So, you think your pets injured / sick?

[bearcups]

I see a lot of posts that usually describe people's pets being injured or suddenly becoming ill, at which point the pet owner will ask us for help. Well, heres an answer for all of you;

TAKE YOUR PET TO THE VET.

Pretty rhyme, huh?

Of all the people you see here on CS, there might be one or two vet students. Still, they arent fully trained vets. If you really cared about your animals, you wouldn't have even logged on here. You'd do what I, and many others, would do and that is to put the animal in the car and drive to the vets. CS should be the last thing on your minds.

[Thomas Hickey]

and we are not allowed to give out and medical advise pet wise or human wise it is not allowed since no one is a professional

[Sonic Rainboom]

some people may just want advise on there pets if they cant get to a vet right that second.

I for one don't drive as I'm underage and my mom works 9-5 so most vets are closed when she gets home.

[van]

xD Pretty rhyme...

I agree with you, CS shouldn't be a place to ask for medical help.
But, sometimes the vet isn't the best answer either.
If the animal has something minor like a scratch, etc. that you could treat at home, then the vet would be a waste of time and money. But, then again, what's that got to do with CS?
If the animals is sick, caughing, won't eat, has suspected worms you can't identify [If you can, just buy them the right medicine], etc., then the animals should be taken to a vet, and it's just plain stupid to linger around CS waiting for people to tell you what's wrong with your [lets just say] dog.
If you don't know whats wrong with the animal-take it to a vet long as its not obviously minor. Don't ask CSians what's wrong by telling them the symptoms, no one on this site has probaably seen the dog, how are we supposed to know what's wrong and right for it.

[~2K~]

I can't drive yet so i usualy ask people on animal forums if they know what to do. Some of the people have already been through some of the things with their animals and usualy have a good idea on what's wrong.
Of course everyone should take their pets to the vet if it's something major. But if their not able to take the pet to the vet themselves then yes they should ask for help.
Sometimes there's remedies that you can give the dog without going to the vet. Like if your dog or cat has scratches ect and you want to know what to put on them. Or your bird has some kind of skin problem.
Things like that other pet owners usualy know about, and will give you advice on how to take care of those issues. When you call a vet, they usualy just say to bring the animal in, and if you can't take it the vet (like if you can't drive and can't find someone to take it) then how else will you get advice.

Vets don't know everything! I've taken my pets to the vet on several occasions with a "don't know" and ended up asking around on forums with pet owners and getting currect responces with what it could be (alot of them were right!) and how to get the pet better with ointments/remedies and stuff.

So yes, owners should always take their pet to the vet if their badly injured and such, but it never hurts to ask around on forums for help either.

[Transkitty]

Just because someone else's animal went through what it seems your pet is doing doesn't mean that whatever worked for their pet will work for yours. Every pet is different, and a vet will know that.

I repeat, if you think something is wrong with your pet, call a vet. Don't come on to a kid's website and ask what you should do.

On another note, if the vet you are calling is not familiar with your pets, they will need to know a few things:
1. What breed is your pet? This will give them a general idea of the size of your best friend.
2. How much does your pet weigh?
3. What happened? Try to give as many necessary details about the incident as you can.
4. Is your pet behaving oddly? How so?

Answer any questions the vet asks with clear answers.

However, asking general questions about how to care for your pets is perfectly fine in my opinion.

[bearcups]

Im talking about serious things, like that most recent post "I think my dogs leg is broken." Well, get off the Internet and sort out your pet. We can't do much on here, plus it's against the rules. I suppose if they're worried about the animals dressing on a wound, they could ask, but anything serious...no.

[evergreen]

Im talking about serious things, like that most recent post "I think my dogs leg is broken." Well, get off the Internet and sort out your pet. We can't do much on here, plus it's against the rules. I suppose if they're worried about the animals dressing on a wound, they could ask, but anything serious...no.

If they are worried about that they can still call a vet or at the very least go to a veterinary website. Cs should never be the place to ask these things. It's a kids website.

[bearcups]

Not to mention (again) its against the rules.

[Jazi]

[center]I see a lot of posts that usually describe people's pets being injured or suddenly becoming ill, at which point the pet owner will ask us for help. Well, heres an answer for all of you;

TAKE YOUR PET TO THE VET.

I cannot stress this enough. No matter who you are, no matter who you know, no matter how many years you've worked with animals, you are not a medically trained professional and should not replace one in times of emergencies. A thorn in the paw, whatever, so long as it heals properly and doesn't get infected. Dog has bloat? You need to go, this minute, because every second you waste looking for answers on a kid's site is another second that your vet loses to save it's life. I can understand if you don't know why your dog is acting a certain way and want to know what it could possibly be, but once someone speaks up with a possible diagnosis other than "bad gas", it's time to go. If you think your dog broke it's leg, why would you force it to hobble around on it without medical attention?

On another forum I frequent, there was recently a user who had brought a kitten inside from outdoors and noticed something was wrong with it. To me, it sounded like poison, and I along with several people advised the user to rush the kitten to the vet. They refused, and it was dead in the morning. Your pet's health is never something to mess around with.

I'm a poor college student and a starving artist besides. I don't always have the money to take my cat to the vet for every little thing. But I do call her if I notice something wrong, and you'd better believe that I hightail it in there if she thinks it's urgent. If not, she gives me very precise instructions on what to do because she knows a pet owner can handle some things themselves. For instance, once while trimming her nails, my girl struggled and I cut the wick. Of course it hurt and she started bleeding. Did I take her to the vet? No, but I called asking how to stop it. If my vet's instructions hadn't worked, would I have still kept her at home? NO! I would have taken her in asap.