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Ps. We don’t have enough feral cat predators here. We have dingoes, but they themselves are hunted and poisoned by humans (although they’ve been in Australia for thousands of years they have an ambiguous status..not really seen as native…but they should be, and they play a key role, like wolves).

My view on cats is very Australian-centric :) Cats are a huge killer of wildlife here. And feral cats are everywhere… You are absolutely right that containment is the big issue/problem though (when it comes to domestic cats) - if cats are contained inside it doesn’t matter at all if they’re entire.

Good idea to neuter all cats though. I imagine they do as much damage in Spain as they do here, to wildlife. Still, no doubt there is still a massive feral cat population….. Governments propose legislation all the time and it almost never survives in the original incarnation. This will be the...

He says thank you very much, you are very kind 😄 It is really amazing how fast it reduced after it reached its peak. The first pics I put up don’t show it at its worst - at the worst point it had grown so much it was beginning to close his top eyelid over his eye.

That's really sad....a very tough goodbye. :(

Just an update with good news about Obi’s lump. The lump has essentially gone. It reduced until it was just a thick scab that has now mostly come away, leaving a small, bare patch. Apart from feeling a bit rough on the surface there is no skin thickening or lumpiness evident here at all. Yay! We...

How dreadful. I’m so sorry. His family must be distraught 😢

Your OH shouldn‘t feel guilty (but having been there, I totally understand!). It is so hard to be vigilant all the time, impossible really. Especially with these dogs that just love to get in filthy, stagnant water 😭 With that and the thick fur, it’s a hotspot paradise! We have dealt with...

Hibiscrub doesn’t cut it as the infection is probably into the deeper layers of the skin. So antibiotics are needed. The steroids are to give Bear some comfort from the pain and to break the itching cycle. These things are horrible…they need the big guns, not OTC solutions. Hotspots are one of...

Hot spots suck! You’ve got onto it quickly though. It’s a small one, due to your fast action, even though it might look big. I would try to prevent scratching with the inflatable collar or a cone. The skin needs a chance to heal without further damage. For prevention, regular brushing helps...

E.g like the rubber used in stable mats or for livestock.

What about a thick piece of rubber, cut to fit the floor space snugly so she can’t get a grip on the edge.

Really interesting write up… I’ve always been on the fence about these toys too (wondering about durability etc) but now I’d def give them a try! That puzzle one with the ropes looks amazing.

Thanks @Jelinga!

Definitely was! It continues to get smaller. Now just a thick scab. I remembered something else the vet advised to do, which was give him antihistamines (as it’s a histiocytoma…a tumour of the cells that produce histamines…and local production of histamines can increase). She recommended two...

Thanks @edzbird, @David and @Jelinga! Did he have them all at once or successively? Do you remember how long they took to go?

Thanks everyone!! Obi is very grateful for your well wishes 😃 I’ll let you know how things go :)

Yeah. When you find a lump it’s always a downer, even though you tell yourself that you caught it early, that removal cures most skin tumours etc etc. When the vet said that there was a lot of cell division going on she also said that this was suggestive of it being up the “not great” end of the...

Thank you! @M.F. Obi has also had (and has) a couple of tiny teeny pink (like skin colour) lumps too, and these have turned out to be either warts or sebaceous cysts, or a combo of the two. If they are small the vet can’t get a sample, so it’s usually been a watch and wait scenario with these...

Ps. Those pics were taken after we went to the vet, and after the lump had been provoked with needle poking. It was a lot less noticeable when we first saw it and it then grew really quickly….in case you are wondering how we missed seeing something like that for two weeks 😄 Histiocytomas...