Ask questions and share about your pet's health to help others.
My 13 yr old feline, DLH with multiple teeth cleanings and extractions started sneezing Fall 2023. My vet recommended Lyseine, which has helped. She had another teeth cleaning and single extraction Nov 2024. This weekend she began sneezing multiple times a day and now has runny eyes. I would also swear her lips are inflamed around her whiskers. I contacted the vet and we will try an antibiotic. What else should I do to assist? I am getting a humidifier and will keep her in my bathroom when I shower each day. Should I change her litter type? They both currently use Dr. Elyse Attract Long Hair. Obviously if the antibiotic doesnt work I will take her back in for further examination, Thank You!
My cat is an American short hair and is two years old,suddenly he stopped eating his food (he eats Smalls, ground chicken and turkey)and started vomiting yellow but when he is throwing out it sounds like he is chocking, he is being acting very different no eating ,no playing and I try to feed him and hydrate him with a syringe but he vomits every time. This happened like 4 months ago too and I took him to the vet and it was so expensive and did not help me at all,they made an x ray and didn’t find anything and I change his food because in that time he only ate dry food. I thought everything was find now with wet and quality food but is happening again. Please help me if you have any idea what can I do?. I have no pet insurance and no budget to spend on vets.
Levi has hind legs due to IVDD. I’m so saddened to see him like this. He is only 4.5 years old and otherwise very active and happy. Dr. Magnífico your videos of Hank’s progress has given me hope. My question is why is he trembling despite being resting and under pain and anti-inflammatory medication? He can move his front legs, but he is not eating and just drinks water with a syringe. His symptoms began on Saturday, December 28. The Vet saw him Sunday morning and said we should keep him strictly rested for about 30 days. He is urinating and defecating on his diapers. My wife keeps him clean and changes his position every three hours. Day six no progress. Is there hope and is the trembling part of the recovery process? Also he can’t lift his head and is there a way to know if he is suffering from Myelomalacia? I appreciate you Dr. Magnífico for your passion in caring for our beloved furry family!
Hello
I don’t know if the trembling is pain or nerve function talking to the muscles. If you cannot afford a neurologist referral then I recommend you follow the instructions from your vet and the information I provided on my YouTube channel and blog. Kmdvm.blogspot.com.
Thank you, Doc!
Hey so a couple of months ago,my dog had a sort of a film that was covering his eye and it has been growing and it seemed like a bother ( I could see his perception greatly reduced. I asked the former owner about it but he told me that it might be age. I overlooked it until it started to become to disturbing, he’s been getting a lot of eye discharge. No matter how much I remove,it simply comes back the following day. I live in a very rural area and there’s no vetinary close and to top it off I’m ina non-english speaking country and I don’t know any other language besides that.so I decided to ask for help, and that’s how I’m here, I also took note that this film is somewhat forming in his other eye,very easy to overlook but I can’t afford to, if anyone can offer some sort of help or advice I would really appreciate it.
Hello,
I’m sorry but I cannot offer much help here. Even with good photos eye conditions are very difficult to diagnose without seeing them in person.
When all else fails I offer an ophthalmic antibiotic to see if this helps. Too often we struggle with the ability to diagnose (because we aren’t specialists) so we see if response to treatment offers any help. In some cases I might also do an oral antibiotic. This is especially the case for very young or old patients.
My German Shepherd has a bump on her upper eye lid for about a week and a half and I’m wondering if any one has an idea what it is. I’m wondering if it’s a wart or something. The first picture is how it started and the 2nd and 3rd picture are today.
A lump or a bump can only be diagnosed by a biopsy. If it isn’t growing and is t problematic you can give it some time to see if it changes. There are cosmetic lesions like warts in people which never require medical attention. Also things like sebaceous adenomas, histiocytomas, etc don’t usually require care. If it gets larger or you are concerned please see your vet in person for an examination for advice.
I cant get a picture because the website wont work on my phone for some reason but my cat lost one of his whole back claws, there is dried blood along the top of it should i be worried? He is sleeping rn and a little bit ago he was walking around like he wasn’t in pain, is this normal for cats? He got back from the vet about a month ago for an abcess on his neck from one of my other cats being a little too rough and bitting him, could this be the same issue of the cats playing too rough and his claw got ripped out?
hello,
In most cases this isn’t a problem that I worry about. But, infection can happen, and litter boxes are inherently dirty.
So, the best option is to seek veterinary care for an examination and perhaps antibiotic soak, or oral antibiotic option.
We will see about getting the photo option fixed.
Happy Holiday
krista
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!
Hello. If you need anything sooner please call and ask to leave a message for me. Merry Christmas.
Dr Magnifico.
Hello thank you!! I tried calling back but the office may be busy. I can bring him anytime over the next 3 days, whatever you have available!
Update: thank you Doc!! The office was able to get me in on Thursday evening. I emailed records over along with video of his breathing sound. Have a blessed holiday, Merry Christmas!
Colin to Dr. Krista : May I pick your Brains?
Dear Dr. Krista,
I’m writing to ask your advice about a stray cat I found last month. See images attached.
But first I want to thank you for the polyp videos you made, which were refreshing, as well as impressive.
One of my strays was snoring, so I was eager to pluck out a polyp hiding behind his soft-palate. (He didn’t have one, but I’m gratefully alerted for the future.)
Last month I found a stunted stray ginger cat outside a 7/11 in North Thailand, where I’m a self-financed Christian missionary.
Can you help me diagnose, and treat the problem?
At first I thought it was simply FVR / Calici and chronic snuffles.
But when I opened her mouth, she had only 4 teeth in her head!
Yes, she had calici tongue-ulcers, but little sneezing, no ocular discharge, and has been eating like a horse from day one. She’s happy and bright in herself, apart from the ugly sore nose.
Her mandibular Ln were big and hard, so I put her on antibiotic tablets, with a little dexamethasone (actually 2.5mg Prednisolone tab. daily.)
Then after a week or so I sedated her, and examined her mouth more closely, no observable polyps (drat!) but one of her molars was loose and covered in calculus, so I pulled that one out, and cleaned up the remaining molar and two premolars, otherwise the poor thing would have zero teeth.
There was of course gingivitis and pharyngitis, but pink, not red like “dragon-mouthed cats” on dcf.
For the last month I’ve given her a course of floxacilin (30 days) with amoxycillin, and tried all sort of creams on her nose and lower eyelids which. as you can see, are raw and sore.
Her Ln are almost normal now, +but that nose is no better+, and she tries to rub as though it is itchy.
(I made up creams mixing; 10% flours of sulphur, betamethasone, ivermectin, and vaseline)
There’s a temporary lessening at best, but no lasting improvement.
So what is your differential for her?
In NZ where I locummed, cat leprosy was common (Mycobacterium from mice and voles) so that was my diagnosis, but the floxacillin has made no impression.
I’ve trimmed her claws and taped her fore paws to stop her making her nose raw.
I’m stuck, and thought of asking you Doc.
I’d guess she’s 3-4 years old, confident, unvaccinated, entire, lived wild all her life eating left over fast food, and possibly DCF from neighbours.
Since October I’ve been feeding her raw chicken frames, tinned sardines, vitamin syrup, and no DCF.
She loves raw chicken :), and eats whatever I put in front of her and still looks for more.
Apart from her nose you would not think she was ill in any way.
Thanks for your advice.
Colin
PS. For some reason, Depo-medrone has been taken off the market here, not even local vets can get hold of it.
Colin Melbourne English missionary in Asia
https://www.born-again-christian.org/news/
https://www.born-again-christian.org/news/ไทยคริสเตียน/
https://www.born-again-christian.info/aboutus.htm
https://www.born-again-christian.com (Asian languages)
Hello!
Thank you for helping this kitty.
I am happy to help, but a few things are important to remember; I do not know all of the local diseases to your area. We live in very different places and animals get exposed to different diseases in different places.
Based on the history and response to treatment so far I think the antibiotic was warranted and may need to be provided every so often to manage secondary infections due to severity of the cats condition.
I also think that there is a chance this could be one of the following:
Infection (fungal or bacterial)
Immune mediated (pemphigus/lupus)
Or cancer (squamous cell, etc)
To diagnose these you may need biopsy or cytology. I would try to resist treating without some ability to rule something out. (Steroids and fungal infections can make things worse).
Please keep us posted. Very best of luck.
Krista.
Dear Dr. Krista,
Thank you for your quick response 🙂
Yes, I’m aware of the dangers of cortisone therapy, but living in the mountains, I’m limited to kitchen table surgery 🙂
I do also liaise with a kind local lady-vet, who supplies me with whatever medicines I need.
She too is stumped, and I’ve been here three decades plus +and never seen anything like it before.+
I tried mixing miconazole in with the various creams I concocted, like you concerned it could be a fungal disease. But I find flours of sulphur cures both mange and ringworm here, if applied gently and persistently enough.
Yes, the spectre of Squamous cell carcinoma looms, but she is remarkably bright and active.
Almost no sneezing or nasal discharge.
The “Rodent ulcers” that I’ve seen look different, and usually just the lips, and the ulcer has a thickened rolled edge: This one is different.
+Doc., have YOU seen anything like this before?+
I should mention, she had a lick granuloma on her hip, but that has healed now, with flea-bathing, and the steroids she’s been on. (I don’t like using fipronil, ie. “Poison your pet to poison its parasites”. Not a sound strategy.)
Can you ask around for me please if any of your colleagues have seen a nose like that, despite over a month intensive blunderbuss therapy? Feel free to post the images on a specialised dermatology group if you know of one.
Colin
Dear Dr. Krista,
Thank you for your comments. Your mention of locality sparked a line of new thoughts.
Most of my vet jobs have been in the tropics (Jamaica, Arabia, Singapore etc) where venomous creatures are commonplace (Toads, insects, scorpions, spiders, centipedes, and snakes).
I’ve seen Arabian horses lamed by a centipede bite, a rare Arabian Oryx die from a snake bite.
One characteristic symptom I’ve noticed in cats of spider bites is intense, frantic licking of the cat’s body. It is continuous until the toxin effect subsides after a few hours, so mild sedation is called for. It’s clinically distinct from the CNS effects of agricultural toxins.
This cat has lived around a 24 hour 7/11 shop, and the bright lights at night attract swarms of termites and beetles: Cats love eating termites, +but so do; scorpions, snakes, spiders, centipedes, and toads+ that live in drains.
Just this week, my other strays brought two live snakes as “love gifts”, one was a harmless Tree-snake, the other a 60cm Red-necked Keelback (small, but whose venom is nonetheless as deadly as the Banded-Krait’s!) (See attached snap I took of “Chatty” offering a cute-little Keelback present to me.)
https://thailandsnakes.com/red-necked-keelback-venomous-mildly-dangerous/
Doctor Krista, It’s possible what we are looking at is a cat recovering from a bite, or sting, on the left nostril by a snake, scorpion, hornet, spider etc.
I know from personal experience that such wounds provoke Type 4 cell-mediated immune responses, (cf. acute inflammatory antibody responses) and so are very slow to heal. (My neighbour was blinded in one eye by reaction to a Hornet sting.)
With neoplasia, I’d expect this cat to be inappetent and “ill”, but she’s bright, eating well, and purring loudly by my side as I type. So I’m leaning to the insect, arachnid, snake bite, or sting idea for now.
It’d be nice to have the luxury of lab-work and histology, if it were available and reliable, but I’m old-school trained, and content diagnosing on sensory data alone.
I certainly considered your Pemphigus differential, but she would have responded very well to the prednisolone 2.5mg/day according to this paper and others:
https://www.veterinary-practice.com/article/feline-pemphigus-foliaceus
Thank you for helping me brainstorm 🙂
I will update you on her recovery.
Colin
Here’s an update on what “Princess” looks like today, after 3 months in my care.
Desperate for progress last week, I sedated her; cleaned up her face, trimmed her whiskers, and extracted all her remaining teeth, (there were 8, not four, with their roots, see snap attached,) just in case it’s an atypical case of “screaming cat-mouth”. Which is caused by feeding cats dry cat-food, and packets of Monsanto pet-sludge, instead of what Carnivores were created to eat: Raw meat and bone in the form of whole animals and arthropods.
She’s still a happy pussy, and eats whatever is put in front of her; suffers occasional calici/FVR snuffles, has mild pharyngitis, but her mandibular LN are now back to normal size, +BUT that nose ulcer is no better,+ and no worse.
Again, I could not palpate, or see, any polyps in her mouth or nasopharynx, but I don’t discount the likelihood of smaller polyps in her anterior nasal passages causing this. Perhaps as reaction to FVR, sting, trauma etc.
She’s still head-shy, it’s as tender as it looks, but she likes to rub her face with her front paws, and on objects, as though it itches.
I’ve ruled out neoplasia because she’s so well in herself, and her lymph nodes returned to normal after an antibiotic course.
Demodex, ringworm, and mange are common in strays here, and they’re easily cured with gentle application of home-made flours-of-sulphur and ivermectin creams. She’s had all that routine therapy, so I discount those. This is distinctly different from such cases.
The black specs are food remains, not scabs.
My differential diagnosis is now, in order of likelihood;
Nose trauma/FVR that has caused tiny nasal polyps.
Insect sting, spider, or snake bite inside her oral cavity, or on her face,
“Screaming cat-mouth” (aka. Commercial “pet food” toxicity. She could have lived on pet food poached from neighbours’ pets.)
Atopic allergy. (She licks her body fur all over, in long sessions until it’s wet with saliva, despite bathing and de-fleaing her.)
Cat leprosy, (Mycobacterium from rodents.)
Rodent ulcer (Ought to have resolved by now.)
Leishmaniasis. (Very rarely reported but present in SE Asia)
Suggestions for therapy welcome 🙂
Colin
Hi Krista,
I discovered your YouTube videos yesterday and found your advice on cat care incredibly helpful. My wife and I are caring for our 18-year-old Birman cat, who is in stage 4 kidney disease with significant muscle loss. She’s also struggling with constipation and has other health issues, including high blood pressure and a heart murmur.
Currently, we’re feeding her a mix of wet food (chicken broth, chicken, pumpkin, and egg yolk), and providing SubCut fluids (50ml/day), along with the following supplements:
– Epakitin (0.5g/day)
– Pet-Tinic (2ml/day)
– Lactulose (3ml/day)
– Phos-Bind (0.2g/day)
– Potassium chloride (0.19g/day mixed in the broth – though we’re concerned she’s not getting the full amount since she’s unable to finish the broth).
– In addition, she’s on Amlodipine (0.25ml/day) to manage her high blood pressure.
Despite this, her weight has decreased significantly over the past year. She was once 3.3kg, but a year ago dropped to 2.5kg, and three weeks ago, it dropped again to 1.8kg, despite our best efforts to feed her.
A week ago, we had an enema done at the vet, which relieved some diarrhea, but there was still hardened stool near her anus. We’ve been massaging her abdomen and anus daily to stimulate defecation, and were able to help her pass a large, hard stool last Wednesday. Since then, she’s only passed small amounts of stool – mostly liquid or dark – and has had a lot of difficulty.
Today, we used a Pedia-Lax suppository (1ml), and after about 30 minutes, she passed a larger stool with dark liquid diarrhea. The stool was slightly hard, dark, and very smelly. She’s now very exhausted and resting, but did purr a bit before falling asleep.
For hydration, I gave her 10ml of SubCut fluids before the suppository to prevent dehydration. We’ve seen three different vets, but none have been able to provide lasting relief.
We’re reaching out for advice on whether we’re on the right track and if there’s anything else we can do to help her feel better and poop more easily. Any suggestions, given the circumstances, would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much for your time and any guidance you can offer.
Warm regards,
Joel and Sonia
Hello,
I’m sorry to hear about your cat.
I think that the question is how to help manage the constipation? I think that the weight loss and progression of the kidney disease is Kelly part of the problem. Have you checked her thyroid function? I typically see these older cats having this disease develop with the others your cat has. This disease also causes muscle loss. But this one has an available treatment option.
I think that you should recheck your blood work and see if’s his might be part of the reason for the constipation.
Also try to encourage play and exercise. It will help her fell better and eat better and also help the internal muscles that assist the colon and avoid constipation.
Hello. My 4 year old male cat had a urinary blockage they did a catheter and unblocked him sent him home and he wasn’t getting better 2 days later took him back and now he has a bladder infection. Sent us home with Amoxocillin. Took him back to er and now he is blocked again. Another catheter is in. My question is if they pull the catheter will he block again due to the bladder infection he still has? My thoughts are can they leave it in longer and keep the urine flowing until his badder infection clears? Lastly the urine culture hasn’t been verified yet to know exactly what antibiotic is needed apparently that takes a week. They just guess Amoxocillin. Please let me know your thoughts.
Hello,
I always advise unblocking and leaving the urinary catheter in for about 3 days whilst giving iv fluids. It helps flush the bladder (and whatever caused the blockage) and diurese the kidneys which are usually impacted. I do not advise unblocking and then removing the catheter. Both cause more trauma to an already traumatized urethra.
I also advise transferring to your own vets office for Care of the er is too expensive.
I have more information on this subject on my blog KMDVM.blogspot.com.
Hello,
I’m so sorry to hear about your cat.
I’m also sorry but there is not enough information here to allow for an accurate diagnosis and therefore an appropriate treatment plan.
I recommend that you call the vet back and ask for help on a budget. See if you can drop off a fecal sample without the exam. See if they will allow you to do some diagnostics with a minimum database so that you can get help for your cat. There is a big push in vetmed right now to allow affordable care. Remind them of this. Put us all in writing and plea for your cat to get help. You she already been seen and they already have an established relationship with you. This will help you get care and it is a great case for what the profession is already being challenged with.
I will add the links below for the public press releases stating that we know too many people are struggling to find affordable access to care. I recommend you use your personal experience as an example and start advocating for help yourself. Or you can try to find a shelter or rescue that has a vet on duty who might be willing to help.
Please keep me posted.
Good luck.
Krista
https://www.aaha.org/resources/2024-aaha-community-care-guidelines-for-small-animal-practice/definitions-and-section-1-community-care-guidelines-overview/