jaybeece

Yeah but nothing ongoing. He was attacked by a stray cat recently and had a melanoma removed that pathology said was complete. Reasons why I do really really want to continue having pet insurance. Nothing that would count as a pre-existing condition though.

Thanks, checking them out now! I just realised that despite being corrected at least twice and after 5 years Pet Plan have still not managed to spell my dog's name correctly on the policy. Who spells "Caesar" as "Cesr". It's not even a name! It can join cancelling him randomly and getting my phone number wrong in the pile of administration cock ups. It's no wonder I've been waiting 6 bloody weeks for my claim if they can't even get all of the above correct. Sheesh. Bugger, their sort of equivalent is $51.34 with $100 excess but they only cover 80% of the vet costs Petplan cover 100% with $100 excess *sigh*

Wow way to go, antagonising a dog using babies. Idiots! My dog has no problem with the kitten wandering up and sticking her head in his bowl while he's eating or even pinching food out of it. Doesn't mean I let her and no way would I encourage it. I've always been of the opinion that if you're lucky enough to have a tolerant dog it shouldn't be abused or else you may one day discover their tolerance has a very real limit. Testing that limit with babies is especially idiotic.

I've been with Petplan for several years now and am going to ditch them. They've always taken weeks to even acknowledge a claim has been made and then longer to actually pay it, but now they've hiked the prices up by 50% in one go and I'm done with them. $36 a month to $52.95 is bloody unreasonable. Can anyone please recommend a company who are organised and reasonably priced? He's 6 years old and a large breed. I went with Petplan because they were the only company who would cover conditions such as hip dysplasia which I was concerned about when he was younger, so far (touch wood) I think he's proven himself pretty structurally sound so it's not so vital. Thanks

Less than $50, food is in bulk and he's easily pleased He doesn't destroy toys so they last for years and since he has a huge tub worth just rotating them around gives him a steady supply of "new" toys. Plus $36 a month on pet insurance. Easily affordable.

Toy Dog you are preaching to the converted. I was brought up by anti pet shop/anti breeder parents, I don't need a speal about dogs and how they should be bred because I've been fighting this for 30 years. Nor do most people on this forum. We're on the same page mate, just interpreting it differently. Save your essays for people who don't know any better.

The trouble with this is that not all puppy farms are bad when it comes to conditions. I'm assuming this by the way, but I'm absolutely certain that out there are puppy farms who are 100% up to scratch with every regulation and who's dogs lead a pretty ok life. Does this make it right still? I think not because profit is still the motive, but this is the hardest argument when it comes to puppy farms. If they're clean, well cared for and not suffering then your average person will want to know where's the harm? Like some lady who's dog has a litter of mutts every year or so that she then supplies to the local pet shop. Right or wrong? Wrong in my eyes, ok in many others. These are the attitudes I believe you guys should be worrying about. Of course animal cruelty cases will always make people upset, but not all puppy farms involve cruelty and neglect and it's hard to argue the case against them when registered pure breed breeders have also been busted for neglect and cruelty. I thought that the idea behind Oscar's Law was to get rid of animal sales from pet shops. How will protesting about a perfectly legal and even moral (in the eyes of some) puppy farm have any impact on these sales whatsoever? You just look like a bunch of animal rights crazies who don't want any dogs bred or owned ever.

This post hasn't had enough love. Well written, and I think it's sitting bang in the middle of both sides of this argument. No-one on this forum wants puppy farms to operate, at the heart of it we all feel the same. It's just disagreement over methods and details. Good luck with the protest, but don't expect it to change things. For those of you who are breeders tread carefully as non-dog people often don't distinguish between ethical registered breeders and puppy farms. What applies to one can apply to the other, make sure you don't protest your way out of your own right to own and breed dogs. I doubt that someone who needs to house up to 50 dogs isn't a puppy farm, but as Alyosha said at least they're going about it legally instead of flying under the radar. This way they must adhere to basic conditions and are known to the council. Surely this can't be a bad thing? Isn't this better than stashing them in the house or hidden out of sight in crowded, dark sheds? My gut feeling is that targeting the source (especially one who's doing it by the book) will get you nowhere, as long as there is demand there will be puppy farms.

Yeah and even then they don't eat pet dogs so it was a silly comment to make. As surprising as it is people in Asia who eat dogs can also own them as pets and manage to differentiate between the 2. Crazy, I know! It's like they're like, normal human beings or something!

Some of it was tongue in cheek, but in general pretty complimentary of DOL I would have expected comments about crazy dog ladies who need to get a life, but there was none of that.

Not sure if this has already been posted, a search turned up bugger all. http://www.aktifmag.com/do-you-have-the-dirt-on-the-bondi-vet/ (see http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/199846-dr-chris-brown-publicised-buying-a-pup-from-petshop/)

I could feed my dog 5kgs of pumpkin a day. Just because he eats 5kgs of it doesn't mean his body isn't being starved of nutrition leading to massive weight loss. Fillers do exactly that, fill you up and give you little to no nutrition for it. Honestly if I had your dog, other than taking it to a good vet to see if there are any underlying diseases, etc. I would be feeding him at lib [leaving a decent amount of good dry food out at all times] to allow the dog to regulate its food and put some weight back on. Once he has reached a better wieght then go back to feeding him a few times a day. I am absolutely horrified at the condition of that dog, especially that it is supposed to be an assistance dog. I am not at all surprised the RSPCA have been around to check him out-I am surprised they didn't take him off of you! If I ever saw someone's dog like that I would report them. You need to wake up to reality, stop make excuses especially ones with are anatomically impossible! There are a number of vets and vet nurses on this site...they know the anatomy of a dog! [Guess where the human stomach is...oh within the ribcage! Fancy that] Your dog is STARVING on the diet it is on. Something NEEDS to change! No one is going to condemn you a bad owner if you listen to the advice given and act accordingly for the dogs benefit. However, denying the obvious and letting your poor dog suffer... Horse 2008, please read this then reread it! Especially the bolded part. Provided the vet check is clear, the only issue this dog has is you and your unwillingess to consider that you've got his diet very wrong. It's great you've ordered some different food though, I hope you take the advice from this thread and completely rethink your ideas about dog nutrition.

Mate your dog looks like he's starving because he is. It's not the weight of the food that counts but the density of calories they can use. Ditch the canned food, it's horrible stuff and an expensive way to feed a dog. Mine gets Bonnie which is $30-something for a 20kg bag and lasts a 38kg dog over a month. Mix 6 cups a day with sardines/egg/rice/chicken necks or frames/little tin of gourmet dog food/etc and you're onto a cheap winner. He costs less to feed than my 2kg kitten! He's very lean, a fussy eater and stops eating because the wind blows but still looks beautiful on this diet.

Agreed! Many dogs have the ability to seriously maim or kill a human being, why aren't the anti-pit bull people in this thread calling for them to be banned too? Poodiful1 some of your posts remind me of all the people who cross the road when they see my (non pit bull) dog coming, especially the lady the other day who picked her dog up and started looking terrified. Her dog made more of a fuss than mine did. And yet I'm sure something he did further cemented in her mind the FACT that large dogs are a dangerous to her precious pooch. I think you're forgetting that ALL dogs can do harm. ALL dogs have the capacity for aggression. I've met an aggressive standard poodle before, watching it writhe around on the end of it's lead screaming and barking with it's pom poms flailing is burned into my memory, you couldn't pay me to go near a dog like that. It was nuts and at that size absolutely able to kill a human being. I've also met horrifyingly aggressive labs and golden retrievers. Want to know which dogs attack posties? Golden retrievers and small fluffies, in 2 1/2 years as a postie they were the only dogs who attacked me. The dogs that were friendly? Staffies well ahead, saint bernards, rotties, some labs and great danes. All dogs that could easily kill a human being, but I was far more wary of the small fluffies and that did include toy poodles (as well as standard). Plus if you ban dogs the dickhead owners are still around and still looking for testicles on a lead. They'll just get a different dog, ruin the reputation of another breed, rinse and repeat. Banning breeds gets us nowhere when those responsible for ruining individual dogs are still able to own dogs.

I haven't read many of the posts, but I wanted to chime in as someone who lost a guinea pig to the family dog a long time ago. It sucks, but it's what they do. We were too trusting and built a tunnel out of bricks to another pen for the boys (3 brothers) to run through, our very excited deerhound smashed her way through and while the shy brothers ran further down the tunnel, the extrovert made a run for freedom and ended up being a doggy play toy. Not a mark on him and she clearly didn't intend any harm, it was just a game. Being young my brother and I were devastated and were upset at the dog for a couple of weeks, but understood that this is what dogs do. Mum and dad were great and made it clear we were not to be angry at the dog. It's hard to look at them the same way for a little while, but it doesn't last. I'm sure this has been covered ad nauseum, but it's really not fair enough. The dog has no idea that what he did was wrong so it was a pointless act of aggression towards the dog. All it would have done is leave him feeling confused and hurt. Our guinea pig killer was great with OUR cats, but no others. One of mine met her as a tiny 2 week old kitten and grew up sleeping with her in front of the heater. She was death to any strange cats though/ Yep. Spot on. Tell your partner to grow up and stop anthropomorphising the behaviour of a dog.

Really? You're comparing dogs to fridges? Since when have we have cheap fridges suffering because they're not well "made", homeless fridges rotting in fridge shelters because no-one wants them, fridge farms where the fridges are kept in horrible conditions. That's a downright silly analogy. This post isn't getting enough love. We've had this thread eleventy billion times and it always ends up the breeders in one corner with their arms crossed saying "I don't wanna" and the frustrated puppy buyers in the other with THEIR arms crossed saying the same. And meanwhile pure bred numbers are dropping, BYB's are going strong and pounds are still receiving a healthy influx of dogs. I'm not going to say that it's all breeders faults because they weed out crap enquiries. But if you're going to shit on people for buying pet shop puppies make sure you're squeaky clean about the way you treat people who have puppy enquiries. If I were in the OP's position I'd probably have cracked the shits 5 months ago and gone to a shelter. But that's because my parents drilled it into me from a very early age that pet shops are bad m'kay. Your average naive prospective puppy owner won't know this, especially if they've never owned a dog before.

Oooh right, I don't have any aloe vera at the moment but that gives me a good excuse to go pick up my pot plants from the parents. I have a crap load of the things normally! The pawpaw ointment is good stuff but yeah, he seems to really love it. He practically eats it off my fingers as I put it on and then licks off the rest which won't be doing his nose any good! Don't think I could distract him fast enough. Youch Thankfully it looks like it's just his nose and nowhere else. Could be a lot worse! I'll keep the antihistamines in mind if it doesn't heal up, so far I think it is. He's still not scratching at it or anything so I think it's on the mend. It's definitely not getting any worse anyway. Ok thanks If it doesn't get better I'll give em a go.

Well he licked all the paw paw stuff off Bloody typical :D Silly mutt!

Ok thanks SpottyChick I'll buy some tonight, just moved house so I don't feel like I have anything here right now :D

Alright, I'll shelve any ideas of it in the future Not sure I even have any in the house, but it was the first thing that leapt to mind. I know I have paw paw stuff around somewhere though. My housemate has human allergy tablets but nothing doggy related. I'm not too concerned at the moment though as it's not worrying him in the slightest which suggests to me the allergic reaction has died down and he's just left with the ouchiness. I'll instruct my housemate not to let the dog out until I get home for the next couple of days just so I can monitor where he's going and to stop him nose diving into the weeded patch again (the dog, not housemate).

Paw paw yes! Thanks

Thanks I'll grab some from the shops tonight. He's definitely away from it! The more I think about it the more I'm thinking it's the weed demolition area from yesterday, it's all stirred up and broken back there and he would have gone investigating. The grass is knee high and the wandering dew was growing through it so it was a pretty rough hack job. It's also somewhere good to bury a bone which would explain why he's so affected in one spot, he probably would have stuck his nose right into it! He hasn't scratched at the area or licked once since I got home so hopefully it's just isolated to that spot in the garden so I can get back in there in the next couple of days and make sure every trace is totally gone. The mower won't fit back there but I reakon I can borrow a whipper snipper for the weekend.

I just got home from work to find my poor dog has a raw nose and face He was totally fine this morning when I left for work, and he was definitely fine yesterday as he had a check up at the vet! He'd also thrown up a little bit of spit on the carpet. Otherwise he's in great spirits and isn't showing any signs of distress. It looks to me as if he's been licking the hell out of his face constantly all day to the point where it's raw. The top of his nose is red and the skin is kinda flakey. It looks awful :D These are the best photos I could get... Now I did a garden blitz yesterday and yanked the wandering dew patch. He has a minor rash in his right ear that the vet reakons may be an allergy to something in the garden so I started with the obvious. The pile I pulled out (no space in the green waste bin) is well out of doggy reach but it's possible he wandered back where I yanked it all and was exposed to bits of mashed up wandering dew as I don't think I got 100% of the stuff. That's assuming he's been outside today anyway! I leave him inside during the day as he tends to bark at possums and I get home early arvo. I'm assuming that my housemate could have let him out when he got up, but no idea if he did. So the dog may not have even been outside. I'm going to ask when he gets home. I think he was out though as there was half a bone sitting out the back that appears to have vanished. I'm wondering if el mutto buried it in the debris of my gardening yesterday and that's what's caused this reaction? The other factor is that he had his yearly heartworm jab yesterday, I'm wondering if this could have been a side effect? Does anyone have any other ideas about what may have caused this? He's not licking or fussing at his face at all now and doesn't seem concerned. I will absolutely take him to the vet if it doesn't start to heal very soon or he shows any other symptoms, but for now I'll keep an eye on it. Would something like vasoline help it heal? It can't be comfortable and I imagine he'll possibly lick at it while it's on the mend and make it worse. Gah Poor mutt.

I'm so sorry

I've always joked that my dog is too dumb to be really naughty, but the truth is he's very smart and just too damn loyal to be a wanker