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Superconsndar posted:That's what I figured. Dunno how much is in heartguard, I've just always gone by the recommended 1/10th of a cc per 10lbs and I'm sure that's what most of them do too. Figured twice a month would be overkill. Thanks. The dose in Heartgard works out to be from 6-12 micrograms per kilogram. Cattle Ivomec is about 10 milligrams per mL of fluid. So with your dose you're giving 1 mg per 10 pounds - that's 1000 micrograms for about 4.5 kg - which with further math gets to 222 micrograms per kilogram. Quite a bit more than Heartgard.
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Sep 24, 2012 02:52
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Man I bet those heartworms and intestinal worms are extra dead then
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Sep 24, 2012 03:36
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We've recently adopted a Pomeranian cross, and he is pretty much a ball of fur that's gained a mild form of sentience. He's also incredibly sweet, but holy hell the fur. I always owned cats growing up, and while this is about as close to a cat as you can get while remaining a dog, he isn't self-grooming like all my old pets. He gets brushed daily and bathed weekly, but we're coming into summer down here. There's a lot of fur on that little dog, and as the weather heats up I'm wondering if he would be more comfortable with a hair cut. I've googled things, and seen everything from "Your dog will look amazing like a lion give him a haircut at home with these two simple steps" to "Never cut your pomeranian's fur because it will grow back funny and the dog will be ugly and your neighbors will laugh at you." I don't especially care how he looks or whether my neighbors will laugh at me, so speaking strictly on the dog's comfort and happiness, should he have a haircut for the warm weather? Or is it a moot point and he'll be fine as long as he's brushed and bathed regularly?
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Sep 25, 2012 06:13
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Ockhams Crowbar posted:Or is it a moot point and he'll be fine as long as he's brushed and bathed regularly?
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Sep 25, 2012 07:45
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Ockhams Crowbar posted:We've recently adopted a Pomeranian cross, and he is pretty much a ball of fur that's gained a mild form of sentience. He's also incredibly sweet, but holy hell the fur. I always owned cats growing up, and while this is about as close to a cat as you can get while remaining a dog, he isn't self-grooming like all my old pets. For what it's worth, lion poms are loving adorable.
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Sep 25, 2012 10:03
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Kerfuffle posted:Ding ding. Bathing once a week seems like wayyy overkill though. Is there a reason you do it so often? Whoops. That's a brain fart. He's being bathed weekly at the moment (actually twice a week), but only temporarily. Everyone in the house is being treated for ringworm. (One cat's got a spot of it on her tail, and the vet recommended everyone gets the special shampoo as a preventative.) Based on what I've read on it, we normally only bathe him when he's gotten muddy or into something gross, and we try not to do it more than once a month. I understand that double-coat breeds are particularly susceptible to shampoos stripping oils from their fur and ending up with dry, itchy skin if bathed more often than that. Is that still too often? He likes to cuddle, but he also likes to roll in things, see. I've also had people suggest various dog deodorants, and everything from baby to talcum powders for a dry dust bath to cut down on smells. Are any of those safe and particularly effective? Soonmot posted:For what it's worth, lion poms are loving adorable. This is my fiancee's position. I guess as a follow up to my first question, is a cut like that bad for the dog in any way? He loves being the center of attention and the neighborhood kids absolutely love him as is. I can only imagine the small supernova that'd occur if I took him for a walk with a cute cut.
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Sep 25, 2012 11:53
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Ockhams Crowbar posted:I guess as a follow up to my first question, is a cut like that bad for the dog in any way? He loves being the center of attention and the neighborhood kids absolutely love him as is. I can only imagine the small supernova that'd occur if I took him for a walk with a cute cut. Captain Foxy in the Yappy Rats thread can probably better answer the pom-specific grooming questions for you- she has one that she keeps in full coat year round. However, I do know that shaving a double coated breed aside from medical purposes is a general grooming no-no in PI.
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Sep 25, 2012 17:15
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Ockhams Crowbar posted:I don't especially care how he looks or whether my neighbors will laugh at me, so speaking strictly on the dog's comfort and happiness, should he have a haircut for the warm weather? Or is it a moot point and he'll be fine as long as he's brushed and bathed regularly? He'll be fine. You can't think of dogs the same way you think about people. If we were wrapped up in a fur coat like that, we would get hot because our bodies regulate heat differently than dogs do. Also, animal coats are designed to adjust to hot and cold weather, unlike our bodies, where we have to add/remove clothing. I used to work as a dog groomer, and we very highly recommended keeping up with regular brushing instead of shaving. I think we only shaved a few poms, and that was because they were very matted because some people are idiots and can't take care of their animals. We do some light hair trimming with a scissors only to reduce butt fluff and neaten up their feathering, bellies, chests, and tails, but it was only cutting enough hair to create a nice line, it wasn't really removing much volume. Like this:  Continue brushing him daily. When the weather does turn hot, observe his behavior, and if he isn't overheating, he's fine. If you want to trim with a scissors his butt or belly if he drags his hair through stuff, that's fine, but don't shave your dog.
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Sep 26, 2012 05:49
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When I saw the vet with the free office visit I got from adopting from the humane society, she sold me antibiotics for the neuter site that I later found that could have gotten from the humane society for free because it was their neuter. I was mildly annoyed by this. What really got me though was about heartworm medication. When I asked her about if there was anything in particular I needed to be doing for health maintenance She said that I should be doing flea and tick prevention for spring, summer, and fall and while technically I could do the same with heartworm, it really was better to do it year round and there was really no reason to take risks with heartworm. I knew this already. What I didn't know was that heartworm medicine is a perscription medication. She didn't give me a perscription. I would have bought that from the clinic had she given me a perscription and advised me on something. So I bought a thing I didn't really need to get from there and didn't buy the really important thing. Enough bitching though. What should I use? Is there any difference between Heartguard+ and the generic? I've heard good things about Revolution and it's nice that it's a topical medication since my dog can be a picky princess about his food/treats. It's nice that it does fleas and ticks too, but I'm more concerned about effectiveness than anything else.
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Sep 26, 2012 07:11
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On a similar note, has anyone used Sentry's Natural Defense flea and tick treatment? A three month pack is $14, but I don't like recommending it to customers because I've never used and haven't talked to anyone who's used it. I'm on Chicago's South side, so there's a sizable portion of people shopping for their pets who'd appreciated saving $40 bucks on a product that actually works.
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Sep 26, 2012 10:11
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"Natural" set of my bullshit detector, so I looked the stuff up and sure enough. peppermint oil cinnamon oil lemongrass oil clove oil thyme oil Yeah. No. I've heard of people have some success with citrus, but I seriously doubt you'll get the same results as you would with a real flea treatment.
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Sep 26, 2012 11:49
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Kerfuffle posted:"Natural" set of my bullshit detector, so I looked the stuff up and sure enough. I mean the clove oil MIGHT work but only if you basically made the dog swim in a vat of it until the end of time.
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Sep 26, 2012 11:52
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As far as natural oil based repellents go I've had good luck with a Flea/Tick spray from Richard's Organics. I don't expect it to be any kind of month or even week long thing though regardless of what it says on the label. I use it before going to the park where they're likely to pick up ticks or if the area will have a lot of mosquitoes. It seems to work really well for that purpose.
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Sep 26, 2012 14:37
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Dogdoo 8 posted:When I saw the vet with the free office visit I got from adopting from the humane society, she sold me antibiotics for the neuter site that I later found that could have gotten from the humane society for free because it was their neuter. I was mildly annoyed by this. What really got me though was about heartworm medication. When I asked her about if there was anything in particular I needed to be doing for health maintenance She said that I should be doing flea and tick prevention for spring, summer, and fall and while technically I could do the same with heartworm, it really was better to do it year round and there was really no reason to take risks with heartworm. I knew this already. What I didn't know was that heartworm medicine is a perscription medication. She didn't give me a perscription. I would have bought that from the clinic had she given me a perscription and advised me on something. So I bought a thing I didn't really need to get from there and didn't buy the really important thing. I'm not aware of a generic for Heartgard, except for buying cattle ivermectin and dosing the liquid yourself. I don't recommend that, by the way. Heartgard, Interceptor/Sentinel/Trifexis (all the same active ingredient), Revolution, and Advantage Multi should all be effective against heartworm. How old is the dog? If older than 6 months he should be tested for HW first, and ideally again 6 months later. This is to make sure he doesn't already have it, and then, since the test won't be positive until 6 months after initially being infected, that he didn't get it just prior to starting the meds.
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Sep 26, 2012 15:47
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Is a "femoral lucency" code for "bone tumor"?
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Sep 26, 2012 16:27
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SuperTwo posted:As far as natural oil based repellents go I've had good luck with a Flea/Tick spray from Richard's Organics. I don't expect it to be any kind of month or even week long thing though regardless of what it says on the label. I use it before going to the park where they're likely to pick up ticks or if the area will have a lot of mosquitoes. It seems to work really well for that purpose. Same here. I'll use it when we're working in an area with lots of bugs, even though my dogs are all on preventatives. It does work for a day or so. I guess I wouldn't necessarily notice the mosquitoes but I notice a big difference with those obnoxious gnats staying away and the dogs seem less distracted. I wouldn't rely on it solely even for a short period though, it's just a backup to the prescription preventatives. Dr. Chaco posted:I'm not aware of a generic for Heartgard, except for buying cattle ivermectin and dosing the liquid yourself. I don't recommend that, by the way. Heartgard, Interceptor/Sentinel/Trifexis (all the same active ingredient), Revolution, and Advantage Multi should all be effective against heartworm. How old is the dog? If older than 6 months he should be tested for HW first, and ideally again 6 months later. This is to make sure he doesn't already have it, and then, since the test won't be positive until 6 months after initially being infected, that he didn't get it just prior to starting the meds. There's this, though I don't know anything about it other than what's on the site. I only found it because I was surprised that heartworm medication requires a prescription and so was doing some research. I mean, I always get mine from the vet because it is convenient but I could have sworn that I used to buy ivermectin tablets without a prescription. Maybe I'm just remembering wrong though, since I do buy livestock ivermectin a lot. Is the reason it requires a prescription just because of the danger that the dog is infected already? 2tomorrow fucked around with this message at 17:18 on Sep 26, 2012 |
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Sep 26, 2012 17:16
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gvibes posted:Is a "femoral lucency" code for "bone tumor"? It really depends on what the lucency looks like, but yes, a bone tumor can be lucent. Can also be loss of bone in an area for a lot of reasons, including infection.
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Sep 26, 2012 17:36
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2tomorrow posted:Same here. I'll use it when we're working in an area with lots of bugs, even though my dogs are all on preventatives. It does work for a day or so. I guess I wouldn't necessarily notice the mosquitoes but I notice a big difference with those obnoxious gnats staying away and the dogs seem less distracted. I wouldn't rely on it solely even for a short period though, it's just a backup to the prescription preventatives. That does appear to be generic Heartgard! Cool. As for why it's prescription, oral medications and topicals that are absorbed systemically tend to require a prescription, though there are dewormers available over the counter. In the case of heartworm preventative, it may specifically be prescription-only because the older products were very dangerous to give to dogs with current heartworm disease, necessitating testing before starting the preventative. The current meds don't cause the exact same type of problem, but you do have the newer "slow kill" method of killing heartworms, using Heartgard, and this requires strict exercise restriction (and owner education) so that dead worms have less of a chance of breaking off and getting lodged in the lung arteries. So, it's important to have a vet determine if a dog has an active infection before starting the meds. The only way this happens reliably is if the medications require an active prescription.
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Sep 26, 2012 17:46
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Dr. Chaco posted:I'm not aware of a generic for Heartgard. Iverhart is a generic of Heartgard. It's a decent amount cheaper, and it's what I use for my dog. It's more of a chewable tablet rather than a chewy liver treat thing, which is good for me because soft treats (including the Heartgard) make my one dog vomit.
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Sep 26, 2012 17:50
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gvibes posted:Is a "femoral lucency" code for "bone tumor"? It's not really much of code - rather it's a descriptive term used by radiologists that means that on an x-ray, some area of the femur appears more radiolucent (darker) than it should. This is generally due to the bone being less dense there than expected, so anything that has the effect of decreasing bone density (could be like HSS said, tumor/infection/nutritional deficiency if it weren't limited to one bone/degeneration/etc) could cause it.
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Sep 26, 2012 22:05
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I just recently got a year old cat, and had all the shots/tests/spay done. While waiting for the sutures to come out, I decided to have her boarded at the vets, because she's wily, hyper, and prone to picking at her stitches whenever she spirited herself out of her cone (she's like Houdini). I didn't want her de-coning and ripping a stitch while I was at work, so I figured a vet's office was the best place for her, in case something went awry. ...They called today and let me know that it looked like she was having a reaction to the internal stitches in her belly, and that a lot of swelling had occurred. The lady said it was just fluid and not a result of a ripped stitch, thank goodness, but that she was going to have to be extra calmed (heaven help them) and that they were going to be putting her on antibiotics so the area with fluid didn't become infected. I'm kind of freaking out. On the one hand, I'm glad she was where someone could quickly spot the issue and help her. On the other, I feel terrible I'm not there and I'm worried sick. Is this a common issue with cats? Do I need to be really worried? Because I'm really worried.
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Sep 27, 2012 01:58
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The same thing happened to my brother's cat when she got spayed as a kitten. Didn't end up causing any issues. She healed up just fine and didn't have any issues with it.
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Sep 27, 2012 02:45
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Yep, I've had a couple of rescue kittens have some swelling, and one infection. It's not too big a deal, fortunately, and the vet will keep everything fine while she recovers.
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Sep 27, 2012 04:32
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Has anyone had any experience with goldenseal or echinacea use for cats? What form and dosage did you use? We have an 8 year old cat with a persistent bloody nose only one on side and two rounds of antibiotics have not helped. We have other cats so it's not contagious We have brought her to the vet a few times, and without spending thousands more to determine if its polyps or cancer, we are looking to make her as comfortable as possible until it becomes clear the end is near. Our vet offered to refer us to a holistic vet but he said they are expensive and Don't work. Any help or advice is appreciated.
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Sep 27, 2012 23:08
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I figured it was too good to be true.
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Sep 28, 2012 12:07
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Echinacea boosts the immune system but only when used in really specific ways and huge dosages. It DOESN'T work with continuous use or as a general supplement and usually only helps you out like, once before your body ignores it from then on. Either way it's not going to do any good for a bleeding cancer cat. 
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Sep 28, 2012 12:20
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Anyone know of any ways to discourage a messy eater? No matter what he eats, Decoy picks it up out of the bowl and drops it on the floor. If it's dry food he just picks up a mouthful and scatters it on the floor (which I don't care about so much because he eats all the little bits) but with wet food he picks up a big hunk and drops it in a big ploppy mess, which he then eats most of but leaves traces. It's so bad I now have to feed them in our bath because the mess he was making was attracting ants. The kind of bowl doesn't seem to matter: ceramic, plastic, metal, glass, flat, raised edges - we've tried em all. He also treats any kind of plastic floor covering put under his bowl as just an extension of the bowl, and will carefully drop his food just to the side of it  I would eventually like my bath back one day
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Oct 1, 2012 06:33
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I might just be seeing dental problems everywhere because I've been dealing with them in a couple of my animals, but have you had his teeth checked lately? My cat used to do that when her teeth hurt, but she stopped once that was taken care of. I have a cat question of my own. My cat (not the one with the teeth problems) developed a large sore on his neck last spring. My vet didn't know what it was for sure but believed it was an allergic reaction. It was about half an inch long and maybe a quarter of an inch wide, more or less rectangular. It must have come on suddenly because I brush him at least a couple of times a week and pet him daily, and I just noticed it one day when it was already that size. He is long-haired and when he was still it was invisible under his fur, but I don't believe I would have missed it for long. We did an isolation diet (I believe that's the right term) to rule out food allergies, and gave him antibiotics which didn't help and antihistamines which helped somewhat, then finally a course of steroids cleared it up. In the meantime I just kept it clean so it wouldn't get infected. It healed well but there's a patch of bare skin where it was. So that's the history. I was scritching his neck just now and felt a couple of small scabs on his neck. I checked and sure enough, they're right in the middle of that bald patch. They're tiny right now and there's just a couple of them, but I'm guessing it's the same thing. Any idea what this is or what could be causing it? Otherwise he's a very healthy 4 year old neutered cat. There's no change in his behavior and he's eating and drinking well. I will be calling the vet in the morning but since she was unsure last time I'm not too confident that she'll know what it is now. 2tomorrow fucked around with this message at 07:05 on Oct 1, 2012 |
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Oct 1, 2012 06:53
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Tamarillo posted:Anyone know of any ways to discourage a messy eater? No matter what he eats, Decoy picks it up out of the bowl and drops it on the floor. If it's dry food he just picks up a mouthful and scatters it on the floor (which I don't care about so much because he eats all the little bits) but with wet food he picks up a big hunk and drops it in a big ploppy mess, which he then eats most of but leaves traces. Have you tried giving him his food in a dispenser toy? Dry food in a treat ball/kong wobbler/etc is great. It'll still get everywhere but it'll be immediately hoovered up. Don't feed wet food to him, too!
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Oct 1, 2012 08:53
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2tomorrow posted:I was scritching his neck just now and felt a couple of small scabs on his neck. I checked and sure enough, they're right in the middle of that bald patch. They're tiny right now and there's just a couple of them, but I'm guessing it's the same thing. Allergies (food, fleas, environment) in cats like to manifest along the neck in terms of "excoriations" (basically self-inflicted trauma from the cat itching). Those kinds of self trauma from allergies also can respond really well to steroid shots - antihistamines are sort of a toss-up whether or not they work, however, a lot of animals respond differently to different antihistamines. While some may not work, others may.
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Oct 1, 2012 17:54
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Does anyone here think it's possible that I saw wild wolves in central Missouri? Last night at around 5 AM, my neighbor's dog went crazy so I peeked outside. Two giant animals descended from the front porch (I was seeing this from my side entrance) and then walked up the street. They were definitely too large to be coyotes (which I've seen plenty of). I grew up with lots of dogs in the house, and I used to work at a top-rated animal daycare in Seattle, so I know dogs/breeds very well. The two dog creatures I saw last night seriously looked exactly like gray wolves- they had unusually long legs, the same fur, build, coloring of wolves I've seen in the zoo/Google Image. And beyond that, they carried themselves in a way that was unlike domestic dogs- that is, like wild animals chasing a scent. It wasn't a dream, either- I wrote down what I saw on a Post-It before going back to my room. Glad my cat was inside for the night.  Dead ringer, man, I'm not kidding.
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Oct 1, 2012 19:45
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Wolves turn up shot in NW Missouri every so often, there was one a couple of years ago. They mostly seem to be loners who've travelled way too far South- one from about ten years ago had been tagged in northern Illinois, he'd walked over 700 miles to get shot. Poor guy. That said I would put modest money on them not having been wolves, or possibly escapees from somewhere if they were.
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Oct 1, 2012 21:13
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HelloSailorSign posted:Allergies (food, fleas, environment) in cats like to manifest along the neck in terms of "excoriations" (basically self-inflicted trauma from the cat itching). Those kinds of self trauma from allergies also can respond really well to steroid shots - antihistamines are sort of a toss-up whether or not they work, however, a lot of animals respond differently to different antihistamines. While some may not work, others may. Thanks for the explanation. Poor guy, that sounds really unpleasant. Is there a way for me to figure out what he's allergic to? We went through the food the last time and didn't see any difference on different ingredients, but it cleared up quickly enough that we didn't really look at environmental factors.I do have an appointment with the vet on Friday so I'll ask her as well, I just like to be thorough.  Christoph posted:Does anyone here think it's possible that I saw wild wolves in central Missouri? If I remember right, someone shot a wolf in Missouri a year or two ago. I think they thought it was a coyote but too big and DNA tests proved it was a wolf. I could be remembering wrong, but if not then it sounds possible that you did see a wolf.
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Oct 1, 2012 21:18
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Yeah, here's the article mentioning it happening a few counties from me last year http://mdc.mo.gov/newsroom/dna-tests-shed-light-cougar-wolf-sightings There are a lot of babies, old people, and cats in my neighborhood- things I worry might seem delicious to displaced wolves. I emailed animal control after they never answered when I called (just as a heads up that there were either large wild dogs or freaking wolves in a densely-populated neighborhood), and just got an auto-response. They probably assume it's just another coyote. I've done what I could. I'd hate for them to hurt anybody/anybody's pets, and it would also be tragic if they were shot or (knowing this drat street) hit by a car.
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Oct 2, 2012 01:37
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2tomorrow posted:Thanks for the explanation. Poor guy, that sounds really unpleasant. Environmental allergies can be hard to pin down. There are blood tests for them (in dogs there's also intradermal testing, which, you could do in a cat, but you'd need much more sedation) that basically tests for the antibodies to various antigens. Different labs have different testing groups, and depending on your area, there may even be an area specific one. Once the testing is done, generally people head to hyposensitization shots (again, usually dogs on this) based on the findings of the blood tests.
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Oct 2, 2012 02:07
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I took my dog in to the e-vet because she started peeing blood. She was diagnosed with a UTI, but there was also mention of an abdominal mass I should get ultrasounded with my regular vet. Here's her x-rays. What the gently caress am I looking at? I don't know if it's otherwise relevant, but she's a 14 year old lab mix in pretty good health other than old dog issues like cataracts and arthritis. DemonDarkhorse fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Oct 2, 2012 |
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Oct 2, 2012 03:53
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My cat is home and quickly making the whole apartment hers. I got her some toys she enjoys, a few little crinkly catnip fish, a ball with a bell, a denim catnip toy to kick around, laser pointer, toy on a string...she's taken to each of them, but she's recently fallen in love with this little toy I've had since I was a kid and kind of forgot I owned until she found it under my bed. It's a small little seal that fits in your hand. It's got bead eyes and a little plastic nose, and it seems to be made with real fur. The closest thing I can find online is this:  It's like this only with shiny plastic eyes and nose. She freaking loves this thing, she carries it around the house and kicks it/cuddles it/throws and chases it. Is it okay for me to let her have it? I don't see a problem, but I hadn't anticipated her finding it (having forgotten I even owned it, or where it came from) edit: it's not soft or squishy, it's solid under the fur. Also this is closer: 
Rat Patrol fucked around with this message at 00:39 on Oct 6, 2012 |
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Oct 6, 2012 00:36
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Wow, that takes me back--I had a seal just like that, souvenir from visiting Nova Scotia when I was way too young to fully make the connection that seal fur toys = people killing adorable seals. Some cats will do things like working loose plastic eyes and noses and swallowing them. There's probably some kind of horrible chemicals involved in curing the leather, too, but I don't know how hard you want to worry about that. I'd just make sure to take it away if it seems like it's disintegrating into swallow-able parts?
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Oct 6, 2012 01:32
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Andrias Scheuchzeri posted:Wow, that takes me back--I had a seal just like that, souvenir from visiting Nova Scotia when I was way too young to fully make the connection that seal fur toys = people killing adorable seals. I pulled out the eyes and nose as a precaution. I'll keep an eye out for any deterioration. Thanks for the reply!
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Oct 6, 2012 02:14
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Sorry if this has been asked, but the thread is 300 pages long. I just got a five year old dog from the humane society, and I want to change his name. Is this ethical? Will I warp his sense of self? Am I putting too much thought into this?
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Oct 7, 2012 06:31
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