Ask questions and share about your pet's health to help others.
The cat had been showing up nearly daily. About mid-February I had to travel out of state. I made arrangements for someone to put out food for it. They never actually saw the cat and upon my return, I haven’t seen it since. The time we were away was the week when it stayed in single digit temperatures throughout the night. I had fixed up a box with a bedding and a light for warmth but it appeared to have been unused. Any advice? I’m really upset with myself that I didn’t do more to protect it from the environment.
I have a very skittish and small cat that has been eating off and on for the last 2 weeks. She will come out for feeding but only eat a little but will revisit later to munch a little more. I’d say she is eating 50% of what she normally does. Nothing has changed- food, environment, placement, etc. I read how to safely put the cat in the crate, but our problem is just catching her. She only comes out from her basement territory for feeding and late night love when things are calm. She does sleep with us. I have tried trial runs to catch her but she either runs as I approach and darts through her basement cat door where she disappears or if I do get my hands on her she screams, wiggles, scratches and out of fear of hurting her or me I let go, those claws are sharp! In the evening during love time I blocked the cat door and tried to catch her, she flipped out. I tried enticing her with food and cat treats, she is too smart for that, lol. My wife can handle her more than I can and she too has tried without success. We have never been able to pick her up and hold her. She appears and acts perfectly normal. My wife is worried about her and if this continues, she thinks a vet visit may be in order (yet another vet visit, we should buy stock, lol). If we ever get her to the vet, she is their problem then, lol. She is 3 years old and other then when she was a kitten, has never been to the vet because of the above reasons. She is indoor only. Any advice on how to catch this wild crazy cat without hurting her or us?
She sounds super cute and a handful 🙂 Dont have anything to add, but have an injured kitten that im handling who sounds very similar to yours before she got injured. Didn’t know a drop trap even existed until now. i like it! Will try finding one for my next vet visit.
My dog is sometimes crying out in pain but I cannot locate the source of the pain. It seems to either be related to his back hip or his ribs. It is not a consistent pain but when it happens it’s very significant.
This could be a serious spinal issue — you need to take him to a vet for evaluation. Swelling disks, a pinched nerve, could be the problem, but you can’t be sure what is going on without a vet’s evaluation and probably an xray or soft-tissue scan. Any thing involving the spine is pretty serious in my book, so I wouldn’t wait. Often problems can be resolved with crate rest and some medication for swelling and pain.
Good luck!
Sounds like you dog needs a vet to examine. Any time they are crying out in pain means something is def not right. Pets tend to hide their pain so if it’s crying out, it’s time for a vet visit to get to the root cause. Good luck!!
My share pei drinking a lot of water and not eating and weeing on my floor at night but never done it before
take your dog to the vet. take a urine sample, when you go. but please get your dog in now.
Do u have any idea what it might be, or any other advice please
My dog is vomiting and pooping blood and not eating her breakfast (just breakfast) and we have already taken her to the vet and she couldn’t find anything and gave us special food but it doesn’t seem to work. What could possibly be wrong?
One of the challenges of conventional medicine is a limited number of both diagnostic and treatment options. Depending on what your vet said yesterday (I assume after Dr. Krista’s comment you did call the vet back) this may be a time to seek integrative care.
I
strongly recommend finding an integrative veterinarian with whom to work because they are trained in many different approaches, including using conventional
drugs only when absolutely needed. Working with one can increase the chance
that your cherished companion can live a long and healthy life after recovering
from this current problem. There are good ones and great ones, and a few
homeopathic veterinarians will consult by phone or email. You can go to the web
sites for each type of holistic practice and use their referral list to find
one near to you. If this interests you, please read my article on selecting a holistic vet at my site. Many practitioners are members of only one or two of the
organizations, so you do need to go to every site to find who is near you:
1. Wide range of other treatments: http://www.AHVMA.org, American Holistic Veterinary
Medical Association and http://www.civtedu.org.
2. Homeopathic veterinarians (these can often help you by phone if no other
holistic practitioners are nearby that you like): http://www.theAVH.org and http://www.DrPitcairn.com.
3. Chiropractic and Osteopathic – http://www.animalchiropractic.org;
http://equineosteopathy.org/ (they
treat dogs, too)
4. TCVM (Acupuncture and Chinese medicine): http://www.IVAS.org,
http://www.aava.org & http://www.TCVM.com
5. Herbal
– http://www.VBMA.org
Hi Amy,
Im not an expert but i don’t think its normal that they haven’t found what’s wrong. Maybe if she needed more time for test results or more info from your end like if your dog ate something spoiled or if he has diarrhea or something… Contact your vet again and tell her the special dog food isn’t working. If the vet keeps saying “i dont know” I’d always go for a second opinion just as you would with a child. Vomiting and pooping blood are signs that the dog needs medical attention.
Hope she feels better soon,
Caroline.
Laboratory studies need to be done on her if they have not been already. Specifically, a blood panel. One concern that comes to mind is immune-mediated thrombocytopenia which is what my girl, Hannah, died of. You did not mention her age? Hannah was 5-weeks short of 8 years old. Older dogs are more susceptible to immune-mediated diseases – just like humans. However, immune-mediated diseases can affect younger dogs, too. Just like humans.
The key signs for immune-mediated thrombocytopenia would be a blood panel that showed low platelet counts because they are being consumed through an immune-mediated process. Low platelets when the count reaches to a certain level – about 50,000 – can lead to spontaneous bleeding in both the dog and the human. Platelets are responsible for our clotting mechanism. i.e., without them, we will freely bleed and bruise (both, internally or externally) without a means of quelling the loss.
This will, then, lead to low red blood cell count as the dog or person will not be able to manufacture replacement cells to make up for the loss. The dog will be anemic. Dogs are stoic creatures and they can become pretty darn anemic before they will show us physical signs of their anemic state. They are people-pleasers and will compensate for their anemia.
With spontaneous bleeding, a dog can have gastrointestinal bleeding which would lead to bloody stools. The colon could be bleeding which would produce bright red blood per rectum or the bleeding could be higher up in the stomach or small intestines which would produce black and tarry stools.
Bleeding in the stomach can cause nausea and vomiting in the dog and person because blood is a somewhat caustic product. My Hannah was not vomiting but she had no appetite when the illness was clinically apparent. Unfortunately, I lost her because the veterinarian did not bother to carefully look at her laboratory studies that I had ordered.
In 5 days she will be 3 years old. And she is a beagle. I think I’ll go back to vet
This puppy is the last of a large litter, he was one of the only ones who would keep a clean crate/puppy pen. When the ground froze he discovered the practice of eating poo when he was outside in our fenced in yard. He was neutered a week and a half ago and we thought it would be an opportune time to remedy the poo eating issue since we had to leash walk him. He now refuses to poo outside, we do take him out every 1-2 hours and give a high value treat for pottying outside. He will go in his crate immediately after coming in and will immediately eat it. It almost seems that since I won’t allow him to eat what is in the yard he is just going to make his own snack. I will add that he is a very quick learner, he learned sit and down in an evening. He is very driven by treats and praise. He will urinate outside and looks to me for a treat and praise as he is going. He does not like to be in a messy crate, we know almost the moment it is soiled as he barks/whines and we clean it up. He will only poo in his crate, I do tether housetraining pups to me to eliminate the possibility of accidents (I try to set them up for success) and he has not accidents in the house. He will poo in his crate once I have exited the room where his crate is. I of course can smell the moment he goes, I run in the room and catch him eating it. I have gone as far as letting him out to potty in a pen thinking maybe he does not want to potty with an audience, I watch from a nearby slider but have only “caught” him pooing outside twice in a week and a half, both times I was able to deliver praise and a high value treat as soon as he was done. Lastly his crate is appropriately sized for him, it is a wire folding style crate that is just tall enough for him, he has enough room to lay, stretch out and turn around. This is something I would like to rectify as I know it will be a potential problem in a forever home.
Your puppy is just being a ……puppy! Sometimes the art of pet parenting is like the TV show Survivor–Outwit, Outsmart, Outlast.
Be diligent in cleaning up after your puppy poo’s. Do not give him the chance to play with or eat poo. Try placing the puppy on a leash when you take him outside to relieve himself, and do not allow him to inspect his poo. Distract him from by calling him to you, and when he responds appropriately, reward him with a treat and verbal encouragement (go crazy and act like he is the BEST PUPPY ON THE PLANET!) and then take him inside before you go back to pick it up.
If he hates poo’ing on the leash this is where the “Outlast” portion of the program comes into play. You just have to wander around the yard with him until he does it.
Some have found that adding meat tenderizer or natural additives to the puppy’s food makes a big difference, since these additives cause the stool to have a particularly unappealing smell that will discourage him from eating it. If you cannot immediately clean up the stool, or if there are some old stool piles in your yard, you can spray it with hot pepper sauce or mouth wash. It is more effective to just clean up after the puppy.
A good resource for puppy training is The Complete Idiots Guide to Dog Training. You can check it out of your local library. Good luck!!
Walking helps the bowels move. How about taking him on a walk when he comes out of his crate, and after he eats his meals. The walking will get him eliminating and you will have him on a leash to control his movements while you pick up the poop. This may work faster/better than turning him out in the yard and waiting, or wandering around the yard while he decides if he is going to poop or not.
It may also be so exciting to be out and about that he forgets he wants to poop inside where he can snack.
Good luck!
Thank you for the suggestions. I actually had given more info in the details when I posted that I am doing all of these. This isn’t a typical housebreaking issue but more of a compulsion to eat stool. The issue of eliminating in his crate began AFTER I restricted him from eating poo outside. In the past year alone I have fostered 30 puppies, all were well on their way to being housetrained when they were adopted. As a board member of a local rescue and seasoned foster I provide support to adoptive families on the subject of house training. My approach to house training is to set a dog up for success eliminating the possibility for accidents and rewarding appropriate elimination. I vary my method according to the dog as not all dogs respond to the same method. I have had great success with training dogs who have come from horrendous living conditions, spending months in their own waste.
There are products out there to make the poo taste bad and most of them (I believe) have the main ingredient of MSG, which is the same thing as meat tenderizer. Dr. Foster and Smith has a product called Dis-Taste, but I’m sure there are others. If a dose of MSG isn’t harmful, give it a shot!
Hello Jennifer. My Great Dane did this and then my Golden Retriever starting doing it. Learned behavior? I agree with Dr. Mag’s suggestions. I taught the leave it command and do not leave them unattended when it is ‘potty time.’ I tried to read a lot of remedies for this issue. What I found was mixed reviews on the food additives to deter the poop eating. I read about nutritional deficits and remedies. What I read and think was going on with mine was most dogs like to keep their play and living areas clean. Sometimes when a mother has a new litter, she will demonstrate this issue to keep the area clean for her pups. I too have a fenced in back yard which doubles as their play area when I cannot take them out in the unfenced area. I taught the leave it command and keep the area clean of feces. Somehow, imo, your dog has associated the crate pooping as safe but then cleans the area since it is his ‘safe spot.’ It took a few weeks to dissuade my dogs from doing this. Still, if I am not diligent about watching over them and keeping the area clean, the issue will persist. Your reaction whether positive or negative outside, may be influencing what the dog believes to be ok so he returns to his ‘safe’ area and only poops when he thinks you are not paying attention (because of your reactoin?) then gobbles the tasty morsel up for maybe cleaning? I found with my dogs when there is an unwanted behavior/issue the best reaction is no reaction. Remember, running to the crate to stop him may be interpreted as him doing something wrong so he tries to ‘destroy’ the evidence. It is learned somehow.
An anecdote. My very sensitive Great Dane when she was young had what I perceived to be separation anxiety when my wife and I would leave. We would come home and rugs would be chewed, pillows destroyed, etc. I would come in and immediately react, negatively. I posted on here and in short, the response was it was my fault. I was at first offended thinking I was a great doggy parent, but then I thought about it. My Dane associated our leaving with her getting negatively in trouble when we came home. This caused her great stress and her acting out was a reaction to fear and anticipation. I quickly changed my behavior. When I came home I would simply clean up what was destroyed and before leaving I would remove anything I could. I did not react. She would cower in her chair while I cleaned. I simply went about my business without noticing her. When I was done, once she came out of her chair, I acknowledged her and said hello. It was my responsibility to break the association, not the behavior. It took a little time, but we became successful. Now when we leave, we make it no big deal. When we come home, it is not a big deal. She isn’t afraid of us leaving and her ‘just’ getting in trouble when we come home. We no longer come home to destroyed items or a fearful dog. I personified her hiding in her chair with her knowing she did something wrong. Nope. I taught her that when we come home I would yell at her so she anticipated that with great stress and fear.
Maybe, without knowing it, we teach our dogs to do negative things. The hard part is realizing and accepting it then correcting OUR behavior.
Good Luck!!!
” The issue of eliminating in his crate began AFTER I restricted him from eating poo outside.” Maybe he learned it is not ok to poop outside?
My kitten ate a out a 8″ piece of silk ribbon. What should I do?
I have a 10 month old chihuahua that was recently diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. I have a hard time getting her to eat, so I was wanting to try a vitamin or supplement. Any suggestions?
Which autoimmune disease is it? What treatment is she on? What food are you offering?
When my pets, recently my kitty, have little to no desire for food e.g. prescribed food, we will try a highly favored broth (from chicken soup or the oil from tuna.
I am not sure but when it comes to bunnies I used critical care
Injectable Vitamin B by your veterinarian (and they can show you how to give it) is a safe and often effective appetite stimulant.
Wysong makes a supplement that often tempts animals to eat that is really a total food source with many vitamins and probiotics – PDG (Pre-Di-Gest) powder.
If you have a holistic pet store within driving range, visit them for healthy treats and vitamins.
If you need to order on-line, try the Canine Plus by VetriScience (my site has the link).
The best way to get dogs to eat is to feed them real food. You can try almost any people food, especially proteins like chicken, fish, beef, eggs, cottage cheese. Vegetables, cooked or raw, are good. For nutrition they need to be pureed in the blender, but as a treat they can be any size. right now do not worry about balance, just getting her started eating again. Begin to read articles (my site, Dr. Becker at Mercola, breeders who have fed raw for generations, Dr. hofve for a few) about feeding a fresh food diet (just as we eat a variety of fresh food, hopefully sustainably or organically raised) to improve health in general.
Since you did not tell us what type of autoimmune your pup has, there may be blisters in the mouth that are preventing eating, so then the above suggestions would be different.
Second, I
strongly recommend finding an integrative veterinarian with whom to work. This
is a person trained in many different approaches, including using conventional
drugs only when absolutely needed. Working with one can increase the chance
that your cherished companion can live a long and healthy life after recovering
from this current problem (with holistic approaches most auto immune diseases can be completely resolved, but if not, there are dozens of ways to help her stay happy and fairly healthy). There are good ones and great ones, and a few
homeopathic veterinarians will consult by phone or email. You can go to the web
sites for each type of holistic practice and use their referral list to find
one near to you. Many practitioners are members of only one or two of the
organizations, so you do need to go to every site to find who is near you:
1. Wide range of other treatments: http://www.AHVMA.org, American Holistic Veterinary
Medical Association and http://www.civtedu.org.
2. Homeopathic veterinarians (these can often help you by phone if no other
holistic practitioners are nearby that you like): http://www.theAVH.org and http://www.DrPitcairn.com.
3. Chiropractic and Osteopathic – http://www.animalchiropractic.org;
http://equineosteopathy.org/ (they
treat dogs, too)
4. TCVM (Acupuncture and Chinese medicine): http://www.IVAS.org,
http://www.aava.org & http://www.TCVM.com
5. Herbal
– http://www.VBMA.org
Since you do not list your state, I cannot be more specific, but you can look at the links page on my site or email me for help. My article on selecting and working with a holistic veterinarian will help you choose one.
We got an extremely skiddish dog about 3 months ago. (Still skiddish) ran away 5 days ago, hangs around our house but won’t come when called, and hasn’t eaten since he ran. What do we do???
Since the safety of the dog is always an issue I would look into a live trap — perhaps your local SPCA could help you with locating one you could borrow to capture the dog. Yes, it will startle the dog when it closes, but you can decide if the danger of being hit by a car is greater than the bag of a wire door shutting him in the crate-like cage.
Does second hand smoke affect pets like it does people?
Yes, it does.
http://m.petmd.com/blogs/thedailyvet/dr-coates/2014/june/risks-second-hand-smoke-dogs-and-cats-31821
Moreover, there is such a thing as “third-hand smoke” when it comes to pets. “You know the smell that lingers in smoking areas, and on clothes and hair after a party or a night out? This is “third-hand smoke”, a cocktail of toxic residue including arsenic, cyanide and lead that gradually coats every surface. Second-hand smoke eventually dissipates from a room, but the third-hand threat remains.
Not only does it linger, it grows with each invisible coat. And on every surface it touches, it combines with the chemicals in the carpet, the chemicals in the upholstery, the chemicals in the laminate flooring, in the silk flowers in the vase, every iPad and cell phone, and on the surface of every pet bed and toy. It even builds up on our pets.
We can wash our hair and launder the clothes, even steam the carpet, but how often do we thoroughly bathe our pets? The residue builds up on them as well. When they groom, lick their paws, chew their toys and nuzzle their noses down into those plush beds we provided, they are in direct contact with the cocktail of every environmental chemical, cleanser and airborne toxin.”
http://www.dogcancerblog.com/blog/smoking-second-hand-smoke-third-hand-smoke-and-dog-cancer/
Yes it does, and it’s my understanding that it affects them worse.
Yes indeed. We had a dog come into our rescue from a home where it lived for years with an owner that smoked . It was confirmed the dog had severe emphysema from the second hand smoke:-(
Thanks everyone! No one smokes in my house (thankfully) but I was extremely curious about the answer. I now feel knowledgeable if I ever need to share with someone else.
Sorry to hear of your concerns for this stray. Often cats will move away if there is a shift in patterns. So, this kitty may be a few streets over, being fed by a different person. Or it may not have been stray at all, it might belong to a neighbor that finally decided to get serious about being a responsible cat owner and has made this kitty an indoor-cat.
There is also the possibility that it got eaten by a coyote or Great Horned Owl. Coyotes take a lot of cats in the fall and during cold snaps in the winter. Great Horned Owls are starting families in Feb and so take larger prey as they prepare to nest. This would have happened even if you had been home during that time.
I think you did the best you could. Cats are independent thinkers and just don’t always fall in line with our expectations.
PK