Ask questions and share about your pet's health to help others.
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
Hello,
I did a very thorough write up on almost every part of this between my YouTube channel and rhe blog kmdvm.blogspot.Com. Search Ivdd. It is important to keep trying to help your pup maintain muscle mass and start re learning how to stand and walk. The first steps of this are managing pain and helping to maintain normal urine and defecation and avoid getting any infection (bladder included). Then as the pain starts to dissipate work on regaining strength and ambulating.
Gastropexy with splenectomy yay or nay?
11 years old female Rottweiler, spayed, on smaller side of the breed. Splenectomy going to be done due to incidental splenic mass finding while diagnosis non-resolving diarrhea and inappetence. I wanted to look for obstruction but instead, this was found. Larger mass, >6cm. Surgery Tuesday.
Hello,
I would ask your surgeon for their thoughts. If everything was going well during the splenectomy and if it weee my pet, or I was the surgeon, then my answer is yes. I would pexy for any and all abdominal surgeries in at risk breeds.
Good luck.
Yeah, my thinking. Unfortunately, can’t discuss before hand due to holidays. I hope it can be done. Thank you.
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.
I’m sorry, but this is an emergency. He WILL die if he doesn’t get immediate medical attention. Please try to get funds – gofundme, Care Credit, borrow from friends and family.
Looks very normal to me. Ask your vet to look at it in person if you are worried.
I feel like when it rains it pours, we just had our dog down for 3 weeks with a herniated disc and IVDD, now, our 2 year old cat started acting weird. Meowing, howling, laying in the litter box. It’s Christmas Day and we cannot afford an emergency vet visit. What do we do? I suspect it’s a UTI, I just want him to be okay until the morning.
Hello,
Based on this brief description I am very worried that your cat has a urinary blockage which is often fatal if not treated. I’m sorry but I cannot advise anything except to go immediately to the closest ER.
There is no at home treatment and hoping it’s a uti and being wrong may very well cost your cat their life.
I have a very active 3 year old Boston Terrier who was just diagnosed with possible IVDD.
She is on crate rest for 4 weeks getting 2.5mg Prednisolone twice a day, 100mg Gabapentin every 8-12hrs and 125mg Methocarbamol every 8hrs. She is still fully ambulatory and on day 5 of her rest and meds and is still having breakthrough crying pain when she moves wrong. I have started heat therapy which seems to help a little. Do you think I could increase her Methocarbamol to 187.5mg and see if this keeps the muscle spasms more at bay. She weighs 16lbs.
She also has an appointment with a neurologist January 5th. It is so hard for me to see her in pain.
Thanks
hello,
I’m so glad to hear that things are improving!
I am also sorry but I cannot offer advice on drugs, or dosages. This is a question for your vet.
Best of luck
krista
I have a 14 year old Yorkie who has been off since Saturday afternoon. She hasn’t eaten much but is still drinking and urinating. She is extremely wobbly and not able to keep her balance, as her back legs keep giving out from under her. I took her to the ER yesterday evening and they mentioned she had a bulging disc. They did prescribe some medication and recommended 2 weeks of rest (no playing, going up and down the stairs, or jumping off the couch). My biggest concern aside from her inability to walk is her continued lack of appetite. She has hardly eaten since Saturday and no matter what I try to feed her, she is not interested. Any recommendations?
hello,
i am never sure if this is hyporexia (decreased appetite) due to pain, or stress, or something else. Some of the pain medications cause sedation, and this can affect appetite. For these medications I advise feeding before the medication. Further if the pet cant walk well due to pain I worry about difficulty passing stool, or urinating as it hurts to stand and posture.
I have a lot of information on this on my blog kmdvm.blogspot.com search IVDD. Also my YouTube channel and ask your vet for an appetite stimulant.
Also check to make sure enough water is in the food to help avoid the feces getting hard as they sit in the colon.
For this disease it is imperative to have a good relationship with your primary vet and to have help getting through the first few days, and weeks.
good luck
My cat’s teeth are yellow, she has black spots on her gum, also she has a bad breath ,what should i do ?
I have had a sick feline for almost.3 days now. He’s middle aged male neutered. I know a vet visit is nessacerry at this time because he isn’t pooping. Anything I can do to keep him comfortable until we get to the vet?
Couple of thoughts.
1 – how often do you clean the slow feeder?
2 – how often do you clean and refill his water?
My current dog is still very new to us, but I’ve learned if I don’t keep her water PRISTINE – meaning I wash the bowl twice daily – she’ll have a pukey day. My Doberman would get pukey if I didn’t wash her bowl daily.
I will start doing this – good idea, thank you!
Hello,
I would say a few things should be considered.
1. Full blood work for me is a superchem with electrolytes a cbc thyroid urine and fecal. These all need to be done.
2. Is he on a good preventative for fleas ticks heartworm and intestinal parasites. I like Credelio and interceptor plus. Cover for these vs wait for them to shown up
3. A sensitive stomach formula like I/d from science diet. Ie a prescription gi food
4. Look for addisons disease and Maldigestion. Whoever does your vets lab services should have an internal medicine consult available to discuss those.
5. Surgery abdominal radiographs plain and with barium, or ultrasound. There should be local vets who can do this without the referral needed at this point.
6. Rule out something simple and easy to fix like bilious vomiting syndrome.
Ok. That’s my initial thoughts on this.
Hope they help.
Keep me posted
Krista.
Thank you! I will talk to my vet about all of these suggestions. He did mention an internal medicine doc, so I will ask for that referral. (PS… my apologies for misspelling your name, I corrected my post!)
No worries. Keep us posted.
Good luck