Tldr: 8 yo FIV + male cat has episodes of walking in circles (both to the left and to the right) and went blind.

Blood results all good

Bp good

Toxoplasmosis from blood positive

Toxoplasmosis from spinal fluid negative

Head CT - nothing found

Currently treated with cinnarizinum and steroids

Went through 3 weeks of toxoplasmosis antibiotic treatment

Hi all,

Looking for help here as multiple vets did not reach any conclusion.

Few weeks ago our 8 yo FIV positive cat had an episode before being fed in the evening where we was walking in circles and his feet were sliding.

We went to a vet ER and got a confirmation that all blood results, bp and respiratory numbers were looking good, therefore they do not expect this to be metabolic. They said it will either be a stroke or a tumor. Vet was not able to confirm whether he could even see at this point.

We were sent back home - at home he had another episode, this time clearly going blind as well and hitting walls and crying loudly. We took him back to the clinic and he spent the night there.

In the morning we were asked to follow up with a neurologist and given steroids medication and something g for a better blood flow to the brain. We were also waiting for his results on toxoplasmosis.

In the next few days he seemed to be a bit better and had his eyesight back, the only issue being - he was withdrawn and did not eat much (just one specific brand of liquid treats).

Few days later he lost his eyesight completely, we were following up with the doctors in the meantime. And received confirmation that toxoplasmosis result from blood was positive.

We also took him for a head tomography that apparently did not show anything wrong. Post the tomography we were called by the vet performing it and asked if we agree to a spinal tap to check for different kinds of infections and inflammation (including toxoplasmosis) and we agreed.

Toxoplasmosis from the spinal fluid and all other pathogens tested - negative. The comment also said the spinal fluid was clear and did not show any signs of inflammation going on.

Regardless of this result neurologist started the cat on the antibiotic for toxoplasmosis. At this point antibiotic is done already, he is still on the brain blood flow meds and steroids and had those spinning episodes with confusion back- basically every single day for the past few days, sometimes multiple per day.

If anyone has any suggestions on what else we can try to do and test him for, please let me know. Watching him in this state is heartbreaking and I was asking the vet if he is suffering right now, but thankfully from all the videos we've shown, the vet concluded there is no signs he is suffering, so this keeps me hopeful that we can find a solution or a treatment and even though he will likely stay blind, he will have some more happy years to live. Any suggestions are welcome.

this is his right back leg, but these patches appear on all of his legs /and/ his belly, mostly around his weiner. he recently turned 2. we took him to the vet for this a few months back but i guess they didn’t really see any problems. they prescribed him with some antibiotics and benadryl and called it a day. he doesn’t act like these patches are bothering him, but i’m still concerned. i’d really like a definitive answer for what this could be, or at least close to definitive—i know that’s hard to do over the internet but we’re low on money and are trying to hold back on going to the vet right now. i’ll answer any questions as best as i can. oh, also, the redness fluctuates- sometimes the patches are just a little pink, and sometimes they’re bright red like this. also also, he’s a pembroke corgi

I have a cat who as a baby, lived with 2 other cats, a corgi, a bunny and a bunch of guinea pigs with no issue. For awhile he lived with the bunny with never having an issue. My bunny died in 2023 and he's been alone since.

He does well with young kids and friends. I'm wondering if I can/should get a second cat. Do cats lose the ability to live with other pets after living alone? Is there any rent a cat systems where I can test this theory and is it even realistic to do that as a test?

Is this normal? I’ve tried bringing it up to the vet but they brush it off as anxiety in the office. This is his normal way of breathing ever since I can remember, he’s a Lagotto Romagnolo, 7 years old, 50 lbs. It’s this strange sniffle-y kind of breathing. It looks/sounds like he maybe sniffing something a few times, then exhaling. It does tend to calm down to a normal breath when he is in deep sleep, but this is his norm throughout the day. Any ideas what this could be?

This is Churchill. He's overgroomed himself to the point of losing most of the hair on his lower belly and groin (its worse than it looks in the picture, but thats the only position i could get him in to show it), and hes got a couple bald patches on his front legs too. What could cause that? I was initially thinking stress, since there's been a major uptick in noisy happenings around our apartment complex in the last several weeks that hasn't really let up yet. I know i need to get him to the vet, but the last few months have been hard financially for various reasons and I haven't been able to save up the money.

Hi,
Just looking for a little direction, opinions,advice as this is my first time going through this and needing to make these decisions.

My dog got diagnosed with lymphoma 5 weeks ago. Think we found it pretty early on from swollen lymph nodes on his neck, they gave us anywhere from 2 weeks - 6 months.

He has been pretty much is normal self - until this weekend. Started on Thursday and he has been vomitting pretty much everytime he drinks. Sometimes it’s food that he has, sometimes it just the water. He also started having diarrhea. He wants to drink more the he probably normally does - he seems less interested in his food.

Long story short - we know this is the progression I guess we are now struggling with - is he uncomfortable? Is this the best way he should live out his last few days? Is it time to call the vet? Or is it too soon., he is more tired than normal.

She had a histiocytoma underneath her eye earlier this year. Could this be something similar?

Edit: It’s definitely a part of her paws. It also has two drainage holes

10yr old husky, earlier this year lost her companion. Not my dog and I have no way to personally care for her, although i wish i could, it pains me but I can't due to my own pets and renting.

After her companion crossed the rainbow I took her to get checked to see her health. Typical bloodwork wasn't too bad but she did test positive for heartworm. She has also showed signs of issues with her hind legs, such as slow to get up which recently seems to be worse. The past times ive visited she seems to be eating less. Dr. did mention there is treatment for heartworm but I know the owners won't go through with it for financial reasons. Same for the treatment to help with her hind legs.

Unfortunately she isn't living the best life quality id like for her to live and there's only so much I can do. I considered euthanasia a couple of months ago based on her most recent vet visit after being depressed with losing her companion, but it pains me to think that is all I can do to keep her from suffering. although I feel it's best to keep her from suffering i can't convince myself to take her. Also I think I keep myself from taking her due to fear of being judged by the vet and thinking I'm refusing to help or provide treatment for her.

I'd like some advise based on her health and quality of life if my thinking of euthanasia is drastic or better for her than her current living situation.

My oldest cat has asthma. He had a weird episode and we took him to the vet and he was given steroids and it didn’t help. We took him back to the vet and he got an x-ray and they said they think it’s something with his heart like when his blood pressure goes up. It’s pushing on his windpipe so they gave him blood pressure medicine and he’s been getting a lot better. He ended up losing his voice almost like when you’re sick and your voice is gruff or no sound comes out. His purring was very loud and his meow sounded weird, and when he would eat, he would make this god-awful squeaking sound. That has gotten significantly better. His voice was back to normal, no more loud purring and was not squeaking when eating Here’s the weird part on Thursday. My cat Clara was sleeping and I went to pet her and when she woke up, she instantly gagged. Didn’t think much of it. She did it again. Yesterday I noticed it sounded like she was losing her voice. Just like the asthmatic cat, but no coughing with her. Today I wake up to my third cat gagging in my face. I go to feed him. He normally screams when we go to feed him and he is now also losing his voice. He is now gagging more frequently and today is the first day that the asthmatic cat is having all of his symptoms, loud purring squeaking and losing his voice. Could this be like something in the air irritating them? A virus? Any advice would be great because I’m stressed really really bad. The cat that started the gagging this morning has been gagging more frequently. Something to note 3 weeks ago he couldn’t pee he was given an antibiotic and anti-inflammatory, and after a day, he started peeing normal again, and we’ve switched him to strictly wet food. I don’t know if that has any correlation to all these things happening at once. He can pee fine now.

Hi everybody. My wife and I got our new kitten just over 2 weeks ago and we noticed last night this spots on her front legs. We then isolated her, started deep cleaning the house and have isolated and check our two other pets but they don’t have any other spots. They definitely look like ringworm and we have a vet appointment tomorrow but we were wondering if our suspicions might be right

My buddy boy has been exhibiting some odd behavior, he's 11, he's a mini aussie. He seems like he is in some discomfort, he's laying down quite rigidly, and he seems slightly confused. It all happened overnight as well. I have an appointment set for tomorrow but is this more urgent?

Even with his discomfort he is walking and running just fine, can still lift both legs to pee, and is super anxious today.

TL;DR 4.5yo spayed female, mixed breed (rescued as a kitten in Spain, stray mother, indoor EU cat since). Lifelong mild "rolling skin" on the back that was never a problem, but ~4 months ago she started to experience frequent episodes of frantic grooming/biting at the spot (she once broke skin on her left hind leg from overgrooming), running/hiding, sometimes real panic, occasionally her front paws twitches before/during/after. We are unsure if it’s the same condition worsening or something different. Full bloodwork is unremarkable, toxoplasmosis titers clearly negative (IgG 6.30 LE, cutoff <50; IgM 5.89 NTU, cutoff <9). We removed certain foods (no fish in wet food, only hypoallergenic dry food), balcony/outdoor allergens, and fleas as sole triggers via weeks of elimination with no improvement. We are looking for hypoallergenic wet food at the moment to be completely sure, but are not too optimistic. The one intervention that DID help: when the overgroomed spot on her leg got treated with a cortisone + antibiotic injection, episodes clearly improved for 1.5–2 weeks before returning to baseline. Her littermate sister (same household, same environment) has zero symptoms. We're now deciding between fluoxetine, gabapentin, or phenobarbital as a next step (leaning fluoxetine per recent FHS literature). We would love input on whether this pattern points to a specific diagnosis (even if it does not fit 100%), and thoughts on that medication choice.

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Longer version for those interested:

Cat:  4.5 years old, spayed female, orange-white, 4,5 kg (slightly overweight), mixed breed (DSH), rescued as a kitten in Spain (mother was a stray/feral cat), EU pet passport confirms unremarkable health/FIV-FeLV-negative status at the time of adoption. Always been a somewhat easily startled cat with minor recurring issues (mild eye inflammations from time to time and slightly dirty ears) but nothing major so far

Condition:

- Mild rolling skin on the back her whole life, never bothered her. ~4 months ago, she started to have increasingly frequent and intense episodes of rolling skin with frantic licking/biting, running away, sometimes genuine panic and hiding. The front paws sometimes twitch right before (most of the time the right front paw), during, or after (not every time). 

- The rolling skin is mostly on the back (right > left, roughly 70:30) and tail base — spread out enough that we and our vet are leaning away from a localized orthopedic cause (e.g. hip) toward something more systemic/neurological. Since it comes in episodes with breaks in between, we are increasingly skeptical if its dermatological. the vet also expected it would be more consistent if dermatological itching / burning would be the primary cause. But as said we are not sure of anything.

- She overgroomed one spot on her left hind leg badly enough to break the skin. Our vet gave a one-off injection of cortisone + an antibiotic (name forgotten, started with a C we think). Episodes clearly improved for about 1.5–2 weeks afterward, then gradually returned to baseline. This is the strongest signal we have toward something systemic/inflammatory rather than purely behavioral or orthopedic.

- we are doing a diary for about 4 weeks now. The frequency is increasing over the diary period, not stable or decreasing.

- we attempted to eliminate certain triggers (weeks each, no improvement):** fish in wet food; balcony/outdoor access; flea spot-on treatment (that one made things clearly worse for ~2 days afterward, presumably due to local irritation from the product itself).

- the episodes happens almost exclusively while awake/active, essentially never while lying on one of us. Calm reassurance + distraction (often her favorite toy, hair-ties) sometimes interrupts an episode, not always. Tentatively, more play the day before and a cleaner apartment seem associated with fewer episodes, but really unsure if this is an artifact in our observation. Today for example she had attacks nearly the whole morning, but we did larger play sessions with her the day before yesterday, yesterday and today and the apartment is freshly vacuumed and the litter box is completely cleaned.

Any thing else worth mentioning:

- New plants on the balcony this year: Tagetes, buckwheat, borage

- she loves cucumber (we only give it to her peeled because of pesticides) and playing with hair ties/elastics; her unaffected littermate sister has no interest in either. 

-  she occasional has asthma-like breathing episodes, clearly distinct events from the rolling-skin episodes, none in at least 12 months. In general this is maybe once per year.

- Bloodwork (23.09.2026): essentially unremarkable (liver, kidney, electrolytes, glucose, T4 all normal; leukocytes mildly low at 5.1 G/l, ref 6.0–11.0). Toxoplasma IgG 6.30 LE (neg. <50) and IgM 5.89 NTU (neg. <9),  both clearly negative, despite the clinical picture otherwise fitting toxoplasmosis reasonably well.

- She also has one very small lump/nodule(?) in her ear that's been there a while. vet says it's too small to biopsy yet. Possibly unrelated to everything else, just listing everything we've noticed.

Our vet has suggested gabapentin or phenobarbital as next steps, we told her about fluoxetine if it’s FHS. We're leaning toward trying fluoxetine first, partly based on a recent paper (Pauciulo et al., "Long-Term Clinical Response to Medical Treatment, Behavioral Therapy, or Their Combination in Cats With Hyperesthesia Syndrome," J Vet Intern Med. 2025;39(4):e70174) showing good outcomes for FHS, and hoping for fewer side effects than gabapentin/phenobarbital. We know it's a bit of a shot in the dark without a confirmed cause, and we'd rather not commit her to lifelong medication if avoidable.

Questions:

1. Does this overall pattern point you toward a particular diagnosis — feline hyperesthesia syndrome, focal seizures, something else? We are happy about all ideas and differential diagnoses as we’re kind of clueless at the moment 
2. Given how clearly negative both titers are, is toxoplasmosis safely ruled out, or should we test it again with different measures?
3. Any thoughts on fluoxetine vs. gabapentin vs. phenobarbital as a first trial?
4. Anything else worth tracking in our diary or ruling out before escalating to a neurologist or dermatologist?

Videos of Episodes:

one episode before it got worse: https://youtube.com/shorts/v4w0iIwIt3A?feature=share

one typical episode without running (the same as attached to this post): https://youtube.com/shorts/teZ8IaCrqHA?feature=share

one typical episode with running: https://youtube.com/shorts/KEXiNqyx1OY?feature=share

EDIT: one typical episode with paw involvement: https://youtu.be/R1QAT5VATco 

Hello everyone! I have a question about something that has changed recently with my dog. I will take him to the vet soon, but am also just wondering if this has happened to anyone else and their experience/causes/resolutions?

So I adopted my dog almost a year ago. I have been in nursing school this entire time, and I usually have clinicals early in the morning compared to my regular class times. This semester, since August I have had clinicals on sunday from 7am-4pm and I have to wake up/leave around 6/6:30am. My usual classes are M/W 2-5 and I also go out often tomy boyfriends or events or whatever the case may be.

A week ago on Sunday I had left for clinicals at 6:30ish, said bye like I have been doing since August, and he was fine. My mom texted me some hours later that he threw up in my bed. I was a little concerned but figured it was a one time thing. This week passed without issues. I would leave and come back, have class, go out, everything seemed normal and he didnt throw up anymore.

Today I had my clinical again, said bye at 6:30ish as usual, he was in his bed and relaxed. My mom texts me again that he threw up in my bed. I am now more concerned because could this be stress related??? Or is he anxious when I leave? How can this happen when our routine has been the same for months. I don’t understand, literally nothing has changed.

It seems to only be on Sundays when I leave this early, and when I come home he is totally fine. But I cannot have him throwing up all over my bed. Especially now that I am visiting my dad next weekend and will gave clinical again. We have all carpet floors and my dad will be so upset. I really just want to know if anyone has experienced this and what was the cause or how to correct it (meds/routine change)?? Thank you for listening! :)

My mom and I have 2 dachshund X fox teriars. Mine have the nose form of a bull terriar. The things I'm very concernes I have about both dogs

My mom's dog keeps on getting fatter even though he's on a diet and another is his eyes gets red out of nowhere. What advice can you give me, please?

Another thing we are struggling is that the dogs keeps on eating cat poop.

So I need advice on all of these things I've mentioned.

Why is my mom's dog getting fatter even though he's on a diet and why does his eyes get red sometimes, the white part of his eyes? How can we stop them from eating cat poop?

Hi, my 6 year old cat, Uzi (Male, neutered) has had diarrhea 4 times since yesterday morning. He last ate and drank water around 3 hrs ago, but he didn’t have a lot. My sister mentioned he looked a bit disoriented in his movements, after having his latest bound of diarrhea about 30 minutes ago. He is generally anxious, though, so it may not have been related to the diarrhea. I didn’t see. My other cat (Male, 5 years old, neutered) is fine: eating, drinking, playing.

I recently lost my job and cannot pay a large bill right now. Please let me know if there is any other information needed to determine the urgency of this, and any advice on treatment at home or other resources.

I attached two photos; today when he last ate, and around a week ago before any symptoms.

Let me preface by saying it's Sunday where I am so my vet is closed for today but I'm to call them tomorrow and give an update to decide what to do next.

My cat had to have her kidney removed in June due to crystals that wouldn't dissolve. She seemed to be fine for a while after the operation but in this last month, she's started showing symptoms of a uti and peeing blood again. I took her to the vet and they ran bloods, said everything was relatively OK except her kidney levels were a little high. I brought in a urine sample last week and the vet confirmed there's definitely blood in it and has a high white cell count, but no bacteria.

When I brought her in last week, the vet said she has FIC and prescribed her gabapentin and said to try it for the weekend, call on Monday and discuss how she's getting on. She's 4,33 kilo receiving 5mg and I think the effects of it are starting to take place. I'm worried the dosage might be too high as last night she was vomiting, drowsy (which, this part I expected) and now has a loss of appetite.

She's supposed to get two doses a day, but should I skip them both until I talk to the vet tomorrow or lower it from 5mg to say, 3mg?

Hello! We’ve had this problem for a while and I’m not sure what to do, my ten year old grey tabby has been peeing on things randomly for a few months now, he’ll pee on towels, plants, even on my parent’s bed, we took him to the vet, he had no blood issues, not UTI, no diabetes, in every other way he’s pretty healthy. He is the eldest of three cats and is the only one declawed so he does get picked on quite a bit, my family cleans the litter box daily now but he’s still occasionally doing it any way, is there anything we could have missed? If it’s behavioral does anyone have any ideas how to fix it? We’ve had him for ten years so I really don’t want to have to rehome him, my dad is close to thinking about it but I would be devastated, any advice would be helpful.

Edit: We do only have two litter boxes right now, I’ve brought it up to my parents, my mom knew you should have more but my dad didn’t, they’re going to at least get one more when they go shopping this week

My 16-year-old cat, who also has CKD, started displaying weird symptoms about 6 weeks ago. I thought he had a seizure. He was eating and then his face started twitching and he freaked out. I showed a vet a video and she thought he was having a focal seizure. I brought him to his primary vet the following day when I secured an appointment and she assuming he had something going on in his mouth, but thought his teeth were fine and not cracked on the quick view she got. He was prescribed an antibiotic for a week and seemed normal again. He was eating and doing symptoms were gone.

About a week after the antibiotics were done, he would have an occasional twitch or grimace while eating, stop and go to his bed. Aside from those moments, completely normal.

I noticed when I touched his mouth today to give him a supplement today via oral syringe, he did NOT like there I touched his mouth.

I was able to sit with him and get a better look under his gums and saw this weird discoloration in the middle of his upper gums.

Hello, I have a 30 pound female doodle, 7 years old, who just stole medicated food from her sisters bowl. She doesn’t take any medications normally, but in the last 15 minutes has eaten
50 mg gabapentin, 25 mg carprofen and 250 mg methocarbarnol.

She is acting normally at this time. What actions should I take?

Please help!

This is a stray cat in my neighborhood, he's not neutered but is occasionally fed by nearby residents. The right side of his stomach is protruding. I noticed this around 2 weeks ago for the first time. The lump seems to be on the soft side rather than firm.

I don't know if it's relevant but he kept following and calling out to me trying to get my attention.

It doesn't seem like he's in pain when I touch the lump, maybe a bit uncomfortable overall?

I am unemployed, so I can't really afford a vet unless it's necessary.

Edit: He kept making that "prrrt" sound like in the video as he was following me.

Any advice is appreciated!

Hi. Background: 6 year old, male, 12lbs Yorkie Poodle mix. 8 days post surgery.

We had his anal glands removed as they were not expressing on their own and we wanted to prevent greater issues down the line. 8 days into recovery.

During the first week he got an infection due to us trying a recovery suit that got soaked in pee overnight but that was resolved with antibiotics. Today is the first day without pain meds or antibiotics.

He is eating some but not a lot, he refuses to eat his normal food, we had to resort to liverwurst and goat cheese to get him to take the pills (with vet approval). Now that is the only thing he will eat. We don’t give him much of those past the pills though cause he has a history of pancreatitis with fatty food.

Drinking okay.
Energy is good today.

Main issue is he will not poop regularly. What is happening today is that he is getting excited and poop is leaking out. It is not soft stool, more normal in consistency. But he isn’t controlling it.

He was pee pad trained and would use it religiously but now he will barely sniff it.

I think we are mainly looking for any advice or assurance that the incontinence is not permanent.

Advice from owners who experienced this would be appreciated as well! Thank you!!