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my 9 month old rott/lab mix has several white blisters on his tongue he continues to eat and play any clues as to what it may be im very concerned i just found it like 5 min ago
I took my 6 year old saluki lurcher to a drop in clinic today as I had noticed a small raised lump which suddenly appeared next to her vulva. Upon brief examination, the vet suspected a histiocytoma and said that because of the area it was located should be removed as soon as possible. She was spayed in 2013 but has since continued to come on full heat with bleeding and he said that at the same time as she is having the histiocytoma removed, he would like to “open her up” and check to see if part of her uterus has been left in. I am concerned because the last vet that I consulted about this said there could be such a small amount of tissue left in there that it would be impossible to see/remove with surgery and that, provided she was healthy it would be best just to leave alone. I want to do the best for my dogs health but do not want her to undergo unnecessary and potentially dangerous surgery. It will surely be bad enough for her having surgery to remove the lump so close to her vulva without undergoing a spaying operation for the second time, especially now she is getting older? If anyone has any opinion or advice, I would appreciate it very much. Thank you.
Ok I do not agree with either vet entirely. She should be spayed again and it should be done when she comes into heat. It is a remnant of ovary not necessarily uterus, although there is some uterus left to get bleeding.
Not having her spayed she is at a higher chance of breast cancer and can also get an infection in the uteral stump.
Good Luck
Dr Dawn
Thank you for your reply. I feel reassured that it is in her best interest to get her spayed again. Why should she be spayed when she comes into heat? The vet asked me when she was last on heat, which was almost two months ago, and wanted to go ahead with surgery on Wednesday.
I have a 5/6 week old kitten who, in the last few hours, has had 4 episodes of diarrhea and 1 episode of vomiting. Other than those things, she is behaving as normal. Should I be concerned?
I’d get her to the vet first thing this morning. I would not call that normal.
So lately I’ve been thinking about getting another dog. My current dog is a Chihuahua and possibly Rat terrier mix; he’s about 13 years old. Before I got him he used to have another chihuahua he always hung around with, but that was when he was around five. He only barks when there is someone making noise outside or that get too close to our fence, the same goes with barking dogs or ones that pass by our house. Other than that he is very friendly with strangers, especially when they come into our yard. He does however, have an issue if dogs come onto his territory, like most dogs do. He has never been to a dog park and has gone to a pet store a couple times, either for shopping or to be groomed. Our neighbors have a dog who barks at everyone and everything, even if I open the back door for a second. My dog occasionally fights with him through the fence, and by that maybe every few weeks. My dog doesn’t bite, growl, nip, scratch or anything at strangers when they come over, even if it’s our pest control. I’m not sure how he will react when we bring another puppy home? We’re either thinking of getting a border collie, lab, doberman pinscher or possibly an italian greyhound. Any tips on what to do when they first meet? Do you think he’ll be alright with another puppy? Any advice helps, thank you!!
Has he ever been around a puppy? Are you willing to separate the dogs and rotate which is out, if things go south?
A warning about dobes, because I have one – they are NOT gentle with littles. You’ll have to work very hard on teaching a dobe puppy to be gentle with smaller animals – our girl is nearly three and still occasionally stomps my cat. They’re also tough puppies and are quite literally a full time job until they’re around 2 years of age…I’ll happy talk more about the breed if you want, but I don’t want to flood this particular answer with my babble. 🙂
This is how my rescue recommends you introduce a new dog to your home (and I do this with all fosters coming to live with my pack of 4 terriers, one of which is a Cairn/Chihuahua mix):
Before the new dog arrives pick a place in the home for him to live most of the time for 3 days. I use my guest bathroom some times, and other times I use my craft room – both have tile floors so it is easy to clean up any accidents that may occur with the new dog. Inside that room I place a dog crate appropriate in size for the new dog/puppy.
For the first 3 days after the new dog arrives, we play musical crates and/or rooms. I do not allow the dogs to see each other, they only smell each other on me, and under the door, etc. When my dogs are loose, the new dog is in the prepared room. When my dogs are crated or in their kennel the new dog is allowed to be out of the room, in the yard, or house with supervision. There is ALWAYS a closed door between my dogs and the new dog.
I spend time playing and training the new dog each day, and will crate my boys for an hour or so in the evening so I can just plop on the sofa with the new dog for cuddles. With a puppy you will need to be spending a lot of time with it as you will not be able to resist! Spend an equal amount of time with the older dog. One of the activities you want to focus on with the puppy is learning to walk on a leash – this is critical for the 4th day.
On the morning of the 4th day, put leashes on both dogs and immediately go out the door for a walk. Don’t give the dogs time to sniff or eyeball each other – the job is to walk together with you for at least 10 mins. If the puppy is older keep walking (5 mins. per month of age is a good rule of thumb – too long a walk puts too much stress on the bones and joints of a puppy).
Once we have finished the walk I take all the dogs into my fenced yard, drop the leashes and allow them to sniff, play, ignore each other as they see fit. Dragging the leashes allows you to step on a leash or pull one dog away from the other if things get hairy.
I have had 99% success with introducing dogs this way. The only exception was a foster that decided my smallest dog was prey – good thing I had that leash to grab! It saved my dog’s life.
We believe the reason it works is that it allows the dogs to smell each other without any misunderstandings of body language. In the wild a lone wolf will spend weeks haunting a new pack’s territory. They stay mostly out of sight, but scent mark in the territory. Then they start showing themselves to the pack from a distance. Finally they approach members of the pack. If the pack wants them they are welcomed (usually by the female members of the pack). So while our dogs are no longer wolves – smell is the first thing they pick up on. First scent, then sight, then hearing. So this 3 day of separation, but crossing each other’s scents helps the dogs get to know each other without confrontation.
With my dogs it works so well, they don’t even sniff each other’s butts once we are done the walk.
Since your dog is used to fighting through a fence I caution you to make sure that he and the new pup never see each other through a fence or crate during those 3 days. Keep that solid, shut, door between them.
Your 13 year old dog may never want to play with the puppy – but the puppy will want to play with him! Be sure your older dog has a place he can escape the puppy – such as a dog bed or crate, maybe in a different room. When your Chi is getting too much attention from the pup, tell the puppy to “leave it” and ask him/her to play with you. This will help the puppy learn to leave the older dog alone when he is in his quite place.
An Italian greyhound is a better size for your current dog, and they generally are ‘softer’ dogs. The other 3 breeds you mention will be a real challenge for you, and will overwhelm the Chi. It is a giant leap going from living with a Chi to living with these 3 other breeds. They all are high energy, need WAY more exercise, and a lot of training to become good canine citizens. The Border especially, will need a job. Borders are scary intelligent.
All that being said – give your dog a month with the new pup before you decide if it is going to work or not. Good luck!
The kitten was born ca. 4 weeks ago. it had two litter mates, one was born dead: The second one was totally normal, but found dead 3 days later in the morning. It had a wet/sticky mouth, but otherwise everything seemed normal.
The last one had also a wet/sticky mouth a few days later (ca. 1 week age) with little blisters on its tongue. Otherwise it was normal, it still got enough milk from its mother.
With ca. 2 weeks the kitten and its mother showed symptoms of cat flu, and it was also seen that the kitten was staying rather small, but otherwise normally developed.
The vet prescribed amoxcillin for both mother and baby. And an ointment for the eyes, as they were also affected. After 2 days the kitten had to be force-fed because it couldn’t suckle anymore. But it could be fed with the syringe without problem and ate with huge appetite. This was going for one week, with it’s general state of health being okay despite the cat flu. It had some discharge on eyes and nose, but it was otherwise still active and aware. He really is a little fighter, despite staying rather small.
During last week it finally seemed to get better, until friday morning we found it with heavier breathing. One eye was fine, the other closed with discharge. It still had appetite though. On Sunday the breathing was bad, but it could still swallow.
Today the breathing is really bad, it has to use its stomach to breath and also opens its mouth to help breathing (but no real gasping). It has difficulty swallowing and seems to have mucus in its throat. The nose is mostly dry, only few discharge. The infected eye has now a cloudy cornea, despite the eye antibitoics. It is also very restless, walks a few steps, then lays flat down. It’s easily seen that it doesn’t get enougn oxygen.
The vet said it most likely has developed pneumonia. It got something that should help its lung with breathing, and I should continue to give fluids and feeding as long as it will/could swallow. Of course it still gets antibiotics.
What can I do to help the little one with breathing? Should I let it inhale?
Depending on how it looks tomorrow I may have to euthanize it, as I don’t want it to suffocate :(.
Hello, Thanks for your answer. The kitten was of course sent to the vet. That is were the antibiotics and everything else come from. She also gave something for its lungs and the kitten also got fluids. The vet seid that the cat flu most likely went down to its lungs, so that they now are infected, too.
Everything I stated above from what we do to help with this kitten is supervised through a vet of course.
Of course I also don’t euthanize myself as I’m not a vet, but the vet said it doesn’t look good, as it got worse despite being supervised and treated.
Maybe I don’t use the right words, as english is not my first language, sorry for that.
Can 1 dog get an ear infection from another dog? She didn’t have an ear infection 3 days ago when I took her to the vet. That day I let her mother come over & spend the night for a play date & she has ear infections in both ears & 1 is really bad. The owner doesn’t take care of the mother like I do my dogs. BJ’s has a tendency to get ear infections so I have medicated wash & a RX on hand for her. I wash her ears out once a week, but this morning her ear is red and she’s scratching it. I started her redgiment again & put her cone collar on so she doesn’t scratch.
I wouldn’t be thinking this if she hadn’t just seen her vet for her 6 months check up and nothing was wrong with her ears.
My dog had an ear infection that lasted for 3 months about 9 months ago. She went back 6 months ago for some more meds & got rid of it then. She’s 14 months old and a Corkie
Normally, I would say no that ear infections are not commonly passed from 1 dog to another, however, it is possible to spread ear mites from 1 dog to another and the other dog could have been licking your dogs ear which could have lead to an ear infection. Ear mites are not common in dogs. So it’s possible that the visiting dog could have been licking you dogs ears resulting in an ear infection.
Also, it is possible your dog could have just gotten an ear infection that just happened to coincide with the other dogs visit.
Took my dog for a walk and she got termite all over how do I get rid of them? And are they harmful?
My boxer had his eye removed a few years ago due to an unfortunate accident. The place where it was sewn up (where his eye used to be) is swollen and kind of tender. I’m thinking maybe he bumped his eye but I want to be sure.
I would take ur dog to ur vet and make sure.
Towards the end of my dogs phantom pregnancy I noticed she was itching her top left nipple quite a bit. I automatically checked for fleas as you do when you see a dog itching and no sign of any. Knowing I had recently given her flea treatment it was probably unlikely to be fleas so I’ve just kept an eye on it checking her everyday.
It does’t seem to be bothering her too much but she had caught her nipple from itching and caused it to look a bit sore.
I am unsure if it is related to the phantom pregnancy as I haven’t noticed her to itch anywhere else on her body other than that particular nipple and her phantom pregnancy symptoms seemed to be worse this time round, she did produce quite a bit of milk. I want to know if i can do anything to help?
My kitten is around 10-12 weeks old now (last measured weight a few days ago is 2.6 lbs).
She usually eats a mix of dry and wet kitten food.
Two days ago, we introduced only dry food for her to nibble around and also giving her the wet and dry mix. But she’s eating very less of the wet and dry food (but I know she’s occasionally nibbling on the dry because we leave it out). I’m a new pet owner and concerned that maybe she’s not fulfilling the daily quota of calories. Also, the weather has suddenly been very rainy in the previous 2 days so she has been sleeping a lot but very active after she’s woken up. I’ve called the vet but he says as long as she’s active and eating a spoonful of dry at a time, she’s fine. Need help.
Hi Krista,
Thanks for replying. She’s going to have her 3rd vaccine on Wednesday. She doesn’t look starved. I wish I could attach a picture of her here. She’s wrestling and running around as usual. But I can’t see her eating so often 🙁
Also the dry food that we are using says that we should feed a 10-12 weeks old kitten around 90 gms of dry per day. She’s not even going to half of it for the past two days after she’s eating only dry. The vet said dry food can be high in calories and heavy, so she could be just full.
Hi Krista,
This is our April- https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1Ol_9Dq0IAZLWMzUU5uMFQwQm8/view?usp=sharing
Thanks a lot Krista. Cats are weird! Her appetite is coming back slowly, I think! 🙂 Let’s hope it stays that way!
Also, I wanted to ask why my kitten jumps on my lap and then she’ll bite my clothes off. I mean, she’ll bite my tummy bulge a little too along with that. When I try to ger her off, she’ll bring out her claws and try to bite, all the while on my lap. At other times, she sleeps on my lap peacefully. This is really strange.
I really don’t have an answer it could be an infection (bacterial, fungal or viral), cancer or a traumatic injury (like a burn). My advice is to take him to the vet for an accurate diagnosis. If he stops eating or seems painful it is more important to get him to a vet quicker, however, if he is still eating and not painful he doesn’t need to see the vet as fast.