Hi Krysta,

Just recently saw one of your videos regarding IVDD our soon to be 6 yr old Chocolate Lab Bruschi was recently diagnosed with this condition. We don’t know what to do surgery seems out of the question financially. What are some physical therapy practices we can do to help him? Please advice

My cat seems to have a urine blockage. I can’t afford to take him to a vet, I really don’t want to put him down just for this. Please help me, save my buddy. He’s barely going to be a year old in February.

Our 10 year old Beagle Bassett hound mix has been down since last Wednesday. She had what we thought was a seizure, and couldn’t get up after. We took her to the vet, and they kept her but said that she wasn’t giving any indication to where the pain was or where the infection might be (a blood panel revealed high WBC) Sent her home with phenobarbital and clindamycin for the infection. Fast forward to yesterday, they decided to do an x ray and discovered she has degenerated vertebrae that have fused. They gave us prednisone and methocarbamol and advised us to call in on Friday if no improvement. Our poor girl can’t get up hardly at all, and the vet isn’t giving me any information as to what caused this, if it’s curable or manageable. I don’t know what I’m up against and a 2nd opinion isn’t something we can afford right now.

I recently had to put my kitty to sleep. He was 2 1/2 years old and dealing with leaking at times, then blockages. He had this issue for over a year. We switched him to the Purina prescription wet cat food for Urinary Tract issues. He wasn’t a fan of drinking water from a bowl, so we added 1-2oz of water to his wet food. His total water intake was about 8-9oz of water daily (He was only an 8lb cat and the water also includes what the canned food provided.) He was hospitalized 3 or 4 times — the last time he was in the ER for 14 days. The vet didn’t put the catheter in correctly for the first time — causing major urine scolding on his rear end. They did the catheter correctly for another 7 days. A month later, blocked again. With his issue, PU surgery was not an option. His blockages and urethra damage was too far up close to the bladder — this was told to us by multiple vet opinions. With multiple vet opinions, the only suggestion with the last blockage was to do the same 7 day catheter to help the urethra repair again. Our primary vet was honest with us and said that this option would help him, but wasn’t sure if we would ever have a permanent solution to his blockages. In total, we probably spent upwards of $15,000 with all of these issues over the year (The 14 day emergency room stay was $6,500). Money was not a factor for my wife and I — If I knew we could actually fix him and give him a good quality life, I couldn’t put a price tag on it. With a lot of discussion, we decided it was best to put him to sleep. Feeling good for a weeks or a month, then blocking again, then lengthy procedures wasn’t fair for him. It’s been 3 days since we put him to sleep and I can’t help but feel guilt like we didn’t do everything we possibly could do. I did so much deep diving in google for ANYTHING — I read up on stents, bypasses, etc. I truly don’t think there was anything else we could. It would help me feel better if you could give you opinion on if we did everything we could. Thank you!

I think my 2 month old foster kitten may have a nasal polyp. I’m working with a vet who doesn’t think she has a polyp because he says she’s too young to have one. We’ve tried a couple of antibiotics and nothing has worked yet. Her breathing is getting louder and she breathes with her mouth open while holding her head up when she sleeps. I had 2 other kittens last year that had polyps with the same symptoms. After 5 months of trying to treat the congestion with antibiotics, during spay surgery, both were found to have very large polyps. I don’t want to wait that long with this little one.
Do you think it is possible for a 2 month old kitten to have a polyp? If so, what is the earliest age for exploratory/removal of the polyp? Thank you!

I have a 2yr old orange Tabby cat who got out and was gone for over a month. When he finally came home he was covered in fleas and seriously underweight and underfed and dehydrated, but seemed okay. He was eating fine and drinking at first. However the past week or so he hasn’t been wanting to eat or drink and has lost even more weight. I took him to the vet today and they said he needs a blood transfusion bc he’s anemic and he’s jaundiced and needs iv fluids but they couldn’t do it bc they have no one there on the weekends and the vet wasn’t willing to go in. I’ve called every vet I can Google and everyone said the same thing and wouldn’t take him except the trauma vet but they quoted me an outrageous price and I don’t qualify for care credit so they said i should just euthanize him. He’s my baby and idk what to do but I do know he deserves a chance. Is there any way for me to treat those things at home? Please HELP

My four-year-old boy Chihuahua named Buddy is in very rough shape. He is such a loveable highly active very fit healthy dog. He suffered a type one IVDD incident. This was six days ago. He went from stage one to stage four in 48 hours. He was not diagnosed until after an x-ray when he was already in stage four. Four days after that he has been diagnosed to be in stage five. He showed signs of improving his stability when holding himself up with his front two legs two days ago and did not eat until just 12 hours ago. He’s eating and drinking and his general comfort seems to be much better but he has zero high pain feeling and has no bladder or control of his annular muscles. My regular vet who is not a surgeon has recommend putting him down. I named him Buddy because he literally is my buddy. He was adopted two years ago and rescued from Mexico with scars all over his body that already healed when I got him. He is a survivor and so am I as I have suffered emotional and physical scars as well. I can’t bear the thought of losing him and not seeing him run and be happy again. I don’t want to give up on him yet. I also don’t want him to suffer. He is totally responsive from his front legs forward. He is kissing, eating and drinking now. I am hoping I hear from Krista. I have seen Krista’s videos on IVDD recovery stories. I don’t know what to do for him. I am doing every thing I can but not surgery which I can’t afford. Is there any hope?

Our adult cat (probably about 10-12 years old) has a fracture on her front left paw/leg. It’s the holiday weekend, so we splinted it but we don’t want her to suffer until Tuesday. There’s an emergency vet but it’s over 2 hours away (we live in a rural area) and of course the expense will be outrageous so while we are willing to do whatever needed we’re wondering if there are any OTC pain meds we can give her until Tuesday when we can take her to our regular vet, or is she at risk of complications if we wait? Any info is appreciated. The break seems to be right above the paw joint.

My dog got spayed on August 1st, she is a 13 year old poodle mix. She also had a mastectomy along with her spay so she has a very big incision. She is on her 4th week and the lower half of her incision does not look like the top half. The surgeon said it may take a while to heal because of the placement but I noticed a bump at the base of her incision at day 4 that has not gone away. She keeps licking at it and the surgeon suggested we must let her heal and later investigate. Also, at day 10 I noticed a white tiny pimple sized thing trying to come through under her skin. I really checked it out today since it has not gone away and it feels like something sharp poking under her skin, she has two of these that feel the same. I am scared she might have torn her internal stitches but the surgeon did not seem too worried. I notice when she eats she seems to look like she feels uncomfortable. She threw up yesterday but I took it as maybe her pancreatitis acting up. I am freaking out and don’t know if I am making a big fuss over nothing. She did not run during her recovery but she would stand up on her hind legs no matter how much I attempted to keep her calm. She did slip 3 times and land on her tummy, twice at day 8 because I had her on a short leash and she would try to run, the third slip was at day 13 and for the same reason of the short leash and attempting to run. I feel so sad and don’t have peace of mind. I feel guilty she slipped on me those three times but then again don’t know what to make of that lump at day 4. After the two slips at day 8 and after on day 10 she started having severe diarrhea. I contacted the surgeons team and they suggested boiled chicken and boiled rice, but at day 12 the diarrhea was a soft serve ice cream consistency and then she thew up so I took her into emergency immediately. At emergency they checked her vitals and incision and could not figure out what may have caused the stomach upset since from her pancreatitis history did not have the swollen tummy and her incision looked fine. They attributed the upset to possible pain med side effect and prescribed a probiotic and to stop the gabapentin. It’s has been a tough healing process for her. I will attach pictures of of what the incision looked like at day 7, 10, and now. I hope it’s not what I am fearing but it’s better to know if I should advocate for her and have them check again. Thanks guys, sorry for the long story but this is my little girl who is my first owned dog and who has been by my side for 13 years. I love her so much and it pains me to see her uncomfortable. Fyi her appetite is always good no matter what and her bowels are back to normal since the 18th of august and they were fine before the 10th of august as well.

My 9 yr. old Megacolon cat Eli wasn’t able to poop. It happens sometimes. He’s on Cisapride and Merilax daily, but he still get’s backed up. When he started vomiting after not being able to BM and jumping out of the litter box I took him to the vet. They did an enema on June 20th. He’s still backed up! I can’t afford 1k plus to have a vet manually extract the feces (this is Washington, DC area – everything is very expensive!). He hasn’t started throwing up again, but he’s not eating much and I need to find out if there is something I can do more at home to get him through this emergent time. I can’t just watch my cat suffer. I have Pedi lax, but don’t know if that would help or hinder at this point. I watch videos on palpitating the colon to try and break up the feces. I know there are specific enemas to give cats at home. Is it too late to try this? My vet is frankly bad and too busy to bother, so she said to just go to the emergency. It sure seems like there are other steps that can be taken ,,,at least I hope so becuase I just don’t have that kind of money left with the cost for caring for my hospice Husky, Loki. Help!