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I have a Golden Retriever/Lab/Boxer mix. He will be 10 years old this month. A couple weeks ago, we took him to a vet specialist. He has a prostate mass that is connected to his urethra. He also has spots in his lungs that are believed to be metastasis of the cancer. I needle aspirate was done to confirm his cancer diagnosis. Recently, he has lost bladder control so we keep a diaper on him when he’s inside. Last night, he started not eating his food (even when it was mixed with wet food) so today I made him chicken and rice. He ate some of the chicken but did not touch the rice. My vet is not recommending surgery due to how invasive it will be. He is currently taking an antibiotic (clavamox) and a pain pill (gabepentin). He’s also been prescribed a medication for inflammation (carophren). My question is… is there anything that can be done for treatment? we wanted to have the mass removed to remove pressure from his bladder (because he peeing frequently). However, the vet nor vet specialist is recommending it. Are there options for metatastic cancer? What are the benefits of giving dogs CBD?
My 8 year old pitbull is in immense pain due to a slipped disc in his neck between c1 and c2, according to the x-rays, it has calcified. It has been 6 weeks and a day since his diagnosis, 6 weeks exactly since he was discharged after an overnight stay where he was given lots of pain meds through an iv. He did really well for the first few days after that. Then he got bad, and it’s been a roller coaster of good and bad days since, but mostly bad. He’s on a muscle relaxer and 2 different pain meds 3 times a day, and prednisone twice a day. I’ve been trying so hard to stay positive, but it’s getting discouraging. I’ve watched lots of videos and read about dogs that have had paralysis walk again sooner than he has shown any progress. I can’t really afford surgery, I guess my question is, at this point, should I still stay hopeful?
Hello,
You say he is in pain but you don’t say how he is doing. Can he walk? Go to the bathroom? Urinate? Defecate? What does your vet say? I also worry that there might be a different underlying issue. Like cancer. I think it’s time to talk to your vet again.
He is walking fine(just slow, and is weak at times, other times he’sgreat and tries to do his happy trotting), poops and pees just fine. I talk to his vet at least once a week, he has suggested a CT or mri, and possibly surgery, but I just can’tafford it. I also forgot to mention his symptoms came on literally instantly, came home from work one day and his head was down, and his back was hunched. I’ve asked about cancer, and none of the vets he’s seen thinks it’s cancer. He’s had many blood tests, everything comes back normal, but Im not sure if that’s how cancer is tested, though.
Hi,
I need advice on how to calm my cat.SHe is normally nice but ately she acts a little aggressive when she hears other noises like,cars,dogs,and other cats.She is not acting as nice toward her own collar and grooming time with me. Do you have any answers how i can get her to act nice again?
Hello,
As with all issues like this we always start with looking for a medical resin behind the behavior. This includes an examination, perhaps bloodwork and a thorough work up. If this doesn’t yield a possible cause then we talk about providing safe places. Making sure she feels calm in her surroundings, undertaking and helping her accept her triggers and perhaps in some cases medical therapies.
I have a feeling it was helping her accept her “boundaries”.I really don’t fel like it has anything to do with medical issues.I think stuff is just irritating her for some odd reason.
My 14 year old boxer bulldog mix (probably pittie) fractured her tibia (confirmed by vet) but they want 100 bucks a week to change the splint. Can you give me a reference to an accurate how-to video on how to properly wrap it myself? She has a plastic splint that a youtube video called a “quick splint” (see photos). We have rewerapped it two or three times and the first time she got right up and ate a whole bowl of food and put weight on it. The past two times she hasn’t put weight on it and she’s barely eating, only people food. I can tell she’s not happy cause she won’t let me stop touching her. I have no idea what we did the first time that was right vs what I’m doing now that is wrong, but I think there is some slippage happening (see photo of knee joint). I’m making sure to line up the joint and the splint, but when I take it off, it isn’t lined up. How do I prevent slippage? Also, I’m going to wash her before I rewrap, her skin is very dry and she needs conditioner. She also has significant blackheads and chafing- I was going to use the benasoothe shampoo, should I take any other precautions?? I was thinking I would try some clay and apple cider vinegar for the blackheads?? She started licking her leg so I just put a little extra wrap on it so she can’t irritate it. What signs should I look for as an absolute NEED to return to the vet? Swollen toes, what else? Please respond ASAP
More pictures
Here’s my professional 25 years of experience advice. Pay your vet! It’s a very very fair price. I’m guessing that you can not afford surgery so you are going to be lucky to have it heal as it is. You can not manage this alone. You shouldn’t even try. Honesty is the best policy. I tell clients that even with me checking it weekly (often more often than that) the chance for failure is high. Be the pet parent your dog needs and stuck with your vet. Not being hateful. Being brutally honest. For your dogs sake.
I took her in today actually, she was there all day. I renewed her health plan and got her a full workup, and they changed her splint (and tape signed it) and I’m taking her back next week to get it checked. There are some family problems with spending the money because my family doesn’t think it’s worth it, but I put my foot down. She’s 14 and she’s the sweetest dog that’s ever existed, literally the only reason I didn’t commit suicide when I was late teens early twenties. She has absolutely earned it! Thank you for your advice!
Hi, my bernese puppy just had, 5 days ago, a jps (Juvenile pubic symphysiodesis) surgery as prevention for hip dysplasia. He has stitches just under his penis. Yesterday, he had the worst zoomies which caused him to run so fast, he got to the end of his leash and litterally backfliped. He seemed physically fine until I noticed quite a lot of bleeding coming from his stitches: for sure from the leash. I cleaned the wound with soap and water and everything looked fine. No more bleeding, stitches were fine too (picture #1, where we can see a finger). Today, we found out he had quite a big, pretty firm bump around the stitches (picture #2). No signs of infection. It seems to change size depending of his position, too. I just found out about seroma, but a bump like that is pretty scary. I will talk to the vet tomorrow but would really appreciate a quick opinion. The JPS recovery is already so stressful because we have such a hard time keeping him from running and jumping, now this…
Good morning- it is really hard to see anything from a picture. I would just keep him calm as can be and try to get into the vet ASAP first thing, so that they can take a close look and feel around. Hope everything is ok????????
Hello doctors my 11 year old chihuahua his name is Cannavaro was diagnosed with a disc IVDD disease I was giving him Carprofen for pain for a couple of months then switched to CBD oil due to avoid damaging his organs but he’s been in pain more often is sad and hard to see him with pain due to an slipped disc can’t afford an expensive surgery and don’t know if he could recover without a surgery please help help help! Thank you
Hello,
I’m sorry to hear about your dog. I have a lot of information on my blog and YouTube channel. My best recommendation is to stay in very close contact with your vet. In cases like these I usually recommend a steroid over an nsaid. And I also offer multiple other pain medications like a muscle relaxer and gabapentin. The first few weeks require almost full time care. And a lot of help from your vet. The pain (in my opinion) in almost all cases can be managed. But it is a rough few days at first.
Hi, We are in dire need of a second opinion as our German Shepherd is in Emergency now and we are waiting for the neurologist to call us back again. About 6 days ago our pup jumped out of the car and yelped. She seemed to start walking a little weird and we kept our eye on her. The next day she started having weakness in her back legs and swaying a little. A couple days later it was a little harder for her to get up from sitting. The vet thought she had pain from her stomach as she had diarrhea and she did blood work and an xray of her abdomen and middle of spine. Because when the vet watched her walk and did pain tests and mobility, she seems fine with no pain. By the 4th day she started to really have a hard time getting up and she had a little dragging in the back feet. 5th day, she had a hard time time squatting to go to the bathroom and was losing balance. Her front left leg started to show weakness and we took her straight to emergency.
The neurologist still has not done an MRI because she said that our pup was just laying there like a log and not being supper responsive. Which makes her think it could be a brain issue. I am waiting for er phone call now but I will be asking her to just do the MRI of the spine and the brain to have a better understanding. Our dog was fully responsive when we took her to emergency 12 hours ago so I am wondering if she is completely sad because we have never left her anywhere.
Please help! This is urgent.
Thank you.
I’m so sorry about your dog! I have to ask- I am assuming your car was not moving when the dog jumped out? And are you and your vet sure that her situation right now is actually related to that incident? I’m just trying to clarify- sorry. I am hoping that you get some more definitive answers today from your vet.
Hi Sarah, No, the car wasn’t moving. She yelped a couple times coming down the sofa also, She is still at vet and is getting an MRI today and spinal fluid tap. The vet mentioned meningitis also. I am just frustrated that we had to wait 2 days for an MRI, especially if it is Meningitis and needs to be treated ASAP. I went to see her yesterday and she was excited to see me but can’t stand up or really lift her head up.
Oh my goodness. I truly feel for you. I hope that something shows in the MRI so that you can start the road to recovery and that she is ok ???????? If you fe up to it, please keep us posted.
We got the results back from MRI and spinal fluid and she has meningitis/encephalitis . They immediately put her on broad spectrum antibiotics and steroids. Today they got back the spinal fluid results and it showed no bacterial cause so they took her off all antibiotics and started an immediate 24 infusion of Cytostar, an auto suppressive medication. We now wait for another 18 hours to see how she is responding.
Thinking of you – I hope things go well????????????
Hi! I have a 5-year-old beagle who was recently diagnosed with IVDD. 5 days ago, he woke up with pain, and things got worse when he tried jumping on my bed. He was in so much pain that I could barely move him. I took him to the vet, and they prescribed him methocarbamol, tramadol, and prednisone. I gave him his medication the first day, but it did not help at all, and he continued being in a lot of pain. The next day I took him back to the vet, and they hospitalized him for a day to administer the medication through IV. That seemed to help a lot because now his practically back to normal. I’m still giving him the medication that was prescribed, but I recently noticed he has begun to walk a little bit slower and is panting a lot. I’m worried that his reason for panting is due to him being in pain. Also, I’m scared that he will have another crisis and go back to being in the pain he was before. Can anyone give me guidance on how to care for my dog?
Good morning-
Have you relayed this information to your vet? And have they given any other advice or requested you to bring him back in? Other than medication, have you been told to do anything else? (Cage rest, etc?) I do know that Dr.Magnifico has a lot of videos on ivdd on YouTube and through her blog. It may be a good idea for you to check those out and see if any advice she has will be helpful to your pup. Perhaps talk about some alternative therapies with your vet as well to get their opinion. I hope things are ok.????????
Hello,
The first few days of this disease are so difficult. Please lean on your vet and tell them how much you appreciate their help. It gets better. But it takes time and dedication with determination. Be patient and ask loads of questions. I have a ton of information on my blog and YouTube channel. I hope it helps. I’m here too if I can help.
my cat is maybe 1 1\2 – 2 ish years old. she is not fixed but she has always been very healthy and active and very into food and snacks. i couldnt find her for dinner time and thought maybe she was just sleeping somewhere hard, when she finally came out she did not seem interested in me making her food, i showed her the can and she slowly walked into the kitchen, no meowing or jumping on the table as usual. when i put her food down she sniffed it and walked away. since then she has been laying down, she has an odd expression on her face that seems very blank. her stomach seems to hurt as she stayed hunched over when she stands or moves and growled when i was trying to feel it. when she does stand or move she does it very slowly and as if she doesnt have enough strength to do so. she tried to stretch once and her back leg only shook a little, she tried to get up and move and meowed in pain. every now and then her ears seem very warm. she has recently had her first hairball from her new sister cat that has long hair. she has eaten the same dry food and about a quarter of a can of wet food at night and in the morning. shes not eating or drinking and she has not vommited since a hairball the other day or had diarhrrea.
Honestly, this sounds like a vet visit needs to happen immediately.
I agree with Laura. This sounds like you need to get her seen right away. Anytime appetite vanished and lethargy sets in, I consider it an emergency.
This is an emergency. I hope you have taken her to the vet ASAP!
Hi Shyla, it’s been a few days. What did the vet say?
I have a 12 year old dachshund mix who I’ve had on grain free food for about 5 years. He has had ear issues over the years but it’s been manageable and infrequent. I have been transitioning him to Purina Pro Plan for bright minds and all the sudden his ears are bright pink and he’s shaking his head constantly. I have read so many terrible things about the grain free diets but now I wonder if I made a mistake and he might actually have sensitivity to grains bc I had him on grain free food for so long. Is that possible? Should I just go back to the grain free food given his old age?
As I understand it (and I’m NOT a vet, but I’ve had conversations with a few veterinary nutrition experts about this since my dog has a food sensitivity), dogs are more likely to be allergic to the protein source than the grains. Chicken, beef, and lamb seem to be the most common protein allergens.
Good morning. I think your best corse of action would be to schedule a visit with your vet simply to discuss ALL of your options and then move forward from there. I cannot really comment on your specific situation, but I can definitely sympathize. This past July we had to finally say goodbye to one of our dogs and towards the end with the loss of bladder control and lack of appetite, it was really difficult to watch and in hindsight deal with. The last month was just to keep him as comfortable as possible and measure his quality of life. I had success getting him to eat by mixing beef broth and rice in with his regular kibble. And peanut butter became a regular treat. I hope that you and your vet can come up with a plan that works.????????