r/PetAdvice

My husband and i got married last month. i have lived with my grandma for 8 years and he has lived with his dad for 3. weeks are looking for a place to live because we are having a baby early next year. He has 4 big dogs and i am deathly allergic to dogs, so it’s been made pretty clear i can’t live with them and they will have to stay with his dad. I have two cats who are truly my only source of happiness in the world. He was never against it but we got into an argument and now he’s saying if his dogs can’t come then neither can my cats. i can’t have dogs in my home for medical reasons, he always said he loves my cats but out of spite he’s telling they have to stay. i don’t know what im supposed to do as my grandma is getting older and i don’t trust her to watch them on her own. i hate feeling like i have to choose being miserable one way or the other and it just doesn’t seem fair. what should i do ?

So I have a cat. He is about seven years old. He is so sweet and so loving he is super super cuddly and much of a velcro cat. I moved into my best friend‘s home back at the end of March and they have two dogs and another cat and he has had a really hard time adjusting and I don’t know how to help him because I don’t wanna keep him trapped in my room, but he fights with the other cat and hisses and swipes at the dogs when they come too close and I don’t know how to make him and them get along. Any advice would be super super helpful. I really don’t want to have to rehome him because he’s been my baby for his whole life.

Hello. I have a 8 month old puppy. He's a male Golden Retriever. Ever since we got him he had a habit of biting and scratching but lately it's gotten very bad. He has been destroying the furniture and has completely ripped apart half of the bed that we sleep on. Help. How do I stop this. He also bites ankles and feet when he wants my slippers, need that to stop too.

I adopted my cat in april from a cat cafe. The history they gave us is that she was originally from a hoarding situation in a trailer, and bounced around a few foster cares before coming there. For context, we live in an apartment with 2 floors. A few weeks after we adopted her, we noticed that she would yowl at the top of the stairs, loud enough that it would echo around the entire apt. We would go up to check on her and everything would be fine. This turned into her yowling coming down the stairs, and her yowling up until the point she was directly in front of us. In the first few months we also kept her in the office, door closed, just for nights so she wouldn’t be too worried in a bigger space without us.

We figured she would just settle into our routine; I work from home and my partner works in a school for about 8 hours. In the mornings, my partner would feed her and start their morning routine. She yowls incessantly through this. I would hang out with her after I woke up, and try to start my routine. The minute she sees me she yowls. She would come downstairs, notice my partner is missing, and yowl at the couch. At nights, if my partner would go to bed before me, she would come downstairs to yowl at the couch. We figured this was some form of social anxiety, so first we tried pheromones, then cat calming treats, then completely ignoring her when she yowled, to no avail.

Ultimately, we took her to the vet, and they put her on 5 mgs clomipramine for about 2 months. This made her quite sleepy. She stopped yowling at the stairs, however continued to yowl whenever you would come to see her or vice versa. She also began to seclude herself in the office all day. When we would try to bring her downstairs she would go back upstairs. We took her back to the vet and they recommended weening her off the clomipramine, starting with half the pill to see if that brings some of her energy back.

In the week and a half she has been on half the dose we have noticed she has began to come back downstairs by herself, but still yowls incessantly until she can see you. she will still meow as loud as she can if you try to pet her, but is fine with pets and actually wants them. We both completely understand some cats are just temperamental, and some cats are also chatty, but the volume and the amount that she meows is really unbearable. She is fully capable of meowing at a normal volume. That isn’t the problem.

It seems like she can’t help herself which really worries both of us. Has anyone else had an experience with a really loud cat? What did you do? We just want her to feel safe, and like she doesn’t have to constantly yowl for attention or to show she’s excited.

My sweet little girl DIED in their Emergency room after a 7‑HOUR DELAY in escalating her care at paramount 24 hour hospital in calgary NW .

After reviewing the medical records, the radiologist believed she might have had an infection that was never treated. She also had a trachea collapse, but they never addressed it or tried nasal oxygen. She was in their care from 7 am until around 4 pm, when she died. Her vital signs were failing for hours before they took action. By the time the general vet working in the emergency finally tried to take action, she went into cardiac arrest. She arrived at 7am in need of critical care and it was never initiated!!!!! Beware the vet in the emergency isnt trained for critical care and they don’t have one on site. NO CRITICAL CARE VET ON SITE.

They repeatedly delayed care to talk about money. I told the vet to do whatever was needed and that I would pay, and every time they asked for money, I paid. Even so, they spent an hour talking about the cost instead of treating her, and kept calling to ask for more payments through links before moving to the next step. Instead of trusting that I would pay, they wasted precious time while she was dying.
This is wrong when your beloved pet is depending on them to save her. I blame them for her death. She could have been saved if they had acted in time!! When i was holding her dead body and crying my eyes out, the front desk girl came and wanted to do paperwork. They have caused me and my family trauma and pain we will never recover from. Dont bring your beloved pet here.

I have been a dog sitter for a few years now and have only ever had to take a dog to the vet once before for a uti. I’ve been watching a dog for a few days who lives at a house with a large garden and many fruit trees/plants that are currently in season and on the instructions sheet the owner mentioned that the dog might try to eat the fruit so feel free to drag/bribe her away. I have removed chunks of apples from her the dog’s mouth a few times up to this point, but the real problem is the massive grape vines they have suspended over the walk and driveway. I know that grapes are bad for dogs and have been diligent about hurrying her through the driveway for walks (there is no other way out/in the door except under the grape vines; the other door to their house requires a key to open even from the inside or else I would have avoided the area all together).

Unfortunately, a couple of nights ago very late when we were out for a last pee before bed, I momentarily forgot about the grapes while tossing the poop in the garbage and look up at the stars for a second. It was dark and I didn’t realize the dog had her nose down until after about 5 seconds at which point I yanked her back by her harness, but it was too late. She had clearly gotten to some of the many fallen bits. I did not realize how serious a poison grapes were until after my immediate research which obviously led me to calling a local 24 hour emergency vet who advised that I bring her in immediately to induce vomiting. Of course I rushed there and was able to stay with this very anxious dog the whole time, and fortunately my estimated number (5-6 small grapes max) was consistent with what they were able to get up. Based on the dog’s size, the vet said that she was confident this was not enough to be toxic to her, so the only charge is for the visit and the vomit inducing injection.

I texted the owner extensive information both about what happened as well as all of the vet’s information/instructions and the next morning I received a text thanking me for taking care of the dog and informing me that they were not aware of how serious grapes were for dogs and that they would be taking her out the other door while they are in season. I have been even more obsessively careful now after this scare since I can’t use the other door (no key), but this really feels like it could have been avoided by me if I had just been paying better attention and not dallying that night. I pride myself on my diligence, and I did not hesitate to take her to the vet, but now that the owners have told me that she has definitely eaten them before and been fine I am wondering if they think I overreacted/will be annoyed about the vet bill (which is almost exactly the same as what they owe me for their whole trip). Should I offer to waive the payment to me and have that money be used to pay the er vet bill since I knew that the grapes were bad (I swear I didn’t realize how bad) and let her eat some anyways? I don’t want to lose this client, as the dog is so wonderful and it would feel like such an utter failure on my part (it already does but this would be even worse). I’m just not sure how to proceed here.

(I have OCD and have not been able to stop ruminating about this; please let me know if this is just me being crazy)

Edit: Thank you all for your insight. I am going to offer a discount on my rate for my mistake, but leave the vet bill to them. I know that I made the right decision by taking the dog to the vet, but it’s good to know that no one else is questioning that part, especially from owners who have commented (I always want to know what I can be doing better from the owners perspective so I can be better). I will continue to educate myself and learn from the part that was my own fault. Luckily, the vet left notes in the discharge paperwork about grape toxicity so the owners can alter their routine accordingly to mitigate any future issues for this dog.

Edit 2: So I did what I said that I would do and gave a small discount on my rate, but they got back to me stating that they think it is fair that I pay half of the vet bill because I did not call for their consent though they understand that I was “acting conservatively”. The vet that I brought her to as well as the ones here have all confirmed that I was not being conservative as it was a very serious situation. I informed her that even if she had said she would not pay for the vet beforehand I still would have brought her in and payed because I care deeply about her dog. I said she could pay me what she thought was fair and politely requested that she not reach out to me to watch her dog again. I urged her to consider training the dog if they aren’t willing to get rid of the grapes altogether. Perhaps I worded my response a little more strongly, highlighting the danger of the situation they left me in, mentioning their negligence in choosing to be ignorant. I love their dog, but I cannot work for people who don’t treat their dog’s health with proper gravity.

Does anyone use a seresto collar on their dog and also have a baby or small children? Our vet switched us from an oral flea/tick medication to the collar due to our 5 year old lab having a seizure recently.

I didn’t give it much thought initially but now I’m paranoid about the medicine being on my dogs skin/fur. He sleeps on our couch and bed and we obviously pet him and I can’t stop thinking about touching him and then touching our newborn daughter. I worry what adverse effects this could have on her.

Has anyone dealt with this before? Is there any other option that might be safer but still effective? I’m currently waiting on a call back from the vet.

So my cat, while she goes crazy at night, has gotten into the habit of being lazy even when she play hunts. She gets MEAN right before dinner. To burn extra energy and make dinner a chase reward I’ve started opening the can and then running away from her, then lifting it to her cat tree and back down a few times. She mews of course and her tail gets poffy. Then she eats. She hasn’t swated at me or anything. Is this bad for her? Or abuse?

So my cat (12?F) has been having some recent medical issues, mainly coughing, we have already taken her to the vet a few weeks ago they found no issues but they still gave us medicine which is now done and while that did actually help for a while, when she was on it reducing her hacking into the cat equivalent of clearing your throat but the day after she got off the medication she was throwing up what looks to be part of a plastic bag, she also coughed up what seems to be a mixture of bile and blood on my white sheets about a day later and then on the same day she had coughed up blood she also threw up more plastic, that all happened from the 12-14 she stopped her medication on the 10th and was on it for just under 2 weeks, she still has her cough but we haven’t found anymore plastic or blood but her cough is just as bad as when it started weeks ago despite going down while on medication 

Now the vet issue, we don’t really want to take her back, the vet takes about 2 and a half hours to drive to and that’s without traffic issues, there are days in the summer where it can take upwards of 4 hours to get to the town that has the vet and we really only spend an hour of that driving so she would be spending at least an hour in a hot car screaming her head off and trying to break out of the carrier she is already very close to completely breaking through 

We also really don’t want her to get any surgeries, she’s still bitter about being neutered, and if she were to get a surgery we would be unable to bring her home right away, it would also probably be bad to drive for that long after surgery, so we would keep her at our rental in the town the vet is in, our rental that doesn’t allow pets and would be an extremely unfamiliar and uncomfortable environment

we really don’t want to take her to the vet again just to not them to not find the issue again, taking her to the vet is a massive commitment we just aren’t positive we should do right away, currently we are monitoring her a lot, shes behaving like her normal self, no energy shifts or anything like that but we are still very concerned, money is not an issue but time is, should we try and take her or just wait it out?

I have always believed that one of my cats was given to me too young and missed some important socialization skills. He has always been a biter, but his behavior has never been anywhere near this severe.

About a week before I gave birth in February, he suddenly started attacking our other cat. These were full-on fights with rolling, fur flying, claws, scratching, and biting. They had lived together peacefully for six years and had never had any issues with aggression toward each other before this. I assumed the behavior was related to all the changes happening in our home, especially with a new baby coming. Surprisingly, though, both cats have been completely fine around our son, and the aggressive cat has never shown any aggression toward him.

The fighting stopped for about two weeks, but then started again and eventually became almost daily. Sometimes there seemed to be a trigger, such as me telling our other cat “no” when he was chewing on plastic, but other times there was absolutely no obvious trigger. The strangest part is what happens afterward. About 5–20 minutes after a fight, the aggressive cat will often try to lick, groom, or cuddle with the other cat, even though the other cat is understandably still upset and wants nothing to do with him. It almost seems as though he completely forgets that the fight just happened.

We’ve taken both cats to the vet, and they found no underlying physical health issues. We’ve also tried completely separating them, doing slow reintroductions, and putting the aggressive cat on anti-anxiety medications with feliway all around the home. Unfortunately, none of these things have solved the problem. They fought again only three days after their most recent reintroduction.

After that last fight, which was about two weeks ago, we decided to keep them completely separated. It isn’t fair to our other cat to continue exposing him to attacks, but we also know that keeping both cats confined and separated indefinitely isn’t a realistic or fair long-term solution.

Unfortunately, the aggression has now started extending to people. He has attacked my boyfriend three separate times while my boyfriend was simply refilling the food and water dishes. We are extremely worried about the safety of our six-month-old baby and my boyfriend’s mother, who lives with us.

We have been to a behaviorist and a neurologist. Neither was able to identify a clear trigger or underlying reason for the behavior. The neurologist essentially told us that this isn’t our fault and that we’ve done everything we reasonably can. We’ve also contacted every rescue, sanctuary, and organization we could find in our area, but none of them are willing or able to take him.

At this point, the vet has recommended euthanasia and I hate it. I feel like a killer. We love him and don’t want to give up on him, but we also can’t risk someone getting seriously hurt, especially with a baby involved now.

Hello...

My small 10 month old corgi jumped on my table in my backyard and ate my boyfriends entire joint... he said he only took a few hits from it and now her breath smells like weed and the joint is completely gone.. will she be okay?

I’m thinking of getting a lovely new dog to keep me company in my new apartment
I’d love to get a dog that dosent cost lots to take care of but i can still spoil every once in a while. Preferably small so I can hold them and give hugs.
What’s the best breeds and what sort of bills can I see payment wise so they stay healthy and have all they need without breaking the band?

Female cat, seal point, 3.5 years old, spayed, 9.2lb. Her name is Bunny.

I'm so worried about my girl :(

A few months ago she had her first little coughing episode, but it only happened once so I thought maybe she just inhaled something. It happened a second time a few months later, then it was once a week for a few weeks. I called the vet because I know coughing in cats can be a symptom of serious issues. I was mainly worried about heart disease, or asthma. They advised I should call for a few days till I could get in for a same day appointment, and a few days later I brought her in.

The vet did an x-ray, and two blood tests that she said would detect heart disease. Blood tests came back negative, and she said she didn't see any asthma on the x-ray, and her heart appeared to be the right size for her age (though she did warn me that was suggestive, hence the blood tests). She did say she saw some irritation on her lungs and she may have "just a little bronchitis". Prescribed 1cc of prednisone twice a day for five days, once a day for five days, once every other day until i run out.

She just had her fourth dose, and she had anorher coughing fit today. It lasted longer and i felt like she coughed harder. It does not sound like asthma to me, based on videos I looked up. I know in humans prednisone works pretty immediately for coughing, is it slower on cats? This is her second episode this week and I'm just sick to my stomach. Would an x-ray show pleural effusion?

Thank you for reading, I know it's a bit rambly, just trying to give as much info as I can.

A few weeks ago my girlfriend and I rescued three street dogs: two sisters, about 5 months old, and one about a year old (Dobby). I already had 2 senior chihuahuas (12-13 years old) and 3 cats at home, and honestly, I didn't fully realize how hard this transition would be until I was in the middle of it.

Right now everyone lives on a rotation — the rescued dogs come out every 2-3 hours to play in the house and yard, then go back to my room with me. But the moments in between are stressful:

The puppies just want to play with the chihuahuas, and the chihuahuas want none of it — they growl, snap, and when the puppies get frustrated they chase them until the poor old guys are cornered and terrified. Dobby gets so worked up around the cats that she cries when she can't reach them. And between the three rescued dogs themselves, play fights sometimes turn into two-against-one, and when I pick one up to break it up, the other two jump at her while I'm holding her.

I feel like I'm constantly on alert, trying to read the room before something escalates. I love these dogs and I want to give them (and my older pets) a calm home, but I don't know if I'm doing this right, or what's normal puppy roughness versus something I need to actually correct now before it becomes a real problem.

In a few months I'm moving in with my girlfriend and taking the three rescued dogs with me, but for now I still live with my parents and just want some peace in the house for everyone — the old dogs, the cats, and the new ones.

Has anyone dealt with something like this? How do you handle introducing rescued dogs into a home with senior dogs and cats? When is rough play "normal" and when does it need to stop? Any advice, even small things, would mean a lot right now.

There are 2 boys (5 and 10) and a girl (6).

They was separated when she first started bleeding, besides a couple of days the boys have been fine and eating etc.

It has been about 2 and a half weeks, trying to reintroduce them leads to the 5 year old following her and the 10 year old tries to hump her.

Separating them again and the 10 year old is settled but the 5 year old is whining, howling etc. I’ve been told that the 5 year old is missing the girl and that’s why he is acting like this. The 5 year old has growled and snapped at the 10 year old both in the house when they have been reintroduced and on a walk together.

The last season she had lasted about 2 and a half weeks too but they was separated once the girl was encouraging the 10 year old and he started reciprocating (there would be a few days where he wouldn’t react). This time they was separated before this happened.

The last season the oldest wasn’t interested at all and the youngest would stay with her all the time.

Is the 5 year olds behaviour all stemming from missing the girl or is the season playing a part?

Was chasing a ball at the park around 4pm, took a turn near a bench and landed awkward. Squealed once, trotted over, but now won't put full weight on his front right foot. Checked between pads for thorns/glass, completely clean. Sleeping on his rug now, ate his dinner fine.

Wait until morning or go out-of-hours tonight?

So… I have 2 female dogs, one a Belgian Malinois (3yrs old), and a German Shepherd (8 months old). We’ve had my Belgian since she was 2 yrs old, and then brought our German when she was 6-7 weeks old or so.

The previous owner of my 3yr old always had her caged up, and hardly had any play time, and let out just to potty, but she is the sweetest dog ever, she’s obedient, she is very smart and just a big sweetheart but is very territorial and does not get along with other dogs, much less cats, and my 8 month, just as you can expect, she’s a wild one, and wants to play and run, and interact with my big one which they did for a couple of months, and we saw a big change in my big one’s behavior in a good way, and they would play around and bite each other in a playful manner not to hurt each other but just to play.

Now my little one is almost as big in size as my old one, and my big one is starting to be bothered by my little one, to the point where she did attack my little one, and I was able to break it off, and my big one sent herself to the cage (She knew what she did was wrong)

My big one is half spayed, she does not have her uterus but she still has her ovaries (which is still causing her to go into heat and we didn’t do this, the previous owner did)

My question is, would my big one go off on my little one because 1)she is almost as big as her and her territorial instincts are kicking in like before 2) Her hormones, or 3)Because she might be sick of something that we don’t know about and she’s hurting and doesn’t want to be bothered and we might need to take her to the vet?

Hi everyone, I’m really struggling with my 1-year-old Jack Russell and I’m hoping someone might have some advice.

She has only recently starting destroying things, which is really confusing because she never did this as a puppy. Over the last few weeks she has suddenly started eating/destroying things like people’s shoes and the skirting boards. She seems to completely ignore me when I tell her to stop, and no matter how many times I tell her off, she goes back to doing it.

I’m especially stressed because I live with my boyfriend’s parents and it’s their house, so I feel awful about her damaging their things.

I’ve tried:

• Shouting/telling her off when I catch her doing it
• Putting her in her crate after she’s done it
• Muzzling her for around 10 minutes after she’s done it
• Giving her lots of toys and things she’s actually allowed to chew

She gets around an hour of walking every day, and she has plenty of bones, toys and Yak chews available to her, but she still chooses to destroy things she shouldn’t.

What I really don’t understand is why this has suddenly started when she never used to do it. Nothing obvious has changed as far as I’m aware.

I know some of the things I’ve tried probably aren’t the best way of dealing with it, but I honestly don’t know what else to do and I’m getting really overwhelmed by it.

Has anyone experienced this with a young Jack Russell? Could this be boredom, adolescence, anxiety, or something else? What actually worked for you?

I’d really appreciate any advice because I’m genuinely struggling with this and don’t want the situation to get any worse. Thank you!

trying to decide on an insurance plan for my 4-year-old (almost 5) cat in manitoba (canada).

she has tartar issues on her teeth despite dental food, water additives and brushing, and will be needing to have a tooth extracted due to a cavity. would this count as pre-existing if she needs any extractions for any other teeth? and would it qualify for coverage under furkin’s “surgery” section?

i like furkin’s coverage of vet visits and the lower premiums, but would go for the dental coverage bit in trupanion if this one tooth extraction won’t make any future ones ineligible.

also, if i get insurance before scheduling her surgery, would trupanion still cover it though direct billing? or would furkin cover any of the surgery costs (e.g., aenesthesia, surgeon itself, potential bloodwork, etc)?

(Sorry for any mistakes in grammar English isn't my first language) So for context I got a 3 year old rex rabbit and her cage is very small around 100cm in length and maybe 40cm wide . I wanted to get her a bigger cage for a while now but my parents wouldn't let me saying that the cage she has now is perfectly fine and we don't need a bigger one . Does anyone have any tips on how could I convince them to get a bigger cage and what kind of cage? Possibly not the most expensive ones if that's possible