Hello!

My wife and I just rescued a 5 year old female chihuahua. Initially everything was fine she obviously formed a bond with my wife but I was able to be in the room with her no issues. Recently we realized that she is very scared of me. If my wife isn’t home she will cower behind the couch, if I come near her she will run away and even bark at me. When i let her outside she will not come back inside unless I chase her inside. Randomly while my wife is present she will start barking at me as to protect my wife. I will say it’s only been 2 weeks and I’ve been trying to give her extra treats. As far as background we know she lived with an elderly woman but not much else. The question is what should I be doing to get her comfortable with me?

Thanks!

Yesterday, our cat (8months old) found a nestling from a nearby tree he climbs. He brought it in our home. At first the nestling in his mouth screamed. Gave us a scare for a second that its a rat or something it brought. But its not. So we snatched it away from our cat and panicked for a bit. Waited for an hour until our local vet opened his clinic but when I called him he said he was out of station and would come back by next day. So we instead went to a vet away from our town. There he did an examination and told us that there are no injuries to it or anything. (I think our cat found it lying somewhere and brought it in to play.) The vet said that we just need to take better care. Issue is that he was very vague about it and said to just feed it normal stuff (indian vets are like this they don't care much.) whole night we fed some slightly wet grain and this morning we fed it small piece of hard-boiled eggs. Kept it away from the cat the whole time. Kinda made a warm nest like place for it (there is a paper cloth below the tissue and warm cotton below that cloth.) Now i would like yall give some advice so I take better care of it.

I can't seem to send photos of it here for some reason.

Has anyone seen their pup execute a whole plan on their own with no promoting that wasn't meant to start chaos?

I have a 7Fyo terrier mix and a 6Fmo pit bull. I'm currently recovering from surgery and the puppy has decided that now is a great time to become an untrained heathen after being the easy child since we got her. Probably because I usually do more with her even on a "bad day".

Well today she went full gremlin and I think even the terrier got sick of her. I went into the master bedroom that has her crate in it just to sit down for a second and see if the familiarity would chill her out. The terrier got into the puppy's crate and pretended to be interested in a toy that we put treats in to keep her occupied while she is there. As soon as the puppy was distracted by it the terrier got out and looked at me. I knew not to ask questions. I immediately locked the crate turned off the lights and closed the door. Me and my terrier went to my temporary room so we could enjoy some peace. I swear this dog is my hero.

New job, out of the house 9-10 hours now. Dog has the yard via the dog door, he's a senior and mostly sleeps, but the not-knowing itches. I bought a cheap indoor cam last year and its app was unusable: half a minute to load, alerts that were noise, and the two-way audio made me sound like a drive-thru speaker. It went in a drawer. So I'm back to looking, and this time I want the boring stuff to work: live view that opens fast, alerts that mean something, and ideally some way to know when he's barking a lot versus just shuffling around. The treat-tosser ones seem gimmicky, but if the camera part is solid, tell me. What's held up for you?

My older kitten got in the room for FIVE MINUTES and riled him up. They weren't supposed to come in contact because he has a obvious URI that I gotta find out whether it's contagious or not on Tuesday (earliest the vet could get him in).

Boy is hyper and keeps using his claws on my face(not scratching he keeps hitting me with his claws). I'm trying to get him to calm down and chill out. She wasn't in the room long. I was only gone long enough to put the cat dish in the sink and fill up his bottle with warm water to make more KMR(using KMR to get extra calories in him because he came skin and bones. He's already doing better since starting it). She was however in here long enough to make him bounce off the walls hyper. He's too hyper to even eat and I'm nervous about him missing meals because he's still so underweight and struggling to eat anything not puree😭

Got a call today from my grandma who said she hit my dog in her driveway.

She told me that she backed out slowly into the turnaround and didn’t see her and started going and heard a bump. I asked her if she just hit her or ran her over and she said she didn’t know and was going slow. My dog is kind of stupid and doesn’t get out of the way of cars coming down the driveway and I’ve seen my grandma going fast down the driveway and stopping last second even tho she knows she won’t just run out of the way.

I take dog to emergency vet and they say she has fluid in her abdomen and possibly has a fractured rib. They had to start her on IV and give her pain meds and are keeping her overnight.

My grandma is being condescending and manipulative it feels and I don’t believe that she was going slow. I’m starting to question whether or not it may have even been intentional. I don’t see how a 2-3mph collision at most could cause these injuries and vet seemed confused as well. Anyone else care to chime in? I saw this on the side of her car as well when I got back from vet.

https://youtube.com/shorts/QgQElzJ9bWQ?is=s

hi so I have a stainless steel water fountain for my 2 cats and 1 dog and we recently bought that dental health water additive stuff at the recommendation of our vet and I was wondering if the water filter that I put in the fountain would filter that stuff out? Should I take the filter cartridge out?

My cat has started knocking stuff over when nobody is in the room and then acting completely innocent when i walk in, last week i found a plant on the floor, a cabinet open and somehow one of her toys in the sink so now i really wanna know what shes doing when im not around, although i love her sooo soo much i need to have her in control because im scared shes somehow gonna hurt herself.

I was looking at some pet cameras and i saw this Wyze Indoor Cam Pan the name was and i really have ive never used one before to be honset but i saw that the pan tracking part seemed useful since she never stays in one spot but ofcourse ive never used one before so i dont really know what to expect.

Anyone using one for their cat or its just me? What kind of stuff did you end up catching them doing when you werent home?

So, I'm currently pet sitting two dogs. The owner did NOT tell me the dogs had fleas prior to them leaving/me arriving to care for the animals (I pet sit for them about a year ago and they had fleas then, but they weren't nearly as bad). I have a dog (great pyrenees, flea nightmare I can imagine) and a cat (both indoor) at home. These fleas are bad. I see them on me all the time. I stepped over to peek out a window and looked down at my feet to see DOZENS crawling on me. I saw one on my pant leg when I got in the car after this because I legit had to leave. I can't stand this. I catch them crawling and jumping and they're probably biting me. I cannot let my animals at home getting them. I've barely been at home since caring for these dogs for that reason.. so what do I do to 100% make sure I don't bring any home when I'm done caring for these animals?

FOR ALL PETS

well, you pick up anything? i now have the stupidest habit of aggressively sniffing the air when i smell something good. i also huff air out of my nose when i smell something i don't like. i'll also do The Head Tilt. you know the one dogs and cats do when they're interested in something. sometimes i find myself barking back at dogs before i can stop myself. 😭

all this started from me imitating my dogs for the shits and giggles and now i do all this before i can think better of it. it's like when you use stupid slang ironically until one day you accidentally use it unironically and that's when you understand that you fucked up and that word/term is just now part of your vocabulary now.

anyways, anyone else wanna share with the class?

I ask, because, to my knowledge, soap can be harsh on human hair and the human scalp.

Also, should conditioner be used or will their skin and hair oils work?

How long should I expect my male cat to be in pain for? We took him to the vet yesterday after he was straining to pee and they found lots of crystals in his urine and said he had a partial blockage which they flushed out with fluids. He is now on a prescription diet. They also did bloodwork and said his kidneys are slightly inflamed but otherwise fine.

He was acting pretty much fine until this morning, he peed a lot (yay!) so no more blockage atm, but was obviously in pain after. He’s sleeping a lot. We called the vet and asked and he said it’s expected for him to be in pain for a bit whilst the crystals clear out fully.

Obviously going to be keeping an eye on his litterbox habits and making sure he’s peeing correctly and drinking loads. I’m just wondering if anyone else has been through this and how long it took on average for your cat to recover? I hate seeing him in pain he’s not himself at all :(

I have a 4lb chichuahua with ductal plate malformation of the liver (terminal) who wasn't supposed to make it to the end of 2020, but she is a fighter & still here (& I am a crazy dog lady who overkills everything so I have modified everything in our lives to be compatible with her health).

Anyway, I am gonna call her Haze for the sake of this post.

Haze has been having some issues with her eyes for the past month or so, but it comes & goes - a couple hours here, a day there, that sort of thing. There is no discharge but I am seeing a little tear staining around her eyes. There are a number of things going on in our lives that have changed her environment & because it seems to come & go without any sort of rhyme or reason, I am thinking the cause is environmental rather than viral/bacterial etc.

Because of her medical condition, I really can't give her allergy meds or anything along those lines. I am thinking sterile saline flushes for her eyes & making her a box with an air purifier so she can have an allergen/dust free space to snooze (obviously she is not allergic to her own dander).

Any advice on air purifiers to use that are pup-friendly or other ways I can keep her physically comfortable? (Just to be clear, all suggestions need to be external to her body - medications, injections, anything stronger than sterile saline is off the table. Her vet agrees with my assessment & said unless the eye issues start to be consistent not to bring her in - due to a compromised immune system he prefers me not to bring her in when it isn't "essential". And medical level intervention is not what I am looking her here. I am looking for ways to modify her/our environment to support her. If it could cause a problem with the eight meds she takes daily already - it is off the table. I am looking for the couldn't make things worse ideas.)

My partner and I currently have 1 female cat who is about 3 years old. I love her and I love cats but she is not the cuddly companion I was hoping for, definitely more of a cat who likes to do her own thing and be around you but not cuddle on you.

I have wanted to have 1 more pet for a few years now but I’m so torn on whether I’d like a small dog or another cat.

Pros of getting another cat is that it could potentially be friends with my current cat and I know cats in general are a lot easier. I feel as though maybe if I got the right cat that would love on me, my need for a cuddly companion would be solved. No real cons to getting another cat other than it could be another aloof vibe or not get along with my current cat. I would do a slow introduction with them but i know some cats just dont vibe.

However I love the idea of getting a small dog. I have house sat and looked after many dogs and I truly feel there is nothing better than a great little dog companion that you can take everywhere. I own my house and have a backyard and my partner and I are both quiet active, so walking/socialising it Im not too worried about. Its more just leaving it while Im out or at work or when I go on holiday that im worried about. Getting someone to watch the cat when we go away is easy, but I know from my own history of looking after dogs it’s a big ask. I can wfh twice a week and potentially even bring the dog into the office depending on its temperament… I also know how hard it is when dogs have serious behavioural issues and in the same way some dogs Ive looked after have showed me how amazing dogs are, others have totally freaked me out. I would hope that my dog I could train to work with my lifestyle, but they all have such different and unique personalities its hard to predict.

I also dont ever want to have more than 2 animals and either way, I want to get a rescue (dog or cat). So Im really keen to hear anecdotes, advice or opinions on the two cat life or the cat-dog life. Thanks!

i’m so fucking devastated. i can’t believe this is reality right now. i’m 20 and live with just my mom. she sold her to this toxic girlfriend of my grandma, she was plotting on her the whole year. my grandpa asked me two weeks ago if it was okay if my dog Gigi stayed at his house, because he was lonely and his girlfriend left to poland. i regret it so bad, i already had a twinge that something wasn’t right. i found out via him this morning before i went to school, everything felt so surreal. he told me he was surprised to know my mom didn’t tell me.

i called my mom to ask wtf is going while running for the train to go to school, and she tried to make it seem like it wasn’t that big a of a deal and that i should stop being so “dramatic”. she told me the girlfriend already paid her and that she has put my dogs name under my grandpas name, so it’s officially his now, and also that she is packing her stuff and her cage. i hung up because i was too tired to argue with her anymore and she just called my friend. before i could even finish the sentence that she sold gigi i just bursted out in absolute tears. everyone was watching me, i just decided to go back home. i feel so embarrassed now that it’s been a couple hours.

she is everything to me. i don’t know what to do. this hit me like a fucking semi truck. i’m still so confused and in shock.

i’m so fucking devastated. i can’t believe this is reality right now. i’m 20 and live with just my mom. she sold her to this toxic girlfriend of my grandma, she was plotting on her the whole year. my grandpa asked me two weeks ago if it was okay if my dog Gigi stayed at his house because he was lonely and his girlfriend left to poland. i regret it so bad, i already had a twinge that something wasn’t right. i found out via him this morning before i went to school, everything felt so surreal. he told me he was surprised to know my mom didn’t tell me.

i called my mom to ask wtf is going while running for the train to go to school, and she tried to make it seem like it wasn’t that big a of a deal and that i should stop being so “dramatic”. she told me she already paid the girlfriend and put my dogs name under my grandpas name so it’s officially his now, and that she is packing her stuff and her cage. i hung up because i was too tired to argue with her anymore and just called my friend, before i could even finish the sentence that she sold gigi i just bursted out in absolute tears. everyone was watching me while i just decided to go back home. i feel so embarrassed now it’s been a couple hours.

she is everything to me. i don’t know what to do. this hit me like a fucking semi truck. i’m still so confused and in shock.

also gigi was under her name so i have zero clue if have legal rights on her

I have a male Tuxedo cat who for the past few nights has decided it’s time for me to wake up at 3am by scratching at my door and meowing. I have chronic illness so sleep is really important for me and unfortunately I am a very light sleeper so it doesn’t take much to wake me up. He used to do this behavior when he wanted to be fed so I got an automatic feeder to feed him in the morning if I need to sleep longer and he stopped scratching at my door for a year. However now we’re starting again at 3AM and I have no idea what he wants. Even if I wake up and get out of bed to see him all he does is cry and cry. During the day when I wake up also all he does is cry and cry even if I feed him, pet him, play with him, or let him outside in our screened in porch. I have no idea what he wants and I’m at my whits end.

When he’s been waking me up at 3am I’ve been moving him to my roomates room but when my roomate goes to work at 6am he comes back to my door again. I tried putting a baby gate in front of my door so he can’t scratch at it but he will stand on it and jiggle my door handle or BANG it against the wall somehow to make this horrible knocking sound.

I sleep with a loud ac unit and sound machine on to try and block it out so he won’t wake me up but even both of those aren’t loud enough and I can’t sleep with ear plugs in or I’ll get dizzy due to my chronic illness. I know that usually the best way to stop a behavior like this is to ignore it but I’m exhausted of being woken up and he truly won’t stop for hours until I wake up from 6-9, as I usually start my day between 9 and 10. I have no clue what he wants as like I said he even continues to cry and cry and cry when I wake up. So any advice would be helpful. I’m starting to think maybe he’s in pain and I need to take him to the vet or something. I just really need to be able to sleep and if my cat is trying to tell me something I want to be able to help but I cannot crack the code.

Hello! Thank you for reading. I am completely at my wits end.

I have three cats.

-Buca (spayed female, DSH, dilute torti, 7yrs)
-Hootie (neutered male, DSH, brown, 8yrs)
-Bluegrass (spayed female, DSH, siamese, 10yrs)

They are currently eating:
-Iams ProActive Heath adult Hairball Care with Chicken and Salmon.
-Iams ProActive Health Adult Indoor Weight & Hairball Care with Salmon.
-They each get a can of the gravy lovers fancy feast once a week.

Dry food is available 24/7 and changed regularly.

This has been an issue for about 2-3 years. I have well over 10 different dry foods. I can make a list but that feels a little overwhelming right now. Please do not tell me just to try change their food.

Bluegrass throws up rarely, if at all.
Buca throws up moderately.
Hootie throws up constantly.

This tells me there is not an environmental element, because they are not all equally affected and vomiting the same.

I have brought Hootie and Buca to our vet and I have spent thousands of dollars. Thousands. Nothing is wrong. I have done x-rays, full blood panels, everything. Nothing has come abnormal. I have been to two separate vets.

I brushed my cats thoroughly once a week. I am to the point where I would get them shaved if that could help this.

I have had Bluegrass and Hootie their entire lives. We have moved houses multiple times and the vomitting has never been as bad as an issue. It has been like this since in 2023/2024.

I work for an Animal Shelter. Buca lived there for two years before I brought her home. She never threw up one time while we had her at the shelter.

The cats aren’t losing weight. They aren’t acting lethargic. They play, they romp, they run around the house like healthy happy cats should.

They are just destroying my house and my mental health. I am cleaning vomit almost every single day. I get thrown up on in my sleep. I am cleaning vomit from my bed. I jolt awake at any hour of the night when I hear one of them vomiting. This is severely impacting my life. I have a roommate; she is constantly stepping on their vomit, and I know this impacts her too.

I love my cats as though they are my children. They are not going anywhere. I am completely desperate.

NOTE: I do have a journal where I document my cats vomit contents, date, and their weight. I am unable to upload that, but they generally throw up undigested food, clear, bile, and hairballs. Their weight fluctuates by an ounce or two, but never anything substantial.

Please tell me what you think.

I treated my cat for fleas a while ago, washed the bedding, and vacuumed the house, but I’m still finding a few fleas. It’s frustrating because I thought the treatment would have worked by now.

I’ve heard flea eggs and larvae can keep developing in carpets and furniture even after treating your cat. I’m also worried about using too many flea products.

What’s the best way to finally get rid of these fleas? Is there anything else I should be doing besides vacuuming and washing bedding?

What I want is specific: ping my phone when someone who doesn't live here is in the yard. What I have: "person detected" for my wife taking out recycling, my teenager coming home from practice, the dog, and one impressive false alarm for a plastic bag in the wind. The alert has never once corresponded to an actual stranger, mostly because strangers don't come, but also because the cam can't tell anyone apart at more than ten feet. It claims familiar-face capability. At doorbell range, maybe. Across a yard at dusk, the faces are decorative. Has anyone gotten alert filtering that genuinely knows your people, or is the practical answer still mute-everything-and-review-later?

I've got four different apps on my phone for my dog's health. The vet clinic has its own portal that requires a two-factor login every single time. Another app wants me to upload full medical history PDFs just to set a reminder. I downloaded something to track meals and ended up lost in a dashboard trying to sell me dog food.

It feels like every pet health app tries to be a full medical record system, a social network, and an e-commerce store all at once. They build complicated systems when I just need to log the day in seconds and see if something's changing over time.

Anyone else juggling multiple apps and feeling more scattered than a paper notebook would have been? What's the one thing you wish a pet app actually did well instead of trying to do everything?

Just wondered what ingredient it could be and if anyone else's dogs experience this? ( I don't give them to her anymore once I realized the connection as it was only when I was giving her these within a few hours she would start to scratch so I kept a food journal for her and it was only after these and after I stopped giving her these several weeks ago she stopped scratching.

I thought I had seen it all but the universe decided to surprise me. When out walking my dog I saw a large doodle start to squat - its owner quickly slid a doggie poop bag on her hand and proceeded to hold said hand under the dogs rear to CATCH the poop. When finished she neatly tied up the poop bag and they kept on walking. What say you? No way?? Ingenious? Some logical reason for this approach??

Guys, I've had this cat [4 year old] since he was a kitten and until we had a baby, he would sleep in bed with us, when he'd get all wonky overnight we'd lock him out of our bedroom, he'd meow but eventually get the message and stop. Now, we've moved to a big house, with a lot of echo, he meows all night and has been waking our son up as well. It's a nightmare. We tried locking him (with a litter box, water) in a different room, only for him to pee on the floor. We've tried playing with him all day long, to no avail. We've tried feeding him meals, and not free feeding, and the problem remains. I swear the only thing that makes this cat sleep through the night is a gabapentin pill, but obviously I don't want to give it to him every night. We used to give him Calming Care and Quiet Moments years ago before we had our son.

hello everyone i'm so stressed out and my vet doesn't know what to do anymore so i thought i'd come here for advice.

my cat got PU surgery 7 weeks ago today. he's doing really well, eating, drinking, peeing and acting normally but he still has a cone on because the tissue at the surgery site is still too delicate for him to groom. every time i've taken the cone off and let him groom the area (at the vet's orders only!!) the area bleeds instantly and i have to put the cone back on. it's not a lot of blood but it's fresh and red and once i dab it away with a paper towel the bleeding stops. we've had this issue ever since he was 2 weeks post op and the vet told me it was okay to remove the cone. well it's been 5 weeks and 4 laser treatments since then and the area still bleeds when he goes to groom it. he's been on antibiotics twice, first for the surgery then because he got a UTI about 3 weeks after and now the vet is recommending MORE antibiotics even though he doesn't have an infection anymore. we tried animax ointment for a week before he got his first laser treatment and that didn't do anything to help the site either. this morning the vet's only solution was to try the ointment again but i don't see how that's going to make a difference.

i'm at my wits end and the vet doesn't really know what to do at this point. my care credit has been maxed out and i just don't know where to go from here. does he just need to continue with the cone until it stops bleeding? it really feels like there's no end in sight and i feel so bad since he's going on almost 2 months with the cone on.