Good morning,
I want to say that I had written back in April about my dog who I suspect has IVDD. I took Dr. Magnifico’s advice and went to another veterinarian other than the one who told me my only option was surgery. This new veterinarian said she suspects my fur baby has IVDD but instead of saying his only option was surgery, she continued to give me the RX for steroids. She said she became a vet because her own dog had IVDD and had surgery and it did not rectify the situation. She said no dog should be made to suffer and if he improves on the steroids she would not withhold care. What a breath of fresh air!!! My dog has been on the steroids for a little bit now and is doing so much better. He is able to walk around without much of a limp, sit in his window, and play with us. He is so much better. I’m not sure how long it will help but we are grateful and I appreciate your advice to get a second opinion and do not give up. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I could use some advice to keep my dog from eating cat poop. We have 1 dog and 2 cats. On our first floor there is a mudroom with a pet gate with a cat door. The cats have their litter boxes on one side of the mudroom and food on the other side. This arrangement has worked for 8 years. My daughter’s young cat has had digestive issues for her entire life and would poop on the floor outside the box once a week. We tried all different kinds of boxes and litter and probiotics and food but no changes. She also hates the feel of litter. We tried all kinds and newspaper and towels and pee pads…you name it.
For a month she decided to poop on my daughter’s bed twice a week…which of course was a cleaning nightmare. Sometimes she pooped on the bed while my daughter was sleeping in it.
Finally we found a limited ingredient food that worked along side of a probiotic and her poops are now more manageable for her, less painful I’m guessing and pretty regular. We added a litterbox upstairs to my daughter’s bedroom but she would never use it. We moved it to the large hallway outside my daughter’s room where it was darker and more private and she still didn’t use it. Purchased cat attraction litter and after 1 week she finally used the upstairs box to poop. I held my excitement but it’s been 3 weeks now and no more pooping on the bed. Her poops are also a lot less messy and stinky. Now my problem is if she goes at night the dog jumps right up and eats it. I caught her doing this twice but she was too fast to stop. Other times you can smell that she must have pooped but it’s gone. She’s only going upstairs so I don’t want to take the box away. She’s so picky with boxes and how she sits in the box and how it smells a covered litter box won’t work. There isn’t way to put a gate up in that hallway as it’s a super old house and shaped weird. I’m afraid any change to the box will stop all the good progress. My dog probably gets to the litter box before us about half the time–so it’s not every time. My dog is healthy, eats well, is up to date on everything and is well taken care of. Thanks for your patience with the long explanation.

My one year old lab mix has worms. She did not even poop and their was two worms stuck to her but and I don’t have money for a vet please help

Hi all, I have a six year old Jack Russell mix presented with neck pain about 5 weeks ago. The vet did xrays and saw calcifications in the c2-c3 area. I can’t afford to go the neurologist, so my vet is treating him with prednisone, tramadol, diazepam, methocarbamal, and gabapentin. He had a few days last week without his “episodes” as I call them after we upped his diazepam. Also last week we lowered his prednisone. I have had to hand feed him soft food because crunchy causes an episode, and him eating from a bowl causes an episode. These “episodes” are him screaming in pain, his neck thickens up, his back arches, it is so gut wrenching to see my baby go through this. Well after 5 days of no events, he had an episode yesterday and he hurt all day. It seemed to be worse than when it all started. Today is awful also. He is taking his meds but cries when he does. I have him on crate rest. I even put a note on the door asking people not to knock or ring the doorbell as barking also causes problems. I guess my question is with all these meds and rest, should we further along than where we are? I will call my vet in the morning for his opinion, but I was curious as to how others have handled this timeline.

My 12 year old Jack Russell just recently had a some drops of blood in her stool. She was straining a bit the last time she went, and this time she was straining a lot. Her stool wasn’t completely solid, nor was it diarrhea. She has been very gassy the past couple of days. Now her stomach is making noises, but she just passes gas and it stops. She ate her food normally before this happened, and now she doesn’t seem to have any other problems besides being gassy. Do I need to be concerned, or could it be from straining so much?