I can’t believe I’m writing this, but this morning we found a bat with its head eaten off in our kitchen - the cat caught and ate the head off of it. I took the situation very seriously.

First, I called public health to check if our household needed to be vaccinated. I’m pregnant with baby number two and we have a toddler currently two years of age. They advised no vaccinations needed for our household even though we don’t know how long the bat has been in our house for but they said it’s a low likelihood of a bat biting us while sleeping at night .

I’m trying to contact the vet after the appointment today to see if we can modify the cat’s confinement so he can stay in/ room around the whole house when my husband/I are at work and the toddler is at daycare.

Next, we took the cat to the vet. Since we can’t confirm his medical history and don’t know if he’s overdue for his rabies vaccination (he was adopted through Kjiji), the vet advised three shots. We’ve already given him one shot today. He will have another one in two weeks and his third and sixth weeks from now. For extra caution, the vet suggested a three-month confinement in a separate room to monitor the cat for any symptoms. He’s a Bengal, so he often yelps or screams, especially at night. My husband is worried about how we’ll manage this for three months while we prepare for baby number two and have a toddler. There’s also a risk of exposure to our household now. He wants to euthanize him, but I strongly oppose that. The vet even said euthanizing isn’t necessary at this stage; it’s just a quarantine period to observe.

I guess I’m looking for veterinarians on Reddit to provide some input on the situation to help ease my mind or offer suggestions. I’m pretty upset about the situation and want to protect my household and cat, but I don’t believe in euthanizing him if we can’t definitively know if he’s positive.

The vet confirmed that they can’t send the bat for testing because the head has been eaten by the cat, which is where the prions are stored.

update: found a second bat which head still on it and vet will try to send it in for testing tomorrow

Cry for help… 2 months ago I had a seemingly healthy happy cat…
My 6 yo cat started sneezing 2 months ago. I waited for about a week and took him to the vet. They prescribed him some antibiotics and sent us home.
During this appointment the vet mentioned she heard a gallop rhythm in his heart and that she recommended us seeing a cardiologist.
That’s where my personal hell started.
For his heart we have done:
1) echocardiogram where he was diagnosed with advanced heart disease, for which he is taking 3 different medications. He can go into congestive heart failure soon.

For his sneezing:
1) His sneezing symptoms got better on antibiotics and then came back even stronger - now he is completely unable to breathe through one nostril, he is sneezing, coughing and has very thick mucus that is unilateral.
2) He had full respiratory panel done - all negative on viruses and bacteria
3) still got a prescription for an insanely expensive antiviral since according to his vet the panel should have shown a false positive (it didn’t help and was also IMPOSSIBLE to give to him - huge human sized pills that he does not take in any form)
4) he is now being referred to a full CT scan which is high risk due to his heart
5) we are now doing a fungal testing too this week which I feel is just like trying to find a needle in a haystack. It’s also insanely expensive

And now he had his urine test done during his first visit and guess what!
Blood in the urine
1) we had 3(!) urine tests done, last of them was free catch sample to confirm the blood was not coming from collection method.
2) he is now pending ultrasound because the vet is suspecting kidney stones

And the final straw is he has been vomiting- probably from the amount of pills he’s been taking on a daily basis so now he’s on another anti nausea medication

At this point I’m sitting and wondering how is this statistically possible to have all of these problems at the same time. I love him so much and it absolutely breaks my heart.

This is just a crazy story of one unlucky pet owner….

A few days ago, my 9 year old golden mix(not really sure if that's what she was but she looked similar, only brown) was so full of energy and wanting to play so we took her outside to play fetch like we usually did. She ran for the ball about 3 times, she had to search for the ball once and was SO happy, her tail was spinning around like a helicopter, we threw it once more then she laid down for a rest like normal. 30 seconds later she got up without her ball, walked towards us and fell over, by the time we got to her which was only a few seconds, she was not breathing. My husband tried to do CPR but neither of us knew how to perform it on a dog. She had a few breaths but I think it was agonal breathing as they were really far apart. I couldn't even get a hold of a vet until 20 minutes later since it was after hours.

She never had heart issues that we knew of. She did get quilled by a porcupine a few years ago and I know there were still quills inside her. And ever since the day she was adopted (she was about 1 when we adopted her) she was always very anxious, always panting even inside, always had a hard time settling down.

Do you think this was cardiac arrest? Could it have been a quill that travelled to her heart? Would she still be alive if we didn't play fetch or if we knew CPR? It was so sudden and shocking, literally nothing seemed out of the ordinary. We are devastated and I feel so guilty.

I took my 90lb rotty mix to the emergency vet today because he jumped off the bed and hurt his wrist. The X-rays show he completely broke both bones in his arm. The bones were also pitted, so the vet thinks he may have an aggressive osteosarcoma. she said the options are basically amputation or chemo (after a biopsy would be done on the arm) or euthanasia. Some additional details are that he had two TPLO surgeries in his back legs, his vet recently said he’s developing hip dysplasia and his knees are developing significant arthritis. So much so that his right leg muscles are starting to atrophy because he’s putting more weight on the left side.

I don’t know that he would have a quality of life as a tripod because he already struggles with mobility. I guess I’m just wondering is there another way to identify if this is a bone cancer? They did chest X-rays and didn’t see anything and recent blood work was all good. He previously had malignant melanoma and they were able to cure that a few years ago. He’s currently at home on pain meds. Taking him to a surgeon tomorrow for an amputation consult but I want to be sure I’m asking the right questions. He’s still in good spirits with some pretty strong tail wags. I’m sorry for any typos I’m just pretty distraught right now.

My dog got surgery 7 days ago. He is still pretty mellow and seems like he might be in a bit of pain. There are also tons of crusties, is this normal? The vet didn’t say anything about cleaning it but it looks crazy.

I’m struggling with a lot of guilt around this and would really appreciate some honest opinions.

I have a 13-year-old cat who I absolutely adore. He’s had chronic constipation issues for years, and more recently has had a UTI, plus a low-grade heart murmur, early kidney disease, and steady weight loss.

But honestly, the constipation is our biggest issue. We’ve tried managing it (mostly using restoralax) but this past year, roughly every two months, it gets to a point where we can’t get it under control in time. Once he’s constipated he starts urinating outside the litter box on our beds usually 🥴 then as he starts to recover he is leaking stool. When this happens, he’s noticeably withdrawn and often barely moves around.

I’m also finding the constant cleanup exhausting. We’re covering furniture, constantly doing laundry, and disinfecting surfaces because of stool smears around the house. It’s become a significant source of stress for our household.

I’m starting to wonder if it’s time to let him go, but that’s where the guilt comes in.

Between episodes, he’s alert, his eyes are bright, and he still seems like himself. His last vet visit about a month ago identified the UTI but nothing else particularly alarming.

If I’m being completely honest, we’ve also reached a point where I can’t keep spending money on repeated vet visits and treatments that don’t seem to resolve the issue long-term.

Emotionally, euthanasia because of fecal incontinence doesn’t feel like the right decision so I’d genuinely appreciate some perspective- is this a reasonable point to start considering euthanasia, or am I letting the household stress influence my decision too much?

I thought my cat just had a really bad hair ball that he couldn’t hack up Sunday(10/18) night and all day Monday(10/19). I got him Tomlyn Hairball Remedy and he did throw up a hair ball (10/19) but all his symptoms never went away. That’s when I realized something was really really wrong. I took him to an emergency vet appointment Tuesday morning(10/20) and his primary vet took an xray and she told us his trachea has collapsed. He had a cough, wheezing, labored breathing. He lost appetite/drinking over the course of a day. I thought he was dying. He was prescribed steroids, antibiotics and an anti-nausea medication. Today (10/21) after a second emergency vet appointment he isn’t eating or drinking but the veterinarian said to keep offering him different foods because the medicine may take 3-5 days to really kick in and work full swing. Today is day 2 on the antibiotic & steroid but, Day 1 on the anti nausea med. I understand that there is no fix to a collapsed trachea and you can really only treat the symptoms. 😔

I would appreciate any advice on things I can do to help my cat!! I want him to be comfortable and healthy as possible for what’s going on. We have several air purifiers (one is in the same room as the litter boxes) in the home, haven’t burned candles/incense, no plug in wall smell things, no wax warmers, no perfumes around any of our cats. We do use Dr.Esleys cat litter, we used to use pine pellets and the cats protested so I had to make the switch back. Once again any advice would be greatly appreciated on what I can try to help my cat!!!

Side note: he is a long haired orange. His primary vet suggested that once he is feeling better we give him a lions mane cut to try and completely avoid hairballs. That will be something we pursue but once again when he is starting to feel better.

hi my female cat was spayed today, she is growling lowly i believe from pain, i was sent home with pain medicine to give but it says to give with food however she has not eaten. can i still give medicine or wait until tomorrow? hate seeing her suffer.
the medicine is metacam 1.5mg/ml the syringe has 0.2ml

Hello! My cat is getting neutered tomorrow morning (we are dropping him off at 7:30am) and i was hoping to get some help with the instructions.

We were instruction to have him fast after 9pm and no water after 12am. He was prescribed cerenia the night before his procedure which we planned on giving after dinner at 8pm. However, his other prescription (gabapentin) is supposed to be given to him on an empty stomach. Should I give him his gabapentin before feeding him his dinner or can i wait until 12am?

Thanks for the help!

Edit: working on uploading X-ray images.
Edit: cleaned up image

Top DV Xray
Lateral Xray

My cat, age 7, is a neutered male shorthair weighing in at about 13.8 lbs. I live in abq New Mexico, or south west United States.

He’s been an indoor/outdoor cat most of his life until recently. I moved into an apartment a little over a year ago and I’m on the second floor so I no longer let him out. He’s been developing a cough for a few months and has a history of hairballs. The coughs seem dry but I wanted to take him in to get checked anyways. He seems to be eating and drinking and playing just fine. Just has coughing fits from time to time.

The vet took 2 X-rays and showed them to me saying everything looked perfectly fine and he might have asthma, but they were gonna have a radiologist look at it. They took some blood for a cardiac evaluation to determine if steroids from asthma medicine would have adverse effects.

They called back and told me that the radiologist wanted another X-ray view and scheduled us to come back over two weeks later. Being scheduled so far out felt strange so I called back asking for an earlier time and they put me on a cancellation waitlist.

I still felt strange about it so I emailed them a video of my cat coughing “for their information” hoping it might prompt a response.
They replied saying thanks and reiterated that the radiologist wants one more xray view, the sooner the better, free of charge. They also mentioned that his bloodwork was unremarkable but they were having difficulty with the cardiac test. They reiterated getting him in sooner and the images back to the radiologists would be best.

After I told them the scheduled date, they said someone would be calling to move him up to this Friday, then they changed it to tomorrow morning.

I sent another email this morning asking for more details about if there were technical problems with the X-rays and blood work or if there was something they saw that might be concerning. They haven’t answered me all day and of course I’m going to be a bit worried. I can see my cat on a home camera and he seems fine.

Just thought I would post the X-rays here and ask for opinions. There seems to be a large mass on his left side behind his lung and I can’t make out what it could be. Either feces or his liver or kidney? They didn’t take an X-ray of that side so I’m worried if it could be concerning and they won’t tell me or if I have nothing to worry about.

I’m certainly no expert so I don’t know what to make of the large dark spot on his left side at the bottom of his ribcage. Maybe it’s his stomach?

TL:DR Vet wants more X-rays ASAP but won’t tell me what the problem or concern is or if things are fine. 7y/o neutered male cat in NM has had coughing fits, getting worse over a couple months. What is the dark spot on his left side bottom ribcage?

Hello, my cat just came back from a dental cleaning where they had to extract 8 teeth. They finally called for us to pick her up 15 minutes before they closed, and by the time she got back home they were closed. We just got home and she is now freaking out and grinding her teeth while flipping her head around. We are freaking out because this sounds awful and we hate seeing her freak out. Is this normal? What can we do? They sent us home with painkiller, antibiotic, and gabapentin, but we aren’t allowed to give her any of this until morning. We called the vet but of course they’re closed, and we called an emergency vet and they just told us to bring her in for a $500 exam. We just paid $2,000 and don’t want to bring her in unless completely necessary, so I was hoping someone here could tell us if this normal. Is she still numb from the extraction? Thank you for any help you can give, from 4 panicking pet parents.

Edit to add: We guessed that maybe she was numb, but she was under anesthesia so we’re not sure if she’s actually numb.

Hello and thank you for your time.

I’m writing at a loss over here. Backstory: On Friday 10/16 my 9.5 year old spayed Border Collie/Aussie had developed vomiting / diarrhea. The vomiting only lasted 24 hours but the diarrhea has lingered on. She’s my energetic, always a ball in her mouth, always working dog. However she has had fatigue/listless/no appetite since Friday She has been going every 2-3 hours loose watery orange tinged stool. I had her evaluated at the vet yesterday and she underwent radiographs of her chest/abdomen, CBC, CMP, Lipase, lytes. All of her labs checked out normal! Vitals were normal and she was afebrile. No elevated WBC, liver/pancreas looked good, mild dehydration from the concentrated Hgb/Hct but normal kidney enzymes! She looked at the stool sample and didn’t think it was parasitic in nature, just mucous/small blood in the stool. In the end she received subcutaneous fluids, cerenia, probiotic, and gabapentin! She is just not wanting to eat, but will drink some still. I’m at a loss of what to do for her, I obviously don’t want to force feed her. She takes monthly Simparica trio, Cosequin, and chewable probiotic. She’s never had any health problems. Im just racking my brain, on what else needs to be done. I’m a nurse, so I do understand it takes time for GI symptoms to resolve but it’s been really rough seeing her just low energy, not wanting to eat, not herself… anyways sorry for the long painted story… just a worried dog mom who catastrophizes worse case scenarios!

My dog had a pin put in her femur two days ago and desperately needs a bath. Can I use one of those no wash shampoos for dogs? (Obviously I would keep the shampoo away from her incision)
• ⁠Species: dog
• ⁠Age: 1
• ⁠Sex/Neuter status: f/spaid
• ⁠Breed: terrier mix
• ⁠Body weight: 38 pounds
• ⁠History: recent surgery
• ⁠Clinical signs: NA
• ⁠Duration: NA
• ⁠Your general location: southeast USA
• ⁠Links to any test results, X-rays, vet reports etc. that you have: NA

For about a week and a half, she's been itching the outer side of her ears and the balding spots black cats have behind their eyes. she doesn't bleed a lot, but she's had some opened skin. some of the hair on the ears is just gone, like patches of her ears are bald. she has these dry, tan splotches behind her eyes. she's fully indoor, but isn't on any flea treatments. only had a sensitive stomach and food that caters to both that and sensitive skin. she's very hydrated, drinks a lot of water out of pure enjoyment, has for years. I'm just nervous because of how symmetrical it is, too. anyone have any loose ideas of what it is? does it sound like something worth bringing to a vet? my parents are stubborn about it and I need to know if it's worth arguing with them.

hiii, i have a five-month-old (neutered, domestic medium hair) kitten and am trying to decide if i should be concerned or i’m just being a paranoid new pet owner (i’ve had him less than two months). my kitty is super hyper and food-motivated. when i first brought him home, he wasn’t eating at all, and then started having diarrhea and vomiting, so i brought him into the vet and they gave him a five-day dose of panacur, and ever since then his poops have been normal and he eats like a beast.

i feed him wet food three times a day, and then he has an automatic feeder that feeds him small portions of dry food throughout the day. typically the second he hears the automatic feeder go off, he sprints to it and eats almost all if not all of the food immediately. the last few days, i noticed he was leaving more food behind and grazing on it throughout the day, which i initially thought was maybe a good thing, but now i’m getting paranoid somethings wrong.

his poops the last few days have been solid, but look a bit more “wet” than usual, and extra stinky. before i left for work this morning he ate his wet food like normal, but throughout the day he only had a few bites of his dry food. by the time his second dry food feeding came out, the bowl was basically still full from the first one because he’d barely touched it. that worried me a bit.

when i got home from work, i checked that he had pooped and he had (he also went this morning before i left), and again it was firm and solid. i fed him his normal wet food dinner and he ate it like normal. but i felt off because when i got home, i couldn’t find him, and after a minute or so he came crawling out of one of his boxes he likes to play in. he typically greets me with loud meows and runs straight to his scratcher and excitedly scratches it. but today he just calmly crawled out of the box, and then eventually he did go to his scratcher, but idk he seems less energetic. i took out his wand toy to play with him to see if he played like normal, and he still chased it and was playing with it, but typically he’s literally climbing the walls jumping 10ft in the air when we play with this thing, so even that felt off. i just took him for a check-up like two weeks ago and the vet said everything was normal. i did also change his dry food about two weeks ago and he seemed to be tolerating it just fine, so i don’t think it’s that.

idk, i think i’m partially traumatized from him being sick when i first got him, but i’m also wondering if these very subtle changes warrant a vet visit? or should i just keep an eye out for if things get worse (vomiting, diarrhea, not eating altogether, etc.)? i’m nervous because i know they say cats are good at hiding when they’re not feeling well and that kittens’ health can decline quickly.

thanks in advance and sorry for the long post 🥲

i got home from university this week, and my little boy has lost more weight. he’s always been skinny and he isn’t alarmingly skinny- no sign of ribs- but i can just feel that he’s much lighter when i lift him up.

i have not seen him eat any portion of cat food (the cat food he’s been eating for a year now) in the 4 days ive been here. apparently he has eaten half a packet today but vomited that, had some milk but vomited that too. he also tends to ignore cat food recently and waits for us to feed him human food, so we don’t give him human food anymore.

he cries a lot waiting for food, then we give him cat food and he doesn’t eat it.

i don’t have the money as a university student for the vet, as well as not having the time since im working before returning on the weekend, and my mum is too busy with the rest of the family to pay attention to this issue.

is there anything at all i can do with limited funds, like anything i can buy? or something else i can do to help him and avoid this becoming a life threatening condition or would it soon pass that point?

My 3-year-old male Rhodesian Ridgeback was diagnosed with an E. coli UTI in early September. He was initially prescribed Clavamox, but the culture showed it wasn’t effective, so he was switched to enrofloxacin. His symptoms improved after treatment, but about a month later, the infection was detected again.
His vet believes the first course of enrofloxacin wasn’t long enough and has recommended a full two-week course.
What’s also concerning is that his urine has been unusually diluted, and the concentration keeps fluctuating. Sometimes it’s closer to normal, while other times it’s extremely diluted.
Has anyone experienced something similar? What antibiotics or treatments
worked for your dog? Did their urine concentration eventually return to normal, or was another underlying issue discovered?

Hi all - I'm a MSW student who wants to be a therapist for veterinarians and other animal care professionals (zookeepers, aquarists, rehabbers, etc).

Would you consider seeking out a therapist who specializes in working with people in your profession? Has it been something you've already looked for?

It will be around a 5 year process before it can come to fruition, but I'm really excited about the idea. (to be able to practice independently you need two years of school, three years with supervision, and then you have to pass a licensing exam to become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker)

hello vets,

my babygirl jersey, she’s almost 2, she’s spayed, and utd on shots.

when we first got her everything was normal, and then right before she turned 1, she experienced a level 2-3 luxating patella on her back left leg which she had an operation to correct. today while i was at work and my boyfriend was throwing the frisbee for her she had a bit of an “episode”? with her good leg. she was running and then let out a yelp as picked up and held her good leg up for a few steps before putting it back down and returning to her play as normal. her regular vet closed at noon today and of course this happened at 1:30😕. she has been totally fine since, but this is sort of how it started with her first one. it very quickly progressed to much more than the incident i just described though.

how likely is it that her other leg is experiencing this less than 8 months later? I genuinely feel horrible. she is very high energy and recovery was not easy for her, or me. i’m very scared she’s experiencing the same problem and i don’t know where to go from here. it’s probably that right? she’s already so scared of the vet from her experience there. when the vet tested her bad leg, she just pressed on it and it popped right out and she diagnosed her. should i just go have her try that on her leg or is that a bad idea if that isn’t what’s happening? like i said she it totally fine now but i know i have to take her in due to her surgical history… but not sure what tests to ask for etc… are there other common problems i need to look for? do i see if it happens again before taking her in?? just need some insight i guess

before anyone jumps down my throat yes we took him to the emergency vet and our primary vet.
Almost 4 days ago our 8 week old puppy was run over by my BIL. We rushed him to the emergency vet, he has a broken pelvis, and possible spinal cord injury! He is on strict cage rest for the next 4-8 weeks. I’m more so looking for hope. The vet did a nerve response test and came back with no nerve response on his left side. He is severely swollen on that side which is also the side of the break. And currently no use of his back legs. I’m really struggling with the fact he was running around playing and now he can’t and possible will never be “normal” again. Is there anyone with stories of hope? Will we walk again? I’m looking for a little comfort, he is just a baby and doesn’t deserve any of this. He is the sweetest boy and we love him dearly. I constantly wonder if he knows why all of a sudden he can’t move like he used too it just breaks me.

I woke up this morning to an alarming amount of notifications on our cat camera (it faces the the litter boxes) and when i checked it, i noticed my 9 year old tabby cat was in and out of it all morning. I quickly made a vet appointment. Throughout the day he makes many trips the box and is producing urine but not a lot, also when he goes there is blood present. Once we get to the vet they immediately check and see if he is blocked and thankfully he wasn’t, they said he had an empty bladder. They were unable to check his bladder for crystals with the ultra sound because he is a larger cat and they said it was hard to see. Anyways, i was sent home with pain meds, antibiotics and a urine sample kit to collect from my cat, i got the sample and then brought it back to them. They said 2-3 days for the results

I’m just confused because my cat seems very uncomfy :( since taking the medicine he has made less trips to the litter box but he still producing very little and there is still blood, and he is his licking alot. I’m worried a blockage is forming, and my vet was very nice but I’m worried there’s a more serious under lying issue. Has anyone else had something similar? Should I take him back to the vet? And what more serious symptoms do i look for?

Other than his weight (17lbs) he’s always been a healthy cat, I’ve never had to take him to the vet for anything other than some vaccines

My 15 1/2 year old 9.5lb tuxedo (domestic shorthair i think) has been having weekly episodes where he tries to poop in the litter box, nothing comes out, and he kind of just wanders, hunched over, around my apartment for about 2 hours leaving little diarrhea droplets everywhere before inevitably pooping out a solid turd and sleeping it off. He’s very visibly uncomfortable and lethargic when this happens, it’s usually followed with throwing up multiple times and also peeing on the floor on occasion.

I’ve been to a vet about this and his bloodwork came back clean but they did not do an X-ray on his stomach, which they suggested I do if the Proviable Forte they prescribed did not work (it did not). They ruled out a blockage but suggested the X-ray to see what exactly is going on in there. The doctor theorized that something is giving him the sensation that he has to go when there isn’t much to actually poop out in the bowel. I have an appointment scheduled for the end of November to get the x-ray done but I was hoping to seek a second opinion from cat owners that may be going through the same thing, hoping that I may be able to solve this before the appointment.

He is currently on the Iams Healthy Senior dry food with main ingredient as chicken with a full tablet of the Proviable Forte mixed into about 3/4 cup of food. He only eats about a 1/2 cup of it per day. He was previously on Purina Naturals with chicken and salmon and free fed but I recently switched him to Iams, so I have reason to believe that he isn’t responding well to it. Could this be as simple as a diet change? If so, what would you recommend for a kitty with chronic IBS?

My 14 year old papillon was given Thermaderm for it. She said to put a cone on her for an hour or two after applying it to prevent her from licking it off. Would I be able to use a newborn diaper or tensor bandage to prevent her from licking it and rubbing on the ground/couch? My vet is closed now so I’m unable to ask. She got the area shaved and seems to be more uncomfortable, I don’t want her to irritate it more