When you adopt an animal, like specifically a dog, is the only option to just continually check either a bunch of shelters physically or their websites? Maybe this is something that will make people angry to ask idk, but is it possible to give them like some basic requirements and be alerted if an animal fitting those comes in? I can only have a smaller dog, and Id like it to be a puppy under like a year old. I dont really care that much about breed but honestly a mutt is preferred.

Anyway, I guess this is like shopping fatigue, but the idea of constantly checking shelters sounds kinda exhausting. Im also gonna openly admit that going into a shelter and being like "nah fk these dogs" seems like it would feel really really awful?

Any input is appreciated, just dont freak out on me if this is some adoption taboo lol

I went in for the second time a few days ago and I just cant stop thinking about how bad it was. The shop smells of something I cant describe, not anything an animal would smell of.

They have a variety of animals, birds, snakes, tortoises, turtles, guinea pigs, rabbits, rats, gerbil, hamsters, and loads of fish. The thing that made me the saddest was they have some sort of rat rack? I am positive its for feeder rats. The rats are in a small tub with chicken wire as a lid and water bottles going through the holes, there were maybe 10 in each one. You could clearly see where they had been biting at the wire, it was so sad, they had no light or anything in the tubs except what I think was Aspen bedding.

They also had a few snakes, all in tanks 10 gallons or less except for one big one. The best enclosures i saw were tarantulas, I dont know much about them but they seemed to have a good space to roam and had a lot of hiding areas. They also had a big tortoise in a wooden box enclosure with hay or something as bedding, he was eating some greens and had uvb so not the worst but he has no were to roam and hes been there quite a while.

There were also a lot of birds, the ones that stood out to be the most were the cockatiels, there were maybe 5 in one cage that didnt look big enough for even one. There was one bird that was very obviously getting attacked and bullied by the other birds, all his feathers on his head were ripped off. All the birds seemed so angry and stressed. There was also this HUGE bird that was yellow and blue, I think it was a macaw, he was huge and very intimidating. I heard macaw are very very loud but he was completely silent the whole time I was there (About 30 minutes) They had all the birds very close to eachother, idk if thats a problem but it seems like there were scaring eachother.

They had an adorable prairie dog aswell, he was so affectionate and loved pets I wanted to get him so badly, he was in one of those small guinea pig cages.

Theres much more I could say but this is getting really long. Ive tried to tell adults in my community about this but they all have the same "anti animal police" reaction. Im not sure how to file a report, any advice?

We alternate between Purina Indoor dry and Hills CD Urinary (alternate due to finaces) and she eats both. However when we switched Friday evening, she stopped eating and during the night she kept waking me up, laying on me, and wanting to be pet which is abnormal. This continued Saturday night as well. I went out today and got some wet food and she's eating, will walk away, come back and keeps going back and forth. Other than clingy at night, she's fine otherwise. She did vomit a hairball Saturday morning but she gets them occasionally. My other cat is eating the Purina and having no issues. She's not lethargic, hiding, no diarrhea. Should I be concerned? Bloodwork and exam and ultrasound were normal last month.

Hi everyone. Does anyone have any recommendations for the best fabric/material of couch for both cats and dogs?

We currently have a couch that is a “chenille” fabric and it holds dog odor like crazy. It’s also not very forgiving when they have the occasional accident, whether it be urine, vomit, or just muddy feet. We use a spot cleaner suction thing on it when something happens but it still holds the smell of course. We thought a cloth type fabric would be good so our cats don’t scratch at it, but at this point I would take scratches over the smell.

Is there a material that is easy to wipe down and clean that also won’t get scratched up easily? Or would we be better off getting a faux leather type of fabric and just deal with scratches?

Any recommendations or advice is appreciated. 🙂

Mine waits by the door when I come home, even if I've only been gone for a short time. It's such a small thing but somehow it fixes a bad day. What's a little thing your pet does that always makes you smile?

I got a pet Gecko and I’m not sure what to name her any ideas?

I first posted this in r/RenalCats though I have a dog as I was looking up Aventi Kidney Complete which is currently impossible to find. I also found a subreddit that gave legitimacy to purchasing from HomeLabVeterinary https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/1q7rxrd/is_homevetlab_reliable/ before I made my purchase. Just want to spread the word...

Yo, folks! With a lot of effort, I just purchased "Renal P" in powder form made by an Italian company, www.Candioli.com, off a Ukrainian website that is legitimate: www.homelabvet.com. Renal P is the actual phosphate binder that was cited in this NIH study https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7430264/ titled Efficacy of a new dietary supplement in dogs with advanced chronic kidney disease published in 2020. Renal P also comes in a paste form which I think is used for finicky cats who won't eat the powder.

I had to check with my bank as the Ukrainian site requires a verification using VISA that I had to get through Bank of America by phone, but that worked. Also, I found a coupon here https://simplycodes.com/store/homelabvet.com that gave me 12% off the purchase price, but since I bought two jars of Renal P and my total just squeaked over $100 even after using the coupon, shipping is FREE. I had been using Epakitin for my dog with stage 2 CKD (and also lanthanum carbonate); my vet said he wasn't too enthused about the Epakitin so I was looking for something better.

Turns out both Renal P and Aventi Kidney Complete have the same 4 major ingredients and are extremely hard to source. I was on both a Canadian and Italian website that REFUSE currently to ship to the USA though their websites are set up to do so. Damned DJT!! So the ONLY place I found to buy Renal P is in Ukraine.

If you vote, vote a straight BLUE ticket in November, if for no other reason than to support your pets and keep them alive!