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6. Pee & Poo Indicators: Your animal's bathroom habits are an excellent barometer of health which is why its critically important for pet guardians to observe their pets' elimination behaviors. Frequent urination can indicate a variety of sneaky and serious health issues ranging from diabetes to urinary tract infection to kidney failure. In fact, in male cats blockage of the urinary tract can suddenly occur and your cat will be unable to urinate despite desperate attempts. If your litter box is out of sight, you will not notice these red flags. You must see how often your cat is visiting the box. Daily cleaning of the box to look for appropriate quantity of urine is essential, but in multi-cat households, it's harder to spot illness in a single cat through cleaning alone. Changes in bowel movements can indicate anything from simple parasitic infection to intestinal disease to gastrointestinal hemorrhaging. Black poo, poo with red blood or diarrhea that persists are all reasons to see the vet.
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22 Comments
Does Swiffer have a warning regarding toxic materials?
February 09 2013 at 7:39 PM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down ReplyJust thought I would add some signs to the list that we have experienced also.
February 08 2013 at 12:24 PM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down ReplyWhen our dog would hide under a bed or the desk and stay there for some time and not come out when called, there is usually something wrong. If this behavior is also accompanied with shaking it could mean that the animal is in pain. I don't mean if the dog has a fear of thunder, gun shots or fireworks as the hiding and shaking is normal when they are afraid or stressed. I mean when this behavior is sudden or unusual behavior for your pet. Our dog acted this way after it had surgery for a benign tumor and she had an infection that had to be treated by the vet. She also acted this way when she had an abscessed tooth we did not know until the vet saw her and she was treated .
I had a poodle who was always licking the kitchen floor. I had used a floor cleaner that was too strong and even though I had rinsed the floor he became very sick with diarrhea and excessive drinking. I knew by day two to take him to the vet. A urine sample was tested and the vet said his liver enzyme levels were off the chart! He stayed on medication for the rest of his life. One of the meds I remember was milk thistle capsules The floor cleaner was Swiffer Wet Jet.
February 08 2013 at 11:59 AM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down ReplyI now have a dog but at times I can't figure out why half the time she wants to go lay by herself and mope around?
February 08 2013 at 10:39 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI had two cats one time that did the vomiting thing and wouldn't eat and then just lay around. We knew they were having problems and found out that they both had a tumor in their stomach and had to be put to sleep.
February 08 2013 at 10:37 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyWOW chris 10280 your a rude person! This wasn't very helpful. Anytime you have a dog losing that much fluids he should go to the vet, it sounded like Parvo to me. If your dog has Hot ears that is a sign he has a temp. If your dog has white gums that is a sign he should go to the vet. For the comment about the RED state I am a conservative ( belong in red state) I for one don't believe in slavery and my family faught to free the slave's in the civil war. I am from a blue state that has been destroyed from the left and their free programs. SO DON"T PREACH YOUR CRAP TO ME!!
February 08 2013 at 9:59 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyWOW Chris your a rude person! This wasn't very helpful matter fact what she was explaining sounded like parvo to me. Any time your dog is losing that much fluid he should be taken to the vet. Another good way to see if your dog is running a fever is to feel their ears if there hot good sign they are, if their gums are white they should see a vet. As for the red state comment I am a conservative( red state person) I for one DON"T believe in slavery and my family was in the civil war and help free the slaves! I also live in a BLUE state and that to me is sad cause the blue people have destroyed this state with all their free stuff that us RED people have had to work for!
February 08 2013 at 9:50 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyMy 4 yo chow began throwing up.. not much but I figured it was something he ate, this went on for bout 36 hours.. during that time he started hving diahrea. I was a little concerned, it was Sunday, and knew the vet wasnt open.. It had been going on since Friday.
February 08 2013 at 9:27 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplySunday night the diahrea started exploding and he was really really sick.
he was looking at me to do something. this was 4am sunday.
by 8am monday morning he had completely disengged and had no more energy.
i rushed him to the vet and found out he was an hour from death.
he had lost all his water and was severely dehydrated and his organs were shutting down.
They saved him, gave him a simple antibiotic nd he went through 8 IV bags to regain his hydration.
He was in the hospital for 2 days nd cost $1800. WORTH IT.
I am writing this to you because it came on slow and I misdiagnosed his warning signs of the vomiting and followed by diahrea. Had I of thought it wasnt something he ate, I would have had him to the vet on fri and they would have diagnosed him and treated him for 1/4 the price after what he had ran its course.
I am an experienced pet owner and have had several dogs. You do not always know what they have if they are sick. watch their stool and watch their drinking habits. they need lots of h2o in life thats why they always drool and wet noses. they need alot of water. watch how much they drink per day and notice how often you fill their bowls and what is normal.
food is easy to tell if they dont eat, but water we fill all the time and do not recognize how often we do this. Looking back, I would have realized I wasnt filling his bowl with water since thursday and he went through sunday with only a little water, he wasnt drinking and i didnt notice until after i though about the episode.
they did not know what it was, the vet said it was some type of bacteria or virus.
I think the three days of violent unrelenting thunderstorms had him petrified and it brought him to the point of stress that had no return. He was literally scared to death from these 3 day storms.
hope this helps anyone.
Thanks for your comments. Sometimes it takes to read something like this for us to be more alert to what otherwise we may think it's nothing, or something temporary. I am happy you did and took him right to the vet. Enjoy him. God Bless You.
February 08 2013 at 8:39 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyMy Saint Bernard is acts the same as clock-work and one morning he didn't jump in the bed as he does every morning so I called to him,he walked over but didn't jump up. I called my vet and said I need to bring him in there is something wrong with him,he said he may have some residual pain from his neutering a month before, I said no something is wrong. I put his harness on him and took him out to the SUV,he didn't want to get in so I knew something was wrong,when I picked him up he yelped. I rushed him to the animal hospital and they took him right in and took a CAT scan and in his intestine was a four inch beef basted bone that he had swallowed less than an hour before. The vet said it had started to puncture his intestine and took him immediately to surgery. He said if I hadn't noticed it he would have been dead in less than an hour. He recovered well and was seven months old at the time. I know my dog as well as I know my children and I knew to listen to my instinct,if I hadn't he wouldn't be here today.
February 08 2013 at 12:31 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply