Pets chit chat thread

[anunitu]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

Good to hear..

[Juniper]

My baby was diagnosed with laryngeal paralysis on Friday. Contemplating surgery but she's a senior doggy and the surgery will bring a whole new set of challenges with it. Trying to decide what will give her the best quality of life.

[anunitu]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

Hope for the best Juni,My daughter lost her baby(Abby) a few months back...was heart breaking for her,she raised her from a puppy. Wishing for a best outcome...And hugs for you too.

[B. de Corbin]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

My baby was diagnosed with laryngeal paralysis on Friday. Contemplating surgery but she's a senior doggy and the surgery will bring a whole new set of challenges with it. Trying to decide what will give her the best quality of life.

I'm sorry to hear that, Juni. Best wishes for the baby.

[Rae'ya]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

My baby was diagnosed with laryngeal paralysis on Friday. Contemplating surgery but she's a senior doggy and the surgery will bring a whole new set of challenges with it. Trying to decide what will give her the best quality of life.

This can be tricky, Juni. Unfortunately, there aren't any truly effective options outside of surgery. Sometimes they are treated with things like cortisone (prednisolone) to reduce the secondary swelling that happens from sucking the air through a tiny pipe, but the reality is that those are just symptomatic treatments and are not making things better. We don't do the surgery at my general practice clinic (we do at the specialist/referral clinic I am now working at though), and I can tell you that I've not really seen any patients effectively managed just with medications. If it's early stages then she could still have a long time before it badly effects her quality of life, but non-surgical options just aren't that effective for this condition.

If she's healthy otherwise (you said her chest rads and blood work was all normal, right?) and you have a vet who knows what they are doing, the surgery is not that risky. I will stress the part about having a vet (and techs) that knows what they are doing though. Being old is not that big of a deal when it comes to anaesthetics and surgery. As long as she is properly monitored (including blood pressure and capnography), gets fluids while under, gets appropriate pain relief, has an active warming device and has an anaesthetic tech with her, there is actually very, very little risk. It's not age that makes anaesthetics risky... it's kidney disease, liver disease, obesity and heart disease that make them risky. Elderly patients do have reduced lung and ventilation capacity, but it's very easy to compensate for those if you are a skilled tech. So bottom line there is that as long as your vets and techs no what they are doing, she should be fine. Be picky about who you have the surgery done with and ask them about all those things I just listed. IF they say 'no we don't need those', or 'oh that's not necessary' or 'oh that's just wasting your money' then find another vet!

The surgery itself ties part of the larynx open, and DOES mean that her airway will never be completely closed. That means that she might inhale food, water or vomit if she gulps things too fast or vomits under anaesthetic. The risks of vomiting under anaesthetic are almost nothing (I've had it happen like three times in my 11 year career!) and if your tech knows what to look for she'll be doing what she can to minimise the chances of that anyway. You might need to change the way you feed her if she tends to gulp her food, but if she just eats normally then there's not really that much risk there.

Basically, the surgery will give her the best quality of life, provided she is healthy otherwise. Not doing surgery will mean that she will slowly get worse and worse until she literally can't breath because her larynx has collapsed in on itself and can't open to let air through. Not doing surgery means that you wont be able to take her for walks anymore, can't let her get really excited, can't let her chase a ball around and can't let her do anything that will cause her breathing rate to increase (because that increases the pressure in their airways and causes the larynx to collapse even more. Surgery will be a short term restriction until things are healed, but she should then be able to do a lot of the things that she enjoys doing.

I know it's a tough choice, but please don't think that surgery is bad just because she's old. So many clients think that but it's just not true. Maybe twenty years ago it was true. But it's not anymore. Our technology, anaesthetics and support methods are 100x better than they were. I've put my elderly cat (he's 17 now) under anaesthetic every 2 years since he was about 10 to keep his teeth clean, and he has kidney disease. I'll do it again next year if I need to. Being old doesn't mean that we shouldn't be given the chance to get the best care. I know that it's scary, but it's not as scary as it sounds.

[Juniper]

Thank you Rae'ya. That was a really good and much needed post for me to see. The vet I took her to doesn't do this surgery but they have referrals. I was definitely going to consult with a few surgeons about the procedure, I just didn't have as much information about what to ask until your post and you did ease a lot of my fear about anesthetizing her for this.

[Medusa]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

I had no idea they have doggy braces.
click here to see the cutest doggy braces ever.

[anunitu]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

Well,who would have thought a puppy would have braces..Live and learn something new every day.

[Medusa]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

Whe I had my maine coon Ian, he came home from a night on the prowl with a broken fang.

[anunitu]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

Out door cats get that at times,had an outdoor cat as a kid that came home missing an ear....chewed off by a bigger cat most likely..

[kalynraye]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

Dearest Rae'ya I am in need of your oh so wonderful guidance if I may have it. We have an electric invisible fence and the pups have collars. Well since Chunk has gotten well chunky he doesn't seem to be able to wear ANY collar anymore without it causing a rash/ scabs/sores. If I take the collar off every few days and let him run around without it for a bit no problems, in fact he's went 3 months with no problems. Last week however he had a few sores on his neck.. is there anything I can put on them to help them heal? He is losing weight btw but I don't like him being in pain but I don't trust leaving him out of his crate while gone without that collar on.

[Shahaku]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

Our cats are finally making their peace. Mama has settled enough now that kitten is an adolescent to allow cat #1 to be in the same room as her. Their eating in the same room and willingly sharing a cat box. All of this evolved over the course of a week. I'm happy.

[Rae'ya]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

Dearest Rae'ya I am in need of your oh so wonderful guidance if I may have it. We have an electric invisible fence and the pups have collars. Well since Chunk has gotten well chunky he doesn't seem to be able to wear ANY collar anymore without it causing a rash/ scabs/sores. If I take the collar off every few days and let him run around without it for a bit no problems, in fact he's went 3 months with no problems. Last week however he had a few sores on his neck.. is there anything I can put on them to help them heal? He is losing weight btw but I don't like him being in pain but I don't trust leaving him out of his crate while gone without that collar on.

Okay, so short answer 'cos I'm on my tablet lol.

The electric fence collar thing.. is it a sound one or a shock one? If it's a shock one then a) we don't like those, and b) it could be contributing to the sores. If it's a sound one thenit should only be contributing to the sores in the same wy any ollar would... by rubbinghis sweaty chubby neck and causing chafing.

Onto the sore themselves. Are they dry scabs or oozy crusty scabs? Dry scabs just need some fresh air and some aloe vera or pawpaw cream, which are both sfe to use on dogs. Oozy crusty ones are called 'hot spots' and are really common around collars in dogs tat have sensitive skin or are a bit chubby. They are a skin infection and need a bit more care. They need to have the hair shaved short over the sores, then an antibacterial shampoo wash just at that spot daily for weekor so (preferrably one tat's also antifungal, must be for dogs but you can get them at petstores... lather, LET SIT for 10 mins then rinse off, that is really really important), then you can aloe vera/pawpaw. They often need antibiotics too though so if it's all red and angry around the scabs you should go to the vet. If it's hotspots you MUST keep his collar off til they heal, there's no way around that.

Did he ever have issues before he was chunky? does he get itchy ears and/or chew his feet? Does he get itchy skin oterwise? If so then I'll chat to you about stuff you can do at home for skin allergies. If not then just carry on lol.

('Scuse the typos... my tablet is really awkward to post on... worse than my phone for some stupid reason)

[thalassa]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

We should just call this Ask Rae'ya...


I have one too...


Buddy (our orange tiger kitty) has lost a ton of weight since we moved in December (he weighed 13.9lbs at his last vet visit and looked like the "ideal weight" profile on the little chart* they have at the vet office, and is now down to 10.2 and looks more like he's a 1--he's 3 or 4 years old). He has so much hair, I didn't notice until I was giving him his bath this weekend. He's also started over-grooming (which at first I attributed to climate change--its hotter down here, and his coat is super thick) and gotten very needy (he's always been a people-person kind of cat, but now he's like a pet-me stalker). Otherwise there doesn't seem to be a change in health or behavior, though he seems to be eating less. We did have a brief flea infestation, but the behavior started before the fleas and has continued after. We've also dewormed all of the cats (because of the little cat).

We have an appointment for the vet this weekend, but I was wondering (before we go) what you might think about all this? Stress? If so, what can we do?


*le chart
Weight chart.jpg

*

[Kiesha'ra]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

Sounds like one of my cats Thal, turned out he was hyperthyroid. They also ruled out diabetes and renal disease