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

PYOMETRA SURGERY QUESTION: I have a question for Dr. Krista. Below is background information and I will include cost info for anyone that might be searching for cost information in the future and stumbles across this website. (also uploading a picture of doggie with stitches to gallery)

My 7.5 year old Shepherd/Husky mix just had surgery for pyometra. It was approximately $2000 at a pet hospital in Tennessee for the surgery. (actual surgery was a little under $900 and then additional things such as anesthesia, overnight boarding charge, IV, antibiotics, e-collar, medication, etc ended up racking up the charges to almost $2000.) Her symptoms that caused me to go to the vet were not eating, depressed, excessive drinking, constant licking her private areas, and I did notice she was drooling a lot as well. Her not eating was the main thing that had me worried as this dog will eat anything and gobble her food up in seconds and then lick the bowl clean searching for any missing bits under normal circumstances, yet she even turned her nose up at her favorite foods. I had initially been worried about blockage since she had eaten some table scrap bones a few days prior (which I now know not to do for future reference), but after googling , I came to the conclusion pyometra was more likely. She had just finished her heat cycle a few weeks prior, so everything lined up on her symptoms matching pyometra. The vet did an x-ray and blood work and it did end up being Pyometra. I had never heard of this before and really wish I had as this was an expensive lesson for us to learn and painful for our poor doggie. If we had spaded her when she was younger, it would have been $250 at the exact same place I just paid $2000 to for pretty much the exact same surgery. (though now much riskier and doggie sick) The vet did the surgery the morning following her initial examination. (the initial exam was $425 for exam, x-ray and blood work and was not included in the cost of surgery. I received a 25% discount off of this price for being a new customer) She had the surgery at 10 AM and stayed the night to get extra fluids and antibiotics as she had a pretty bad infection and keep and eye on her. I picked her up at 2 PM the day after her surgery. My doggie was happy to see me when I picked her up and seemed to be feeling much better. She wagged her tag and happily jumped in the car and was excited about going in our house. Once in the house, she visibly drooped, though. I thought that was probably normal after having surgery and she slept a lot. She ate that night and I gave her the medicine in her food. This morning, however, she once again refuses to eat- even her favorite foods. She drinks normally, but doesn’t eat anything, so I also cannot give her the medication, which consisted of an antibiotic and pain pill. I tried forcing a piece of bread in her mouth with the pill inside it but she just spit it out. My question for Dr. Krista or anyone who has had experience with pyometra…. is this normal for a dog not to want to eat a couple of days after surgery? It has now been almost exactly 48 hours since her surgery. She went to the bathroom a little bit ago and both urinated and had a wet bowel movement. I have tried offering all different kinds of foods and she shows no interest. She is just laying around. She is still drooling more than normal, but seems in better shape than when I initially took her to vet… but worried about her lack of appetite. How I can give her the medication if she will not eat. Any recommendations?

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!

Household “accidents”, need advice, please!! I have 3 cats, 3 dogs, and a toddler human. In the past few months my two youngest “house trained” dogs (9 & 5 yrs) and my youngest cat (4 yrs) have been purposely relieving themselves in different parts of my house. The dogs poop/pee on the floor, in the past month they began peeing on my couch, it’s gotten so bad I have to keep them in crates most of the time they’re inside. The cat will pee on my toddlers belongings – first on clothes in his laundry basket (which is now inside a closet) and on his stuffed animals (which I had to hide in a bin), now has resorted to peeing on any accessible hard plastic toys. If I put the cat in a kennel she uses the litter box 100% of the time, once releasing her she’ll behave for 1-2 days then starts up again. The dogs will have “accidents” within 10 minutes inside after being outside for 30-60+ minutes. I have 3 litterboxes, each with a different kind of litter, all clean, no diagnosed medical issues (taken all 3 to the vet twice since this started $$$). My oldest dog has been going through dementia for the past year, it’s getting worse but not yet at the point of euthanasia. I started preparing to move the past 6 months, house is almost done being packed/cleared. I’m not sure which/both/none are triggers for them acting this way. All of them have moved with me before and they never did this on previous moves. Vet prescribed multiple anxiety meds which are not helping at all, they have no other solutions to offer. Ironically my 14yr old dog with dementia barely ever has accidents in the house. Personality wise they aren’t acting any different. Messes are thoroughly cleaned immediately and they don’t even bother to do this secretively, all 3 seem to purposely do it right in front of me. The situation is driving me to my wits end, I really need help 🙁 Besides keeping them all in crates I have no other solution. Does anyone have insight to what I can do? Thanks so much!

My rescue dog is a Miniature Chihuahua and today she broke her front left leg and I have no funds to help her until I get my Disability check next month.I was already taking her to the vet as soon as my check came.I don’t know what to do, she is everything to me and in awful pain and I have Never felt so helpless in my life.We have a very strong bond and I love her so much please help her I don’t know what to do I just want to die for real please help Thank you Gina

My friend Spencer recently purchased a small male mouse from a pet store after seeing the awful condition the mouse was in. He named him Tucker. Tucker has a swollen eye and we aren’t sure from what since he was purchased that way but Spencer wants to treat him! We just don’t know what is wrong with Tucker or how this could have happened to him so we are looking for an answer possibly on what to do

How can you make a cats oversized bladder shrink?
I know it’s possible,
Do they need to be hospitalized?
I seen a video of a guy with a cat that has lower motor neuron bladder atony. He said his cat had a cath for 3 wks and it shrunk the bladder.
Also diapers… is it a guarantee that a cat will get a bladder infection from wearing a diaper or is it just a possibility? I see hertz has special diapers for cats n dogs, it doesn’t say if they will help block infections. We have an appointment the 23rd with the neurologist for a 2nd opinion. I was told mri is $4,500 to $8,400. We don’t know how to look at this situation or what to do. Our hearts are breaking at the thought of possibly saying goodbye to our 3yr old cuddle bug. He peed on me twice this morning while he was sleeping. I worry I am squeezing too hard, or that he is in pain.