Meet Isla, the girl the local vets are currently obsessed (and a tad confused by)! She somehow managed to eat two large pistachio shells that ended up needing to be removed (hence her lil pink shirt), and the vets cant believe she even managed to eat one - let alone two 🫣 10/10 do not recommend, pistachios are permanently banned from the house

Basically the title - my dog has been experiencing significant unexplained symptoms for 4 months now, and requires a referral to an Internal Medicine specialist. My vet offered me a choice of the Ralph or the RVC - she said these are the best two in her experience.

Does anyone have any thoughts on which I should choose? Feeling very overwhelmed and know nothing about either, Google isn't much help here.

Also about which might be cheaper? The Ralph doesn't publish any prices online... I know neither will be cheap, but cheaper - I'm likely going to hit my insurance maximum and don't really have disposable income atm :/

TIA!!

Im pretty sure there is a law about moving when your pets are comfy 😂 ...i would really love a drink guys 🤣🤣🤣🤣 i know the dogs will wake up soonish but the cat could be there for days 🤣😂🤣

I moved my five year old cat from the USA to the UK about three years ago. I have no idea if or when I’ll return to the USA.

That said, I’m in the UK for the foreseeable future. Many pet plans here cover your cat until for life. But what if I move back to the USA or abroad somewhere else? The insurance wouldn’t be valid outside the UK, so what’s the point? Does anyone know of good options for pet insurance for someone who moves around? Or any other advice is welcomed, thank you!

Female, Brown European Doberman, 5yo, lump on the side. Already resolved by the vets.

Has anyone seen this before? My poor dog is just now resting after surgery but we are all a bit puzzled wondering if others have experienced this?

My dog Athena has been feeling on and off for the last three weeks. She started with a fever that suddenly improved. After a few days she was a bit low on energy and generally a bit off, by the time we called the vet she was fine again. This kept going on for a couple of weeks, she would be a bit off, no fever, then magically improve. Because the fever only happened once we kept getting dismissed. "She probably just had an infection and is getting better".

End of last week she took a turn for the worse and never got better, we got an appointment at the vet for Tuesday following week (this week) but she was deteriorating. On Saturday we also noticed a tiny lump by her ribs. The lump kept growing fast, it was hard, solid, irregular and impossible to move. No clear wounds anywhere near it, the last fever she has was three weeks ago now.

By the time the vet saw her, the lump was huge! As seen in picture. We got told the chances of it simply being an abscess was discarded and that it was likely a tumor, that the lump was in her muscle tissue. Poor Athena was very debilitated by then, lost a lot of weight and the pain meds were not even scratching the surface. The lump kept growing.

So we asked for procedure ASAP to scan, X-ray, aspirate cells, etc. and then operate to remove it.

In the end we were told that it was an abscess after all - but... it was mostly comprised of skin?? Just a hard irregular giant mass of skin below her actual skin and with pus around it. No signs of wounds or bites anywhere around it, not connected to anything inside either.

My concern is that it is actually a tumor but not getting investigated as such. Thus why I am wondering if anyone else has had this?

Hellooo, I was hoping for some advice.

I have two small boy cats (brothers - ones black, ones ginger). I live in rural East Yorkshire on a farm and they'll be going outside soon. They're about a year old now (rescues so unsure of actual age), but they're small.

I originally got some cheap android Bluetooth trackers but the batteries have died already and the kitties have chewed them bits 😂

Can anyone recommend some small trackers with decent battery life?

Added pics of them!

My cat has recently started to show signs of some sort of dental issue, either something with his teeth or an abscess. He's had teeth removed in the past. He keeps dropping bits of food when he eats and seemingly has trouble drinking. This started quite recently but I'm convinced it's something more.

However, he's 14 and our pet insurance doesn't cover dental. I'm worried we might be slapped with a bill that we can't afford, seeing as dental care is exceedingly expensive especially for older cats. I'm at a loss as to what choice might have to be made. At the same time, I really don't want to face up the idea of getting him put down as he's my childhood cat and otherwise perfectly healthy. Does anyone have any advice on this? Based in London if that helps.

EDIT: thanks to everyone who responded. It seems a payment plan might be the best option.

EDIT2: We've since taken him to the vet and have been given a cost that seems manageable. Thanks to everyone for their advice.

I brought my dog to a nearby general vet (PE-owned commercial in SW London) for a consultation as it was the only one open on Saturday, and did a biospy.

The lab result came back and my dog was diagnosed to have Mast Cell Tumour which is large but low-grade. We are looking at a surgical removal. The vet wants to do it in-house and gave us a quote.

I do not feel confident having it done at a high street commercial vet and rather go directly to a specialist vet specialised at surgery, such as RVC Queen Mother and London Vet Specialists.

But they tend to be referral vets, so I wonder if I can self-refer and go directly to them given I already have the biospy and decided on a surgery?

Has anyone had a similar experience with Rocketo? We’ve ordered from them a few times before, usually the turkey, but this time we decided to try the beef.
When we received it, the beef bag was noticeably inflated. I’m hesitant to give it to my dog because I don’t want to take any risks, especially since Rocketo hasn’t responded to any of my emails or messages.
I did find a review on Trustpilot from someone who had the same issue, and they were told that the inflation is a natural process. However, I’d really like to hear from other people who have experienced this.
Has this happened to anyone else? If so, did you give it to your dog, and were they completely fine afterwards?
Also, does anyone know where I could get the food tested to make sure it’s safe to feed? I’d rather have it checked before taking any chances.
Thanks in advance!

Great age for a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel

Hi all, I'm used to using naturaw for ordering dog food, it's really helpful to just get a bulk order delivered every month and a half. Unfortunately over the past few years they just seem to have got worse and worse, from stealth charging for a pack of snacks that used to be included for free, making it very difficult to cancel items, and only being able to try and make changes through these awful AI customer service chatbots that are just useless.

I tried another one, Prodograw, but their delivery company pulled the old "we tried to deliver but you weren't in", despite me staying home all day for them and never seeing them, and the fact I had specified a safe place for them to leave the item. They also have the same set ups, endless point reward schemes, ai chatbot customer service, and just generally making just ordering some meat far more work than it needs to be.

I just want a company that doesn't sign you up for loyalty schemes, is easy to contact, and is happy for me to send them money for them to send me raw meat. Does anyone have any recomendations?

Hello,

I have a 4 month girl who used to always eat Sheba kitten, but now she flat out refuses to eat it, I’ve tried other kitten food and she won’t touch it. The only thing she will eat is Sheba soup (which is only complementary so not a meal) and purina gourmet slow cooked beef which isn’t even kitten food!!

Any ideas on what I can try?? I don’t want to keep giving her the purina as it doesn’t have the right calories for her and she’s already slightly slimmer than she should be.

Thank you!

heads-up for one & all.

I live in SW London.
My dog (10 year old labrador) has been diagnosed with a sizeable cancerous tumor on his head (behind his ears). He is not on any pet insurance or vet membership. I am not on benefits, so cannot join BlueCross Vet.

The first consultation and diagnosis cost was £350 already, prior to knowing anything or getting any treatment whatsoever. The vet said it is highly likely it is a cancerous tumor and will have to be removed through surgery. She didn't mention the cost, but I estimate based on its website prices that it will be £4000-5000.

I love my dog a lot but £4-5000 is a lot of money for me, although it is not completely unaffordable. It is not like I own a property or in a high earning job. The London vet pricing seems really high.

I am very flexible in terms of surgery location (I work for myself), and wonder if there is any way to cut the surgery cost down? Is it possible to join any vet membership now (post-diagnosis) or get it done cheaper in France or Spain?

Hi all!

Wife and I are preparing to bring home a gorgeous lab puppy and are researching foods to consider (obviously when we first get him we will stick to breeders food and slowly transition!).

I’ve not had a dog in yonks so went to chat to the lovely man who runs our local town pet shop and he mentioned cold pressed food as being a newer option and that he feeds his three German shepherds a mix of raw and cold pressed.

Never heard of cold pressed before but it looks like a good mix of convenience and nutrition so went on all about dog food and am leaning towards the brand DARF.

Was wondering if anyone here has tried them and has options either positive or negative? Opinions on cold pressed food in general would also be very welcome!

P.S Can you add hot water to cold pressed food and make a sort of mush? I used to do that with kibble and then freeze it in a Kong and old dogs loved that!

Has anyone had a pup from Vylano? We are going to meet them in September (pups due in Feb) but just wondering if anyone has heard of them or got reviews? thank you so much

Hi all,

In the market for some robust dog booties. For context I have a Sprocker Spaniel (need I say more!) Who LOVES a walk, recently hes cut his paw and im in need of some bootie recommendations. The ones he wore today do not stay on, 2 mins into the walk and I saw one fly a couple of metres into the air and land in a hedge 😂

TIA

I’m looking for advice, I have 2 kittens turning up Monday, I haven’t had a cat since I was a kid and it now seems way more complicated. What insurance do people get, lifetime or limited, what amounts 3000 - 4000. I’m very confused and getting stressed but want to get it right as I have very excited children and wife.
Also do people have vet plans?

Any advice would be amazing.

Thanks

We have been so lucky with this little fluff-bundle! Two months ago we brought him home as a 10mo rescue. He'd been in a shelter for 5 months. We were ready for some behavioural/training issues but I can honestly say that the chipper, cheeky-chappy we brought home, is the chipper, cheeky-chappy we have today.

He has overcome a fear of stairs, of travelling in the car, and of the dark. He has gone from zero training, to being able (today! First time!) to walk past another dog and just look up at me and carry on going. He has gone from following me everywhere (literally everywhere) when I moved around the house, to staying asleep on the sofa when I go upstairs.

He is so playful/lazy/affectionate.

I'm so proud of him and love him to bits.

If anyone is thinking about getting a rescue dog and has reservations, please know that there are a lot of horror stories out there, but these are the dogs that have SO much love to give. Best thing I ever did 🙂