About 2 months ago my 11-Year-Old English chocolate Lab started developing a cough. It started off mild at first with a couple coughing fits here and there. I got her to the vet as soon as I could get an appointment. She was ruled out for kennel cough because she’s up to date on shots, she never is boarded and she never goes to dog parks. They started a round of antibiotics, and cough suppressants. It didn’t seem to work so we went back. They did a lot of tests which of course was a lot of money. She’s diabetic so congestive heart failure was a concern but through testing and an X-ray they said they don’t believe it has to do with her heart & there didn’t seem to be fluid around her lungs either.. She was then put on steroids because they thought it might be inflammation. It didn’t seem to help any & her cough has only gotten progressively worse. We went back again and now they put her on a different round of antibiotics & another script that I have to fill at a human pharmacy for Codeine I believe. She has coughing fits almost every 20 to 30 minutes and sometimes with rubbing of her neck it helps calm them down. Her coughing spasms generally produce a lot of phlegmy spit up. I’ve spent more money than I have to try to get her help but we haven’t been able to get any answers. I was told it could possibly be Laryngeal Paralysis but the only way to truly confirm was to take her to a specialist and spend a lot more money to put my 11-year-old senior diabetic dog under sedation for an invasive procedure to diagnose. I’m not even sure what the fix for that would be if there is one and I’m sure it’s thousands more $$$ for a girl who may not make it through all that. It’s heartbreaking watching her struggle., I don’t really know what to think or do, just at a devastating loss watching my poor girl suffer. Within the last week, my once always hungry Labrador who never turned down any type of food down has stopped eating her normal food and treats that she used to love. She now only accepts wet food and soft meaty treats. I’m not really sure where to go. I don’t think the ER is the best answer here and again I’ve spent way more money than I even have to try to find an answer. Just trying to find any guidance/advice/assistance/suggestions and/or answers that I possibly can. Thank you in advance.

10 year old cat with nasal polyp?

I tried multiple vets and hundreds of dollars but nobody seems to have a solution. One vet said it was an upper respiratory infection, they gave him a shot of Convenia and prescribed Clavamox, nothing. Fast forward a couple weeks, he wasn’t eating for an over a day so we took him to another vet that prescribed Cerenia which helped temporarily. They said he could have trouble smelling his food so he wasn’t eating. But it’s still not gone. Xray was clear. Now the vet referred to a specialist that wants over $2000 to anesthetize and do an endoscopy JUST to diagnose. From Jersey, can I drive 3 hours to MD so you can maybe look a him? I’m scared he’s gonna pass away from troubled breathing.

Background:
He lived with my dad who recently passed and I took him in. In the last year I noticed he has had difficulty breathing but some days it sounds clear, most days it’s worse. It sounds like something is restricting his airway.

He does sneeze often and when he does it’s usually 15+ sneezes in a row like he’s trying to get something out. Last night I counted 21 sneezes in a row. He also sometimes sounds like he’s choking or trying to spit something out but nothing comes out. He does have greenish/yellow boogers once every couple of weeks and also has discharge from his eye.

I know it’s the holidays but I’ll do anything for a chance to help my little guy that reminds me of my father everyday. *Update, just made an appt for 12/30 at 11:30am!

PYOMETRA SURGERY QUESTION: I have a question for Dr. Krista. Below is background information and I will include cost info for anyone that might be searching for cost information in the future and stumbles across this website. (also uploading a picture of doggie with stitches to gallery)

My 7.5 year old Shepherd/Husky mix just had surgery for pyometra. It was approximately $2000 at a pet hospital in Tennessee for the surgery. (actual surgery was a little under $900 and then additional things such as anesthesia, overnight boarding charge, IV, antibiotics, e-collar, medication, etc ended up racking up the charges to almost $2000.) Her symptoms that caused me to go to the vet were not eating, depressed, excessive drinking, constant licking her private areas, and I did notice she was drooling a lot as well. Her not eating was the main thing that had me worried as this dog will eat anything and gobble her food up in seconds and then lick the bowl clean searching for any missing bits under normal circumstances, yet she even turned her nose up at her favorite foods. I had initially been worried about blockage since she had eaten some table scrap bones a few days prior (which I now know not to do for future reference), but after googling , I came to the conclusion pyometra was more likely. She had just finished her heat cycle a few weeks prior, so everything lined up on her symptoms matching pyometra. The vet did an x-ray and blood work and it did end up being Pyometra. I had never heard of this before and really wish I had as this was an expensive lesson for us to learn and painful for our poor doggie. If we had spaded her when she was younger, it would have been $250 at the exact same place I just paid $2000 to for pretty much the exact same surgery. (though now much riskier and doggie sick) The vet did the surgery the morning following her initial examination. (the initial exam was $425 for exam, x-ray and blood work and was not included in the cost of surgery. I received a 25% discount off of this price for being a new customer) She had the surgery at 10 AM and stayed the night to get extra fluids and antibiotics as she had a pretty bad infection and keep and eye on her. I picked her up at 2 PM the day after her surgery. My doggie was happy to see me when I picked her up and seemed to be feeling much better. She wagged her tag and happily jumped in the car and was excited about going in our house. Once in the house, she visibly drooped, though. I thought that was probably normal after having surgery and she slept a lot. She ate that night and I gave her the medicine in her food. This morning, however, she once again refuses to eat- even her favorite foods. She drinks normally, but doesn’t eat anything, so I also cannot give her the medication, which consisted of an antibiotic and pain pill. I tried forcing a piece of bread in her mouth with the pill inside it but she just spit it out. My question for Dr. Krista or anyone who has had experience with pyometra…. is this normal for a dog not to want to eat a couple of days after surgery? It has now been almost exactly 48 hours since her surgery. She went to the bathroom a little bit ago and both urinated and had a wet bowel movement. I have tried offering all different kinds of foods and she shows no interest. She is just laying around. She is still drooling more than normal, but seems in better shape than when I initially took her to vet… but worried about her lack of appetite. How I can give her the medication if she will not eat. Any recommendations?

Hi Dr. magnifico! Curious on your thoughts on gabapentin for pain? I’ve read mixed reviews. My pup has a painful back leg. Originally she saw a vet at our practice who thought is was due to Lyme because she had tested strong positive and did not feel a drawer sign when checked. We did antibiotic treatment and the lameness got better for the most part. She would have some days where you could see it was bothering her. Then a few months later she was back to not bearing weight on it. Saw a different vet this time at our practice and this vet said he felt the drawer sign and said he felt it was injured CCL and reccomened a surgeon. Surgeon said would need to have x-rays to confirm which I haven’t had the money for. So we did pain meds (gabapentin and tramodyl) and rest for about a month and lameness went away again. She’s been good for about a year up until the past month or two and the vet gave gaba again. When she’s on it, she looks sleepy and scared. I’ve never had an issue giving pills with her in cheese on lunch meat or something but now she tries to spit it out. It’s like she knows what it’s going to do to her. I’ve read mixed reviews. I’ve also read it’s more for nerve pain? So I’m not sure if it’s actually relieving her pain or not. I’ve also read the reciptors that tramodyl targets, dogs don’t have? Curious on your opinion on all of this. I would like to see if she’s still a candidate for surgery even though it’s been some time but I need to come up with the funds for that so I’m trying to help her in the mean time. I give her vitamin supplements for her joints. I don’t want her on pain meds all the time but want something that gives her some relief on those bad days without making her feel drugged up.

Good morning pawbly friends…. a couple of our dogs are on meds right now. Rontu is on antibiotics for a wound and a Riva is on pain killers for an unknown issue that our vets are working on with us trying to figure out. Both dogs are between 70 and 80 lbs. Riva spit out her pain pills… 75mg of carprofen and Rontu I guess, thought it was food and ate it. I tried to grab it out of his mouth, but couldn’t get my hand far enough. I managed to grab the other pill (gabapentin) but he swallowed the carprofen. What should I do?

Does Reflux in premature kittens exist?
I’m asking because we got 4 tiny premature kittens yesterday with their mother. She didn’t have milk when the were born, so the little ones were bottle fed/syringe fed the 2 days before they came to us.. However since she still showed interets in her babys they stayed with her. They had around 70gram according to their owner. When they arrived, they were cold and crying. One died a few minutes after they arrived, despite slowly warming up. It had tiny bits of milk in its nose.
(they were fed ca. 60 minutes earlier)

When they were finally warmed up two were drinking, one was fed with a syringe. All were urinating normally, one had a bit of bowel movements (yellow and soft). I placed them to their mother who was very worried about her babies and cuddled around them immediatly. She had a heat pad below her box to help keeping the temperature. She was extremly nervous, so I left her alone for the time being.
When I looked after them for the next feeding, the second one was dead. Milk around nose and mouth. I checked for cleft palate, but there was none visible.
The other two also showed no signs of a cleft palate. However, they felt cold again despite lying on their mothers belly.

I warmed them up again and this time I didn’t put them back – as it seemed that the despite mother and heat pad below they could’t keep their temperature. So they stayed in the box we use for raising kittens.

One was drinking, one was not. The none drinking was tube fed. When I looked after them a ca. 15 minutes later the non drinking one hat milk running out of its nose and mouth. I cleaned it immediatly and it started breathing again – but I guess it still got something in its lungs, as it died a few minutes later.

The remaining one was now warm, still urinating normally and drinking. But it couldn’t settle down. It was always crying and seemed restless. The next two feedings went normally – as dfar as that is possible with such a tiny one. When I wanted to feed it in the late evening I found it dead – a bit of milk running out of nose and mouth. It was the smalles one of them with only 67 gram.

I’m very worried that I did something wrong… They were not the first babys I bottle fed (or syring fed/tube fed). But it’s not like I’m very experienced… Usually the ones I get are at least full term… I only had one premature Baby before, that also died after 2 days. It had only 53 gram when being born – but it was with me since birth.
None of the babyies I cared lost as much milk through their nose – and especially not their mouth. The only ones that did this, had a cleft palate. The healthy babys may choke at some milk at the beginnig when they try to figure out the bottle – and may show a bit milk at their nose when doing so – but they never showed those problems. They were fine later,

These ones died more or less immediatly after I took them in – and that’s why I’m asking myself, if I did something wrong – or if I should do something different next time – as all of them showed milk at nose and mouth. The third one looked like it had spit our everything it drank earlier and the last one also had more than just a drop outside of nose and mouth. I only fed tiny amounts – ca. 1ml each feeding, to get them started, was that still too much? The previous owner said nothing about problems with feeding – and I used the same milk as them.

It seemed all aspirated milk because it came back out of their stomach (reflux).
I know reflux is not unusual in human preemies – but what’s with cats and is their a way to avoid that? (If that’s the reason for their problems at all). But if not why came the milk back up?

My yellow lab keeps coughing and ultimately retching. Foam and spit come up.

When she does eat spits a tiny bit of food out. Plays & does most things like before just slower

HE HAS BEEN SPITTING HAIRBALLS, MY MOM DOESN’T KNOW CAUSE I DON’T KNOW IF HE’S OKAY AND WANTED TO ASK HERE 1ST. HE’S BEEN DOIN DAT STUFF 4 LIKE 5 DAYS THO, HELP GUYZZ

I don’t know how many of you specialize in worms, but my worm has been worming a lot lately. If anyone can help, I feel bad and don’t know WAT 2 doo. That brings me to the point, my dog eats his own poopies.

Anyways, the more important stuff than the poopies, is the balls. My cat Luis has been spitting out his hairballs, I’m trying to feed them back but don’t know if it’s the right thing to doo. Plz help.

~ Love, Jeff.