r/AskVetAnimals

Just noticed today that my boy Kevin appears to have double canine on the bottom. He’s 6 months old. Right side is pretty swollen but not tender. They don’t seem to bother him. Wondering how common this is, and how long I should wait before having vet check it out.

Thanks!

Update: Vet is very booked but managed to squeeze an appointment tomorrow evening. Hopefully no dog braces.

I was out at night when a very friendly stray dog got all over me. I noticed like half an hour later that he left these scratches with his nails.

The scratches are a little raised

I didn't have any bleeding but the marks are as you can see. Do I need to get vaccinated?

My cat began coughing, and we took her to the vet in May. After doing the xray and some blood tests, the doctor concluded she has chronic bronchitis and needs to be on life long nebulization. Budesonide nebulization, for whenever her coughing becomes severe. And was prescribed 28 days of Doxycycline. They said that the blood tests weren't indicating clearly whether she has a viral.

I changed her litter to as dust free as possible (pine pellets) and ensured my environment to become as dust free as possible.

Yet her condition didn't improve and it kept worsening in fact.

So I took her to another vet in August.

After examining, the vet said that she's been misdiagnosed. It's just bacterial bronchitis and not allergic bronchitis. They didn't find any fluid build up as well. And checked the medication history and said that even though she was given antibiotics it wasn't the right one. She should have been given Amoxicillin.

She did a 5 day course of Amoxicillin. And her coughing reduced significantly. From coughing 4-5 times a day with every cough fit lasting from a minute to 5-6 minutes, it reduced to coughing once in 3-4 days, to a duration of only a few minutes or sometimes even less.

However, her coughing didn't heal completely. This doctor says it's normal for them to cough once in 5 days or even once a day.

But I don't find this normal. Now she sometimes coughs once in 3 days, or sometimes 3-4 times a day.

Where I stay, vets don't really have a good review, and these two vets were the best of all.

I am distressed looking at my cat's condition, I don't know what's the next step, or what's the correct medication or diagnosis.

Any help is appreciated, please help me out, thank you 🙏🏽

Hello! I (32f) just noticed my cats (7f) right ear is very red and crusty on the fold. It is just in this area.

I’m very concerned for her, as well as concerned that it’s something that my four month old baby could also catch (our cat loves the baby and is always trying to sit on the rocking chair, in her stroller, etc).

I’ve attached photos, but my cat is very wiggly and it was hard to get a decent one. I do plan on calling and taking her to the vet (though we certainly cannot afford it), but it’s nighttime here and I’m up panicked over this.

Does anyone have any idea what this could be? We are in the United States and my cat is spayed.

(So sorry I posted this twice, I’m so stressed and forgot to add photos!)

Our dog had a foreign object blocking it's intestines. Here is the full story with symptoms, diagnosis, remedies and the culprit. She's a 18 month old Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Jump to "culprit / cause" if you just want to know the outcome. Be advised of some nasty images if you have a sensitive gut.

Day 1:

Situation: The morning started out with my dog vomiting. The contents included a couple pieces of food from the night before, coupled with white foam. We tried giving her some treats and water, incase this was related to an empty belly or her eating grass. The vomiting persisted, and anything that went in, eventually came out together with some bile.

Vet visit 1: The vet did an ultrasound and bloodwork. The bloodwork showed elevated UREA, which means that there's excess waste product in the blood and can point to some kidney issues. Her WBC, MON# and GRA# were also elevated, which points to the body fighting off an infection. And her RBC, HGB and HCT were elevated, which points to dehydration. All the organs looked normal in the ultrasound. Their guess was that she had some kind of stomach bug. They sent us home with anti-vomit pills and told us to come back if there was no improvement within 48 hours.

Day 3:

Situation: The vomiting had continued throughout day 2 and 3. The dog was still drinking water, she would accept homemade broth in a syringe, and she could still pee. But when I tried to force-feed her mushed up food, but it would eventually come back up. She also started vomiting pure bile on occasion. If your dog vomits dark green liquid with specs of black, that is bile. Bile is produced in the gallbladder and it helps brake down the contents of the stomach. Bile also smells bad and stains fabric.

Vet visit 2: The vet prescribed more medication, but recommends more check-ups the following day if the situation didn't improve.

Day 4:

Situation: No improvement.

Vet visit 3 & 4: Our regular vet kept her for the day and administered fluids through an IV, but sent us to another clinic in the afternoon, as their x-ray tech was out. The second clinic did the usual checks, took x-rays as well as another ultrasound. Neither screening showed anything obvious, so yet another vet came, re-examined the x-rays and together the two did a 3rd, very thorough ultrasound. No obstructions, and no kinked intestines. All they found was that the stomach and gallbladder were enlarged, and the lining of both organs were inflamed. Since they couldn't see any obstruction, they suspected that it might be some virus or inflammation. May I add that our dog kindly vomited bile at both vet clinics so they could experience the situation first hand. More medication. Return the next day for check-up.

Day 5:

Situation: I fed the dog a little bit of mushed up and diluted food through a syringe. Same with the meds. She drank some water and still peed, so the kidney-bladder connection was still functioning. And there was no more vomiting.

Vet visit 5: Our regular vet had also checked the x-rays and ultrasound images. She gave our dog a once-over, was happy to hear that the vomiting had stopped, and home we went.

Situation: Soon after returning home from the vet, our dog started vomiting bile again. This went on through the night and early morning the following day. It was so much dark green vomit. It looked like the scene from The Exorcist. But she kept drinking some water after every throw-up.

Day 6:

Situation: After the vomiting had stopped, we syringe fed her small amounts of watered-down food, and continue this during day 7.

Day 7:

Situation: She didn't vomit all day, and we thought things might be turning around. But then she started vomiting again around midnight, and continue through out the night. She hadn't been able to keep food down for 7 full days at this point, she was barely awake and was basically a small pile of skin and bones. We stayed up with her through the night crying and holding her.

Day 8:

Vet visit 6: We're at the vet as soon as they open. They immediately hook her up to an IV and schedule an emergency surgery. 4th ultrasound only showed that the intestine immediately after the stomach was enlarged, so the doctor opened her up. They removed the blockage, along with 40cm/16in of damaged intestine. I didn't even want to put her on the scale when we came in that morning, but after receiving IV fluids, she was still down to 10.2 kg, 2.6 kg (5.7lbs) below her usual 12.8 kg.

Culprit / Cause:

The doctors pulled out at fully intact piece of beef trachea. These are sold as dog-treats, and our dog must have found one on one of our walks, and swallowed it whole. It probably happened a while back, as the trachea-piece is hollow, and could have allowed for digested food to pass through for some time. Eventually it clogged up with hair, and caused a full blockage. A full length trachea would have forced the dog to chew it up, but these small pieces are extremely dangerous as a dog can swallow them whole. The trachea is mostly made from cartilage which is hard, but doesn't show up on x-rays, so they go completely undetected. The soft tissue of the trachea was eventually dissolved which exposed the hard and sharp burrs that are arranged like threads on the exterior walls. These burrs dug into the intestines and kept the piece stuck, unlike a smoother object that potentially could have passed through the digestive tract.

Conclusion:

DON'T BY THESE TRACHEA-PIECES FOR YOUR DOG! It has the potential to kill your, or someone else's dog.

If your dog vomits a dark green liquid that has the color of grass, but there's no grass in it, it is vomiting bile. This is a sign of some type of obstruction. Our vet had recently performed a surgery on a bulldog that had a "false-obstruction", and after massaging the intestines, everything functioned as normal again. This is why our vet was hesitant to cut our dog open right away.

Find the culprit! Me giving our dog anti-vomiting pills, then force-feeding her, probably enlarged her intestine, then pushed the blockage further down, causing further damage. Her intestine could even have ruptured and that would have been it. Broth was ok. But it's also hard to see your pet wither away infront of your eyes. I also asked the vet at some point if they had a scope camera. They did not. I wish I would have searched for a vet that could do an optic exam of her stomach and intestines as this would have discovered the blockage.

Aftermath:

Our dog spend the first 36 hours post surgery with around the clock veterinary supervision. After that she's been coming home for the night, while spending an additional 3 days at the vet. Thankfully she is recovering, and hopefully she will get a full release after tomorrows check-up. Then another 2 weeks of painkillers and antibiotics before she gets her stitches removed. She might also loose some of her off-leashing privileges, which is a bummer since she's non-dog-reactive, is the sweetest dog ever and even gets along with cats! Hope this story helps someone.

Do you guys notice the sort of clown like eye my cat has? He’s had it for a few years now, and it seems to very slowly be getting bigger. Is this a cause for concern? The vet did not seem to concerned about it. It definitely started small and has been growing. He does not show signs of discomfort nor do his pupils have issues it seems.

Sorry, he won’t let me take a very clear picture. But what could this possibly be?