r/DogHealth

Hi everyone! Looking for some advice because we’re a little stumped.
My 8-year-old pit mix has pretty severe nasal hyperkeratosis. We’ve tried just about every remedy and nasal balm out there, with very little improvement — even antibiotics.
Recently, she stayed at my parents’ house for 4 nights, and when she came home, her nose looked almost completely healed! Obviously, we were thrilled, but it also made us realize there must be something in or around our home that’s triggering it.
Nothing changed while she was away in terms of her food, and since then we’ve been trying to eliminate anything we can think of. We’re on well water, we’ve removed air fresheners/fragrances, and we’ve been extremely mindful of anything she could possibly be getting into in our fenced-in yard.
Unfortunately, after being home for about 3 days, the severe dryness started coming back.
Has anyone experienced anything similar or discovered an environmental trigger for nasal hyperkeratosis? At this point, we’re desperately trying to figure out what could be different between our house and my parents’ house. Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
As I mentioned, we’ve tried just about every topical product/nasal balm out there, so we’re especially interested in possible environmental causes or things around the home that we may be overlooking.

>!Just noticed it looks like an elbow callus opened up? It's not avidly bleeding or leaking puss, but there's a brown dot in the middle? We cleaned it and are keeping it dry. Does this need to be seen by a vet?!<

(Context of the photo, i took this picture while a (2?) weeks post op from surgery.)

Our Dog, Lucy is a Black-mouth cur (F 10/12?) has been loosing weight over the last week and me and my mom noticed that her ribs are faintly beginning to show.

She gets 3 meals a day/3 scoops of Sensitive-stomach brand kibble and 3 probiotic chews a day. I think this may be relevant, she’s been trying eating her own poop almost everyday. I have to supervise to make sure she doesn’t do it.

I’m planning on talking to my mom regardless tonight about, but any advice is appreciated.

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.

Good afternoon I am asking for advice, after two days of vomiting I took my dog to the vet only to had to leave her there in critical care due to her kidneys not working properly.
At the very beginning the vet suspected leptospirosis and the day and a half she stayed at the vets I went overboard cleaning disinfecting etc.

She was discharged and sent home with meds and a kidney prescription special good, one week later her lab work presented a big improvement but I had to maintain her on the special diet. My other dog was fine.

What do you think could have caused this episode?

They dont eat human food, just their kibble and I rarely feed them treats.
I even avoid cooking with garlic and onion as much I can

I suspect she ate something but i maintain my yard clean. I am at loss. Do you have any idea what could have caused this?

Because I cant find the reason. And I fear this might happen again.

my dog just started doing this about a month ago and its so far only gotten worse. we’ve done bloodwork, and an xray but so far the vet hasn’t found anything wrong with her. (we put her on allergy medicine 2 weeks ago and that didn’t fix anything) she breathes like this constantly, and it gets worse while she sleeps.
shes 7 years old, mutt (about the size of a beagle), and 24 lbs.
it pains me to see my dog like this so please if you could give me any advice or possible diagnosis that would be great.

My senior female pomchi i just noticed this on her arm should I take her to the vet and make sure it’s not cancerous? Does it look like a normal age growth?? What do you think we have bank accounts with savings for the dogs but I don’t wanna take them unnecessarily because I used to project my anxiety onto them and bring them to the vet for every little thing and it costed me a pretty penny

Hi! I noticed a small bump next to the main paw pad on my Pembroke Welsh Corgi’s front paw. It is about 5–7 mm, pink/red and smooth, with a small dark spot on the surface. It is located beside the pad rather than on the weight-bearing surface.
I’m not sure how long it has been there. I noticed it while cleaning his paws. Does this look more like an interdigital cyst/furuncle, histiocytoma, foreign-body reaction, or something else?
He is a male Pembroke Welsh Corgi, around 2 years old, approximately 14 kg, neutered.
I understand that a diagnosis cannot be made from a photo — I’m mainly trying to understand what it resembles and whether it warrants a vet appointment soon.

11-year-old Belgian Malinois with severe anemia/thrombocytopenia — looking for advice and similar experiences
About two weeks ago, my 11-year-old Belgian Malinois, Baloo, suddenly started refusing his food. At first, I thought it was because I had switched his food from his normal chicken formula to a salmon formula.
A couple days later, I noticed he was panting more than usual and had a runny nose. When I got home from work, he was shaking his head and walking a little crooked, so I made a vet appointment because I thought he had an ear infection.
The vet checked his ears, which were fine, and ran bloodwork. His CBC came back very abnormal.
Red blood cells:
RBC: 4.37 M/µL — low
HCT: 29.3% — low
HGB: 11.6 g/dL — low
MCV: 67 fL — normal
MCHC: 39.5 g/dL — slightly high
Reticulocytes: 145.1 K/µL — high
Reticulocyte %: 3.3%
The analyzer interpreted this as “anemia with reticulocytosis — likely regenerative anemia.”
White blood cells:
WBC: 31.27 K/µL — high
Neutrophils: 0.90 K/µL — very low
Lymphocytes: 27.6 K/µL — extremely high
Monocytes: 2.31 K/µL — high
Eosinophils: 0.14
Basophils: 0
Platelets:
PLT: 47 K/µL — extremely low
The vet put him on 20 mg of steroids once a day. We were initially considering tick-borne disease, but his vet has since told me this isn’t Lyme disease.
The vet has discussed possibilities including blood loss/internal bleeding, destruction of red blood cells, immune-mediated disease, and cancer/blood disorders, but we don’t have a definitive diagnosis yet.
What makes this so incredibly difficult is everything else happening in my life.
I recently moved to a new state after my divorce, and I don’t really know anyone here. Right now, Baloo is pretty much all I have. He’s my best friend, and I’m absolutely terrified.
The vet basically told me there isn’t much I can do right now other than keep him comfortable and spend time with him. I’ve taken this entire week off work to be with him, but I have to go back Tuesday. With how wobbly he is and the risk of him falling, I don’t feel comfortable leaving him home alone.
I’m completely overwhelmed and honestly don’t know what I’m supposed to do.
I also recently lost my best friend to suicide, and I’m already struggling to process that loss. Now I’m sitting here wondering if I’m prolonging things with Baloo because I’m not ready to let him go, or if he still has meaningful time left with me.
I feel guilty either way. I’m scared that if I let him go too soon, I’ll regret taking away time he could have had. But I’m also terrified that I’m keeping him here because I can’t handle losing him.
The steroids seem to be helping. He has a great appetite, is drinking, using the bathroom normally, and his stool looks normal. His gums are light pink. He’s still interacting with me and seems comfortable when he’s lying with me. His breathing is still concerning and seems rough/fast, though.
I’m not necessarily looking for someone to diagnose him over the internet. I’m hoping to hear from people who have experienced something similar, especially dogs with regenerative anemia and very low platelets.
What questions should I be asking my vet? What tests would you ask about next? And how did you know when it was time to let your dog go?
I’m completely lost right now. I don’t know if I’m looking for advice, someone who has been through something similar, or just someone to tell me I’m not completely fucking crazy for feeling this way.
Thank you for reading and for any guidance you can offer. ❤️

What is this on my dogs leg? It’s like a scabbed over rough area. Skin looks irritated. She isn’t nipping at it too much or seem to care if I inspect it. What can I do to take care of it?

My gorgeous Greyhound has a few blood blisters on his butt and legs, he’s had them since I got him 5 years ago. He’s got a nasty one on his belly about 1cm that bleeds but comes and goes, I feel terrible for not acting sooner and having it checked. It’s long weekend here so I’m waiting on finding a surgery date. The vet did say it could be the benign type hemangio, but she wasn’t too convinced. He’s so well jand I’m really good shape. I’m just wishing someone else has had some good outcome with this nasty condition or a similar looking blood blister?