stormie

As the owner of an allergic dog...what MEH said. Trying to self-diagnose burned a hole in my pocket for months. I think my pocket is still on fire from when I tried to 'miracle cure Orbit'. Dermatologist

Orbit's concept of time is a bit crap He generally gets fed about 4-430pm weekdays which is when we get home, but weekends, he commonly starts staring at me anytime from 1pm onwards. Staring eventually moves right in front of my face and if that's still ignored, he'll just come and stand on me. Very annoying. He does start to get a bit antsy from about 230pm weekdays (he comes to work) though and seems to knows it's almost time to go home. Mind you he had a sleep over here last night and when I got to work this morning and let him in to say hello, he seemed confused as to why we weren't going home. So I don't think he really knows much about time - for him it's more of 'I've been here a long time, must be home time' or 'I'm hungry - it must be dinner time'.

Sentinel won't kill the adults - it works more as a breeding regulator for the fleas so they won't multiply. But adults can still jump on and bite and survive. It would take a month or so with Sentinel before you'd start to see a reduction of fleas in your home. Comfortis is an adulticide only, so if adults bite, they die. Any eggs/larvae etc in your house can and will still hatch, but once they bite, they'll die. If you're wanting heartworm and worming, I'd use Interceptor then just use a separate flea treatment like Comfortis which you can stop if you need to.

Depending on how many views, I would say that was slightly upper end? We'd be about $250-300, depending on whether just sedation required or proper GA.

Send you some? Send you some? You really meant to say is "Dear Gecko breeder, I have been a gecko lover and owner for many years now, and since my last gecko passed away of old age, I have really missed having a gecko around. I saw your photos and was really impressed by the awesome quality of your fine geckos. I was talking to another gecko lover, and they too commented on how topnotch your geckos are both in conformation and temperament. Could you please let me know if there will be any geckos available as pets from your next litter? I would be honored if you were to consider me suitable to own one. Please let me know if you have any questions for me, as Iunderstand you only want the best for your geckos. Yours, The Fenster." :( priceless!!! Must admit to loving geckos too and wish we had them in Sydney

I'm not a big fan of the HWI and wouldn't use it. In saying that though, at our previous clinic nearly every dog was on this and we never saw a reaction to it. Obviously though it's hard to know whether things that occur later in life were as a result. Here, most use Sentinel and Interceptor and are very happy. In regards to why Vets like to push it, I can't speak for all vets but one thing the manufacturer does like to remind us about is that you can only get the HWI from a vet, where as other products can be purchased from other sources - pet shops, online etc. So if put someone on an over the counter chew, you know that you might not get the income from them in the future, where as if you get them onto the injection, you know that so long as they keep coming to you, you will get the income for their HW treatment.

Here's a link that has the full study... thought it would be more recent than it is, but still very interesting! http://vonhapsburg.homestead.com/haywardstudyonvaccines.html this is very interesting! .

I like the idea, particularly if your pet is an escape artist, but I don't think it would do much for stolen pets because surely the thief could just take the collar off?

I'm sorry but I don't agree with this. Yes, the dog looks happy because it cannot feel its legs that it's dragging around behind it. Even if catches one of its legs on an object and rips it in half, it would still be pulling itself along with a big grin because it wouldn't be able to feel it. We recently dealt with a dog who lost feeling in one of its forearms after taking the impact of a car on its shoulder, severing the nerves. The owners didn't crate confine it as told, to see if there was any chance the feeling would come back. 14 days later it was returned to have the leg amputated and it was very clear the dog wasn't confined. The paw had been left to drag along the ground and had been worn down so bad the paw was literally in half, with the toes completely gone. All the bones were exposed and the flesh rotting. The dog was becoming unwell from septicemia but apart from that, was completely happy because it couldn't feel its leg and therefore felt no pain. I can't help but think this is the sort of life this dog will face. It will need to be confined except for when its in its wheelchair. It will leak urine and faeces if not dealt with in time and possibly have constipation issues. Yes, I think the people currently caring for it are obviously very caring, compassionate people, but I have to ask how they can be sure the people who will adopt the pup are going to put the same amount of time and care into it as them? This will be a dog who will need 24/7/365 care and I just don't know how someone could adopt it out knowing that they can't be 100% the new owners will be able to deliver.

Its quite common to see blood and also mucous in stools when they have a colitis (an upset large bowel), because the lining of the bowel becomes inflamed and can bleed. That's why I was asking, to know what made them diagnose HGE in particular because as you've read it's a pretty serious condition!

Did they take any blood and spin it down? We would normally diagnose HGE by symptoms as well as spinning some blood down to get a PCV. HGE is generally very dehydrating, so because there is less fluid in the blood stream, you tend to see a high red cell count on the PCV. Then you look at the total plasma protein and if its in the normal range, then those two results along with the symptoms tend to give you the HGE diagnosis. If she has HGE, I'm surprised they would send her home? As I said before, its a very dehydrating disease so usually a few days in hospital on fluids in order to correct the pcv as well as administering medication. In any case though, I hope she continues to improve and gets better soon

Just curious, how did they diagnose the HGE?

I'm terrible Orbit and I spend so much time together that being apart is strange. I'm incredibly lucky though that my Boss/friend loves Orbit so much and just loves having him stay, so whenever I need to board him I just leave him at work. He comes to work with me every day so being there whilst I'm away is nothing new for him and just means he gets to sleep with my boss and his wife instead of me :D But saying goodbye is always hard, even if its just for a night. He always peers out through the gate at work with this look of 'why are you leaving without me?' and I must admit to tearing up a couple of times, even when it's only been for a weekend He was sick about a year ago and needed to stay in hospital for a couple of nights on fluids. The first night I was ok cause I took him in late but the second night I couldn't stop thinking about him so I drove back to work and set up a bed next to his cage. I ended up opening the cage door and he came out and spent the night next to me on my bed and didn't once try to walk around! Its funny really, because I spend so much time at work comforting owners telling them how their pets generally don't fret and settle in very well so they shouldn't worry, but I'm probably the worst! Orbee sleeping with me at work when he wasn't feeling very well....

Hi! So far his itching has been relieved quite a lot thanks to everyones posts on this forum! I tried everything that I said that I would and he only scratches intermittently now - nowhere near as much as before. It would appear that the 2 x fish oil capsules mixed in with his food per day and 20mg phenergan tablets morning and night are what are helping him the most. I am still taking him to see another vet for a second opinion this Saturday on his itch and so hopefully he will be able to narrow it down more for me! How much does your puppy weigh? The dose rate is 1mg/kg - I wouldn't have thought a 12-13wk GSD would weight 20kg??

this! We have use them at work and I just love them.

Yep I'd go Milbemax. It's Interceptor in a little tablet form so much easier to pop down the throat

I say well done to them. They've put in the hard yards to actually improve the breed.

we got that all the time with him growing up! (no offence to Weimies!!) Yep, he's a big silly Dane!

Probably the majority of our canine clients are on Sentinel or Interceptor. I use Interceptor (which is the same as Sentinel but without the flea component) and have no problems with it and I have an allergic dog. It doesn't kill fleas, it just has a drug in there which renders the fleas unable to breed. I would go for Interceptor and then use a separate flea product if and when you need it.

I'm currently doing a Emergency Medicine course through Vet Education and so far finding it good. I do remember seeing that there's going to be a Repro one coming up sometime which might be good? It's something I've thought about too because we don't really have breeder clients, but if we did I want to feel like I know what I'm doing. The courses cost a little but, but they're run by vets in the field and you get a lot of resources and the discussion boards are quiet active. If you explain how it could benefit your clinic, perhaps your boss would pay for it for you? Another thing I've thought about is doing some work experience in a clinic that's known for its repro work - just hard trying to find the time!!!

Don't worry about it looking like not enough - dry food and raw is completely different. The concept of a food not looking like it is enough is a very common reason for overweight dogs. We compare what they're eating to what we would eat, but we must remember that they are a completely different species. Perhaps just try to ask for her support and explain why you want to do it, health benefits, cost benefits etc. Or if she's really worried, you could add some veges to bulk it up, like broccoli, pumpkin etc. As for how much you feed, it will also depend on how fatty the meats are you're feeding. So for eg, Orbit generally needs about 1.5kg food per day, but if he's getting Roo, he needs quite a bit more because it's so lean. Again I know that heart is still muscle meat, but I would start with less than that or perhaps give her a few days on the raw first to see how she goes. Maybe Orbit is just weird, but one lamb heart is enough to give him terrible diarrhoea (and he weighs 60kg).

$7.5million? Seriously? Surely they could adequately do up the place with less than half of that and put the rest towards other things?

560g would be a starting point, yeah. But you may find you need to up or down that. 2-3% is what I went by. That's a fair bit of liver, kidney and hearts. Just be careful when you feed that - Orbit gets terrible black tar diarrhoea from anything more than just a little bit of that, even from hearts which is still muscle meat. Also make sure you worm her regularly with a wormer which does hydatid tapeworms

Hahahaha Orbit does that too, but not all the time. I must admit, I love it and think it's cute

well to be fair, the procedure is done under GA so the dogs don't feel it. But with the ears being so delicate and sensitive, I'm sure there could be some discomfort post op.