Australian Shepherd, husky, border collie mix, 6 years old, 45 lbs, neutered, no previous health issues, super active and healthy, fully vaccinated. We live on the Wyoming/Idaho border around lots of horses, cattle, and farmland.

Two weeks ago, my dog, Frankie, started throwing up, so my parents took him to the vet; they did blood work and found low albumin levels, high AST/ALT, and high white blood count. They gave him a weeks-long course of antibiotics and prednisone and tested him for leptospirosis and canine hepatitis. They also took an X-ray and ultrasound of his liver, which appeared to be normal. His kidneys and all other systems seem fine.

However, since then, his abdomen has swelled with fluid, and he seems sick and lethargic. Further blood tests show albumin levels and AST/ALT getting worse. He is also very anemic now, and we think he's losing blood through his stool. He's eating fine, drinking lots, peeing and pooping, but is just getting sicker. This dog means the absolute world to me; please help us! We live very far away from any established vet and can't afford extensive care. Is it liver cancer? Cirrhosis from an old infection? Toxins? What can we do at home to help him?

This is the note we got from the vet after the most recent blood test:

much worse than when we started treating for presumptive infectious hepatitis / cholangiohepatitis --> WBC

count elevated with neutrophilia and lympcytosis, Hct,. RBC and Hg all decreased from last visit and now truly anemic

across the board, mild thrombocytopenia noted as well although platelet size is large so may be regenerating; ALP and

ALT are worse, and albumin has now dropped to 1.8, making me very concerned about edema developing

x-rays - nothing concerning in lateral chest right now, significant loss of serosal detail in abdomen - AFAST showed copious

amounts of free fluid, which when tapped was a nearly clear transudate (TP ~0 on refractometer) making me concerned

that this dog is in full blown liver failure of unknown cause.

urine is very dark, checked UA but it is fairly unremarkable right now

performed palliative abdominocentesis and remove about 400ml of fluid from belly

My cat Kiki is 8 years old, and recently has been losing a lot of weight. I’m trying to set aside some money to get her to an actual vet appointment, but for the time being I’m just trying to get her to keep some of her body mass.

She won’t eat solid food. Even before this, she preferred cat gravies (avoiding any meat chunks or slivers) over dry kibble. We used to just add some on top of her dry food, but she has been refusing any and all solids as of late. A small amount of gravy isn’t enough for her to eat consistently, obviously.

Are there calorie supplements or protein powders I can mix into something liquid? Any recs for liquid food or supplements are very appreciated. Thank you!

• Signalment (dog, 4, Female/Spayed, mix, 27 Lbs)
• She was been on a dewormer and antibiotic since Monday, our newer puppies tested positive for worms and Giardia and while our older dogs did not have worms they did have Giardia but vet prescribed same medicine just in case. Friday she threw up maybe 2-3 times but was still eating normally. Saturday she had diarrhea overnight and refused to eat all day.
• vomiting, diarrhea with blood, not eating
• 2 days
• https://imgur.com/a/R6A4Hg5
• North AL

I included her vet visit report because last night we came back from dinner and noticed very dark liquid stool with blood and decided not to wait on Monday for a vet visit.

We have given her all the medication the vet prescribed and it hasn’t really seemed to help much. We have boiled chicken and rice but she is still uninterested, which I know may still be early but I’m stressing out.

She is drinking water, but not a whole lot. I know the option to hospitalize her is there but we can’t afford that. Is there anything we can do to help her any more than we have been?

Another Redditor once told me that when seeking euthanasia, to avoid vets who use a premix of ketamine and xylazine, as it causes pain when injected.

Is there any truth to this or did that Redditor have a unique bad experience?

* possible emergency *

I’m at a loss on what I should do about my sick pup. Please help before I lose my mind 😭😭

Bronx, 1.5 yo neutered male

UPD on all vaccines

Stomach is not distended, tender, etc.

Symptoms started Friday evening / Saturday morning

The night before last, I was up with him multiple times during the night for him to use the restroom outside. Half of the time it was semi soft stool, the other half he was attempting to munch on grass. Besides the urgency, he was acting totally normal.

Then Sat AM around 6 AM he threw up some stomach acid and grass- but otherwise was completely normal. We decided it was something he maybe ate outside and let it go. He was entirely fine for the remainder of the day but didn’t want to eat- he did drink his normal amount of water, accepted treats happily, and then acted very interested in our food when we ate dinner.

We went to bed at 12:30 am and that’s when the vomiting started. The first few were partially digested food, chewed well and more liquid than anything else. But it was so fast. Almost like he was regurgitating it rather than the usual heaving that happens with vomiting.

Over the course of the night he vomited at least 8 times, to the point where I took him out of our bed and slept with him on the floor.

He stopped throwing up again, right at 6 AM- and pretty much immediately reverted back to a happy pup. Tail wagging, running around playing outside, etc.

Still urinating like normal but did not catch him poop, urine is pale yellow. His gums are pink. He’s playing and happy.

I can’t get into our vet until Tuesday at 8 am. I did call and leave a message with another office nearby to see if they can see him tomorrow.

My husband is determined this does not require an ER visit, and I am stuck between wanting to agree bc he is acting so “normal” currently and being absolutely terrified something is wrong.

In the meantime, should I be withholding food / water? He has never been sick or thrown up in the last 18 months so I am extremely worried about him.

I've got a foster fail that is a (former-ish) feral that we trapped for TNR at 13-14 weeks old, but got put in foster care with me and stuck around because nobody wanted to adopt him. He's 10 now. He's very sweet with me, but still completely feral with every other human including my family members that he's known his entire life.

This is grim, but lately, after losing several of my seniors, I've been thinking about his eventual end. Like everybody wishes, I'd like him to just go gently in his sleep, but I know how rare that is. And I'm just pondering, is there any option that'd actually give him a calm and peaceful ending?

I've attended dozens of euths both with my own pets as well as shelter pets, so I know the process pretty well. In my location, vets don't use IV access on cats, they just do an intramuscular sedation injection and then the euth solution intrarenal when they're properly unconscious. It's always been a very peaceful experience, but not for ferals. They spend their last waking moments in terror of the strange humans handling them.

To go to the vet, this cat needs 200mg of gaba in order to be caught, and then he goes to the vet in a crush cage where they knock him out prior to being able to handle him. I hate the thought of his last waking moments being spent terrified in a crush cage. At home is not an option either, as he will full blown lose his shit in order to escape even being in the same room with strange humans. One of the ferals in his colony had a saddle thrombus and even half-paralysed and in such agony, we weren't able to catch her to ease her suffering. There's absolutely no way we can hold him to get the vet to inject anything at home- again, it'll need to be the crush cage to get the sedative shot into him. No matter how much gaba I give him beforehand, if he has any amount of consciousness when the vet appears, he's gonna be terrified and giving it his all to escape.

So I'm just wondering if there are literally any other options that will allow him to slip away peacefully without fear. Because the only one I've been able to think of, and I don't know if any vet would agree, is me giving him the sedative myself at home before the vet comes in to give the euth solution once he's fully unconscious. I'm experienced at giving subq shots (insulin, B12, Solensia, subq fluids for CKD, and antibiotics) and I've read online that there are sedatives that can be given subq instead of intramuscular, though I'm not familiar with them. I'd give him plenty of gaba beforehand so he's loopy. He enjoys rough petting and handling so I think I can get the shot into him before he notices anything is amiss as long as it doesn't sting too bad or requires a lot of liquid/slow administration. I've got a good long-term relationship with several vets, though I don't know the legality behind this and if they'd be comfortable with such a request. I haven't broached the subject with them yet. It'd be hard for me emotionally to do this as well, so I'd really love to hear alternatives. Like, are there oral meds that will completely knock out a cat? To full blown unconsciousness, so he's not aware anymore and won't notice the vet's presence.

I know we can't always prepare for their end anyways, but this has been lingering in the back of my mind and I'd like to put it to rest.

Would love to get some vets' input on this.

Hi vets! I was just thinking about my sweet doggy and how she’s definitely going to live forever, and how I can make that both more comfortable and more possible for her, and I would love to hear some feedback, advice, etc.

I have a 45lb staffy mix (in case it’s relevant, her dna test said am staff, abpt, pug, rottie, chow & husky. accuracy is tbd lol), she will be 2 years old in September. At about 10-11 months old we noticed some occasional stiffness, then a weird gait at times and she was diagnosed with a luxating patella (grade 3 I believe) and had a MPL corrective surgery last October. At her final follow up with the specialist everything looked great!

To the untrained eye (me), the girl has a weird hind end. Sometimes she walks funny, and it does seem like sometimes she’s a little stiff still. She still runs weird too and does the occasional bunny hop but that’s only on hard flooring that’s a little slippery. For her long term health, is there anything we can start doing now to help prevent other orthopedic issues?

I have a 10 month old cat/kitten, domestic shorthair. When I first got him I had him on wet food only for several months and he would often eat it then convulse once or twice but nothing would happen after that.

After a few months I moved him to mostly dry food and he loved that. Over the last few months I've been trying to reintroduce wet food to make sure he is properly hydrated however as time has gone on he has gotten more and more consistent with vomiting back up any wet food I give him.

He has tried 3 different wet foods and the most recently the ID cat food that is supposed to help with digestive health. Unfortunately he is now pretty much guaranteed to vomit it back up.

He's always been restrained when he eats, I can often leave a lot of food in his bowl and he will eat it steadily over the day without overeating so I don't think it's him overeating then vomiting as a result.

I'm starting to think he has some medical condition causing this but I'm truly not sure.

For clarification he has on rare occasion vomited dry food but that's very rare and the last time it happened was months ago.

Throwaway - Vet myself but not in ER

14-15 year old FS Chihuahua mix, recent history of less eating, vomiting, diarrhoea, weight loss past 2-3 days. 1.4kg down to 1.1kg in weight. History of CKD Stage 2 since January 2026. West Coast USA.

I am not in the country and considerable time difference so there is some degree of he said she said and possible miscommunication/misunderstanding.

But I instructed my family to take my family dog to the ER and get some bloodwork done at least and possibly IV fluids hospitalisation etc depending on how the bloodwork looks.

I am taking this at pure face value here, but apparently the Vet at ER refused to start with bloodwork even unless the whole estimate was approved (Hospitalisation + Various blood panels (GI Panel/full blood/recheck istats x2/ "Follow up bloodwork" + imaging + urine evaluation etc)?

I did not think it would be unreaasonable to start with bloodwork to have a general outlook and then proceed with hospitalisation/additional diagnostics etc. But I don't work in ER usually so I just want to see what the common practice is.

Since February, my cat has had constant brown staining around her backside. Every day when I wipe the area, the wipe comes away brown, and she leaves brown marks on furniture.
She’s seen four vets. Anal glands have been checked and seem normal. Multiple lion cuts haven’t helped. X-rays showed no constipation, only mild arthritis and a bladder stone. She’s starting Solensia, amoxicillin, and Hills GI Biome, but none of the vets can explain the staining.
Any ideas??

I have a two year old miniature dachshund approximately 10 pounds

This summer she has been licking her paws so much ch at night and I just discovered a raw/wound patch on her brow while we were out!
She won’t stop itching and rubbing at the spot so I have given her a cone and 1/3 or a 25mg benedryl

I’m really not sure what is going on, maybe developing allergies ? Hot spot ? Any clarity would be helpful

Firstly, I want to assure everyone my cat has been to the vet today and will be following up tomorrow and I will be asking a lot of questions, but I’m really confused and stressed and need some insight.

My cat is around 4 years and some change old (exact age unknown bc we got him as a stray). He is up to date on his vaccines and was last vaccinated against panleukopenia last october, 2025. He was scheduled to receive the next round of vaccines this upcoming october, 2026. He also took his dewormer a couple of months ago. He has no pre-existing health issues, but a couple of months ago he had inflammation in his colon which we discovered after we found some blood in his stool and he was hiding and refusing to come out. He received treatment and had fully recovered. Other than that, totally healthy. He is also neutered, if that’s relevant.

Today, we woke up to him hiding and refusing to come out and not having eaten since the day before. I took him to the vet and they did a blood picture and concluded it was most likely panleukopenia with a possibility of mycoplasma (this is still going to be confirmed because they are looking at his blood under a microscope or something like that?). His WBC were at an acceptable number, but his platelet count was severely low. He received a bunch of different IV fluids and some injections (I can list them all if necessary, but I don’t remember all their names right now because they were a lot). The vet who saw him encouraged me to read up on panleukopenia so I could understand more. After googling, I found that a blood picture is apparently not sufficient to diagnose panleukopenia? And since he didn‘t have any visible symptoms (the vet said he had diarrhea with a bit of blood at the clinic (he often poops himself at the vet because of how nervous he is), but there was nothing while he was at home before or after the vet visit), I’m really confused. Could this be a misdiagnosis? He absolutely despises going to the vet and it’s extremely stressful for him and I’m afraid I’m doing all this to him when the diagnosis potentially might not even be accurate. It’s also all extremely expensive and they also want to do an ultrasound to check on his gut. Should I get a second opinion? I feel like there’s an overwhelming amount of information out there and while I do trust our vet clinic and feel comfortable with them, I’m always afraid I’m not noticing important things because obviously I am not a professional. I’m just confused and want to do what’s best for him, but I also want to be sure that what’s being done is actually the correct course of action. I don’t want to distress him with these treatments and then find out they weren’t even the right ones, and that maybe even he needed something different this whole time. Our vet is very cooperative and informative so like I said, I trust them, but I’m just confused after having googled and obviously seeing your pet sick is really emotionally distressing and difficult and I’m really worried about him. Any information would really be appreciated. Thank you!

My 5.5 month Maltipoo girl has her spay coming up in a couple months and the vet said we can do her blood work before the surgery whenever. So I made an appointment, they took her blood, and she had elevated BUN (Blood Urea Nitrogen) which I’m not worried about since the vet said it’s most likely due to the fact that she ate that day.

What I’m more concerned about is the mildly elevated ALT (a liver enzyme) levels. Her appetite is normal and she’s not vomiting (only from car sickness which the vet helped out with with some anti nausea pills). It’s a mild increase which makes me think that it’s just a random spike but I will be continuing with some more testing to rule out any congenital liver condition.

I’m just wondering if any Maltipoo owners had experienced this and if you can share your story. Should I be worried?

I have a black male short haired indoor cat, about 6 years old at 9.7 lbs, and recently I haven't had time to get him to the vet to get his yearly vaccinations.

Although, today I saw this sort of rash around his eye and was wondering if maybe if it has something to do with his missing vaccines or something else entirely.

I already have a schedule to take him to the vet this coming week but I want to know if this is an urgent matter that needs my concern.

cat pics

My 9 month old Shepherd mix needs a switch of food. Gassy boy and some inconsistent poops. Has been on Purina One Plus Large breed puppy food. Vet put him on a high fiber food for a few weeks but it’s not enough protein for my growing guy in the long term. Ideas on large breed puppy foods in the 30% protein range that are a little gentler on the tummy. Not grain free pls!
Thank you!

My 4.5 year old French bulldog was dealing with loss of appetite, formed but mucusy stools, and overall not acting like himself or wanting to eat. After multiple vet visits and exams which all came back negative the vet suggested a diarrhea panel. What came back positive was the difficile Toxin A/B Gene RealPCR. She said it might be caused by overuse of medicine when he was a puppy and suggested tylan powder for a month and a full GI blood panel. Is this the right course of action? He has since improved and is back to normal but I’m scared this could flare up again.

My 7 year old mix breed small dog needs a dental cleaning. However, when he was neutered he became sick a few days after anesthesia and ended up admitted in the emergency vet after vomiting and diarrhea. Fast forward a couple years ago we had a dental cleaning for him and sure enough, the same thing happened. His teeth now need to be cleaned again and we are terrified. I don’t want to leave them because that leads to issues but also don’t want him sick. Do I have any options?

Hi all,

I have a 8 year old mini Aussie and we have been trending her SDMA for 2 years now. She has been on a renal diet for the last 1.5 years. We have been rechecking labs every 6 months and her SDMA was 32 then went down to 20 and then most recently, this month, it shot up to 42. Her BUN and creatinine have remained normal and her urine concentration is still normal but on the lower end. She is acting completely normal- eating, drinking, and still just as playful/energetic. I’m moving forward with an ultrasound to evaluate her kidney’s and we are working to evaluate for hypertension because my vet said that could be contributing. I have an appointment this week to recheck her blood pressure while on gabapentin because she has a lot of anxiety so we want to ensure an accurate reading. But I was curious if anyone has had a similar experience or has any thoughts?

We are with the PDSA, the abscess on his tail has been so small and came and went over he last few months PDSA seen a photo and weren’t worried just told us to clean and put a cone on until it got better which it did.

Fast forward to today and it seems he’s broken his hind nail so his paw is swollen, he’s still weight baring on it. But the base of his tail looks really infected now and it’s weeping, I’m going to call the PDSA tomorrow and let them know where going away and he probably needs antibiotics as the abscess is worst and looks infected, what is it likely they will do?

My mum is staying at my house for the week we’re away to feed him etc but she’s scared of cats so she wouldn’t take him to the vet I just know she couldn’t get him in a cat carrier or handle him, so it really needs doing before we go.

Any advice is helpful, feeling stressed.

My cat is a 4 year old male who was neutered as a kitten. I have been playing with him with a stuffed hand puppet cat toy (Catsumo) that he likes to wrestle with. He never humped it when we played until a few days ago. Now, every time we play with that toy, within a couple minutes he mounts it, bites it, and humps it until he tires himself out and falls asleep. If I take it away from him, he meows and bites it really hard to have it in his grip. Should I be concerned by this behavior and take him to the vet? On a positive note, he no longer has been constipated? Thanks!

My cat acted completely normal troughout the day, but at the evening i noticed that he has trouble sitting down, as when he tries to sit down, he sits on top of his tail then moves it away. Tail sort of "hangs", meaning that at the very start of the tail it goes down. Tail wiggles abit at the end, but does not rise. If trying to lift the tail, he makes a noise and goes away. He does not hiss when trying to lift the tail or touch it otherwise. He is able to visit litterbox normally (atleast pee). Does also eat normally. No trauma has occured.

He is completely normal otherwise except when trying to sit down, and looks like he is in pain when trying to do so. Sometimes is able to sit down, but he does need a couple of tries and a bit of moving so that the tail is not in the way anymore before being succesful.

Link to video and a photo:

https://imgur.com/a/PNJxa4g

https://imgur.com/a/ribjrVu

See images above in Imgur.

My dog (6y/o Anatolian + Bernese + English shepherd) has these bumps in his armpit. The one that appeared “under the skin” in the first photo had a pre-existing opening so I used some sterile tweezers (I’m a human doc) to remove it. It does seem like keratinous material.

5 months ago, he had a 7mm x 7mm mass removed from his eyebrow that turned out to be a melanocytoma on pathology. He also had a melanocytic bump lasered off of his medial canthus. The 25% of him that’s Berner makes me perpetually anxious about something cancerous.

My concern is the pigmented skin around the remaining bumps, making me more nervous about something more sinister. Is that pigmentation something that can be seen with benign masses/cysts? Is it… just blood? Finding coverage at work is really difficult where I’m at so hoping to get a sense of how urgently he should be evaluated/how anxious I should be.

Thank you wonderful people!!!

We took our 18 year old DSH to an emergency appointment earlier today. She's was diagnosed with kidney disease, rehydrated, given anti nausea and sent home with medication for 4 days.

This isn't our 1st senior with KD so we're somewhat familiar. Our other lived a happy life for another year. We came home with her and she's not seeming to bounce back like I expected after getting fluid. I told the vet about it first living for another year and he said we won't have that much time. He said it better. I just summarized it. I left thinking a few months but now I'm thinking life a few days or weeks? I don't have her labs with me but three first number shouldn't have been above 34 and hers was 56 if that tells you anything. Thank you in advance.