Have your pets started acting different?

reply to post by SystemResistor


Well, yet another angle, there has been some stress here in the past 6 months. Wife unemployed and I'm seeing 13 years of self employment going south.

If you are interested, I have information for a holistic vet located in Canada. I did purchase his book and subscribe to his daily newsletter. I won't post his info here as I'm not sure that is allowed. If anyone would like the info feel free to send a U2U and I will share.

I also use his canine supplement for my older dog and it has made a huge difference in the way he acts and plays.

Also the vet was recently forced to resign from the College of Vets up there because of his holistic information.

reply to post by frugal


Well, a vacation sounds great...ohh you mean the pets. I'm sure they could all use a change of pace, but just last year we got chased out of our home due to forest fires, so we all got to stay at grandmas for a week, but I do know the dog could use more exercise, and the male cat(neutered) is an avid outdoorsman even in the snow. The cats get a variety of wet food to go with their crunchies once a day, also occasional fresh salmon as I'm an avid fisherman. Our dog gets a little less variety but she really loves fresh veggies, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower.

Originally posted by quest4info
reply to post by Antoniastar

 

Thanks for that recipe, do you cook the beans or use raw? Anything that can be done homegrown I always prefer, but we have gone to the vet and bought the pills depending on the animal and weight.

You are most welcome. I am happy to help. Ooops! I forgot, yes! Please do cook the beans. Home-grown is my preference too.

No doubt you have taken measures to secure your lovie's health and happiness. Just thought bring it up because, like I said, the store-bought de-wormer wasn't cuttin' it.

You don't think someone is poisoning your animals do you? Orrrr maybe their eating rats that have been poisoned? If they're dumpster divers it's possible that they ingested an invading substance. Have all three dined from the same "trash" bin?

reply to post by spacedoubt


The catahoula leopard dog is a fairly new breed, 300 years or so. We rescued her from the pound, and when I went there she was no where to be found in the kennel, so I was like dang, someone already grabbed her. To my relief, I found that she had already taken control of the entire staff and had made home base in the office chair From what I have found is they are part Greyhound, Mastiff, Boucheron and some wolf. She is very much hound thou as she always travels nose down bum up, we have walked within 40 feet of a deer and she never even knew it as she was so concerned about the mouse holes. She is very smart as she has opened our panty, taken plastic lids off containers without destruction, and one day I came home and the oven door was down.

Maybe we all just need another change in our lives. The wife and I just know something isn't right.

Ohh the wife just reminded me that 4 months ago we had a boil water advisory, we got the warning 1 week after it was lifted??? another hmmmmmm

reply to post by sinohptik


only the male cat has shown other problems, turns out he has urinary tract problems.

reply to post by Antoniastar


Only the male cat travels, the dog has a run that is contained, and the female cat is quite home based. No dumpsters or rats around, and if its neighbors they would have to come on our property and throw any tidbits over the fence.

Originally posted by quest4info
reply to post by sinohptik

 

only the male cat has shown other problems, turns out he has urinary tract problems.

Hmm, thats not necessarily a bad thing. Those are usually more serious signs Are the lethargic -all- of the time, or just more than usual?

Catahoula Leopard Dogs were bred to corner and keep boars in the south. they are known as the "tree climbing" dog. Interesting breed actually, almost got one myself a fear years back.. That was just a wierd situation with that adoption agency though... Some people are strange

Thank you everyone for all the replies, I can tell you all truly love your pets/family!!

So far my conclusion leaves me with:
-water(most likely and my first thoughts)
-food changes(possible due to changes within manufacturers)
-in house contaminants(i don't think)
-bad neighbors(i've always made peace)

I will reply to any comments tomorrow as I need to get up early. Going early in the morning to pick up some breeding tilapia to start my home aquaculture system. Sure hope it's not my water or my trip will be wasted.

reply to post by sinohptik


The lethargic behavior is more so than normal, I know cats love to lounge but it is our dog who really has been slacking.

Yes they are a neat breed, apparently when the Spaniards left South America, they left their protective breeds behind(mastiffs and boucherons) which then bred with the greyhounds and had some interbreeding with the wolf population.

Rescue dogs are the best!

I'll tell you the story of our Lab/Akita mix.
It's kind of a new behavior...But he is my wife's personal diagnostician.
My wife has some blood clotting issues, they often start in her legs.
DVT's they call them. More than once a piece of clot broke off, and went to her lungs..an embolism.
She could have died. Many people do. My wife has survived 3.

We noticed something though. When her leg would become painful...Our big guy would put his nose right up against her leg. Not where the pain was, but in another location. We just thought he was sensing her pain, and being nice to her..
However...The pain got so unbearable, we went to emergency...Sure enough an ultrasound scan revealed the deep clot. Right where our dog was putting his nose. He smelled the blood maybe?

A few months later, he did it again...This time she wasn't in as much pain...But we scheduled with an imaging center then next day. Again..his nose was right on the money. Exact spot...We got it early, and avoided a potential embolism.

This happened one more time, and he was right on the money again. Coincidence? I dunno.

But this is what closed the deal for me. She was having similar pains..in the same locations as before.
But Leo the dog, could not have cared less...We went to the imaging center again, just in case.
This time, it was just a surface bruise..with no Deep Vein Thrombosis...Leo was right!

He's a special critter in our house.

I too have noticed some changes in my pets. None of them are acting particularly lethargic, but they do have other strange symptoms(Explained down below). I hae 3 cats and 1 dog, and all of them except for one cat are having issues. Up to this point I had assumed it was something in the outside environment because that is the only thing the 2 cats and 1 dog share in common.

Here's what's going on and what I've learned from the process of elimination: (Sorry for the length. Thought it was important because I too love my pets and am baffled.)

It started with the dog in the summer. He was itching very badly. At first I didn't think much of it because he often gets a little itchy over the summer. I gave him a dose of flea medicine from the vet just to be on the safe side, but I never saw any fleas on him, and it didn't help at all. I didn't begin to get concerned until it started getting colder and his itching did not stop. Normally it does. I gave him a good bath and no change.

Around the same time that I was beginning to get concerned about my dogs itching, I noticed that both of my cats had some scabs and missing hair. I hadn't seen them licking excessively or itching, so I thought perhaps they got in a spat with another cat. Within a few days time though, their whole bodies were covered in scabs. Again, no sign of fleas. I even did the wet paper towel test. I set up an appointment with the vet. The vet said there were no sign of fleas or any other problems, and he suspected it was an allergy. I asked him if he thought it was strange that they would both suddenly have an allergy after all this time. He asked if the two cats were related. I said yes, so he said that was probably why. I wasn't all that convinced, but I let him gave them a shot of prednisone. He said if the scabs didn't come back it was probably a seasonal allergy. After a few days, all the scabs cleared up.

A few weeks passed and the dogs itching finally seemed to have subsided and everyone seemed happy. Then one morning I was woken up by the loudest most horrible gurgling sound coming from my dogs stomach. I got up to check on him and he was acting fine, so I started Googling possibilities online. About 15 minutes later he went to the bathroom , came back inside(his stomach sound had stopped), ate, drank, and started to play. I figured since he was eating and drinking and playing it wasn't much to be concerned with. Just to be on the safe side though, I went outside to examine "his business" and found worms. Yuck! I immediately called the vet and set up an appt. I got medicine from the vet for both the cats and dogs, because even though I had seen no evidence of it in the cats, I know they can catch it from each other.

Now the dog seems perfectly fine, but guess what.....the cats are covered in scabs all over their bodies again. I suppose it could be an allergy, but it seems strange to me that after a few years of no problems, they would both get allergies at the same time. My next plan is to give them a dose of flea medicine even though they don't show any signs of fleas. We'll see how that goes. If it's not that, I just don't know. A food allergy perhap? I changed my dogs food the other day just to be safe, but as I said, he seems to be back to normal now. I guess if the flea medicine doesn't work on the cats, I'll try changing their food too, but it still seems strange to me that they would all get allergies all at once.


*Edit to add. Since the dog ended up with worms, I can only deduce that he must have had fleas, even though I didn't see any sign of them....and it wasn't too long after I gave him the flea meds that he stopped itching. However, it was at least 2 weeks after the flea meds, and that seems like a long time to me, so I didn't connect the two. Perhaps the problem with the cats is fleas as well, even though according to the vet there is no evidence of them*

Originally posted by quest4info
only the male cat has shown other problems, turns out he has urinary tract problems.

Yup, more common in male neutered cats.

I found that with my cat who suffered, cutting right back on the dried food helped. They love "crunchies" but the ingredients are usually of dubious origin and with way too many additives, also with the excess of liquid they drink as a result, problems often occur so fresh filtered water is good.

Crunchies are a treat for eating all their wet food now and things seem OK. I try and fill them up so they don't want any.

reply to post by kismetphayze


Has anything like sarcoptic or demodectic mange been looked into? It might be a possibility.

reply to post by quest4info

why not have your water tested yourself? do you use well water? could it be contaminated or is there
something in your area lately that was not there before?
just curious..you need not respond to me personally.

Nothing much noticable on my end.

My cat hasn't the only thing is she is eating more hard food vs canned cat food, my friends cat hasn't been feeling well for a while.

Only thing about my cat is she won't drink the city water, we actually have to buy bottled water for her. (my family and i recently moved.)

Are you using a furnace or hot water heater that uses propane/natural gas? I know carbon monoxide can cause flu-like symptoms. Do you have a monitor? Just a thought. I live in MN and every winter it seems in the news there is a family who gets sick, near death or dies because of it. Not sure if animals are affected but thought I'd put it out there.

my dog is acting the same old usual. "let me in the house", and once let is "i dont wanna go out", and when the dreadded "W" word is mentioned she is jumping around like she's won the lottery and rearing with energy to walk walk walk...

My dog is acting like she usually does ... which means spoiled, hyper, and incredibly destructive to her chew toys.

Please take your dog to the vet to have those lumps looked at. Cancer can sneak up on you. I know from experience.

Good luck.

(PS, I didn't read the entire thread so if you took the dog to the vet and I missed it ... I apologize.)

My two dogs have both aged terribly over the last 1-2 years. Granted, they are 14 and 13 years old. One of them is blind, partially deaf, has diabetes and arthritidis. The other still has lots of energy, but he has become much more lethargic and has lumps developing around his body. We are putting down the 14 year-old because her quality of life and well-being is very poor at the moment. The other dog has already come to terms with this. Very sad day.