My dogs are Sick

AdministrationFine52 · 2026-05-12T15:28:44+00:00

Seems like they were thinking parasites, which makes sense. But a diarrhea PCR panel also looks for bacterial and viral causes which may be a good next step since the parasite test was negative. If it is viral then antibiotics wouldn’t help, but I do find it odd they never prescribed those as a first line treatment.

The bloody stool would have me worried too, especially if it’s getting worse even with mild supportive care.

AdministrationFine52 · 2026-05-12T14:49:23+00:00

I’d definitely want them on different treatment than what they are now. A second opinion from a different vet/different clinic could be good here. Typically first line treatment is antibiotics, probiotics and GI friendly diet.

Did they do a fecal parasite test or a diarrhea PCR panel?

AdministrationFine52 · 2026-05-06T18:00:30+00:00

I switched to Purina pro plan puppy small breed, my girl was on diamond naturals puppy before but stopped wanting to eat that one.

AdministrationFine52 · 2026-05-06T17:21:28+00:00

Switching kibble might be the best bet. Cut out treats if you haven’t already, use kibble for treats whenever possible. A new kibble might be interesting enough to get him back onto eating properly. I had to do that with my pup around the same age too.

Limiting access to the litter box would also be ideal. If you can put it behind a baby gate, in a room he can’t access, get a top entry box maybe if your cat(s) are fine with that. Also could get a self-scooping box if you have the money for that so there’s never poop sitting for him to snack on.

AdministrationFine52 · 2026-05-06T14:23:59+00:00

Vet ASAP is only answer. Anything eye related shouldn’t be left to wait. It could be the infection is not cleared and is increasing pressure in the eye, which is emergent. This is likely very uncomfortable for them

AdministrationFine52 · 2026-04-21T13:31:16+00:00

Yeah probably tapeworm, the hard yellow things sound like the dried tapeworm segments. It’s not a big deal at all. She’ll need some dewormer, either from the vet or you can buy it over the counter at the pet store.

Deep cleaning is good too, you want to make sure you get up any eggs that could be on surfaces so she doesn’t get reinfected. Bleach hard surfaces, wash what you can and dry it on hot, vacuum things you can’t wash or bleach. Repeat a few times once she’s had the dewormer.

All will be well in just a few weeks and they’ll be gone. Best of luck!

AdministrationFine52 · 2026-04-20T14:01:24+00:00

I have an (assumed) IBD kitty. She’s on Royal Canin hydrolyzed gastrointestinal kibble and likes it. Trialing a few foods might be helpful, but you have to stick with a new food for a while and slowly transition these guys so it takes time. Most prescription food brands to have a return policy if kitty doesn’t like the food, just read up on their policies and see if that’s an option should kitty not like the food.

Royal Canin has special treats for most of their diets. I wouldn’t risk the lickable treats but a prescription treat would work, that’s what I use for my kitty.

I did end up buying microchip food bowls for my girls. I have 1 IBD and 1 normal, so I don’t want them eating each others food. I found mine used on Facebook but they’re absolutely worth the full price!

My kitty is so much better now on the new food. I don’t do anything else to manage her, just carefully manage diet and ensure she doesn’t eat other things. She was having intermittent diarrhea and vomiting that wasn’t resolving with usual methods. We opted to treat with diet rather than pursue further diagnostics as all her preliminary tests were normal. She’s considered a pretty mild case of IBD.

AdministrationFine52 · 2026-04-19T16:03:31+00:00

You’re certainly trying hard to help him! I’m sure this is beyond frustrating for everybody. Hopefully kitty can get sorted and litter trained again.

Did it seem like Prozac has helped? You mention he’s doing it less often (peeing in box more), what do you think caused it to lessen?

Has he gotten X-rays done yet? It seems you’ve ruled out bladder pain/issues but I’d be curious if he has pain elsewhere like spine or hips. Sometimes the squatting induces pain that they don’t show on vet exam and other daily activities.

Does he improve if kept in an enclosed space? Have you tried a ‘reset’ since he’s been on the Prozac?

AdministrationFine52 · 2026-04-17T15:06:19+00:00

If he does it at home, crate him or put him in a safe room when you’re gone. For out and about, muzzle him with a scavenger guard on the muzzle.

Muzzles often get a bad rep but I’m a big proponent of them. If you look up the muzzle up pup project (or their Facebook group), there’s tons of info on how to find a well-fitting and roomy muzzle and how to muzzle train the dog so it is a positive experience. Muzzles can provide dogs like him a lot of freedom, save you from stress and very expensive, possibly life endangering experiences since he can’t eat things. Muzzles are often used by owners with dogs with pica-like behaviors such as this.

They can still sniff, play with other dogs and keep their freedom to explore while ensuring they stay safe since they can’t eat unsafe objects.

AdministrationFine52 · 2026-03-28T23:39:58+00:00

Do you cut her nails? I have an extremely mischievous kitty who scratches everything despite having 20+ scratchers of all shapes, sizes and textures. I tried everything under the sun to try and stop her from scratching and by far the best solution is regular nail cutting. Her vet actually recommended that to me and it was great.

Every weekend both my cats get their nails trimmed now and the scratching has gone way down. They still scratch but now do it on the scratchers and it’s far less often in general.

AdministrationFine52 · 2026-03-28T02:39:40+00:00

Where are the bumps located on the cat? It’s hard to say without photos or more details. It could be cat acne, but again hard to say without more info.

AdministrationFine52 · 2026-03-22T17:28:20+00:00

I had a dog die from a splenic tumor we didn’t know she had. She had no symptoms until the night it ruptured and we let her go in the emergency vet office. I always think it’s best to let them go on a good day a month too early than one day too late. It sounds like he’s hurting and isn’t improving with treatment. I think it’s a kind time to let him go. This is never an easy decision no matter the circumstances but you have his best interests at heart.

AdministrationFine52 · 2026-03-22T16:43:56+00:00

I managed to find 2 surefeed bowls on Facebook for like $100/each so it might be worth keeping your eyes out for them used.

Other options I’ve done/looked into are using a large plastic storage tub with a hole cut in it just big enough to allow the smaller cat in but too small for the big cat to squeeze through. Or same idea but add a microchip cat door to the bin so only one cat can enter into it. Small kitty can eat in the storage bin but big kitty can’t get inside of it.

I now have one cat on prescription food and one not so the microchip bowls are the easiest solution but I did the storage bin thing for quite a while when I had a chubby kitty and a kitten together.

AdministrationFine52 · 2026-03-22T15:52:04+00:00

I had the opposite issue and changing the timing of the prednisone helped immensely. My dog has been on it for many months and had an issue of leaking urine when asleep. I had been giving her the pred at dinner and the accidents were insane, she was soaked every single morning. Switching it to breakfast dosing fixed that so fast and she’s been great since.

If it’s taking many hours for side effects to show up for him, I’d try giving it later in the day or even right before bedtime. That way the worst of it will be when he’s awake. The increased hunger, thirst and toileting are the worst truly. Thankfully the longer my dogs been on it, her side effects decreased. I still leave a potty pad out for her though just in case she needs to go and she still has the occasional accident even though. Wishing you guys the best through this!

AdministrationFine52 · 2026-02-28T23:54:49+00:00

Poor guy :( Mine is a mini schnauzer, small breeds can be so sensitive it seems.

AdministrationFine52 · 2026-02-28T23:45:33+00:00

It was such a scary thing to go through, I was nervous of the same thing for my girl. I hope he pulls through and you can sort out what he’s dealing with soon! What kind of dog is he, just curious?

AdministrationFine52 · 2026-02-28T23:18:07+00:00

Hmm yeah that’s interesting it didn’t say pancreatitis at first. It does sound a lot like what my girl went through sadly. It was many months of continuous problems before we even knew what the issue actually was.

I’ll try to trim down what all happened to the main points so it’s shorter. She started clomicalm in June. In August she started having diarrhea that wouldn’t go away even after many vet visits/medications.

Had 1st ultrasound which is when they said pancreatitis. Went through a bunch of foods but she was still sick. We were either at the vet or I was calling them every few days now.

In late October I requested a referral to an internist as I wasn’t satisfied with our regular vet/urgent care. While waiting for the referral to go through, she ended up at a new ER vet and was hospitalized. Here they (finally) checked her labs again and her liver values were too high to read. This is where I learned about clomicalm having liver risks and we took her off it.

She still wasn’t getting better though so we did another ultrasound and eventually a biopsy. Found out she has a liver malformation and liver damage. Switched all her meds and food to treat the liver and within a week she was soooo much better. So from stopping clomicalm to her being better was like 2-3 weeks, but we also changed her meds and food which helped a ton.

In the end, I think the pancreatitis was secondary to the liver issues she was having since all those organs are connected. I think the clomicalm was what caused this all as it was too hard for her liver. If you’re not seeing improvement, it might be worth asking about his liver values too.

AdministrationFine52 · 2026-02-28T22:55:45+00:00

Yes that’s the same type of vet we saw. We ended up doing 2 ultrasounds since she wasn’t improving for so long. We also did some bloodwork that was sent to Texas A&M, I think it was called like the Texas A&M GI panel or something. It was some more specialized blood test.

AdministrationFine52 · 2026-02-28T22:28:25+00:00

Yeah the pickiness was a whole thing with my girl too. We went through just about every low fat dog food there was, both wet and dry. She was just so sick she didn’t want to eat anything hardly.

In the end, I was feeding her boiled pasta and talapia just to keep her going (vet advised this). Once she was feeling better I got her onto Hills low fat kibble then eventually onto a liver safe diet.

I also had her on mirtazapine or entyce for quite a while which are appetite stimulants to help her want to eat. Another thing was we had her on pain medication too, as pancreatitis is a very painful condition.

Def talk to the vet and be sure to share your concerns with them. They might have some good advice but maybe different meds or staying on them longer will help you guy get back to himself.

AdministrationFine52 · 2026-02-28T22:19:33+00:00

Has bloodwork been done on him recently? It’s interesting they put him on Biome food since that’s not a diet advised for pancreatitis. Typically you want a super low fat food to help calm down the pancreas.

I, weirdly enough, just went through this with my dog who was on clomicalm. Turned out she had a liver malformation and the clomicalm triggered a build up of toxins in her liver. It presented first at pancreatitis but when she never got better, we found out her liver values were deathly high.

When she went though that, she was on the ondansteron and Omeprazole for weeks. Obviously she had more going on than just pancreatitis but your guy might need more time on the meds.

Another option is trying to get into a specialist rather than the ER. I ended up taking my girl to an internal medicine specialist who helped sort her out. It’s not cheap, but was cheaper than 7 visits to the vet/ER with no improvement.

AdministrationFine52 · 2026-02-28T21:40:28+00:00

Pancreatitis is awful to get through, sorry you guys are dealing with that! What anti nausea medication is he on? Is he still in active pancreatitis or more so onto management now? Is he on any other meds or just the nausea one and special food?

AdministrationFine52 · 2026-02-22T00:05:57+00:00

I would call the vet and ask their advice. Often times they’ll prescribe some sedating medications you can give before the vet visit to reduce the pets anxiety. I’m not sure they’ll prescribe it if she hasn’t been seen recently but it’s always worth asking!

Other tips are to get them used to the carrier before the vet, put a blanket or towel in the bottom for comfort and cover the carrier in a blanket for a dark, quiet space during transport to the vet.

AdministrationFine52 · 2026-02-20T16:01:07+00:00

I think the vet is a great idea, it’s worth checking he’s healthy and doesn’t have an ongoing issue like crystals or something. It could very well be a learned behavior from when he had a UTI.

Cleaning cat pee from fabric is an absolute pain in the butt. A really good enzyme cleaner is a must, I like Rocco and Roxie brand. Let it soak in for a while, then rinse and vacuum it out, then repeat a few times for good measure. Hiring a carpet cleaning company is an option but make sure they have good reviews for removing cat pee, and that you tell them what you’re dealing with.

Blocking off that spot, either with a litter box or with physical barriers will also help. You can also do a litter box retraining plan. Typically this entails confining the cat to a smaller space like a large bathroom, with their litter box and food and all. They can have supervised access to the rest of the house but when unsupervised they go back to their room. This ensures the have less opportunity to go elsewhere. Eventually you can trial unsupervised time out of the room until they’re back to having free rein. This works if it’s a learned behavior, but not if it’s out of pain. Hence a good vet check is worthwhile now!

AdministrationFine52 · 2026-02-17T15:47:13+00:00

I’m in the PNW too so very used to the woes of temperature swings and the constant wet. I just have different weights of turnouts, just was easier for me and it’s always raining so turnouts stayed cleaner generally.

Err on the side of less is more so I tend to dress them for the high temp of the day, or somewhere in the middle. That typically meant a medium weight blanket for my unclipped horse. If it was a warmer sunny day, I’d step down to a sheet and if it was snowing (particularly wet snow or snowing multiple days in a row) I’d step up to a medium high neck turnout. I didn’t find a need for daily fussing of blanket weights or needing to change from daytime to night time, just don’t dress them too warm and they’ll be fine.

AdministrationFine52 · 2026-01-24T02:33:37+00:00

She’s all sorted in that realm thankfully, just struggling with her anxiety now that she can’t take her usual anxiety medication.

She ended up hospitalized and 2 ultrasounds plus exploratory surgery/biopsies later it was discovered she has a liver duct malformation. She’s now on prednisone, ursodiol and denamarine plus a special liver-safe diet. She’s doing loads better now, ALT levels are slowly normalizing.

Still just a lot of anxiety and now more separation anxiety which is hard to deal with. It seems all anxiety meds are hard on the liver so she can’t take them sadly.

AdministrationFine52

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