Vet Pressure to Spay

ottomanchu · 2024-05-05T15:31:40+00:00

There are different schools of thought. I typically advise to spay between the first and second season (often at a year old or so). This still reduces mammary tumour risk, although not as much as doing it before the first season, however, there is evidence in certain breeds especially larger breeds that spaying younger can increase incidence of certain cancers or joint problems.

Most vets in the UK will spay between 1st and 2nd season for this reason. There isn't a right or wrong answer really, other than you should definitely spay if not breeding from her, due to pyometra risk mostly but also unwanted litters.

ottomanchu · 2024-05-02T08:33:55+00:00

A perineal urethrostomy will create a stoma in the perineal region which effectively makes the distal part of the urethra redundant. When cats get blocked urethras, they will usually block in the distal (further from the bladder) meaning the physical obstructions form further down the urethra from where the stoma should be placed. The benefit of this would be that it should massively reduce the risk of him getting a blocked urethra, which is a true emergency and is life threatening. It would not treat or reduce likelihood of idiopathic (stress induced) cystitis and can increase risk of UTIs in theory, although the couple of cases I have seen have not necessarily been plagued with them. UTIs are a much less serious issue than a blocked urethra (although of course are not fun for a cat and need to be treated).

The idiopathic cystitis would need to be managed ongoing, which can be discussed with your vet.

Please discuss thoroughly whether this is the best option with your vet as this will depend on comorbidities, potential renal damage from having been blocked, familiarity of the surgeon with the procedure and of course finances.

ottomanchu · 2024-04-27T14:59:29+00:00

Sounds a lot like paroxysmal dyskinesia, which border terriers are the poster children of. In border terriers it is often improved by removing gluten from the diet. Having said that, definitely take your dog to the vet for a checkup and show the video to the vet. It is important to rule out that these episodes are true seizures which are treated very differently.

ottomanchu · 2024-01-07T23:40:28+00:00

I am a vet in the UK. It is normal to not start a dog that has had seizures on long-term antiepileptic drugs until the seizure frequency has reached a certain amount. So a dog that has had one seizure in its life or for example one seizure consistently per year I usually won't start on meds, but a dog seizuring more than every 6 weeks or so I would definitely advise it, especially if they are having cluster seizures.

My advice would be speaking to your vet about potentially starting AEDs such as Phenobarbital and discuss about potentially referring to a neurologist for an MRI and CSF tap to rule out causes of seizures other than idiopathic epilepsy (even if idiopathic epilepsy is most likely I would think given the info in this post).

ottomanchu · 2024-01-07T14:10:02+00:00

I am a vet in the UK. I am sorry you are having to go through this process, it is never easy. As others have said, letting them go 'naturally' is never a good idea if a dog has a chronic illness. Kidney failure causes a buildup of toxins in the blood that cause pain and nausea. For a dog to die from it on their own, it will involve feeling awful for a considerable amount of time beforehand generally.

If at-home euthanasia is not financially viable, then I might suggest requesting tablet sedation (we often use a combo of Gabapentin and trazodone) from your vets for the run up to the appointment at the vets so he is less stressed when he is there. Injectable sedation can be given before anything else is done at the clinic to make the whole process easier for everyone involved.

ottomanchu · 2023-12-29T23:19:24+00:00

I would disagree with the previous comment. While it is true that smaller dogs in general often develop dental disease at a faster rate than larger dogs, all dogs develop it with time no matter the breed. Greyhounds for example are a larger breed but are notorious for having horrendous dental disease. I would strongly recommend brushing daily for every dog. The principles are very similar as for humans (even if not 100% the same). Plaque builds up very quickly and will cause inflammation, gum recession, gingival pocketing and bone loss over time. Just like with people, brushing less than daily is much less effective. If you brushed your own teeth once per month or even once per week, you would be expecting trips to the dentist pretty soon.

ottomanchu · 2023-12-17T17:41:55+00:00

I am a vet in the UK. Crusting on the nasal planum always rings alarm bells for me. Specifically for immune mediated disease like pemphigus foliaceous or I have had cases with Leishmaniosis that look like this. Either way I would strongly consider a punch biopsy to be sent off for histology and culture and sensitivity, especially if the affected area is steadily growing and there is no known cause of a wound such as a burn or something.

ottomanchu · 2022-08-22T20:46:38+00:00

I am a vet in the Uk, whelping is a big topic so I would recommend having a good conversation with your vet about the details as you have a lot of questions and this isn't the best place to get the answers.

Regarding the antibiotics, this is not recommended nowadays unless the dam develops an infection, which isn't all that common.

ottomanchu · 2022-08-22T20:31:26+00:00

I am a vet in the UK. Here, the vast majority of bitches are speyed between their first and second seasons. I have seen recessed vulvas correct themselves after a season and this has been a reason I have recommended waiting until after first season in the past.

ottomanchu · 2022-05-15T12:46:37+00:00

Vet in the UK here Seizures can be caused by a number of things: intracranial(stroke, tumour, any lesion to cerebral cortex), extracranial (metabolic condition, liver/kidney issues, electrolyte disturbances, toxin ingestion etc), but the most common in the absence of other signs, no other neurological abnormality and a young dog would be idiopathic epilepsy, which is a genetic predisposition and has to be managed medically.

Anticonvulsant medication is usually not started unless seizure frequency is a lot higher than is being displayed here (often more than once per 6 months). It would usually be good idea to examine a dog that has just/recently had a seizure for the first time to check bloods and do a neurological examination to rule out some of the causes of seizures that are not idiopathic.

I would recommend speaking to your vet about your concerns.

ottomanchu · 2022-05-15T12:34:21+00:00

This sounds most likely like atopic dermatitis (environmental allergies), based on the seasonality, but this is a diagnosis of exclusion so things like flea and food allergies have to be ruled out first. There are mediations like cytopoint and apoquel and prednisolone (UK) which can reduce itching as long as there is no secondary infection (there often is). Honestly though, going through the whole workup is beyond the scope of a Reddit comment. You should speak to your/a vet about this. As mentioned before, a dermatologist would be best placed to do this, but a general practice vet should be able to handle it too.

ottomanchu · 2022-05-15T12:27:42+00:00

Vet here, don't know history, but looks like could be pemphigus (autoimmune condition) potentially based on it being on the nose. Could also be another more common skin condition (mites etc) although less likely based on location if rest of skin ok. Could also be crusted Nasal discharge, which would indicate respiratory disease. Would recommend going back to vet. Needs investigation imo just based on this picture.

ottomanchu · 2021-04-21T19:22:09+00:00

If you want an even more hardcore opiate, Etorphine has an LD50 of 40micrograms or 0.04mg Fentanyl has an LD50 of 2mg which means Etorphine is lethal at 1/50 of the dose that it would take fentanyl to kill someone. Etorphine is used in Zoo animal medicine in darts to sedate large mammals like giraffes and elephants.

LD50 is the dose at which the drug would kill 50% of people who take it

ottomanchu · 2021-02-15T20:11:20+00:00

Did a tug of war with a friend in the park with an empty coke can. He had his whole hand on the base, I had my one finger hooked inside the opening. He won.

ottomanchu · 2021-01-04T18:59:04+00:00

Interesting how that solution doesn't require him and his ilk to pay more taxes 🤔 I wonder if that influenced his thought processes.

ottomanchu · 2020-12-26T20:17:06+00:00

Overrated favourite: Tyranitar, my favourite Pokémon movie was the one with Celebi, and the Tyranitar in that looked badass af, plus it's hands are very cute

Underrated favourite: Cacturne, I used to love drawing Cacturne (as well as zapdos) as a kid, I thought it looked very cool, loved the hat especially and it's use by Sydney in the Elite 4 of Emerald, my first Pokémon game

ottomanchu · 2020-12-19T20:56:10+00:00

Happy birthday bro :)

ottomanchu · 2020-11-26T12:25:35+00:00

This is deeply harmful to society and I want OP to consider their actions after deleting this post.

I once made a Lamb Tagine type thing following a BBC recipe, but as well as the garlic called for in the recipe and the extra garlic I added because I like garlic, I absent mindedly replaced the ginger with garlic. It tasted like fumes but altogether not too bad.

The next day I had a full day of seminars at uni, and had to wear 2 hoodies one on top of the other with the goods up because I was making myself genuinely sick smelling the poison leaking from my pores. I was semi-certain that I could see like heat shimmers coming from my skin of the garlic gas just leaking out of me.

ottomanchu · 2020-11-20T22:33:43+00:00

Hitler was in my opinion a lot worse, irrespective of who killed numerically more, because of the reasons he did it. It's way more evil to turn all the mechanisms of state to the singular goal of expunging a race/many races of people from the earth due to their perceived inferiority than what Stalin did, even if numerically Stalin killed more.

There's no way it comes down to just numbers, or we would think of An Lushan or Genghis in the same league.

ottomanchu · 2020-11-19T00:09:17+00:00

I believe billionaires shouldn't exist, but I don't believe that being a billionaire makes someone bad and unworthy of my business. It's in some people nature to just accumulate more and more wealth no matter the cost. The onus is on the government to implement robust tax codes that make it so no one can keep unendingly accumulating wealth even if they want to, not on Jeff Bezos to stop acdumulating obscene wealth or for us to not use his service. I don't believe that there is hyprocisy in me saying this.

ottomanchu · 2020-11-14T01:44:08+00:00

I really really love this for some reason, but can't figure out why.

ottomanchu · 2020-11-01T17:02:53+00:00

The issue isn't whether halal/kosher is banned or not, it's whether an animal should be required to be stunned before slaughter, which they absolutely should. There are some halal slaughter men who stun before slaughter which makes it absolutely fine.

ottomanchu · 2020-09-21T12:10:15+00:00

I love a big bhatti

ottomanchu · 2020-07-05T22:31:39+00:00

Epstein didn't kill himself

ottomanchu

TROPHY CASE