Our 2 year old Pitt mix recently suffered from a laceration to his front paw pad. We ended up bringing him into the ER for stitches, which he received. However, neither the vets or ourselves were able to get him in his cone of shame. For about 4 days we were able to deter him from interfering with his wound through careful monitoring and a sock with cayenne pepper placed over the bandage. Day # 5, however, is when things went to pieces. Sometime between lunch and when I get off work, he was able to get his bandage off and proceeded to gnaw at his stitches… We took him back to the ER last night, but given how he is with strangers (not good), we opted to forgo getting him sedated and re-stitched, and try to take care of him from home. He lets us change his bandage, but when I tried changing it this morning, some of the gauze had adhered to the wound. I’m afraid if I pull more of it off, I will make the wound worse, but I can’t imagine that leaving it on there is a good idea either. If we can avoid even more costly medical bills without jeopardizing his health, that would be great. That being said, I’m reaching out to the canine community for any advice available! Thanks for taking the time to read my post 🙂

Is it normal for a cat in heat to have abdominal swelling? My cat is 3 yrs old and we have been meaning to spay her, but she goes into heat so often it’s hard to find time to do it. She is currently in heat and has been for over a week, and last week she had shown asymmetrical swelling on the left and right of her belly. The next day it went down so I figured it was nothing serious and probably swelling from being in heat. Now it has been a week she is still in heat and her abdomen seems just ever so slightly fuller on the right and left and firm. She is crazy in heat and doesn’t show any signs of being sick, acting normal, eating drinking, playing and jumping.

Is it possible for a cat in extreme heat to cause extreme swelling of the ovaries to where they would be palpable? I’m worried it could be early signs of pyometra, or if this is normal with heat. Her cycles have gotten more intense and extreme, as well as longer and more often, which makes me think it could be possible her reproductive system is simply engorged with blood causing it to be palpable.

If that (the swelling) is not normal with heat then I’ll take her to the vet ASAP, but again she is not grossly distended, she just appears “full”. Also there is no chance of pregnancy. Thanks.

I recently purchased a “furminator” brush for my cat with medium long hair so that I can brush her daily to help cut down on her hair balls. The brush works great! So, I am working on brushing daily and have purchased over the counter hair all control dry cat food to use with basic wet food. What is my next step if she is still vomiting Hair balls once in a while? Thanks!

i apologize i’m advanced if this is confusing to read its kind of difficult to explain what im trying to say. i have an 11 year old rottweiler named Roxy. she’s been more amazing than you could ever ask for. as she has gotten older she has obviously gotten slower and it got to the point recently where when she would sit down she would sit on the side of her leg, she needs assistance getting up, and when walking you have to support her back half for a minute then she can walk on her own for a while till she needs a break. She can’t really bend one of her hind legs anymore. i’ve took her to the vet but am currently looking for a new vet because this one kept her 5 days, he called on day 2 and told me she was responding to some medication good. then called me on day 3 and told me she seemed paralyzed in the back half, then called me on day 4 and told me she didn’t seemed paralyzed and was walking better and i could come pick her up the next morning. i get there and he is very short about Roxy’s problems, doesn’t tell me much of anything wrong with her just gives me $300 in medication to give her at home. i’m working with her everyday helping her walk anytime she wants to move and she does seem to be slowly getting better. She never whines or acts like she’s in pain when moving or if you touch the back legs. She’s still full of life, her back legs are just holding her back. I’m going to do anything it takes to make sure she’s living as happy as she can and was just looking for any suggestions on what her problems could be and any thing i could do to help her
Thank you for any help i’m advance!!

Blocked Cat Question

I have a male cat (about 4 years old) who was recently taken to the vet for having a blocked urethra. The vet had unblocked him and gave him a urinary catheter. He stayed at the vet for 3 days. He then came home and we watched him for a day. He still couldn’t pee on his own, was straining, and was trying to use the litter box every few minutes. We took him back to the vet and she was able to express his bladder by squeezing it. So, about 2/3 of the urine he had in him was then emptied out. She said that he didn’t seem like he’d ever be able to push his urine out on his own again and that the most humane thing to do was euthanize him. I couldn’t do it. My cat is a beautiful, perfectly healthy boy. The only ailment he has is his bladder issue. Right now, he is at the vet again with a catheter in. I will do anything to save him. Does anyone know any solutions to this? Is there any way that my cat can be saved? Please help!

Hi Pawbly friends-
We have an appointment tomorrow to get drains taken out of one of our dogs. Just now on our evening walk, she either ripped or lost the bottom part of one of the drains. I’ve been cleaning them 2 to 3 times a day by flushing blue antiseptic solution through them. Just now when I cleaned them it ran through nicely. We have an existing appointment tomorrow… wondering if it is ok to wait until then?

My cat had surgery and stitches taken out. Is it ok if she swallows tiny remnants of the bandage tape?

Foreign object on ultrasound after surgery? My cat had a bilateral chain mastectomy 5 months ago after a cancer diagnosis. The surgery went well and at her 2 week suture removal appointment the surgeon said everything looked great. However, soon after she developed a rather large seroma in her abdominal area. I took her to my vet and she drained almost almost 100 cc of fluid and tested the fluid to confirm it was a seroma. As expected. the seroma was back by the next week and has been there ever since (going on 4 months), though this time it was rather firm. I was told that the seroma should eventually go away on it’s own. The seroma doesn’t really seem to bother her at all. I took her to my vet 2 days ago for an unrelated matter and she was concerned that it hadn’t changed at all. She drained the fluid again so she could feel the incision underneath. She was concerned that something could be causing irritation or something could have improperly healed (she said it felt odd when palpitating the stomach). She suggested that I make an appointment with the specialty surgeon.

I took her in for her appointment today and he suggested that we could do surgery to remove subcutaneous tissue and place a drain. I really do not want to do a drain and would like to avoid another surgery if at all possible given what she’s already been through!! (and I already paid for a $3000 surgery) He said we could do a limited ultrasound of the abdomen first to make sure the body wall was intact. I agreed to the ultrasound. He called with the results and said the body wall was intact and the fluid was clear but a could see a “repeatable foreign object” near the front of the seroma that could be causing irritation and fluid buildup. It seems to me that this foreign object has to be a direct result of the surgery (flipped staple, something left inside…)?? It’s outside of the body wall. I’m very frustrated. He stuck with his recommendation of a $1,500 exploratory surgery and the drain placement. However, he did say it’s not an emergency as she doesn’t seem in any distress and has been living with it for months.

Advice on how to proceed? What questions should I ask? Should the surgeon take responsibility for this?

Hey! Just found your page from YouTube, was wondering if it’d be possible to chat about my cat? Almost certain he has a nasopharyngeal polyp but I am having trouble convincing any vets in the Dallas area to sedate him and take a look without him first getting scans and tests that cost thousands of dollars. Is there anything I should be asking them for differently? He’s been fighting a URI for about 5 months now and we have done six rounds of antibiotics with steroids and antihistamines to help and nothing has stopped his symptoms from returning and we have only now made the connection as to why that is. He has the distinct snore noise while breathing and every other listed symptom associated, I just can’t afford the tests the vets are saying they require, it’s very heart breaking. Any help or wisdom is appreciated, we just don’t have the money to do much else and he is degrading quickly since his last round of antibiotics ended this week. I wish I didn’t sound so sure, we just are panicking that we have wasted so much time and money and may have missed our chance to best this this while we could and now may be unable to. Just heart breaking all around.

Hi! I have a question about my cat who will be 4 at the end of this month. Sometimes when he stretches, I notice that his rear end (particularly his anus) looks like it is protruding. I thought he had a hemorrhoid but then he stood up and walked like normal and it went “away”. I have another cat and I never noticed this on him. It’s not red, it just looks puffy sometimes. He is eating, drinking and playing like normal. I just want to make sure he is okay and he is not in pain or anything or if this warrants a vet visit. I tend to worry about my boys a lot because I love them so much but I don’t want to be “missing” something. Thank you so much!