My 10 week beagle pup Kiwi was diagnosed with strangles. She was put on Clavamox and prednisone. I saw a lot of improvement fairly quickly with the swelling and now she is drinking again and is playful and no longer lethargic. My question is regarding the length of the prednisone treatment. She is on 5mg twice a day for 3 days and then 2.5 twice a day for 3 days and then 2.5 once a day for 4 days. I had never heard of this before she became sick and so I have been doing a lot of reading. Everything I have seen so far suggests a much longer course of steroid therapy. I am somewhat uncomfortable about beginning the taper so soon as she still has some swelling on the face and lymph nodes. Should the dosage remain the same until symptoms resolve and then begin to taper?

Hello! I have a 2.5 year old indoor cat. At his last check-up the vet showed me that he has red gums and suggested a mouthwash-type liquid (DentiCan) that I apply every day with my fingers (it’s really a spray but I’ve found that dipping my fingers in the liquid and running them over his gums is the only way to apply the product.) I haven’t really noticed any improvement. Is there anything else I can do prevention wise? What might be causing this issue in the first place? None of our other cats have gum issues and they all eat a high quality Hills diet. Thanks for your input!

My rescue dog Copper he is amazing, protective and overall a huge part of my familys life. He looks like he has dachshund in hin the length reminds me. Recently we started seeing a limp in his back left leg. He has not been hurt at all. I thought maybe a sprain from playing he does get wild with the neighbors bigger pup. So we gradually notice it getting worse over the week hes limping and the muscle has all gone. I have been walking him maybe gain some back he wont even put pressure on his back leg. Its been a couple weeks and we come home and there is blood comong from his genital when the part comes out. It seems as if he has no control o er it anymore. My heart is hurting and i dont want to put him down he is only 2 years old but he seems missreable. He does not speak it (cry) but the look in his eyes tells me everything i need to know. I do not have the money now to go to vet and pay 1,000 tell i get a new job. Please anyone if you have been through anything similar or any home remedies to ease him.

We have been given a tiny newborn kitten (and it’s littermate) to let nurse off of our existing mama cat that has other kittens about 3 weeks old. Problem is they are pretty sick. One nursing and seems to be doing better. The other has bloody discharge and maggots (worms) coming out of its bottom. My niece has them but I’m going to take the sickest one and see if there’s anything I can do for it. Not looking good. Has anyone experienced something like this? I feel like at this point it will be me just comforting the kitten until he passes. 🙁

** cat who is veracious around feeding time help**

Hello! I have 3 cats that are patients there. I have had 2 cats, Blink and Havoc for about 5 years now. They are biological brothers. They have always shared everything and we never really had any problems with food or their weight.

About 2 months ago, we adopted a blind cat, Gemma who is about a year old. Her foster said that she would free feed her at her house and that she never really had any aggression with food. I’m not sure what happened because once we adopted her and brought her back here, she has became very veracious with her food. Our solution now is to feed her the dry food in a separate room (we feed her according to the package instructions) because if we do not, she will race through eating her food so she can start trying to eat the boys food as well.

With wet food, I monitor them and am constantly shooing her away so the boys can finish their food as she always inhales her food super quickly.

When we separate her, she will cry until we open the door and then she comes running full speed to the food bowl.

I’ve never really seen anything like it! She is so sweet and other than that there really is no issues I’m just looking for advice if there is anything I can do to make feeding time not so chaotic.

I want her to feel secure that she will always be fed but I can’t leave food out because I don’t want my other cats to eat hers.

I guess my question is, is this a behavior that can be changed or do we just work with it the way we are now? She seems to have a lot of anxiety around food and I’m sure being blind doesn’t help so I wasn’t sure what else we can do.

Thank you!

Suspected IVDD: my 14 yr old Jack Russell has been experiencing some severe what looks to be muscle spasms. Took her into the vet and was told she may have joint pain or a neurological nerve pain. They sent me home with pain meds gabapentin, anti inflammatory carprofen and vitamin antinol to see if she got better. It was four days and she didn’t really seem to get better.

Then she seemed like she was developing some sort of serve cough. Took her back to the vet and they said she has some bacterial respiratory infection (also took X-rays) but I suspected kennel cough which they could not tell me 100% for sure, so was sent home with antibiotics. She is up on her vaccines and the only place she has been is at the vet because we don’t have any other dogs around us at home and haven’t been taking her for any walks due to her pain.

It’s been 5 days now and the cough is getting better. However, she is having muscle flares up everyday, multiple times a day. She is panting a lot and seems to be in a lot of pain. The meds don’t seem to be helping a whole lot.

She can still walk but is wobbly. Her legs tremble. I can see her legs are very stiff. Her back looks a little raised. She is still going to the bathroom on her own, but is wobbly.

I’ve put some paw grips on her feet since we have tile floors and some more rugs around the house. I’ve also tried to give her messages which she sometimes allowed me but she’s a Jack Russell and they have their own kind of personality.

What should I do? Any advice? I hate seeing her in so much pain.

What are signs of IVDD recovery in dogs?

My 13yr female beagle is 6wks from her injury and can now walk with rear sling support, but is still very wobbly with her rear right leg. What I don’t know is how to tell if there’s reason to believe she will walk on her own again or if this is the best she’ll be.

Today I noticed a small lump on our 14 week old puppy’s lower abdomen. There are two but one is larger than the other. I’m assuming it’s her ovaries. No unusual behavior, eating and drinking normally. Is this normal for one to be enlarged? We have always had boy dogs so just making sure all is ok. Adding pictures for reference.

Hi there,

I have a 16 month old mix breed medium sized dog. I had her spayed 5 days ago and there’s a bulge to the left of the incision site (size of a tennis ball). Medium firmness.

The vet has suggested it be drained, but he’s 1.5 hours away and I’d rather not inflict another long journey and more trauma on her.

I’ve read that this could resolve on its own and want input as to whether I should take the trip (would you consider the swelling severe) or wait & see if it worsens/improves without intervention.

Thanks for any input.

I have three dogs. One of my dogs, Angel a husky , jumped over my other dog Adonis, and missed so he landed on him. Ever since, he has been lethargic and he does have hip displasia as he is a pure breed Akita Inu.

Well we went in Friday September 1st to an emergency vet near us at around 5 or 6 pm with Adonis presenting limping and being lethargic and acting not like his normal self. After 30 minutes or so of waiting a technician came out and spoke to us saying how Adonis was very reactive when trying to examine him and asked if they could give him pain killers to soothe him and further inspect him. I told them verbally that they needed to put a muzzle on him because I know how he gets when you touch his legs and poke at him, after the tech came to talk to us we waited a total of 4 hours until they finally grabbed us and told us they thought it was his front paw because it looked “swollen” so they gave us an anti inflammatory and pain killer pills. When adonis was brought in he was able to walk but barely and when they handed him back to us he was unable to stand or walk or lift his head, once we got the paperwork, we were aware that pain killers were not given but he was given a sedative instead and no further examination was made after sedative was given as quote “we are very busy in the back”

Saturday September 2nd all day and Sunday September 3rd morning and part of the afternoon we were at the house watching over him trying to accommodate him as much as we could, we called the emergency vet place to ask for advice on how to relive Adonis since he had not been able to stand up since they gave him back to us Friday September 1st at 11pm and had been holding in his pee and poop.

Sunday September 3rd around 7 we took him back to the vet since they suggested they couldn’t give us advice since they didn’t know exactly what was wrong with him and were confused as to why he couldn’t walk, upon arrival to the vet they took him in on a gurney, and we were seated in an examination room. A tech came in and said to give them a few minutes to examine him, 20 minutes later the doctor came in to tell us she thought now the problem was a disk on his neck and suggested surgery or putting him down but leaned more towards putting him down because he is such a large dog. I asked for an x ray or an MRI but both were denied due to his size (130 lbs). The doctors only recommendation is to put him down and because of his large size nothing else was done and they further prescribed muscle relaxants. This visit lasted 40 minutes at most with very little options on how to further help Adonis.

Please help me understand what is going on and if putting him down is really the option or if this vet is being unethical or not doing enough for my dog. I just want to understand my options and how I can move going forward.