat. It is EXTREMELY difficult to cut her nails. I’ve gotten one or two here and there over the years, but have the scars to prove it. She loves to be cuddled, but not held. Everything is on her terms, which is fine. That is part of what makes her so awesome! I will definitely check out the link you not. Thanks!
Someone I know trained his cat to not scratch furniture by putting double sided tape on it