Last summer my beloved cat, Summer escaped my home and was missing for two months. When she was found she had lost about 1/3 of her body weight and her personality had changed. While she was previously very much the “alpha” cat and could be a bit of a diva she is now timid and very loving. During the time when she was missing I was under an incredible amount of stress; having a pet pass away is heartbreaking but having a pet go missing is agonizing, I would not wish the experience on my worst enemy. I couldn’t sleep for much of the two months. Our cat Gracie was by my side the entire time. She did take over as the leader of our little cat pack (pride??). When Summer returned Gracie and her initially got along okay, however within about two weeks Gracie started going after Summer causing a significant amount of stress on Summer. She would chase her off the litter box and food bowls. We created a safe space for Summer and over the past year she has very much chosen to stay isolated away from Gracie, our other cats come “visit” without an issue. Several months ago Gracie started urinating outside of her box. We first had to go through the process of elimination to determine which cat was urinating outside the box. All cats have had urine and bloodwork done to rule out any medical issues. Gracie is now isolated and Summer has free reign of the house. Inappropriate urination has stopped. Our other cats can come “visit” Gracie without incident, however as soon as Summer enters the room Gracie attacks her. We have tried medication and we have tried putting a drop of vanilla on each cat so they smell the same. I would prefer to not spend the rest of my cats lives isolating one or the other to create peace in our home. I will note that Gracie has limited or no sight in one of her eyes, she has always been a bit of a “scrapper” with the other pets when they approach her on that side, that being said this isn’t a case of Summer startling her, she is seeking out Summer to attack her.
I would love advice from anyone who has had a similar experience; what worked, what didn’t?

We have rescued two feral cats for our farm. They came from West Virginia rescue with vaccines. A Maryland rescue took them and thus we have them. They are friendly to us and one lets us pick him up. The other loves to be petted but not picked up. My question…..I would like to have them chipped. The problem is I don’t know when I can get them in a carrier. It will take some time. I don’t think I can set an appt. time for the chip. I have all their paper work for you. Any suggestions??

Hello I recently watched a lot of your videos on youtube about ivdd and the beagle you were taking care of. My Gracie was diagnosed with ivdd yesterday and my vet gave her a steroid shot and she is now on steroid medication prednisone, pain killers and muscle relaxers. She is not able to walk or stand on her own, her right leg drags, her left leg seems normal. I have been using a makeshift sling to help her use the restroom, she is able to pee and poop on her own as long as I am helping her stand outside with a sling. She sometimes sits up in bed but mainly only using her upper body. Is this a good sign? My vet said I need to put her on a diet and give her strict rest but my vet also said if she is not better in two days I should take her to get surgery. I am relucatant to get surgery not just because of the cost but because my Gracie is 11 years old and I am afraid that it could worsen the paralysis in her other legs or it might be only a temporary fix. Me and my parents want to try naturally helping her, and I am not sure how to start or what to do. Should I just try making her get strict cage rest and see what happens or should I start physical therapy right away? I am planning on calling my vet to see what she thinks but from what she told me yesterday she seems pretty set on surgery only. Gracie has only been laying on one side when laying down. Her left side. Her right side is the side with the bad dragging leg. She is eating well and drinking well, I just want her to get better soon. Any advice or suggestions you can give me would be great. Thank you Krista.
Sincerely,
Gracie’s mom.

My 4yo Labrador Retriever Hank recently (two weeks prior) underwent a Tibial Plateau Levelling Osteotomy (TPLO) to repair the torn cruciate ligament in his back left knee. He gradually increased activity in the affected leg, but now seems as if his progress has halted. He’s very hesitant to put anymore weight on that leg. He won’t walk up a small step to get into my bedroom (this was the case before the surgery too). He moves around somewhat freely in the yard, but reverts to standing on three legs or doing a three-legged hop to move around at times. He has taken a bad step two to three times that resulted in a loud cry out. He must be coaxed to move around at all and appears to have developed a plum-sized seroma at surgery site of the infected knee. Could this be leading to the halt in activity/progress? He allows me to massage the muscles above and below the affected knee. We have also been doing some range of motion exercises on both legs.

Seroma?: He allows me to touch it and it is soft to the touch. It feels like a water balloon filled with a slightly more viscous fluid. It is directly above the incision site and the fluid appears to rest directly on top of the knee joint. Per vet recommendation, I discontinued the use of Rimadyl to try to reduce the size of the seroma.

Other symptoms: Licking at the base of tail to the point of seeing some blood in his fur. Excessive licking of the blanket he sleeps on.

My 16 year old cat has been diagnosed with some kind of nasal cancer. I don’t know which specifically because I didn’t want to pay for the tests that would specify which kind. Regardless, we are not treating the cancer; we are giving her supportive care. She is currently on steroids (prednisolone) and painkillers (gabapentin). With all of this, she has recently had a new symptom: a bulging of the bridge of her nose. At first, I thought it might be the cancer, but then one day, it popped open, and started leaking fluids (probably blood mixed with other things). I gave her first aid, and it healed. Now, it’s doing it again, but the fluid is building back up, even after leaking out. I called the vet after the first time this had happened, and was told that things like this would keep happening, and that she’s probably near the end of her life. Nothing about what it could be or how to handle it.

So my questions are, should I see a different vet? Does the pressure cause her pain? Is there some way to treat this? I haven’t euthanized her yet, because she still seems to enjoy life.

Hello, I work at a shelter. One of the puppies got parvo and she was given fluids subcutaneously. She was on antibiotics and has gotten through the parvo, but has gotten a horrible skin infection. (Most likely due to the needle injections given for fluids) Her skin started popping open and draining puss, and what started out as small draining spots, became larger and larger, until large sections of fur/skin sloughed off. The vet put her on Clavamox and has told us to clean with peroxide, then antibacterial soap, then apply a yellow greasy cream. I guess I question the daily peroxide as it makes her cry and it becomes so raw. I am attaching photos and they are disturbing, but the puppy is eating and drinking and I know it will be a long recovery, but I have to try. If a vet sees my post, please tell me what you think the wound care treatment should be. I think too much peroxide is harmful, but don’t know. The vet we use has given questionable care to some other dogs we have taken to her, so I need a second opinion.

Hi Pawly Friends, my 3-year-old cat is having UTI and has a blockage. He has a very hard time with urine and sometimes he urined blood. He has no appetite to eat, but when he gets too hungry he will eat his dry food that the vet provided. I brought him to the vet two weeks ago. They unblocked him using a catheter and hospitalized him for almost a week without IV fluids. I brought him back but he’s still weak and wouldn’t eat. After a day of staying at home, he peed in blood in such a big amount. I brought him to the vet again at around 1 am because I was too afraid. The vet uses the catheter again and hospitalized him for another week. Again, I brought him home with some antibiotics and some other meds, he was so hungry because he didn’t eat well in the hospital. I boiled fish for him (no added spices, preservatives, etc) to mix with the dry food because he wouldn’t eat it alone. He ate and drank a lot. After 3 days, he started to pee in the blood again! HELP I don’t know what else can I do to help my baby!

Possible anal sac issue? I am currently unable to drive due to a tbi so I’m trying to figure out if this can wait until Monday or not. She is a 4 year old lab mixing started licking the area last night. Other than that, she’s going to the bathroom fine and she has a little area of concern which I’m attaching the picture for. She’s acting normal, eating, drinking, playing.

Hi all! I hope someone on here might be able to shed some light on the mystery going on with our 6 month old male golden retriever. We got him at 10 weeks and kept him up to date with shots and all was fine, but about 6 weeks ago we started noticing a little bit of swelling in his front armpits (one side more pronounced than the other) we kept an eye on it and eventually brought him to the vet when it continued to grow. The vet did a needle aspiration and saw bacteria in the murky clear/slightly yellow fluid and prescribed antibiotics. We brought him to another vet a week later who suggested surgery to drain the fluid and tried that. The lump stayed down for a week while he was healing (on sedatives and antibiotics) but now it is starting to grow again! The idea of it being a seroma has been considered but no one can really nail down what is going on or why. His blood panel is completely normal, the biopsies from the fluid and tissue show no indicators of cancer, and the only strange thing was a high level of calcium in the fluid (there were more scientific terms used but I do not recall them)… he scratches at the lump pretty frequently but other than that he acts completely normal and healthy! We noticed that scratching tends to make it grow/become inflamed and if he leaves it alone, it will shrink down significantly… it is all so strange so if anyone has any ideas I would greatly appreciate it! Here are some pictures post-op if it helps at all! Thank you so much!

1 week ago I went to pick up my new Kitten.  Male, neutered. He is now a 13 week old pure bred ragdoll. I got him from a ragdoll breeder. They had him to the vet a few days before pickup with a clean bill of health and second distemper shot, along with all documentation of prior visits and past test results. He sneezed a few times during the pick up process and they told us this was normal during his new transition. He is still sneezing regularly each day with no change now 1 week later.  No coughing. He also has some very bad smelling gas daily but not constant or consistently.  I feel that his breath is a tad stinky too but my nose is very sensitive to smells and odors so it may just be my sniffer. I kept him on the same food diet as the breeder with no changes. His bathroom habits are normal, tootsie rolls, no diahrea or vomiting.  He eats normal. Plays hard like a kitten. Sleeps at intervals between eating and play but changes positions alot during sleep sessions. He is snuggly, purrs happily but during his full on purring seems to snort or stall his motor slightly. No discharge of nose, ears, mouth or eyes other than a spray from a sneeze occasionally and dark brown eye crusties that have been present occasionally since adoption. He seems very happy and not lethargic. No coughing. He has a vet appointment in 2 weeks the soonest they can get him in and they didn’t seem extremely concerned with the symptoms to arrange a sooner date. This is a single pet home.  I may just be overly paranoid but any bit of information is always appreciated to a new cat mom.