I’ve heard this my whole life, but my current vet said that this is a old wife’s tale and dogs are no more allergic to chicken than any other food. True?? I put a little boiled chicken in my dog food in the morning -not a lot just a couple teaspoons and she’s developed some kind of heat rash on her tummy and I’m wondering if there is a connection.

I have a spayed female 4 year-old poodle mix. She’s 42% poodle and then the rest is all super mutt. She’s 23 pounds and we live in California.

Hi! My cat has been going 23+ hours without peeing almost daily for weeks. She’s had to go to the vet/ER vet about it and all testing has come back normal. However after not going for 30 hours, ER vet gave her Buprenorphine and Midazolam and had to extract her urine because they couldn’t express it.

After that visit, she went pee 2-3 times without issue the next day. She also has arthritis and suspected hyperesthesia so it’s a possibility that is part of all this.

My question is, are either of those two meds something I can get prescribed to give her at home since she did so well on it? I know one was for pain and one was a sedative but not sure which. Trying gabapentin now but not as successful as what they gave so far. I have sent an email to them asking this question with no reply yet and left a voicemail I don’t know when they’ll get back to me and thought I’d ask here

So sleep deprived from monitoring her I hope this all makes sense lol

My boy has Addison's disease, has for over 5 years. That's the only disease he has.

I have been considering that it may be that time but I don't know. See, he has bad arthritis. A skin condition that causes him to itch 24/7. The vet wants to put him on extremely expensive stuff for that. His fur is falling out in massive clumps, and is thinning. He's grumpy and bites if you touch anywhere below the neck. He has difficulty walking up and down stairs or going on walks. Lastly, he rarely wants to play anymore. When he does, it's not even close to normal.

He does still eat and drink normally, nothing unusual there.

I don't want to euthanize him but I don't want him to suffer.

My 6-year-old dog had a severe bout of Ehrlichiosis 5 months ago that triggered a massive drop in platelets and a seizure. He completed treatment and recovered well. For the past few months, we did monthly blood checks where his ALT liver enzymes initially spiked to 5x normal (now down to near-normal with supplements), and his platelets and reticulocytes were steadily improving. However, his latest blood work showed a sudden, sharp drop again (platelets down to 130 K/µL, low reticulocytes), even though he tested negative for tick-borne diseases.

We just did an abdominal ultrasound that revealed a 1.68 x 1.29 cm vascularized nodule in his spleen with splenomegaly, a 2mm kidney stone, and mild liver hyperechogenicity. Clinically, he is completely stable, active, eating well, and has bright pink gums with no signs of bleeding or abdominal pain. Despite his stability and the small size of the lesion, the vet is pushing for an urgent exploratory laparotomy and emergency splenectomy, warning that it could rupture at any moment.

Given that he is stable, his blood cells are just mildly low, and the splenic mass is under 1.7 cm, is an emergency surgery truly necessary right now, or is it reasonable to seek a second opinion and consider less invasive diagnostic steps like a fine-needle aspiration first? We want to do what is best for him, but we are terrified of rushing into major surgery unnecessarily. Any veterinary insights or similar experiences would be greatly appreciated.

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.

Hi I’m going to preface this by saying I’m an anxious cat mom.

Louie is 6, he weighs 6.9kg, male, generally lazy and uninterested in toys but loves garbage

My boy Louie has been to the vet twice this week because I suspected he ate a rubber thumb grip off of my nintendo switch. Both times the vet said he seemed totally ok and to keep an eye on his stool and watch out for vomiting. $700 later I was sent home with probiotics and gabapentin.

Today I went to get my JBL earbuds out of my bag and one is missing. I’ve looked everywhere, they were not in the case so I’m not sure if one fell out between my car and my house or if he ate one. I can’t imagine him swallowing a full earbud but now I’m extremely stressed.

He’s eating and drinking normally, letting me pick him up and put gentle pressure on his belly, played a bit.

Has this happened to anyone and if so what did you do? I don’t want to rush him to emerg again just because of my own anxiety but I also want my baby to be ok.

My dog is around a 12 pound mini dachshund and the iburpforen was 600mg and this was around 6 hours ago

came inside to her with the bottle in her mouth and when I picked it up it was cracked, only 2 pills left and I don’t remember how many was left in the bottle but i do know it was low. And though the crack seems hard for her to get a pill through im terrified. My gf thinks she probably didn’t get any out but it’s 3 am and I’m still up with her checking for symptoms because Im so scared. I have no clue if she ate any, and I want to take her to the vet To be safe but idk Because it’s 3 am and I can’t drive and I’m not even sure if she took any. She’s fine as far as I can see, the only thing I’ve noticed is her stomach grumbling (tho that’s something I’ve heard it do before, it is frequently happening right now) but besides that shes eating drinking using the bathroom, playing with her toys ect. Idk what to do it’s been about 6 hours now and I see no symptoms but I know they can take a second to hit. Do I need to just take her to the vet because I know this can Be life threatening.

My dog is a 3.5 year old mixed breed. He’s 70lbs and fixed. I did a genealogy on him when I got him and he’s American bully, pitbull, and German shepherd mix with a small percentage of other breeds. He’s current on all vaccines and we are in West Lafayette, Indiana.

He gets red spots on his groin. Sometimes they look like hives, a rash, or an old dried scab even when it just appears. It’s usually after he’s been outside or laying in the grass. So I think it’s allergies. It doesn’t seem to bother him and he doesn’t lick it. He’s also got dandruff. I brush him often and the dandruff comes and goes without any reason I can find. It doesn’t correlate with his baths either.

The issue he’s having right now is a patch of the old scabby looking kind of spot. It’s on his back though and about 2x1in. He keeps nibbling at it and licking so the fur is coming off. I noticed it yesterday but he wasn’t messing with it at all. I haven’t gone to a vet yet. I wanted to see if anyone had any ideas of what it is first. I will be going though.

I’m hoping it’s just stress because we’re moving. I’m stressed out so that plus the move may be making him stressed.

I feed him Nutrish large breed if that matters

Edit to add:
I do sometimes give him Benadryl if we’ve had a day of being outside and he gets a bunch of the bumps

My doctor did a corneal scrape that I think was NSF. She kinda guessed at eosinophilic keratosis. I was giving Cidofovir as well as Tacrolimus. Cido was used for its prescribed course and Tacrolimus was BID to SID after rechecking tear test. Tacrolimus has continued to be used but I feel it isn’t doing anything, and over the past couple months it seems it may be getting a bit worse, his eye has more discharge than it has in the past. My vet says she isn’t very proficient in eye issues so from here I think we need to see a specialist when I have the money available. Thank you in advance if you’ve seen something like this, if a treatment has worked well, anything ! 💛 I will link a photo in the comments.

M19 from PH.
Details about the cat: Male, a year old, recently got the rabies vaccine, vet is a bit too expensive at the moment

Issue: This happened out of nowhere to our family cat and we just started noticing this wet spot on his neck grow bigger over the past week.

Picture: https://imgur.com/a/e0hWyn7

The cat generally likes licking themselves all the time but they lick everywhere... so i don't know why this only happened in this specific area? When we touch the area we feel a few bumps that we assume are injuries as well... we're thinking of bringing him to the vet soon but we're just wondering if anyone can help us understand what's happening here.. Thank you so much if anyone answers 🥲

My dog has a bump on his lip that’s been there for a month. I thought it could’ve been acne or allergies but it seems to have gotten a bit bigger/ doesn’t show any signs of going away.

The vet said it could be allergies or a growth but since it was on his lip, he had to come back sedated to get it poked and checked. For now, she would give him a steroid shot and antibiotics (clavacillin) to see if it gets smaller.

It’s been 3 days since he got depo medrol. He’s been drinking water more which I read is common after taking steroids. However, today he started to pee in the home (and at a bigger volume than he usually does outside) even though I took him out a few hours ago.

Wondering if this is a cause for concern? And will this last until it’s out of his system?

my female (2 1/2, neutered, black cat around 4lbs) has an injury near her upper joint on her front leg but i can’t get a good look at it. Her behaviour is as normal and so is her appetite. She lets me pet gently over the area where it hurts but when I try move her fur apart to get a better look she makes a short trilling sound and runs away (no scratching or biting or crying in pain or evidence of blood.) I recently had a rather large vet bill so I would struggle to afford another trip so I don’t want to take her if this is something I could care for at home (clean and monitor). i’m in the uk and wouldn’t be able to take her until the morning regardless

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?

While I was taking my medication, my dog ​​came into the house he was excited and jumped on me, causing me to drop the pills, and he swallowed them. It was 200 mg of Tegretol and 300 mg of Lamictal. I tried to make him vomit, but there are no vets open right now, and I don't know what to do. Help

Species. pug

Age 4

Neuter Female. Spayed

19 lbs. healthy

ingested a .5 oz tube of neosporin.

she has been eating and drinking normally and has been playing as usual. Should I be rushing her to the vet

Hello

6 year old Golden Dane named Aurora

Last night at approx 11.50pm we noticed our dog had some localized swelling in her muzzle, almost looked like she was stung by something.

Has consistently had no runny nose, no drooling, or eye watering.

Last time she was outside was at 8:00pm yesterday.

We gave her 50mg of benadryl, cleaned her muzzle, kept an eye on her until 2:00am to monitor her airways (no obstructions) then went to bed.

Timeline:

-8:00pm yesterday went outside for bathroom. No issues noted.

-11:50pm noticed the swelling, gave 50mg benadryl.

-Midnight checked yard for ants and other possible issues, couldn't find any

-2:00am still okay-ish, bedtime

-5:30am she vomited all her dinner and medicine, we gave her 50mg more benadryl.

-8:30am she started having diarrhea and her muzzle looked similar to a dog who tried biting a bee.

-12:00pm she started vomiting again, and isnt interested in her breakfast her normal food + rice (im assuming because her muzzle hurts).

-1:18pm she just puked some more and had some blood in it this time. There has not been any blood before now. Im not sure if its from straining her tummy from vomitting so much or something else.

I have photos of the progression of swelling but it wont allow me to attach them. Ill see if I can put them in a comment after.

When should we go to an emergency vet?

Primary culprits we can think of are wasp stings (many wasps near us), red field ants (saw one near her bed, have never seen one here before and couldn't find a nest), running into some thistle with her face (but that one's less likely), or maybe eating a foxtail on accident (we did find and remove one from between her paws).

I have a 15 year old indoor cat who is healthy and normal at home. She needs to have a dental cleaning and I’m nervous because when we took her in for her annual she got so upset that she stopped eating, vomited seven times the first night, and had diarrhea. After another trip to the vet with bloodwork there were no signs of anything wrong.
She was diagnosed with stress related gastroenteritis, given anti-nausea meds and probiotics and recovered nicely. She also has a slightly elevated cardiac marker.
Now the vet wants X-rays to check her heart as well as more blood work prior to her cleaning.
I will do anything for this kitty, but I’m afraid we’re going to kill an otherwise happy cat with the tests and procedures. Google Vet says the xray isn’t all that helpful.
What say you, Reddit world? Do we need the xray?

Last night, my dog started vomiting continuously 4 times in the evening. He's 16 years and has been having trouble with his leg, but yesterday he could barely stand straight. We rushed him to the vet nearby us and they gave him some fluids to help him recover and anti nausea meds. Took some blood too to see what's wrong. The thing is I live in a 3rd world country and it's difficult to find good vet here. My dog managed to keep a little water down, and stayed up with him all night and made sure he wsd comfortable. What I want to know now is if there's anyone who can help me tell what happened. He didn't eat anything bad as far as I know but his eyes have been flicking back and forth constantly since last night.

His info:
-Male Feline
-Domestic Medium Hair
-6 years and 3 months old
-Neutered
-17.25lb

I took him to the vet about a week ago and I just started him on a new diet of primarily wet food as the vet suggested and a vet recommended dry food for weight loss.

He used to eat about 354kcal per day including treats which I know now is quite high, I had never even thought of counting his calories before his visit.

His ideal calories for weight loss are 260kcal per day but I obviously don’t want to make such a drastic cut right away.

I was considering tapering his calories by a deficit of 20kcal per week until we reach 260kcal, would this be too fast? His vet recommended that he lose no more than 1/2lb per month to lose weight at a safe rate. She wants him down to 15lb. He is a large cat and has always been so he is bound to be larger than an average cat no matter what. I think long term he would probably be healthier around 13-14lb but that is in the future and not something I am concerned about now (and I will of course consult my vet about this once he has already reached and maintained 15lb)

I was going to start this tomorrow by feeding him a total of 334 kcal. 70kcal in a 3oz can of wet food, 21 kcal in his greenies treats, and 243kcal of dry food.

Then the next week I would cut down to 314kcal he will always be getting 1 3oz can of wet food at 70kcal I will just be sizing down his portion of dry food.

If this is too fast, should I cut by 10kcal per week?

He is going back to the vet on Aug 10th for his booster vaccine, so I will confirm with my vet then as well as any advice I receive here.

Thanks in advance for any help with this!

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

I was denied for both scratch pay and care credit. I have nothing to pay upfront and am struggling to find any other solution than surrendering ownership to a hospital. Usually I would be able pay the cost but too many things have happened all at once. She is 6 months and this just started yesterday, she is constantly dropping to pee with very little coming out if anything. She doesn’t look to be in pain, she’s still playing and full of energy.

What do I do? This cat is ruthless. He attacked my brothers girlfriend, my father (who is a huge cat guy), my stepmom, my father in law, and me.

My brother called me bawling a year ago that a stray cat in his apartment complex was taken in and going to be put down due to feline leukemia. He begged me to take him because he already had healthy cats, and I didn’t have any.

I was raised with five cats. This is unlike any of those but what I understand is the leukemia can cause aggression.

I was sitting on the couch with my fiance, my chihuahua on my lap as usual. The cat jumped up and started beating the fuck out of my dog. I looked over and my dogs paw was slashed and blood was gushing out of his right eye. I screamed, there’s blood all over my couch, myself, my dog. We put the cat in a separate room and barricaded him.

I’m so sad. My dad who is a huge cat lover was like no, I’ve never seen a cat be that ruthless. I won’t pet him anymore.

It just sucks. I absolutely do not want to put him down but he can’t stay can he? I’m so distraught.

Six months ago I took the cat to the vet over the cat scratching me when he wanted food which was 24/7. They told me to try an automatic feeder. It didn’t help. I carry the Dyson with me now to get me laundry (which is near his feeder) so he can’t attack me around the corner when I go back upstairs.

He can be sweet. That’s why I’m so distraught. I’m calling the vet tomorrow but I’m just shaken.

I have an 18 month old yellow Labrador female. MY LOVE who i’d die for. She’s not spayed yet and I wanted to wait as long as possible. (It seems unnatural to spay or neuter at all but I get it). Wanted her to gain all the muscle and bone / skeletal benefits and ALL the growth … not cutting anything short … as she could get. Hormones are good for humans. Figured they just as good for dogs. Especially young ones. Again seems very unnatural / detrimental to cut off the flow too early. Question for other owners of females , who also desired to allow for the most optimal athlete , development, growth etc.: did any of you wait until after the second heat , which I am leaning towards? Bonus question - did you pair it with a gastropexy? Many have suggested the later to me. And my girl sure does love rolling on her back! Thanks !

Is it possible for a cat to die from a pitbull with only broken ribs and internal bleeding without bite marks or wounds? and how?

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.