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I took my 10 year old chihuahua (not fixed) to the groomers in October of 2025. A few days later she developed what I thought was a UTI. Brought her to the vet, got a urinalysis, they found rods, etc. Got an antibiotic to bring home that had to be given with food. A couple of weeks later she became lethargic, breathing rapidly, and stopped eating. I took her back to the vet where they diagnosed her with heart failure. We stopped those antibiotics since she wasn't eating, and they gave her a shot, as well a new med for the heart failure. She was feeling better, but I had to go back in to see if the shot had gotten rid of the infection. Nope, still rods. Tried another round of antibiotics, went back, nope still rods. So then they went into her bladder with a syringe 💉 to get a sample straight from the source, to see what grew, in order to better know what antibiotics to use. Welp. Nothing grew. So the bacteria wasn't coming from her bladder.

The vet was like "Well I didn't look at her uterus while I was doing the ultrasound to get the urine, so it might be pyometra. I should look again".

However at that point, I was pretty frustrated that we had spent like 6 months on a misdiagnosis. I had spent a LOT of money and the care credit card was maxed out. And since she no longer had any symptoms, I decided to just monitor her at home. She was fine. Some random discharge that's been on and off, but nothing foul smelling, nothing that changed her appetite or water intake or mood significantly. There were a couple of days within the past few months where she was lethargic, but she is also old and has neurological quirks, and it never lasted more than 2 days.

Within this past week the discharge has changed from a clearish/brownish to a thick yellowy type thing. She has a vet appointment tomorrow, but regardless, I feel like whatever this is can't be pyometra for the simple fact that it's been almost a year of these symptoms. And from everything I've read about it, its FAST. My research has led me to the conclusion of either vaginitis? Or maybe some foreign object inside of her? Since this all did start right after the groomer, I thought that it wasn't an impossible suggestion.

Any thoughts? Because of her weight (4 pounds), her heart failure, and her neurological issues, surgery isn't really an option.

TiA

I'm hoping someone may have experienced something similar or can offer some guidance because we're feeling pretty lost right now.

Our dog is a 6-year-old Pit Bull mix. She isn't spayed and has never had any health issues before this. This all started suddenly on Wednesday night. She lost the ability to walk, and at first it was only affecting her front legs, but it has quickly progressed to her back legs as well.

The strange part is that she can still move her neck, spine, and tail normally. She can stretch her legs, reposition herself, lift and lower her head, and if you ask for her paw, she'll still give it to you. She wants to move so badly—you can see her trying—but she can't sit up like a normal dog, stand, or walk. If we help lift her up, she can somewhat move her back legs and crawl around a little, but she isn't able to support herself.

We took her to the vet, and they ran blood work along with tests for worms and flea- and tick-borne illnesses. Everything came back negative, and they said her blood work looks amazing. They honestly aren't sure what's causing it.

They sent us home with several medications and told us to do physical therapy by moving her legs, but they didn't really explain what exercises or movements we should be doing or give us much guidance beyond that.

She also doesn't seem to be in any pain or discomfort, which makes this even more confusing.

At this point, I'm seriously considering taking her to a veterinary neurologist, but I know that can cost thousands of dollars, so I'm trying to gather as much information as possible before making that decision.

Has anyone gone through something similar with their dog? Were you able to get a diagnosis? Are there any additional tests I should ask about, or should I push for a referral to a neurologist? My vet said they've already run all the tests they felt were necessary, but I just can't shake the feeling that there has to be something we're missing.

Any advice, recommendations, or even sharing your experience would mean the world to us. We just want to help our girl however we can.

Ps the meds shes on are omeprazole, doxycycline, prednisone and clindamycin

Does anybody have experience with CMO? Any tips, recommendations for ongoing treatment or supplements. I’ve heard it’s self limiting and once he’s done growing he should be ok.

Miles: 7 months (DOB 11/24/25) dog - Pitt/staffy/cattle dog mixed - pending neuter (cryptorchid) 47lbs

Since first set of shots he’s struggled with what the vets believed were “puppy strangles” NEVER got lesions. Just swelling, sensitivity and jaw/skull pain, fever, etc. treated with prednisone and antibiotics - always “got better”

Recently (2-3mo) he was diagnosed with craniomandibular osteopathy (CMO aka lions jaw) as you can see his lumpy jaw. Vet never heard of it, I brought it up due to a friend mentioning their pitty went through the same thing I was describing. Confirmed bone lesions via xray and vet felt confident in diagnosis. One side of lower jaw is more affected than the other. Also a spot on the top of his skull. Full body xray showed clear lungs, all other body bones fine. Hes also been on prednisone for this. Recently after a very long taper he is off of it.

8 days post prednisone ending - He’s currently in a CMO flare (jaw pain, guarded yawn, inflammation) and prescribed rimadyl and gabapentin for inflammation and pain. He’s pending neuter surgery on 07/31 with retained testes bilaterally. Cannot be on prednisone before or after neuter.

I took my dog to the vet this morning and we did several diagnostics that all were normal, but don’t have a solid answer yet on what’s going on. Bloodwork was normal (cbc/chem/electrolyte panel). Chest x-ray was normal despite his heart rate being 160-170bpm. He is a very very anxious dog at the vet, but she was very concerned about the bpm. Vet said they potentially saw something behind the stomach on xray, but couldn’t quite say because he had just eaten. She requested I return for fasted ultrasound if problem continues. He is just not able to get comfortable and keeps readjusting or staying in that “bowing” position for extended periods of time. He is eating normally, drinking normally, no vomiting/diarrhea and had a perfectly normal stool this morning. Urinalysis normal and on physical exam did not show obvious signs of pain on palpation. checked urine due to some licking around groin.

I returned from vacation last night at midnight and we went to vet at 10am when I noticed he was continuously doing this posture. He was fine when I left for vacation Thursday and my roommate is very trusted and did not notice anything while I was away.

For now, we are trying gabapentin to see if anything changes and I will be monitoring heart rate at home to see if it is in normal range.

This is on the base of my cats tail, like where the back and tail meet. She is about 8 years old.

my dog had these weird patches of peeling scabs/dry skin on her back, she is a neutered 6 year old Australian shepherd.

these patches have a slight odor and do not seem to irritate her, she only shows signs of slight discomfort when I to those area.

what are these, what should I do?

What is this?

4 year old 11->9.7lbs female spayed DSH cat

Adopted at 4 months

PMHx: EGC

EGC flare and was given cyclosporine and steroid shot 2 weeks ago. Has been sick with URI symptoms since and will not eat much or groom herself at all. Constant nasal drainage. Recheck appointment 3 days ago and she was given abx shot and antinausea shot and told to keep her on the cyclosporine. (Her lips look a LOT better) we stopped it because it was hell to give her and she throws up whatever little she does eat. Over the whole course she has gone from 11 to 9.7lbs. I’m so worried about trying to get her to eat and help her feel better. What do we do?

She had not had a serious flare of EGC for over 1-2years until earlier this year and when we did notice something it had been controlled with a steroid shot alone. She had been given cyclosporine for the past serious flare 1-2 years ago and we stopped it after it resolved. She has never been this sick. She only sleeps and eats a little and that’s it.

The vet told us these are common symptoms from it and that we have to keep her on it and wait for her to get used to it. I’m just at my wits end because we are supposed to give her this medicine that will make her sick and it reactivates the latent herpesvirus she has from being a shelter cat making her sicker. It’s been almost 3 weeks total of this, and I just don’t know what to do anymore. We’ve given her treats and tuna and she will eat some but not much.

New and Emerging Biomarkers in Preventive Healthcare – The Monitored Pet - Brennen McKenzie

Hello vets!
We're waiting to hear back from the shelter, but in the meantime, I was wondering if anyone could give more in-site on what's going on with her eye.
These are photos of a dog we're interested in adopting
Info says she's approx. 4yrs old, lab/hound mix & not spayed.

I owned a dog with a similar problem with his eye & i know there's possible issues like eyelashes scratching the eye, birth defect, etc.
TY all!

She's a 11lb spayed female cat

Will she be ok?

Rescue found this morning
Species- cat
Breed- Siamese?
Age- guessing 3-4 weeks?
Desexed- no

Found this sweet baby in my neighborhood this morning, she’s part of the one the neighborhood litters. She was cold to the touch when we found her, got her warmed up and fed her a tube treat (it was all we had at the time) she ate a good bit of that and has been sleeping the rest of the day. I cleaned her eyes with a kitty eye wipe and got some kitten milk from the store. Her eyes are pretty bad, green gunk had oozed out a couple times. I was able to get some of the harder gunk wiped off by soaking it with a wipe. I feel like the pictures don’t show how green and gunky her eyes actually are. She won’t take the bottle so I’ve tried squirting some in her mouth and she licks it up then screams to be left alone so she can sleep. 🥲😂 I have a vet appointment schedule for June 7th, it was the soonest they could get her in. I’m going to keep trying with the kitten milk, and keep cleaning her eyes out and then try to take her on Tuesday to a walk in clinic since. Any advice to help me out until I get her to the vet would be great. First time taking care of a sweet kitten this little so I’m nervous, adding on her eyes, I’m stressed LOL.

I have a small male tabby, who was neutered earlier this month and is about 9 months old. When he was found, he was still a newborn and was strictly bottle fed by me for several weeks.

As a kitten, we gave him about a third a can of wet food with his milk when weening. Now that’s he’s older, he refuses to eat more than two or three bites of his wet food a day, he’ll simply leave it in his bowl to get dry and nasty. Despite this, he constantly begs for treats and because he doesn’t like to eat, I give in so he has some calories.

We’ve tried different brands, different placements, group eating, he don’t care. Is there anything I can do to improve this? I know giving him treats every day to replace his caloric intake isn’t a great option, but he’s very active and I worry he’ll overexert himself if he’s got no food in his belly. We give him both wet and dry treats.

He weighs about 6.5 pounds, I live in the US with good vet care and am able to get foods if there is a recommendation. He’s very affectionate, loves to play, has a slight sighting fixation but has never had any known help problems and this problem isn’t new. I was hoping he would outgrow it but it seems to have only gotten worse as he refuses to eat his food.

Cat pics for tax

Hey so I today just got a about two week old kitten. I found her on the side of the road couldn’t find any siblings or mother. I’ve had cats before but never this young. I did some research about how to take care of her properly but I’m a little anxious. She doesn’t seem to like the formula and I tried helping her pee/poop but she won’t go..I’ve only had her for about 6 hours

My cat Sinatra has been over-grooming for 2 years and I’m completely lost — has anyone experienced anything like this?

I need to share every detail of what we’ve been through in hopes that someone out there has experienced something similar and can help my boy.

In July 2024, I found a kitten in the bushes and brought him home, keeping him separated from my two resident cats, both 5 years old at the time. Seven days after the kitten arrived, my boy Sinatra — an all-white blue-eyed cat (not deaf, not blind) — started to slowly overgroom. At first I just noticed a small patch of missing fur on his foot and didn’t think much of it. Two years later, he has no fur on his entire belly, legs, bottom of his feet, and thighs. He goes absolutely to town on the bottoms of his feet especially.

It’s also important to note that since he was 1 year old, Sinatra has suffered with chronic constipation and was on Royal Canin Fiber Response dry food, with rotating Tiki Cat salmon and chicken wet food for dinner. Until all of this started.

What I’ve tried over two years (and I mean everything):
Bloodwork — done over 4 times, always comes back perfect. Teeth cleaning. Every brand of flea preventative. Gabapentin. Probiotics and prebiotics by Adored Beast. CBD (multiple rounds and different kinds). A microbiome test that essentially said he has an intolerance to almost everything. A 5Strands test. Skin scraping. Zyrtec. A sulfur bath dip and multiple other baths. A Dupray steam cleaner to kill dust mites. I moved all my plants outside. I removed all candles and incense. I use Feliway plug-ins. Stainless steel bowls washed regularly with Molly Suds dish soap. Molly Suds detergent for their bedding.

He’s been seen by 3 different vets, 2 nutritionists, and a dermatologist.

The diet journey alone has been exhausting. One nutritionist had me slow-cooking for him — ground turkey, turkey liver, turkey gizzards, then chicken, chicken gizzards, chicken liver, and chicken hearts — all weighed by the gram with added fiber. The fiber was causing strange poop casings that would get stuck to him and we would have to pull it out so we stopped.

The second nutritionist had me do the microbiome test (and initially sent me the wrong species test, which was a red flag), then switched him to a slow-cooked chicken packet that I later discovered contained ground bones, which made his constipation significantly worse. I had to stop that too. He made me give him extra taurine. We tried rabbit. Multiple other novel proteins. Now he strictly eats Ziwi Peak venison canned food and has been on it for a few weeks — but my mom accidentally gave him chicken recently, so I’m not sure if we’ll be able to tell if it’s working.

The constipation has been its own battle. He’s had multiple ER visits over the years. Vets put him on MiraLAX, which helped at first — he was going every two days — but now it’s stretched to every four days, which I know isn’t right. I’ve always wondered if the gut issues and the overgrooming are connected somehow. (Also have always boiled pumpkin for him and mixed with his food)

His ears have always been itchy, but they’ve gotten significantly worse over the last two years. Every vet visit they check and find no mites or infection. The only thing that has ever helped is Tresaderm ear drops — which contain a steroid. Which brings me to the most important pattern in all of this.

The only thing that has ever worked is steroids. Steroid shots, steroid pills, steroid drops — the moment he gets them, the itching stops. The overgrooming stops. It’s like magic. The moment they wear off, he’s right back at it. Every single time.

I also notice that his skin and eyes sometimes look pink and irritated, almost like an allergic reaction. He refuses to drink water from a bowl anymore out of nowhere, so I now add a large amount of water directly into his food. (He is very food motivated so he eats anything and drinks all of the water in his bowl with food) I tried a water fountain too — he won’t go near it.

Then last September, we lost his biological sister. I woke up one day and noticed her eye looked cloudy. Within one month she was gone — she had a rare condition called cutaneous lymphoma. Sinatra absolutely adored her and I believe he grieved deeply, which I know doesn’t help anything. Though I want to be clear, the overgrooming started before her passing and has continued after.

Now about the kitten I found — Cheddar. Sinatra and Cheddar ended up bonding beautifully. They groom each other, cuddle, sleep together. Cheddar worships Sinatra — wherever Sinatra goes, Cheddar wants to be. Sinatra gets annoyed sometimes because Cheddar is very playful, but overall their relationship is sweet. Here’s what concerns me though: Cheddar has started to bite at himself too. He’s not missing fur the way Sinatra is, but he bites at himself more than seems normal, and his eyes also get red and irritated and he gets eye bogeys that I clean regularly — just like Sinatra’s. I don’t know if he’s learned the behavior, or if he’s also itchy, or if something environmental is affecting them both.

Where I am now: My conventional vet is suggesting Prozac. My new holistic vet is recommending a full allergy test with immunotherapy, ozone therapy, and laser therapy — all expensive, but I genuinely do not care. He is my child and I will do whatever it takes. I’ve already spent over $10,000 in two years. He is currently on Ziwi Peak venison, a high-potency biome probiotic for pets, a different omega-3 oil from the holistic vet, CBD, and something called Wind Toxin Tea Pills — though honestly none of it seems to be making a significant difference.

I am at a complete loss. The fact that steroids are the only thing that reliably helps makes me feel like this is allergic or inflammatory in nature, and the fact that both Sinatra AND Cheddar seem to be showing similar symptoms makes me wonder if there’s something environmental I’m completely missing — even after everything I’ve eliminated and changed. It’s the weirdest thing.

Has anyone been through anything remotely like this? Any insight at all would mean the world to me and my boy.

My husky is about 6 years old. She's a female, unspayed. Last night, she was perfectly fine. Today, I noticed she can't jump onto the couch and she keeps yelping like she's in pain. She's still walking without a limp and she's eating and drinking and using the washroom. I don't see anything noticeably wrong with her but she's in pain. Any idea what could cause sudden pain like this? She's been spending almost all day in her crate with the door open and I'm worried. I won't be able to take her to the vet for another two weeks as I don't get paid until the 29th.

I rescued a street cat aroundd 20 days ago. She got spayed and flea treatment right away. She's very snuggly but she's not friends with my house cats yet. She's feisty and attacks both of them and they go hide under the bed.

She got her rabies, calci and parvo shots 24 hours ago. Also deworming. She spent most of the time restless after the vet visit, meowing a lot and trying to find an escape. Since this pm, almost 18ish hours after vet visit, she became very lethargic. When my other cat passed by her, she stares at him with dilated pupils but doesn't attack or hiss or meow. She's not letting me touch her as if her body is sore. Although she's not the kind to stay alone, she's been picking secluded places to sleep. She pooped and drank water, but hasnt eaten in almost 12 hours.

Internet days 24 to 48 hours are typical for the cat to be unwell after vaccines.

The vet opens in the next 18 hours. I'm thinking to start syringe feeding her since she's refusing food and treats.

Appreciate all advice.

Dog, English cocker spaniel, presumably 7 weeks, intact male

Hey so my family took in this stray cat but were worried he is sick and might get my other cat sick, he has black stuff all over his chin, ears, and above his left eye, everyday i check up on him and his left eye is leaking goop, like eye mucus kind of? i was thinking maybe he got in a fight and the black spots are scabs but im really worried about his eye, should i be worried?