BoxerJim

Fantastic, may all your bowel movements be regular! :)

Hi Rysup, Yup indeed, ensal (and scourban) is given for diarrheoa and by and large, they are both excellent medications and they work very well. Normally they are used for 1-5 days.... they are usually stopped when a) normal stool arrives or b) when there is a day when there is no stool at all Some dogs take a day or two to get going again depending on how inflamed the intestine was to start with, If nothing by day 3, (and still bright and happy and eating well) then most Vets advise a mild laxative, options include pumpkin (as Taketwo mentioned), metamucil, coloxyl or a light oil laxative. If nothing by day 5, (and still bright and happy) your Vet will freqently give an "active" laxative to get things moving! Obviously stay in touch with the Vet, and let them know if at any stage Daisy isnt happy or not eating well. Heres hoping she produces a deposit soon! :)

Passing a nugget is good news as is the ability to take food and hold it down. Don't forget to keep your vet in the loop so they know what's happening.... Fingers crossed for you

Hi xyz, Alas I wish the Vet test machine could run haematology! We sell and service and repair and interpret the results for all the various idexx machines for 105 Vet clinics, incuding the VetTest. Its an amazing system to be able to get results within 10 mins. The Vet test is a biochemistry analyser as I mentioned above, that is all it can do Most clinics we install a VetLab which= VetTest, haematology, Electrolytes etc etc I would take me forever to go thru each machine so...jump onto the idexx website and you can see the various machines that make up the VetLab system. http://www.idexx.com/view/xhtml/en_us/smallanimal/inhouse/vetlab-in-house-analyzers.jsf you will see the various machines and click on them to see what they analyse Hope that puts is straight :) Anyway, important thing is... how is he going Juice??? keep us in touch.. BoxerJim

Yes indeed Jenni, you dont want her in the wardrobe forever! Cheers, Jim PPS: by the way, even though is it an uncommon occurrence post-speying, for your next dog, if you spey either BEFORE she comes in heat, or wait 3=4 MONTHS AFTER her last heat, then you almost completely eliminate the chance of it occurring. :) Every now and again Science can help make good decisions in the real world

The Vettest is a biochemistry analyser- tests kidney, liver, protein and heap of other things Haematology is the red + white cells and platelets ( right-on woof n Hoof ) For an ill patient, most vets do both these blood tests From the sounds of things the term on the invoice "vettest-haematology" is likely to be both.

Hi Pebbles, there are a myriad of pain relievers that are used in conditions just like Micks, They belong to different groups which work in different ways so they are certainly worth investigating with the vet. Some of them are not used frequently and thus the Vet may have to order them in, espeicially the neuropathic pain relievers. Micks arthritis was responding to metacam which was great, and if the arthritis is advancing now such that it is over-riding the metacam (even with the help of cartrophen and NZ greenlipped muscle) then your vet will go to the next group of pain relievers to help him just like in human medicine to make him more comfortable and easier to get around. Many have low and insignificant side Fx that can make the world of difference. My boy did well for 8 years, but the Vet and I had to upgrade his pain relief and intermittently fine tune it as the arthritis did its inevitable march. With any chronic ongoing condition in our little buddies, I have found ove rthe years that its a team effort with the vet. He had 8 years of pain free great life thanks to the Vets medications- off them he was a cripple. I was giving the Vet feedback at each stage, if he was going great guns or needing a little more help. Indeed try the herbals if you wish (as I did to an obsessive degree- all to no avail) but I found that if the arthritis was that bad that normal metacam couldnt help it, then none of the alternatives had a chance. Hope he finds relief soon...

Hi Jenni, This is psuedopregnancy behaviour. It is common in cycling girls as everyone knows, but a very uncommon occurrence after speying. Most gals dont get it post-spey (like your other girl) but those who do can go through a few of the signs OR the whole run of signs.... They can nest- which she is doing in the wardrobe- and "adopt" toys and start mothering behaviour. They can even experience boob development and produce milk in some cases so don't be alarmed if you see this too! As the other members have said, this will go away on its own, usually in days to a few weeks. I have heard of a couple in my Boxer club that took several weeks so I do hope your gal is quicker!!! As espinay2 said...you can remove the mothered items from her, it can possibly shorten the duration, BUT you need to replace this with lots of other things for her to do (walks, training, etc) to give her other mental input and positive behavior that can be rewarded. If however she gets all STRESSED OUT WITHOUT the toys/items and you cant divert her behaviour then you may need to leave her with them (as K9angel's good advice) Vets have medications to take her out of this phase, but from what I know, Vets will only rightly use these on girls that are so engrossed with nesting that they are neglecting their own health!!!! Hope she returns "to normal" soon.... Boxer Jim PS... if you are interested...... this is why it happens..... IF a dog is in pup, one of the sex hormones ( progesterone) is very high as it is needed to maintain the pregnancy. This hormone level DROPS abruptly in the last week of pregnancy to get ready for imminent BIRTH! This drop triggers nesting behaviour to get ready for the pups. Now, during speying, your Vet removes the ovaries as well as the uterus. Even tho she inst pregnant, this removal of the ovaries causes a DROP in one of the sex hormones (progesterone) which mimics the drop at the end of pregnancy and preparing for BIRTH Well, some females are OVERLY sensitive to this drop, and think that they are pregnant and they have to get ready for pups! Hence why your gal is nesting. Hope that helps :)

Hi there Juice, We had the same type of issue with our our boy a few years back so I feel your worry. It is often difficult for the Vet to distinguish between an inflammatory gastro problem versus an obstruction problem early on in the condition but the movement of the BIPs on Xray make an obstruction less likely. Also, if he is starting to take food and holding it down, then this also is encouraging. My only advice is to keep in touch with your Vet- its a team effort- as he/she needs your regular updates to know if they need to go the next step.... Fingers crossed for you.

G'Day Andy, Signs you mention suggest degenerative joint disease (DJD) most likely in the spine and or hips/knees As dogs4fun says... get him assessed by the vet to see if it is that and not some other issue requiring attention. Your friend obviously loves him alot and from the sounds of things he's not getting around too well and she wouldn't want to see him endure chronic pain when he doesnt really need to. Re still runnnig around at fenceline + playing ball.... Dogs often over-ride mild-moderate pain with the eagerness to please us, the owner of many years (eg going for a walk, chasing a ball) or to attned to an exciting stimulus (eg chasing a cat, or running along a fence). The early clues of your dog suffering spinal/hip pain are difficulty rising or going up/down steps/stairs/getting into the car etc. As it progresses, the pain gets more severe and he will have difficulty & reluctance to do more and more types of physical activity. If the Vet finds DJD, the most effective and rapid relief is gained by medications. The response can be dramatic in terms of mobility and happiness! Modern ones work far better and the side FX are also fewer than the old days but ask the Vet for more info on this. The vet will probably suggest avoid stairs if poss, and the great idea from Wagalot re making a non slip ramp. The Vet may also suggest some physical therapy as well as some over the counter products such as Sashas Blend, Glucosamine (as Wagalot suggests), Chondriotin, and green Lipped mussel extract. The active ingredients of these are chemical compounds with minimal side Fx. Not all are suited to all dogs and those with severe arthritis often dont respond. VitE and Se can also help some dogs, but dont use it off your own back as too much of VitE and selenium is toxic. So the Vet will give you the best run down on options to help him out... good luck!

Attached lumps can be all manner of identities, usually one of the following; 1. Cysts 2. Granulomas(fibrous tissue growing in reaction to something including infections which can abscessate) 3. growths... a heap of possibilities, but lipomas are the most common.... they can be standard lipomas (which are normally reaosnably mobile) or infiltrative (appear somewhat attached) Other growths such as MCTs and a host of others can also present like this. There are also in that location, lymph nodes which can be enlarged due to infection and other conditions. As the other forum members suggest... if not resolving convincingly.... then your Vet will investigate with either.. a) Fine needle biopsy b) Surgical biospy or for lumps which are well delineated, c) excisional biopsy... which is removing it in total and testing the whole thing

Re Malaseb dilution for the ears It's 1:50, as rappie the Vet said.

As a regular small-medium proportion of the diet... its fine... Just caution those who have chronic or intermittent pancreatitis however... it can trigger the odd bout in a small %.

Hiya, good post, had similar experience as I guess many other people have too.... Our moggie, he got bitten, was semi paralysed, voice gone etc. Pulled th etick off and dang it all he was just about fully recovered by morning. I didnt give him anything, just withheld water and all matter via mouth (due to paralysis of the swallowing muscles). the legs came 90% right by that afternoon... and the following day out on the prowl again.. tough bugger. Apparently if there's some immunity, thats not an uncommon scenario you & I experienced, as everyone knows, the most important thing is to remove the tick asap. Huge numbers of cats and dogs may not need AV and survive without it. Some dont, the problem is identifying which really need the av, and the longer one waits and the further up the paralysis goes, the harder it is for the Av to reverse it. The flatmates cat, an obnoxious thing it was to, got a tick and same signs, pulled it off, and it was in the days when I gave vit C, so i gave 3 doses IM, and it didnt do squat excpet hurt like hell, deteriorated steadily, needed the AV big time,, got thru it OK but cost a bit for the AV... have you ever seen how they make the stuff? I know why its costly now... I am always amazed at the variation in response, recovery and requirement for av depending on immunity. Many dogs are not affected by ticks at all, or only partially so due to build up of natural immunity. Also "being immune" can be temporary, best guess to date (in the canine) is 3 month immunity max unless topped up by bites but to date little refereed data on this immunity topic, mainly anecdotal so far so dont hang your hat on that 3 months Even the bandicoot, the natural host, can succumb to Tick paraylsis if sufficient ticks with sufficient venom latch on.!!! This overwhelmes (sp?) the circulating immunity and they go down. oh yes..... re the snake bite.... "The problem with some of these treatments is that there is no proof the dog was envenomated to begin with." The following might be of assistance... #1 is the visualisation that the animal was bitten followed by the myriad of signs that can follow. Thats pretty good proof of envenomation. However one still desnt know if the amount of venom injected is a lethal amount. Also, unless the ID of the snake is accurate (AVERAGE accuracy of rural folk correctly Id a venomous snake is 19%) one still doesnt know if the venom is lethal in character, (it may be short lived and self recover eg brown Tree snake, rather than a nasty true brown) #2... many snakes alter the clotting mechanism of the blood, and others cause muscle damage (some do both) Both these have relatively simple blood tests to detect.... not too expensive either and nearly all Vets have them. If they are up, thats pretty good proof of being bitten too, but doesnt tell you which type of snake.... which leads me to.... #3i: the snake bite detection kit...in our semi rural area, our local clinic goes thru them at a vast rate , accuracy is very good, and excellent proof of being bitten. Not only does it assist in the confirmation of bite, it can ascertain which group of snake the venom came from and assist in the decision making of which Av to use if any at all. In some cases with a -ve, it can assist the Vets in decision making of not to use AV or look at alternative cause for the clinical signs. Its done on one of the following; a) bite site (unless in a conspicuous spot, or accurately seen, normally sites arent able to be found esp in cats and hairy dogs!) b) Blood c) Urine also, there are time limits on when these can be used post bite Hope that helps? ;-)

You're spot on about the cats Raz. Figures from Vets show that for cats they achieve 75% survivability without the use of AV. This is in contrast with dogs where it is only 25% So cats, you have a huge benefit over the dogs! cheers, Jim

just a tip for your dogs sake... 18 Guage is sufficient for its viscosity. 1 inch may be better than 1.5 inch as not infrequently well-meaning dog owners inject into the thigh (after the neck already been injected) and hit the femoral or sciatic nerve and cause paralysis which can take weeks -months to resolve (Vit being an acid). less likely to do so with a shorter needle.

Hi Morgan, I'll try and help on those questions! "So how was this conclusion arrived at?" It seems from large numbers of cases over the many many years of data of actual cases at emergency centres "Were all cases of vit c successes attributed to the 25% who would have survived anyway?" Yes. It seems unambiguously the message. "Were vit c failures assessed for timing, amount given, subsequent vet treatment etc - all variables that..." 2 things may help you here... "regardless of ROA (which I think stands for route of administration??) or dose from as low as 50mg to as high as 100,000 mg given IM in an 18Kg dog, there is no detectable improvement in survivability" it appears once all these fail to produce statistical improvement in survivability then failure is failure. indeed they are all variables that can make a difference. (Also perhaps include where they were injected, in the vein, in the muscle or under the skin?) When they all fail, they all fail. Thats alot of needles 100,000mg... thats 2 bottle of the most common preparations, and I'd say the poor old fella must have been sore all over due to that amount of thick injection! "How many of the 75% who die without antivenom are given vit C?" Being a summary it doesn't say, however, the conference is called "emergency medicine and critical care" published by Post graduate Foundation in veterinary science, the university of Sydney, proceedings # 358 feb 2005. I don't have a copy of it, but perhaps to understand the details it may mean some eyeballing and digging. "Or are they just left to die?" I doubt well-meaning dog owners would have them "left them to die" as you put it. that would be unthinkable. Sadly, it seems from the comment about "delaying correct dx and seeking specific antiserum" that folk apparently give the Vit C and are waiting for it to work, and those that are bitten with a lethal dose, then a great number die waiting. Many are rushed to the emerg clinic once the Vit C is seen not to work, so I would say that would be at the later stages of envenomation or arrive deceased rather than left to die. As for other cases, I would imagine that the accumulation of large numbers of cases would have a similarly large numbers of varying backgrounds.... eg died on the way to the Vet, no one was home at the time and died, and a plethera of other circumstances ... all very very sad as you can imagine. i do know that many folk for financial reasons opt not for the antiserum, and hope that their dog is in the 25% which recover without the antiserum. Although it must be very difficult for the vet to have a product that can potentially save a life and not be allowed to use it, in the clinic situation IV drips and supportive care is given until a definitive outcome can be seen, so certainly in a hospital situation, not left to die. "From my experience of orthodox medicine, practitioners tend to think that anything over a few thousand mgs is a massive dose, which is sheer ignorance." Depends what condition one is using it for I guess. Although I am not an expert, it is common knowledge that quite low doses are required for urine acidification in urinary tract probs, medium to near toxic doses are required IV for antiviral effects (too higher doses as you probably know are quite toxic to the body and make one quite ill..ususally Gastric and intestinal signs....alas I have been a recepient of such! ). Regarding ignorance of practitioners in your experience ... can't really help on that one! "An average goat manufactures 13,000 mgs of vit c daily and will make over 100,000mgs daily if very stressed, so giving 5,000 mg to a bitten dog would probably make little difference." From the sounds of things you have a good handle on that... If 100,000mg in the 18Kg dog didn't do anything, then I doubt 5000 would do much more than sting at the muscle injection site! "It is just like the studies that "prove" that taking 1,000 mgs a day doesn't prevent colds - of course it doesn't, more is needed than that, but to use this to prove that vit c doesn't prevent colds in general is manipulation of the truth." I have an opposite opinion (sorry!) I beleive it does at least help prevent some of the respiratory viruses.. esp in cases of marginal intake or excessive utilisation eg hi exercise. there is a recent (well last year)study worthy of checking out if you havent already.. "" A Japanese study on vitamin C and colds was published in 2006 in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.. summary The risk of contracting three or more colds in the five-year period was decreased by 66% by the daily intake of the 500-mg vitamin C supplement. There was little difference in severity or duration of colds between subjects in the low-dose or high-dose groups. This study deserves special mention because it was much longer (five years) than the trials reported by Hemila and covered many cold seasons in which subjects were probably exposed repeatedly to many cold viruses."" Dunno if this transcribes to aussie colds... but I know I take it. Anyway... we'd better stick to my interest and the aim of the forum...dogs..... "A friend of mine is married to a vet who studied and worked in Holland - they have both used vit c for snakes, ticks etc for years. She said even Adelaide Zoo always uses it." I reckon you are dead right, it is still used in many circles, for many varying things, and very commonly where dietary intake or body production may be insufficient. possibly fewer may use it for snake bite and tick in the future now that the conference was held in Sydney as I imagine there would have been many vets there. I am sure it has a continuing use in chronic viral disease. "PS - I would never give anything by mouth to a snakebite victim either, unless it was in the first few minutes before any symptoms had appeared." Sounds like a wise plan to me!

There was a Vet emergency medicine conference in Sydney in 2005 collating a mammoth amount of knowledge and research on snake bite, a subject in which I have a keen interest (which may come from having a farm with dogs, goats, cattle and cats..... all of who in the past 25 years have met foul play with a snake at some time or other!) I read a summary of the findings, one of which concerned Vitamin C use. "Vit C has no protective effects whatsoever on snake evenomation" It was explained that of all the thousands of dogs seen for snake bite (and lets face it we have the most venomous ones here) 75% have been bitten with a lethal dose of venom and will have no chance of survivial without antivenom. That leaves 25% of dogs which survive without the need for antivenom... the Vets either just placing the dog under observation to ensure that he isnt worsening, or giving supportive treatment. Now, if we have used Vit C injections on one of these dogs (the 25% who have been bitten with a NON-lethal dose of venom), when the dog survives as he will, it is human nature to attribute the success to that Vit C, and we do it very passionately sometimes! Some of us really beleive it and swear by it till the cows come home, because we have given it and seen the dog recover- we are adament it worked and no one can tell us otherwise! But in reality, for these cases where the Vit C injections "appeared to have worked", well the patient was going to recover anyway. One could have given Vit B, sterile water, or waved a wand....and it would have apparently worked. For the passionate believer however, it is a difficult concept to get one's head around! Hope that info helps! (Theres a heap more on snake bite and interesting cases if any are interested...) Cheers, BJ PS: Being a naturally inclined chap I was a tad dissappointed to learn of the above... however my faith in Vit C is not all lost..... As many know, Vit C is one chemical however in which there is demonstrable benefit in the treatment of some viral diseases in dogs, so just because ascorbic acid (Vit C) doesnt assist in snake or tick bite, it doesnt mean that it isnt beneficial in selected conditions and is still a valuable drug in the right situations. PPS some more interesting statistics: Dog survivial rate with correct antivenom=75-91% Dog survival rate without antivenom=25-31%, There are 3 causes death from snake bite envenomation: 1. treatment was delayed 2. The wrong type of antivenom was used (the Vet needs accurate identification of the snake! Bring the dead snake in with the bitten dog. If the dead snake cannot be brought in you must allow the Vet to use the snake venom detection kit if he is to use the correct antivenom. 3. Insufficient antivenom was given... a common prob for us dog owners as we have to pay for the antivenom not like humans where we are subsidised by the govt. Generally the later you bring the dog in, the more advanced the signs and the more antivenom is required and the harder it hits our pocket! PPPS...I was only going write a short message... but lastly something that i hope will save many from the same mistake...the panel said that recently there was a 4th cause of death... people trying to give medications/potions by mouth.... most snakes in Aus cause paralysis, and as such most patients cant effectively swallow so if you give anything by mouth, there is a good chance it'll go straight into the lungs and cause fatal aspiration..... they have been seeing snake bite cases presented dead or in terminal throws of gasping for breath where owners have given something (I'm again sad to say often Vitamin C liquid) by syringe down the mouth and guess what.... they are dying not of the snake bite, but of aspiration pneumonia! Quite logical when you think about it. It is tragic that many of these cases could have had their snake bite successfully treated, and their best mate survive, but instead the owners killed their own dog with the Vit C. We don't hear much about such cases, which are obviously more common than we realise. I guess as a dog owner, the realisation that you have killed your own dog would be tragic and you'd be so filled with guilt, the less said the better. So the message here is....for our best pal's sake.. if he's been bitten, then give nothing, I mean nothing by mouth