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Anything that isn't species-specific, and anywhere to start.

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GeneralErikayesterdayMi perrita tiene pulgas demasiadas y por ellas tiene granitos y esto le produce un fuerte…Mi perrita tiene pulgas demasiadas y por ellas tiene granitos y esto le produce un fuerte olor a sarna y ya una vez estuvo enferma, quisiera saber que puedo hacer en este caso1 replyNo vet yet

GeneralDesireeyesterdaySick Chihuahua I have a seven-year-old female Chihuahua, and we've taken her to the vet…Sick Chihuahua I have a seven-year-old female Chihuahua, and we've taken her to the vet three times, and have yet to find an answer or medicine to take care of what's wrong with her. We have been experiencing events where she acts completely different. She runs around in circles. Seems like she doesn't know where she's at. She lifts her foot up and down, up and down, up and down, moves her head all around, all around, won't eat, whines, doesn't act like her personality at all. It will last for a day to a day and a half, and then she just comes out of it, and she's back to normal again. And then it could last clean for a day, maybe two, three, and then all of a sudden she does it again. There's nothing that triggers her. While she's in this fit, she whines and whines, runs around in circles again, repeats all the same behaviors, and then just comes out of it. A couple days later, or it could even be one day, she does it again. It's been an ongoing event that we don't know how to handle it. We've taken her to three vets. Nobody's been able to diagnose it yet. Please, please help us. Anybody that has had a dog that has acted like this. please get ahold of us1 replyNo vet yet

GeneralSandy5d agoI have Labrador Retrievers who get itchy from late spring until late fallI have Labrador Retrievers who get itchy from late spring until late fall. I have used Apoquel which has worked, but I am opposed to suppressing an animals immune system on a long-term basis. I am looking for some natural remedy, whether it’s food or supplements that actually work. I have tried several with not either a little improvement or none at all. Please give me some ideas of foods or supplements that might minimize the discomfort. Thank you.1 replyNo vet yet

GeneralLionel6d agoHe has a red mark on his cornea and a bump by his penisHe has a red mark on his cornea and a bump by his penis0 repliesNo vet yet

GeneralKenny7d agoTreatment options for torn CCL 18 month old German ShepherdI’m looking for options for treatment for an 18 month old 97 pound dog. I’m hoping surgery is not the only option.1 replyNo vet yet

GeneralPawsRx Team14d agoWhat pet product do you use every day, and which one do you regret buying?Both halves are useful. The daily one because honest recommendations are hard to find under all the affiliate spam, and the regret because nobody ever writes that part down. Name the actual thing.0 repliesNo vet yet

GeneralMichael14d agoWhat do you wish someone had told you before your first pet?Genuine question. Everyone seems to have one thing they learned the expensive way, and it is never the thing the internet warns you about. Could be money, could be picking the wrong vet, could be something as small as the bowl. What would you tell someone on day one?0 repliesNo vet yet

GeneralMichael15d agoFind your nearest 24 hour emergency vet now, while nothing is wrongRegular vets close. Emergencies happen at 11pm on a Sunday, because of course they do. And the worst possible moment to work out where you're going is while you're holding a dog who just ate something. Takes ten minutes once. Look up the closest 24 hour emergency vet and confirm they're genuinely 24 hours, because a lot of clinics advertise emergency and then shut at 10. Call and ask what hours they take walk ins, whether they want a deposit up front, and roughly what the exam fee runs. Save the number and the address in your phone as a contact and get the drive route into your head. Then do a second one further out, because ER vets go on diversion when they're full and that happens more than people realize. Poison control, put both of these in your phone too. ASPCA Animal Poison Control is (888) 426-4435 and Pet Poison Helpline is (855) 764-7661. Both charge a consult fee, somewhere in the 75 to 95 dollar range. Pay it without thinking about it, because the case number they give you lets the ER treat off an actual toxicology protocol instead of guessing, and they're who the ER would be calling anyway. Then the money question, which nobody enjoys. An emergency visit commonly runs several hundred dollars before anything actually happens, and overnight care with surgery gets into the thousands quickly. Decide now how you'd cover that. Insurance, a dedicated savings buffer, CareCredit approved in advance, whatever fits. The reason to decide now is that financial decisions made in an exam room at 2am are uniformly terrible, and "let me think about it" costs time the animal might not have. One last piece. Know your pet's normal. What color their gums are when they're healthy (pink and moist), how fast the color comes back when you press on the gum with a finger, what their breathing looks like resting or asleep. Thirty seconds of paying attention now, and it's the first thing an ER is going to ask you about.0 repliesNo vet yet

GeneralNate15d agoGo check that your pet's microchip is actually registered. Most people find out it is not.The chip is not a GPS and it isn't a database on its own. It's a number. It only does anything if that number sits in a registry attached to a phone number that still reaches you. The study that gets cited on this, published in JAVMA, looked at over 7,700 stray animals entering shelters. Microchipped dogs were more than twice as likely to get home. Microchipped cats were over twenty times as likely. Enormous effect. But then it looked at the microchipped animals whose owners were never found, and the reasons are almost entirely administrative. Roughly 35 percent came down to a wrong or disconnected phone number. About 17 percent were registered in a database that wasn't the chip manufacturer's. Nearly 10 percent were never registered at all. So the failure is basically never the chip. It's that you moved, or changed carriers, or the vet implanted it and nobody ever finished the registration, or the breeder registered it in their own name and never transferred it to you. Five minute fix. Get the chip number, which is on your adoption paperwork, or your vet has it on file, and any vet or shelter will scan for it free. Look it up at petmicrochiplookup.org, the AAHA universal tool, which tells you which registry actually holds it. Log into that registry and confirm your current phone, a backup number for someone else, and your email. If it's still registered to a breeder or a rescue, transfer it now. Do it today. It costs nothing and it's the difference between getting a phone call and stapling flyers to poles.0 repliesNo vet yet

GeneralMichaelJul 15PSA: xylitol is in way more stuff than peanut butterMost people know about chocolate but xylitol scares me more because of how it hides. It's a sugar substitute and for dogs it's seriously toxic. Even a small amount can trigger a massive insulin release, blood sugar crashes within an hour or so, and bigger doses can cause liver failure. Where it shows up: sugar-free gum (the classic one), breath mints, some peanut butters (always check before the kong trick), human toothpaste, chewable vitamins, some sugar-free ice creams and baked goods. And heads up, some labels now call it "birch sugar" which is the exact same thing. If your dog gets into any of it, don't wait to see if they act sick. Call the ASPCA Animal Poison Control line at (888) 426-4435 or get to a vet. Symptoms can start fast: vomiting, weakness, stumbling, seizures. Cats seem to be less sensitive to it but honestly just keep it away from all pets. Check your peanut butter jar tonight. Takes 10 seconds.0 repliesNo vet yet

What this forum is

A free pet health forum, open to read without an account and free to post in. It is split by animal rather than run as one room, because a rabbit question and a labrador question have almost nothing to do with each other and the exotic ones get buried everywhere else.

Veterinarians answer here, and their replies are labelled. A reply marked as coming from a veterinarian means PawsRx checked an active license against the issuing state board before that badge appeared, and the whole check is written down. Everyone else posts as a pet owner and is shown as one. That distinction is the point: the usual problem with pet advice online is not that it is wrong, it is that you cannot tell who is talking.

A veterinarian answering a thread is giving general information, not diagnosing your animal, and says so on every reply. PawsRx does not review or endorse what anyone posts, and nothing here replaces examining a pet. Asking a vet privately is the other half of this, free as well, if your question is not one you want to post in public.

New to all this?

Nobody minds a beginner question, and the ones that get the best answers are specific: the animal, how long it has been going on, and what you have already tried. The guides cover the questions that come up most, including finding a vet who treats exotics and what to ask when you call a clinic.