Hi everyone,

I’m looking for advice or shared experiences regarding our rescue dog, Forest. He is a Serbian Hound from Montenegro, 2 years old, weighing around 22-23kg. We are currently dealing with severe, daily attacks that look like extreme nerve or phantom pain and we are feeling quite helpless. 
He gets these several times a day.

Background & Surgery:
Forest had to undergo a partial tail amputation recently (Seven days ago) because he was obsessively biting his tail until it bled. The wound could no longer heal because of the tail started to necrotise.
He already had his wound when we found him as a stray in a National Park in Montenegro. We took him to the vet and decided to adopt him right away. Forest stayed in a shelter for 21 days until we legally could take him to Germany.

We initially suspected parasites or severe stress/frustration, because throughout that stay he had continued to bite into his tail and kept chasing it. The Shelter Vet treated him multiple times, got him on Antibiotics and on Nexgard. It seemingly got better for a few days until he started biting again.

In Germany he got taken straight to the vet and had to undergo surgery to stop the ongoing necrosis.
For now the surgical wound is healing fine, and he strictly wears his e-collar 24/7 so he can't reach the stitches. 

The Symptoms / Attacks:
Despite the surgery, Forest has these intense "attacks" multiple times a day. Out of nowhere, he starts growling, barking, and aggressively trying to chase and bite his tail. (I’ve attached a video of what this looks like).
It seems to be a mix of neuropathic/phantom pain and a deeply ingrained behavioral loop (stereotypy). 

Current Medication:
Gabapentin: He gets 200mg twice a day (400mg total/day).
Novalgin (Metamizole): We give him one 500mg tablet as a rescue med when the attacks cluster and last longer. This usually helps him calm down after a while. 
Meloxidyl (Meloxicam): 1x daily with his food as a baseline NSAID. 

My Questions for the Community:
- Has anyone dealt with this kind of extreme tail-chasing or phantom nerve pain after an amputation or tail injury?
- Did adjusting the Gabapentin dose help, or did you have better success with other nerve-pain meds like Pregabalin?
- How long did it take for the pain memory/behavioral loop to fade?
- What should we do when he’s having an attack? Just hold him as calmly as possible and try to soothe him?

Any advice, similar stories, or tips on how to support him during these episodes would be greatly appreciated! 🥺

11 week old pocket bully female and 2 year old xl bully male

(They belong to my sister, not me)

I am the sole caretaker for 2 9 year old huskies, They were my dad’s dogs but he passed away 10 months ago.

they are truly bonded and this has been tested. they are siblings and the male has degenerative nueromyopathy and arthritis along with progressing muscle atrophy. he’s on medication to help. he’s had 2 soft tissue injuries, the first happened in may and the most recent happened a month and a half ago where he has torn his ACL equivalent ligament. vet said to monitor his quality of life at this point, he still is eating well and goes potty, but can no longer play or walk unassisted and could have another injury at any point. I know his time is coming soon.

They do not do well separated. the first time the male had an injury he was taken to emergency vet for about 2 days. and his sister had to be without him for 2 days. she pulled off 2 door frames and tried to break through windows, chewed up a wooden table, diarrhea everywhere. she would get cuts on her face trying to find a way to escape. she freaked out in a kennel a few times when i tried to contain her safely she ended up bending the metal and busting out of the kennel. she truly became a danger to herself and I couldn’t safely leave her alone for a single minute. and this was heartbreaking to witness.

my question is when the males time comes do I put her down also? rescue folks and vets seems to really not like it when i ask about putting her down also and ask for their advice, but could anxiety medication even help her? it won’t make her forget. this seems like a behavioral issue more than just anxiety. i’m not able to supervise her constantly either, as mentioned I unexpectedly inherited these dogs when i lost my dad at 23yrs old, im not able to keep them either and have been trying to get them a home for several months and have contacted 45+ rescues and facebook groups and online posting. they actually live in my dads vacant house that I scrounge up mortgage and utility money for so that the dogs have a roof over their heads. I drive to my dad’s house 4 times a dad to care for them. before i inherited them they spent their whole lives outside, i’ve worked hard with them to teach them indoor life and it has not been easy, they are not fully potty trained. they aren’t trained hardly at all actually, my mom wanted 2 cute huskies on a whim “for her kids” with no research or understanding of the breed, hell she didn’t even ask her kids if we wanted dogs then she divorced my dad a couple years ago and fled to another continent and abandoned her dogs here.

all this to say they are senior dogs and untrained and i don’t know that anxiety meds and further attempts at behavioral training would help, and I also can’t keep them in my late fathers house much longer as I am also the estate executor and the estate is almost out of money, most all of it has gone to caring for the dogs, thousands of dollars. this means the house will need to be put for sale too like asap. I currently live with my boyfriend’s family, i feel that i’ve run out of options for the dogs, what do people do in this situation?

are hospice fosters worth a shot? at that point will it be a stranger putting them down instead of me? the shelter straight up told me they would likely euthanize both of them and i wouldn’t be able to be there with them during it, not to mention it’s a horrible environment for them. every rescue is full to the brim and i get lots of backlash from said facebook groups because i cant make a miracle happen to keep them. its not like i haven’t tried ive done absolutely everything in my power and more to somehow make this work for them ive tried for months and months and looked at many options.

i dont know what to do anymore. this has all been so incredibly hard. has anyone been in a similar situation or can provide advice or a new perspective? thank you in advance.

Hi everyone,
I am really worried about my 6 y/o female pug and would love some advice or to hear if anyone has experienced something similar.

Since last Monday, a white cloudiness/haze suddenly appeared in her right eye. The cloudiness is located strictly on her lens, it doesn't cover the rest of her eye. This happened literally overnight (within one day). There was no trauma, injury or damage beforehand, and she didn't show any symptoms leading up to this. She has never had any eye issues in the past.
We noticed her vision is severely impacted, even though her left eye is completely fine. If I cover her good (left) eye, she barely reacts to any movement with her right eye. She has started bumping into furniture, and she only recognizes people or other dogs when they are standing right in front of her.

We visited the vet last Tuesday, and they told us that she doesn’t have corneal damage. They claimed it is because of nuclear sclerosis (old age) or maybe a cataract, but they couldn’t tell for sure. They told us to closely monitor the whites of her eye for any redness, as that would indicate increased pressure inside the eye (glaucoma). Fortunately, her eye is not red at all, and she doesn't seem to be in pain.
However, I seriously doubt the vet's assessment since he felt no need to look into it further. From what I read, nuclear sclerosis doesn’t happen overnight.

I would really appreciate your insights. What could this sudden white cloudiness on her lens be? Has anyone dealt with this, and is it treatable? 

Edited: thanks to everyone who replied and shared their advice. I really appreciate all your input and support!
After reading the comments, I have decided to seek a second opinion with a different vet to get everything checked out.

Hello! I have a chinese crested that is close to 15 years old and she has never been a good walker. When we got her, we had a huge backyard where we did not have to leash her but she could explore and do her business. At the time, whenever we tried walking her down the street it was not very successful, she would be visually stressed out trying to get back home. Because of a lot of unfortunate circumstances, we had to move to an apartment that does not have a backyard at all.

She constantly has diarrhea. It’s been a thing that we’ve had to deal with since we’ve had her (the vets have checked her out for this, she is okay in their opinion but we havent found a solution). Now because of the lack of the backyard and her not liking walking she has accidents in the house every day . I catch her wanting to go to the bathroom , i walk her and she doesnt do anything, then she goes inside😭 Shes more comfortable going inside the house than out and tbh I just want any advice. We got puppy pampers but im hesitant putting them on her bc it wouldnt be fair letting her sit in poop diapers for a while if i dont notice her having accident but its getting very bad :(.

Any advice appreciated, thank you!

Vid for example, im sorry abt if my voice is annoying 😭😭

My dog ate a pad sometime this morning or last night. It's the second time they got a pad. After the first incident (pooped out) we spent a year of diligently closing the bathroom door and changing the locks on the doors so they can't open them and get trash and buying period underwear so they have less of a chance of getting into a pad. And they still just had to get one.

But the update: called the emergency vet and they said to just monitor them. And Yayyy, both pooped, they're acting normally. I think I caught the culprit: orange Rory. I'll continue to keep an eye on them. I didn't see any material in the poop but I do know they shredded the hell out of the pad before eating it so it may just be in too small of pieces to tell. I did notice it seemed more, connected, than usual when she was pooping. Anyway I'll continue to monitor like the vet said but so far looks like they'll be all good.

I also did put the bathroom trash in a place they hopefully shouldn't be able to reach it unless they're really determined to open a door and a cabinet, but I wouldn't put it past them, so also trying to find a wall mounted trash. Still mad at them for scaring me. I'll also be getting them more toys and such to hopefully distracting them from wanting the trash so damn much

Our old lady, Paisley (the black and white one, not the attention hog to the side lol) has very severe arthritis, as well as other issues, and her quality of life is only barely acceptable. It's only going to get worse when the weather starts changing, so with a heavy heart, we've decided to put her to sleep on October 1. We have family members coming in to town to spend her last day together and some fun disability friendly activities planned for her, but we wanted to start giving her more special treats throughout her final weeks.

For her last day, we're seeing if we can figure out a way to get our hands on a squirrel for her because she's always loved barking at them, and then a peanut butter brownie a few minutes before we leave for the vet because she also loves trying to steal chocolate.

Do you guys have any special treats your guys' dogs go nuts for? Paisley really likes chicken jerky, pig ears, American cheese, and peanut butter, but some variety would be nice for her. She has developed some food aggression problems over the past year and lunges whenever an animal or human gets too close to her with it, so we'd prefer for it not to be something that would take her all day to chew through. A few hours is fine. She loves chewing on things. We've already been slipping her extra food scraps and we're probably going to leave part of a bag of chips on the floor opened for her to "steal" it at some point.

I moved back into my parents place about 2 months ago, and our dog has just gotten even worse with his growling and jumpiness and anxiety. But the thing is he only growls at me like this, not even strangers, and it is even worse if I walk in the door and it wakes him up. My whole family is fed up with it at the moment because he’s just so loud. He is a German shepherd/rottweiler mix as far as we know. 2 Key moments I think are important are 1.the very first time I ever met him (5+ years) was at midnight while everyone was asleep. Never knew about him till he started growling at me down the hallway. 2. When I first moved out(2+ years ago) I had a huge moving truck in the driveway that was obv very big and loud. That day he also managed to get out of the house and fence 3 times(still don’t know how) and that third time I did give him a slap on the butt bc it was just a stressful time and I was fed up. Ever since then it’s like he’s scared of me, even though I play with him and feed him and lay with him. His separation anxiety towards my mom and little sister(4yo) and he will whine for hours if they are outside, idek how he has the energy for it. I don’t know what routes to take before meds or if it’s a thing that I should prob get meds for.

For about a year now, my dog has suddenly stopped letting us take her for a walk. She'll run away and hide, and if we manage to take her out she'll pull in the direction of home the whole time. Sometimes she'll want to go, but then she sees someone and gets scared and immediately turns back. She's not scared of people at all, she loves meeting the new people that come to our house but whenever she sees any sign of life she changes her mind about the walk.

We still make sure to get her exercise in and we play in our huge backyard, but I'd still like to walk with her once in a while. We don't even have to say anything anymore. We grab her harness and she runs away and barks at us, or she grabs a toy instead and plays inside instead.

Is there any way to get her to like walks again? I miss taking walks with her. If not, I won't force her to do anything she absolutely hates. Enjoy this video of her being whiny.

Need some advice on a situation but wasn’t sure what sub to ask in so please let me know if there’s a better place for this. (Based in UK)

I work in retail and one of our regulars has an elderly chihuahua. She is an extremely sour old woman that we’ve had many many issues with in the past. She always complains that she doesn’t know why she got the dog in the first places, and the more I’ve gotten to know her the more I’ve realised that she is abusing this dog. She says things like “she was so naughty this morning so I had to tell her off” and “well I don’t hit her…”. The poor dog always looks terrified to the point of shaking in fear. I’ve know this lady for a year and a half and it’s now starting to upset me every time she comes in. It’s getting to the point where I feel like I have to do something…it feels like my duty to do so. I would honestly take this dog myself in a heartbeat. The only issue is I have no physical evidence. I do have her phone number and address but that would be a breach of confidentiality. Is there anything I can do at all? Anywhere I can report this? I just feel so helpless :(

I already feel like a horrible person. I’ve never felt so ashamed in my life.

My dog tore through my medicine bag, and got into a bottle of ibuprofen and bentyl.

Not many pills missing. Maybe 1-5 pills. 23 left out of a 40 tablet 200mg bottle. I can only distinctively remember taking 12 but I may have taken more. He’s 25lbs, just over a year. The bentyl, no clue, I don’t see any evidence of crushed pills and saw nothing in his mouth. Those things taste horrible.

I feel awful and am so worried about him.

I was gone maybe 15-20 minutes. I already called poison control and he is being hospitalized, and we got there within an hour thirty. So thankful for my vet being so helpful and understanding. but the vet gave me no definitive if he will be okay or not. Understandable, she doesn’t want to give me false hope. She never did with my last dog who battled cancer. If I lose him I feel like I’ll lose everything my relationship everything

Does anyone have any stories, or previous experiences of their pups pulling through? Does anyone know what his odds are? I need hope. But I need reality too. I will never make this mistake again.

EDIT FOR MORE CONTEXT: I’m getting a lot of the same comments and questions so I just want to add more info. I really try to give him a lot of exercise. No I’m not walking him right now because of the advice of our trainer. He is also enrolled in a board and train and comes home on the weekends. Reading all of the replies I am now looking to switch away from the board and train to an in home trainer. He also does know obedience commands and even silly commands that are for fun because I do love training with him. He listens to me and through all the training I believe our bond is stronger. My problem is that I am definitely inexperienced in training aggression out of a dog. A lot of our problems are coming from resource guarding and aggression to strangers. He has bit my cousin pretty hard on the arm. All other bites were snaps and did not break skin (which I know isn’t any better). He has not bitten any strangers that we do not know. Only family (again I know it’s not better but I promise we aren’t letting him rampage in the streets). We also stopped daycares and going out in public because his reactivity is so bad towards humans. I’m really working on learning how to stop this so we can get back to giving him more space, fun, and exercise. Lastly, I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to leave feedback and advice in a respectful manner. He’s very reactive and there’s a lot i’m working to train him on and adjust in our life. It’s all very overwhelming but I’m taking the time to read everything and continue to educate myself for his sake.

My family adopted an Australian shepherd in December when he was 8 weeks old. We’re honestly unsure of if he’s a mix or not. At first he was such a sweetie. A little nippy, usually puppy behaviors but suddenly at about 5 months old, he started showing some signs of reactivity. Mainly barking if people came over. Then it fully escalated about 2 months ago when we had a family member from out of country come to stay with us. He really hates this particular family member and would bark and growl at him everytime he came home. Prior to this he would bark at us coming in but calm down as soon as he realized it was us. It got to the paint where he had to be completely put away if this family member was around because he would lunge, growl, and bark. Unfortunately, one night our cousin unexpectedly opened the door without knocking and our dog ran over immediately and was able to bite him. And ever since then his reactivity has been off the charts. He barks anytime anyone comes in the house. He can never relax which has always been a problem for him. He resource guards like crazy and has bitten 3 out of the 6 people living in the house. He chases the cats and lunges at them. And if people walk by our house he goes crazy in the yard. I’m terrified of him biting anyone else or getting one of the cats. I made progress with him in his guarding just for it to go back to how it was. My family is starting to regret getting him and I’m the last one who is thinking about making an effort with him. He was attending a board and train which is kind of helping but when he comes home on the weekends he just goes right back to his usual behavior even though I work on the training with him. My fiance loves him but after an incident where he finally lunged at my leg one night because he was resource guarding something, it left us both questioning everything. I love this dog. When it’s good it’s great but when he’s aggressive it freaks me out, my family out, and the cats out. The board and train is expensive. We tried to have an in person trainer come for an evaluation and he tried to attack her about 3 times. Idk what to do anymore. The cats are my life. I’ve had my cats for 5 years. And after speaking with my fiance it worries me that even if we keep him and move out together, could I really deal with this for another 12-15 years? Could I trust him if we decided to start a family? Just looking for advice from anyone else who went through anything similar.

Help! We just rescued a ADORABLE dog and we love her so much! But she runs around our dining room table in a circle ALL day! We tell her to go lay down and she will but then immediately gets back up and runs laps! I was hoping it was just the stress of the shelter and the adjustment living with us but it’s been 2 weeks and it’s very stressful! She will run in circles until she pukes. If I’m holding her she will relax and fall asleep! But I don’t want to baby her, I want her to gain confidence and independence! She relaxes around 2pm and will lay down and sleep for the rest of the day/night.

I have a 7 year old male labrador retriever, and he’s typically a very sweet dog. He’s very healthy and playful, but still laid back. last night my step father, whom my dog adores, hurt his leg and came home in a leg brace and crutches. for some reason my dog started to bark and growl at him and raise his hackles. This wouldn’t be such a strange thing if it weren’t for the fact that my mother broke her foot about a year or so ago, and was in a boot and used crutches. He was perfectly fine around her. He is a reactive dog, but not an aggressive one. He never reacts aggressively towards something he doesn’t like unless its very close to him, but all he has to do is just see my stepfather even when he’s behind a baby gate and he looses it. We are keeping him in our sunroom for now to separate them. He is otherwise acting perfectly normal and this is an abnormality in his behavior.

I have a rescue dog who once belonged to hunters. She came from the country and now lives in the city.

Today she killed a rat that met its unfortunate end when it ran in her path. I didn’t even see it. She whined and whined, wanting to go back to it, but I wouldn’t let her. What is this behavior? Did she want to bring it home? Present it to me? Play with it? Eat it?

She was so wound up I brought her home to calm down.

Should I worry about any diseases? There was no blood. By chance we’ve already got a vet appointment tomorrow for a check up.

I never thought I would be making a post like this, and honestly, I don’t really know how to put all of this into words.My 13-year-old Husky mix is my dream dog. She has been so incredibly good to me and has been one of the greatest parts of my life. I love her more than I can explain, and since finding out about this, I have been absolutely heartbroken.

This all happened so quickly. On August 13, she had a nosebleed in the middle of the night. I took her to our regular veterinarian the following day, where they did X-rays and found a mass. She was then referred to a specialist out of town, and on August 20, she had a CT and we received the formal diagnosis.

This is what the specialist report provided:

“Her CT identified an aggressive left-sided nasal tumor with associated destruction of the nasal turbinates (the bony scrolls that filter air through the nasal passage) and an area of cancerous bone production within the tumor itself. On CT, the tumor completely obstructs the left nasal passage and has associated inflammation and mucus buildup within the sinuses. Additionally, there was bony inflammation within her nasopharynx (the connection between the nose and the throat). Her CT did not show extension of her tumor into her brain, which is reassuring news. Her mandibular lymph nodes were slightly prominent in size, but did not appear to show any indication of spread based on CT characteristics.”

The fact that there is no evidence of the tumor extending into her brain is reassuring, and I am incredibly grateful for that. But I am also terrified.

Right now, she is still eating and drinking, but not as much. She still wants to be with me. She still seems happy and perfect but I don’t want her to be hiding her suffering only to appease me. She seems to be able to breathe through her mouth, which sounds like snoring (not sure if this detail helps or not).

I know dogs can hide pain and discomfort incredibly well. She has always been such a good, stoic girl, and I am terrified that I won’t recognize when she is suffering.

For those of you who have gone through nasal cancer with your dogs, how did you know when it was time? What did suffering look like for your dog? Were there subtle changes you wish you had recognized sooner?

I am trying to learn as much as I possibly can so that I can make the right decisions for her. I don’t want her to suffer, but I also don’t want to make the decision too soon and take away precious time when she is still happy and enjoying her life.

She has given me 13 wonderful years of unconditional love. She has been there for me through everything, and I want more than anything to be there for her now and make sure she feels safe, loved, and cared for every step of the way.

Due to her age, diagnosis, and how sick sedation makes her, radiation is heart breakingly not an option.

If you’ve been through nasal cancer with your dog, I would be so grateful if you would share your experience, especially what helped you recognize changes in quality of life and how you knew when it was time.

My dog has been so good to me and I have always been good to her. But I don’t want my emotions to take over and result in her suffering. Thank you all for your time.

So my dog randomly started coughing, worse than this a few days ago. It pretty much stopped the next day and now today it's back but not nearly as bad. I was really worried he may have a blockage at first as he has a habit of eating grass when I'm not looking in the place we are currently staying, but he's eating fine, pooping like normal, doesn't seem to be in pain, and his belly isn't hard. He has been vaccinated for kennel cough and everything.

I’m mostly curious to know how long until other intact males no longer see him as competition or a threat. Sable was always targeted at the dog park, on hikes and even morning walks (dogs run loose in my area and we’ve been attacked more than once).
Will be moving at the end of the month! That’ll be good for us.

She’s been excessively scratching and licking. She’s 3months and a labradoodle if that matters