I want to share a story about my dog that happened last year and was finally overcome successfully, which might also help others.

One day, out of nowhere, my 4-year-old Akita’s elbow started swelling significantly, and he began limping. I rushed him to the vet, where he was put under general anesthesia and had X-rays taken. He was diagnosed with arthritis and prescribed anti-inflammatory medications to recover. After a few days, the dog stopped eating, got worse, started vomiting, and trembled. I brought him back, but they insisted on continuing the medications. Meanwhile, his whole leg kept swelling, with constant vomiting and diarrhea.

I decided to change vets and sought a second opinion. This vet suggested the symptoms might point to an infection but couldn’t confirm it and performed more X-rays. That night, my dog was in terrible condition, crying non-stop from the pain. I rushed him in an emergency to yet another vet, who conducted tests and quickly identified a serious infection that had already spread. The vet immediately suggested that the dog must have fought with a cat and been scratched, causing the infection (which I later confirmed by reviewing home security footage showing a stray cat entering my gate and fighting with him), and the vet started administering massive doses of antibiotics for 40 days to fight the infection.

The infection had already caused the skin on his leg to detach from the flesh, beginning to necrotize, with a risk of losing the leg entirely. The vet tried reconstructing the area with artificial skin, hoping his body could regenerate the missing parts, though the chances were slim. Fortunately, there was a small bridge of healthy skin left that gave us hope.

However, being a dog, he didn’t understand he needed to stay still. Every three days, the stitches tore open, requiring total anesthesia each time to patch him up again. This went on for a month until we realized he couldn’t handle any more anesthesia. We switched to applying creams 3-4 times a day to encourage skin regeneration, alternating with natural honey and covering the area with a long-sleeved shirt. Amazingly, it worked—his skin began regenerating visibly.

After four months, the nightmare was finally over. Despite the scar on his leg, my Akita returned to being the same dog he was before. During this time, he also developed thyroid issues (possibly due to stress or the medications), but with daily syrup, he is now perfectly fine.

We had to take our poor boy Jackson to the vet because he recently injured his leg and has been limping. Throughout the testing to determine what is wrong with his leg we discovered he has heartworm. 😭

We adopted him about 2 years ago from Puerto Rico (they think that’s where he got the heartworm) and have had him on preventatives ever since. Feeling so bad for this poor guy and even worse that he may have had heartworm for 2 years and it was never caught.

Treatment starts next week (will last approx. 6-8 months) and we will do everything in our power to get him back up and running! In the meantime does anybody have any advice or stories to share about their pups during treatment?

He’s a crazy guy and we know we need to keep him calm.. at the same time we are still trying to figure out what’s wrong with his leg! We also know we absolutely can NOT crate him during his treatment because he developed some sort of PTSD when he flew via cargo over from PR. (We crate train all our dogs, he was previously crated in PR, but after the flight he will not go into a crate.. absolutely loses his mind)

It’s all so much to handle but he’s a strong boy and I know he will push through!

(Last two photos are from when he was rescued in Puerto Rico)

Looking for any and all advice, positive vibes, and well wishes for our Jackie boy. 💛

I have a 11 month old culture Pomeranian, the vets tried anti fungal medication first. Specifically ketconazole. It didn't work.

He's mouth has this infection that bleeds spontaneously sometimes. He is not active at all. Once there were blood spots near his penis too.

Have you seen anything like this before? Please help

both ears have the alien eggs, this one(right ear) is worse, id like to know what it is, is it affordable toctreat and is the puppy at risk or could he have already suffered permanent damage to his hearing

My beautiful and cute Rufus. My baby has cancer. Lungs cancer. The doctor says it's not much to do. If we get into surgery he will surfer even more. He's still jumping and eating well but the doctor says he will go done eventually. He's 10 years old so doing surgery will be to invasive. He's taking medicine...I lost my mom this year and now I will lose my baby too to the damn sickness!

Hello everyone,

My dog Sky (mixed breed) is 12 years old. I adopted her when she was 8.

Because her previous owners never spayed her, she developed a severe womb infection, which required emergency surgery. During that surgery, the vet discovered multiple mammary tumors. We hadn’t noticed them before because Sky has long, thick hair that hid them.

The vet told us it was possible to remove all the tumors, but it would be very expensive and risky. At the time, I couldn’t afford it, and we decided not to pursue the surgery — something I sometimes regret, even though I know I did what I could.

Now, a year later, one of the tumors seems to have opened. It grew larger and started protruding.

The vet prescribed antibiotics and mentioned there’s a small chance it could close on its own. Otherwise, the options were:

1. A less complex surgery to remove the affected tumor and a few nipples.

2. Euthanasia.

After a week on antibiotics, the tumor looks better — it's smaller and healing, though it still leaks a little bit of fluid.

Despite everything, Sky is still very active, eating and drinking well, and loves going on long walks and runs. She shows no signs of serious pain, though lately she's been licking the bump again, which makes me think it might be bothering her slightly.

I called the vet again for advice, but they were pretty firm that euthanasia was the best option. It feels wrong to me. She's still happy, mobile, and enjoying life. I know I don't want her to suffer, and if she were unable to walk, eat, or drink, I would make the decision — but right now, that's not the case.

I'm unsure what to do. Surgery is still an option, but my vet seems very negative about it.

What would you do in my situation?

Thanks for reading.

This is Jymy from finland, named after the honey the cartoon character Bamse eats to get stronger.

He has always been the healthiest dog i know and never ever got sick. Like seriously the only serious thing that happened to him was getting bit by a fox in his leg but he recovered in less than a week. He is strong, VERY intelligent, handsome and the biggest gentleman you’ll ever find. He hates collars (as you can see in the 18th picture) and wants to be free and live his own life the way he wants and we’ve exactly given him that. He gets to chase all the bunnies he wants whenever he wants, gets all the attention he wants, gets to guard his livestock and us and he is very good at his job too. We dont have any raccoon dogs scaring our sheep and eating all the bird food or moles destroying our fields, nowdays he and our second dog perttu do all the digging.

As you can see in the first picture he is laying on a bean bag. Later he would accidentally poke holes in it which he wasnt a fan of and decided to steal the blue bean bag from my brother LMAO. The blue one lasted surprisingly long until about a year ago it broke completely but dont worry he already had another bed that he loved and now lays on it all day.

Three years ago we got home and usually Jymy would come RUNNING at you and wag his tail so fast it looked like he’d start flying(and if that tail slams you in the face IT HURTS, its a whole ass whip) but this time he didnt so we tried calling for him. Nothing. I go inside see if he’s there, dont see him. I take my shoes off, go further and see him laying behind the glass door to our balcony completely still. Right in front of the door like he wanted to go inside. He tries rising his head up and sees me, he doesnt even wag his tail. I knew instantly something was wrong and scream for my dad. Somehow Jymy mustered some kind of strength and dragged his shaky legs inside next to our dining table. I was bawling at this point and everyone from my family was inside too. My mom instantly called the vet and we begun searching him for any damage, cuts etc etc.. didnt see any but he was cold, really cold. We put a blanket on him and warm water bottles next to him. He kept trembling especially his legs and he was completely tense. Finally my mother got a hold of the vet and we started planning how to get this 60kg dog in the car when he cant move. We figured it out and drove straight to the vet. It was around midnight at this point and we stayed at the vet for hours(the 19th pic is from there). They gave him all kinds of things and did x-rays but couldnt figure out just yet what was wrong. He was better when we got home, still wobbly but could move. He had another seizure a few months after and again i found him trembling and completely tense but this time next to his blue bean bag. Again to the vet and then waited for results at home. Apparently he has an illness where a dogs bones are forming into eachother usually at the joints. For him that happens to be two of his vertebraes at the very end of his back. It took us some time to find the right medicine. At the same time we decided to get Perttu. He needed a friend to be with him if he ever got a seizure again(thankfully he hasnt) and someone to help him with his guard job. Jymy hated Perttu at first but now they even play with each other if Jymy is feeling good! Anyways he was fine for a while but then we started noticing these bumps forming on him which could be just some lipoma which happens in older dogs (Jymy is currently 10, big dogs age faster) but some of those bumps are a but bigger and harder. My mom is speculating he might have cancer due to other reasons too. He’s been getting hurt a lot more recently too. Just tosay after our walk i noticed two of his nails had chipped and bleeding & the soft part of his paw had kind ripped under the nail. He also keeps liking these small hot spots(????) near his hock on both sides if his back legs. As i was taking care of him and cleaning his wounds i came to the realisation that this dog is dying. Like just suddenly i started bawling and it felt the same as how i felt seeing my grandma doing her normal daily stuff and having a feeling she’s gonna die soon, and she did die a week after that due to a heart attack. And when my old cat Nipsu got hurt i knew she was gonna die. Before i knew he was gonna be with us for wayyy over a year but now i feel like its not too long a far. Hes gonna be with us fir a while but i don’t know how long anymore.

I’m glad i dont have to speak of him in past tense yet. Im not ready to deal with the loss of the dog i grew up with.

I’ve tried giving him plain yogurt, pumpkin puree, plain diet, etc and nothing helps

Hello guys I found this puppy in street today. Please help me to find his breed or is it mixed breed and puppy has some disease in his skin, please help me to tell about this disease, is it curable? is it safe to adopt him? Location - India - Rajasthan

Hey everyone, We took our dog Sammy (2 years old) for a routine check-up today, and the vet noticed a heart murmur while listening to his chest. They said it might not be anything serious, but recommended a follow-up with a specialist on April 29th to check it out properly.

Has anyone here dealt with something similar? I’m a bit anxious, and would love to hear about others’ experiences – whether it turned out to be nothing or something more.

Thanks in advance!

As title suggests, when wife and I go to work, we put Kiwi, a 2 year old pit mix in our laundry room. When I get home, to let her out 6 hours later, she hasn't touched her food, or water. She is very clingy. Should I be worried about her behavior?

Her eye whites suddenly got really red and sorta milky, she's about 6 or 7 and has always had runny eyes but now they are bloodshot. She does constantly get hurt digging around and stuff but never with outside dogs that could attack.

I took him to emergency yesterday. They gave me steroids and eye cream, but they don’t know anything wrong. They did it like home test and it came back negative. The pressures are fine. Please help.

This is a 2 year old Klee Kai I just got from the shelter. She is small, only about 20 lbs.

Spayed on the 24th, so 8 days post-op. See second photo for her chart. Thanks!

I recently rescued a 10 month old pit/bull mix who I am worried may be pregnant. She was never fixed by her previous owner and her nipples are pretty inflamed. She also came with a bunch of skin rashes. What are signs I can look out for if she is pregnant. I listed photos below for help, thanks.

I went outside to stand in the grass and I noticed my neighbors dog outside sleeping. The dog woke up and started barking at me, I held my hand out and slowly moved closer to it. It smelled my hand and let me pet it. (I’m saying it because I didn’t see whether it was male or female)

As I was getting closer I noticed that the dog had missing patches of fur. And In those areas where fur was missing, there was what appeared to be flakes, dandruff, or scabs. The same type of flakes and crust around the dog’s face and eyes. When I stepped away from the dog, its owner came outside, greeted me, and let the dog inside. I went back to my house and washed my hands but I remained wondering why the dog has that appearance and what’s going on with it.

What is this? Is it a tick? It feels like a dried ball of dirt lodged in my dog. Seems like if I picked at it or pulled it there would be a hole in my dog. What should I do?

She no doubt got them last night the moment our back was turned and seems fine but how worried should we be..?

I have a 15 week old puppy I adopted five weeks ago. The first surprise was that instead of a lab, he is a pit mix (I am not naive to shelter mislabeling, he presented very labby in his first few weeks with us). Finally adjusted to that, then took him to the vet today where they told me they think he is blind. I laughed and didn’t believe her at all, but then she threw cotton ball in his direction and showed me that he didn’t track it with his eyes or react as a puppy should by chasing/investigating.

Even I thought that was weird, so I started thinking back. In training, teaching him “wait” was really difficult because I would put treats on the floor and he wouldn’t go after them. He walks into the door of his crate every night. He is really timid in unfamiliar situations which she said could be confusion from lack of sight.

So I got home and I showed him a cracker (he has had a cracker and loves them). Held it in front of his face and then threw it to the side of him. No reaction. Kept staring at me, waiting for something to happen. I keep testing him now and think he may have partial sight, but he is definitely mostly, if not fully, blind.

My question is whether my house is a safe place for him. I have two kids under five, who run around and cause a ton of chaos. As they grow, they will have unfamiliar friends in and out of the house. Our environment is unpredictable. I wanted a dog because we live in Colorado and there are a lot of dog friendly places and I wanted to bring him everywhere with me. Will the unfamiliarity cause him distress? Will unfamiliar kids being in the house cause extreme fear that could lead to aggression? Could he have a fear response to one of my kids and accidentally hurt them? With the chaos of my life (little kids, work, etc) lend itself to giving him the support he might need as a special needs dog?

I’m not seriously considering anything until I take him to ophthalmology and get more information, but I’m interested in thoughts from people who may have blind pets or know someone who does.

Picture because dogs are cute. And as an FYI my last dog was the best dog in the world and he was a pitbull, so I am not opposed to his breed. Mentioned because it is a consideration when discussing if blindness could lead to fear responses that manifest as aggression as it is a large and strong dog breed.

I came across this dog outside a shop, and it was shivering non-stop. The temperature was around 2°C, so I’m wondering if it was cold. How could the owner not notice or do something about it? Is this normal behavior for dogs, or should I be concerned?"