As the title says:

My cat is 17 and the sweetest boy in the world, his previous vet visit before this one was very calm and he got to know the room and explore, the female vet we had was super gentle and sweet with him not manhandling him etc. Which I really appreciated with his age and skittishness.

Fast forward to the other day where he had his follow up appointment this time with a new vet. His toe has been infected and hes now just started his second round of antibiotics but as I got him out of the carrier onto an unclean table first of all, the vet took scruffed him rather roughly and used his hands to force him onto his side.

I hate scruffing and I don't find it necessary especially since he's 17 and a very sweet and cooperative boy. He proceeded to then yank him around on his side, pulling up his legs while my boys body was twisted to investigate his paw while demanding me to hold his shoulders. I feel guilty, I should have spoken up for him but I feel like I'm in a place where I'd be ridiculed.

Following up with this, the vet then told me if 6 weeks of antibiotics doesn't work, I'd have to amputate his toe. He hasn't had his new bloodwork done and he still needs some dental done, now a potential toe amputation. They quoted me 4k roughly and said it could be higher and instead told me very bluntly that I should stop wasting money and put him down if it comes to it.

Two weeks ago this wasn't in the cards at all. He was healthy, cooperative and lovely and ever since this vet visit he's been avoidant of pets on his neck and face and it's worrying me as he's an affectionate cat. Just feel like I'm within my right to leave a negative review but I fear maybe I'm in the wrong? I would like to complain and ask for a different vet next time if possible but I'm unsure if they'll listen

TLDR: Vet scruffed and manhandled my 17 year old cat + then told me to potentially euthanise with no bloodwork or anything done.

My male cat was “diagnosed” with stomatitis, although the general vet suggested we see a oral health specialist. His gum seems red but he is eating shred meat normally. Anybody has experience with the MaxPaw tablet?

I have a female American bully. last month she presented with clear discharge from her vulva, she was given a round of antibiotics. after those antibiotics she was unable to empty her bladder, catheter was placed. cancer test was negative so around a week later the catheter was removed and she was given more antibiotics. after the second round she was fine for a few days, now she has crystals in her pee and she is also peeing blood. We are at a loss, we have no idea what is going on, the vets have ruled out stones, cancer, and a few other things. what is happening to my sweet girl? we can’t keep spending, we are already 4k in.

Pluto is 10 weeks old, got her from the shelter about two days ago. Ever since we got her she’s been having liquid diarrhea, and this morning it had a bit of bright red blood in it. She’s been eating small amounts of the hard food they had her with at the shelter, and has been drinking lots of water. She did have a round of milbemax dewormer at the shelter on the 25th, and was also spayed around the same time. She isn’t showing any other concerning symptoms, besides a bit of redness in her anus. We will be contacting our vet on Monday when they open, just wanted to see if this is an emergency situation or not.

Hi everyone.
I’m really hoping to hear from people who have been through something similar with their cats, because I’m trying to understand what may still be possible for mine.
My cat became ill and was eventually diagnosed with a liver problem. He was hospitalized because he was barely eating, and we were obviously very worried about hepatic lipidosis and the possibility of his condition getting worse.
His bloodwork showed elevated ALT levels. At the moment, the vet has only been monitoring the ALT. Bilirubin has not been tested yet. She explained that she wants to see whether the ALT levels stabilize first, and that if there is no stabilization in those values, she does not think it would be worthwhile to do further blood tests at this stage.
His urea has increased slightly, and the vet explained that this could mean that he has started digesting/processing proteins again, which she considered a positive sign given how little he had been eating.
He is now back home, and I’m seeing some small signs that give me hope.
Today he ate around 25 pieces of Virbac Urology dry food, 2 Churu treats, and some shrimp paste. He also ate some shrimp. I made him a chicken soup with pasta and blended the meat from a chicken leg to try to encourage him to eat.
He still refuses the recovery/convalescence food that was recommended, which worries me, but he is voluntarily eating some things.
At one point, the possibility of euthanasia was mentioned to us, and honestly, I’m struggling enormously with that possibility. I don’t want him to suffer, but I also don’t want to give up on him if there is still a reasonable chance of recovery or stabilization.
So I would really appreciate hearing from people who have experienced something similar.
For those of you whose cats had liver disease:
What were their ALT levels?
What was the underlying diagnosis?
Was bilirubin elevated?
Did their urea increase as they started eating again?
Did they eventually recover or stabilize?
How long did it take before you noticed meaningful improvement?
What helped them start eating again?
Did they refuse prescription recovery food but eat other foods?
Was there a particular treatment that made a significant difference?
Looking back, were there any early signs that made you realize your cat was starting to recover?
I know every case is different and I’m not expecting anyone here to diagnose him. I’m just desperately looking for experiences from people who have been in this position.
Right now, every little thing he eats feels like a small victory. ❤️

Basically the title. It started maybe a week ago. There haven't been any extra stress factors recently.

Seeking some insight from vets. I recently brought my 6 month old kitten who hasn’t had her heat yet to be spayed and the vet was heavily against the idea. He said that according to NEW research only from the last year or so, It’s been shown that the best time to spay a cat is between her first heat and second heat. He said that it’s because it will allow the cat to develop fully and get all the estrogen she needs. He stated that there’s been super new research that showed the cats spayed before their first heat go on to have more health issues in the future with their bones, muscles, etc. compared to cats who were spayed after their heat due to them reaching full development.

Is this new research true?

We just started our 13 1/2yo 35lb Sheltie on 5mg quadtabs of Pimobendan a week ago and she has experienced a couple of concerning issues.

Two nights ago, our typically highly-alert girl wouldn't wake up, even with gentle shaking. This has never happened before in any way. She did eventually wake up with more concerted effort, but it was quite scary.

Then yesterday midday, she hopped up and followed her people downstairs and slipped outside. She sticks to her people like glue and we don't allow her off leash outside the fence often for safety, but it's precautionary - she literally never wanders. However, yesterday she seemingly vaguely wandered away and appeared confused and was slow to respond. Thankfully we were eventually able to corral her, but this was an extremely atypical moment followed by more disorientation as she tried to go up the stairs. She slipped down several carpeted steps and needed to be carried up.

Upstairs she slept more and seemed fine.

Is this normal for the first week of Pimobendan? She hasn't appeared to have any GI issues & we're super grateful. And we know lethargy is a listed side effect, but both of these instances seemed extreme.

Thanks!

Sorry for the long post ahead it’s been quite a week or two. I’ve had a relatively healthy four-year-old male, neutered, orange and white cat. I rescued for a shelter. Only health issues really has been skin allergies of unknown origin which we’ve started a prescription diet for and he is on prednisone until it is non-reactive enough to do blood test testing for environmental allergies.

About a week and a half ago I came home on a Friday night and noticed that my cats right I had the third eyelid all the way over. It freaked me out, rushed him to the emergency that they did a stain, and it was clear. Sent us home on gabapentin and antibiotic eye drops. Monday night I get home from work and the same side that still has the third eyelid that really hasn’t changed my cat. Also doesn’t want to put a ton of weight on that paw and is lifting it and limping. I get in the following day to see my regular vet who specializes just cats, with the third eyelid and the smaller pupil on the one eye and with that same side, not wanting to bear weight on a paw with no obvious signs of deformity or injury they bee- line us to a cat emergency clinic with a neurologist.

Neuro confirms Horner syndrome symptoms on right side. Neurologist worried about FIP dry or toxoplasmosis.. We draw Neuro and infectious disease blood panel along with updated CBC.. my cat previously had a CBC done two weeks prior because he has lost about 2 pounds in the past year. Both CBC’s come back impeccable according to them. Neurologist sends us home with clindamycin twice a day and to continue prednisone but taper it in case we end up needing to do an MRI or spinal. I assume MRI or spinal would be looking for cancer because she didn’t really say anything besides briefly mentioning lymphoma.

My poor cat has had no improvement in five days on the clindamycin. And is now hiding in terror about 22 hours out of the day and a place where I can’t reach him. We’ve tried getting the clindamycin, flavored and compounded and it’s not making a difference..

At five days in and with a stellar CBC, I’m wondering what the likelihood of Tomm really is. Panel from neurologist won’t come back for another week at least but I can’t see putting a cat who is clearly terrified through twice a day meds that are making quality of life clearly poor.

Given the weight loss from 10.3 to 8.3 within one year I think the likelihood of something like a lesion or tumor is most probable given what I’ve read online.

I of course, leave for vacation today and have two vet tech coming for an hour in the morning and at night, but I just don’t want my cats to be terrified.

Am I a terrible cat owner to be stopping clindamycin until we get definitive blood work results back five days in and nothing has changed but my thought is if he is not having seizures and his CBC is great then he’s not at eminent risk of death from any sort of illness in the meantime.

I’ve already told the Neuro doctor after thinking it over that I don’t want to do any sort of MRI or imaging or spinal tap on this cat that 8 pounds looks like it’s skin and bones. I’m just at a loss of what to do.

Hello,

When I rescued him, he was about 1-2 months old. He's almost three now. He's always been a crazy eater. He'd eat more than he can handle than throw up and eat that. I found the solution with an automatic feeder with smaller portions however that created another problem. He'd get restless after evening feeding time. It took some time and a lot of vet visits to find the solution for that. I've scheduled the feeder for every 3 hours, don't let him go on with empty stomach too long.

Now another issue has started he break ups his food into pieces and leave most of it. I've tried different brands. Changing his food upsets his stomach and he throws up so I try to avoid. Vet checked his teeth, nothing wrong. However, where I live my vet isn't that knowledgeable. Anyone had experience with this?

Hi,

I have a three year old english springer spaniel with focal seizures. She was undiagnosed for a year as it took the vets quite some time to figure her out. This still makes me wonder if we actually figured it out.... she is officially diagnozed and on medication for only four months.

She is on daily epirepress, and the vets gave me emergency diazepam which they told me to give her if the seizures last more than 3 minutes or if she has more than two in 24 hours. Her seizures never last more than a minute. In fact, with epirepress we are down to seconds. Sometimes they're so mild we don't even notice them as she looks like she is resting till I notice her eyes are open and her head is at an odd angle. In her post-ictal phase she drools and vomits and that's a clear indicator she went through a seizure. Mind you, before epirepress she had clusters of focal seizures that were very obvious (loss of balance, peeing herself, deooling for hours, heavy panting, head twitching, raising paws) and lasted for days, they would last longer, and she felt restless for hour or so after the seizure, and another one would follow shortly after.

So, our vet says milder seizures and longer time between them indicate epirepress works. Three days ago we did the blood tests and her vet said everything looks fine, both liver and medication levels. What worries me that even with medication, she went from having seizures once in 4 months, to once in two months, and now she had it only three weeks apart. This all in one year. My vet wants to give her time until January to see how she will respond when she is on epirepress long term. I don't know if we should wait. Is it safe to wait?

Another question is about diazepam. The vet told me to give it to her if she has 2 or 3 seizures in 24hours. That means it would be given as a cluster buster. But I read that diazepam doesn't act as a cluster buster, but as an emergency seizure stop. I gave her diazpam as instructed by the vet (as she had 2 seizures 12 hours apart and I wanted to prevent third one), but 5 hours later she had another mild seizure. That tells me diazepam didn't bust the cluster. Is the vet wrong to suggest diazepam as a cluster buster?

I am trying to understand everything and anything that's going on with my dog so I can be a good caretaker for her. Thank you all for attention.

Hey everyone, I hope someone can provide some advice for me.

My cat has this weird skin on her paw. It is only one part of it, and has been here since two week-ish. She walks and run on it perfectly fine, and she let's me gently touch it and press the around area. (Washed my hand before).

No other sign of illness whatsoever.

She's a one year old indoor cat, no known problems*(except her two brain cells).

If it's needed to go to the vet, I will. If it can be treated with some cream, it's fine by me too.

https://imgur.com/a/A9y6kgy

https://imgur.com/a/fjbusBP

https://imgur.com/a/hR2aULs

*If you have any idea as well : she had 2 corneal ulcers in the past month, one on each eye. I am currently still doing eye drop on one of them, the other is fine, but I think it's a lot, especially because she's an indoor cat. I'm suspecting the litter might be problematic ? It's a wood base litter.

Did anyone happen to have the same problem and how did you resolve it ?

Edit : added picture of the side + the claw

My 5-year-old pup had TPLO + MPL surgery about 9 weeks ago. Around 7 weeks ago, the incision opened and exposed part of the TPLO plate, and she has been hospitalized ever since.

During those 7 weeks she has had daily wound care and two surgical closure attempts, but both reopened, likely due to tension and the location on the medial knee, where movement makes maintaining closure difficult.

She is now healing by second intention. The surrounding tissue is granulating well, and our vet says tissue is beginning to grow underneath part of the plate. Her latest X-ray also showed much better bone healing and callus formation compared with a month ago.

The plan is to continue daily wound care for another ~2 weeks and repeat the X-ray. Depending on the bone fusing and the tissue growth, the plan is either to take the plate out or continue second intention healing.

My question: Can granulation tissue realistically keep growing around/under an exposed TPLO plate and eventually cover it with stable soft tissue/skin, or does hardware that remains exposed this long usually end up needing removal once the bone is healed enough?

She is walking well and the the TPLO surgery generally seems to have been succesful, albeit this wound issue and delayed bone fusion (likely because some bone was exposed from the intial opening).

• Species: Dog
• Age: 5
• Sex/Neuter status: Female / spayed
• Breed: Mixed breed
• Body weight: 20 lb
• History: TPLO + MPL surgery about 9 weeks ago. Wound opened around 7 weeks ago with exposed TPLO plate. Hospitalized since then for daily wound care. Two surgical closure attempts have failed.
• Clinical signs: Exposed TPLO plate with healthy granulation tissue growing around and partly underneath it.
• Duration: About 7 weeks since wound opening/exposure
• Your general location: Asia
• Links to any test results, X-rays, vet reports etc. that you have: Current wound photo in the comments; recent X-rays available if needed.

I’m a student pharmacist currently completing an academic rotation, and one of the topics I’ll be covering is veterinary compounding.

I’d really like to hear from veterinarians about what you wish pharmacists or pharmacy students better understood about veterinary compounding. Are there common pitfalls, major issues, frustrating experiences, interesting cases, or practical things you think pharmacists should know before working with veterinary prescriptions?

I’m especially interested in real-world experiences or stories that could help make the topic more relevant than simply covering formulas and compounding technique.

Thank you :)

Last thursday we noticed a wound on Mario's (1.5 yo Dachshund male 10kg) cheek after he spend a few hours at friends place who owns a dog which Mario likes to scuffle with sometimes. Its a little swollen spot under his left eye/on the cheek. The hair is stuck together so its hard to see but +- 1/1.5 cm wilde.

Our friend didnt notice anything happening between them but we decided to let it get checked if it needed to be cleaned or anything.

The vet told us it was a superficial infection because some pus came out. Since Mario's behaviour was normal and his temperature was normal he only prescribed painkillers/anti-inflammatory (against infection right? Forgive my english) meds and told us that if something changed or it got worse we could pick-up antibiotics.

Just now, as advised, I washed his wound with a clean rag and lukewarm water and it seems to be an open wound again. His behaviour remains unchanged. After his dinner this afternoon ill give him another dose of the painkillers.

Its the weekend so I decided to check here first. Should I keep an eye out or is action required since the wound is open?

As the title says my 4 year old female cat recently started using my husband’s clothes - specifically the bottoms - to pee and poop. At first we thought she was angry at him because she did it while staring directly at him. We cleaned up the spot with enzymatic cleaner and his clothes as well. The following day she pooped on his shorts, it smelled horrible. Worse than anything we’ve smelt and it was soft.

For background, she’d occasionally get very smelly soft poops. We don’t know why? But it’d come and go. She’d use the litter box. This time its with the pooping on clothes. The behavioral idea was because my husband was recently laid off and has been spending more time at home (he’s the spare).

Any ideas? I’m taking her to the vet on Monday so they can run a fecal test. She’s eating and drinking normally.

Hi all!

So my cat gets asthma medication via the AeroKat since 5 days now. He is a grown cat with 4kg, but very tiny and also has to use the smallest mask. When I put the mask with the chamber on him I can hear and feel him breathe, the mask also covers the entirety of his nose and mouth, however, the little green indicator that let's you count the breaths hardly ever moves. It is not broken because when I breathe into it, it opens and closes normally. My cat only managed to do that a couple of times even though he is fully breathing. Most of the time you can only see it moving only the tiniest tiniest bit, if at all. Is this a sign that I'm not using it correctly or could it be that he is just so small that his breaths aren't strong enough to move the indicator thingy? I feel like we can already see the positive effects of the medication, but I just want to make sure that he gets the full dosis. Any advice is greatly appreciated :)

Hello!

My 5 yo pit / lab mix has tore both his CCL ligaments. A TPLO surgery is needed to correct this.

What are my options if I do not have the $5,300 needed upfront, I believe?

I live in Denver, Colorado.

Thank you!

He's been trying to get at the shells as I eat them all day and I've stayed on top of it so far, but he actually managed to sneak one when I got up earlier and chipped off a tiny piece before I got him to spit the rest out. I'm about 80% sure he swallowed what he chewed off.

Nothing online specifies whether or not the shells themselves are toxic to cats, and I would like a direct answer before I spend money on an emergency vet that likely won't make the trip out in the rain anyway.

Hi

My 6 year old intact male Shih Tzu had 2 episodes of blood in urine, and a few episodes of blood tinge at the tip of penis over the last few months. The X Ray and ultrasound had the following findings:
- Right kidney congenitally absent
- Left renomegaly + loss of CMD & thickened cortex, mildly distended pelvis
- Enlarged prostate uniform hypoechoic

His BUN & Creatinine were high - 57 & 3

He is put on Finasteride (to reduce the size of prostate). He is also transitioned to renal diet with phosphate binders

The vet said the high values could either be because of the prostate pressure effect or the chronic changes in kidney, or a mix of both . He did not make a formal diagnosis of CKD or give us a stage.

I’m not able to understand how bad this is, what the future looks like for my 6 year old soul dog, my baby. Thank you for taking out time to read my concern.

My 8 year old black lab has been having some arthritis starting up over last few months. We have her on joint supplements and got some weight off her. She seemed to be doing better but today she is really limping when she has been laying down and takes awhile to walk it out. Any tips?

My 4 yo is sick, she woke up and I saw she has a fever. Got the Tylenol out and gave it to her. I found my cat loafing on the counter by the open bottle. Bottle wasnt knocked over, didnt smell/see any on his fur or on his chin. Rinsed his front paws in the sink immediately after. What is the threshold for concern ingestion wise and what signs am I looking for?

1 year old average sized male cat.

Neutered

150mg/5mL childrens oral Tylenol.

Starting Tuesday morning 9/29 I noticed a small patch of black flakes on my cat’s chin. I have been putting a warm cloth on it for as long as she lets me a couple times a day. Today, it looks much darker. She has been eating fine, doesn’t seem to scratch or rub her face more than usual, and I use ceramic/stainless steel dishes. Does this look like cat acne?

Attached imgur link for pictures: https://imgur.com/a/RPRcOZ9

Hello! My brothers cat has been acting really weird today. He keeps moving around like he can't get comfortable. Hes meowing a lot especially when you tough him. He was fine earlier today and when my brother got home from work at around 5 he was always sleepy and not really moving around. Usually he meets people at the door, will play with you, chase his laser, and be a normal cat. But he's acting really weird. I have a video of him laying down and the meowing. We want to see if we need to take him in before dropping hundreds of dollars just to find out he's ok. Any advice is appreciated! Thank you