My cat was accidentally left outside yesterday for about an hour, the longest she's ever been out in her 11 years. She was on our 2nd level porch & there was another weird cat on the porch w/her. She's been acting weird ever since. Just wanting to sleep & has a loss of appetite (more like it's just painful for her to eat). I'd explain more, but I think it would be too involved in text to make any sense…Not that this did either…

If your cat came into contact with a rabid cat yesterday, there's no way it would be showing symptoms by today. Rabies takes time to travel through the cat's system, usually a few weeks.

If your cat has been vaccinated against rabies, it will probably need a follow-up immediately, just in case (that's what they do with people). If you wait a few weeks and then your cat shows signs of rabies, it will be too late. once they start showing symptoms, there is no way to cure it.

Not all rabid cats become vicious. they do become lethargic and quit eating in the END stages.

Your cat is most likely freaked out be being outside and also by encountering another cat. Ask your vet about a rabies booster.

Cats can get sick from contact with other cats, who may show no symptoms of illness. it is probably an upper respiratory virus, and some cats carry it and never exhibit symptoms. Your cat can get a sore throat, just like you, and that makes swallowing painful. rather than fearing rabies, I would be more inclined to think your cat got a really bad cold and now has a secondary infection (sore throat). it can be dangerous and cats can die from it, as a result of dehydration.

Please take your kitty to the vet for a check.

I don't think you have anything to worry about. there is a VERY small chance that your cat would have picked up rabies in that short amount of time and it has an incubation period. I would take her to the vet to rule out dental disease, cat bite abcess or other issue

If you een think she has rabies get her to a vet for your protection and to save her life. One thing animals with rabies hate is drinking water and they will froth at the mouth. But don't wait.
She could have just been in a fight and is scared, but cats also get HIV, not the human kind and humans don't get this AT ALL. But take her to a vet immediately and as for the weird cat in your neighbourhood call human society and have them pick it up if it has rabies it could be fatal for you or any children in the area.
Another thing they lose their balance, just don't wait. It's scary stuff. good luch to you and your cat.

My Westie is 11 years old and is generally in good health. Lately he has been acting like he feels sick right after eating. He eats dry kibbles, the same kind he's always eaten and they've never affected him before. I'm overly cautious about him so I always fear the worst and want to make sure he doesn't have stomach cancer but I haven't been able to find anything about if dogs exhibit symptoms. Anyone know?

Alot of the symptoms are things that your dog may not be able to tell you. I suggest getting to a vet and having some tests done before it gets worse… here is a forum I found with a stomach cancer in dogs topic.

The only way to find out if he has it is to have him diagnosed by a vet.

These could also be allergy or intolerance signs. Dogs can suddenly develop them as they age, for no apparant reason. If he isn't already on a high quality diet, try switching him to that (Evo, Canidae, Natural Balance ((NOT NUTRO, NATURAL RECIPE, NATURE'S BEST, ETC)), or wellness). And get him checked out by a vet ASAP.

indigestion related issues, foul smelling burps, regurgitated water, bile vomiting episodes.blood mixed with bile these are some symptoms of a dog with stomach cancer. But……… some dogs do not have any symptoms at all until their stomach bloats and explodes. I had one that died from this and we did not catch it in time as the dog showed no symptoms. My suggestion is get it to the vet and if caught soon enough it can be treated.

Stomach cancer is rare in dogs and cats. Signs vary but may include vomiting (especially if blood is present), weight loss, anemia, and lack of appetite. Bowel movements may be dark and tarry in nature. most stomach tumors are malignant with evidence of spread to lymph nodes or liver making treatment difficult. Treatment is generally with surgery, especially for benign tumors, although they are rare.

Do you have your westie on senior food? There are a number of common signs of aging in dogs. the one that Westies, as white-coated dogs, do not experience is the graying of the fur on the muzzle and head.

Owners may notice that their dogs are:

Being less active
Sleeping more
Gaining weight
Moving more slowly [arthritis?]
Having difficulty standing after lying down [arthritis?]
More sensitive to heat and cold
Less responsive to verbal commands [hearing?]
Diet and Weight
An older dog can have an enjoyable life but at this stage some adjustments may need to be made. for instance, a dog whose metabolism has slowed and activity level has dropped may gain weight if his food is not reduced in quantity or in calories. an overweight dog not only may develop heart, kidney, or other health problems but the stress on its joints can lead it to be even less active. for a dog with arthritis, being overweight can mean significant additional pain in its joints.

There are several nutritious dog foods on the market that are made especially for senior dogs. however, before you change your dog's diet, be sure to check in with the veterinarian to see if there is a special diet recommended for your dog's condition, such as one low in salt for heart problems or easily digestible for intestinal trouble. And be sure to count any treats you give your Westie as part of the food total the dog gets each day!

Ideas for reducing a dog's weight [check with your veterinarian first!]

Reduce the total amount of the dog's daily diet by 25%

Switch to a commercial diet specially for formulated for overweight or senior dogs

Substituting low-calorie snacks for the usual between meal treats

Increase exercise gradually
On the opposite side, an older dog that is losing weight should see the veterinarian right away as this could be a sign of an internal problem. to be able to judge gradual changes, it is best to weigh your Westie twice a month. What is an overweight Westie? you should be able to feel the ribs but not see them. you can also check with your vet to see what weight is best for your particular dog.

If your Westie is less interested in his food, it may be that the senses of smell and taste have diminished. Heating the food will make it more appealing by increasing the scent and flavor. Do not promote finicky eating habits by substituting "fun" food. If the dog does not eat for a couple of days, take him promptly to the veterinarian.

I suggest that you take your little westie to the vet to just be sure.

I just rushed my Akita to the vet and they are keeping her to run test. She is almost 11 years old. She has been passing pure blood, heavy panting, throwing up, high fever, drooling, very lethargic and moaning. The vet spent a lot of time feeling her stomach. So I am just waiting for the results.

My sister had a bloat scare with her sheepdog. If it helps any, this doesn't really sound like bloat. In fact, the hallmark signature of bloat isn't vomiting – it's the inability to vomit, because both ends of the stomach get twisted, so the dog is in agony and tries to empty the stomach contents, but can't. I'm not a vet, but there's a typical trail of symptoms for bloat and it starts with the retching. Yes, there's drool, but then the dog becomes very restless, can't get comfortable and…above all…the bloated tummy becomes very obvious. It's hard as a rock and then the dog looks like it's very pregnant – huge tummy.

I hope she's ok, and even if it's bloat it sounds like she got there in time. but I'm honestly guessing it's an obstruction or perforation.

Bloat is more prevalent in some breeds then others. when you do have a breed that is predisposed to bloat it is best to wait about 30 minutes after they eat before letting them out to run

Bloat is a very quick build up of gases and they go down quickly so you have about 30-40 to rush them to emergency.

So. this sounds like this could be something totally different then bloat
Prayers for your furry friend and you.

The blood doesn't sound like bloat – more of an obstruction. This link has a good list of the signs of bloat.

globalspan.net/bloat.htm

Good luck, either way. You took your pet right away instead of waiting makes a huge difference with vets being able to help save your dog.

Understandable that you are nervous, but all we can do here is guess. Just wait till the vet finishes his/her examination.

That does not sound like bloat. I lost an old Lab to bloat. he had none of those symptoms. he just bloated up & kept getting worse & worse.

I could not get him to a Vet, he was too big for me to physically get him in the car & there was no one to help me. he died here at home. Suffering. a horrible death & I was so helpless & hopeless, I cried & cried & cried. my poor dog was hurting so bad & I could do nothing. I kept getting panic attacks & the adrenalin rushes. Sick to my stomach. & I could do nothing.

Vet would not make a house call.

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The moment his family had dreaded came with Jeff Kautz’s first wracking waves of pain.

His wife, Rolanda, rushed him to the hospital.

“They ran tests, and my kidneys had failed,” said Kautz, 41.

Doctors immediately surgically prepared the then-29-year-old Kautz for kidney dialysis to keep him alive until he could get his first kidney transplant.

The scene looked familiar to this Norman family — Kautz was suffering from the rare disease Alport Syndrome. during a touch football game decades before, his uncle got hit in the back and instantly went into kidney failure. The uncle, 59-year-old David Waggoner, of Yukon, has had two kidney transplants and undergone dialysis for the past 11 years as he waits for a third kidney and a liver transplant. Kautz’s grandmother’s kidney failure struck in the later years of life, in her late 60s.

Frequent bouts of high fever and blood in the urine when Kautz was about 5 years old quickly led to tests that showed he had the syndrome and his kidneys were deteriorating.

Early symptoms are bad news, said Dr. Brad Carter, nephrologist with Integris Baptist Medical Center.

“Usually if they have signs of it early in life, their kidneys will fail, usually at the age of 20 to 40 to 50. at that point, you have a couple of choices. It’s either a couple of different types of kidney dialysis or get a kidney transplant,” Carter said.

Alport Syndrome is an inherited disease that affects vision, hearing and kidney function, including chronic kidney disease. It’s so rare that it affects an estimated couple of dozen Oklahomans and 5,440 Americans. A disease is considered rare if it affects fewer than 200,000 people in the United States.

With his kidneys rapidly deteriorating, Kautz went on daily dialysis and began wearing a pager to let him know when a kidney was available for transplant.

Then in February 2001, the same week Rolanda discovered she was pregnant with their second child, the pager went off. Kautz called the hospital. though Rolanda already knew a kidney was available, she wanted to hear it from her husband.

“I got the call,” he said, simply.

“On that drive to the hospital, reality sets in that this is a gift from God; another life ended so he could live his,” Rolanda Kautz said.

Though doctors hope a transplanted kidney will last 10 or 15 years, Jeff Kautz’s new kidney lasted only a couple of years.

Carter said patients can get a third or even a fourth kidney, but it becomes harder to find a match. Kidneys are scarce, but most in demand. Almost 88,000 people are waiting for a kidney in the United States, including 336 people on the waiting list at Integris Baptist Medical Center. just more than 16,000 people nationwide are waiting for a liver transplant and more than 3,000 are waiting for a heart transplant.

“So I look at it as buying chunks of time with transplants and filling in the in-between times with dialysis,” Carter said. “He could live a normal life span but he’s only 40 and it’s going to be hard to buy enough time chunks to make him live until 80. but it’s still possible.”

Jeff Kautz has been on dialysis since the kidney failed in September 2003. The disease has left him wearing glasses and hearing aids, but he goes to work as an accountant every weekday. as soon as he gets home, he gets hooked up to the dialysis machine. with his condition deteriorating, his dialysis was recently bumped up from nine-hour treatments to 11 hours. He is near the top of the list for kidney donations.

Though Jeff Kautz is stoic about the effects of his disease, his wife admits that she cries as she worries about both the health and financial well-being of the family.

“I’m a feeler. I feel his pain,” she said.

While they’re all thankful 20-year-old son Zachary isn’t affected by the disease, she can’t help but struggle over the unknowns: what will happen to her husband and their 9-year-old daughter, Hannah?

Boys are affected more often than girls because about 80 percent of cases are caused by a mutation of the X chromosome and are transmitted from mother to son. The remaining 20 percent of cases affect boys and girls equally, according to the Alport Syndrome Foundation.

“We’ve gone down probably some of the darkest paths imaginable … but have come out with the strongest relationship,” said Rolanda Kautz, 39. “With the first transplant we had no insurance and we had to decide do we pay the electric bill or buy prescriptions? buy groceries or prescriptions?”

She credits God and said he’s worked through neighbors, friends, family and church friends who’ve helped them through, though they worry about the additional expenses ahead.

The Kautz family is trying to spread awareness of the disease to push for more research, as well as funding for families affected by the disease. at home, they’re piling their plates high with vegetables and pushing out processed foods to try to improve their health.

But blood has begun appearing in Hannah’s urine when she is ill.

Jeff Kautz and his wife hold on to hope that tests will show she doesn’t have the syndrome. Kautz said he expects to be cured.

“If not me, I know my daughter will,” he said.

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Written by Macklin Reid Sunday, 02 January 2011 15:00

A heart. The small symbol on Kayla Trolle’s driver’s license announces a commitment — she’s chosen to be an organ and tissue donor. “They could use my regular organs,” she said. “My eyes…”

Not the heart, though. they would not, in all likelihood, use Kayla’s heart. It wasn’t hers, originally. her heart once belonged to a young Marine whose car accident ended his life — and saved hers.

Kayla knows as few other donors could what promise is conveyed by the little heart symbol on her license — the years it can mean of family love, evenings shared with friends, of beautiful Connecticut autumns and the feeling, like life itself awakening, of green New England springs.

Now, Kayla needs another heart. She was one of 32 Connecticut residents awaiting a heart transplant as of mid-December 2010.

So Kayla and her family — Stephanie and Michael Trolle of Ridgefield and her brother, Thomas — are hoping that life’s twists and turns bring one more gift.

The heart she was given 11 years ago by bereft parents turning their son’s tragedy into her miracle, their family’s anguish into her family’s gratitude, has worn down. It is struggling, and will not last.

Kayla, 25, has advanced transplant coronary artery disease, a problem common in heart transplant patients.

Symptoms flared in the fall, the start of another year at WestConn where Kayla’s a junior, her studies having been interrupted by repeated medical leaves.

“I’ve been very fatigued the last few months,” Kayla said.

“On Oct. 20, I was barely able to get from my bed to the living room. I was having trouble breathing. my heart rate was all over the place.”

“I told her ‘I think your heart’s all right,’” said her mother. “She said ‘No, something’s wrong.’”

They went to the doctor, then to Danbury Hospital.

“They started doing all these tests — EKGs, blood work,” she said. “And then they come in very somberly a few hours later, and I have a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach just from the look on the guy’s face.”

Normally her heart’s ejection fraction, a measure of its efficiency and health, should be about 75%. two months before, it was 65%. Oct. 20 it was 25%. “Ejection fraction at 25% means your heart is failing,” she said.

“That day was awful. It would have been my little sister’s 23rd birthday, and she died of heart failure.”

Kayla had two sisters.

“My older sister named Jocelyn died from heart failure, and my little sister, Alyssa, died waiting for a heart transplant in the late 80s. Both had the exact same rare form of cardiomyopathy that I have,” she said. “…I often times go by ‘Kayla Jolyssa’ as a tribute to them.”

Doctors at Danbury Hospital wanted to send her to New York Presbyterian, the hospital that put in her heart 11 years before, and had overseen her care ever since.

“I wanted to stay one more night at Danbury and spend time with my brother and see my friends,” she said.

That evening, trouble hit.

“I was surrounded by family and friends and finally feeling good, and then I felt a tingling going up and down my left side,” she said. “I knew a second stroke was going to be inevitable. my first one, at age 13, I had a massive heart failure, liver failure, lung failure, pancreas failure, whatever-else-can-fail failure. I had a full right-sided stroke, I was completely paralyzed.”

Kayla’s heart failed at six weeks old, and three times since. “I’m not sure how I’m still ticking,” she said.

In the hospital stays, she made friends with other heart patients. “I’ve lost seven friends with heart transplants, who have passed away for various reasons,” she said.

There are better stories, too.

“One of my best friends has a heart transplant, Janelle, from Newtown, and she’s one of the longest lasting pediatric heart transplants in the world, with having had it 22 and a half years,” Kayla said.

Her life is full. “I’ve had every kind of mood and emotion fathomable,” she said. “I think of myself as seeing the world through a completely different set of eyes than your average person.”

When the stroke started on Oct. 20, there were about 15 friends and family with her.

“I was trying to be calm for everyone else, I didn’t want them to panic,” she said. “…my Mom ran out of the room screaming for nurses and doctors. And my Dad thought it might be the end of my life and he kind of embraced me and he told me how much he loved me … I was listening to my father tell me how much he loved me and that I was the best daughter anyone could have asked for … I remember feeling almost a sense of calm — scared, but almost a sense of calm — and one side of me was completely limp.”

Kayla was put in intensive care and given medication to stop the stroke, despite the risk it might bring on brain bleeding.

“I took that risk because I didn’t want to be paralyzed again,” she said.

She was transferred to New York Presbyterian. there doctors worked to find the right balance of medicines — she now takes 22 pills a day. And they implanted in her chest a small defibrillator to give her heart a jolt, if need be.

“The defibrillator was put in Nov. 1,” Kayla said.

Transplants

Organs for transplant are in great demand. Medical science’s ability to keep people alive, awaiting organs, has outpaced donations, which are mostly from people who die of traumas like car accidents.

At New York Presbyterian Hospital, where Kayla’s on the waiting list, the median wait for a heart is 365 to 500 days. That’s a year, close to two years. She may not have that long.

Ten years ago, the median wait was 207 days.

In mid-December the Organ Procurement Transplant Network counted more than 101,000 patients across the United States waiting for various organs — hearts, lungs, kidneys, livers.

From January to September 2010, there were 21,648 transplants done nationwide —between a fourth and a fifth of what’s needed.

In Connecticut, there were 1,202 people waiting for organs in mid-December — 32 of them waiting for hearts.

The numbers change almost daily: some people get transplants, others die waiting.

This makes organ donation decisions critical. to learn more, start with the Web sites: organdonor.gov or unos.org.

When Kayla had her first transplant in 1999, she was 14. A ruling that January dictated that when a teenager’s heart became available, it would be offered to another teenager first, before adults. Kayla was third on the pediatric list and got a heart in only 40 days.

Now, at 25, Kayla’s age no longer moves her up in line. She’s near the end of the list.

A donor heart is viable for only about four hours outside the body, so the system works by regions — distance is time, and time is precious.

Kayla is listed with New York Presbyterian Hospital, where 209 people are the waiting list for heart transplants — it is part of the New York region, which has a total of 319 adults waiting.

Her family is looking into listing her at hospitals in regions with shorter lists, including Hartford Hospital where there’s a waiting list of 17 for heart transplants. It is part of the New England region, where 4,524 people are waiting for organs — 193 of them for hearts.

As hearts become available, the sickest people waiting get first consideration. Leading a fairly normal life at home, though monitored for symptoms, Kayla is rated a ‘2.’ Ahead of her are: ‘1B’ patients, living in hospitals with some intravenous lines and maybe some devices; and ‘1A’ people, who are in intensive care with little time left.

Blood type, body size and how many antibodies are circulating in the body are also factors. Kayla’s blood is type O positive: She’s in the largest group waiting for hearts.

Body size may help. most heart patients are large males and Kayla is a small female. if a small Type O positive heart becomes available, it could be too small for others waiting and go to her.

Despite — perhaps because of — her situation, Kayla lives with energy and relish.

“She’s like a social genius, Kayla. She’s out there enjoying her life,” her mother said. “She’s got 1,400 friends on Facebook. She’s always updating her status and letting everybody know how she’s doing, and then she gets responses. She got over a thousand responses when she was in the hospital…

It isn’t always easy.

“I get a lot of anxiety from my circumstances. I’m still working on ways of dealing with that productively,” Kayla said. “I try to go with the philosophy of taking one day at a time and putting my best foot forward. because you never know what tomorrow will bring. this life is not a guarantee — it’s a privilege.

“I am beyond grateful for the hundreds and hundreds of Facebook comments and e-mails, phone calls and messages, and the people that visited while I was in the hospital,” she said. “People that reach out to others are the best kind of people to have in your life. I am very lucky and blessed.”

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Hello my dog is really red around the neck and private areas. and we were wondering what the symptoms are? Please help us. Are dog is a boy and is 11 years old.

Call your vet. the "private areas" sounds like staph infection, a serious skin condition that requires vet meds. Or he is allergic to something? Did he get into anything or eat something new?

eww..its got some kind of infection

If the infected area has loss of hair it is an infection or the mange.