adudle00

I believe it was hemangiosarcoma...the oncologist said it probably started in the spleen and had already spread to the spine and heart. He already had damage to other parts of his body as well, from blood clots blocking blood flow and oxygen. The main tumor that was causing all the bleeding was surround his aorta, so they said his chances of surviving the surgery is close to 0%. We could tell he was not doing well. We made the decision to put him down this morning. We stayed with him the entire time. It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I don't know when or if I will ever stop crying. Thank you all for your kind words.

Mover mate it over to UC Davis. After a few hours of evaluating him, they said he has cancer. It started in his spleen and spread throughout his body, including his heart. He is still having internal bleeding as well. They are trying to keep him stable and comfortable right now. The only course of treatment is surgery and chemotherapy and they said that would only extend his life for maybe 6 months, he would not have a great quality of life and would cost about 10k. The other option is to put him down. We have until 7am to make a decision (it's almost midnight right now). I am in such a terrible emotional state right now. Can anybody provide advice on what would I should do, or what you would do. I've never had to put a dog down and just can't fathom the idea right now. All I can do is cry. And then cry some more.

Mover hasn't been eating much the past week. He went into the vet today and while there he started to have internal bleeding and a belly full of blood. She did a couple different ultrasounds and labs, but can't figure out what's going on, only that there's a large mass or clot in his abdomen. We are currently in the process of transferring him to UC Davis Veterinary hospital (luckily one of the best around). I'm praying he can make the 1-2 trip from the clinic to the hospital and they can save him. He is on the older side (9.5 yes). I'm just heartbroken and crying. Dr said maybe it's his spleen, but she doesn't feel confident opening him up at their facility since he is having a difficult time clotting. I'm beyond stressed. Even worse I have a newborn so I can't be there right now, just my husband. Please pray for mover, he has been the most amazing dog.

About 6 weeks ago, my husband brought home a kitten. It was abandoned, on the verge of death and still needed bottle fed; no shelter or rescue would take it (May is "kitten month" apparently) b/c they were overcrowded. We decided to keep it at least until we could find a home to take it. Well, we still have it. The kitten itself isn't bad, but my pup is seriously terrified of it. When we first brought it home he was super interested in it, but over the weeks he's become very afraid of it. The only thing I can think of is that he did get yelled at once for attempting to "play" with the kitten and wanted to pick it up like a toy. Now, he will not even be in the same room as the kitten. He will hide and run away when he sees it. He's not even tempted to come near it if offered treats. I can tell he's stressing out and it makes me sad. If there's no way to warm him up to the kitten, then we will sadly have to take the kitten to a shelter/rescue. Does anybody have any experience with this or any advice to offer? If it matters, Mover is an almost 8 year old 90 lb. pup. The kitten is a female, 8 weeks old and about 2 lbs.

Hello! I was wondering what everybody on here does for flea control? We have always had a problem with fleas in the summer since we adopted Mover, but it seems to be getting worse. I've tried giving him nexgard, trifexis, frontline and just recently tried advantage II. It seems like no matter what I do, I just can't keep the fleas away. When I took Mover to the vet, she said he has a flea allergy and recommended I try the advantage II, but I honestly didn't see any changes (if anything, the fleas got worse!) My poor pup will bite at himself until he bleeds and loses patches of fur. I've also tried benadryl and it doesn't seem to do anything. I also recently purchased some items from Wondercide, since my vet recommended it, but I didn't feel like that helped at all either. Of course, I wash his beds, toys, etc regularly, but the issues never seem to stop. I've been giving him more frequent baths (once a week), because it seems to help him slightly. I'm not sure what else I should try, but I'm open to anything. Thank you! Ashley

Thanks for the info! I'll talk to my vet about a stronger anti-itch medicine, I think he might need it until we get a better handle on the fleas. Is there a topical ointment I should ask for as well, for the areas that he's biting raw? Do you think a topical like K9 advantix would work better than trifexis or nexgard? That's the only one I haven't tried yet and I hear a lot of good things about it. I obviously couldn't give him both medications and I have to say I'm a little hesitant of the topical meds, since Frontline Plus did absolutely nothing. Also, can you tell me a more about Capstar? Would I get this from the vet office? And can he have it on top of his current flea medication or would this replace it? Thank you!

Can I get some advice on controlling fleas? I feel like we've been battling them forever and we've tried nearly everything. About a year ago, we switched to Trifexis (after using heartgard + frontline plus). that helped a little bit, but we've still had a lot of issues. so about 2 weeks ago I switched to heartgard + nexgard, hoping it would be better. Ever since then we've had a massive flea outbreak. There was no lapse in treatment, he's constantly been on something to help with fleas. I'm constantly vacuuming, washing bedding, toys, etc. I've been giving him baths and I can see the fleas on him! It's at the point now where I'm even being bitten! (I have 10+ bites on my ankles!). The vet has told me to give him benadryl to help with the itching, but it isn't. He's biting himself so much that he's going raw in some places. I feel so bad, but I don't know what else to do at this point. We are going to treat our yard soon (any advice on what to use for this?). What else would you suggest? I don't want him nor I to suffer anymore. Are there any other products I can try? Anything else I should do? I'm willing to do/try anything. Thanks!

Would ground turkey be okay, or just ground chicken?

UPDATE: Mover was up all night having diarrhea and vomiting. Took him to the vet this morning and she gave him a bunch of fluids, an antibiotic shot and something to slow down the GI tract. She said to give him very small amounts of food throughout the day and see how he tolerates it. Feeding a bland diet right now. Offered a little bit of the chicken and rice when we got home and he refused. Also offered him some treats, which he also refused. I'm sure he's feeling pretty bad right now. Are chicken and rice are the things I should offer on a bland diet?

Just went downstairs to find a ton of diarrhea all over my dining room floor. Mover hasn't shown any other symptoms of being ill and has been accident free for probably 8 months now. I think he must have really had to go and couldn't hold it. As soon as I saw it, I let him out and he went to the bathroom again. What other symptoms should I look out for? His appetite has been fine thus far. Should I feed him something different this evening, in case he's having an upset stomach? Suggestions on what to feed? His current diet hasn't changed at all, no new treats, etc.

Okay, I will start working on 'trading up' with some of his toys first, Thank you.

A couple more questions: So I decided to give the bone back to Mover and he just laid down next to me and was chewing on it. I was going to leave him with it for a few minutes and then try to 'trade up'. But he swallowed the whole thing! Is that supposed to happen? I panicked and called the vet and she said he should be fine if it was fully chewed and to watch him over the next few days. Ugh, dealing with my dog and bones is so stressful! Has this happened to anyone else? Am I supposed to take it away when it starts getting soft? Are there other chewing options I should try instead?

Yeah, I think you're totally right. I was used to my parents dog who weighs 20lbs. Having a 90lb dog growl at me was just startling. I know I did overreact, I'm going to try to work on this better.

Thank you, I will try the trading up idea. I'm just unsure of how to go about doing this. It makes me a little fearful of my dog when he growls. Should I just give him the bone again for a few minutes, and then 'trade up'? Should I say his name and then approach him and show him what I have or do I just take the bone and then give him the treat? I'm sorry if I sound stupid, but if you could explain to me exactly how to do this, I would greatly appreciate it!

So we tried bones when we first got Mover and he was very possessive of them and would growl and bark if you got too close. This was almost a year ago, so I decided to try again today. He doesn't have the greatest teeth and I feel like he really would benefit from chewing on something. He just has horrible breath and he always has, but the vet said everything is okay. So I got him some of those CET dental chews and gave him one this morning. I was walking past him and everything was fine. But then I noticed there was blood all over the chew and I was concerned so I went by him to look at his teeth and he let me. But then when I got up to move he did a very small low growl. I was so shocked/pissed that I just snatched up the chew immediately and yelled at him to go lay down and there were no further issues. Maybe not the right thing to do, but even when he did growl before it was never at me. How would you advise me to handle this? I really do feel like he would benefit from chewing on something and I know people have recommended turkey necks (I think?) but I wouldn't want to give him one of those everyday. He is totally fine with everything else (brushing, messing with his mouth, etc). It's only when bones are involved. He also gets greenies and I've never had a problem with him growling from one of those. I feel like I'm at a loss right now. I just want his breath to not smell so bad (he is going in for a dental again soon).

No, the furnace hasn't been on yet. Should I give him a tsp with each meal or just 1x a day? Thanks!

So Mover has been having pretty dry skin for the past few months. He's been to the vet, and he doesn't really seem concerned. A couple months ago, we had a bad experience with fleas. He was on frontline, but it wasn't working for him, so we switched to Trifexis and it's been great since then. During the phase where we were trying to figure out what to do, we did give him 3 bathes, as advised by the vet office in order to help eliminate the fleas and 'break the cycle'. And he was scratching so much, the baths did seem to give him some relief. Fast forward to now and his skin is still pretty dry and he has some dander. He still scratches a little, but I think it's because he's itchy from the dry skin. I'm tempted to give him a bath because he sort of stinks...not really bad, but it's noticeable. However, I don't want to further irritate his skin. I plan on getting some of the missing link I've read about on this site and I do have coconut oil that I've applied on him before...however how would I get this onto his skin on his lower back, where a lot of the flaking is? Do I just apply it on top of his fur and rub it in? Any other advice/suggestions? Thanks!

Mover won't get in the car by himself either. I have a Surbaru Forester and I just lift up his front legs into the car and then the back legs. He usually tries to help himself into the car at that point, I think because he doesn't like being picked up. But he weighs literally a solid 90 lbs and I weigh 100, soo...lol But I don't have any issues with getting him.

So we've had Mover for about 6 months now. A few months ago we had sort of a 'break through' where he became fairly reliable to leave out without having accidents, which was pretty much a daily occurrence when we got him. He gets free roam throughout the main areas of the house (we close all the doors to rooms, etc). However, he is STILL having random accidents. Yesterday I was gone all day and he was perfect. Today I was gone four hours and he peed on the floor in the living room, and on the couch. This is definitely not marking either. He was out in the morning before breakfast at 6:30 and went for a walk at 8:30 before we left. Came home at 12:30 and there's pee everywhere. I KNOW he can hold it, but for whatever reason, he's not. He just got back from the vet last week and everything checked out okay. I really don't think it's anxiety issues either. I have no idea what's causing this, but it's so frustrating. He's an otherwise perfect dog for us. These accidents are happening like once a week now, sometimes once every 2 weeks. He even went on the carpet twice in the past month, which he had never done before. I feel like his accidents are slowly ruining my house. ='( I guess I can put him back behind the baby gate again, but we were hoping to get rid of those. I've heard of people using belly bands and was thinking of trying one of those. I feel like we've tried everything we can think of and I really don't know what else to try. I'm open to trying any suggestions!

LMAO! You guys are all SO funny! Soo...Mover was completely fine, though he did have an accident in the house the next day, I'm assuming from the fiber...lol Now for the "why were the brownies in the trash" question: As I stated in my OP, these were 'high fiber' brownies that I've been experimenting with for a school project (dietetics major). These were very high fiber brownies that were not nearly as tasty as the other batch of 'normal' brownies I made to compare them to. I kept the good brownies and tossed my experimental fiber ones. Mover didn't seem to mind the fiber though...

So I like to run and would like to be able to take my dog out more often to run with me, if I could 'train' him to do so. I think the biggest issue with him though is that he gets overheated SO quickly. Even going on a walk, after 10-15 mins of a brisk walk he's just over it; panting and not really into it anymore. (and this is walking in temps below 70, haven't walked him lately because it's been pretty hot over here). Since we've had him I've noticed that he overheats very quickly. Does anybody else have a dog that doesn't handle heat well? With this being said, is it possible for me to slowly work him up to jogging/running with me for 3-5 miles? I would go in the early morning or evening, but still, even on walks at these times, he doesn't like it after about 15 minutes. Is this something I could work on with him? Advice? TIA!

Hmm okay...I think he's still safe. Will stay posted, Thanks!

Thank you!

It was sweetened with sugar. I understand why they would tell everyone to come in. By my calculations, he ate approximately 3ox of semi-sweet chocolate NOT baker's chocolate. According to what I researched, he would have to eat about 20oz for it to be toxic, which he did not come close to.

About 4-5 regular sized brownies. I called the vet and the tech said to bring him in to induce vomiting bc it can be toxic....but I don't know if they just say that to everyone? I got my recipe and figured it out. I think he ate around 3oz of semisweet chocolate...at MOST 6oz, but I really don't think it was that much...I'm hella worried now. Has this happened to anyone else? He weighs about 80lbs. Also, they were 'high fiber' brownies....she said she doesn't know what effect the fiber will have. I'm pretty far from the clinic and I don't want to take him in if it's unnecessary. Thoughts? Thanks.