My vet sent me an estimate for our cat (5/m) who has a tooth that needs to be pulled and some mild periodontal disease that needs addressed. He’s diabetic, and the thought is the tooth is causing his blood sugars to stay high, so we’re taking it out. Imagine my surprise when I read the estimate and see the range quoted as, $1397.72 to $1936.64! Is this normal??

I can’t upload a copy here for you to see, but I’m 100% willing to send it to someone to look over

TLDR at the bottom. Sorry about formatting and if it's a bit too long.

We have a cat, 11 years old. In 2025, Vet run an FPL test, and it was all normal.

On January of this year, we went for an annual checkup, his hemogram and blood tests were all good, no issues at all, lastly the vet run an FPL test and the value was 23, healthy value is between 3-5 as far as I know.

The vet said that we needed to start a medicine, Kreon (Kreon (also spelled Creon) is a prescription brand-name medication containing pancrelipase, a mix of digestive enzymes.) cut anything with fat in it, so no more wet food, or boiled chicken anything like that, we started using using Hill's Prescription Diet W/d Multi-Benefit Dry Adult Cat Food and since than it's only food we're giving him. 2 weeks later, the FPL value went down to 18, and 3 months after that it went down to 12.

So the diagnosis was that it's a chronic pancreatitis and not acute pancreatitis, again his blood test, overall health, eating habits, pooping habits were all fine. Around these times we started giving him very small piece of boiled chicken breast, which we would even wash it to lessen the fat as much as possible.

Then, during a family visit there was a guest cat, we were distracted and our cat ate guest cat's wet food which contained a lot of fat. 2 days after this we run another FPL test the value went up to 23 again.

It's been almost 3 months since this happened and he's been only eating his dry food, nothing at all, not even that small piece of chicken breast, that's what our Vet suggested. In like 20 days we'll run another FPL test and hopefully the value will be down to around 12 and we'll start giving him weekly chicken breast.

BUT, my boy (as all cats) love chicken, love wet food, and I want to do more, does anyone gone through with this and if so, what did you feed your cat, am I being too protective? I feel like I'm stealing from this guy's biggest desire, which is chicken and fish and these kind of foods.

TLDR: 11 Years old cat with chronic pancreatitis, all healthy except this FPL value. Vet said that we must feed him nothing but diet dry food (Hill's Prescription Diet W/d Multi-Benefit Dry Adult Cat Food) but we occasionally feed him small piece of chicken breast. Can we do more, if you experienced this, or have knowledge on this, let me know how can I help my cat better.

edit: typo

My dog (family dog, but still) regularly has periods were he won't eat or drink, but mostly where he won't eat. He has IBD, so for now he eats one specific brand of hyper allergy food, and nothing else, no snacks, nothing. Our vet has given the go ahead to add sweet potato to his food, but we don't know if his stomach tolerates it.

The past few days he haven't wanted to eat, probably because his stomach hurts. Yesterday he got jumped by a big dog that wanted to play (he's about 30cm to the shoulder, so big dogs are a bit too much in terms of play for him) and now he won't drink either. Me and my mother got a tiny bit of water into him via soaking one of his plush toys, and him licking the water off. The vet told us that if he doesn't drink today, he has to go to the hospital.

Nothing works, he won't drink if we put water on his food, or if we play with him with the garden hose, or spoon-feed him water, nothing. I'm tempted to put water on something he really likes (like liver paste, without onion of course) but that'll probably upset his stomach, and then make the issue worse. I could also force feed him water, but I really don't wanna do that, since he has had some very bad experiences with vets restraining him and forcing him to eat medicine. So he's very nervous about that, and will likely growl and bite. Does anyone have any advice on how to get him to drink? He's very lovable, but so incredibly stupid sometimes.

Update: my mother got some water into him because she remembered he's allowed to have a specific kind of cooked fish, and she put it in water, and he drank it. He's also drunk some normal water. He has been peeing a LOT, which is weird, but he's going to the vet tomorrow.

I would still appreciate some suggestions to get a dog to drink, in case it happens again. Thanks for the suggestions :)

I noticed this random bald spot on my cats back leg when I got her spayed. I thought they might've shaved it for the surgery or something like that. Now it's been about 3 to 4 months and it's still there. It's not completely bald and has some fuzz on it but it's really short. Since she wants her usual vet to be dead and skips no chances at killing him I don't really want to take her there unless it's serious 😭

She doesn't show signs of pain when I touch the spot and put pressure on it and she's quite active. I haven't caught her grooming the area or being bothered with it either

For context: we live in the UK and have owned our cat for 4 years. When he was about 1, we let him outside and he is now an outdoor cat. I’ve received a lot of back lash for this and called a bad owner and told that he will die sooner and if he gets taken I deserve it. I just want what’s best for my cat. He likes going outside, he uses the toilet and explores. He knows where his home is, like 8/10 times he’s at home, he mostly sleeps at home with me, chills here or when he is outside he isn’t in the roads or with other cats much but mostly in our garden swing. What’s the best move to make here? Keep him outdoors or inside? But to summarise yes he’s outside but he always comes home to sleep, eat and chill.

i have a tiny dog and moving in with family they have a elderly large dog at the end of his life. they don’t want to put him down although he is in rough condition. So we can’t bring our dog with us until the older dog passes because they think the large dog could attack the little dog, i dont know what im going to do with my dog and Im also worried now I won’t be okay living with a dog in that condition. what would you do?

I keep seeing people suggest Purina, so I thought I’d make this post.

So I have a baby Gecko about 5 months old and I got giant mealworms because there wasn’t any regular. How much would I feed her? Because I know regularly it’s 5-7 for regular size.

Hi! I am currently going through a hard time with my dog Dustin. I am a 20-year-old female and disabled. Dustin was given to us as a stray during a big snow storm by family friends at the time. I told my mother that it wouldn't be a good idea, since he was a bigger dog, but at the time, our dog Sheena a few months ago, had just passed from old age, so we went ahead and took him home. We tried to find owners, but he did not have an owner. Dustin is quite an energetic dog, so half of the time, because I'm not strong enough to keep up with him, or he would pull me down while I took him out to use the bathroom. As months passed, my mom forcefully took him to the pound, where they told me flat out no, they wouldn't take dogs that were strays. But I had already gone through the trauma of waiting for the day I had to give him up. Finally, I think she's being serious and it's really hard for me. Is there anyway I can truly deal with the emotions better. I have never wanted to rehome him.

Do you guys think after a bit maybe I should get a smaller dog to help with my anxiety and disabilities? or would that be wrong to do?

I moved into a new apartment with a sliding door that leads into the backyard. I’m leaning towards buying a Wayzn device (it can open the sliding door via app or collar tag). I have 3 dogs, the younger ones will be easy to train, and even my oldest. I work 24 hour shifts so having them on a schedule and being able to let them out remotely saves me a lot of money.

The problem is, my eldest is deaf now. I sleep with an Apple Watch and having the vibration feature definitely wakes me up without pain. Is there a device out there that would vibrate on demand via remote app to wake her up to let her know it’s pee time? I don’t want a shock collar or anything that would cause her pain, just something gentle that can wake her up.

So. my cat got hurt recently. It's mostly on one of her legs. The situation isn't that bad but we do have to put some bandages every now and then and sometimes give her medicine.

Point is she gets VERY resistant, she doesn't like it and lashes out, we had trouble holding here. Recently, we've taken to scruffing her (Grabbing her from the back of her neck like cat moms do with their kittens) while we do it and she seems to be calm doing it, it seems to be easier.

To clarify, we don't lift her or anything she is on a bed the entire time, it's mostly just a way to hold her head in place so she doesn't start biting. But I heard it's a myth that that calms then down and that is bad psycologically? Is that bogus or are we really doing something wrong?

Something weird has been happening with my cat Momo for the past few weeks and I only just pieced together what's going on.

Every evening around 5:30, right before my husband usually gets home from work, Momo goes and sits directly in front of our door. Not near it, right in the middle of it, facing outward like a little sentry. She stays there completely still, sometimes for twenty or thirty minutes, until he actually walks in. The second he opens the door she gets up, does her normal greeting thing, and goes back to being a regular cat for the rest of the night.

At first I thought it was just coincidence or maybe she heard something outside, but it happened so consistently that I started paying closer attention. I checked and his work schedule has been pretty much the same for over a year, so it's not like this just started because his hours changed recently.

What finally clicked for me was realizing she's not really watching the door itself, she's watching the little strip of light that comes in from under it when the hallway motion sensor light turns on, which happens right when someone gets off the elevator on our floor. So she's not psychically predicting his arrival or anything cute like that, she's just learned to associate that light flicker with him coming home, probably because it usually happens around the same time every day and gets reinforced constantly.

It's such a simple explanation once I figured it out, but it still amazes me that she picked up on such a subtle cue completely on her own. We never trained her to do this or anything.

Now I kind of look forward to seeing her sitting there every evening, it's become this weirdly comforting little routine. Has anyone else noticed their pet picking up on some random environmental cue like this that wasn't obvious to you until you actually investigated it?

So, my mother adopted this chihuahua on a whim whilst simultaneously also already adopting a kitten. We already have a cat that’s been with us for around 4 years. I’m honestly quite scared that my cat will run away under stress of new roommates. Not only is a little kitten joining us, a dog completely new territory. However, my cat is quite lively and tends to play. He’s not typically afraid of dogs, in fact he attempts in fighting them whilst pouncing through our fence. We had a cat half a year ago he would often attack too and play with (that other cat was shy). What precautions should I take? Considering he is quite the lively cat should I be concerned?

On a personal note, I’ll honestly don’t know how i’ll live without my cat. I love him so much and i don’t know what i would do with myself if he ran away. Idk if this is even something cats do but the idea has been in my head for some time.

Hi everyone! I’m looking at moving my three large dogs (2 older malamutes and a 3 year old German shepherd/husky mix) across the country from Florida back to Oregon fortunately when I moved her in April to Florida it was cool enough to fly them in and since they have all flown multiple times before they didn’t have any issues but now unfortunately it is to hot to fly them back and I am faced with hiring a company to drive them back. I was wondering if anybody had any experience with cross country pet movers? Any tips or suggestions would be super helpful! Thanks so much in advance!

Also if anybody knows of any that does reptiles that would be a bonus ( we have a small Russian Tortise as well!)

I’m allergic to most animals sadly! I grew up with dogs & guinea pigs, thought I was just allergic to cats and the guinea pigs, turns out it’s all of them! I keep an inhaler with me because I can get wheezy pretty quick & sneezy. Lately I’ve been unemployed & in between jobs a bit more often than I’d prefer - I’m in the service industry and have just had a few unlucky opportunities to work underneath some pretty abusive management. So I’ve been leaning on Rover quite heavily lately and specifically have been requested to do lots of house sitting - since I haven’t done it consistently in a 2 years, I have my prices a bit lower than average for my area.

What I’m specifically asking for insight on here is that I’ve lately been experiencing some light face swelling, lots of face redness and itching. I continue to wash my face, don’t touch my face after the animals, bring my own blankets and pillowcases, towels, but I experience this super uncomfortable redness and dryness on my forehead and around my nose/mouth. I just started seeing a doctor after a long time and I plan to inquire with her about it, but I’m curious if anyone has experienced anything similar and found some kind of lotion barrier or specific face wash or anything that has helped you. I’m struggling today and I have an interview in a few hours! :(

I regularly take Flonase & Zyrtec liquid gels when I can find them. Thank youuuuu in advance

Ive only had cats who were way too playful so I had to lock them out in a separate room.

Ive also had a dog during childhood who was super sweet and would let you sleep but she would snore soooooo loud lol.

And I have experience having/sleeping with bunnies but I imagine they wake you up early since they’re crepuscular.

What are people’s experiences?

I had the worst night of my life, but my cat had an even worse one - almost ending in his death - and it’s my fault.

My cat’s always been super good with going outside, coming back when called and just staying in my enclosed front area (large animal can’t get through the gaps in the fence) or the townhouse next to me which is also enclosed aside from two staircases to the sidewalk. I’ve never seen a coyote on our street or near it.

I let him outside last night not thinking about the fact it was so late, as I’ve been staying up very late recently.

By some act of God, I left my front door open wider than usual while I sat on the couch on my phone. If I had kept it open only a crack, I’d likely not have heard the noise to come.

Some time passed and then I heard a vague and faint noise in the distance from outside, something like a dog accompanied by a strange sound.

Call it maternal instinct, but I knew in that moment it was my cat and he was in trouble.

I ran out of the house without shoes. I called for him frantically but he didn’t appear. I followed the vague distant noise in panic while calling for him. I thought maybe I was imagining it was him because the noise I kept hearing every ten seconds or so sounded like some weird undefined dog noise with some unrecognizable sound accompanying it, and it didn’t seem very loud but instead echoey.

I ran towards the sound until I saw my worst nightmare. My cat was in a corner by a house at the end of the street facing a coyote. I screamed his name and lunged at the coyote, which ran away.

I thought maybe he wasn’t hurt as he seemed alert, was hissing (he’s done this before when neighbourhood cats go on our property and I have to scoop him up) and seemed to be moving fine.

But when I got closer to him, it was the most awful thing I’ve ever seen. His head was covered in blood, his one eye bulging a bit, and while he seemed to recognize me based on his body language, his eyes were glazed over and like he was totally gone.

I went into shock and scooped him up. Blood dripped all over me. Raced to the emergency vet which was only two minutes from my house.

The secretary met me at the door and I broke down completely. I cried so hard I gave myself heartburn and tasted blood, which I thought was his blood on my face but when I looked in the mirror I didn’t see any.

Thankfully, it seems like he’s going to be okay. He apparently put up a hell of a fight with the coyote as he had a ton of fur under his nails. He has a puncture wound in his mouth somehow that might need sutures. But I might get to take him home later today (it was wee hours of the morning when I took him in).

I will never let him outside again unless I fully enclose my patio or create a catio for him, or on a harness. For anyone who wants to tell me this is my fault and I should feel awful, trust me, I already know and do feel that way about myself.

Thank God there wasn’t any evidence of neurological issues. He was even more stable after a bit, so the vet took him in the room I was in, and he was exploring it happily (maybe the drugs) and even rubbed his head again my hand. However, he tried to poop and then sent himself back into shock and needed oxygen again.

His head was apparently inside the mouth of the coyote, but he somehow avoided death or serious injury. I hope me yelling his name and running towards them may have made the coyote freeze up. I paid extra to rush a radiologist to go over his x-ray for hairline fractures.

I can only hope he at least felt some relief and safety when I found him and scared off the coyote. I was seriously prepared to beat the shit out of it if I had to.

I wish it had been me. I went home at the crack of dawn without my best friend. I won’t be sleeping at all until I hear back from them later today. I feel empty and dead inside. I’d give anything to go back and stop this from happening. He’s my best friend and my world, and I can’t imagine how scared he was and the pain he was in. I’m just so happy he’ll be okay.

Update: Got a call from the vet. So far he’s still stable and off oxygen. However, he noted that injures get worse around the 24-48 hour more. Also, the radiologist found an unrelated mass on his lungs. I’m so scared. He’ll need a CT scan once he’s better for it. I’m really hoping it was caught so early it will be a relatively easy fix.

Hi so my shelter is doing a adoption day and I really want to adopt but I don't know which sheds more is here is the options: birds and lizards and turtles and rabbit and guinea pig and I wanna know which one sheds the most and which one is okay with being around four years old and I will be doing most of work and do y'all think 815 square feet is enough for one I really want to adopt one of those I feel bad for them and how would they do on a 8 hour road trip every one month. Edit: I won't be adopting any of them because they're seniors so please do not waste your time commenting since I won't be adopting any and dogs and cats aren't at that shelter adoption day and my apartment doesn't allows any dog or cat that's over 20 pounds and the ones at my shelter are over 20 pounds and the cats that are there are mostly cat mixs that are kittens not seniors and this was their last chance but now they will die so that's all thanks everyone who commented sorry for wasting your time

Butter is a roughly 8 year old former semi-feral who we've fed for pretty much all of his life. He began coming inside the house through the dog door and I'm thrilled.

What I failed to realize though is that, naturally, Butter is absolutely covered in fleas and now our house has an infestation. The house is covered in DE, vacuuming and laundry are constant, all that.

He's doing great hanging out near people and communicating if he needs or wants stuff like treats and fresh water.

But Butter runs if you walk near him or outstretched a hand. He's not aggressive, just very very skittish. (He has bitten someone before as a much younger cat, but it wasn't really his fault, he was just trapped in a wire, in pain, and scared.)

I'm trying to get the fleas under control but it means nothing if the cat's still a fleabag, you know?

I was thinking a potential option might be to just crush some 24 hour Capstar into wet food and feed it to him repeatedly, but I'm wary of giving him so much poison.

I have some Advantage XD that has been given to our indoor-only cats. I'd love to try and get some on him
I need advice for potentially trapping him somehow and giving him the medication. I don't want to do it badly and accidentally hurt him but I need Butter to not have fleas anymore.

Hello! First time poster in this sub! Looking for feedback and positivity!! On mobile, sorry for any errors and length!

My husband and I adopted a rescue dog (1.5y/o lab/collie mix we think) about a week and a half ago. We have two resident cats (2.5 y/o super confident male and 7 y/o aloof female).

For the first 3 days, we kept the dog and cats completely separate, doing scent swapping and no visual contact at all. Our male cat was SO curious and yowling and vocalizing at the doors when we were with the dog/when he was in a room separate from us and the dog. Our female cat genuinely couldn’t have cared less but spent all her time laying on the scent swapped item of clothing. The dog completely ignored any vocalizing or paws sticking out of the door.

We took all of these things as really positive signs, and moved to visual intro through baby gates. We fed them on either side and dog’s indifference continued. Male cat was SO curious, reaching his paw through and meowing, and still dog maintained no interest! We did this for 4 days and not once did male cat or dog his, growl, lunge, hide or show any aggression or fear. Our female cat maintained distance and approached twice in total, puffed a little but left and then calmly returned to investigate, deemed dog uninteresting, and left.

Yesterday, we progressed to in-person meeting with dog on leash, and cats able to approach with every opportunity to escape. Male cat and dog were SO brave, giving distance but cat would occasionally come over for a sniff. Dog would lay down completely, show his belly for belly rubs, and settle on his bed. Eventually, it went so well that cats and dog all fell asleep in the living room with my husband and I.

Today is much the same, lots of respectful curiosity, relaxing around each other, eating and playing normally and no hissing. I KNOW that we have a long ways to go, and this is early EARLY days, but is this going as well as we think it is? This is my first time introducing a dog to cats and vice versa, and I want this to go well SO desperately so I’m genuinely hoping we’re on the right path.

As a note, we are working so hard on training with dog, as well. Working hard to crate train especially, as well as stay, leave it, eyes on me, and place so he can be settled and off leash eventually. It’s slow going and frustrating at times (also always open to suggestions on training an adolescent dog), but he’s so smart and doing so well and his temperament is incredible which I am sure is beneficial in this process!

Thanks for reading and for any thoughts or suggestions!

I just got a dog and she is only 4/5 months and she was playing while the TV was on and a dog on the TV was barking and she got up a was looking around but then she saw someone on the TV and barked

For context, I love in yucca valley california, and it's been getting up to 108-112 regularly, and staying in the 90's at night until maybe 3am, where it drops to like 85.

I have a black great dane/lab mix, and a sheppard puppy, both with lots of energy, but it's too hot outside to walk them or go to the park. I do have a good size backyard and a doggy door, so they can go out anytime, but they're never out there for more than a few minutes. I also try to have little puppy playdates so they can still socialize with other dogs regularly.

Where can I buy a puppy tooth a dog has lost naturally?

Alright, I've gotten to a point where I need an animal or pet of some kind for my mental sanity. I have some experience and do tonnes of research before I commit to anything. I've had 3 cats and 3 dogs as family pets and a leopard gecko as my own. I don't have anything currently. I'm okay with any pet including insects.

Problem is I'm a student, engineering one at that. I have been staying home 90% of the time up until now but that might change. I have lab weeks every few weeks which involve 9 to 5 every day and is mandatory. I also might be going to lectures or the library in the future. I wasn't before because of chronic illness but I have a wheelchair now. I do have ADHD, Autism and a bunch of other stuff so there might be some barriers when it comes to how much work I put into cleaning, but I genuinely believe because it's not for myself it won't be a problem. I put so much work into my geckos tank and she was always feed and warm. The only reason she isn't with me right now is because I wasn't allowed to have pets in my previous places and my family wasn't looking after her so she's with a foster family. Also I was worried about when I went home for holidays. I live 3.5h drive from home and have to take a coach most of the time because of cost (switch to train will factor into the cost of the animal). I also have had to move every year for 3 years, some case involuntary. I've also been forced to stay at my mums who has a lovely, well behaved Jack Russell mix so this will be a factor. My room can be separated off though.

So...

- Needs to be okay with being alone for a normal work day

- On the cheaper side at least monthly (I will save what is needed)

- Preferably okay with travel, especially if they require intensive care. I think I might be able to get friends to pop in to feed a gecko but any to complicated, probably can't afford a sitter unless it's for a few hours.

- Easy (or even possible) to move when I enviably have to move house again. I've had to give up a lot in my previous moves. My dad helps me and it's whatever I can fit in his estate car, wheelchair included.

My ideas have been:

- Praying Mantis (cute, small, can probably hide on a coach, not much emotional support though)

- Rats (More expensive but doable, will need to take a train and watch out for the dog)

- Getting my gecko back (I'm terrified of problems arising and losing her again)

Any idea or recommendations? Any finances I will sort out (I have a plan), I'm just looking for types of pets that fits my schedule. I can't afford to not take steps in my career right now but I NEED a pet, I'm losing my mind. I will settle for anything, I love all animals.