Got Any Pet Health Questions?

[Aiming]

My take on it is that dogs (and cats) fed species appropriate diet are pretty resistant to all sort of bugs not just worms. My official advice is to do tests rather then blindly deworm regularly. Here is very informative article

Complete Guide to Worms in Dogs: Signs, Causes, Prevention - Dogs First

Are worms in dogs something to worry about?

dogsfirst.ie

Thanks for your input and the article link, Deckard.

 

[SevenFeathers]

If your dog is shedding the roundworms she might have a heavy load and this won’t go away on its own. In cases like this I would resort to conventional dewormer.
I would also look into why an adult dog is riddled with worms - nutrition is always a starting point. What do you feed her?

She eats home-made food consisting of cooked chicken or turkey with vegetables. also canned sardines or salmon, also some raw chicken feet, egg yolks, some canned food (no chemical additives, made from chicken beef or lamb). She plays in dirt a lot and licks her feet, so she may pick up eggs there. She's also been known to eat a baby rabbit but I have not seen that in a long time.

 

[Cristal]

Hi! My 4 year old cat is barely eating. We took him to the vet, ran some tests, eco and x ray to see what the problem was. The eco and blood tests showed that he has fatty liver (not severe) and the pancreas is not perfect either, although they are still running some tests to discard pancreatitis(they couldn't find and pancreas problem in the blood yet, they are still running some tests because the eco did show that the pancreas didn't look very homogenous).
The vet explained that the liver problem might be because he stopped eating. When the quarantine started, midMarch, he used to be around 8 kg. He suffered a lot of stress from having our 2 year old 24/7 in the house.Although he is not the only house cat, he seems to be more sensitive. He didn't stop eating suddenly. It happened gradually, but the past 2 weeks we noticed that he barely touched his food. The only thing he likes is tuna, but we cannot feed him only that. He is now 6,7kg(he is a big size cat),but he barely moves and sometimes hides in the corners, especially when my child is around.
The vet gave us antibiotics and painkillers. I noticed that he feels better after i administer the latter. The xray didn't reveal anything wrong with his spine or lungs,which is good because he fell from a second floor and almost died when he was 4 months old. We needed to discard all reasons. When she touched him 1 week ago, it looked like he had some pain in lumbar area and gave us antiinflamatories, but they didn't help. Analgesics seem to be helping,though.
We swiched my cats to a grain-free food around 6 months ago and although he was not very happy with that, he was eating it. I would like to introduce him to raw food, but giving the fact that he doesn't eat almost anything these days, I don't know how to do it and what would suit him better. The vet said that his food has to be low in fats.
I would need some advice about how I can help my cat. Thank you

 

[PERLOU]

Cristal, j'ai 4 chatonnes : 3 de 8 ans et 1 de 6 ans.
Elles ne mangent que des croquettes sans céréales à volonté mais elles ont aussi chaque jour, le matin pour le petit déjeuner, 50 g de steack haché cru ou du filet colin Alaska cru (non pané et décongelé une nuit au réfrigérateur), du thon naturel en boite, du poulet rôti, du jambon et elles adorent les crevettes roses pas les grises (elles n'en veulent pas!...)...
Pour les douleurs au dos j'ai fait venir une véto ostéopathe qui les a traitées 30 minutes chacune et elle a prescrit du Rhumatyl Boiron pour Chiens et Chats à vie (c'est de l’homéopathie)... J'en donne également à mes 2 Yorks à vie également)...
Je vous mets le lien où je l'achète en France :

Rhumatyl 30 ml

Rhumatyl est un produit homéopathique traditionnellement utilisé dans le traitement des manifestations douloureuses de l’appareil locomoteur en complément du traitement spécifique s’il existe.

www.dogteur.com

Cristal, I have 4 kittens: 3 of 8 years old and 1 of 6 years old.
They eat only croquettes without cereals at will but they also have every day, in the morning for breakfast, 50 g of raw ground steak or raw Alaska hake fillet (not breaded and thawed overnight in the refrigerator), canned natural tuna, roast chicken, ham and they love pink shrimps not grey shrimps (they don't want any!...).....
For the back pain I had an osteopathic vet come and treat them for 30 minutes each and she prescribed Rhumatyl Boiron for Dogs and Cats for life (it's homeopathy)... I also give it to my 2 Yorks for life as well)...
I put you the link where I buy it in France :

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

 

[Cristal]

Cristal, j'ai 4 chatonnes : 3 de 8 ans et 1 de 6 ans.
Elles ne mangent que des croquettes sans céréales à volonté mais elles ont aussi chaque jour, le matin pour le petit déjeuner, 50 g de steack haché cru ou du filet colin Alaska cru (non pané et décongelé une nuit au réfrigérateur), du thon naturel en boite, du poulet rôti, du jambon et elles adorent les crevettes roses pas les grises (elles n'en veulent pas!...)...
Pour les douleurs au dos j'ai fait venir une véto ostéopathe qui les a traitées 30 minutes chacune et elle a prescrit du Rhumatyl Boiron pour Chiens et Chats à vie (c'est de l’homéopathie)... J'en donne également à mes 2 Yorks à vie également)...
Je vous mets le lien où je l'achète en France :

Rhumatyl 30 ml

Rhumatyl est un produit homéopathique traditionnellement utilisé dans le traitement des manifestations douloureuses de l’appareil locomoteur en complément du traitement spécifique s’il existe.

www.dogteur.com

Cristal, I have 4 kittens: 3 of 8 years old and 1 of 6 years old.
They eat only croquettes without cereals at will but they also have every day, in the morning for breakfast, 50 g of raw ground steak or raw Alaska hake fillet (not breaded and thawed overnight in the refrigerator), canned natural tuna, roast chicken, ham and they love pink shrimps not grey shrimps (they don't want any!...).....
For the back pain I had an osteopathic vet come and treat them for 30 minutes each and she prescribed Rhumatyl Boiron for Dogs and Cats for life (it's homeopathy)... I also give it to my 2 Yorks for life as well)...
I put you the link where I buy it in France :

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Thank you for the suggestions,@Perlou.My problem now is that he doesn't want to eat almost anything. He is asking for food, but he seems to eat only a little of canned tuna. I bought 3 types of fresh fish(tuna included), cooked it a little and he didn't eat it. (I previously gave him some raw pieces, but he just smelled them). He used to eat dry food without cereal, but he stopped more than one week ago.
The vet called me to tell me that he is not immunodeficient,which was a good news Also prescribed some milk thistle medicine for the liver. I hope that this works. He seems sad, maybe because he might be in pain.

 

[PERLOU]

Votre vétérinaire lui a-t-il fait une prise de sang ?...
Essayez les crevettes roses, j'ai rarement vu un chat les refuser...

Did your vet take her blood?...
Try the prawns, I've rarely seen a cat refuse them...

 

[Cristal]

Votre vétérinaire lui a-t-il fait une prise de sang ?...
Essayez les crevettes roses, j'ai rarement vu un chat les refuser...

Did your vet take her blood?...
Try the prawns, I've rarely seen a cat refuse them...

Yes to the blood tests. We are still waiting for some results, but the problem might be the fatty liver and maybe pancreatitis(not confirmed yet)
I will try the prawns, thank you for the suggestion.

 

[Agron]

He suffered a lot of stress from having our 2 year old 24/7 in the house.

Im sorry to hear your cat is refusing to eat. Thats the ultimate thing cats like so when they dont want to eat you know theres a big problem.
Altho I think that the problem is not that much in the food and what kind is it as long as it is good (and if you didnt know tuna fish has a lot of mercury in it so its not advisable to feed them tuna too often, maybe once or twice a week). And this is my experience with my cat so Im not saying Im sure whats going on with your guy but maybe you can work out what is it. I think problems like that have to do with stress first. So if you see that something is stressing him out than than its very important that you try and remove the source of it completely. If the stress continues it adds up and its a huge problem for cats. When cats are indoors all the time they cant go hide as they would want and they are not in contact with the Earth which is very important for them. Its important for animals more than for us, and its very important for us to be in contact with nature so you can imagine what animals are going through when they are in artificial surrounding. And if theyre under a lot of stress they will surely have health issues. My cat was very stressed out from living in the street when I adopted her and since I was new to cats I made a mistake here and there and stressed her out further. In some cases she refused to eat for a day and started only when I changed my behaviour. And me and her are together for 7 years now. Out of those 7 years I had 6 years of constant "fight" with her not wanting to eat this or that kind of food and I thought she is VERY picky. I was starting to think she is trying to make me angry on purpose lolz. So I was very surprised to see her starting to eat almost anything I put in her dish. You want to know when this changed? When I too changed and became a more relaxed and confident person.

I also noticed that she was sick on few occasions when my ex or me were also sick or stressed and feeling insecure or scared for some reason. Or when I had to go work in another city for a week... Contrary to popular belief I think cats also have strong connections to their humans, altho not as strong as dogs. So I think our pets are sometimes sick just because we are not grounded and are doing crazy things. And in these corona times we are all feeling very unusual, to say the least, so our pets will pick up on it and react in some way.

Hope this will be of help to you.

edit: I have outdoor cats too and they are under a lot of stress and they constantly have to fight with other intruding cats and whatnot ... And the best thing I found for their problems (I hate vets) is CBD oil. Few drops on their wet food every now and again does wonders for them. I can recommend it for cats bigtime!

 

[Oxajil]

Hi Cristal,

Sorry to hear about your kitty's problems. In addition to the suggestions above:

The vet explained that the liver problem might be because he stopped eating. When the quarantine started, midMarch, he used to be around 8 kg. He suffered a lot of stress from having our 2 year old 24/7 in the house.Although he is not the only house cat, he seems to be more sensitive.

I also think that stress could play a role here. Are there some high ground spots where he can go and feel safe and secure?

He didn't stop eating suddenly. It happened gradually, but the past 2 weeks we noticed that he barely touched his food. The only thing he likes is tuna, but we cannot feed him only that. He is now 6,7kg(he is a big size cat),but he barely moves and sometimes hides in the corners, especially when my child is around.

I read here the following:

Hepatic Lipidosis (Fatty Liver Disease): This is the most common metabolic liver disease of cats. Cats that go longer than ~3 days without eating, for any reason, are in danger of developing this serious, and often fatal, disease. Even though thin cats can end up with hepatic lipidosis, overweight cats are much more prone to experiencing this disease.

Feeding a high-protein, low-carbohydrate canned diet helps keep cats at an optimal, healthy body weight and, in turn, makes them less likely to end up with fatty liver disease.

And:

When considering allergies, the ingredient list is useful since we don’t care how much of the offending ingredient is in the food. The bottom line is that we don’t want any of the ingredient to be present. Fish/seafood, beef, lamb, corn, wheat, and soy tend to be the most hyperallergenic ingredients for the cat – especially fish/seafood.

And:

You will notice that many of the higher protein diets are fish-based but it is not a good idea to feed fish to cats. Or, at least not as their main diet. Fish can be high in mercury, high in PBDEs (fire retardant chemicals linked to hyperthyroidism), high in phosphorus (not good for older cats’ kidneys) and can be very addicting. It is best to feed poultry-based diets to cats.

So, if he doesn't touch any other food, perhaps you can try offering him some cooked chicken (just the meat, not the bones!) adding some of the water the chicken was cooked/boiled in. See if that works? The website also includes some tips for gradually introducing raw meat. An example:

• The following worked for my cats: Sprinkle a very small amount of tuna – or any other favorite treat (some cats do not like fish and would prefer cooked chicken) – on top of the canned food and then once they are eating this, start pressing it into the top of the new food. (The “light” tuna is better than the fancy white tuna because it has a stronger smell. Or, Trader Joe’s makes a Cat Tuna that is very stinky.) Be careful to decrease the amount of fish as soon as possible. Health problems can occur with a predominantly fish-based diet. Plus, you do not want to create a situation where your cat will only eat very fishy foods.
• Make sure that any refrigerated canned food is warmed up a bit. Cats prefer their food at ‘mouse body temperature’.
• Try offering some cooked (or raw – whole meats, rinsed well or partially baked) chicken or meat baby food. One of the goals is to get your cat used to eating food that does not crunch. He needs to get used to a different texture. Also, chicken is a great source of protein to point him in the proper direction toward a high protein, low carbohydrate diet. If he eats the chicken, he may head right into eating canned food. Then again….he may not.

I hope he feels better soon!

 

[PERLOU]

Pour le stress causé par votre jeune enfant, installez lui des places en hauteur ou un arbre à chat où il pourra s'isoler de l'enfant, vous pouvez aussi lui mettre un chemin d'étagère toujours en hauteur pour que le chat puisse se déplacer sans aller sur le sol...

For the stress caused by your young child, install high places or a cat tree where he can isolate himself from the child, you can also put a shelf path always in height so that the cat can move without going on the floor .

photo étagere en hauteur pour chat - Google Suche

www.google.com

arbre à chat géant - Google Suche

www.google.com

 

[Cristal]

Thank you for your replies, @Agron, @Oxajil and @PERLOU .I will try to remove fish from their diet. It is true that for a while I gave them a white fish grainfree dry food. Maybe that triggered some problems in my cat. I will also contact my vet to see whether they can use the blood sample for allergy test.
About stress... I think that besides my very stressful son(he is actually running more after the other cat), there is something that they sense and see. They (my cats) have been meaow-ing more than ever the past months. We use Felliway, that normaly helps them feel better, but it seems to work only for the other cat.
@PERLOU, we already have a very big cat tree and there are high places where they can go, or closets to hide. They seem to prefer to be close to us. They seem to need us more than ever. Each night we leave the door open, in case they want to enter the room and most of the times they do spend a lot of time in the bedroom.
The vet gave some pill with milk thistle and selenium for the liver detox. I hope that it will make him feel better.

 

[Keit]

The eco and blood tests showed that he has fatty liver (not severe) and the pancreas is not perfect either, although they are still running some tests to discard pancreatitis(they couldn't find and pancreas problem in the blood yet, they are still running some tests because the eco did show that the pancreas didn't look very homogenous).

He seems sad, maybe because he might be in pain.

Very sorry to hear about your cat.

It's true that kitties often won't eat if the pancreas is inflamed or if there are problems with the liver. Pancreatitis is also very painful. Don't know what kind of painkillers the cat was given, but ask your vet about spasmolytics (antispasmodics), like Drotaverine. Many painkillers are NSAIDs, and although they can be helpful, they can also cause damage. But your vet may not be using antispasmodics like this in his practice. Don't know.

Personal observation is that many cats won't eat if the are in pain, and often antispasmodics help.

Also, better not to give tuna or any fish, but try giving cooked chicken. The muscle, not the skin.

Also look if you can buy pure rose hip syrup. Don't worry about the sugar content. It is high in vit c and other beneficial elements, and will assist with excreting bile and maintaining liver health.

 

[Thebull]

Just a question regarding my dog whose arthritis is bad she's had it since 2 years of age. Milly is 12 now.
I've started her on CBD oil but stopped giving her the vets med I think it is rheumicam. Does anyone know if I should give her both together?
She is struggling now with the condition. I can speak to the vet though if I need to.

 

[Voyageur]

I've started her on CBD oil but stopped giving her the vets med I think it is rheumicam. Does anyone know if I should give her both together?

Is this med oral or injections? I know our old girl gets an injection every few weeks and it may be Rheumocam, would have to check. Here is something on it or there may be something better. We also have her on CBD (as prescribed), so both should work. Laser therapy, too, so you would need to review with your veterinarian or a specialists, yet it is becoming a treatment more and more (here is a thread on it if not seen).

Good luck with Milly!

 

[Thebull]

Is this med oral or injections? I know our old girl gets an injection every few weeks and it may be Rheumocam, would have to check. Here is something on it or there may be something better. We also have her on CBD (as prescribed), so both should work. Laser therapy, too, so you would need to review with your veterinarian or a specialists, yet it is becoming a treatment more and more (here is a thread on it if not seen).

Good luck with Milly!

The rhumacam is an oral medication. I'll check out the links.