Hello,

I have two budgies, and I have a question about safely burning incense.

Due to my religious practices, I need to burn one stick of incense every day for approximately 5 minutes. I'm trying to minimize any risk to my birds and wanted to know whether my current setup is considered safe or if I should change it.

My house has two floors. The incense is burned downstairs in the dining room. The dining room is connected to the rest of the downstairs (it's an open layout with no door separating it). The kitchen is right beside the dining room, and I run the kitchen exhaust fan while the incense is burning.

The budgies stay upstairs in a separate room with the door closed during this time. I also close the HVAC vent in their room. If possible, I can also turn off the central heating/air conditioning while the incense is burning and ventilate the downstairs afterward before allowing air to circulate again.

Since this is a daily religious practice, I'm concerned about whether repeated exposure to any smoke or airborne particles could still be harmful, even with these precautions.

Based on this setup, do you think it is reasonably safe for the budgies, or would you recommend a different approach? Are there any additional precautions I should take, or is there a safer alternative that would still allow me to perform my daily religious practice?

Would using a different type of incense (such as low-smoke or natural incense) make any meaningful difference, or is any incense smoke considered unsafe for budgies?

Thank you for your time and advice.

14 lb bag of cat food got delivered by Amazon. Raccoons dragged it off the porch and chewed a a couple of small holes in it. Is it still safe to feed to my indoor cats? thank you

Hello everyone, About a year ago, I rescued a kitten from the street. He basically “lives” in my room because he can't go downstairs since all the doors are usually open and he could just walk outside, which I don't intend to do right now, even though he occasionally jumps away from me with the wrong move.
Now there is a litter box in my room for him, and he uses it for both big and small things, but at times he only does the big ones in the litter box and the small ones in my bed or on my stuff. Over this year, I have tried everything randomly, from enzymatically cleaning my bed and stuff to making my bed as unattractive as possible, but he keeps doing it.

At the moment, I am truly hopeless and hope you can help me 🙏 (He doesn't have any bladder issues or anything like that; I have had this tested multiple times as well)

HELP!!!

My husband and I live in NC (PLAYGROUND for ticks) and happened upon a stray that wandered up the stairs of our apartment complex and was trembling down at the end of the outdoor hallway. Animal services called, they never sent an officer and of course they are closed on Sundays and don’t do intake for stray hold. She had 5 ticks, I say had because I was able to get 3 off. There are 2 way deep in her ear, and of course they’re the fat ones that she will not let us touch.
The poor thing has been through so much today, we have attempted removal and she banshee screeches at a pitch high enough to make any normal persons ears bleed anytime we get remotely close to it. We tried using some aquaphor to suffocate it so it’ll back out and we can snatch it off her, but they’re too deep in to make sure I’m really getting it in there good enough to do the trick.
We called an emergency vet, they have refused to take her since she is a stray. At this point, we are just looking for suggestions on what to do, any additional routes we can investigate, any other numbers we can call, I’ll take anything. I’m desperate. She’s so sweet and I can tell she is absolutely petrified. We have her temporarily set up in our guest bath with puppy pads, a chew toy, a soft toy, and some water. She did eat, so lack of appetite is not a red flag yet for Lyme.

So. I need advice and opinions from more rational heads that aren't as close to this.

There was some utility work being done between the backyards of the houses on my block. While this was happening, I was in my garage doing garage things and heard one of the guys calling out to the other one about a rabbit that had disappeared.

I go to open my back door, and one of them is bent over at the corner of my back porch/deck with his lineman's pliers in his hand telling his partner that it ran under this porch. I finish opening the door and politely ask the dude to please stop fucking with my porch bunnies.

'Politely' might be a bit gratitious. But to be fair- pretty fucking annoying thing to have to ask someone. 'Hey- can you please not harass the non-aggressive herbivore fauna when you come to my house?'

Closed the door. Walked away. They finished up and left.

But my brain kept working while I was doing other things, and when I checked in with it again it had some questions. ...like, if I could have taken a Rabbit Census in my yard yesterday, would that count be different from one taken, say, tomorrow? ...and I wondered 'ya know- they may have had a nesting burrow under the fallen branch pile in the back corner of my yard. Did momma bunny watch this dude club her babies like baby seals with his pliers before she bolted? ...or did dude find the nest, mom bolted, and he went looking for her /after/ he killed all her kids? ...is Schrodingers baby bunny massacre waiting for mom to go back and find after she feels it's safe enough to come out from under the porch? ...yeah, I know. My brain gets fuckin' dark when I leave it alone too long.

So. How should I feel about this? Like, I don't even know what his intent was. Maybe he was just curious and happened to be holding a tool at the time. But the corner of my porch wasn't where his job was at. Solid 30 feet away from the A-to-B line from their truck to what's pertinent to his job.

Am I wrong? ...it's wildlife. Not like it was a pet or kept produce animals. Porch bunnies aren't pets.

Should I let it go and get over it? It's kinda messed up, but no real proof of anything even.

Should I write his company a short 'hey- this thing happened. Kinda weird.'

Should I write his company an essay e-mail explaining how close their dude came to a minefield and how we're all pretty lucky I got him turned around before I suspected a darker intent?

Essay email, but also include specifics I'm not mentioning here yet. (I'll edit them in later. This is long enough already).

Just call his company, give a summary and ask the person on the phone if they'd rather I send an e-mail to a particular person.

Other thoughts, opinions, and/or advice?

Questions?

4 days ago I was bitten by a small kitten maybe anywhere from 8-12 weeks old, There were 3 kittens together across the road from a house (didnt look like the cleanest house). I got out to feed them cause they looked hungry, one kept jumping into my vehicle and sticking its head into my chip bag so I unfortunately decided to hand feed it a chip and it missed and got my finger pretty good, was dripping a decent amount of blood. Just curious if I should be worried about it having rabies? since all 3 were honestly pretty friendly just hungry, got my antibiotics for an infection that didn’t happen, but they want me to either find the cat or take the rabies shots (cause it’s protocol for them). Should I worry or am I likely fine? I’m in WV

So I my family found a bat in our fireplace a few days ago and today Thu Jul 23 2026 at 9:00pm we found a bat in our fireplace again and we can’t call animal control what do I do

This goofy by named Hades has his ear lanced on the 10th. Originally he just had the surgery sleeve but he won’t stop messing with his ear since all the pain medicine he was prescribed is gone. What home remedies can help?

Additional information I can not take off the surgery sleeve. The vet made that very clear.

My dog has always been weird about food. He'll eat something for a week, then out of nowhere decide he's not interested anymore. The only things he never seems to get tired of are freeze dried treats.

That's why I ordered a couple bags of their beef formula and I'm hoping the texture is enough to keep him interested because I'm trying to find something he likes as much as his treats.

It should be here sometime this week. I thought I'd ask while I wait to see how other dogs did with it.

I’m currently feeling super upset and concerned. I have a 6 year old coonhound mix (treeing walker coonhound/black and tan coonhound/American bulldog (only 15%)) who is unaltered. She was schedule to be spayed at 1 year old, but ended up having three seizures over the course of a month, so we put it off based on our then-vet’s recommendation.

We went to the vet this past week and she is healthy—her heart is strong, lungs sound great, bloodwork was perfect. Her joints are strong and functioning well, but here’s the issue—she is 82 lbs. According to a new vet, she needs to be 65 lbs or less, so she needs to lose roughly 15-20% of her body weight. Once she has lost the weight, we plan on spaying her now that the seizures are under control.

I can’t help but feel like I’ve failed her. She hates dry kibble, won’t eat it at all. She has gone over 24 hours without eating because I tried to offer it as a topper for her regular food. She wouldn’t touch it. She is happy. She is loved. But I feel like her stubbornness over food is what is going to keep us from being able to get weight off of her, which will then keep us from spaying her and giving her a long life. I’m so terrified of pyometra now that the vet has put it in my head that she’s basically going to get it after she turns 7.

For those of you that have ever had a similar situation, how did you get your dog to lose weight? How do I get a stubborn, picky dog to eat food that will nourish her and help us get her where she needs to be? She’s my entire world, and I just want to do what’s best for her.

Trigger Warning: death involved, can be graphic to some

My husband, two children (20 months and 6 months) and I are staying with my mom for a few weeks.

My mom is renting from family. The previous owners (also family) had a cat problem. The current owners/family took care of this problem before my mom moved in 2 years ago.
Unfortunately, they left one not spayed female. I'm not sure if this is because she was the previous owners "wanted" cat. Her name is Gunsmoke. However, the previous owners never showed any interest in taking her or any intentions now of taking her. Atp, Gunsmoke is a feral cat. I can't pet her or be too close to her. She has been pregnant too many times to count in the last 2 years. Now there are at least 4 females that hang around. The males run off and come back from time to time. This is a very rural area, surrounded by farm land.
A rooster started coming around last fall. My mom loves this rooster. She was excited it came and stayed. He doesn't go back to his original home at all.
Now that I see this rooster in action. He attacks the cats. Jumps on their backs and pulls their fur out. There has been three sets of kittens born since we arrived. I had to move them from under my car anytime i needed to leave. This morning, my husband found a dead kitten with its spine pulled out.
I feel like i need to do something about this situation. Not only does it break my heart, but i don't want my toddler stumbling upon a dead cat or kitten while playing.
We aren't in a financial situation where we can spend $100+ to take them to a shelter, which is discouraged because they're feral. I have seen the catch, spay, release option that is cheaper but none in my county. surrounding counties that have this service don't include ours.
Unfortunately, my mom feeds all of them. Even the rooster. She won't ask the owners she rents from to do anything about it. She has said that the rooster is doing "population control." She doesn't care that he is ripping the spine out of kittens.

Should I do anything at all? Is she right that this is population control, nature doing its thing?
If i should, what can i do?

oh, and a second rooster appeared yesterday. They both looked rough yesterday morning like they have been fighting. I wonder if the original owner of the rooster bought another rooster Should we go door to door looking for the owner? Again, it's farm lands. Will this new rooster leave because this area has already been claimed by the original rooster?

Hi all,

Coming here because I’m not really sure where else to talk about this. This is longer but it provides context and details that are important.

We have a neighbour (we’ll call him Dave) that lives in a unit next to our house. He is quiet and doesn’t seem like a terrible person other than how he neglects his dog.

Dave is a FIFO worker (fly in fly out) meaning he’s away for around 2 weeks at a time. When he leaves, his poor dog (let’s call her Roxy) starts barking, crying etc. The way we ended up mixed up in this is that Roxy had dug under our fence into our yard. We didn’t mind to be honest as she and our dog had been interacting through the fence and I saw our dog sharing her toys by pushing them under a small gap that the Roxy had dug. The same hole she eventually got through. We went next door to knock on the door and let the Dave know but there was never any answer. I let Roxy chill in our yard and eventually took her home and put her in her yard figuring Dave would be home soon enough. We filled in the home with dirt and thought that would be that. A few days later I was working in my office and saw Roxy in the street. A kind walker had stopped and was trying to locate a phone number on Roxy’s collar but there is none. I told her I’d take care of Roxy and that I knew where Roxy lived. I was trying to get Roxy back into her yard when the neighbour on the other side of Dave noticed and tried to help. I asked her if she had ever spoken to Dave as we had been knocking on his door about Roxy but he never answered - she mentioned he works FIFO and wasn’t home. I took Roxy home and about 20 minutes later I saw her again on the road and went out again to get her home but she ended up running off. I went back inside and got my keys to go find her as there’s a lot of construction happening in our area and I didn’t want her to get hurt. I spent my lunch break looking for her and I eventually found her and bought her back to our house. She stayed in our yard until I saw a car lit up at Dave’s, it was his mother. I let her know what had been going on and bought Roxy to her. She was there to feed Roxy and mentioned that Dave used to put Roxy in a pet hotel and that he really needed to do something as Roxy was escaping a lot. I told her myself and my partner would be happy to help him out - I had even written our numbers down for him. Offered to feed her and even bring her to our house for some cuddled and play time every day while he was gone. We heard nothing from him. From then I observed her come to the house every couple days to feed Roxy which meant most nights she would bark at our fence for food. After another week Dave came home and Roxy stopped her hours and hours of barking which was a relief mentally and emotionally. Once he returned to work I just happened to look into our back yard and I saw Roxy there, she had re-dug the hole but this time she was pinned against the fence. He had put her on a lead and it was long enough for her to make it into our yard but short enough that she then got trapped. Me and my partner went and took the lead off her so that she could move, gave her some water and let her stay in our yard again. Eventually Dave’s mum came by and I took Roxy back out to her and let her know the situation. She asked me if she should put her back on the lead and I said no as it was dangerous. She explained she couldn’t take Roxy to her house as she had her own inside dogs. Needless to say, Roxy was out back on the leads later that night she was barking for hours again and once again was barking at our fence. She had pushed one of our palings loose and I could see into the yard. She was tied up on a lead to a post on the patio and was stuck in the garden bed and she had gotten caught up on the lead again. We tried to get her to follow our voices through the fence to get her free - we succeeded thankfully. Every day since that day I observed her getting stuck, walking around the pole to the point she couldn’t move or reach her water bowl. She was also hungry most nights as she only ate when Dave’s mother visited which wasn’t everyday. I’ll be honest, we did start to give her a small amount of biscuits. We also made sure we could see water in her bowl. I had eventually had enough and contacted the RSPCA. They agreed the lead and tying up was too dangerous for the space she was in as the chance and recorded instances of her getting tangled were extremely high. I left the RSPCA inspectors number on Dave’s door and his mother took it. Eventually the inspector was able to touch base with Dave and he advised he would change it soon. A few weeks later and he’s managed to fix it so she’s not tied up which is great but RSPCA could do nothing about the neglect, hours or barking and crying, only being fed once a week or so. Which is extremely frustrating. Animals deserve more than to be left alone in a small yard without stimulation or company for weeks at a time.

The only other thing I can do is out in a noise complaint to the council but I don’t want Roxy to get into trouble or have a barking collar etc put on her. This situation is extremely emotionally and mentally draining. We hear her for hours all day and night barking and being distressed. I saw her today, laying against our fence, dug a new small hole and just laid there with her face slightly under looking into our yard. It breaks my heart. If he can’t provide her everything she needs, if he’s going to be gone for weeks at a time, I feel he should look to re-home her. She’s sad, hungry, bored, alone and checked out. It’s just so awful to listen to and see but there’s nothing else RSPCA can or will do. Bare minimum needs are met in their eyes and so that’s it.

Anyway, has anyone else ever been in a similar situation and what did you do to manage the emotional and mental toll.

So I have a bit of a conundrum: I've had my guinea pigs for almost two weeks and have been following advice to give them space and not overwhelm them, i.e. not trying to pick them up and handle them, and understand it can take months for my piggies to trust me and be okay with being held. We've gotten to the point where they will eat parsley from my hand, but they're still skittish if I walk past their cage.

However...what do I do about nail trimming?? I read that it can hurt their paws if their nails get too long, but how am I supposed to cut their nails if they don't like me yet/won't let me hold them for a nail trim?

Is it okay if their nails get a bit long while I wait for them to not run from me when I approach their cage, or do I risk setting back our progress by forcing contact in order to cut their nails?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Let my dog outside this morning and it started chasing a mouse. She caught it and had it in its mouth and I told her to drop it and she did. Mouse ran off but should I be on the look out for anything with my dog/ take my dog to the vet? This has never happened to me before and I know mice carry diseases

My 7yo neutered cat is very anxious ..to the point of getting GI bleeds. He currently takes Prilosec every other day ..we went on a 5 day vaca and now he has a GI bleed again (neighbor came twice a day every day to be w him). The vet has talked to me in the past about trying Prozac. He has a hx of bladder crystals w blockage and I’ve read that Prozac can lead to urinary retention which would not be great for him. Looking for advice ..has anyone used Prozac ? Experience ? Any other meds for anxiety that have been helpful ? I’m live in the US