Pet Thread

[meow]

Weird this came up in this thread. My vet brought up this concern last visit with me. We feed our dogs natural balance. I guess there is a certain thing (vitamin, nutrient, mineral, something) that these grain free foods are missing that is causing this. She suggested adding fish oil to their food and some other supplement to help with heart health.

[tifosi77]

We fed our pets Science Diet for a really long time. Then late last year we switched to Blue Buffalo, because our vet suggested something grain-free, and as that's one of the things BB is known for that's what I selected. It may be purely coincidental, but that kicked off six months of on-off health problems for both of them, including a 4-day hospital stay for the cat right before we moved into our new house. So we recently switched back to SD and have been happier for it.

[Kane]

Just found out that the ginger one has blood cancer. Yippee.

[NTP66]

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

How old is the ginger? Regardless of age this sucks

[tifosi77]

Tough to be a Lily of late.

We found out a few weeks ago she has a mass inside her booty. Estimated bill to find out what it is was $5k, potentially x2 to actually remove it. So we decided to stew on it a while before deciding on a course. Then some time last week she picked up several fox tails that we did not see before they worked their way into her ears. Woke up Saturday morning and her right ear was a *****, smelly mess of a thing, so we took her to the hospital, where they discovered the objects. She had to be sedated to remove them, but it was an outpatient thing. We picked her up that night and she was fine.

Then at breakfast Sunday morning, I took her out per usual, but when we got back inside, she just began relentless quick pacing all around the house and panting heavily and loudly. After a few minutes of this, I loaded her into the car and took her back to the hospital. The first thing the vet asked was if there were any drugs in the house, and would I consent to a drug test of the dog (!). That (obviously) came back negative. So the vet thinks there was an environmental factor that sparked the behavior - a coyote got in the backyard and marked, some relief valve somewhere letting off steam at a pitch above human hearing but annoying the living piss out of the pooch, etc. We got home and she settled down, but spent much of the day yesterday agitated.

Today she's fine.... except she's constantly digging at her ear again, so she has to wear the cone of shame.

Dogs, man.

[Kane]

Missed your post, KtK, I apologize. Ironically, her name is Lily, and she is about 15 years old.

[dodint]

We're taking our dog in for surgery tomorrow. She has an expanding growth on her hind leg that she's been gnawing at that needs to be taken care of. Also getting some other small things done while she's under. It will cost about $2k. Which is fine, she's otherwise healthy. But it does mark the beginning of the period of her life where cost begins to be a factor. If the biopsy on the growth comes back and it's a malignant cancer we'll have to have the conversation about chemotherapy, quality of life, cost, etc.

[tifosi77]

But it does mark the beginning of the period of her life where cost begins to be a factor. If the biopsy on the growth comes back and it's a malignant cancer we'll have to have the conversation about chemotherapy, quality of life, cost, etc.

It's a horrible place to be.

[dodint]

My biggest concern right now is that she's a terrier mix and her internal organs are on the small side for her body size; she poison's easily. She has to be put under general anesthetic for the surgery. I'm worried the vet, who I don't have a ton of confidence in, will inadvertently euthanize her on the table. Blah.

[dodint]

She was pissed.



She stumbled out of there like mikey getting hit by a Sunday sunrise.

[AuthorTony]

Did she make out alright?

[dodint]

Yeah, procedure went very well. Just have to have the mass tested to find out more about her overall condition. We had her teeth done when she was under as well and they were surprised not to have had to pull any.

14 days with the cone though, until the stitches come out. I quickly ordered her a thick donut collar to see if I can make things a little better for her.

[AuthorTony]

We had our youngest fixed today. When going into the vet's he backed out of his harness and made a beeline for the road. I was sure he was done for but we managed to cajole him back to the Jeep. Most scared I've been in ages. Surgery went well. They said we need to limit his activity for 2 weeks though which is pretty much going to be impossible with an Aussie.

[shafnutz05]

Best wishes on a quick recovery for her dodint.

Does anyone else have pet insurance? We've had it since Molly (our goldendoodle) was 1...thankfully we haven't really needed to use it except for one or two minor instances, but pretty much the sole reason we got it was so that we never have to be in a situation where we have to make a financial decision about her life. Obviously, if she's old and it's a quality of life issue, that's another thing.

I get very melancholy thinking about pets getting old. She will be 8 in October, and is in great shape, but man I wish dogs lived longer

[dodint]

Thanks. We might do pet insurance on the next one. This is the first four-digit expenditure for her. Not bad for a 12 year old $10 shelter dog.

She normally sleeps a ton, at least half the day. She's basically a cat. But last night she was unrelentingly agitated by the cone and was refusing to sleep despite her ordeal yesterday. At about 2am I finally just pulled her into me like a little spoon and rested the cone against my chest and gave her a thorough muscle massage until she gave in and fell asleep. She snored for about 15 minutes and then bolted awake and moved away to sit and stew in her anger. I had to be up to take the wife to the airport two hours later so I gave up and just let her be sullen.

Judging by her body language I think she believes it's a punishment. Hoping the donut gets here tonight and helps.

[tifosi77]

Good vibes, dodint. She is a good girl.

FYI if you don't have any direct experience the inflatable donut collar things are like 1000% better imo. The dog doesn't have their field of view and such obstructed, which helps them maintain their chill doggy flow.

[Shyster]

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=322950838591043

[dodint]

Good vibes, dodint. She is a good girl.

FYI if you don't have any direct experience the inflatable donut collar things are like 1000% better imo. The dog doesn't have their field of view and such obstructed, which helps them maintain their chill doggy flow.

Yeah, wish I had known. It came in around 5pm today. Put it on her and she has been snoozing for about four hours. Perfect as she has been self-depriving herself of sleep since we got home yesterday.

Looks massive from that angle, lol. With her long body it has to be thick enough to prevent her snout from touching her rear leg.

[NTP66]

Now the picture makes more sense...

[Kane]

She's a cutie, dodint. Hope she recovers well and everything turns out ok.

[dodint]

Now the picture makes more sense...

When she heals up I have the 360 airplane pillow I always wanted, I guess.

[tifosi77]

OMG I just want to put my forehead to hers and rub her ears.

[Willie Kool]

New York State Bans Cat Declawing

New York on Monday became the first state in the country to ban cat declawing, a practice that animal advocates consider cruel and unnecessary. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed the bill into law after state legislators passed the ban last month.

“By banning this archaic practice, we will ensure that animals are no longer subjected to these inhumane and unnecessary procedures,” Governor Cuomo, a Democrat, said in a statement.

The law goes into effect immediately and makes exceptions for medical purposes. Performing the procedure on a cat for any other reason could lead to a fine of up to $1,000.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/22/nyre ... w-ban.html

[count2infinity]

My wife volunteers at a local shelter, and recently joined the publicity team. Mostly just responds to stuff on facebook. People are insane. She shares some of these messages they get and it's ridiculous. People legit think the shelter has policies in place to be mean or spiteful.

Example:
Someone posted about how pissed they were that they couldn't adopt a dog because they wouldn't let the dog go to a home with cats. The publicity team tried to explain that they do a full behavior analysis on every dog and they have far too many dogs returned due to them terrorizing cats in a house, so often with dogs that have a high prey drive, they just make a hard and fast rule, no cats. That wasn't good enough... they went on a tirade about dogs being taught to co-exist with cats, and how it can be done, and how dare they not allow her to adopt a dog just because she has a cat.

It's just so weird to me. The shelter has been doing this for a LONNNNG time. They know what works and what doesn't. Every policy is there for a reason.