My 9 year old Potcake (probably shepherd/lab/etc mix) has a long history of lipomas, which grow fairly large. In late October of 2022 I found a lemon sized mass on the back of his right hind leg, which was not bothering him but was firm. Our vet in Ottawa ON is a VCA practice nearby; I was able to get an appointment the next day. The vet and I were both concerned at the location, size and consistency of the mass.

She recommended an xray of the limb and a chest xray to rule out cancer and metastasis as well as blood work. (all normal) She sedated him for the radiorgraphs and aspirated the mass multiple times with a presumptive diagnosis of lipoma. We discussed the fact that it was probably and inter-muscular lipoma, between the two muscles of the hind leg at the back . To remove it she advised a board certified surgeon elsewhere, who she said would want to do an MRI of the limb first to evaluate the extent of the mass in preparation for surgery. When I expressed concern about the cost she offered a surgeon at the VCA who is not board certified but who may be able to attempt a surgery without the MRI.

Since October the mass has grown, especially medially, and is now the size of a grapefruit. He is still not lame or uncomfortable when I feel the mass. I want to prevent problems for him with this leg but I also worry about the invasiveness of the surgery – and the cost, which I can’t afford right now. I am waiting and watching at this time. I worry about having the mass return even after surgery and wonder about removing the majority of it just to give him more comfort when moving – is it ok to wait until it gets bigger? I know that lipomas don’t tend to spread to other parts of the body like malignant cancer – this is why we took the xrays, to look for other signs of cancer in his body. Now i wonder if this was too soon, and should have waited on those tests.

Hi everyone,

It’s my first time to have a pet her name is Kumiko i got her when she was only 3month now she’s already 6months. When i got her her fur parents didn’t told me initially that her mother got her tail degloved. She was born inverted butt first so her mom accidentally degloved her tail. I have been treating her since then. Her tail will dry up and will last for 4-7days then the skin sheds and bleeds. She’s been wearing Elizabeth collar since then. I am getting desperate already. I consulted a Vet and now they are suggesting to have it amputated. There is no current infection but it doest heal properly. Hope someone can help me. I still don’t want her to get amputated.

Hi Krista! I have a 9 year old beagle who periodically (at least twice a month) will vomit all day. He vomits his morning food, then continues to vomit mucus and bile the remainder of the day. His vet has done a physical exam and blood work, and he kept him overnight once to give him IV fluids and anti nausea meds. He always bounces back within 12 hours, but this is getting to be really tiresome. His weight and energy levels are fine after this passes. And his stools look normal. Do you have any suggestions? I will share a picture of the last vomit from a couple of hours ago – this was about the 8th time he puked today. It went from food to mucus to this. I don’t feed him at all when he’s like this. As of right now, he’s perfectly fine and begging for food!

One additional note… we give him Purina One (vet’s suggestion) and use a slow feeder. We feed him small meals 4x/day, rather than 2 big meals. We are also very careful about making sure he doesn’t eat anything he shouldn’t.

Thank you!!

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

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?