to start out I had a Jack Russell and our neighbor had a great dane. My Jack had gotten bitten by the great dane, so my vet was short of staff so I had to get him to a vet, well the neighbor called their vet and they said bring him in.This was a Wed, around 5 pm. Jack had a rip on the right shoulder and marks on his elbows. They stitch Jack up and put a drain tube in.They tell me to bring him back Monday to take out the tube, Ok now this is the following day, Thur. and I call and tell them Jack is not eating or drinking and He smells really bad.They say bring him in and that was 10 am and he was there till 7 pm. We get in the car to go home and I tell my boyfriend that he still smells bad. Well Fri. comes and I just baby Jack.Then Fri. comes and I call the vet and tell them Jack is not getting better and he still smells bad. They say bring him in, this was Sat., ok 3rd time to this vet and guess what she comes out and shows us his left shoulder that’s shaved and all black with a cut that was the smelly that I smelled for 3 days. I asked her why they didn’t see that and her reply was, are you ready for this?? Why didn’t You see it?? wth, I am NOT a vet I told her and after I told them on day 2 they should’ve found something??? We took Jack home and he was so uncomfortable that we took him to another vet at 5 am Sunday morning. They knew Jack was not doing good, they couldn’t find his blood pressure and then they found one at 18,she told us it should be 80.We left and was told if he was stable they would do a transfusion and we said whatever it takes.We get a call later saying he is not getting better so we went to see him and he was so weak and it just broke our heart to do what we had to do.We brought Jack home and buried him.
My advice to everyone if this happens get your friend shaved so this is not over looked. We miss this little guy every day and I know some people think we are nuts But his was our everything. The big kicker is no vet wants to help us because vets are their friends, Well if you are a vet for our friends you should help with anything that went wrong if not you are not a vet that cares about our friends and I think that is awful.

My 3 yr old cat has been diagnosed with
lower motor neuron bladder atony (nerve function to the bladder does not work. My husband doesn’t believe our vet. I don’t know what to do… his bladder is huge. He won’t let me express him all the time. I think I might be hurting him. I think we might have to put him down. What should I do?

Help Dr. Magnifico of Jarrettsville Vet Our beautiful 13 year old Husky/beagle mix Sadie was struggling with getting up and climbing stairs because we thought her arthritis was getting worse. We took her in to the vet to get some pain medicine and they discovered that she has a large tumor on her spleen. We were told that the surgery is quite expensive. We are unable to afford much due to our current financial situation. The doctor suggested that we should euthanize her if we were not going to try to do the surgery. we have scheduled an appointment for tomorrow. 6/3 with lap of love.
My husband was looking for solutions because she is walking around and it is so hard for us to imagine putting her down. We saw the article by Dr. Magnifico. We tried to call Jarrettsville vet and they told us our only option was to put a question on here. Beth.a.acton@gmail.com

Hello. My 9 yr. old Beagle, Treble, is 9 days post op of a ventral slot surgery to clean a herniated disk and decompress 2 more. His whole cervical spine is not in the greatest condition. He could walk prior to and after surgery. He had severe pain after surgery and was placed on gabapentin, ketamine injections, something to protect his stomach, stool softeners, an antibiotic and a steroid. He returned home after 2 days where he was rested and carried downstairs to the bathroom. He seemed better by day 5 but still woke up shaking and in pain. The 5th day, he yelled in pain when we lifted him, and again only worse when we placed him down and he tried to walk. The vet told us to take him to physical therapy. We are 9 days out and since he finished his steroid, they moved him to NSAIDS. He has been doing well. Still stiff and painful in the morning but generally better and walking around by the afternoon. Today, he stepped up while the PT was doing laser therapy and when he moved, he cried out painfully for a while again. The PT immediately took him to the on call vet. His opinion was that Treble, because of his age, would probably deal with that pain (almost like a pinched nerve or catch) for the rest of his life and there’s nothing to stop it. It happens occasionally but not all the time. My questions are, since we are only 9 days out of surgery, could the nerve potentially heal enough that he doesn’t scream in pain every few days, the sound which haunts me. Also, he’s been walking a lot with the PT every day. Is that okay or should he mostly be resting? His neck range of motion is good and the leg causing most of the painful issues has been checked with no pain upon touching. I want to hope that he won’t be in that kind of pain for years. He has always been pretty resilient.

Juno is a 4 year old purebred Cane Corso. She developed a red lump on her snout about 6 months ago. We reached out to our vet about 3 months ago when we realized it was not going away on its own as previous ones have done. He did not seemed concerned with it and prescribed 1000mg per day of the antibiotic cephalexin (spelling) and advised us to contact him after one full week with updates. Nothing changed. He prescribed her three weeks of a gradual weaning steroid (Prednisone) which she completed 4 days ago. No improvement. Today we noticed the same red lump on one of her nipples. They do not seem to bother her if touched and she does have another appointment next week. Any insight in the meantime would be greatly appreciated.

My 4 yr old cat seems constipated. I just lost my job a couple of weeks ago and cannot afford to take him to the vet. I noticed on Wednesday he only pooped once and it was kind of hard. He didn’t poop Thursday. Friday I bought mineral oil, glycerin enema, and mixed with warm water…administered about 4ml and he had a bowel movement. Continued with wet food mixed with pumpkin purée, water, Miralax, and catlax. Also manually gave him water with a little bit of pedialyte orally. Saturday he had no bowel movement. Sunday I gave him another enema same as above and he had a bowel movement. Continued with all mentioned above. It’s now Monday and he still hasn’t had another bowel movement. Just gave him another enema (same as above) and he hasn’t made a bowel movement in about an hour…the other two enemas he produced a bowel movement within just a few minutes. I’ve order the official Feline Enemas, but they won’t arrive until Tuesday or Wednesday this week. I honestly don’t know what else to do and I’m desperate! I cannot afford a vet visit right now, but my kids and I love this guy so much and feel terrible for him. He was really not seeming well Thursday thru Sunday morning, but then Sunday night thru Monday morning he was doing so much better. Now here we are same Monday afternoon and he’s not good again. Please help!

UPDATE: he had another bowel movement after the last enema, it was much softer than the others and seemed like it had mucus around it (sorry so graphic). However, he’s still not wanting to move around and his belly still feels firm.

My year and a half old Great Dane had large lump on belly, took her to emergency vet where she put a needle in it and drained lump. Sent home with heavy duty antibiotics and pain meds. Now dog has diarrhea and trouble with her bowel mvmts. and has started puncture hole bleeding. Don’t really want to take her back to vet. Beginning to not trust any doctors as I read on your blog site that you don’t agree with draining and lumps should eventually absorb on its own. She doesn’t seem in distress or pain. What can I do to take care of her at home with giving her meds that will help her heal?

My 8 year old chow/lab mix got diagnosed with IVDD 7 days ago. She was chasing a rabbit when her back gave out. She stayed in the vet hospital over the weekend where they monitored those first few days. We are not able to afford the surgery, but we have been working with her since she has been home. I noticed over the last couple days that she is able to twitch her legs in her sleep, which she didn’t do the first 3 days of being home. Is this a good sign or is that just a subconscious reflex?

We have a very sassy beautiful 12 year old orange female tabby named Nala. She has been perfectly healthy until about a year ago when she started to sneeze a lot (that rapid-fire sneezing that cats do) and she started to make a snoring sound when she breathes. We initially thought it was just allergies but it didn’t get any better after several months. We took her to the vet and he diagnosed her with herpes and prescribed Chlorpheniramine 4mg crushed in her food. I’ve been giving her this for at least 6 months now and she has not improved. The sneezing has decreased, but the “snoring” has not improved at all. Searching online, we found a video of Dr. Magnifico performing surgery on a cat that had a nasal polyp and we are wondering if this may be what she has. The symptoms all seem to be the same as what she has been dealing with. So we’ve been searching for a vet in our area that performs this type of exam and surgery, and we have found this to be very expensive ($2000-$5000). She is otherwise a very healthy girl, she eats, drinks, uses litterbox and plays and snuggles all like normal. She has lost weight, but now seems to be putting it back on slowly. Dr. Magnifico’s office is only about an hour away and we would absolutely drive down to be able to have her exam Nala and if it is a reasonable price, have her remove the polyp if this was the diagnosis.

How long does my dog have to fast before having an abdominal ultrasound?