Ask the Veterinarian!

[Iceychiida]

I have a question about a cat.
We adopted our cat, Neko, in November of 2007. She is spayed, and still rather energetic (she attempts to hunt in our backyard occasionally). Anyways, near the end of the summer this year, my family, including our dog, took a trip for a week, and my uncle stayed here, taking care of Neko. Once we returned, my young sister went back to picking up Neko a lot, holding her, and things along those lines.

To get to the point, recently, she'd been attacking our legs. It's not that she hasn't done it before, but, now, she digs her claws in deeper, and even bites, and it's our legs, instead of our feet, or socks. She attacks us like this without warning, but she doesn't run up and do it. I'm sort of worried, since, recently, she caught a bird, and she'd gotten into a small fight with a cat that visits our yard occasionally. She never did this before.

[BlA5tFiRe]

Got a idea on what to feed a elderly dog to help her heal her skin from fire ant bites?

[Lady Miyo]

Wow, this thread looks fantastic!

I plan to lurk around a bit, but I also have a quick question.

Background:

We got our male solid black cat from my grandparents' wrecking yard. When we got him, he hadn't been inside a house at all. Like, ever. He wasn't feral, surprisingly, just hadn't ever been inside. Depending on where we've lived since we've had him (he just turned 5), he's been an indoor or an outdoor cat. He seems to prefer being outside, but when he's forced to stay inside, he's usually pretty happy. He's also neutered.

We bought a new house in March (this will be our fifth home in as many years), and plan to stay here for some time. Unfortunately it is on a very busy street, and we're afraid that Lysander will get hit by a car. Thing is, he's now biting all his fur off his lower abdomen.

There doesn't seem to be any issues with his skin, it doesn't seem to be itchy, and he isn't even really biting it. He's just licking 'til all the fur is gone, and only on the one side (so not kidney-related, I don't think). I'm pretty sure that it's stress-related (from not being allowed outside), as he's actively trying to get outside now, which he never tried to do before. I'm not sure what I can do to help him be less stressed. Any pointers?

[Broken_blue_Rose]

hi, I'm back again.. ^^ I have a question this time about my rabbit.
she's about 6 months old, and when i first got her, she was very sweet, and loved being held and petted. For the past month or so whenever I reach into her hutch to feed her or pet her, or when i take her to her outside pen, she grunts/snarls at me, and attempts bite my hands and attack me. she is not fixed because i have no intention of breeding her, and we're a little short on cash to get her fixed. PLUS we don't have any other rabbits around except a litter mate sister in a different hutch. Is this behavior because of rabbit puberty or..? -has read up on rabbits, and hasn't found anything on how to respond to this behavior-

[Jesus is my Buddy]

Hey I saw in your opening post that you work with small animals, but do you know much about horses? I'm waiting for Monday to show up so I can swing by the vet's after school, but if you're able to answer sooner than that it'd be great.
About a month ago we got two new horses, and one of them, a big eight-year old mare, had a pretty good chunk on top of her hips that looked as if she'd scraped away skin, muscle, and part of the bone on something metal or of the same sort. Anyway, I thought it was an old scar, but it was tender at the edges, so I started to put on some Corona (do you know what that is?) once a day to help soften it and to keep dirt away so it can heal. There were some days, however, that I wasn't able to make it out to see the horses. Now it's a giant scab that's leaking this white-yellow stuff that has some pink, I think from blood mixed in. I accidentally tore off a piece of the scab, and it's really thick, and the yellow stuff is underneath everything. I stopped putting on the Corona, and I'm wondering if the scab needs to come off so I can clean the wound and start over again with the healing process.
I know you work with small animals, but a scab is a scab, right? What do you think? I still plan on going by the vet's to show him some pictures and see what needs to be done, but if you have any ideas on what I can do in the meantime . . . ?

[Daisuke Akio]

Hi there. :> I have a question about my sister's cat, Lily. She's had her for a few years, and I believe she hasn't had any of her shots. I'm guessing this is a bad thing. Lily is very very mean. One minute she'll rub up against you and when you go to pet her, she claws and bites you. She's always been like this except when she was a kitten. She doesn't like to be pet, or held, and she doesn't cuddle, she likes to be left alone, and if you don't leave her alone, she attacks. She's very lean and skinny and ironically, she's a black cat. She's fed all the time. Her bowl is never empty and her litterbox is always changed when necessary. We also have another cat Lucy and we've had her for about a year and some months and she's almost like her polar opposite. They fight a lot and Lily will scratch her when Lucy gets the attention, but when you give Lily the attention, she attacks you. Lily has never been beaten or abused ever, but I do know she's had trouble with stress or something where her hair on her back and buttom area were shedding, but that was because of our dogs. (We keep our cats upstairs and our dogs downstairs because they do not get along) Also, my cats are in heat right now, and when they're in heat they love each other and start licking each other. I don't know if this is normal, but still to humans, Lily is mean, even in heat. Is she upset about something? This has been going on for years and I don't know what to do! We're on the verge of getting rid of her! Thanks!

-Edit- Sorry, I have another question. In december my grandmother passed away leaving my mom with her dog Pookie. Pookie was always a good dog up until my brother started playing with him. My dog does NOT like my brother. He has attacked my brother before, biting his hands and making them bleed. My mom would put him out in the kitchen with a gate so that he couldn't get out. His food and such was in there too. Recently my brother did somethnig else to make Pookie mad and started growling and barking at him and snapping at him. My mom put out her hand to wave him to him no, and I guess he took it as a threat and grabbed her hands and attacked her hand. She got her hand away, and he bit her other hand and then as she pulled that one away, bit her other hand again! The dog is only a small dog(A rat terrier), and has always been nice and loved my mom. I don't want my mom to give him away, because I feel that he could be depressed because of my Grandmothers death whom he loved and stayed with his whole life, but I don't know how to fix this! He is pretty old, maybe around 9 years old at the most. What should we do? Thanks!

[Colely Oly]

My husband would feed our pet chinchilla cinnimon twists from Taco Bell, Chinzilla (that's his name) seems fine but gets hyper after eating them. So my question is, do you think cinnimon twists are in any way bad for Chin (his nickname xd ) in the long run?

[iFlandre Scarlett]

Hello!

I have just gotten 2 weimeraner puppies, around 3-4 months old. We've had them for....I'll say, 5 weeks now. And my family and I love them to death.
One is silver, and one is blue. They are twin brothers.
Here's the problem.
Whenever you walk towards them, they will dash away from us. What should we do to fix this problem?

[Random_Kimmy]

Comment Me

Hello!

About 2 months ago my dogs lets say "butts" were stuck together...
She has been very tired lately and has gotten a lot fatter...

How long until you think she will have her litter of puppies? (If she is pregnant)

Or Else D:<

[Xana44]

Almost August

I'm here to tattle on my puppy's behavior. redface

My family has a 11 month old Labador Retriever/ German Sheppard mix that is the sweetest thing, when we don't have anybody over. When we do have company over, even for a few minutes, he goes on high alert and barks, all of the fur on his back standing up. If you sit there long enough with him, you can sneak a stroke down his back.

It's my job (I made it...) to walk him, and it gets old having to tell people that they can't pet him because he cowers and growls. We've taken him to the vet, who suggested obidence training, but my family struggles with money, meaning we can't pay for someone to help us and he has a fear of cars too.

Is there anything we can do at home, to stop him from going crazy? The only problems we have is that he has finally stood up to our 12 year old llasha apso after nine months of being barked at and will growl at him if he tries to jump onto the couch. Boston (the lab mix) and Rusty, our Brittany, get along great- they're playmates. And he hasn't been fixed. I have a feeling that might be some of it and that he was abused from probably the time he was days old, to fourteen weeks, when we got him.

.:Edit:.

After a second of thinking, you said that you were a small animal vet... There's nothing small about Boston... he was 65 pounds in June, so I'm guessing he's about 85 now. I'm five foot four and his head comes up to my waist when he's sitting down. When he puts his paws on my shoulder, he's about eye to eye with me. In April, when we got our Brittany, who's full grown, they were about the same size.

By small animal, I mean I don't do cattle, horses, pigs, etc.

It sounds like your dog is fearfully aggressive, and needs to be a bit more comfortable in his environment.

Check your local library for a book called Good Owners, Great Dogs by Brian Kilcommins. It has lots of great training information.

Check this out:
http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=C&C=163&S=1

basically you need to practice with your dog meeting "strangers" and having positive results. It just takes time.

[Xana44]

Aznkimmy77

Comment Me

Hello!

About 2 months ago my dogs lets say "butts" were stuck together...
She has been very tired lately and has gotten a lot fatter...

How long until you think she will have her litter of puppies? (If she is pregnant)

Or Else D:<

Any day now!

[Xana44]

Shoezies

Hello! First of all, I want to say that I think it's awesome that you're a vet! I'm going to college for that same thing right now! But I'm only in a community college so no real learning about the subject has taken place.
Anyway, on to my ordeal with my kitty. His name is Cat and he's about 2 or 3 years old. Ever since we got him he's always been a very clean kitty, I mean that he licks ALL the time as well as chewing on himself. Lately, I've been noticing some scabs all along his spine and some on his sides. I'm just wondering what I should do about this and his licking? Do you think it's something really serious? We're thinking about trying to give him a bath for fleas, but I'm afraid to with him having open cuts and scabs....Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sounds like Cat has flea allergies. So you need to treat the fleas with a topical product from your vet and also treat the allergies. There are a lot of ways to treat the allergies, both injections or oral medications that you can discuss with your vet. A good soothing bath with oatmeal shampoo will soothe him (well at least his skin biggrin ) until you can get him to the vet.

[Xana44]

daltonmalton

my dog has a rash and its really bad wat should i do

Take your dog to the vet to have his skin problem accurately diagnosed and treated. A soothing bath will help until you can get him to the vet, but a vet visit is needed.

[Random_Kimmy]

Xana44

Aznkimmy77

Comment Me

Hello!

About 2 months ago my dogs lets say "butts" were stuck together...
She has been very tired lately and has gotten a lot fatter...

How long until you think she will have her litter of puppies? (If she is pregnant)

Or Else D:<

Any day now!

Comment Me

Thanks! :]

Or Else D:<

[Psychedelic Cactus]

I have a question about my dog. He's a pitbull lab mix and he weighs about 60 pounds. He is about 1 and a half years old. He sleeps in my room, on my bed with me most of the time. Lately whenever I sit down on my bed when he's in there, he's started to bite and jump on me. And not just playful biting, it's been angry, trying to draw blood type of biting. And in the mornings when I'm about to go to school, he'll bite my pant legs and he won't let go. I think he's being territorial. How do I break this habit? (He has been neutered.)