They claim that the drug used to euthanize animals, Pentobarbital, has been discovered in the food.

Obviously, this is distressing news for all dog lovers.

And Rossie Judd of Fenton, Missouri, thinks that these reports explain the death of her beloved Schnauzer, Baby.

Last year, Rossie was confused when the vet told her that Baby may have been poisoned.

She was an inside dog and Rossie was careful to keep anything toxic away from Baby.

She just couldn’t explain how the poor pooch had been poisoned.

Tragically, poor Baby eventually passed away in December.

On a hunch, Rossie thought it was Baby’s dog food that might’ve caused her death, so she contacted the J.M. Smucker Company.

They manufacture the food, Gravy Train, that Rossie had been feeding Baby.

Their response was just sickening…they sent a letter of apology and a coupon for more Gravy Train!

“I was appalled by it, I was so appalled,” she said.

Then she learned of a company called Ellipse Analytics that specialize in doing food testing.

After testing 15 cans of the Gravy Train dog food, nine of them were found to have the euthanasia drug.

This caused the FDA to start their own investigation into Big Heart Brands, and now a massive recall has been issued for dog food and treats from the company.

The recall includes the following items –

“Meow Milk-Bone Bone, Kibbles’n Bits, 9 Lives, Natural Balance, Pup-Peroni, Gravy Train, Nature’s Recipe, Canine Carry Outs, Milo’s Kitchen, Alley Cat, Jerky Treats, Meaty Bone, Pounce and Snausages.”

Unfortunately, all this all comes too late to save Rossie’s sweet Baby, and she still feels guilty about it.

“I lost a friend,” she sobbed.

“I lost a friend, and I’ll never forgive myself that I was a part of the cause of it.”

Of course, she had no way of knowing that the food she was feeding her pup was contaminated.

We all trust that we are giving our pets the best nutrition we can afford.

And when tragedy occurs, even when it isn’t our fault, we can’t help but feel responsible.

Source: I Heart Dogs

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He’s been caring for a dog named Graycie that was brought in when someone found her two weeks ago in  “bad shape, on a dirt road out in the country,” as Dr. Mathis described it.

Graycie was terrified of people, and she wouldn’t eat. No matter what the staff tried, they couldn’t get the poor pup to calm down, much less eat a little food.

So, the good doctor took matters into his own hands.

Dr. Mathis first crawls in her cage and begins eating cereal, while Gracey sits cowering in the corner.

Her bowl is right beside of him, and he slowly starts grabbing a handful of kibble and offering it to her.

Carefully, she starts taking one piece at a time and then finally dives in to eat her breakfast.

Dr. Mathis pets her little head and they sit there in silence having the rest of their meal.

When her bowl is empty, she returns to the corner of the cage and watches the good doctor finish his cereal.

Dr. Mathis was floored by the response his video received on Facebook. He said:

“Wow! I take a nap for an hour or so, and come back to find Graycie’s video being shared and with lots of views. 

I’m flattered that you’d take the time to watch and share her video. Truly.“

He said he asked his friends for advice because he didn’t want to put her down, but she was getting weaker by the day from lack of nourishment.

They told him, “try.” And so he did.

Little Graycie is getting stronger every day, but she still has a long way to go before being up for adoption.

Until then, she gets to have breakfast with Dr. Mathis…and that’s not such a bad deal!

Source: USA Today

The post Dr. Mathis Crawls Into A Petrified Dog’s Cage And Accomplishes The Impossible appeared first on Addicting Stories.

Occasionally though, a Good Samaritan like Vet Ranch will step in and save a deserving animal’s life.

When a little husky puppy named Ice showed up in a shelter, he was given little chance to survive.

The poor pooch suffered from severe anemia, a terrible hookworm infestation, low blood sugar/pressure, and he even tested positive for parvo.

Thankfully, however, Vet Ranch stepped in and decided to give Baby Ice a fighting chance.

They knew it was going to be an uphill battle, though; the pup was so weak and lethargic that he could barely hold up his head.

The initial blood tests were startling. His anemia was much more severe than they had anticipated, and his blood sugar levels were so low that he was nearing coma status.

This picture looks as if he has been anesthetized but no, he was just simply too weak to care what was happening to him.

They quickly did a blood transfusion and after another IV treatment, they were able to raise his levels back up, to the point where they weren’t worried about death.

Still, he was still incredibly weak, and didn’t even show any signs of responsiveness when they had to change needles.

Within a few hours of the treatment and transfusion, however, Ice lifted up his head for the very first time.

It was a cause for celebration for everyone!

But he wasn’t out of the woods yet.

Even though he was very nearly starved to death, the Parvo caused him to have an upset stomach, so he didn’t want to eat anything.

They tried all sorts of tempting foods, but he kept turning his head away.

It was over a week later before Ice finally began licking at some of food. When he ate the first bite, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Baby Ice was finally on the  mend!

By the time another week had rolled by, Ice was eating on his own and wagging his tail at everyone who walked in. His personality made everyone fall in love with him!

When the blood tests came back this time, they showed that Ice was almost completely normal.

What a change 2 weeks can make! From near-comatose to wagging his tail and playing:

When he was strong enough, he went to live in a foster home until he was ready to find a permanent home.

But, guess what!? His foster family fell so much in love with Ice that they decided to permanently adopt him!

What a wonderful ending for a fabulous feel-good story.

Thank goodness for people like the staff at the Vet Ranch who are willing to go above and beyond to give special dogs a fighting chance at life!

The post Suffering Pup Was Slipping Away When Stupefied Vets Finally Realized Why appeared first on Addicting Stories.

Unfortunately, far too many cold-hearted people simply ditch the poor animal; it’s easier to run away than face an owner’s responsibility.

In other situations, the owner simply can’t care for the pet due to unforeseen circumstances.

That’s why a morbidly obese beagle named Honey was mere days away from being euthanized.

Honey tipped the scale at a whopping 68 pounds – around 40 pounds overweight for her breed – and she could barely move.

Her belly was so massive that it impeded her every step and she’d even reached the point where she was peeing on herself.

This is where a responsible, loving owner would step in and help, right?

Well, sadly, we’re not really talking about an evil owner in this scenario; Honey’s owner was an elderly woman with dementia, and she just couldn’t handle the dog any longer.

And when she turned her over to the shelter, she told the staff Honey should be euthanized.

But for one thing, the poor woman may not have understood what she was doing, and for another thing, the SPCA is a no-kill shelter.

So, the team stepped up and helped Honey drop that weight!

After plenty of dieting and exercising, Honey lost 38 pounds and now she seems like an entirely new pooch. Said SPCA volunteer Sue Cable, who fostered Honey:

“I was amazed at how fast it happened.

Once she was in a home and able to move around in that, she just went!”

The transformation is really something special; check out the full story here:

The post Obese Beagle Could Barely Move, Owner Wanted Her Killed, Check Her Out Now appeared first on Addicting Stories.

We just do the best we can by getting them to the vet in hopes that they will feel better quickly.

After Alex and Kennady got married, they were so excited to adopt their first dog together. It was their first big step as a couple.

They named to precious border collie mixed pooch, Sully.

They were head over hills with their new family member and really, who wouldn’t be? As Kennady wrote on Facebook:

“He is your typical dog—happy, playful, energetic, cuddly, needy, and really smart.

He loves the dog park, going for hikes, chomping on bones, and people—he LOVES people.“

But one day, Kennady ran home at lunchtime to check on their new pup, and Sully started acting a little weird, and then started breathing erratically.

Like any good pet owner, she called Alex and he left work to come home. As soon as he walked in the door, though, Sully started running around like nothing was wrong.

They assumed he had gotten something in his throat and had coughed it up and was okay now.

“We figured he must have just gotten something stuck in his throat and finally got it out,” said Kennady.

The next morning, Alex decided to take the day off just to keep an eye Sully and to get him to the vet that afternoon.

When he took him in, the doctor couldn’t find a thing wrong with him. To be on the safe side, though, he gave Sully an antibiotic in case he was getting an infection.

Not happy with what the doctor had to say they took Sully to another vet.

And after the examination, the vet looked at them with a sly grin and told a stunned Alex that SULLY WAS FAKING!

He was acting like he couldn’t breathe just to get attention! He wanted them to stay home with him instead of going to work.

Still not satisfied, they took Sully to more veterinarians. They got the same diagnosis each time; they had to accept the fact that their dog deserved an Oscar!

“I’m actually not surprised at all that he could pull this off,” said Kennady.

“He has been an insanely smart dog since we got him when he was a puppy.”

After Sully had been poked and prodded by so many vets, his cough and breathing issues disappeared. They think he got tired of that treatment and just stopped doing it.

But it just made them love Sully even more.

“I think this has only made us appreciate Sully more,” said Kennady.

“It reminded us of all those times when we were kids and faked sick so we could stay home, but in this case he wanted us to stay home.”

What a hilarious, smart, sweet dog!

Source: Honest to Paws

The post Panicked Parents Rush Sully To The Vet Because He Can’t Breathe, But The Doctor Just Laughs appeared first on Addicting Stories.

If you haven’t, here you go:

The joke is obvious, right?

However, an Arizona coonhound named “Lucky” absolutely deserves the name!

If he could talk, there’s no question that Lucky the Coonhound would have quite the story to tell. But as he can’t talk, we’ll do it for him…

The blessed dog was found a few weeks ago by a Border Patrol agent; the poor creature had been left for dead in a ditch in a rural stretch of desert near the Mexican border, with a big wound on his head.

The dog was taken to a shelter in Bisbee, where a traveling vet took x-rays and discovered the mark on his head was actually a bullet hole!

The slug had passed between the dog’s eyes and lodged in his jaw, according to a spokesman with the Arizona Animal Welfare League.

“It was a big 9mm and he had been shot between the eyes and that was the mark and it embedded itself in his jaw,” Michael Moorefield said. 

“You can feel the indentation between his eyes and it’s so unbelievable that it doesn’t affect him.”

No one has stepped up with information about how Lucky came to be left for dead in a desert ditch, but one thing is certain:

After living through the surgery to remove the bullet and fix the damage, and healing up quickly and beautifully, everyone agrees that Lucky is aptly named.

What other pup would have such amazing luck?!
Lucky has made friends everywhere he’s gone, too, with his bright eyes and wagging tail.

You can still feel a bit of indention between his eyes where the bullet damaged his skull, but otherwise, he appears unscathed.

“It’s so unbelievable that a dog that has gone through so much has this extremely uplifting personality,” said Moorefield.

If you’re interested, Lucky is up for adoption at AAWL in Phoenix. But, if you’re thinking about taking Lucky home with you, be sure your fence is escape-proof!

Lucky is described as playful, energetic, and good with children.

He is an American English Coonhound and at only 1 year and 3 months old, Lucky is barely past being a puppy and has a lot of years ahead of him!

Please be careful, Lucky, as you may not get to keep your name next time!

It’s cats that have nine lives…dogs usually only get one.

Source: Inside Edition

The post Lucky’s Shocking X-Rays Have Vets Asking ‘How Is He Even Alive?’ appeared first on Addicting Stories.

She seemed uncomfortable and unhappy, but why…?

Sidney and Sara, sisters and proud owners of an 8-year-old Labrador named Tiki, became incredibly concerned when their playful pooch became lackadaisical and sluggish.

And that wasn’t normal for the typically outgoing Tiki.

Tiki absolutely loved playing in their spacious backyard, but she just wasn’t feeling it anymore. What’s more, she seemed to be downright miserable.

A trip to the vet was in order, and Dr. Hisham Ibrahim would proceed to take some necessary X-Rays.

His mind was promptly blown.

“I see this big huge thing,” he told Inside Edition, “and I’m not quite sure if it’s some kind of foreign body or if there’s something going on.”

The doctor was concerned that Tiki had some kind of mass that may be cancerous.

After all, when doctors see dark shadows on X-Rays, they have to assume cancer, which is always very bad news.

He delivered the concerning news to the sisters, and they immediately agreed that Tiki needed an operation.

So, the beloved dog went under the knife, but the doctor would quickly realize that it wasn’t a cancer mass…in fact, it wasn’t a mass at all!

Instead, he discovered that Tiki had a voracious appetite for things that weren’t all that good for her, as Ibrahim’s assistant Emily explained.

“Four rubber bands, a Band-Aid, eight pairs of underwear, and 62 hair bands is a lot to be in a dog’s stomach. Especially [one] of Tiki’s size,” Emily explained.

That’s a ton of inedible objects to consume; it’s a wonder Tiki was even able to function with all that inside her!

Thankfully, Tiki is well on the road to recovery and the sisters have a big weight off of their shoulders.

We’re going to go out on a limb and assume they’ll be investigating ways to doggie-proof their home so that Tiki doesn’t get herself into any more trouble.

Clearly, this pooch just loves to eat and she’ll eat anything…ANYTHING!

Check out some of the crazy items pulled from Tiki’s stomach:

Source: Honest to Paws

The post Tiki Is Mysteriously Sick So Vet X-Rays Her Stomach And Finds 75 Insane Items appeared first on Addicting Stories.

This poor dog has had this miserable skin condition for a long time, and after he was rescued, the vet tried the usual treatments to heal him, but nothing worked.

“When we first saw him, he looked just absolutely miserable,” one rescuer described how bad it was.

“His skin was just seeping. He felt like Vaseline. Reddish-pinkish fluid would just ooze out of his skin.”

The center was used to having strays come in with skin conditions, and usually, they just required some TLC and good nutrition to heal.

“For the most part, it’s just a matter of feeding them good food and giving them a stress-free environment. They usually heal up pretty quickly.”

Not the case for this poor pooch, though. They were stumped, so they headed to veterinarian Dr. Rachel Anderson’s office.

She suggested that the pup, now named Adam, be given a blood test to try to pin down the issue.

No one was prepared for the surprising results:

Adam had a severe allergy to HUMANS! The dander that falls from our skin and scalp was the cause of his skin condition.

“It was a really interesting phone call,” the rescuer said recalling the conversation with Dr. Anderson.

“She was like, ‘You’re not going to believe what he’s allergic to!

It’s really remarkable, he’s allergic to humans the same way some people are allergic to dogs and cats.’”

“I laughed. I thought the vet was kidding. The vet said she wasn’t, and I laughed again,” he said.

Adam started thriving with medication and baths three times a week.

He’ll have to be on medication the rest of his life, but he’s happy and looks great now!

“He loves to climb in a laundry basket and get comfortable in the warm, fresh laundry, and you can see him smile and be coy,” Herman said.

“He’s got a great sense of humor about him. He’s absolutely adorable.”

Check him out in the video below.

Source: NTD.TV

The post Dog’s Blood Test Reveals This Poor Pooch Has The Strangest Allergy The Vet Has Ever Seen! appeared first on Addicting Stories.

The group rescued an adorable black Labrador mix named Adam from a local pound where he faced the awful possibility of being euthanized.

But that wasn’t the only problem on his plate.

Adam had what was described as an incurable skin condition: he suffered from red and severely itchy skin that was oozing out a strange fluid.

A trip to the vet was in order to figure out what the problem was.

Was it indeed “incurable?” Was poor Adam destined to live the rest of his life in discomfort and pain?

Well, the results of his blood work came back, and Robin Herman, the president of the rescue group, couldn’t believe what she heard: 

“It was a really interesting phone call,” Herman recalled the conversation with Dr. Anderson.

“She was like, ‘You’re not going to believe what he’s allergic to!

It’s really remarkable, he’s allergic to humans the same way some people are allergic to dogs and cats.’”

“I laughed. I thought the vet was kidding. The vet said she wasn’t, and I laughed again,” Herman recalled.

While the group was stunned by the news, they were thankful that they now understood how to properly treat Adam.

It took about a year of medication and a dedicated bathing regimen, but Adam has made some remarkable progress!

He’s going to be on medication for the rest of his life, but the pup isn’t suffering any longer due to his bizarre condition.

And hopefully, he find a warm, loving home that’s willing to work with his strange disorder, and willing to give him the life he deserves!

You can check out some more details on this amazing story in the video below:

Source: NTD.TV

The post Miserable Stray Has ‘Incurable’ Red, Itchy Skin So Vets Run A Special Blood Test appeared first on Addicting Stories.

Doctor’s offices, clinics and hospitals are filled to overflowing with the sounds of retching, sneezing, coughing and moans and groans.

Over 100 people have died every week since mid-December, says the Center for Disease Control, and between October 7 and December 23rd there were 759 deaths attributed to the flu.

This is not the worst outbreak in our country’s history, but the numbers are climbing quickly. And, it’s not just humans that are coming down with the flu.

Canine influenza is making its way across the country. The only thing dog owners can do is be cautious and be prepared.

Remember, it’s not just one part of the country that’s affected; dogs in every state are at risk of coming down with the flu.

K-9 influenza is extremely contagious and symptoms can range from very mild to severe; here are 7 that every dog owner should know!

#1- Coughing: A persistent cough is one of the earliest signs of dog flu.

A cough can be either wet-sounding or dry and sound like your dog is unsuccessfully trying to hack up a hairball.

#2 – Sneezing: The occasional sneeze due to allergies or sniffing something especially disagreeable isn’t cause for concern, but a day full of sporadic sneezing points toward illness.

Try to note what your dog was doing directly before he sneezed to help determine if it’s flu-related.

If he was in the kitchen when you were using pepper, probably not cause for alarm. But several seemingly random sneezes could indeed be flu symptoms.

#3 – Nasal Discharge: Often, nasal discharge is a result of sneezing, but when it’s the flu, the discharge will be constant—not only just after a big sneeze.

Clear discharge is usually harmless and is mostly related to allergies.

Mucus that is cloudy, gray, green, or especially thick is a sign the body is fighting a more serious illness. See your vet as soon as possible!

#4 – Eye Discharge: For some breeds and some dogs, daily eye discharge is normal.

If that’s the case for your pup, look for a noticeable increase in how often you have to clean their eyes and the amount of discharge you’re removing.

Dog flu-related eye mucus is thicker and goopier than the everyday glob you easily wipe away.

#5 – Reduced Appetite: If your dog is usually a hearty eater but then suddenly stops showing interest in food, something isn’t right.

Occasionally refusing a treat or not finishing their dinner could be a simple stomach ache, but going 24 hours with little or no food means it’s time to call the vet.

#6 – Lethargy: Some dogs are admitted couch potatoes. But too much sleeping, especially for a normally active animal could mean your dog’s body is being worn down by the flu.

Look out for a noticeable decrease in activity and a general lack of interest in the games and activities they usually enjoy.

#7 – Fever: The normal temperature for a dog is between 101 and 102.5 degrees Fahrenheit.

Minor cases of the flu can cause slight spikes in temperature, while more serious instances can push the thermometer to dangerous heights.

Animal Planet advises that a temperature of 104 or higher points to either dog flu or another kind of serious canine illness.

There is a flu vaccine available for dogs. Ask your vet if it’s a good idea for your pet.

Be vigilant in looking for symptoms! If you notice at least two of the symptoms on this list, experts recommend scheduling an exam with your regular veterinarian ASAP.

Dog flu is rarely fatal but in extreme cases, dogs can develop hemorrhagic pneumonia which can cause severe issues, some long-term and debilitating.

Veterinarians usually prescribe cough suppressants and antibiotics to help dogs with mild cases, and Pet MD says the flu usually runs its course in 10-15 days.

For the severe form of dog flu, however, the dog will need fluids, antibiotics, and other support treatments the veterinarian finds necessary.

They’ll also require several weeks of rest and isolation.

Please, if there’s any chance your pet could have caught the doggie flu, don’t take him outside your house except to go to the vet. And don’t sit in the waiting room with him.

Tell the receptionist you suspect the flu and you’ll wait with him outside.

Do your part in getting this epidemic under control!

Source: I Heart Dogs

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