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Hello
Help needed!
My cat disappeared for 4 days, and when he came back, he was limping
I took him to nearby pet clinic, they gave him some pain killer and told me to get his X-rays done since they didn’t have that facility
After getting his X-rays done, the doctor determined that he had broken his leg into 3 pieces and says there’s not much he can do about my cat
Gave me medicine and some spray to apply on his leg, and that’s about it
Also says, he doesn’t see surgery giving any results
The services here are not that great, what should I do?
I have seen some videos where cats heal after giving them 5-6 weeks of cage rest
He’s basically the same as he was before, plays, eats food, sleeps, but with a broken leg of-course
will giving him cage rest work out for him as well? I have attacehed the x-rays photo below
Please help me out, I don’t know what to do…
I just learned from Dr Magnifico that little white dogs love their bladder stones.
I have a little white dog. She does not have bladder stones as far as I can tell and I’d like to keep it that way. She’s a maltese, about five or six years old, a puppy mill rescue I adopted about seven months ago. I also have a 13-year-old dorkie and a vet I’ve been seeing for almost 25 years.
I’m lazy and don’t count on myself to brush my dogs’ teeth so I’ve always fed my dogs Hills Science Diet t/d (large size kibble). They also get rawhide chews sold by my vet. The maltese’s stool is very dry compared to the dorkie’s.
Is there anything I should be doing to reduce the risk of bladder stones? Half wet food half kibble, maybe? Flavour their water?
Thank you!
Alison
Hello!
The best ways that I know to avoid bladder stones is a good diet. Leaving fresh clean water available at all times and checking a urine every 6-12 months. Also on some little dogs I can palpitate rhe bladder for clues about its contents. If you want to be super pro active an X-ray or ultrasound is the best diagnostic tool for looking inside the bladder.
Good luck! Thanks for the question
Thank you! I will follow up with regular palpation and urine testing.
Could my dogs’ diet be better in the context of bladder stones?
My dog just had puppies today. She seems like she is warm because she is panting. She has had water and food and the puppies are nursing. I don’t want the puppies to get cold but how can I make it more comfortable for her? I have a heat pad on low with several layers of a towel on top of it. Maybe I should remove that?
This is a question you should ask your repro vet, because they’ve been monitoring her through the pregnancy…
Right?
Hi,
I’m watching a cat for a neighbor for about a month in my apartment. The cat throws up food every 6 days or so. It smells horrible, like raw sewage. I’ve had cats of my own before and I don’t recall any of them vomiting and having it smell as bad as this cat’s vomit. She actually eats relatively slowly, so she’s not inhaling her food in 3 seconds. She’s not that big of a cat, I was told to give her 1 can of Fancy Feast per day ( broken up into 3 feedings per day for that 1 can). She eats it all on the spot, no leftovers. I also give her small handful of dry food when I’m at work for 8 hours so she doesn’t get too hungry during that time. And maybe a few more grains of dry food if she begs me. Dry food isn’t her favorite, but she’ll eat it there’s nothing else. Can anyone offer advice about why her vomit smells like raw sewage? It’s so bad it makes me wretch. She’s basically a happy cat, doesn’t seem otherwise sick or displaying any odd behaviors. Thanks so much for any help.
Hello,
There are a few things that this might be.. diet,, maybe try a different food, one that is made for cats with sensitive stomachs, intestinal parasites ( this is determined by sending a fecal sample to your vets office for analysis), or a disease of the gi tract… maybe even bad teeth? My point is that this is a case where a veterinarian should be consulted to help rule in or out, some of these.
Good luck.
My cat was constipated this morning (he has other issues, but this was the key problem this morning). The vet said I could give him Miralax, which I did. I knew it was kicking in because my cat started yowling a bit, most likely because he was feeling cramps. It’s a struggle because I don’t want him to feel bad but I know this is part of the problem with giving a laxative. Does anyone have a suggestion about what I can do “in the mean time” to make him feel better while we wait for him to defecate? Heating pad? Warm rice pad? Cold pad? Just rubbing his belly softly? Thanks!
For cats with constipation issues I recommend a high quality canned food only diet and lots of exercise. If you are worried about pain please talk to your vet about safe options for cats. There are not a lot of them.
Thank you. Since we’re dealing with several other health issues my cat has been less mobile, which I know was part of the problem.
was wondering if I could ask a question.
About my Shih tzu MeiLing:
MeiLing is not having symptoms. My question is related to lab values. She is 14 years old and just acts tired at times.
1. The paperwork shows that she is positive for Anaplasma phagocytophilum. Her vet did not offer any treatment advise on this or even mention this to me during the visit. I happened to find it later when reviewing her lab work. I have never found a tick on her since I rescued her 9 years ago.
2. Other lab work:
BUN 41, had been 33 year prior, one month after that was 29;
ALT 227 was 134 year prior, one month later 117;
ALP 673 was 668 one year prior and 1040 one month after that;
MCV 59.3 was 61.1 year prior and one month after that was 59.8;
Platelets 504 was 542 year prior and 561 one month afterwards;
Plateletcrit 0.62 was 0.66 and 0.68 one month later.
Based on some of the labs in point 2 the vet started MeiLing on Hepato Tru Benefits which supports healthy liver function and is telling me that we should do an MRI.
I love my dog and would like very much to do whatever is necessary for her health. However, I am retired, living on social security and am not able to afford a monthly payment for health insurance for her much less $1000 or more for an MRI. So my question is, with these labs, considering she is having no symptoms, granted she is not as lively as she once was but she is 14 years old, in your opinion how necessary is it that she have an MRI? Also why would he have not even mentioned the Anaplasma phagocytophilum? Should I seek another opinion?
I don’t expect that I will be able to afford other treatments revealed by an MRI.
I know I am asking a lot here but if you could just help me with a little guidance I would deeply appreciate it.
Thanks for any info you can give me.
Hello,
I think that I would ask for a second opinion from a different vet at another practice. I say this because I cannot interpret lab values without an examination. These go hand in hand to make an accurate assessment of a patient. Ask your friends and family who they use and trust and go there.
I also think you should bring all of the things that you mention above to your old vet.
Also I think it is important to talk to your vet about your financial abilities and ask for diagnostics you can afford. This is your right and the vet’s responsibility in my opinion. If they cannot help you find answers that are meaningful to your pet and their care go elsewhere.
Lastly I have been a vet for almost 20 years. I have not had many patients able to do an mri. And although I may offer we always (always!!!) tell about more affordable and readily accessible diagnostics like an ultrasound. I also ALWAYS talk about why I am asking questions them to do this. I fear very few vets do this. There is almost no point in asking you to do (and pay for) a diagnostic if we cannot do anything about the disease or problem from there. So what is an mri going to get you that is treatable? And Would you be able to afford that? If the answer is no why are we worried about the mri?
Rottweiler, female, 11 years old.
Vertically split nail; under vet care but I think we need to get more decisive.
The vet trimmed the nail half way with local (dog has bad reaction to sedation protocol, narcotics, etc). Still hurt and vet said it would cause undue pain. However, the nail continues on splitting.
How common of a procedure is cutting the nail off all the way to nail bed? How does that improve outcome? How much faster is the recovery?
By what percentage is anesthesia risk lower with such a short procedure? (Has to be anesthesia as explained above). Last time, after anesthetic procedure, she had heart rhythm problems and other problems; became critical and almost died. But was also full of drugs and had pancreatitis as complication of splenectomy. I’d assume the shorter the time under, the lower risk of complications?
I’m concerned about putting her under but I’m also concerned about dragging this out for weeks, taking valuable time from her, and having to do it that way anyway eventually.
I really don’t know what is the best thing to do for her. Hubby leaning toward waiting if it heals but I’m not seeing it healing any time soon if at all. (Photo of the present state of the nail attached.
I’m sad, depressed, concerned, and don’t know what I should decide for her.
Hello,
First I will admit that I have had cases like this and they are frustrating. So I remind my clients this.
Next we take it in small steps. I do start with trimming the nail as much as able and start toe/foot soaks to keep the area clean and place an ecollar to stop the patient from licking and further traumatizing the nail and seeding infection from the mouth . I ask them to give it a week or two to heal.
If it doesn’t or other nails start cracking we talk about oncodystrophy. And start talking about what to do if that is the case. The treatment options are not great so the decision to treat needs to be made with a great deal of thought or referral to dermatologist is recommended.
In one case I had a dog who was placed under general anesthesia and the nail was ground to the base to allow a new nail to grow back.
Risk of anesthesia is something discussed on a case by case basis and usually has little definitive concrete information to allow predictive measures or reasoning. That would be a conversation for an anesthesiologist.
Also I have had some cases with underlying nail bed infections so antibiotic’s, foot wrap and medication or culture and sensitivity testing might be helpful.
It’s already been three weeks now. It appears the nail was vertically cracked from the beginning with the first part in the middle (which is now the end)
How well did the grinding to the nail bed work and what was the recovery?
The other nails appear to be fine.
Grinding the nail was a last resort for a difficult chronic case. It worked but it was a last resort treatment.
Actually, it looked quite bad and hurt every time she brushed it on something. We had the nail entirely removed last Friday. Anesthesia was a risk, but I didn’t want her to spend whatever time she has left trying to get that damn nail healed–she already lost months with the first one.
The upside–48 hours of bandage, some pain meds, and all done. It looks good now and doesn’t bother her at all. She can now get on with her life and have fun.
I hated taking the risk but I”m glad I did.
I am trying to reach out to Dr. Magnifico. I have a 10 Month old cat that started to puke and it was unusual for him so I paid closer attention and realized he was going to the litter ofter and straining at first I thought maybe he had a blockage with the puking then after taking him to the vet on 3/31 and after x-rays they determined that he was constipated but at that time didi not have mega colon they had me try Laxatone and probiotics he was still having bowel movements daily so I was was still concerned as he was in the litter often straining though and Then on 4/3 I took him to a different animal hospital because they were walk in and i could be there before i could get ahold of his original vet and I Didn’t think I could afford an ER visit but that appointment cost me over $800 for blood work and X-rays and they gave him Anastasia and manually cleaned him out. at that point I was calling his original vet he he regularly see and originally saw for this problem because the vet that did the procedure just gave me prescription dry food and sent me on my way so I wanted to make sure it was the right action plan to get him back to normal. My original vet never called me back until I called to ask for his records thats when they decided to get him back in. So on 4/8 He started vomiting again and his original vet saw him and said he needed fluids but his stool seemed soft and like it should pass. they gave me pain meds for him fpr 3 days and metocopramide for 4 days. along with a different prescription wet food and Hydracare. Then I noticed on mu bill i was charges for Lactulose which they didn’t tell me wasn’t in stock and i would have to wait to get but it was weekend and they closed so per a megacolon group i am in i gave him 1/8tsp of mirilax a day he still has had at least 1 goof bowel movement a day but the problem I am having is that he is in the litter box straining constantly to the point of falling over and his back side is so swollen and raw! I called the vet numerous times to just ask for guidance and am not getting anywhere I have spent over $1600 which I definitely do not have and I would think by now I would have some answers. All I want is for him to not be in pain. I don’t know if there is anything I can do for his swollen raw bottom. It feels like its never going to end there is constantly poop on his bottom on-top of it I am trying to keep it clean for him but It is so painful for him for me to clean. I guess I just want to know if this will stop or will he be constantly trying to stain and go? They said that his colon can go back down in size since it just happened and he is so you but I just feel so defeated right now!
Here are some photos and comparative x rays of how quick it got to Megacolon
Hello,
I’m sorry that you are having such a terrible time trying to find help.
I think that most cats with constipation have it as a result or something else going on. So I am worried that a 10 month old cat would have such an issue. It’s really important to find a vet that you trust. Go on social media and ask everyone you know if they can recommend someone to help.
Without knowing your cat it is impossible for me to guess about what’s going on. But I am worried that a few things might be contributing to his problems.
One is he eating a good high quality wet food. I really prefer canned to dry with cats and colon issues. Next is getting enough exercise. The colon is a muscle and under muscled animals have problems. For constipation I do recommend miralax or lactulose. I also like learning how to give sq fluids at home. You also need to learn how to palpate his colon to know when it is getting distended.
For other things that might be causing the problem look at old pelvic issues. I’ve only seen young cats get this because they had previous pelvic trauma. Also FeLV or fiv positive?
His rectal area is raw bc of the colon issue. So that has to be fixed to get his butt to heal.
Good luck. I hope this helps.
Thank you so much for responding! He defiantly needs more exercise I was giving him Iams dry food as he really doesn’t like wet food and I have a 14 year old cat that has never had an issue. But I have been trying to get him to eat wet food. where I adopted him from tested him for FeLV and Fiv and he was negative and I just got it ran again 2 weeks ago and he was still negative. I am so overwhelmed because the vet I am using comes so highly recommended on all of the social media groups around here. I defiantly want to look into fluids for home I called his vet again today asking if i could bring him in just for fluids and they wanted me to do a whole appointment again and i honestly can not afford much more.
live in the Pittsburgh pa area. I have a cat with the nasal polyp issue. …
I live in the Pittsburgh pa area. I have a cat with the nasal polyp issue. He’s 5 yr old. I don’t have $2400 for the surgery at the specialist I was referred to. If you could point me in a direction. He keeps getting cold symptoms every few months. Can they suffocate? I know they don’t breathe out of their mouth. I’m so worried.
Hello,
Have you tried to find a vet near you who will sedate your cat and look for a polyp in the ears or behind the soft palate? Local rescues and shelters might also be able to help.
My 2 year old female dog was neutered last week and the incision site is looking concerning. The only veterinary clinic close to us is closed today and I am worried about infection or other issues. The dog is an obssesive licker and I don’t know if the wound is healing ok.
Hello
Try to keep your dog from licking the incision and follow up with your vet asap.
Hello,
If you cannot afford to see a surgeon for assistance on how to fix the fracture then I believe that the next best option is to try cage rest for 8 weeks (and yes it is a long 8 weeks) is the best way to helm them.
They must stay in the cage and rest. I know it can be hard to do but it has worked miracles in many of my patients.
Good luck.
Keep us posted.
Thanks alot for your reply!
one more question
is it fine if he’s confined in 1 room? instead of a cage
my room is not that big, just a normal sized room
he basically sleeps on my bed, jumps down to eat food, walks a bit, shouts at me to open door so he can go outside, which I have not done yet, and then goes back to sleep
will 1 room work or is cage absoulute necessary?
The idea is to stop them from jumping.
On/off your bed is not going to help healing. Cage is best, here.