PatricksMom

I have, never heard any reason not to nor had any problems. As long as they're safe for humans (not the annoying ones that grow in my backyard), I think it's fine.

No, the blood draws went fine, but it was clotting in the needle (I think), or maybe starting to clot there and becoming unusable for testing.

Are you sure they aren't using too small a needle? I kept having trouble with that with Henry, until the vet started doing the draw herself with a larger needle, problem solved.

Leo has arthritis and a toe that dislocates from time to time, but I don't stop him from running, he loves it so much it seems cruel to me. Since she's not running daily, I would talk to the vet about pain relief you can use prior to and/or after her time at your mom's.

I've never needed to muzzle a dog at the vet's, but Leo gets snappish with me when injured, so I bring it. Thankfully, he seems to be much nicer to the vet and their staff, so they've always said they don't need to use it.

I'm so sorry to hear this news. I've said no to chemo, but different kind of cancer, different circumstances, different dog. Whatever you decide is right for you and your family, we'll be here for you and Tilly.

Can you go someplace where they can walk inside a bit, like a pet store? Not as much exercise but it will give some mental stimulation (and those great smells).

What NSAID? I'd be concerned about stomach problems from the medication first. I would stop the NSAID immediately until you can talk to the vet tomorrow and if possible have his foot xrayed so you know what's going on.

There can be medical issues that can lead to odd smells as well, can you check in with your normal vet about what else could be causing this?

Yes, it's not a common pairing to produce it, but it's possible and can be deadly if the medications are continued and it progresses.

What a wonderful update, good boy Taylor.

Sending good thoughts for Twiggy and peaceful thoughts for you.

I'm glad he's going to be okay. Now that you know he doesn't react well, you know to bring a muzzle with you, to keep Jake and the vet staff safe. It doesn't make Jake a bad dog--I have to muzzle Leo for any kind of foot injury or he would bite me even though he's a total sweetheart. Thankfully he's a much better boy when I'm not the one checking him out, but I still bring a muzzle in case they feel like they need one and let the vet make the call.

How well do you know your neighbors with dogs--can you ask them about experiences with the maintenance crew and their dogs? Looking at the timeline, my first thought was that the new maintenance person did something that really upset him.

A couple other ideas: -assuming normal blood work, try adding fish oil, it also helps with inflammation. Start with a small amount to avoid upsetting his stomach. -if you don't want to use Meloxicam all the time, with Patrick I had good luck with Tramadol all the time and adding Meloxicam for a week at a time, either at the first sign of a flareup or ideally before events that could cause a flareup. Eventually, he had to go on Meloxicam daily as the arthritis progressed, and had no trouble with it. Do get his blood work done regularly.

You can't always see arthritic damage on an x-ray, even when it's obvious from observation/exam/treatment response that's what's going on. I prefer to do the x-rays right away, just to rule out anything scary so I can stop obsessing, but I don't know that it's necessarily a bad idea to go with the wait and see approach.

Yes, and if you can't do that, try typing up your questions and leave spaces between them to write the answers--for some reason that helps me focus and not skip stuff. Also leave yourself space to write down tests being run, what you've decided on doing, and what your next planned steps will be (assuming you don't have a definite solution when you leave).

Mild and resolved fairly quickly with one (the only one not-fostered), none with the other three.

Thanks all for the good thoughts, Leo would like to announce to all the other greys that I'm lying and it's cookies that fix hurt shoulders.

No cancer! We got a nice clean x-ray of the shoulder down through the foot. No sign of anything in the healed cut, but it's possible that wouldn't show on an xray, particularly if it were a hair or a piece of grass. Watching the limp, she thinks it's more likely he's strained a muscle in his shoulder, so Meloxacam for a week. We can add an antibiotic if we want to, but I decided to hold off until we see if the meloxicam helps or not.

He's heading into the vet with a limp He had a cut on his paw this past weekend--but it seemed to have healed but now he's limping. Crossing my fingers that if I spend the money on the exam, xrays, and some fancy antibiotic, that will make this something small stuck in his paw, not the scary thing I don't want to talk about.

Once you've done a vet check to rule out UTI's, etc. and you've cleaned everything that could possibly smell with Nature's Miracle, if more frequent trips outside and praise don't work, you might try attaching his leash to your pants so he stays with you all the time, and that way if you see him about to pee you can get him right outside, eventually breaking the in the house = peeing mental association. Yelling is really tempting when they've peed (I was thrilled that Henry waited a week and then peed on the Christmas tree this year), but they really don't connect that to what they've done earlier and you may well be making him anxious, which can lead to more peeing.

Third the suggestion to try not crating him--some dogs do well crated, others really do not. If you end up sticking with medications, in Leo's case, Prozac caused some temporary appetite suppression that passed quickly. We use Valium only for thunder storms, which he can't really handle them when we're home even, but it is a pretty sedating and I wouldn't like to use it frequently. Xanax doesn't stay in the system that long, I wouldn't think it's a great choice for SA, unless you're only gone for very short stretches of time.

I did this when I was home cooking, if you have a good mortar and pestle it's easy to grind them into powder.

How long as Mac been eating this food--it might be his system adjusting, or it might be a good food for other dogs, just not for Mac.