Hello,

My 18 and 1/2 year old lab mix just suddenly lost about 50-70% use of his hind legs few days ago. The vet recommended MRI which was financially not feasible nor did I think giving him anesthesia given his age was a good idea. He sent us home with prednisone and to call back with updates. I took him to a vet acupuncturist but she said that probably won’t be very helpful. I’m going back tomorrow to see if I can convince her to do acupuncture. Boston has otherwise been a super happy and healthy dog (sans nerve sheath tumor surgery 7 months ago from which he has made 100% recovery).

It’s been 5 days and since I wasn’t told about crate rest, I allowed him to wonder/wobble short distances around the house to go potty and to/from bedroom and living room and he has fallen few times when his back legs gave out. Given his age, I just don’t think surgery is an option. If he doesn’t get better in a couple of weeks, is euthanasia pretty much the only option? How much time should I give him? I just hate seeing him in pain but my husband is on deployment and I really want him to hang on until he comes back as it was my husband who rescued our dog 16 years ago. He is currently on prednisone and tramadol. Please advise. I just cannot make any drastic decisions on my own right now but I also want to do the right thing by our loyal and loving baby. Thank you.

My dog has sore, smelly ears, they are very dirty inside (black) and itchy and they really bug him.
We took him to a vet and after spending over $600 they are still the same. The vet wasn’t even really sure what she could do for him and didn’t know what it was.
She put him on medications and told us to clean his ears regularly and gave us stuff for that. But the medications made him start acting weird and we were concerned about that. So I was looking for any ideas on how to help my boy, I’d say his ears are as bad as they’ve ever been and that is still with regular cleaning, any thing I can try to do for him, I am willing. Unfortunately we can’t really afford too much more of a vet bill so if theres anything I can do for him at home or without a vet would be better.. I was trying to do some research online but came across this site.. any ideas would be greatly appreciated??

my dog ( 1 1/2 year old small mix terrier) is a sweet guy when it comes to humans and dogs he is familiar with. sadly, he has picked up aggressive behaviors from my brothers large dogs. He will growl at people he is not familiar with on the street and when they enter the home. he will growl at outside noises and also at other unfamiliar dogs. he doesn’t bite people he just growls and when they try to pet him he runs away and gets shy. minutes will pass and he will warm up to people. he does fine at the dog park, when a dog approaches he smells the dog and runs away( which makes sense, he is a small dog) i’m more concerned when we go on walks. i’m looking for advice and tips i can do to help me and my dog work on his excessive growling. i would love to be able to go on a walk with him and be able to pass people without him growling and he can just keep walking.

My dog just bit our neighbor out of nowhere?!? We recently (2 weeks ago today) brought home a 2 year old great dane/lab/retriever mix. We’ve been doing out “trial” run as we call it to see if he’s our perfect fit. Well so far it’s been amazing. We keep saying he’s a turn key dog, perfect. Until today. Our neighbor, whom he’s never met, walked over to us and the dog, who was on the chain lunged and bit her. Out of nowhere. She had and ready let him sniff, do his thing, pet him, he was andlreadyll good, then BAM! Luckily he didn’t puncture the skin and she was understanding when we apologized multiple times, but my husband is irritate. He has zero tolerance for this. He wants him gone. I’m wondering if maybe it was just andlreadyll glitch persay? I random act of over excitement? Does anyone have any ideas? He’s never done it to anyone we’ve had over or taken him to see. I understand my husbands concern as there are people that walk around here, kids, smaller animals, and he doesn’t want them hurt seeing as how this happened with him on a leash. Any ideas?

Fancy Mouse and Tetracycline Antibiotics?

So I had a ca. 9 month old fancy mouse who started with an irriteted eye around 2 weeks ago. She was otherwise fine and healthy and had a weight of 32gram. She got eye drops twice a day for 10 days, but that didn’t help much.
So last Thursday (two days ago) I visited the vet again and she got tetracycline s.c. and I got some of it home, to inject it to her every two days additional to her eye drops.
So when I wanted to give it to her today, I found her outside of her hiding places cold and apathic. She rarely made trembling, seemingly non controlled movements with her head and paws, but couldn’t walk or rob. She didn’t really react when I took her in my hands. I rushed to the vet where she got fluids and vitamins (B12). Her weight was still fine and she was only a little dehydrated. I kept her warm and should keep her hydrated and try to feed her. She still died around 2 hours later, but she was her hiding spot, together with the other mice she lived with.
Is it possible that it was an reaction to the Tetracycline, that she maybe couldn’t metabolize it or something? It just came so suddenly without warning. Thanks for reading.

I walk my 4year old Lab nightly for about 45 mins. About once or twice a month, our walks are interrupted by him becoming very uncomfortable to the point where he is rapidly panting, stops walking, sits, lays down, cannot get comfortable, constantly changing positions. On these occasions, we stop, I calmly try to talk to him, gently pet him, until he is okay to walk again. The whole episode lasts no more than 5 minutes. Then we walk home like nothing happened. I have racked my brain trying to find the common thread leading to these episodes. The only thing I can come up with is that he ate within a relatively short time before walking. Maybe 30 mins or less before walking. Usually he eats at least 2 to 3 hours before walking. Is the problem most likely related to his eating, then walking shortly after? Do you think it could be something else?

I’M DESPERATE! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME!!! I have a 3 1/2 year old purebred Coonhound who we adopted from our local shelter. He is an awesome dog, however, he won’t stop using the bathroom in my house! Since day 1 he has done this. At first we thought maybe not housebroken, then we realized he only does it when we leave. We’ve tried everything- a trainer, working on the anxiety, crate training (that’s a no go), I’ve read so much stuff, watched so many videos, gave him treats, kept him busy when we leave, asked the vet (who is very old school mind you so not really helpful), benadryl, calming aides, asked for suggestions on here, different washes on the floor, punishing whe caught in the act, blocking off the area he goes too, EVERYTHING. Nothing is working. We’re at our witz end with him and it breaks my heart. However, now he has my other little dog doing it and she has never done it- she even knows she did something bad when we get home. I would hate to see him go back to the shelter where he probably will end up staying because of this but I don’t know what else to do. I NEED A MIRACLE. ANYBODY. PLEASE HELP!!! (Tyia).

I have a 3 1/2 year old Coonhound that I just can’t seem to completely housebreak. He knows that if he goes outside he gets praised and a treat. As long as we are home, as a general rule (he has a few times), he won’t go in the house. However, if we leave, he always craps and pees in our basement. We had him go stay with a trainer and he was really good there. He was great the first week we had him home, now he’s back at it. I’ve cleaned the area he goes in with an enzyme cleaner, ammonia, vinegar, and even put cayenne pepper down as I read it was supposed to keep him from going there. I’m not sure if it’s just really bad separation anxiety or what the deal is. I try keeping him distracted with something when I leave but that doesn’t seem to be working any more. Now, he even has my other dog, a 3 1/2 year old Chorkie, reverting and she’s been going in the house even though she has been housebroke for years. I really hate to have to take him back to the shelter because of this, but it has been 3 months and I can’t seem to break him. ANY SUGGESTIONS OR HELP AT ALL?!? (We have to be able to leave him alone for 8 hours because sometimes our work schedules over lap) Also kenneling is not an option with him as he severely hurts himself and even the vet and trainer said he will never be able to be kenneled.

I think my dog ate rat poison 2-3 days ago. Is there any thing i can do from home to help him? He had ran off a few days prior to this and attacked a neighbors livestock so i was supposed to take him to be put down but didnt, so cant really take him to vet..

My six month old pitbull has a large hematoma after a routine neuter. He was fine with no swelling for two days after the surgery, but day three his scrotum started swelling. We took him into the vet who explained it was normal for some dogs and sent us home with some sedatives to stop his moving around and told us to monitor. Later that day, the scrotum swelled to the size of a medium to large orange. We returned, and we’re given antibiotics just in case, as there was no evidence of fever to indicate infection. The next day, he the wound started draining, a pink substance likely blood mixed with some other bodily fluid. The suture area looks fairly normal, just a small amount of redness and swelling, and the fluid smells of iron, not infected. We were advised to place a warm compress on for a few minutes a couple of times a day, but our pup won’t let us near the area. He is a sweet dog, but the sedatives combined with the pain are causing him to snap at us when we go near the back legs. He refuses to even sit down for hours at a time. Do you have any advice for how to help him through this? My wife and I work 8-9 hours during the day, though we have family that stops by for a few hours at a time to watch him. I’m just worried that he is in so much pain he won’t let us help him heal.