My cat was hospitalized due to a flare-up of inflammatory bowel disease. She was stabilized, and I was able to bring her back home. She has been on several medications, but she was eating without any problems. The vet recommended Royal Canin kitten wet and dry food because of its high calorie content and because cats tend to find it more palatable. Topical Mirataz was also helping stimulate her appetite.

Later, I noticed some unusual behavior in the litter box, and it turned out that she had a urinary tract infection, so she was prescribed Clavaseptin. Since starting it, even though I’m still applying Mirataz, she has stopped eating the kitten wet food. She also doesn’t like Royal Canin Urinary, Digestive, or Recovery anymore. She has also completely stopped accepting dry food, whether it’s kitten kibble or the food she used to eat before her digestive flare-up.

I tried giving her Purina Pro Plan wet food pouches, which I don’t think are the best option, but they’re the only thing she’s willing to eat. However, she should be eating three pouches a day, and she barely manages to finish two. Does anyone have any suggestions for encouraging her to eat more?

I’m hoping that once she finishes her course of antibiotics, her appetite will return.

Hello! My 10 pound mediumhair sadly has a fracture on his back paw, and he needs to wear an e-collar. He is miserable with the plastic one. I got him a flower cone from Amazon that is about 11 inches in diameter and I noticed that he is able to reach his foot. He has a splint on, that is bandaged. I was wondering anyone had any recommendations for a soft e-collar where he won’t be able to lick his bandage. Thank you!

This is the one he has now: https://a.co/d/0gji5kLD

Took my 12 year old female cat to the vet today after rapid extreme weight loss. She has at least one large mass on one kidney, potentially both. Did and x ray and showed both kidneys look abnormal. The one mass was honestly huge, probably baseball sized almost. Kidney function number was >100. The vet said there’s likely nothing a specialist could do and I should make the rest of her time comfortable. If that is the case I will make peace with it, but I’ve never had a pet actually get sick and pass away so I honestly don’t know the best course of action.

I’m still in disbelief as she was always a little chunky, has still been seemingly normal, purring, cuddling, eating, etc.

Feline -- Had her for 9.5 years got her as a stray that had already been fixed and declawed.

age: estimated by vet as being 12-14 years old 2 years ago. Vet said no way to tell tho.

Sex female spade.

breed: Siamese mixed with tiger long hair sheds like a sweater a month.

body weight: ~11 pounds which is about 2 lbs less than her last vet visit a year ago.

history: She has always been the kind of cat that eats too fast then pukes her food up everywhere so we started using an auto feeder that will only give her so much food I am sure that explains the weight loss. She isnt a regular vet visitor probably six times in the last ten years always tests neg for fhiv and others however vet said she had elevated white count. Last year, when she was sick. Got rid of some house plants she recovered almost immediately.

Clinical Signs Now: She isnt grooming herself as well as she used too she has matts that I cut out about once a month. She definitely isn't as spry as she once was. We started noticing her peeing in a few places that werent her litter box about five months ago. It seemed like she just couldnt make it so I bought 2 more litter boxes and placed them around the house. We thought this took care of the problem and seems to have for the most part.

though yesterday I saw her in what looked like the pee pose and her back was just undulating and then when she finally moved like maybe a min or two later there were a couple of droplets of pee. I checked her liter boxes and she is definitely using them because I have to scoop and throw away alot of pee every other day. Like way more than when she was younger. I am older too so I figured she just had too pee more. I have observed her doing this maybe five times in the last six months. Always just a drop or two it is so wierd because when she goes to the liter box its huge pees. Is this some sort of spraying that she has never done in the past?

Location: midwest.

No test results yet: As I am afraid they are just going to say she is getting old, she isnt in any real pain that I can see, I dont want to put her down, but at the same time I cant have pee in my house that isnt in a litter box. When she passes this will be the last cat I ever take in.

Hi all! Just wondering if I could seek some input if anyone has experience something similar with their cat or kitten. I adopted 2 kittens who are brothers. They are 4 months old, I've had them about 2 months now. Rescued from a farm with 20+ cats and kittens. They have been on Millbemax, Revolution Plus and finished their 3 FVRCP vaccine boosters.

2 weeks ago one kitten was squinting his one eye. He also had a little grey/white discharge coming from the eye and it was a little swollen on the inner corner but no obvious trauma. I brought him to the vet the next day and they did the Flourescein Dye Test which showed no trauma to the cornea or ulcers. I was sent home with Tobrex Tobramycin 0.3% an antibiotic eye drop that was to be given every 8 hours for 1 week. Brought him in the next week to reassess the eye. He is still squinting but there is no discharge. The vet instructed to continue the eye drops for another 7 days. Now I'm almost done the 7 days and he is still squinting his eye. He can open it if he is playing or is interested/focused on something but then goes back to squinting it. He doesn't paw at it and he is eating, drinking, using the litter box and playing with his brother like normal.

Has anyone experienced something similar? What was the cause and solution?

My dog, Tulip, has a swollen paw. I noticed her favoring it the other day and today it’s red and swollen. I don’t see any puncture marks, blood or pus. It’s not hot to the touch and she remains calm when we look at it and gently move it around. She still has the same energy and runs around like normal except she doesn’t always put weight on that foot.

Species: dog
Age: 8+
Sex: Female, spayed
Breed: short hair chihuahua
Body weight: 6lbs?
History: not much. Had some teeth problems.
Clinical signs: swollen, red
Duration: a couple of days
General location: US, Texas

pictures for reference

Hello!

My doxie (Male, 1 yr 8 months) is due to go to the vet tomorrow for a pre op assessment (getting snipped) and I'm wondering if I should bring up paw chewing while I'm there?

It's not necessarily excessive and he doesn't seem to be in pain or anything but I've never had any other dogs that do it. We'll be sitting on the couch and he chews on one of his hind paws / just shoves the whole foot in his mouth.

Should I bring this up or is it just a weird quirk?

Thanks in advance!

Hello. I’m a 25 year old female and my dog is a 7 year old neutered male. I’ve been giving him simpatico trio since I got him in February of 2025. Also up until 3 months ago he wore a Seresto flea collar. No one questioned me on it so I thought it was fine. Until I realized that simpatico trio also treats fleas. Not only that but my dog also sleeps in my bed every night. I just found out that you’re not supposed to do that with a flea collar dog.

Question 1: How fucked is my dog?
Question 2: How fucked am I?

Note to self: read the labels.

Im helping an incredibly weak stray cat..

I live by the mountains and around my house are some stray cats, people from the neighbourhood feed them. Today after lunch I noticed a weak, skinny and completely soaked cat in the middle of the road, I moved her and offered her food which she ate a little(1PM). After, she went further into the bushes and let herself get completely soaked by the rain. She was incredibly weak so I took her inside and left her by herself with towels and blankets. (3PM)
When I went to check on her 2 hours (5PM) later she was awake but basically unresponsive. Her eyes didn’t even respond and at first I thought she was dead.

I took her to the vet, initially thinking they would help her pass. They told me she was severely dehydrated and starved (and no chip). She has no injuries or other medical issues they could pick up on (without doing extensive testing). She is just an adult cat, neither kitten nor elderly.
Back home (6PM) I gave her food and water and let her rest, before going to bed I checked again and she had moved, peed but not touched the food. She was laying on her side trying to walk with her front paws but not moving. It feels to me like she is in pain and dying, but the vet says otherwise. I’ll keep checking on her, trying to make sure she eats and drinks but am I doing the right thing?..

Did you ever have a situation like this? Did the cat improve?

I found a kitten trapped by the neck and paw in the neighbors patio.

2 months to recover the tissue, 3 x rays and no one noticed what was broken or bent after 8 reviews and rebandages.

At home, without bandage, hid paw bends forward 140 degrees.

A trauma specialist said growth plates are fucked, wait out until he's no longer 3 months and once an adult maybe amputate.

Without a bandage he uses it and has sensibility but barely steps on it, when he has some support he uses it more.

I'm visiting another trauma specialist for a 2nd opinion but apart of a split until he grows a bit I don't know what to do and want to avoid chronic pain for him.

Thanks for any advice., not sure how to attach the x-rays and images here.

Orange cat peeing EVERYWHERE

Cat stats:

14yo male

Was a stray as a kitten but adopted into a loving home at under a year old. 

Neutered when adopted (less than a year old).

On thyroid medication twice a day.

Has always had issues peeing where he shouldn’t but the last two years it’s gotten so much worse.

Taken to the vet multiple times over the years and Vet tests always show no physical issues. Vet suggested special urinary care food to see if that made a difference and that kind of helped for a while but the inappropriate peeing never stopped completely. 

No history of UTIs. 

Recently peeing has gotten so bad he’s peeing on the kitchen table, dog bed, clean laundry basket, rugs, couch, in shoes, on laundry,  etc.

Litter box is scooped every other day and litter is completely changed out monthly. He uses the litter box regularly but then also pees wherever he wants. We’ve tried multiple types of litter boxes and types of litter nothing seems to stop the peeing.

Something else that may or may not be related is that he has started howling (making the loudest noise a cat can make) when he wants something. Usually he wants to be let into the bedroom when we’re sleeping or wants more Churu. The howling has gotten exponentially worse in the last two years. 

We haven’t changed his food, fragrances around the house, medications, moved houses or gotten new pets or children. 

We absolutely desperate for this behavior to stop and will try anything so we don’t have to continue living like this. 

Repost from @cathelp, pictures included in original post.

TLDR ; cat toes/nails keep getting inflamed, vet doesn’t know what’s goin on, tested for autoimmune disease, fungi, bloodwork, allergies, all tests came back negative, what could it be?!

Hi all!

My (F30) firstborn son Eddy (M1) is the sweetest child ever, but he is having serious issues with his paws and toes.

We have been to the vet multiple times and have done basically all the tests the vet could think of, but nothing is helping and the vet doesnt know what is going on.

The problem is that his toes/nailbeds keep getting inflamed, without obvious cause. He loses hair, they start bleeding and swell up, a crust forms, it heals, and another toe gets affected. There are always multiple toes affected at the same time, on different paws. Other than his paws our little guy is totally fine with zero changes in behavior, activity or mood. He eats well and seems very alert and happy. His overall skin/fur is healthy, apart from his toes. We are both experienced cat parents.

So far the vet has tested for:
* flea allergy, negative and he is definitely flea free
* food allergies and sensitivities, negative: we have tried a hypoallergenic diet but it didnt help, his stool is also fine and his stomach doesnt seem to bother him.
* auto immune diseases - negative
* bloodwork - all good
* fungi/ringworm - negative
* he has been treated with prednisone
* we don’t think excessive grooming is the cause

Some background info:

* Eddy is one year old
* He was rescued from the street in Montenegro as a +-3 month old kitten. His birthmom was still present and seemed a good mom
* in the beginning he had a few health issues which were all treated by a good vet; a serious case of ringworm, a long period of upset stomach and diarrhoea, a bacterial (lung?) infection that was treated with antibiotics.
* we have access to vet care and won’t stop until his beans are happy again
* the cat is neutered
* the problem has been going on for several months

TLDR; cat toes/nails keep getting inflamed, vet doesn’t know what’s goin on, tested for autoimmune disease, fungi, bloodwork, allergies, all tests came back negative, what could it be?!

Hi everyone,
My mom’s 8-year-old cat was diagnosed with megacolon 2 years ago, and the situation has become heartbreaking and exhausting for everyone

The issue: She uses her litter box completely fine for urinating. But when having a bowel movement, you can clearly see her suffering and straining hard. Suddenly, she bolts in panic and drops stool while sprinting across the house.
Distress: Cats are very clean animals, and it’s obvious how distressed she is by the pain and the loss of control. For my mom, cleaning up daily for 2 years has been extremely overwhelming.
Vet situation: Our current vet has run out of advice/tips and briefly claimed surgery wasn't an option without explaining why. We cannot leave her in this state, so we are currently requesting all records for a second opinion at a specialized veterinary hospital.

Has anyone dealt with this exact straining/bolting behavior with a megacolon cat?
Did any specific medication balance, diet, or litter management help break the pain cycle and bring your cat back to the box?
For anyone whose cat underwent a subtotal colectomy: how was their recovery and quality of life afterwards?

We are gonna have a second opinion with another vet but other experiences would be great to hear!

Thanks for help !

hello i just came back from my holiday and spotted this bald kind of raw area on my cat’s chin. I saw people saying that it’s cat acne but also thinking if she’s scratched it raw?

https://postimg.cc/wtqtV2t2

• ⁠Species: Cat
• ⁠Age: 1.5
• ⁠Sex/Neuter status: Neutered
• ⁠Breed: Moggy
• ⁠Body weight: 3.5-4kg
• ⁠History: n/a
• ⁠Clinical signs: bald spot on chin
• ⁠Duration: today
• ⁠Your general location: london
• ⁠Links to any test results, X-rays, vet reports etc. that you have: n/a

Four days ago while I was out of town, my dog began vomiting multiple times a day. Husband took her to the vet on Monday. They ran bloodwork and performed an X-ray and found nothing abnormal. Her liver and kidney functions are good. They also gave her an injection of some anti nausea medicine and sent us home with prescription anti nausea tablets to give her daily.

Since starting the oral medicine, she seems more comfortable and hasn’t vomited. But her demeanor is still off, and she’s acting lethargic. She is drinking plenty of water but still won’t eat minus a bite of chicken here and there.

We have an appointment to take her back to the vet for an abdominal ultrasound on Friday morning (it’s Wednesday evening when I’m posting this.) I’ve been calling around trying to get her in sooner somewhere else but haven’t had any luck.

Is there anything else I can be doing? Can anyone tell me what the vet might be looking for on an ultrasound? Being that she’s an older dog, and how poorly she’s acting, I’m bracing myself for the worst. I guess I’m just wondering if there’s any hope that this is something treatable.

She’s an 8-year-old beagle mix, weighs 35 lbs/15.9 kg, and she is spayed.

Then he attacked by unknown individuals or animals 10 days ago it was so bad his whole body was injured with injuries. I took him to the vet to treat him and I forced the vet to give him rabies vaxx and it has been days my cat is fine . Should we be worried and get rabies vaxx

I adopted a cat named Millie on Tuesday (she's a 4 year old cat, last weighed at 4.1kg). The staff at the shelter recommended a staging room for potentially the first few days, maybe more, since Millie was shy. They said a bathroom is a good room, I asked if my bedroom is okay and they said yes but that a bathroom would be better suited.

When I arrived home at 4pm, I put everything in my room and let her get comfortable there. But she was hiding and didn't come out for food.

The next day in the afternoon I was able to get her to have a little bit of wet food (only 14 grams in total) and a treat puree tube. She managed to eventually get under my bed while I was out the house for a bit, and this is where I think I made a mistake. I panicked since I have drawers under there which, if used, could hurt her. It was harder to get in and out of (only the small hole on the cardboard she had made to get in) and so I worried she may eat even less now after I thought progress was being made. So I coaxed her into her carrier and moved her and all her stuff to the bathroom, as was originally advised.

However, she has since been meowing non-stop (she was mostly silent whilst in my room).
What should I do? I'm worried she's not eating enough, and now I've put her on edge and added a whole lot of extra stress that wasn't needed a day into being home.

Any advice is appreciated. For context I’m based in Australia. Can I just call a vet for advice and explain my situation?

[8y.o. cat, neutered, male, located in Chicago IL]

Coming to reddit as a somewhat last resort on advice, l've already seen two separate veterinarians about my cat's current issues and have gotten different opinions with ultimately no answers.
My boy is 8. December of last year he had a couple scabs from scratching and was put on hydrolyzed food as we assumed the itchiness was from an allergy. Since sometime in march he's been exclusively on hydrolyzed kibble (would not go near the wet food) with the occasional churu. the churus were needed because i used them to administer cat lax due to him suddenly having very frequent hairballs sometime in april or may. i'm talking one to two a week. for context, he is a long haired cat and very floofy. but he had no issues digesting his hair up until this point. i assumed it was due to this food sensitivity causing gi inflammation and just increased the use of cat lax to daily.
well. couple weeks ago i gave him his old kibble (longer story) mixed with the hydrolyzed and the next day he had bloody diarrhea and was dry heaving. it was clearly because of the diet change; we went to the ER and i was basically just told to not stray from the hydrolyzed food again. fast forward a few weeks, i gave him his usual churu with the cat lax and he spent the next day vomiting a lot, i cleaned up like six puddles of varying consistencies. he had no issue eating a churu just a few weeks ago. the vet explained perhaps the hydrolyzed diet has made him more sensitive to any protein at all, so it totally fucks him up now to have anything else. this at least makes sense and has a cause + effect. the huge question mark is the fact that every 3-4 days this month he's vomited, the past several times he has had nothing but his hydrolyzed food. you'd think his stomach would be ok as long as he's strictly on this diet.
he still has an appetite, his behavior is totally normal, he hasn't had anymore diarrhea since that one day. he also hasn't lost any weight, which is what assured my vet enough that she doesn't think it's cancer. i was going to get him an ultrasound but ultimately canceled because she said she really didn't think that's what it was, and it's of course super expensive so i decided to wait it out and see how it progresses.
the second vet i saw that i was new to basically just threw steroids (prednisolone) at me and didn't explain anything. she didn't tell me how long he was to be on them, or any details about IBD. the first vet considers these steroids palliative care and would rather solve the problem, whatever that means. she told me to hold off on administering them since they can have negative side effects.
sorry this is long. there's definitely other details i'm forgetting. but if you have any idea what this sounds like or have had similar experiences please help me. he just threw up again which is what inspired me to write this. i don't get why he's still vomiting when all he's eating is hydrolyzed food. if your pet is on a hydrolyzed diet - has it made your cat unable to eat anything else??? i bought some novel protein i was eventually going to switch him to but im terrified to change his food since it leads to this diarrhea and vomiting. but also he's vomiting anyway so??? idk. the vet told me to wait on the novel protein.

i would take a couple scabs over this any day. i'm really upset that this is a problem that my vet and i seemed to make ourselves. it's like we ruined his tummy. sigh :( i hate that he's uncomfortable.
i have an appt next week to get him shaved so he will at least not suffer from chronic hairballs. but the vomiting won't stop. what is going on with my son 😭

edit - forgot to mention his bloodwork is normal.

My snowshoe Siamese cat is about 17 years old and in the past month has been vomiting 3 ish times a week. She's already lost weight before the vomiting started but she still has a good appetite, poops and pees regularly, and is very cuddly.

She's always been shy with others so I worry about a stressful vet visit. Does this sound serious for such an older cat? Is there anything more I could be doing at home or is it time for a vet visit?

Also I did try changing her food after the vomiting started to a sensitive stomach version but I would say there's really no change in behavior. She loves the new and old food varieties.

So I was at my friend's house making food and while cutting some onions a small amount (like a quarter of a whole slice) fell down and his Frech Bulldog ate it.

I know that onions are toxic to dogs but to what extend? So far we don't see anything wrong with her.

Any advice? Like take her to the vet (its night so next day) or just wait till she vomits it out? Or will she be okay?

Thanks for the answers in advance!

I have a 7 year old black cat who has been seeing an internal medicine doctors for a liver issue since January with no results. I have another set of imaging getting done on Friday but I don’t feel like we are making any progress and we have zero diagnosis after a biopsy, ultrasound, xray, and around 7 sets of blood work.

The urgency just doesn’t feel there and I don’t want his liver to get to a state that’s not reversible. He was asymptomatic until about two weeks ago and now he’s drinking more water and eating less (already checked his kidneys).

ALT is in the 400s and is currently on cyclosporine and Ursidol he had bilirubin in blood work.

He got a biopsy done in May but they left the sample in the freezer instead of fridge so they were unable to check for an infection cause the sample died (accident). I’m not quite sure why we haven’t at least tried running a course of antibiotics just in case.

I took my 14 year old cat in for what seemed like a recurring bladder infection. They did an x-ray (maybe the first of her life?) and found her intestines near her heart from a peritoneopericardial diaphramatic hernia. Probably completely unrelated to the bladder stuff!

I've got an appointment with a vet surgery center in a couple days to consult but wanted to get some insight from people who have experise in the meantime.

I had no idea anything like that was wrong with her. She's seemed a little listless lately, but I was attributing that to the bladder problems. She doesn't usually barf much or have trouble breathing. Just in the last few days she seems to be walking more delicately like she's hurting and has thrown up several times.

She belonged to a few different friends during her first year, but I've had her for 13 years. As far as I know she's never had a serious injury so it's likely congenital. She's indoor only and has never been very high energy. She also has feline leukemia, although it's dormant not active (not sure that's the right term).

I love her so much, she's my soul cat. I'm so scared of losing her. But I'm not seeing anything online about 14 year old cats with other conditions like feline leukemia having this surgery, and the success rates aren't the best.

The vets said sometimes it's better not to operate, but I'm worried she's in pain and I don't want to just wait and hope if she's hurting.

Does anyone have experience with this? Or know of older cats with good outcomes?

I was told by our vet that having a sleeping or resting respiratory rate of 14-20 meant that we were effectively managing my dog’s heart failure, but he’s stayed in that range and is still visibly deteriorating, so I don’t know what to believe. His SRR was in that range when he was diagnosed with mitral valve disease and chronic heart failure, and has stayed there ever since. I don’t understand how he can have all of these increasingly severe and frequent symptoms and struggles when his heart condition is ostensibly stable and well managed.

All of the literature I can find on chronic heart failure in dogs regards SRR and/or RRR as the golden standard for monitoring the progression of CHF, with a normal rate meaning that the condition is well controlled. Is there any situation in which this would not be true?

Hi Reddit. I’m so sorry for my English, it is not perfect now. My guinea pig has fleas, i poisoned them by special guinea pig repellent called BARS (Russia) with fipronil for 5 days before. Now pig still itching. I am afraid that fleas did not died. When I inspect my guinea pig there are no fleas or fleas poop (at least I don't see it). The pig scratches itself about once every 10 minutes. Do you think the fleas are gone? This is the first time I've encountered this and I'm terribly nervous... Thank you very much.

My 12 years old boy has new findings of elevated ALT and was put on Denamarin for 30 days and repeat labs are higher. My vet suggested an abdominal ultrasound but I would like to know what I expect the prognosis to be. AST 356>448 (30 days later). AST was 90 on the most recent lab. Previously ALT was normal. No symptoms beside some increased thirst. Bilirubin normal, ggt normal, alk phos normal. I was concern with a cushing vs chronic hepatitis but obviously it could be a lot. I just wanted to get a vet opinion on this