indigirl

Jeez some of your stories are really bad My local vet has no issues treating the dog than having you pay the bill off afterwards. I recently posted about Reg the 12yr old golden who ate ratsack. His owner has a bill of $1200 and is paying it off. The vet made 3 house calls, plus came in afterhours to give Reg a blood transfusion without any money ever changing hands. He billed her after Reg died and is fine with her paying it off. Makes me realise how lucky I am to have a vet who does not demand the money upfront.

I have a stock watering trough, its about 6ft x 3ft, and a about 1.5ft deep. They spend half their life wallowing in this. You can hook up the hose as it has a float thingy so it will refill automatically. Cost me around $300 brand new. I also have several galv buckets of water, as they have the trough to swim in they dont even try to knock over the buckets anymore. This is for my golden and kelpie x.

They take ages to arrive. Both mine took weeks.

My 4yr old golden bitch is 29kgs, she is at the top end of the height range for bitches. Vet commented to me that she was one of the very few goldens she had seen that was the correct weight and not overweight.

I posted a link one of these in my previous post :D

I would try one of these

Cosmolo I dont know for sure if you can have more than one, but my puppy Ripley (in my sig) appeared to be developing a similar bond with me. He was only 12 weeks old when I lost him, but he used to just gaze into my eyes, just watching me, listening for any sound I made. I remember Truck doing that when she was a baby puppy, so who knows what might have been.

My heart dog was given her wings 8 yrs ago this coming 7th May. Truck was 13 when she died, a little kelpie cross I saved from being drowned at 3 weeks of age. The bond I had with her is difficult to convey with words. It was like she and I were totally in sync with each other. She knew my moods, she knew every tone of voice I used, she knew what I wanted from her, she was focused on every sound I made. People commented her whole life how 'well trained' she was, but that wasnt it. It was jsut that she was so enmeshed with me she knew what i wanted her to do. Sure she could do lots of tricks, but she was so hooked into me it was more that i showed her what to do, than I trained her if that makes sense. For example I put her on a top bunk bed and stood back and held out my arms and said 'jump Truck', and she looked at me, hesitated and i said 'cmere girl jump' and she did it. I caught her of course, and from that moment on she understood what I meant when I said 'jump'. So when i said jump and pointed to something (like a table) she knew without me teaching her anything more that I wanted her to jump on to the table. It was that easy. I showed her how to climb ladders, slide down slippery dips at the park, ride behind me on my motorbike, she could do a ton of things. I taught her left from right, so I could get her to always jump on the bike from the non-traffic side. For 13yrs she was my best friend and the love of my life. She was my heart and soul. I will always have dogs, I currently have 6 and love them all dearly. But while I love them they dont have that unbelievable bond with me. Truck lived and breathed to be by my side. I was her everything. I believe I will miss her for the rest of my life. I will never have another dog like her, she was a once in a lifetime thing.

I took my 11 week old pup to the trots with me 2 weeks ago. The seating is concrete so I wasnt worried about disease. She met lots of ppl and was good socilisation for her. I also took her to a work bbq 2 nights ago. She had the best time, she was passed from person to person for hours of cuddling. The bbq was at a colleagues house. As she is an iggy Im keen to socilise her with a lot of ppl as the breed is prone to being timid with strangers. As i have 6 of my own dogs plus 2 fosters socialising her with other dogs isnt a problem. She is also getting used to the cats and I take her for a drive once a week to get her used to the car.

My first dog that was all mine was a kelpie x sheltie that I saved from being drowned as a tiny puppy. I had planned on getting a golden retriever, as my family had a golden and I loved the breed. However fate intervened and my little kelpie cross who I named Truck became the most amazing dog Ive ever known. Truck was my heart dog and lived to 13, I still miss her even though shes been gone almost 8 yrs now. I was 24 when I got Truck. She was with me right through uni and moved countless times with me. I drove to Darwin with her and she travelled all over the country with me. I never once felt she 'held me back', rather she enriched my life and I loved having her. I was always able to find rentals that allowed a dog, and never had a problem. I remember when I started working fulltime after I finished uni, it was a big adjustment for both her and I as suddenly I was away from her for 40hrs a week. In the past I had often had jobs where I could take Truck along with me, or I only worked part time, so she was still by my side the majority of the time. I have loved dogs all my life. I think coming from a family who was obsessed with their golden further enhanced my love of dogs. None of my family are surprised that dogs are still my passion, everyone who knows me recognises I have a 'thing' for dogs. My parents have photos of my dogs displayed through their house, and have an entire album of photos of my golden Karma. I waited until I was 24 before getting a dog of my own, as my living arrangements prior to that were not appropriate for dog ownership. Had I been able to secure stable accomodation of my own earlier, I would have gotten a dog earlier. I remember when i got Truck my dad telling me to 'get rid of that mongrol pup, and I will buy you a purebred golden pup' lol snobs! They grew to love Truck too though. I have never regretted owning my dogs, not even for a minute.

Serena I love your photography. Lovely tribute to your best mate. RIP Rocca, one in a million amazing dog.

redz Im so sorry your pup died I have not read the entire thread, but it seems something went terribly wrong after you left you pup in what you thought were safe hands. I remember years ago flying my dog from Darwin to Sydney with me. I had to change flights in Brisbane. It was midsummer and I watched as my dog was left in the full sun with no water on the tarmac by the baggage handlers. I started freaking out about the heat and I kicked up such a stink they were forced to radio the guys and instruct them to put the dog into the shade. The baggage handlers simply had no care/no idea about my dog sitting there in her crate in the full sun. I would not be surprised if something similar occured with your puppy. RIP puppy

I have 5 purebred dogs, 1 crossbred dog 3 purebred cats 1 crossbred rabbit From now until the end of time all animals will be purebred or rescues.

Thanks .. Im just gutted. I know he was old, and that he was very sick but i guess i made myself believe he would live as he seemed to be improving. I cant even begin to imagine how his owner feels. At least she was right there with him at the end. Such a beautiful old boy

What the hell do they expect us to do with all our 'extra' dogs? Can you imagine how scarce purebred puppies are going to become? The cost of purchasing a purbred dog is going to go through the roof. Yet the morons who let their pet dog have litter after litter are going to profit even more, as they will keep one male and one female dog and breed them together continually. This law does not make sense at all.

Reg didnt make it :D he had to be PTS during the night. Not sure what happened I just got text from his owner. Poor Reg, he was such a beautiful old boy. RIP Reg :D

Just been to see Reg. His fever is down to 39 now Vet listened to his chest and thinks most of the bleeding was in his lungs so we assume the infection is also in his lungs. He is breathing ok but still has very little energy. He is on 3 different antibiotics for the infection plus he has another IV line for fluids. Overall he looks brighter and more comfortable, so it seems we are winning!

I have two c-crat securapens. A SP8 for my golden and an SP1 for my iggies. I love them and would buy more c-crates if i needed extra pens.

Reg has improved a little im told! So its looking positive

Well Reg is holding on, hes still not brilliant. He managed to get up and walk a few steps today though. Owner is taking him back to the vet this morning. I will go and see him after work.

Stupid bitch - and I dont mean the 4 legged one.

Reg is settled and comfortable and holding his own. Owner has a friend with her so Im staying home this evening and spending some time with my own dogs. Will call her tomorrow morning for an update. Thanks to everyone who is thinkign of Reg and wishing him well

The owner is a work colleague. And whilst she and I have had our differences at work we have always seen eye to eye about our dogs. Im smitten by Reg - as Im sure you can all tell lol His owner is devoted to him and will do all that is humanely possible to get him through this. That being said she is also realistic and should the vet tell her that the kindest thing would be to PTS I know she will do what is right for Reg without hesitation. We have already discussed that if needs be she will take this week off work to care for Reg. I have next week off work as I am changing jobs so can have him next week here with me while she is at work that week if necessary. The vet bill for all this wont be pretty, I think its at $900 already but that's not an issue for her. It was all the after hours stuff I think which has cost the most. If we can get him through the fever then I think he will have an excellent change of a full recovery. Keeping him quiet wont be hard he is 12 yrs old and jsut lays around and sleeps all day usually. Ive really appreciated all the support Ive gotten here. has my a huge difference to my coping abilities through this entire saga.

His kidneys are still working and his urine seemed normal colour. The blood transfusion went in very fast due to him losing so much blood so quickly. He had collapsed after it and was getting very still and not responding much so we had to get the blood into him fast. Vet grabbed his own elderly dog, knocked it out and we took the blood from her. There was no time for me to go get one of my dogs. Thanks for your insights! It has been so helpful to get info from ppl here. Im exhausted and can only imagine how his owner is feeling. She has been brilliant with him, really nursing and nurturing him through this. They are on her mattress on loungeroom floor so she can be with him at all times. The only time she has left his side is when I was there with Reg and she left to get IV stuff for him. I am hoping and praying Reg can overcome the fever. I wish there was more I could do for him but there isnt. He has a cool coat on and is under the ceiling fan with the aircon on.

Thanks for all the well wishes for Reg. I came home about 2:30 and went straight to bed. When I left the IV was running and Reg was settled and did not seem to be in any pain. We cant give him anything like panadol (the doggy equivalent) as its contra indicated for blood clotting issues. So we have to try and get his fever down by keeping him cool and hydrated. He wanted to go to the loo so we carried him out the back. He managed to stand and walk a few steps and pee. We then carried him back indoors, but even that slight effort made him bleed a little again. Am about to feed and settle my own dogs then head back over to Reg. If his owner hasnt had any sleep, will sit with Reg so she can sleep for a few hours. Reg has been so good through all of this. He has let us poke and prod him without protest. He is such a sweet old boy.