It’s a long story, but I will try to make it brief. Molly, 3.5 month old Labrador patient of Dr. Magnifico, unfortunately found a canister of Trident Gum that had fallen between the front seat and back seat of the vehicle. We were traveling across the state and stopped at a Vet Clinic. I knew Xylitol was poisonous to dogs. The receptionist consulted with the Dr. and he said to call the Animal Poison Control Center and meanwhile try to induce vomiting. We didn’t have to induce, but she started vomiting on her own. I did administer peroxide to make sure she emptied her stomach. This all took place within 1/2 hr window. We started on the road again as the nearest Emergency Hospital was an hour and 1/2 away. I called the Poison center and the Veterinarian on the line did the toxicology calculation and said Molly really needed emergency treatment. She told me to give Molly some kibble to ward off hypoglycemia. We got her to the emergency hospital and they started testing her blood sugar (elevated to 133), administered an antidote for Xylitol, checked her ALT liver value (114 reading) and gave her dextrose and a liver supplement. This all took place late Monday night into Tuesday. On Tuesday, Molly seemed to be recovering nicely and I was expecting her to come home on Wednesday. On Wed afternoon, they said her ALT Liver value was elevated 1 point (76 instead of 75 which is normal) and they were concerned. 1 pt doesn’t seem that alarming, but I’m not a toxicologist. They will do another test this evening and I am to call them Thursday morning. 🙁 I have already paid $1500 for what was supposed to be for up to 36 hrs care. In your opinion, does the 1pt ALT elevation warrant another evening in Emergency Hospital as opposed to her staying with Jarrettsville Vet for care?

My dog has been sneezing frequently over the past few months. We are now noticing a small growth and change in shape on his nose as well? Any advice or help would be much appreciated, thank you!

-Mitch

My dog got spayed on August 1st, she is a 13 year old poodle mix. She also had a mastectomy along with her spay so she has a very big incision. She is on her 4th week and the lower half of her incision does not look like the top half. The surgeon said it may take a while to heal because of the placement but I noticed a bump at the base of her incision at day 4 that has not gone away. She keeps licking at it and the surgeon suggested we must let her heal and later investigate. Also, at day 10 I noticed a white tiny pimple sized thing trying to come through under her skin. I really checked it out today since it has not gone away and it feels like something sharp poking under her skin, she has two of these that feel the same. I am scared she might have torn her internal stitches but the surgeon did not seem too worried. I notice when she eats she seems to look like she feels uncomfortable. She threw up yesterday but I took it as maybe her pancreatitis acting up. I am freaking out and don’t know if I am making a big fuss over nothing. She did not run during her recovery but she would stand up on her hind legs no matter how much I attempted to keep her calm. She did slip 3 times and land on her tummy, twice at day 8 because I had her on a short leash and she would try to run, the third slip was at day 13 and for the same reason of the short leash and attempting to run. I feel so sad and don’t have peace of mind. I feel guilty she slipped on me those three times but then again don’t know what to make of that lump at day 4. After the two slips at day 8 and after on day 10 she started having severe diarrhea. I contacted the surgeons team and they suggested boiled chicken and boiled rice, but at day 12 the diarrhea was a soft serve ice cream consistency and then she thew up so I took her into emergency immediately. At emergency they checked her vitals and incision and could not figure out what may have caused the stomach upset since from her pancreatitis history did not have the swollen tummy and her incision looked fine. They attributed the upset to possible pain med side effect and prescribed a probiotic and to stop the gabapentin. It’s has been a tough healing process for her. I will attach pictures of of what the incision looked like at day 7, 10, and now. I hope it’s not what I am fearing but it’s better to know if I should advocate for her and have them check again. Thanks guys, sorry for the long story but this is my little girl who is my first owned dog and who has been by my side for 13 years. I love her so much and it pains me to see her uncomfortable. Fyi her appetite is always good no matter what and her bowels are back to normal since the 18th of august and they were fine before the 10th of august as well.

My dog is a 4 year old spayed Doberman and she is starting to have occasional incontinence which seems to be getting worse. Should she be on medicine or a would a home remedy work? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

My cat is currently on the hospital for confinement, he has UTI and is not fond of water these days. How can I engage him into drinking water and not forcefully feed him water?

PS: I already have water fountain on the way but I’m not sure if he’ll get comfy on drinking there and if there are any other ways to make him drink water

My 9 yr. old Megacolon cat Eli wasn’t able to poop. It happens sometimes. He’s on Cisapride and Merilax daily, but he still get’s backed up. When he started vomiting after not being able to BM and jumping out of the litter box I took him to the vet. They did an enema on June 20th. He’s still backed up! I can’t afford 1k plus to have a vet manually extract the feces (this is Washington, DC area – everything is very expensive!). He hasn’t started throwing up again, but he’s not eating much and I need to find out if there is something I can do more at home to get him through this emergent time. I can’t just watch my cat suffer. I have Pedi lax, but don’t know if that would help or hinder at this point. I watch videos on palpitating the colon to try and break up the feces. I know there are specific enemas to give cats at home. Is it too late to try this? My vet is frankly bad and too busy to bother, so she said to just go to the emergency. It sure seems like there are other steps that can be taken ,,,at least I hope so becuase I just don’t have that kind of money left with the cost for caring for my hospice Husky, Loki. Help!

Looking for information regarding polyps. In January of this year (2022) my then 3 1/2 year old cat developed what seemed like nasal congestion. She would snore, wheeze and “slurp” through her mouth. After 2 rounds of antibiotics they discovered she had a polyp under her soft pallet. After removal of the polyp her symptoms subsided a little but never completely. We then tried steroids but these did not help either. Now they are recommending I go to a specialist/internal medicine veterinary hospital to get a rhinoscopy and ct scan to see if there are additional polyps or some other kind of blockage. The initial consult visit would be $250 and the scoping and ct scan would cost $2500 to $3200. Is it common for cats to have more than one polyp and is there other treatments you would try before the very costly next step my vet is suggesting? I’ve already spent $1000 with what we have done so far so I am looking for any suggestions you can offer! I hate seeing her uncomfortable!! I should mention that she is not sneezing or coughing, but shake her head sometimes. She is eating fine and acting mostly fine except when lying down as that is when the difficulty breathing seems to get the worst.

I have a 16 year old Jack Russell named Lucy. She has had diarrhea for a week and a half. She went to the vet and her blood work was good and no problems in the poop. she is still alert, drinking normally, peeing normally and seems herself. Just she poops once a day now and it’s diarrhea. The vet put her on a medication that made things worse so in agreement with the vet we took her off. She has been on a rice and boiled chicken diet during this time. Yesterday I gave her 1 ml of pepto Bismal. Its seems to be helping but her poop is still very soft. Should I consider giving her anything else. This seems to be going on a bit too long. Oh and she has Pica too which is probably why we are going through all this. So is there anything else we need to do or consider?

Hello everyone!

My cat had a urinary block and I was able to get him to a clinic that was affordable. It was a piece of mucus that was blocking him, not his kidneys. I now have a catheter in him + guided not to take him back out to the clinic as it was a very Trumatic experience for my cat. They messed up putting the catheter in and he sat in that for hours. He is eating drinking sleeping so I decided not to take him back out there today per the request. My question is, how do you safely remove a catheter from a male cat?