Ask questions and share about your pet's health to help others.
We adopted a rescue cat named Fluffy about 6 months ago. We slowly got her used to our house and about a month ago we let her expand a bit onto the main level of the house (where the other cats are) they all met previously but they’ve only been out and about all together for about a month.
1 of the 3 original cats (Ben) is having territorial issues with Fluffy. He is obsessive over her. He follows her, stares at her, chases her, corners her, and just doesn’t seem to want to stop. She minds her own business but he always finds her.
We’ve gotten extra litter boxes, extra perches, separate feeding areas, feliway diffusers, everything we can think of. But Ben won’t let up.
What can we do?
My eight year old rat terrier went in for a dental cleaning and a single tooth removal, but ended up having to have fourteen teeth pulled. My vet said they were baby teeth that never fell out and had died. She did comment that he had a very unusual mouth. I was wondering why no other vet had ever noticed he still had baby teeth for all these years. Is this common?
Hello,
I will say that every pre op dental exam I do I notify the pet parents of any residual baby teeth before undergoing anesthesia. I also check at every exam I do. I think it might be helpful to ask your vet to clarify and explain why you weren’t notified of this in advance.
Good luck.
Hello all!
My 7-month-old English labrador got spayed yesterday. She went into surgery at 7 am and we picked her up at 3 p.m. Of course, she was not herself due to the anesthesia. Once we got home, we fed her some lunch and then later some dinner, she was very hungry. Now, the following day, we have noticed she has yet to poop. She has peed minimally but has not pooped once. Is this normal for female dogs after undergoing surgery?
Hi there-
Sometimes the anesthesia can slow things down. I would give her a little time- hopefully she has by now. If she still hasn’t, I would call your vet and speak to them. Best of luck!!
Hello,
I am not usually worried about not defecating for a few days after surgery. She should however be acting normally and urinating normally. If worries call your vet and confirm. Better safe than sorry. Ty for spaying her!
Hello! So i just took home a pup, he’s an 8 week old cane corso. The breeder had his ears cropped a couple weeks ago and slowly started to noticed a small fluid filled “lump” on the back of his neck between his shoulder blades. He had called the ear cropping vet as well as his regular vet whom didn’t seem concerned most likely a seroma. They prescribed an antibiotic just to prevent an abscess as well as sending me home with some dimethyl sulfoxide cream. The first couple days we had him at home we didn’t use the cream because it made his breath smell and now the small lump has grown to the size of an orange. It’s still soft, doesn’t seem to bother his besides some itching, and he’s still very playful. Ugh it’s just making me nervous! I have an appointment with the vet for his final shots in a couple weeks. Just looking for some advice to calm my nerves or if i should go in sooner.
Hello,
I think that in this case I would get a second opinion to help ease your worries. I also think that the best way to identify a mass like this might be to aspirate it so you know what it most likely is. I had a puppy recently who had seen three other vets before he came to see me. He was 12 weeks old and had a large swelling in his neck. The puppy was acting normally he thought. I shaved the area and put a large gauge needle into it. We removed a huge amount of puss. This puppy had also been on an antibiotic. After two weeks he is healed and a fire cracker. He is a lot more lively then when I first met him which goes to show it can be hard to assess true behavior and attitude until after you get the correct diagnosis and treatment plan. Also a seroma happens very near or at the surgical site. So I’m not sure this is that. I hope this helps. Keep us posted.
Thank you for your response! I saw it this AM and took him to the emergency vet. They took a sample to see what it was and it was indeed a seroma. What they’re wondering is why? They think it might be from the micro chip that was placed. They did drain it and said it’s a 50/50 chance it’ll come back- and sure enough it has. So I’ll have to make an appointment with my vet- they talked about possible “surgery” to remove the chip and figure out what’s causing the leak. Seems aggressive – everything i read said seroma stake time to go down. Any thoughts?
Our three year old spayed kitty Serafina (longhair buff and white tabby, 11.5lbs, utd on all shots) expelled her first hairball a couple days ago, and it was huge. Then she hacked up a couple smaller ones. The problem is she’s still throwing up. It’s only once or twice a day, never much in it, usually mucus or foam, sometimes a little digested food. Other than that her behavior is normal, her appetite was normal but has waned a bit, her drinking seems normal, but because we have multiple cats I don’t know if her bathroom habits have changed. There’s nothing alarming in the litter box though.
I’ve already sent an email to All Paws (it’s the only one we can afford with all the animals we care for) to make an appointment for her, but they’re not open on weekends and the auto-reply email said they have to go through a lot of emails on mondays so it may take up to 48 hours to even respond to my appointment request. I was sure to include all the details of her ailment in my email to them.
My question to you is this: In your professional opinion, is it okay to wait for their response, or should I seek an immediate appointment elsewhere? If so, I’d prefer it to be with your office. Other than the throwing up, she seems okay. She’s a low energy cat to begin with, so if she was lethargic it’d be hard to tell, but she seems normal to me. What should I look out for?
I’m just worried, I tend to panic over the smallest things. Thank you for reading all this.
Hi there-
First stop worrying ???? Easier said than done. It sounds like you’re on top of it and monitoring her behavior. I would continue that and if you see something alarming then reassess… or take to emergency. If she is eating and drinking best you can tell and acting normal, then I would think it is safe to wait to hear about an appointment if necessary. I would just keep a close eye, and again if things worsen then contact emergency. Hope things improve????????
Hello,
I don’t think this is an emergency. There are lots of things I often recommend in cases like this. One make sure your pet is able to groom appropriately. If they have an excessive amount of hair consider a shave down to help make it more manageable. Two brush often to remove the dead and shedding hair. Three add a hair ball formula like cat lax. Three switch to small watered down canned food meals. Make sure fleas, parasites and allergies are not adding to the feeling like she needs to be over grooming. I see cats who over groom (we call it barbering) and this can cause hairballs. Itchy cats groom. Also make sure she has toys and lots of mental stimulation as some cats groom due to boredom or stress/anxiety. There is also a hairball formula food that I think helps.
I got my cat Leila in December and since she has had runny eyes and lots of sneezing. I took her to a vet and we did a course of clavamox which helped while she was on it. A few days after she finished it she was back to sneezing and having runny eyes. Then we tried azithromycin and famciclovir which did nothing and she began to sound super congested. Then we tried a longer course of the clavamox which worked well while she was on it. A week or so after she finished it she was back at it. She is now sneezing up a lot of snot. Other than those symptoms she eats well and plays like a healthy kitty. We took her to another vet who suggested it may be a polyp. I was looking for quotes for a rhinoscopy and possible surgical removal. I got a quote from a vet for $2000-3000 for the CT, sedation, and rhinoscopy but no quote if they need to do surgery. And a lot of other places refused to give me one unless I pay $150-180 for a consultation first. Any advice on where I should look for reasonable prices would be great! We are in Michigan but are willing to travel out. Thank you!
Hello
How old is your cat? Any other signs of illness or concern? Sounds more like chronic rhinitis then anything else.
She’s 11 months old. The only other symptom I’ve noticed is she’ll sometimes hunch over and cough? I’ll attach a video! Thank you
It’s not letting me attach the video on my phone sorry, I’ll post it when I get home from work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O9yFwtiVe8
I uploaded a video of it to youtube, I’d really appreciate your opinion on it, thank you!
We have a young dog who will not stop licking our older dog in the mouth. She is out of control with this, its not a normal greeting type of lick its always full speed jumping all around & non stop licking. The older dog hates it & tries to get away but cant so then it turns into the older dog getting loud & aggressive but that doesn’t even stop the other dog…
We don’t know what to do, or how to make her stop. She’s very bullheaded & stubborn almost impossible to train. Any advice would be wonderful. Thank you for taking time to read my cry for help
JoAnn
Good morning☺️ My first bit of advice would be basic obedience. I know you said that she is nearly impossible to train, but dogs are smart and want to please you. It’s just a matter of finding a good motivator for her to learn- whether it be treats, praise, play…etc. all positive reinforcement. Once you know what makes her tick, I would just work on the basics, really. Come, sit, down, stop. There are a ton of YouTube videos and write ups online about how to train and what to do. Those basics will help you keep her off your other dog. Second, you might want to make an area just for your older dog if you have the space. We keep baby gates around just for that purpose. For instance, one of our GSDs needs surgery in the near future. She will need to recover, so we will set her up with a space of her own to rest. The baby gates are nice because they can still see everything that is going on and remain part of it all. Sidebar- having said all that, we are actually going to be brushing up on training out other GSD so that when our other one comes home from surgery things will be more calm and safer for recovery. Sorry for the long reply. I hope it helps.????☺️
Leash the younger dog and let them drag the leash. Correct immediately with the leash. Be consistent. If you aren’t already crating the dogs when you aren’t supervising, I’d start doing this to give the older dog a break.
Hello! I will try to keep this as short as possible but is hard because so much has happened.
I have 3 cats. My male cat is the one I am worried about the most right now. About a month ago all 3 got URIs and went to the vet. They were treated with antibiotics however they weren’t helping much so I had to bring them back a few times! Due to financial issues I ended up bringing them to our local shelter/humane society where they have a free clinic right now due to Covid. Biggest mistake EVER! They were so mean to my cat and overly rough with him completely stressing him out. I wasn’t allowed to go in the room with him however was able to watch some of what was going on through a window. This stressed my cat out so much that a week later he got a urinary blockage (2 weeks ago now)… I have never had issues prior with the other vet. He is 8 yr old. Anyways the vet cathed him and sent him home since it was the weekend and they are closed… where he ended up going to the ER the next day because he was crying all night…. They took the cath out… gave him pain meds and fluids… and kept him for 5 hours… He came home that night and has been on pain meds as needed and prazosin 2x a day. He is also on Hills C/D wet (with minimal dry of the c/d) He has been seen 2x since at the vet and Monday they did a urine sample/culture…. They said he has white blood cells so was put on antibiotics…but once the culture came back it showed everything to be normal…so was taken off of them…. Prior to all of this he was free fed however I have been switching all my cats to meal times 2-3 times a day… and will continue with that because of weight issues . He has been peeing, however, sometimes when I am peeing he will come pee in his litter box at the same time… He shakes his back end and puts it up in the air kind of and the pee shoots or sprays out …. this isn’t every time he pees but it has happened 3 times that I have seen. His pee clumps aren’t as big as they were prior to all this and now vary in size… sometimes a golf ball size give or take a little bit bigger/or smaller. I also will see his back end/tail twitching randomly in the day. The vet said this happening more than likely was due to stress. I have been making sure to keep the stress level low at home, use feliway (idk if it helps) and new toys/cat nip.
My questions are…
1. When switching to a wet food diet…. Will cats pee more than usual? They were on a 90% dry diet before. Sometimes I add a little water to it as I don’t see him drink a lot.
2. He only has a few days left of the prazosin… Should he been weened or go off cold turkey?
3. Is the shaking and spraying like pee normal? He does so in the litter box however because of his angle sometimes it gets on the wall.
I am new to this… and have talked to/seen several vets however they all say different things so I am confused… I just want to know if this is normal….. I think he is probably irritated from being cathed and such… due to licking his private sometimes and whining (both aren’t as bad as they were before however still happen)
Thank You for taking the time to read this.
Hello,
I’m sorry all of this has happened. I will try to answer your questions BUT you really need to stick with a vet you trust and be prepared for this to take a while to resolve. In some cats it is a lifelong issue.
I prefer wet to dry as it is a much higher water content and usually much less fattening. I even recommend adding water.
I also advise clients to try to give Sq fluids at home.
Prazosin is a question for your vet. Some stay on this medication long term as it seems to be very beneficial.
I am not sure what the shaking is. Maybe try to get it on video and discuss with your vet. Maybe pain?
You should also ask about anything you can try for stress? Like Feliway? Catnip? Toys? Confinement at night? An anti anxiety medication? This is a discussion for your vet. What really matters is that you have someone advocating for you and your cat and you do everything you can to avoid another blockage and learn how to manage this long term.
Best of luck.
If possible can you share your vet experience (with the costs included) in our storyline section. It might help others.
My 11 year old indoor cat has started a snoring sound when breathing over the past year. A local vet said it was not in her lungs and that he saw something while looking in her nose. She is eating and drinking fine with no other problems. Steroids and antibiotics helped pretty well, but the symptoms returned afterward. We think it could be a nasopharyngeal polyp (all of the symptoms are there[the sneezing fits, the head shaking, the constant swallowing like she has something in her throat) but we just got quoted 5 grand for a CT and surgery at the specialist. No other local vet will do an exam under anesthesia to look. Someone please help. We feel like our days are numbered for our sweet Sadie girl. ????
Good morning- sorry you are going through this. Is your vet able to do this or are you referred to a specialist? I vaguely remember another Pawbly friend having the same issue a while back, and they found a vet that did an exam under general anesthesia for a much more affordable cost. Have you spoken to your local animal shelter to see if they know of a vet that can do this? They may be able to offer some advice on who else to reach out to in your area. I am sorry that I cannot offer more concrete advice.
We’ve asked several local vets, but they all say they don’t do that. They always refer to the specialist clinic and no joke they are quoting 5 grand. Mind blowing! We’ll keep asking around. We’ll start with the animal shelters as well.
Hello,
I agree with Sarah. Start calling rescues and shelters and ask if they’ve had a case like his and who they used for it. There are lots of vets who will look and remove a polyp if it is there but you have to be persistent. If you find someone please share it with us so we can pass it along. Also I would ask your vet to have the radiographs reviewed by a boarded radiologist. It might help. At my clinic this is about $70.
Dr. Magnifico! Thank you so much for responding! Your YouTube videos have provided us hope that we can potentially fix our cat’s problem at a reasonable cost. You’re the best. ????
Thank you. Please let us know what happens.
Dr. Magnifico, we are having difficulty finding any vet willing to do an exam under anesthesia to diagnose/ perform a potential polypectomy. Do you know of anyone in the southeast that will do this? We’ve made so many calls. We’re seriously considering driving across the country to see you. Please let us know. Thanks!
I just came across your video of Hank the beagle from Dec. 2016 and it gives me hope.
Our beagle Katy just had surgery for a ruptured disc between the T12-13 and T13-L1 vertebrae that was causing compression on the spinal cord. She had no use of her back legs.
She had a hemilaminectomy on the 13th after waking up with no use of her back legs.
We brought her home today the 18th, still no use of her back legs and we have to express her bladder for her.
Also It’s my first day but I can’t seem to get her bladder to express. She has leaked pretty consistently on the pad overnight.
One last thing. She tends to sit up and not want to lay down. Can she not do this on her own. When I guided her down she went right to sleep but I dont want to force anything that may cause damage.
Dr. said we should give it until the end of the month to see if overall improvement happens.
Any advice. Signs of hope to look for?
We are doing passive range of motion therapy with her.
Thank you so much,
Tim Perry
Hello,
There is a lot of missing information that makes this a little difficult to give advice on. Like how long she was down? What that looked like? How severe it was/ how long she waited for surgery, what her physical condition before was, etc Etc.
Also who did the surgery. What did that look like? I don’t expect that you will know all of this but your vet should. And they should be a constant part of her recovery. I have a huge amount of information available on my blog and YouTube channel. Here tou will see how much work and effort these patients need in the first few days and weeks. How imperative it is to know how to palpate and empty a bladder. How much effort needs to be placed in pain a management and safe physical therapy. How many obstacles that can come up post op without even knowing that they are looming. See if there is anyone locally who can help. Use Facebook groups. And books to help guide you and insist that your vets help too. A month is too long to not have assistance. Prognosis is incredibly hard to prognosticate but the best cases have early and aggressive intervention and loads of assistance from the vet team.
I really hope this helps. Best of luck!
Hi there!! I’m wondering if he might just need more time? Perhaps supervised visits and then keep those two separated when you cannot supervise? Then try again to go unsupervised and figure out what works. It sounds like you’ve really done your homework and prepared for multiple cats with the perches and extra litter boxes, etc. I’m hoping they get used to each other. I know sometimes things never get “lovey-dovey” but they can learn to coexist and tolerate one another…
Hello,
I agree about needing more time. And I also think that things like feliway catnip, toys and even time out areas where your new cat can retreat to might help. Also talk to your vet about anxiety medications to help bridge the gap. I use a lot of gabapentin and fluoxetine. It really can help while they are getting used to each other.