Ask the Veterinarian!

[Xana44]

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We talked to the vet, and we made sure to mention that we had a tom get into the house, and we haven't seen him since. And I noticed her eyes were constantly dialating, so the vet said she might have had rabies, and they had had a cat about two months earlier who was in the same sitution; the behaviors even though she was raise by hand from so young; that ended up testing positive. So we are waiting on results from the test. She said it would take about a week.

Oh, heavens. One more thing to worry about. Just what you need. xp

Rabies is actually very rare in the pet population. Had she been vaccinated? I will keep my fingers crossed that she comes back negative. Your vet is doing the right thing by testing her. We have an obligation to protect humans first, and if there is any chance that a human may have been exposed, testing is the best thing. Unfortunately, any time there are unusual neurologic signs, Rabies has to be on the list of differentials.

I am so sorry you lost your girl and are now having to go thru this. Stay strong.

[stormylane]

Thank you so much for the advice!
I'm going to place an order for one of those collars in just a couple of minutes. I had never heard of those before. It will be a blessing for sure. (the pitch of her bark hurts my ears like you wouldn't believe) lol

I see that I have been doing a few things wrong in her training.
I obey her.
She barks at her food dish & ... I go to fill it.
She jumps at the kitchen sink that means her water dish is empty & I rush to fill the bowl.
Behaviors like this happen all through-out the day.
She calls me... I obey. I didn't notice it that way before.
If she wants a doggie treat, she barks at the cabinet where they are kept which I viewed as my cue to get her a doggie treat.
If she wants anything, she barks at my feet & then runs toward whatever it is she is wanting. If I don't follow her right away... she will keep repeating that action until I follow her to where ever it is she wants me to go. I always tried to meet her need swiftly because I hate the high pitch of her bark.

Dang my dog trained me well! eek

She is possessive. Follows me from room to room. Sits at my feet. When I get up to go to the bathroom she follows me in there.
When I'm working in the kitchen, she follows me from the dishwasher... to the stove... to the sink.... back & forth, back & forth. I figured if I tripped over her enough she'd decide to stop following me so close, but it's been several years now & she still does that. I've been getting worried lately that I might actually fall down the steps because she follows me up & down the stairs. I've had a couple of close calls on that one. I stumble over her so often... I don't want it to happen on the stairs.

Well, now I think I understand this better... it's time for her to get a little training of her own.

Thank you for your help!

[SferRae]

Any tips for a 13/14yr old dwarf lop bunny who has squishy poop that gets extremely matted to her as she cant clean herself due to a lump on her side which is her large intestine, or so i have been told (she had to have an emergancy op and has had the lump since then) but ive tried everything from bio lapis to fibreplex, to wheat bran, to a green and hay only diet. Its so hard bathing her all the time and shes caught flystrike 3 times in 3 months no matter how much i do.
The young buck with her has no problems so i know it isnt food or environmental issues.

I dont have this problem with any of my other bunnies (i have 10 xD 6 of which r 3 week old babies)
Even with the lacating doe that eats a 2 dog bowl of pellets a day plus hay n greens and toast isnt having this problem so it isnt the fact shes having too much pellets as i give the 13/14yr old a hamster bowl a day. But the only time i seem to get a hard poop from her is after bath time when shes on my bathroom floor. But it only lasts a day.

[TwistedOrchestra]

Hmmm I have a little question about my dog, but i'm not sure it's a vet question.
She has some behavior problems

We bought my dog from rescue dogs Europe, and she comes from France (I'm from the Netherlands)
We had her since last October.
Before with had an other dog with her, a male, who was very dominant. We had to bring him back, since he was biting Paris (female dog) and was turning overly dominant towards me and my mum.
Anyway, since that, Paris had a violent approach towards other dogs, but when she gets near them, she just wants to play, same as when we have other dogs at our house, she just want to play. Mind you, it's a rottweiler, so it looks pretty scary when she acts so mean towards the other dogs. Is there any way to well, make her stop?

Same as that she really pulls when we walk with her, but when she is of the lease she listens pretty good, comes back when we need her, but the moment we put the lease on, she pulls, and doesn't listen.We also have those spiky collars, which should help, but it doesn't help at all, same as a kind of bodice or something, also didn't work.

And , to make matters even better, she scratches the chairs to bits. Is this out of boredom? If so, how can we make her stop? Cause she has everything in the world now (she's pretty spoiled since we bought her right after our previous dog died).

But do you recommend some special training or something? Because if she's staying like this, my mum will really consider to bring her to a shelter, even though we both really love her, she seems so hard to maintain? (I'm sorry if i use strange words or sentences haha.)
Oh, she just turned 3 by the way ^^ .

I know she's a smart dog, since i could teach her how to sit in about 10 minutes, how to walk the stairs in half an hour, and give a paw in just a few minutes. So i know she's very smart. But how can we make her understand? I hope it isn't a language barrier, cause my french is really poor haha.

I hope you have some tips <3

[Princess Lenora]

I have a question about what to do with my 2-year-old cat.

About four months ago she started throwing up her cat food, so I changed her diet to the sensitive systems formula by Purina and it helped, until about a month ago. She's starting to throw up again, but her behavior hasn't changed or anything and she doesn't get sick often enough that it seems like an emergency, however, I have been keeping a closer eye on her.

Should I change her food again or could it be something more serious?

If it makes a difference, she's an inside cat.

[Poisionous Kisses]

(It's funny I just needed pet help and I happen to stumble across this thread, weird LOL)

Anyways, I have a simple question. My friends dog(A Rough Collie) is pregnant and plans on giving me one of her puppies because she won't be able to keep all of them. How long are dogs pregnant before they give birth?

[Scarclaw Of ThunderClan]

Hello,
I recently adopted a kitten from the local shelter that I volunteer at. She's pretty young (about 3 or so months old), a little under 2 pounds, and she's long-haired. She is an energetic and playful kitty who just recovered from an upper respiratory infection ((at first I thought it was kitty-herpes; thank God it wasn't)) that had been spreading through the cats at the shelter. Anyways, we just recently found out that our little kitten has fleas from the shelter. And now they're on my big cat too. We bought them both Hartz Ultra Guard Plus flea collars today and I've been sprinkling them with Sergeant's Flea and Tick powder for a couple three weeks now but I'm still finding big nasty bugs on the kitten! I haven't seen any bugs on my big boy, yet, though. The hardest part is when I do see a bug on the kitten, and try to get it off her, she squirms or it moves into the grey fur on her back and is practically invisible. Plus, the long fur is slightly in the way. :/ Are their any more tricks you know of for getting rid of these nasty blood-suckers?
Thanks,
Vesper.

EDIT:
Both the cats are strictly indoors cats unless I'm with them and even then they only go out onto the porch. They never get more than 5 feet away from the house, even then, so I don't think the fleas are outside at all. And do you have any tips for the shelter so they can get rid of the fleas on the cats there?

[The Cake Is a Lie v2]

Hello,
I am asking about my cat.He Was born on mothers day of this year and he was born in a home that was not the best for raising a animal. He had severe flees and the first time we bathed him the water running off of him was red. we give him bathes reagularly and his flees just keep coming back. We even use dawn and they keep coming back. And we are woried he is to young for medacations (sorry for my spelling.) What should i do?

[Catie_Matie]

So I have this little doggie, okay medium doggie. She is about 5 years old and she seems to have a lot of things she's scared of. When we first got her, she was afraid of men, but after having lots of people over and her spending lots of time with my dad, she seems to be mostly over that. (She still wants to eat the UPS man though.) She is afraid of loud noises though too, and rain.She won't go outside at all if it is raining unless we put her leash on and make her go. She starts trembling all over, panting, and drooling. When we try to give her a bath she just tenses up and won't move a muscle. She used to nearly faint in the tub. We've tried lots of things to try and help her not be so panicky but nothing's really helped. Any suggestions?

[woodstock_sweetie]

Hello, I spotted your thread on the home page. It's an ideal forum topic, I'm glad you're taking the time to share your wisdom with others who need it! Plus, I'm planning on becoming a veterinarian or some sort of other job within the field of medical science, so I may have my eye on this forum for a while. Anyways, I have two precious dogs. Neither of them are actually sick, one has a thyroid gland problem (which is being treated and is not out of control at the moment), and the other just has poor paws 'cause she's biting them. But that's not what I wanted to question you about. I've heard about how chocolate and any other kind of candy can be "poisonous" to dogs or cats, which I'm guessing is because of the high sugar content. I've also recently learned that onions are also bad for dogs/cats, though I'm not sure why, do you know? Also, are there any other foods or drinks that I should definitely keep out of my dogs' reach?

[SentientMachine]

I understand that your a veterinarian, and not necessarily an animal behaviorist, but I have a question. (It's not all that important, just mere curiosity.) My cat has a toy bird with feathers on it that she likes to wrestle with. But sometimes she'll just lay there and lick the feathers for on some occasions, minutes at a time. Could you tell me why this is?

[kristyn-kun]

Hi. Could you post a list of things that are dangerous for dogs/cats/other pet animals to eat?

[Diana the dog]

how long is the life span of a dog that doesnt get its shots

[Chrono Tokito]

kool this is gonna be very helpful ill subscribe! wink

[M3ll0W_DRAMATiC]

my sister's guinea pig's left eye seems cloudy and on top of it, it seems kinda molded. it's sometimes red. My mom keeps on putting salt water in and I wonder if that'll make it better.
The first time it had it, it was squinting. As time went, he opened his eyes, though.
I don't know what's happening, so please help me!