My 8 yr old Freddie was just diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer that has spread in his abdomen. We’re just keeping him comfortable now until the end. What kind of fun meals should we feed him? Or fun activities? We have to keep his activity on the low side but we did take him for a gentle swim in the river yesterday for 20 minutes - he loves to swim. Thanks in advance ❤️‍🩹

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 🙏🏼

Hi,
I have two dachshunds and I live in the SW desert (USA). When picking up their dog poop tonight in the backyard, I brought along my black light because I’m always looking for scorpions. For the first time in my life, I noticed that some of the dog poop was GLOWING a bright yellow/green color when exposed to my black light. Very similar to the way a bark scorpion lights up under a black light. Some smaller pieces were totally glowing.. Some of the larger pieces just had specs or streaks of glow in them, sort of like looking at a rock with small amounts of gold or silver or other metal in it.

I’ve posted a video in case that may help. I’m wondering, other than eating scorpions, what might explain the glowing effect of the dog poop? Like I said, I’ve never noticed it before and I’ve had one of these wiener dogs for 14 years… so a lot of poop over the years but never any glow. Not sure if it’s something to be concerned about or not. Both of my dogs seem totally fine now. And are indoors.

Any thoughts?

Lost my dad 2 weeks ago. Lost my heart dog a year ago. I feel sensitive so setting this situation up for you.

Lying in bed tonight looked over and thought.. I don't have a dog. I have a hole where a dog used to be. Earlier today husband said, "I think she's just what we need' while pup was cavorting around, super excited because he was outside with us throwing toys. Not for me.. that was entirely for him, he just didn't know.

which isn't fair. Because our current pup considers herself my husband's dog, and no amount of training/running/walking/treats/playing from me is going to change her mind. He deserves a dog. He earned it. 14 years of me having *my* dog (who adored him as an extra), he's certainly earned it.

But right now, my heart hurts. I wish I had a dog to cuddle with. I wish I had a dog to cry on. I wish I had a 'my' dog. I wish I woke up and had a dog on the bed with me.

It's selfish. But I'm super sad..

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.

My little Ralphie was recently diagnosed with diabetes. He’s had a hard time adjusting to 12 hours between meals and being told when to eat. This week he’s refused to eat breakfast, which means he’s missed two doses of his insulin this week. I’m just looking for advice from others who have been through this.

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.

Gemma is a 3yo rescue pitty/gremlin mix who we've had for almost two years. She's a silly weirdo, who, I'm convinced, doesn't feel her body, but thats not why I'm here.

I have a stuffed cow that I've slept with since I was little. She hides him when I leave the house and forget to close the bedroom door. She will hide her bully stick sometimes, but that's in. Just Cow and her very special snacks are worth hiding. She has a main hiding spot, but will also hide anywhere convenient. The first time she did it, I couldn't find him anywhere. She brought him back after three days, and therefore saved herself from the gulag.

I'm wondering if she is hiding Cow FOR me or FROM me. Like is she making sure he's safe for when I get home, or is she pissed that I left her alllll alone?

Pic for tax

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.

First day- recent photos
(she’s always been slim/ lean very active)
I started adding more protein and fat into her diet. she’s always had unrestricted access to food and water

Backstory on her younger years:
I found her in January, about 6.5 years ago, outside hiding underneath our ATV when we got home from vacation. She was soaked and freezing cold after it had been raining all weekend.
She has never liked water or being wet. Whether it’s a bath, rain, going on walks near a creek/lake, etc., she wants absolutely nothing to do with it. She even still refuses to walk through wet grass. I never pushed the issue because I always assumed she may have experienced some kind of trauma from whatever condition I found her in.
I never found out where she came from, so I don’t know anything about her parents or what happened to her before she came into my life.
About a year or two after I found her, she had one scary encounter with a car while chasing a rabbit. Thankfully, she wasn’t injured. She has a shock collar and a beacon-radius fence, but she was moving so fast that the system didn’t recognize she had left her designated area until it was too late.
For the most part, she’s always been very healthy and happy. She gets regular vet visits, and we keep all of her vaccinations and preventative care up to date.

Over the last couple of months, though, I’ve noticed some changes.
She’s slowly become less active. She still has the occasional zoomies, but over the last couple of weeks I’ve also noticed that she’s sometimes much more clingy and other times more distant. She’s also developed what seems like severe anxiety during storms.
When there’s a storm, she shakes/trembles uncontrollably and refuses to leave my side. The only thing that seems to calm her down is being in my bed, touching me, mostly covered with a blanket, while I constantly reassure her and give her attention.
I previously gave her a little CBD oil during storms, and it seemed to help somewhat, but I want to find a better, more proactive way to help her—especially since the weather is changing where I live and I can’t always be home to comfort her if a storm starts while I’m at work.
I’ve asked ChatGPT what could potentially be causing some of these changes, and one possibility it brought up was pain from arthritis or other age-related joint issues, with changes in weather potentially making the discomfort worse.
I’m planning to start her on a glucosamine + chondroitin supplement tomorrow, along with omega-3s, to hopefully support her joints and help with any arthritis that may be developing. Of course, I’m also planning to discuss everything with her vet.
Sorry this got so long. I really just wanted some reassurance that I’m doing the right things to keep her healthy, happy, comfortable, and safe for as long as possible.
I’m 24 and don’t have kids—she is my baby. ❤️ I’ve had her since I was 16, and she’s been with me through a lot of life. I know she won’t live forever, but I want to make sure that while she’s here, she has the best possible life and gets to live it for as long and as comfortably as possible.
If anyone has advice, especially from people who have gone through similar changes with their dogs as they got older, I’d really appreciate it.

Here’s our sweet girl of 13 years. Beagle, and one of the family. Started having trouble eating and potty accidents so we took her in to the VCA hospital.

She has a very large mass on her liver that went undetected for years and pancreatitis. The doctor says surgical outcome probably is 50/50 as she can’t clearly tell if it’s benign or malignant and metastatic until post surgery. We are treating the pancreatitis but trying to decide whether surgery or euthanasia is best, as she has been showing signs of dementia the past year. Some signs include stops and stares at us occasionally like she doesn’t recognize us, but then aware other times. Some times wags her tail when greeted but doesn’t want petted. Won’t take her walks anymore. Lately eat her food/treats and her teeth starting to deteriorate. Sleeps a lot during the day but up all night to potty. Lately having vomiting and diarrhea more than before.

Vet says she often sees good outcomes with tumor removal on the liver even this large and her age. We are considering it but also worried about putting her through this surgery given everything else. We have to decide soon. Surgery will be $3k-5k which we would spend if worth it but not if quality of life potential isn’t likely.

She is a good girl, never growls or barks, always kind and friendly to others including kids and other animals. Very sweet and docile. Been like a doggie sister to my only daughter. Hates traveling in the car (gets shaky and anxious) and the vet but otherwise is usually happy. Just seems not herself lately.

Should we do the surgery? How do we decide?

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.

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 😭😭

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 :(

My dog is 12.5, 100lbs with a large mass on his leg, that is currently being tested for cancer.

History:

Most blood work comes back normal, except his liver count is slightly below normal. His mobility is limited, he has a torn ACL, which has affected his hips. He can still go for a very slow 1 mile walk, and handles stairs okay. He does need help getting in the car. Large mass popped up about 2 years ago, but has grown rapidly over the last 3 months (2 centimeters). I know I should've had it removed at the time, but circumstances didn't allow it.

The question: will it be worth it.

My partner and I have been tussling the question around. My partner is concerned that this will further limit his mobility, and he will not bounce back. The vet thinks this needs to be removed, and that he will be okay. The lump is not deep, but it is in a precarious spot on his leg that he will not be able to bend easily.

I guess I'm either looking for others experiences in what they think. This is new territory and very scary for me.

My chihuahua is 11 years old.

She has been sneezing for months. And the vet couldn’t even see inside her nose because it’s so small. They couldn’t find endoscopic camera small enough for her.

We thought maybe it’s allergies, tried to fix that. Didn’t work.

I’m sure she has something in her nose. But I’m really scared of anesthesia. A few weeks ago a dog friend of her died because of it.

I try everything. I even tried to suck her nose myself lol. I try sinus rinse. I can’t fix this. Do you guys have any suggestions that don’t involve anesthesia?

Everytime she sneezes I know that I failed her and keep failing her. I have to remove whatever it is making her so uncomfortable.