Last night my dog’s nail got pushed up in a 45 degree angle. There some bleeding but it stopped fast. She doesnt seem to be bothered too much when I touch around the area and she is still running around right after that happened. I saw your video and wondering should I pull it out? Please advice

Hi Krista,

I hope you’re doing well! I came across some of your videos on social media and noticed that you’ve handled a similar situation to what I’m currently facing with my cat. My cat has been experiencing some breathing issues, and her vet mentioned the possibility of a polyp in her sinus area.

I saw that you’ve dealt with similar cases before, and I was wondering if you could provide me with a general quote based on your experience. I should mention that I don’t live in Maryland, but I’m definitely willing to travel if it means getting the best care for her. Vet prices are pretty high where I am, and I’ve been dealing with a lot of unexpected expenses for my other pets, so any help or insight you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much for your time and help!

Best regards,
Roxanne

I posted seeking advice about my 4 yo hound mix on Sunday night and Dr. Magnifico responded. She asked that I keep her posted and with that, I’m hoping for some more advice. Roscoe had his follow up with our regular vet this afternoon and while his ALT levels have come down some (it was 786 on Sunday, 660 today and he started on Denamarin on Sunday night) his platelets have also dropped more (they were 114 on Sunday, 93 today) which is obviously concerning.

Some additional bloodwork levels to note –

RBC Sunday 8.99, today 9.46

Hematocrit Sunday 63.6, today 66.0

Hemoglobin Sunday 22.2, today 23.1

MPV Sunday 14.9, today 14.8

Reticulocytes on Sunday were 44.1 (within normal range) today they are high 127.7

Lymphocytes on Sunday were 1.20 (within normal range) today they are low 0.96

At our regular vet today, they tested him for Heartworm, Erlichia, Lyme & Anaplasma – all were negative. He is vaccinated for Leptosporosis, which is why I’m assuming they didn’t test for it today? The vet did say today that tick born infections can take awhile to show up, so he is proactively prescribing doxycycline which we are starting today.

Physical examination was normal at both the ER on Sunday night and our regular vet today. Regular vet suggested that he needs an abdominal ultrasound to look at his liver and spleen; they have someone that comes to the office every 2 weeks to provide this service, they will be in office on Thursday and are going to try to fit us in. I did call Jarrettsville Vet as well as Airpark Animal Hospital (we live in Northern Carroll County) to see about the possibility of getting an ultrasound sooner than Thursday (assuming that our regular vet is even able to get him in then) – neither had any availability sooner.

I’m just trying to wrap my head around this and prepare myself for what to expect next. Roscoe has been completely healthy up until this point. Other than a little more tired than usual, he is still behaving normally right now. Is there anything I should be asking for, or doing?

This boy is so incredibly special to us and has always been so full of life and love, I’m really struggling right now.

I apologize in advance for the long post… I have a 4 year old hound mix “Roscoe” who has been seemingly healthy since we adopted him at 14 weeks old. He is neutered, receives regular vet care, is up to date on all vaccines, and is on a monthly oral heartworm and flea/tick preventative. He is a grazer and eats Blue Buffalo Life Protection Formula dog food, and he takes Vet-IQ brand Hip & Joint and Pet Honesty “Super Pooper” probiotic supplements daily. He gets dog treats and basically no table food unless something small is dropped. We do not have a fenced yard and he does not listen well (hound dog… follows his nose) so he is leash-walked twice daily and is never outside off-leash. This evening my husband was walking him and on their walk they encountered two dogs that we were unfamiliar with; Roscoe became upset and was acting like a lunatic and pulling very badly on his slip knot leash. After the dogs passed, Roscoe laid down in a neighbor’s yard and vomited. After a few minutes, they crossed the street and he vomited again in the middle of the street. Once they got to the other side, he vomited again (all vomit appeared to be undigested food) and laid down, refusing to move any further. My husband called me to come pick them up because Roscoe would not get up and walk any further. I arrived with the car (Roscoe is an anxious dog and hates cars and car rides) my husband had to pick him up to put him in the backseat and he sort of collapsed. His gums were pale, his breathing was weird (shallow and alternating between rapid and very slow) ordinarily I would’ve called it panting but his mouth was closed the whole time and the breaths were coming out of his nose. He had a very distant stare and I honestly thought he was dying right in front of my eyes.

We rushed him to the emergency vet and once inside he was wagging his tail and perked up quite a bit from what he had been, but was still not himself. He was able to walk from the lobby into the back, and from the back into a room. We spent about 3 hrs just waiting to be seen, they checked his vitals and everything looked normal but he did vomit 4 different times, which was partially digested food mixed with foamy bile. Abdominal X-rays were normal (3 different views) no masses or foreign bodies were observed (someone is always home with him and we did not believe he could’ve gotten ahold of anything anyway) – we did bloodwork and this resulted in several concerning levels:

His red blood cells, hemoglobin & hematocrit, bilirubin & ALT are all elevated. The ALT is what they consider severely elevated, normal is 10-125, his is 786. Bilirubin normal is 0.0-0.9, his is 2.2.

Red blood cell normal is 5.65-8.87, his is 8.99.

Hematocrit normal is 37.3-61.7, his is 63.6.

Hemoglobin normal is 13.1-20.5, his is 22.2.

His platelets are also a little low, normal is 148-484, his are 114. They visualized them under the microscope and said he does have some large cells present, whatever that means?

The emergency vet gave him sub-Q fluids, an anti-nausea medicine and sent us home with a liver support medication (Denamarin) that we started tonight. We are to follow up with our regular vet on Tuesday for repeat bloodwork to make sure his platelets haven’t dropped any lower but I’m just curious as to what your thoughts are? He was completely fine all day before this happened this evening, he was his usual self. We are worried sick. 😭💔

Edit*** i forgot to mention he is a great dane

My 3 year old (4 in nov) has been super lethargic for the past 5 days. Took him to the vet and started with bloodwork. According to the vet nothing is off. When he does wake up he eats and drinks fine and is using the bathroom. Recently the last day or so hes been pacing but goes right to sleep when i place him in bed. All of his hair is raised ONLY when hes outside. Im at a loss..financially and emotionally. Ive added pictures of his bloodwork and some videos.

Hi Dr. Magnifico, my 12 yo cat recently diagnosed w throat polyp. quoted $5-7k for imaging alone, plus unknown surgery costs, which is just not financially viable. found you on YouTube when researching treatment options. called your office to see if i could bring him in for your assessment and potential surgery. living in south VA I’d be happy to make the 4h drive to get him seen by you. pls let me know if you approve. thank you!

my dog portly ingested 30 dog chews. They are called dog is human multivitamin. His weight is 28 lbs what should i do.

my dog fell down the stairs and hurt her left ear, and it is swollen. How bad is it, and how much would it cost to treat at a vet facility

My 13 year old lab/husky mix licks his paws. It started a few months ago with just a little, now it is almost all the time. I have added a daily probiotic. He has experienced negative reactions to antihistamines. His adoption folder said “No Antihistamines”. Three months ago, the vet gave him a shot which only made his sluggish for about three weeks. Suggestions? preferably with out injections or medications.

I just brought my 4 year old male cat home from a very very expensive trip to the ER. 6k expensive. He was blocked and in extreme distress and the ER I went to was down the street. They unblocked him the first night and it went well, inserting a catheter. They kept him a second night to monitor his creatine levels and the output of urine, which was high. The following day they suggested a bladder flush and I agreed to it since they saw a lot of grit in his bladder from the ultra sound. They said it went smoothly and a lot of that material came out with some blood clots. They told me not to worry about the blood clots as those wouldn’t block him. And in the third night they removed the catheter and monitored his ability to pee. Gave me a run down this morning on everything and what to look out for. I’m just worried about him reblocking. Is that something I should lose sleep over? I’m my mind I am thinking that since his bladder is flushed out, he should be good to go with a much lower risk for blocking, right? I’m be heading to the store with his prescription to buy the hills urinary wet food shortly. That’s about all I will be feeding him going forward.

And reassurance would be much appreciated as I’m just freaking out because I can’t afford more of this! 🙁

UPDATE: 31 hour update since we left the vet. He urinated on his own around 2pm on Sunday Sept 14th, the day I got him home. He has a little trouble but interestingly enough, a struvite crystal popped out of his penis! About the size of the head of a needle. I think that’s the crystal that the vet saw on the X-ray the first day he got in, near the penis. He bled in his pee right after this. He isn’t urinating a ton each time he pees, it’s about 4ml to about 6-8mls of urine each time. The blood pretty much dissipated after about the 3rd pee. After that I have him 1ml of Gabapentin. Vet told me that it is used not only to calm them but provide pain relief and allow them to accumulate pee. I was so exhausted, I think emotionally more than anything, that I laid down around 7pm. He woke me up so that he could get under the covers and go between my legs. He hasn’t done that in a long time so I really was enjoying that. I woke up around 11 so that I could give him another half dose of the gabapentin to last through the night. Again, he climbed under the covers with me and slept their through the night with me. I was surprised that I didn’t move at all throughout the night. I think subconsciously I needed him next to me like that and he knew that.

I woke up around 5:30-6am the next morning. This is when he got up and ventured over to the litterbox. His first attempt, nothing came out. And then I came to the realization that he preferred to pee on the pee pads I had laid around the room. At this point, IDC where he pees, just that he’s doing it. So the next 8-10 times, he urinated the same amount that I noted above. I did Google how much a cat’s bladder can hold and it said anywhere between 25-50 ml. And by how much he was peeing, I felt confident that he emptied his bladder this morning. I have him a decent dose of the gabapentin around 7, so now I’m just waiting for him to try to urinate again. It’s just so anxiety inducing because I’m worried about reblocking. The vet has given me direction to give the gaba starting at 10 on Sunday but he fell asleep around that time and I opted not to give it to him. When I called the vet to get some reassurance, they told me what the purpose of the gaba was, as noted above, so I have come to realize that the gaba is more than likely helping with the inflammation caused by the catheterization being in him for 2 and a half days. At this point I’m just waiting to see how he does this evening, mostly because I need to return to work tomorrow. So I’m just praying that he’ll be fine tomorrow and the next coming days. Praying….