Pets chit chat thread

[Shahaku]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

I'm glad your kitty is settling in Danie!

[Bjorn]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

Meet Zeppelin, my roommate's Puggle (pug+beagle...which helps with how dumb most pugs are). I never in a million years would have thought that this goofball would be my favorite animal EVER, but he is. I mean, just look at him! HE'S GOT EYEBROWS. And a snaggletooth that his lip gets stuck on. And a need for snuggles and love. And he's always warm and happy to see me! And he let's me swaddle him like a BABEH.

[DanieMarie]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

OMG too cute!

[Lilium of the Valley]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

Meet Zeppelin, my roommate's Puggle (pug+beagle...which helps with how dumb most pugs are). I never in a million years would have thought that this goofball would be my favorite animal EVER, but he is. I mean, just look at him! HE'S GOT EYEBROWS. And a snaggletooth that his lip gets stuck on. And a need for snuggles and love. And he's always warm and happy to see me! And he let's me swaddle him like a BABEH.

Naaaaaawwwwwwww!! Omg that's so cuuute!

[Shahaku]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

Meet Zeppelin, my roommate's Puggle (pug+beagle...which helps with how dumb most pugs are).

Too cute! Don't know how I missed this.


So my Boston is having some sort of issue with his leg. Back right leg. He'll be playing just fine and then he'll start yelping and refuse to use it for a few minutes. Then he goes back to normal. He's only three years old, I hate to think he could already be developing a hip issue, but I'm not sure what else it could be. He doesn't have any issue with me moving his leg around afterward (at least he doesn't yelp), he just doesn't want to put pressure on it. It's happened twice in two days that I know of. Really want to take him to the vet, but we really don't have the money right now. We're coming down to crunch time with the baby and it's gonna be a tight couple of months.

[nbdy]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

I missed it, too. I wanna snuggle the puggle ...

[Rowanwood]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

Oh hai guys. I'm Loghain. Wanna be friends?

[iflewoverthecuckoosnest]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

Rocky and I. He's such a curious little ball of cuddles.


rock-em.jpg

[Bjorn]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

Too cute! Don't know how I missed this.


So my Boston is having some sort of issue with his leg. Back right leg. He'll be playing just fine and then he'll start yelping and refuse to use it for a few minutes. Then he goes back to normal. He's only three years old, I hate to think he could already be developing a hip issue, but I'm not sure what else it could be. He doesn't have any issue with me moving his leg around afterward (at least he doesn't yelp), he just doesn't want to put pressure on it. It's happened twice in two days that I know of. Really want to take him to the vet, but we really don't have the money right now. We're coming down to crunch time with the baby and it's gonna be a tight couple of months.

Did you check his paw? If he lets you manipulate the leg afterwards then I'm inclined to think that there's something stuck in his little tootsie instead.

- - - Updated - - -

Rocky and I. He's such a curious little ball of cuddles.

Is that a bunny nomming your face? :3

- - - Updated - - -

Oh hai guys. I'm Loghain. Wanna be friends?

OMGYESIDOOOOOOOOOO

[Rae'ya]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

There is FAAARRRR to much cute happening in this thread right now!

So my Boston is having some sort of issue with his leg. Back right leg. He'll be playing just fine and then he'll start yelping and refuse to use it for a few minutes. Then he goes back to normal. He's only three years old, I hate to think he could already be developing a hip issue, but I'm not sure what else it could be. He doesn't have any issue with me moving his leg around afterward (at least he doesn't yelp), he just doesn't want to put pressure on it. It's happened twice in two days that I know of. Really want to take him to the vet, but we really don't have the money right now. We're coming down to crunch time with the baby and it's gonna be a tight couple of months.

What you're describing sounds suspiciously like a luxating patella, though obviously nothing can be diagnosed over the internet lol. A luxating patella is a wobbly knee cap... it's an anatomical glitch that means that the knee cap and it's groove aren't shaped quite right, and so instead of staying in one place, the knee cap slides off to the side. When it's slid off to the side the leg is not functional... it will collapse out from under them and so they do this little three-legged hop for a few minutes and then it usually slides back into place. It's not painful per se... but sometimes the actual moment of the knee cap sliding across can be painful. And sometimes if it keeps happening over a few days the joint gets inflammed and is then painful and can be aggravated by exercise and play.

What can you do? Aside from take him to the vet, which would be the best and get you a proper diagnosis? Well seeing as he is in a bit of an acute stage right now I would rest him for a week. I know that's hard with a Boston but try to keep him quiet, don't let him play with the other dogs and don't take him for any walks. Give the inflammation a chance to settle down and the ligaments that hold his knee together a chance to rest. When it's happening you can massage his knee to see if you can slide the knee cap back into place... don't try to do anything specific, just gently massage the knee and it will often click back across. He might feel a pinch when it clicks back across so be prepared for that.

If this is what he has then he will have it forever. It comes in various degrees of severity... sometimes they just have a few acute episodes and otherwise it doesn't cause them any problems. Sometimes they are so bad that the knee caps are just sliding all over the place willy-nilly. When it's causing them discomfort or pain then surgery to correct it is a good option. Unfortunately this is orthopaedic surgery and is therefore expensive, plus not all general practice vets can do it. The surgery takes us about an hour or so, so it's long, they need lots of pain relief, have to stay in hospital overnight and have multiple visits afterwards for physical therapy and such.

Now don't panic... you don't know if he's in that stage yet and there are plenty of dogs who have this and who don't need surgery. I would just say that if it doesn't settle after a week of rest then you should take him to the vet because he may need some pain relief/anti inflammatories if his joint is very inflammed and painful from it.

So in the short term... strict rest for week. In the long term... consider putting him on a supplement for joints and arthritis, because it will make him prone to getting arthritis early. The best supplements are glucosamine and chondroitin that is sourced from green lipped mussel, because it also has extra omega fatty acids in the right balance. Here in Australia the best brands are Sasha's Blend or Pernease, but there are plenty of others. I don't know what you'd have over there. If you can work that into the budget then please do it, because it will improve his general joint health, have some anti-inflammatory effect, and slow down the arthritic changes. Please use a brand for dogs, not a human one, as you wont be able to get the correct dosage for a Boston from human tablets. If you can't get a green lipped mussel one then just use whatever you can get... anything will be better than nothing.

And if it's not settling or it gets worse, please take him to the vet as that yelping means that it is painful for him. Even if it's just for a minute or two... pain is not fun.

[Shahaku]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

There is FAAARRRR to much cute happening in this thread right now!



What you're describing sounds suspiciously like a luxating patella, though obviously nothing can be diagnosed over the internet lol. A luxating patella is a wobbly knee cap... it's an anatomical glitch that means that the knee cap and it's groove aren't shaped quite right, and so instead of staying in one place, the knee cap slides off to the side. When it's slid off to the side the leg is not functional... it will collapse out from under them and so they do this little three-legged hop for a few minutes and then it usually slides back into place. It's not painful per se... but sometimes the actual moment of the knee cap sliding across can be painful. And sometimes if it keeps happening over a few days the joint gets inflammed and is then painful and can be aggravated by exercise and play.

What can you do? Aside from take him to the vet, which would be the best and get you a proper diagnosis? Well seeing as he is in a bit of an acute stage right now I would rest him for a week. I know that's hard with a Boston but try to keep him quiet, don't let him play with the other dogs and don't take him for any walks. Give the inflammation a chance to settle down and the ligaments that hold his knee together a chance to rest. When it's happening you can massage his knee to see if you can slide the knee cap back into place... don't try to do anything specific, just gently massage the knee and it will often click back across. He might feel a pinch when it clicks back across so be prepared for that.

If this is what he has then he will have it forever. It comes in various degrees of severity... sometimes they just have a few acute episodes and otherwise it doesn't cause them any problems. Sometimes they are so bad that the knee caps are just sliding all over the place willy-nilly. When it's causing them discomfort or pain then surgery to correct it is a good option. Unfortunately this is orthopaedic surgery and is therefore expensive, plus not all general practice vets can do it. The surgery takes us about an hour or so, so it's long, they need lots of pain relief, have to stay in hospital overnight and have multiple visits afterwards for physical therapy and such.

Now don't panic... you don't know if he's in that stage yet and there are plenty of dogs who have this and who don't need surgery. I would just say that if it doesn't settle after a week of rest then you should take him to the vet because he may need some pain relief/anti inflammatories if his joint is very inflammed and painful from it.

So in the short term... strict rest for week. In the long term... consider putting him on a supplement for joints and arthritis, because it will make him prone to getting arthritis early. The best supplements are glucosamine and chondroitin that is sourced from green lipped mussel, because it also has extra omega fatty acids in the right balance. Here in Australia the best brands are Sasha's Blend or Pernease, but there are plenty of others. I don't know what you'd have over there. If you can work that into the budget then please do it, because it will improve his general joint health, have some anti-inflammatory effect, and slow down the arthritic changes. Please use a brand for dogs, not a human one, as you wont be able to get the correct dosage for a Boston from human tablets. If you can't get a green lipped mussel one then just use whatever you can get... anything will be better than nothing.

And if it's not settling or it gets worse, please take him to the vet as that yelping means that it is painful for him. Even if it's just for a minute or two... pain is not fun.

Generally, pills, supplements, etc we can afford. We buy them higher end dog food, generally. It's not the most expensive stuff, but we make sure meat is the first ingredient and that sort of thing. But our vet would probably charge like $300-$600 at a guess just to diagnose him. Hell, an office visit cost us $150, just for her to give him a shot for nausea cause his stomach was a little upset. Then she'd want to medicate him, or do surgery, and make me feel like an ass when I say I can't afford to do that right now. Three months from now? Yeah, we'll probably be in a lot better place. But not right now. And she's one of the less expensive vets in town. I could drive him to my hometown, but we're still talking XRays, etc.

He hasn't done it in the last couple days, which is good. Actually, after seeing Bjorns post I gave him a bath and washed his paws real thoroughly and he hasn't done it since then. I don't know that they're connected, I couldn't find anything obvious on his paw, but that was when it stopped (I haven't seen it since then). We had just gotten snow recently and put down salt (we get the pet/kid friendly salt, but still). So may he did agitate something there, I don't know. But if it starts up again or becomes persistent I might try talking to the vet about a payment plan. Just most of the vets around here really aren't willing to work with you on that sort of thing.

[Rae'ya]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

He hasn't done it in the last couple days, which is good. Actually, after seeing Bjorns post I gave him a bath and washed his paws real thoroughly and he hasn't done it since then. I don't know that they're connected, I couldn't find anything obvious on his paw, but that was when it stopped (I haven't seen it since then).

lol That's what most people with a limping dog say... "I think he has something in his foot, but when I felt it I couldn't find anything".

If there is something in their foot, they generally lick at the foot. Lameness without licking is almost never a something-in-the-foot problem.

But our vet would probably charge like $300-$600 at a guess just to diagnose him. Hell, an office visit cost us $150, just for her to give him a shot for nausea cause his stomach was a little upset. Then she'd want to medicate him, or do surgery, and make me feel like an ass when I say I can't afford to do that right now. Three months from now? Yeah, we'll probably be in a lot better place. But not right now. And she's one of the less expensive vets in town. I could drive him to my hometown, but we're still talking XRays, etc.

A luxating patella is diagnosed just in a consult... you don't normally need xrays or anything like that. Sometimes, in very stressed or anxious dogs it can be difficult to diagnose stifle problems without sedation, because they hold themselves so tense that you can't feel anything at all. Sometimes if it's a very intermittent problem then you can't actually elicit a luxation during the consult... in which case that's a pretty good indication that it isn't bad enough for surgery or anything like that. To put this in perspective for you... I would see at least two or three dogs every single day who have some degree of luxating patella... and we do maybe three or four surgeries a year. Hundreds of dogs have an intermittent problem and don't need anything more than some exercise management and joint support supplements. It is extremely common in small dogs, and unfortunately is a trait that has become bred into many breeds.

As I said, rest him for a week and if it doesn't happen again then don't bother with the vet, but consider a joint support supplement. If it keeps happening then consider a vet visit so that you can at least make sure that he's not in any pain. If it only happens once in a blue moon and corrects quickly, then don't stress too much. But be prepared for potential early arthritis.

I would also say that if he has a possible stifle (knee) problem, then try to avoid play and exercise that involves sudden stops and twists and turns, like ball chasing. Those movements are very stressful on knee joints and can exacerbate things like luxating patellas or cruciate disease.

[Shahaku]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

lol That's what most people with a limping dog say... "I think he has something in his foot, but when I felt it I couldn't find anything".

If there is something in their foot, they generally lick at the foot. Lameness without licking is almost never a something-in-the-foot problem.
.

He is literally always licking at his paws. I've read that it's a Boston trait, the constant licking. But whenever he lays down he's either licking at his paws or at whatever is under him until he actually falls asleep. Pillow, blanket, floor, whatever. However, he has done this again a couple times now, once going down the stairs and once when I was drying him off after he came inside. He freaked when the towel caught his leg when he was squirming around. Right now, we're trying to keep him away from the other dog and carrying him on the stairs, etc. The hardest thing is keeping him from jumping out of the bed. We have some stools/boxes that he can use as stairs at the foot of the bed, but he just prefers to jump down and sometimes we don't get to him in time to stop him from that. It's really hard keeping him from being active, he's a pretty energetic little dog. Not nearly as much as the puppy, but he still likes to run around a play a lot. I'll pick up the supplements on Monday, give the vet a call and see if she'll be able to work with us, and hopefully get it worked out.

[Rae'ya]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

He is literally always licking at his paws. I've read that it's a Boston trait, the constant licking. But whenever he lays down he's either licking at his paws or at whatever is under him until he actually falls asleep. Pillow, blanket, floor, whatever. However, he has done this again a couple times now, once going down the stairs and once when I was drying him off after he came inside. He freaked when the towel caught his leg when he was squirming around. Right now, we're trying to keep him away from the other dog and carrying him on the stairs, etc. The hardest thing is keeping him from jumping out of the bed. We have some stools/boxes that he can use as stairs at the foot of the bed, but he just prefers to jump down and sometimes we don't get to him in time to stop him from that. It's really hard keeping him from being active, he's a pretty energetic little dog. Not nearly as much as the puppy, but he still likes to run around a play a lot. I'll pick up the supplements on Monday, give the vet a call and see if she'll be able to work with us, and hopefully get it worked out.

Have you ever put him on something for allergies? The reason Bostons tend to lick their feet is that they are prone to allergies. Breeders don't tell you these things... they say 'oh it's a Boston/Staffy/Rotty/whatever trait and that's normal'. Then we get a hold of them and say 'well actually the reason your Lab has recurring ear infections is that it has allergies and here's a few things you can do about it...' or 'actually it's not normal for your Pug to not be able to breathe and we need to widen his nostrils'... or any other one of a hundred different breed specific quirks that we can actually do something about.

Breeders breed for aesthetics and breed standards, not health. Unfortunately that's how it becomes 'normal' that certain breeds are prone to certain diseases. And unfortunately some of these things, like allergies, anxieties, luxating patellas and an inability to breathe are so 'normal' that people don't realise there are things we can do to help.

I have some advice for foot licking too if you're interested... things that don't involve a vet visit or drugs.

[Shahaku]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

Always interested in advise!

He's never had an issue with allergies before, but the last time we were at the vet she thought he might be developing some. But we also think that may be from the move into this house, since that's when that started. We think he may be allergic to whatever was put on the yard before we moved here. So we're going to be sure to get pet friendly yard stuff and pet friendly salt, etc, from now on. She keeps going on about food allergies and sticking to one food, but he's always ate a variety of dog food and never had a problem with any of them.