Dear Dr. John, Our cat spends a fair amount of time outside for six months of the year. He is a very good hunter, but he drives me crazy when he brings home dead animals he has caught. The range of species is quite impressive but why does he do this? Also, I heard that … Read more
Dear Dr. John, Last night, my almost 15-year-old Retriever X started having a sort of seizure with twitching in the eyes. He had a similar episode about a month and has had a head tilt ever since. He has high kidney values, high calcium, and high phosphorous. He is on multiple medications. I could not … Read more
Dear Dr. John, It seems our nine-year-old terrier is prone to pancreatitis. A few years ago, he became quite ill with all of the classical signs of gall bladder disease. At the time, he had been vomiting and had been lethargic. He also seemed painful when we picked him up and was not eating much … Read more
Dear Dr. John, My 13-year-old Chihuahua has had a heart murmur for several years and has taken appropriate cardiac drugs to manage her situation. She went in recently for her cardiology evaluation and bloodwork was performed. This showed markedly elevated liver values for which it was suggested I get an abdominal ultrasound for her. The … Read more
Dear Dr. John, About two weeks ago, our 14-year-old cat seemed to be straining to go to the bathroom and was not producing anything. We wasted no time in having him seen. We were told that our cat was severely constipated. There had not been any change in diet for the cats in the household, … Read more
Dear Dr. John, Our cat has been overweight for years and came down with diabetes two years ago, at 11. We have treated it with a prescription diet and insulin shots twice a day. The food hasn’t really made much difference in his weight, and we have had to increase the insulin dosing slowly over … Read more
Dear Dr. John, I enjoy reading your column and have for many years. We just returned from the emergency hospital where our small mutt was admitted for something called HGE. Our dog did not get into anything over the holidays that we were aware of, but he may have been given a little beef tenderloin … Read more
Dear Dr. John, I grew up with allergies such that having a dog was a challenge and it carried into my adult life, so my wife and grown children never had a dog either. Recently, we purchased a Shih Tzu/Poodle mix for my elderly mother. My mother did some things that worried us for the … Read more
Dear Dr. John, Our Portuguese Water Dog is 14 1/2 years old. He has been increasingly agitated and aggressive. He even bit my husband when he reached for something he was eating, something he would have never done before. The dog has also been very restless at night. Could this all be due to old … Read more
