r/AskAVeterinarian

Meet Willow our 2 month old rescue. We just got back from a short trip (2 days) and noticed her eye like this. I have already booked a vet appointment in 2 days and have tried dabbing a warm cloth on it. We recently lost our other cat to heart failure so anxiety is high. Was wondering how serious of a health complication this could be. Any advice or reassurance is welcome.

Can we save her left hind leg (femur) or does it need to get amputated? She is a sweet 3-month old kitten and we need to know if there are success stories.

!! SORTED !! Thank you
I was wondering if anyone knew anything before hand since I’m so worried.
We just got back from holiday and my cat has two blister-like things at the front and back of his mouth (outside). He also had a lot of thick eye stuff so he was sometimes unable to open his eye recently. I just went to go see him and he now has a long string of drool. I’ve been keeping an eye on him the past two days and he seemed okay enough in himself but he looks terrible now.
I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on what this could be or how I could help him or keep him comfortable before the vets tomorrow.

Can someone help me identify what causes this swollen eye on my cat? How can i treat this?

Okay so this is a long one.

I have a 2 year old male golden retriever who was neutered over 40 days ago. I live in South Ontario and there has been a nasty heat wave this whole week. I’ve followed precautions, only taking him for short walks in the morning and at night. During the day he will go out in the backyard for potty.

We have had our air conditioning set to 72F, and our room has a fan going as well. It’s pretty comfortable.

So Wednesday night I noticed Apollo was sleeping more. Still eating, drinking, and going potty like usual. I thought maybe he’s bored since we aren’t going outside to play and run (like he always does), or maybe the heat is making him tired (even though he hasn’t been out much, so I don’t see how it could be heat exhaustion or anything like that). Even when he went outside, he just did his potty and came back. and he walked pretty slowly. usually he digs holes, wants to chew on sticks, or run around. but he genuinely is showing no interest.

So Thursday morning comes around and I notice he’s still acting weird. He usually barks and whines at me, letting me know he wants to go out. But he doesn’t. Instead, he kisses me (which he does every morning), and I had to get up and open the door, which he followed after that. I took him for a quick walk around the block to let him do his business. Then he had his breakfast, some water, and he wanted to go back to bed. He stayed in my bed until 1:15pm. I had to get him up at that point. He stayed up a bit, greeted my family, then napped after his dinner. This is when I noticed his eyes looked weird. They were blood shot, glossy, and he just had this tired look in his eyes.

I told my partner that his behaviour has been weird, and we agreed that if Friday came and there was no improvement in his energy, we would take him to the vet that day.

So Friday came around, and same thing. I woke up to him licking my face. Then he went back to bed. Which is very weird, since he is super active and excited to start the day. He usually cries and barks at me if I don’t get up right away.

So i took him outside, he did his business. He ate breakfast, drank his water. And he went right back to bed.

We took him to the vet Friday evening, at 5pm. The vet took his temperature via ear, and it was normal. The vet listened to his heart rate, and said his heart was beating at the lower end of normal, and she heard a sinus arrhythmia. So of course I’m concerned about that. Ultimately, the vet gave us some tests to consider. A florescent corneal stain (i hope i said that right), full blood chemistry and blood count test, ECG, and x-rays in case he ate any foreign bodies. If I could have gotten all the tests done, I would. But we just don’t have $1700 laying around right now, and the vet agreed that if he had some impaction inside, he would likely be vomiting, or issues with pooping.

We ended up getting him the blood testing and the ECG. which both were normal. the vet said his heart was beating fast during the ECG, and could no longer hear the arrhythmia. she told us that she would want to do the ECG while he’s on gabapentin, which we agreed we would come back for. The blood work was normal though.

She said his organs were fine, blood count was fine, and nothing pointed to anything being wrong. When she called for the bloodwork, she did mention marijuana. No one in my house smokes or uses marijuana, though our neighbours do all the time. I don’t know if that would be the issue. The vet also said it would likely leave his system in 24 hours. So the advice given was to monitor him, and come back if he gets worse.

I don’t know what to do. I hate seeing him like this, and not having a cure or fix for him. He just seems sad, tired and not himself. I’m worried sick and don’t know what to do.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

EDIT: after his vet visit, i gave him some chicken breast with his food. he ate it no problem, and he just drank a bunch of water right now. he has been sleeping pretty much since at got home though.

2nd update:

We took him to the pet store with us to get his dog food (and i got him a toy). this is him. also before anyone asks, he is not wearing a shock collar, it’s a life360 pet tracker!

https://imgur.com/a/Z5NCSvC

4 year old mini schnauzer, Male, 15 lbs, just got over knee cough otherwise healthy dog. These black spots appeared on the back of my dogs neck. I noticed when rubbing him. He seems like they may be sensitive if I touch them. I attached the picture here

https://imgur.com/a/3VPaWXc

What could they be? Does he need to get into the vet immediately?

My dog has been shaking her head lately and scratching at her ears. I think that this could be something that is a result of allergies but this is the first time that she has experienced any of these symptoms.

I put antimax ointment (antibiotic/steroid/anesthetic) on it and will keep an eye on it but I would like to know if this is something more serious that cannot wait until next Friday when we see the vet.

Does anyone have any experience with a spot like this on their dog?

My Shih Tzu’s right eye suddenly changed today. It looks much more prominent than the other eye, there’s pink tissue protruding from the inner corner, and it almost looks like the eye is stuck looking to the side or isn’t moving normally. At first, it also seemed like the pupil was much larger than the other eye.
He’s still blinking, and the eye doesn’t look extremely cloudy in person, but it definitely looks abnormal and has me really worried.
Has anyone experienced something similar with their dog? If so, what did it end up being? I’m just looking to hear about others’ experiences.

my 2.5 year old cat has had 5 UTIS since she was around 7 months old. Her most recent one she is experiencing now (after only 2 weeks of being UTI free after her last round of antibiotics). Looking back, i remember the vet thought this ultrasound looked weird. But didn’t explore any further. Is this “thing” dividing the bladder normal? This ultrasound was taken when she was 7 months old and i’m wondering if she has some sort of weird anatomy that leaves her prone to UTIs.

My male cat, whom is about 12 years old, was recently diagnosed with diabetes after a vet visit we had about a month or so ago. He’s been prescribed two units of insulin every 12 hours, which my family and I have been diligently attending to, but the problem is— he has had no improvements to his health. I know this cat like the back of my hand, and he has made seemingly zero improvement health wise, he sleeps on the ground/hides in the basement (when he was formally a snuggle bug who lived to take up space in someone else’s bed) he’s not vocal anymore like he used to be, he generally has no energy, he doesn’t groom himself anymore & has dandruff, and he continues to drink copious amounts of water and urinate constantly. His urine smells absolutely foul, and once his litter box is used more than twice, he will go to the bathroom on the floor. We have three different litter boxes for him and he still chooses to urinates inappropriately if his box isn’t scooped three times a day, we have tried to switch to wet food and other more formulated kibble to better his health and he refuses EVERYTHING else aside from his original kibble, I have (not exaggerating) tried over 20 different kinds of food and he has turned his nose up at every single one. I am really scared that he’s giving up or we are hitting the point of his life where he’s ready to go, and I just want to know if anyone has any advice at all on what to do. We have another vet visit scheduled for next week, but I’m not sure what questions to come in with or if I should put together a list of symptoms, but they were the same as last time and they didn’t have many answers for us. Please help.

I’m not sure what happened but a couple days ago my dogs foot got swollen and he had trouble walking on it. We watched him and the next day he was walking fine. The day after that he had an open sore on his foot. He’s walking and acting normal but I’m not sure what it is. He licks it a lot so we put a cone on it. Should I take him to the vet or is this something that will solve on its own?

I just saw this thing in my cat’s paw and i am very worried. She’s not limping or anything, i guess she’s not in pain because i touched that area and she did not complain. Can anyone here help me please? 🥹

Hello everybody I need help identifying what is wrong with my cat because the vet hasn’t helped. For starters my cat Ginger is a female long haired Scottish straight. I’ve had her ever since she was a baby kitten and she’ll be 6 this year. Because she is a Scottish straight she had a flat face and so ik this doesn’t really help my situation. I’d also like to mention she has never been sick or showed absolutely 0 sinus symptoms in her entire life up until this started. She’s never even been to the vet except for when she got neutered and got her shots. She started showing symptoms late November of last year. It just started out as sneezing and a tiny runny nose but nothing too serious. I took her to the vet and they gave her some steroid and antibiotic shots and sent me home with lysine powder. (Still using it to this day btw and hasn’t done shit) over time nothing worked and I was still seeing the same vet and they proscribed me liquid medicine and gave her more shots. Nothing worked. I eventually took her to a different vet and the new vet basically told me everything the other vet was giving her was bullshit and it was only temporary fix stuff. So he reassured me that what he was gonna give her would last for months and that I wouldn’t even need any liquid medicine or anything he’d just give her this one shot and boom she’s better. It also didn’t do shit and he claimed she had fleas which she never had. Sooo I took her to a 3rd vet!! Over the span of 2 months I got her x-Rey’s, blood work, and countless shots and liquid medication to give her at home and absolutely NOTHING worked! At the beginning of all of this the first vet told me it was a respiratory infection and that it was common in cats with small faces. The 3rd vet confirmed through the x-Ray’s that her lungs were really healthy matter of fact and that all her insides and kidneys looked good. When this all started she was living with my other parent while I was with at other parents house and she wasn’t being tended too as well as she should have. She lost half a pound which for her only weighing 6 pounds originally was really bad according to the vet. I felt terrible but she has since gained the weight back and in a much better home situation. I stopped taking her to the vet about 3 months ago due to no answers for any vet and having no more money to spend. I am 18 freshly out of high school and my dad has been my only form of financial help throughout this issue with my cat but we have both spend thousands of dollars combined and we are no longer able to afford that. As of today she is super snotty and sneezes on absolutely every surface of my room. She also does this backwards cough thing (video displayed above) that the last vet told me was due to her trying to get more air in because she was having a hard time breathing. Since this started I have given her steamy showers and started using a humidifier in my room. As well as limiting the amount of coldness in my room. I have pictures as well that I will post in comments if possible. I need help please!! It hurts me seeing her suffer every day when I have tried everything I can do help.

24, United States, No vet yet this is my second day with her, I just recently adopted a cat. The shelter didn’t report any medical abnormalities. She has started doing this thing where she has one big cough, like she’s about to have a hairball, followed by mini gags and jerking her head forward almost like a rooster. She then immediately returns to normal behavior. It happens about every 3-4 hours. Could she just have a hairball stuck? Has anyone experienced this before or know the cause? Please help! She is female, 5 years old.