Good day- We are the proud owners of a one-year-old English Pointer named Bruno and a proud patient of Dr. Magnifico’s. Recently, Bruno has been shaking his head more often and scratching his ears. He has also been sleeping much more the past few days. When not sleeping, he is still pretty playful and eating/drinking. How do you know if he has an ear infection or not? His ears have been professional cleaned, but same actions with his head. Also, no smells coming from his ears. Any suggestions? Thank you.

My puppy has a lump on the right side of her face. My dog sitter pointed it out to me when I picked her up from daycare today. It is soft and tender to the touch. She does not like when I try and touch it and I am unable to look inside of her mouth. It seems like it is really bothering her. She is eating and drinking normally this evening, but created herself and seems like she is in pain. I made her a vet appointment for tomorrow afternoon but is this something I should be seeking more immediate attention for?

My vet strongly suspects my cat has a nasal polyp. She has be snoring/snarling consistently for 2.5 years, but is otherwise fine. When it began, I first had a potential infection treated with two antibiotics, followed by a teeth cleaning, that yielded no issues with the teeth, and ended with a nasal flush. My vet was hoping to be able to see and grab the polyp during the flush, but couldn’t. Because she was otherwise healthy, eating, and playing, I went without treating it. Recently, she was treated for a G.I. flair up that had her not eating. She had begun not eating or moving get bowels for days. Once vomiting was added in, I took her to Metropolitan Emergency Vet. They gave her an ultrasound, saw the inflammation and gas in her abdomen, took a CBC, gave her fluids and nausea medication and sent her home a couple hours later for $800. Her bloodwork was was fine, aside from dehydration. She continued not to eat, so I brought her to my vet a day and a half later. They did an x-ray and saw the lower intestine looked aggravated. They kept her for the weekend and gave her fluids and more nausea medication. She returned to me after two days and began eating again at home. I’m awaiting the additional $600 bill for that. While being discharged, one of the docs urged me to address what she felt strongly was likely a polyp in her nasal cavity, as she believed it may now be large enough that it’s limiting her ability to smell, which may have contributed to the refusal to eat with the G.I. issue coexisting for a few days. She referred me to the specialty docs locally to have the nasal polyp removed. They are quoting me $3,195 plus. They said it would be $195 for a internal med consult, $1,500 for a “necessary” CT, and $1,500 or more for the Rhinoscopy. My vet said Lilah is otherwise a healthy 12 year old cat. I am sick with the cost, as I will need to put it all on a credit card. I have called around to multiple other specialty vets and I’m getting comparable quotes. I have had family members suggest I euthanize my cat over a nasal polyp, which I absolutely will not do. I stumbled across a Utube video of you removing a nasal polyp, so I tracked you down by name, wondering if you could help Lilah? I’m two hours from your practice, which is close enough. I’d really appreciate you getting back to me. As of now, we have a consult scheduled for 3/4, and I’m sick over the cost.

Thank you,
Diana Maginn

We brought a re-homed cat home to our house one week ago. She is 4 years old, spayed, up to date on shots and healthy. She came from a multi-cat and dog house to our single-dog house. Her previous owner says she had no problem standing up for herself against other cats and the dog (reports the other cats are much more willing to come out of hiding since she has been removed). We have noticed that she is shy and skittish, but eating and drinking. She spends most of her day hiding under a bed.

Unfortunately she refuses to use her litter box (so far preferring kids closets and under desks). We’ve taken a step back and confined her to a single room. She has a clean litter box. Food, toys and bed are at the opposite side of the room. We’ve also confined the dog to a separate part of the house

None of this is ideal. We have few doors, so keeping them apart also keeps the humans apart. I can put food or litter in another part of the house, but the cat is more likely to encounter the dog if I do that.

Thoughts?

It has been about 3 weeks since my stray cat Snow had her stomatitis flare up again, she will eat periodically if I cut up deli meat very small or mash Max cat venison canned food for her, the randomness of her eating isn’t likely enough to sustain her but as I mentioned before she won’t let me trap her for a vet visit. Is there something over the counter I can add to the food that I manage to get in her to reduce inflammation and is there a normal time frame that inflammation will subside on it’s own?

My 16-1/2 year old calico has been on prednolisone since August. Even though she was still eating normally she went from about 9 pounds to 7.2 pounds in a year. Tests showed everything was good with the exception of inflamed intestines. Being on the prednolisone has helped her gain weight again, she now weighs about 8.4 pounds. Within the past month on occasion she has started howling very loudly for no apparent reason. She doesn’t seem to be in any pain, sometimes it actually seems as though she’s confused. Any ideas on what could be causing her howls? What can I do to help her? Dr Graff has been her vet since she was a tiny kitten, I would bring Pumpkin in if necessary but hate the idea of stressing her out in doing so. Thanks for any suggestions.

My 15 month old pitbull golden retriever is currently on Purina Pro Plan & always has been. Recently I have heard many people & Facebook groups compare Pro Plan to “feeding them McDonald’s”. I do everything in my power to make sure my little guy eats the best & stays in the best shape but this scares me.. is this really something that he should not be eating? This food brand was recommended by his vet but recently I’ve heard more bad than good. I would never forgive myself if this food led to future health issues. Is there another brand that we could switch to? Is Purina actually that bad? Should a homemade raw diet be an option? I could use some help

We have a Puppie Shar Pie that has an enlarged heart, He is about 2 weeks old.. He is having a hard time eating and isn’t nursing very well, we are trying to supplement with puppy formula but it’s not seeming to work. He isn’t growing very much and has a real hard time with eating and resting he has to sleep with his head up or he doesn’t rest well.. He has a sister that’s almost double his size since they where born.. he was a lil larger than her to start. but we are just asking if anyone has dealt with this successfully.. we are trying just about everything we can think of.. we just don’t want to lose him.. and we can’t afford the vet bill to have them do what they can we took him in to start is why we know he has an enlarged heart. Anyways any help here would be appreciated..

My 8 year old Dachshund, Ruben, was diagnosed with IVDD one week ago by an emergency vet after we weren’t able to speak or get an appointment with our regular vet. This was his second flare up but this time he lost movement and feeling in both his back legs. The vet told us he had no deep pain sensation. Surgery was not a financial option for us so we opted to bring him home and try conservation treatment. Living with a paralyzed dog does not overwhelm me but I do need him to get back his personality and not be in pain anymore.
We are so disappointed with our current vet and how everything played out the day Ruben had his flare up and became paralyzed. We have made calls to a new vet clinic and are waiting to get into their earliest appointment with an educated vet.
From the emergency vet, Ruben was sent home with 4 medications, Tramadol, Metacam, Robaxin, and Gabapentin. It has been one week and he appears to be in much less pain and his body is relaxed, the quivering has stopped and he doesn’t often cry. We stopped giving him the Metacam two days ago because he had all of the side effects that the drug prescribed and we didn’t feel that he needed it for pain management.
In the last two days his appetite has gone downhill, eating very small amounta but then turning away. Even his favourite foods like cheese he wants nothing to do with. He is still drinking water but only when I use a syringe into his mouth.
He has also become extremely lethargic and seems depressed/sad to the point where he won’t move or lift his head without our assistance. All he does is lay there and sleep. We move him around in different positions and he doesn’t cry in pain when we move him, he just doesn’t seem to care. We can flip him over from one side to another and he won’t even life his head. Nothing we do warrants any type of excitement from him. I am terrified he’s losing all his strength and have no idea if this is a normal part of the healing process or if there is something else wrong with him. He does not have bladder control but is peeing often uncontrolled. He also has semi consistent bowel movements, at least one small one per day. No diarrhea but there was some tarry black stool.
My vet appointment is Wednesday, 4 days away still, trying to get in sooner with them but I just don’t know if I should be taking him back to emergency. Please help.