I have a 1 1/2 year old male cat. As a kitten he was given all of his injections, was neutered and chipped. After then he was allowed to go outside for several hours at a time. we use a flea repellent drop on him monthly and he is wormed every 3 months in accordance with the packet directions. He enjoys being outside and always stays close to home, returning when shouted in. My partner is concerned that allowing him to go outside is significantly reducing his life span and is bad for his health, but he enjoys being allowed outside. Would you advise that it would be better for the cat to be kept indoors rather than allowed out during the daytime?

Hi, I’m staying at a friends house and she has a bird. She just went to sleep and I was eating a chips ahoy chocolate chip cookie and I see her give the bird human food all the time so I have the bird about a third of the cookie. I’ve been reading a lot of articles some saying the a little amount of chocolate is fine and some saying any amount of chocolate can be extremely lethal. I was just wondering if the bird will be alright?

Hi. My dog has been puking for three days. Mostly at night after he has drank a couple gulps of water, but always after drinking. He has been to the vet where he was given a penicillin-like medicine that’s white and came with a syringe as well as some pills for nausea. The problem is that my family will be leaving for a cruise soon and this includes close relatives so he will have to stay at a kennel or something. What should I do? Can they take him if he’s sick like this? I’m extremely worried.

Mixed breed. About 8 months old. Noticeably less active over last 24 hours. Presently can barely stay awake and seems to have chest congestion. No money for a vet. What can we do to help him?

Someone left their jack russell terrier (Jaz) on my street two days ago and I took her in. I currently have a 5 year old pitbull mixed with a chihuaha(Taco) taco is little bit bigger than Jaz. Every time Jaz sees taco Jaz snaps and growls at her. We give them both attention I don’t think it’s a dominance or jealousy issue because taco doesn’t fight back, Jaz would wait for taco to be vulnerable and then try and bite her. For example today we took them both walking both were fine and we both went inside and taco looks at me not paying attention to Jaz and then jaz tried to bite Tacos leg. Taco stays with me and i have jaz in a room she listens good with everything. she doesnt leave her room even if we leave the door open and she doesnt have a leash on. She just cant be around taco. I’m not sure what to do or what’s wrong, we want to train Jaz so she can be part of our family. Any suggestions?

I have a dog that is 4 years old and is a pug. We cant afford to have it stay in a kennel for that long and none of my realitives and friends are able to let her stay at their place. So we hired a pet sitter to come to the house to feed the dog in the morning and for dinner, and to let out my dog in the morning afternoon and night. We also hired someone else to come in between those times to come to my house 2-3 a day while im gone to play with my dog and walk it for about 1-2 hours. Do you think my dog will be okay? I’m just so worried and stressed. Also the people we hired are trusted. Also we have cameras in my home and will be able to monitor and my dog has a designated area that is contained.

The kitten was born ca. 4 weeks ago. it had two litter mates, one was born dead: The second one was totally normal, but found dead 3 days later in the morning. It had a wet/sticky mouth, but otherwise everything seemed normal.
The last one had also a wet/sticky mouth a few days later (ca. 1 week age) with little blisters on its tongue. Otherwise it was normal, it still got enough milk from its mother.
With ca. 2 weeks the kitten and its mother showed symptoms of cat flu, and it was also seen that the kitten was staying rather small, but otherwise normally developed.

The vet prescribed amoxcillin for both mother and baby. And an ointment for the eyes, as they were also affected. After 2 days the kitten had to be force-fed because it couldn’t suckle anymore. But it could be fed with the syringe without problem and ate with huge appetite. This was going for one week, with it’s general state of health being okay despite the cat flu. It had some discharge on eyes and nose, but it was otherwise still active and aware. He really is a little fighter, despite staying rather small.

During last week it finally seemed to get better, until friday morning we found it with heavier breathing. One eye was fine, the other closed with discharge. It still had appetite though. On Sunday the breathing was bad, but it could still swallow.

Today the breathing is really bad, it has to use its stomach to breath and also opens its mouth to help breathing (but no real gasping). It has difficulty swallowing and seems to have mucus in its throat. The nose is mostly dry, only few discharge. The infected eye has now a cloudy cornea, despite the eye antibitoics. It is also very restless, walks a few steps, then lays flat down. It’s easily seen that it doesn’t get enougn oxygen.
The vet said it most likely has developed pneumonia. It got something that should help its lung with breathing, and I should continue to give fluids and feeding as long as it will/could swallow. Of course it still gets antibiotics.

What can I do to help the little one with breathing? Should I let it inhale?

Depending on how it looks tomorrow I may have to euthanize it, as I don’t want it to suffocate :(.

I have two dogs, who are use to living in a home with a fenced in back yard. I just started a new job, which requires me to travel sometimes and I had to move into an apartment. I’m afraid of them not adjusting very well to living in an apartment where I just can’t let them outside to roam the backyard freely. Also, I had roommates who would let them out when I was gone to work.

As far as boarding for when I travel, I have decided to just bite the bullet and travel the 2 hours back home and let them stay at theVet office. They are use to the people there and I’ve let them stay there for a few hours sometimes during check ups. I trust them more than having to search for a new vet nearby the new city.

I’ve been away from them for 2 months now because this promotion and everything happened so fast. I know my roommates have not kept up with the routines that I do when caring for them. So I have that worry as well. My dachshundlab mix was difficult to train on leash and I still have a few problems with her pulling and slipping out of harnesses and collars (advice on that is more than welcomed). I’ve been lucky a few times with her coming back to me, after a few hours of trying.

I am horrified that this could all go wrong. They are my family and I do not want to lose them nor have to rehome them.

Friends, my beagle, Abby is on bed rest and will be for 6-8 weeks. It’s been a little bit over than a week and I think she is getting fussy/lonely. She would always howl and bark during the day & night. As much as we want to keep her company and be with her 24/7, it’s hard because we all have school, work and other obligations.

When she first started doing this, the family thought there was something wrong and rushed to her side but she just wants to be petted and see people. It’s getting very annoying to having to wake up at 1am because she won’t stop howling or barking, especially when we have to wake up the next day, and sometimes (this is what’s told by my vet) we would ignore her because she has to learn that this might be her life now for a long time and she needs to learn how to self sooth and accept the fact that no one is there to clean her poop or pee right a way…

I understand where my pet is coming from, we cannot communicate with them and they cannot communicate with us. My dog is probably terrified out of her mind as to why she cannot move and has to stay, and truths to be told, I would be bored too if I had to stay in bed for 6-8 weeks. We’ve tried our best to keep her company when we can, but if any owners out there can provide us with some advice as to entertainment wise for pets (maybe a bone she can snack on without gaining so much weight), or some kind of a toy that can keep her entertained, it would be much appreciated.

Hi,

We have an almost 13 year old chocolate lab named Koko. About 5 weeks ago, she had a seizure. We took her into the vet and they prescribed Phenobarbital to help control the seizures. Since then, she has been incontinent in the house, and has to go outside very frequently (which is a side effect to this medication). This is a problem when my husband and i both work Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm. She has accidents in the house almost every day. Thankfully we put her in our laundry room which has wood floors so clean up is a little easier, but it still is stressful being that she usually pees, and then walks through it all day long tracking it everywhere in that room and gets urine all over herself. Especially when she has seizures, she paces for hours afterwards until finally calming down. We have tried NUMEROUS different types of diapers, doggy diapers (vets best from Petco, womens depends, XXL childrens diapers) and even tried buying suspenders and attaching those onto the diapers and around her to try to keep it on, but NOTHING stays on throughout the whole day. I just bought the “Dog Diaper Keeper” off Amazon today so I am crossing my fingers that it’ll work, if not i dont know what to do.

Besides that, my husband and I also have noticed that she has become increasingly anxious during the day and night time. She has always been on the more anxious side but lately it’s been getting worse, fast.

Since starting the Phenobarbital, she has had 3 more bigger seizures that we are aware of and since then have been to the vet and they have also prescribed Potassium Bromide which she is taking alongside the Phenobarb. We also noticed she started having facial seizures which the vet said could either mean the Phenobarb/Potassium Bromide are working and controlling the bigger seizures, or if the facial seizures continue along with big seizures it could be time for a CT scan.

In the last couple weeks, she has begun to wake up very early in the morning (3am) barking. We thought that maybe she was scared to be alone since having seizures, or is starting to get Alzheimer’s. Her kennel is in our living room so we thought that moving her into our room would help knowing that we were there, but it hasn’t. We also take her outside to go to the bathroom and that doesn’t seen to solve anything either. We are afraid to feed her too early because we don’t want her to get in the habit of eating that early in the morning. We have tried everything we can think of and she still continues to bark at all hours in the morning. The vet also prescribed her Diazapam to calm her down after seizures, but we are reluctant to use that to calm her down just because she is barking at night and hasn’t had a seizure.

We fully understand that it’s not her fault, and that she is getting old and is needing some extra TLC. But we feel so bad because we can’t figure out what she needs/wants. We desperately want to help her and keep her comfortable throughout the night.

Do you or anyone else have any advice for us? For the early morning barking or the diaper issue? Anything is greatly appreciated!

-Ashley