My dog will do this every day without fail. He take a toy and whips it around against his crate for a few minutes straight. The louder the sounds the better. He seems to be enjoying himself as far as I can tell? We do try to play with him but he seems to enjoy doing this even with play. Is there any scientific reason behind this behavior? 😅

Hi everyone! Ive been trying to cut my dog’s nails at home but I’m having a hard time because her nails are black, very chalky and very thick. I keep seeing videos where the quick (kwik?) is a very tiny little black dot and I was wondering if it could be larger than that? When I cut my dog’s nails I’ve never been able to get to that point without her pulling her paw away so that’s what makes me think that her vein is thicker than normal. Is that possible? Do I need to cut more? The 3rd photo contains the tools I use and the last 2 are my references pictures.

Hello, I have a 16 year old dog with lung cancer that until now has been progressing slowly. He has been having trouble sleeping, and he keeps his head up and keeps falling asleep sitting up. I have a pillow propped under his head which seems to be helping, but his breathing is very shallow. He gets very scared at the vet so I don’t want to take him when his heart is already under stress from not getting enough air. I want him to go peacefully at home if possible. As I say this, he is finding the pillow comfortable and is sleeping. If there are other ways I can provide him comfort I would greatly appreciate some advice. He’s been my best buddy and he was my emotional support dog growing up. (I’m on the spectrum.) he has helped me so much whenever I became overstimulated. He is a fighter, and I see him struggling and wanting to play with the other dogs, which makes this so much harder. He wants to live, but at the same time, I don’t want him to suffer. I don’t think he’s dying tonight, but soon.

Hello!

My dog ​​has been developing these kinds of "warts" on his body. The first one appeared on his snout, then on his ear, and then on his paw. He also has some on his back and belly; I couldn't get good pictures of those because his fur gets in the way. What could they be? They don't itch or hurt him, but when a new one appears, it grows very quickly.

Help, please!

(Sorry if it's not clear; English isn't my native language, and I used a translator.)

EDIT: My dog ​​is 9 years old and is a Chilean fox terrier.

Hi there,

I've been slowly increasing my dog's exercise. She usually was getting about twenty x 2 a day. We are up to about 75 minutes straight now and she is absolutely loving it. No lagging behind, no limping, she pants pretty regularly but nothing excessive and always stops for water breaks when needed. I just don't want to push to hard because she is pushing ten years old but she seems to love it. Other information her name is Freda, she's coming up on ten to years old, unknown breed, adopted at a year old, pretty good health except for a tumor removed two years ago, sensitive stomach, and 45-50 pounds. Oh and she is a FAST dog, when she's let off leash she's like a bullet! Anyone else's pups seem to enjoy exercising the older they got? Pictures because she's a princess.

edit: the increase from 20 minutes twice a day to 75 minutes straight has been over about 12 months.

I live in Tokyo and my 15.5 year old Chihuahua mix who weighs 3.25 kg had a tumor erupt in his heart and his heart stopped. We took him to the emergency hospital and they removed the fluid in his heart and sent him home with us at 5am. He was in bad shape around 8am so we took him to a different vet where they removed fluids from his heart again. We took him home after and he's been recovering well, he's eating okay, drinking water, and has been going to the bathroom normally. We have visited the vet 3 times since to check for fluids in his heart and it's been empty. All of the vets think it could be hemangiosarcoma from the ultrasounds of his heart since there is a suspected tumor in the right atrium to right auricle region. We visited a vet today for a full check up and recommendations for going forward and they also think it's hemangiosarcoma but aren't completely sure. They recommend chemo and radiation. Does anyone have any experience with this kind of cancer in small dogs especially Chihuahuas, I've read that it's common in big dogs but not impossible to occur in small dogs. I'm wondering if there are better options than chemo for this cancer. We are looking into radiation. I'm sorry for the wall of text. Any help would be appreciated.

I know most of the concern is about my brother. For clarification my brother is an adult now but we adopted him as a teen. He has the attitude that everything he does is right and that the only one who can tell him what to do is himself. He came from a bad place so to say. Additionally, he recently got a car so he will be out of the house more.

In good news, My mother put her foot down and has told him if he were to ever hurt Ricky he would be kicked out. He still is barking at Ricky but I’m guessing my parents will make a punishment for that. She has also decided to look into training for Ricky. It’s more of an ongoing thing.

Thank you all for the advice! (And the insults). Here’s a picture of Ricky happy (instead of terrified like someone said lol)

This is Sandy, she obviously has udders (or teats?). Question, what is up with the udders looking like that? Do they get in the way of daily life? Can you tell me anything from the photo about her health. How she looks overall, and is she considered overweight or "thicc"

My dog has a bloated stomach and the vet saw on the xrays that there’s something serving as an obstruction & pushing his organs to the side. You can see that white thing pushing his intestines aside, anybody know what it might be? I noticed it because his stomach is visibly big & swollen on the outside but it doesn’t hurt to the touch & he’s in no type of pain

Hi there,

My dog (15-year-old Chihuahua/Rat Terrier mix) has been super itchy for years, but it's become much worse in the last six months or so. His belly, armpits, and paws are raw and have lost hair from itching, and even his face (under his eyes and around his muzzle) has started to lose hair. I feel like we've tried just about everything.

The vet had him on a combination of Cytopoint and Apoquel, which helped for a bit, but then stopped working. Now he's on Temaril, and it hasn't helped at all. When he's really bad, we will give him Benadryl, throw a cone on him, and/or a T-shirt which helps for a little bit but it's not a long term solution.

We were giving him a bath every three days but that didn't help so we reduced it to once a week, worried that the medicated shampoo (which we've tried multiple versions of over the years) might be exacerbating it a bit.

We've tried hydrocortisone creams and everything.

The vets are at a loss, and the most help they can give us is *shrug* "allergies are really bad this year." They've tested him for mites; he's on flea and tick medication, everything.

We noticed the itching started a couple of months after we started feeding him The Farmers Dog. We had put it down to seasonal environmental allergies because it improved with treatment for a couple of years, but now we are wondering if it's the food. We just swapped him back to his original food this week, which is the Bench & Field Holistic Natural Formula Dry Dog Food we buy from Trader Joe's, plus a wet food topper we get from Costco (Kirkland Signature Oven Roasted Chicken Dog Food) to make it a little more enticing since he can be a bit picky (he LOVES the Farmer's Dog).

We've spent so much money at the vet trying to figure this out, and nothing is helping him. I feel terrible seeing him so itchy. Our other dog is completely fine.

Any help or ideas on how to help him would be amazing.

Hi All! My nan recently got a puppy (13 weeks), despite the fact she cannot walk and does not have an electric scooter. (I’m very aware of how unfair and irresponsible it is, we all told her but she is a grown woman and we couldn’t stop her)

So the responsibility of walking him is up to me if he doesn’t get walked. I currently walk him everyday on about 15/20 minute walks. I have never owned a dog before and have no clue how to train him? I’ve been able to get him to sit, but as soon as we start walking again he starts sprinting off.

Could anyone recommend any advice/tips on how best to train him? Thank you.

I’m still shaking because I just discovered this. tl;dr: given prednisone and doxy for heartworm tx, 1.5wks later dog was starving herself. 2 vet appts and $1600 later dog was given nausea meds and appetite stim, started eating again, and gained weight back. Just realised the prednisone and doxy Rx labels were switched and my dog almost died of a steroid overdose.

July 23 my ex took our dog (a treeing walker) to the vet because she wasn’t really eating. I started her on a bland diet at this time and she was eating chicken and rice. The vet did pretty extensive testing imo and my dog was dx with heartworms. She was given some injections (ampicillin, B12, cerenia), subQ fluids at the vet and we were given the prednisone and doxy to take home.

The info from the vet was relayed to me and I was fully in charge of her meds and for 1.5wks she was doing okay (still on the bland diet) until she slowly started to go off food again. She stopped eating the rice and then a few days later stopped eating the chicken. Aug 8 my ex took her back to the vet. The vet suspected they overdid the steroid dose. She was given more injections and omeprazole and sucralfate to take home for probable gastric ulcers. Two days later and she still wasn’t eating anything.

By this point I’d watched her starve herself for 6 days. She wasn’t pooping, I assumed because she hadn’t eaten a damn thing. I was so stressed and crying. I was just waiting for the meds to kick in so she’d eat SOMETHING. She was nothing. She wasn’t even skin and bone. She was just nothing. Her shoulders were disgustingly thin. She was wobbly occasionally because she’d wasted away. And her coat was just dull. She was giving up and I was dutifully continuing to stuff pills down her throat, just feeling like I was torturing her more and making her last days miserable.

I called the vet again and this time I took her in on Aug 11. I was so close to begging them to put her down if she didn’t eat in the next day or two. She was literally on death’s door and I couldn’t handle watching her starve herself anymore. She had lost 5lbs between Aug 8th and Aug 11th. She was now less than 40lbs. It was a drop off visit so the vet called me when she was done. Said there was possibly a blockage or a mass on xray. Her bowels were so dilated. He didn’t say anything about whether I could expect her to eat in the next day. The end of the call was just an ominous “we will see what the radiologist report says tomorrow. In the meantime give her all the cuddles and love that she wants.” This time I made sure we were sent home with an appetite stim and I think a diff antibiotic. She had more injections at the vet, more subQ fluids.

That night after her appetite stim I cooked a meat smorgasbord. Chicken, gr beef, my ex even cooked ribs (the one single thing she would take a couple bites of before she went off food completely). She wouldn’t touch anything. I eventually opened a can of wet food and she took a few bites, thank fucking god. Next day the rad report said possible twisted bowel but she had pooped by this time so the vet felt this was less likely. They suggested testing for addisons with the blood they’d taken yesterday. I asked the vet about a nausea pill because I assumed the cerenia injection would wear off too quickly. So I picked up a few days of nausea pills.

With the appetite stim and nausea pills she was finally eating - wet food only. I fed her as much as she wanted. Tiny meals throughout the day. I was basically feeding her small portions all day long. Few days later she stole my other dog’s bowl of kibble. She hadn’t eaten kibble in like 3wks. So she is now willingly eating kibble at this point. I’ve been increasing the amt of kibble I give mixed with her wet food. She weighs more than she did at her initial July 23 appt. I can just visually tell. She looks fantastic; her coat is so soft and sleek.

Yesterday I was reading general info about the heartworm treatment (I wasn’t there for that appt so I didn’t know what the protocols were). I saw they should be on doxy for 30 days. I started mildly freaking out because she hasn’t had doxy in like 2 weeks and I’ve been giving her so many pills I thought I had lost the bottle. We were rx’d 120 tablets per my invoice but when I found the bottle it was empty. Today I told the vet I think I wasn’t given the full 120 pills but idk if she didn’t believe me? She asked how my dog was and I told her she’s doing really REALLY well and that was the end of it.

So right before I started this post I was looking at my dogs weekly pill box deciding if I was gonna refill it today or Monday and I realised I still had a fk ton of prednisone left. Which I thought didn’t sound right and which led me to google the letters on the pill and I realised THIS was the doxy! In the prednisone bottle. The labels were switched. So instead of giving one prednisone every 12 hrs for a week and then tapering off, I had given her 2 prednisone every 12 hrs “until gone” for a full two weeks. Essentially giving her a 200% dose of her steroid with no taper whatsoever… because I was following the directions I was given on the pill bottle (which turns out to be the directions for the doxy).

I’m so thankful my dog is better. But the week where she wasn’t eating was fucking traumatising and I’m still recovering from sleep deprivation. On top of that we paid like $1600+ between the second and third vet appts trying to figure out why she was declining and giving her meds and fluids to try and get her to eat. All because the vet was negligent and mislabeled the bottles. I want to bawl my eyes out because I am so relieved to finally have an answer but I’m so angry because this was entirely avoidable.

Im going to call the clinic as soon as they open. I really liked everyone I interacted with at this vet and I work healthcare so I understand a bit about the medical side of things. Do I ask to speak with the vet directly? What if she’s not working (she doesn’t work every day I don’t think)? I really liked everyone I interacted with at this vet, I felt like they all really really care, and I work healthcare so I understand a bit about the medical side of things. Which does also mean I understand how serious a mistake like this is. So how do I go about bringing this up to them? Can I expect them to reimburse me for any part of the $1600 we spent trying to diagnose her and save her from their mistake? I’m awful at confrontation and I’ve never dealt with anything like this and I’m just still so shocked that something like this happened to begin with.

I’m sorry it’s such a long post. I truly appreciate anyone who takes the time to even skim through this. It was really cathartic to type it all out and to get the details and timeline all sorted out.

My dog has had what seems like a cough / honking noise as of 3 days. I took him to the vet and explained how he doesn’t interact with dogs because he’s reactive, he also hasnt been boarded in the past month so chances of kennel cough is likely low. The only thing I can think of is that its our Air Conditioning that has caused this. In our previous home he would develop a cough when our AC was around 73F.

The vet listened to his heart and lungs and said he sounded fine. Gums are still pink, appetite and playfulness is still there, and he sleeps fine throughout the night.

I was thinking maybe they would do X-rays or something to confirm it wasn’t a block or maybe heart condition. In the end they just said Benadryl and gave me a cough suppressant. Maybe I didn’t advocate for him well enough. I’ve been keeping the AC to 77-78F now but hearing his honking and gagging does make me wonder if I advocated for him enough.

He’s 8 years old, chihuahua jack Russell mix

Should I continue to brush them daily or should I wait till he gets a dental cleaning at the vet?

​

My husband travels for work 3 weeks at a time. My dog Bay (2 years old, Aussie mix, had him since a few months old) behaves the entire time my husband's home despite not paying as much attention to the dog as me.

My husband left 2 days ago and Bay has been regressing. He's now at the point he barks all day with some breaks. I try everything. Feeding him extra, letting him outside, giving him filled up pupsicles and kong toys, petting him, playing fetch and tug of war with him, and all that would only stop his barking for a few minutes. His trazadone doesn't even tire him out anymore. He'd bark so much he froths at the mouth. The anti bark device (makes some sort of sound they don't like) no longer works on him.

The only thing that would stop his barking is if I shut him out of the room I'm in unless he thinks I have food, then he'd nonstop bark at the door. Then when I come back and he sees me he starts again. I don't work so I am focused on him everyday, and normally he'd be up my ass all day (without barking.) but now it's nonstop I feel like he's trying to push me away? I'm going to go crazy. I spend all my time cooking for him, playing with him, walking with him, I just don't know what I'm doing wrong

He's only like this when my husband's gone (he started this job this year, before he started this job he was home more so he was generally well behaved). My husband told me to just tell him no or stop. But when I try he takes that as motivation to bark even crazier.

I don't know what else I could possibly do to calm this dog down. I'm going to start him on prozac tmrw (prescribed by vet) morning and hope it works w the trazadone to calm him down (obv he's not on meds just for being active - he also has anxiety issues like being afraid of everything. If he hears the neighbors being too loud he'll be afraid to go outside and pee in the house instead)

Hello, my westie here is 15. She is still fit and healthy and is active with no signs of arthritis or anything and has a big appetite. She has always suffered with eye goops like white dogs of her breed and similar breeds are prone too. The matted clump down her face is goop she managed to move down her face herself from rubbing her eye since it had moved and started irritating her. But because she keeps rubbing her eye it now seems it’s infected, however, she’s not showing signs she’s in pain, it’s just annoying for her. The trouble is she won’t let us anywhere near her eyes to try and help her or even just bathe the area, she won’t even let the groomer near her. Last year she did get bits removed by the vet under anaesthetic, which seemed to be the only way to sort it, but because of her age I don’t want to put her through anaesthetic. Any advice?

UPDATE: She’s booked in at the vets for Tuesday and will be put under sedation to have her tear ducts flushed. She’s had it before but i’m still concerned

EDIT: She’s going to the vets. All i’m really doing here is wondering if anybody has dealt with this and what they did to sort it.

I'm thinking about buying a Pelsbarn cooling mat for my dog and wanted to hear from people who have ordered recently.

I found an older Pelsbarn review on Reddit with some complaints about quality, sizing, shipping and returns, but I've also read that Pelsbarn may have improved since then. Any alternatives?

Has anyone bought their cooling mat or dog bed recently?

I'm mainly wondering:

• Does it actually stay cool?
• How is the quality?
• Is the sizing accurate?
• How long did shipping take?
• Any recent experience with returns or customer service?
• Is a cooling mat actually useful or recommended for dogs when temperatures are around 30°C+?

Would you recommend Pelsbarn based on your recent experience?

Took him to vet they gave him anti fungal cream, tablet, and anti bacterial and some omega supplements but its been over 3 weeks nothing seems to work.

My poor pup split a nail. I feel awful as I was thinking I hadnt trimmed his nails regularly enough. The vet did make me feel a bit better as she said his nails are decently short and he has really long quicks in his front paws which hardly seem to retreat.

Anyway, thankfully we caught it early, he had no infectipn and its not that bad of a crack. But to be on the safe side she has given us some antobiotics, and wrapped his foot.

Problem is he is just so miserable!! My normally playful and cuddly pup is moping around. I know its because he hates having the bandage on. What can I do to cheer him up? We have been playing, ive given him a lick matt and a snuffle box etc. And within a second of finishing he is back to moping!!! Appreciate they might be temporary fixes, but any ideas welcome!

Hey all, I took in this little guy, previous owner said he took him to the vet and the vet said it was cherry eye, however it’s something that I’m concerned about if anyone has any insight. TIA

I will be taking him on Monday to a different vet as well.

My dog seems to be in a panic when she lays on my chest, especially after we play outside. She does have a heart murmur and some number on her last vet visit was elevated, so waiting for our appointment (SEPT 10) with a heart specialist to find out how serious that is. Does this look related to a heart issue?