stormie

I thought that, too! Our young relatives' Newfy used to love to go swimming. He'd circle them all the time, ready to save them. Your new boy is absolutely beautiful. My boss' Newfy LOVES water too, but he hasn't quite got the whole swimming concept and is the one who needs rescuing :D He's lovely, Newfsie

30 minutes to check a dog? Your boss must be slower than a wet week. Wow, how harsh is that? It's the same for us at times, especially when it's a new kitten or puppy. It's not uncommon for people to bring up behavioural problems or other things that take a lot of explanation. We can't win.

:D your description is way better than mine

Only thing it says is that there are obviously people in your area who are not being responsible dog owners and not vaxing their dogs for parvo. Every responsible dog owner I know, knows that vaxing is just one of those things you do regardless of costs as it is in the interests of your dog's health. Do you think it says something else?? Of course it says something! It also says that in one area where there is parvo rampant the price is x amount. In another area where a vet doesnt rip people off but there will still be cases of parvo the price is xy amount. xy amount being half the price of x amount Go figure Interesting. It's actually the opposite here in Sydney. I used to work in a wealthier area where overheads were more and vaccine prices were higher. Now we're more in sort of a middle class area and our prices are average. Out west, in the lower socioeconomic areas, the costs of vaccines is much less, however parvo is crazy out there because whilst it's cheaper, people just don't vacc.

But that $20 will only cover one vaccine, eg C3, not a C5. We couldn't even buy the two for that cost price. Each individual annual C3 costs us about $11 EACH. The triennial costs us about $15-16 I think. So add that to our consult fee of about $56, and for a C3 you're looking at about $67 - $72 for a C3 vaccination at cost price. Considering our 'retail' price is about $78 - $89 for a C3, I don't think we're really making that much? And as I said, this is just a C3. Add another of the same approx onto this again for KC and a bit more if you want intranasal KC. eta - I guess I am just lucky I work with an awesome awesome vet who really isn't it in for the money and I forget that there are still plenty of dodgies who are. It gets a bit disheartening sometimes when you work so hard to build up your new clinic to be everything people would want it to be, only to read day in day out that vets are only in it for the money, robbing clients etc. Just sometimes feels like you're fighting a losing battle and whether it's really worth it reading topics like this. So if I bring say 3 dogs into your vet surgery will your vet usually charge each dog a consult fee? Which is included into the price of the vac in most cases. I just got told tonight of a friend who went to have their pups vaccinated at a vet and paid $180.00 each Needless to say she almost had kittens Yes, if they were adults. Each animal would be treated as an individual, as if they were owned by 3 separate people having 3 separate consultations. We would book you a 45min time slot, which is 3 consultations. You would get a discount on the second and 3rd dog's consult fee, though. If they were a litter of pups, we'd charge one long consultation fee (which is about 1 1/2 consults) and then just charge the price of the vaccine for each puppy.

I don't doubt that you know your animals Stonebridge, but surely there are times where you respect someones profession and let them do what they studied hard for? It cost me $38.50 for someone to take my blood the other day which I could very well have done myself, but I accept it's that person's job, paying their wages and just suck it up.

But that $20 will only cover one vaccine, eg C3, not a C5. We couldn't even buy the two for that cost price. Each individual annual C3 costs us about $11 EACH. The triennial costs us about $15-16 I think. So add that to our consult fee of about $56, and for a C3 you're looking at about $67 - $72 for a C3 vaccination at cost price. Considering our 'retail' price is about $78 - $89 for a C3, I don't think we're really making that much? And as I said, this is just a C3. Add another of the same approx onto this again for KC and a bit more if you want intranasal KC. eta - I guess I am just lucky I work with an awesome awesome vet who really isn't it in for the money and I forget that there are still plenty of dodgies who are. It gets a bit disheartening sometimes when you work so hard to build up your new clinic to be everything people would want it to be, only to read day in day out that vets are only in it for the money, robbing clients etc. Just sometimes feels like you're fighting a losing battle and whether it's really worth it reading topics like this.

I know!!! It is daylight friggin robbery how is it robbery? the vaccine calls for a check-up before being administered. that involves the vet using their time and knowledge to determine an animals health which surely is worth something and shouldn't be done for free. Then there's the cost of the actual vaccine. Plus the syringes, needles, water for injection that's used. We probably pocket about $6 profit on the actual vaccine. The consultation fee pays the Vet's and Nurses wages and goes towards basic running of the clinic. We don't use killed vaccines because of the reactions they're known to have. We have 4 different types of vaccines for dogs, to cater for every possible want. Some may want the 'annual' to be used triennially, some want an intranasal KC, some want early finishing puppy shots etc etc. So this means we only buy a box of 20 at a time, of each type, usually only every 3-4 weeks. We could just pick the one vaccine and buy it in a box of 100 which would reduce the cost, but that takes away peoples choice, which is often what people want. So what are we supposed to do? Should the vet give the vaccine off label and not check the animals first? Should he check them but do it for free? Should we be just charging everyone cost price plus gst for the vaccines and essentially the Vet pay for it for people out of their own pocket? DOL people all seem to mostly be pretty on the ball with their animals, but I can tell you many 'regular' people aren't. It's often not until the consult at vacc time that when you query things like thirst, appetite, mouth etc that people tend to say 'oh you know what, now that you mention it....' and turns out the dog has a problem. One of our really lovely clients is a Dentist. Every time she comes in she's blown away at how cheap she thinks we are, because she's comparing it to her own profession. My car's 6monthly service costs me about $300 each time. It's due for its big 200,000 one in 5000k and they've told me to do the works, to put aside about $1500. This is just changing oils, fan belts, timing belts etc. Most of it is labour. Yet for less than this price, we would repair a dog's ruptured cruciate, have it on the top pain relief, fluids and keep it in hospital for 3 days. It just cost me $370 to see a specialist for 15mins and have bloods taken. Not only that, they couldn't take the blood there and then; I had to go to a pathology place in my lunch break to have it done. So $250 to see the Specialist for a consult. Yet for this price, we will pre-med a dog, catheterize it, give him a GA, put him on a $10k anaesthetic monitor and perform sterile surgery.

Yep Lorpis has come to work since he was a puppy. First clinic he had a bed in the staff room, but this one he has the backyard and back room of my boss's house, with their Newfie and rescue X Breed. Plus they have a pool so on hot days we get to swim in my lunch break or after my shift. It's a pretty hard job for both of us really :D

It's not uncommon for fleas to go hell for leather when some products, before they die. It happens with Capstar so I would imagine a similar thing could happen with Comfortis. The fleas sort of go into a state of excitement or whatever, as soon as they ingest the chemical and bite bite bite before they get sick and die. So I would imagine this could have happened and subsequently made her itchy x100 and she's spent the day chewing. Orbit only needs one bad allergic flare up to go from having a wonderful coat in the morning, so be totally moth eaten by the afternoon. Check her canines for hairs coming out of her gums. :D If Orbits been having a good chew, I have to clean chunks of hair out from his teeth that have got stuck whilst biting himself

I don't want to scare you or doubt your vet or anything, but did they make sure those medications are safe to take with Nizoral? It's a pretty hard core medication and can have interactions with quite a number of drugs. I'm not sure which drugs exactly, but I just remember when Orbit was started on them we had to be pretty careful. They made him too sick in the end and we resorted to twice weekly malaseb washes instead.

yep this is what I believe to be correct also. Derms have said the same thing. I'd go down the Dermatologist path now to help you prepare for later

You should look into the suicide rates in professions and see which ones are up there...

This is about the same as us. A little bit more for the Intranasal KC and then a little bit more again for the Triennial C3 + KC. It's the cost of a consultation, plus the addition of the cost of the vaccine. About $10 or so less for each subsequent pet. I would imagine some clinics that do a lot of vaccines may be able to purchase them cheaper for buying in bulk. We're just a small clinic on the 3 yearly protocol so we don't go through that many really, so only buy a box or so every few weeks. People should also know that the vaccine label calls for a check-up prior to administering. So to just 'whack it in' without a consultation is 'off label'. The previous owners of this clinic used to let one of the nurses vacc some of the animals who were in boarding. It was amazing how many older dogs we discovered with obvious heart murmurs and other problems after taking over, who were obviously not checked thoroughly when given their vaccines. I wouldn't be surprised if we start to see the price of vacc's rise as more vets adopt the 3 yearly protocol. The registered 3yearly vacc costs us about $7-8 more for each vaccine, so obviously that's accounted for in our price. But I know there are some vets out there who have adopted the new protocol, however charge extra for the vaccine on top of usual mark up, to account for the fact they may not be getting the annual vaccine money they were previously. I don't agree with this at all, but I guess its a consequence of wanting reduced vaccination.

Diet is often the next place to start after you've ruled out fleas, scabies etc. I would go for something more novel if you're going to look at diet, such as roo and potato. Omega oils could benefit but make sure you use something with the correct ratio and also with Vitamin E. When I mean allergies, I mean environmental. True contact allergies are actually not that common, apparently. In that I mean, the skin having an allergic reaction when it comes into contact with an allergen. So I mean things like pollens, dust mites etc. Pollens from trees, grasses, weeds - it's everywhere. They inhale it and can also absorb it through their skin. I would also look at really hydrating his skin. So a good bath with something that doesn't contain plants, just in case they set him off. A rinse with diluted alpha kerri oil is great for putting moisture back in but also helps to create a bit of a skin barrier. Lots of Dermatologists love it, too. What are his ears like on the inside? Poor fellow, sounds like he copped a beating from mother nature. But he's sure lucky to be where he is now!!

Allergies don't always display redness. With allergies, where in people we get runny noses, sneezing etc when our bodies release histamines, dogs get itchy. Sometimes too, the skin can have been so chronically inflamed it's thickened and changed colour, so redness isn't visible. The areas sound very classic of allergies unfortunately. I know many don't like it, but I'd be giving a course of cortisone (as low as you can) to provide some immediate relief and see if you can break the cycle. It may possibly be that there's been a skin reaction which has inflamed his skin and made him itchy, he's scratched, broken and ruined his natural skin barrier, bacteria overgrowth has happened, makes him itchier and so the cycle continues. Orbit is the most allergic dog we've seen and when he's itchy, he's generally not that red. He mostly gets red after scratching himself raw. this is sort of an example of a dog that was very allergic and untreated, but not really red. He did have some places he was quite red, but that was from trauma. You can see how his skin has thickened around his face too, from the constant inflammation and rubbing etc.

Recovering debt isn't as easy as many people think. The previous owner of our clinic pursued a bad debtor who owed him a fair amount, starting with accounts first which were ignored and eventually moving onto a debt recovery service. The client rocked up on the door step one night with a weapon demanding the Vet bring down his wife, so the client could harass her, to get back at them for supposedly harassing his family with phone calls from debt collectors. The Vet was assaulted and the matter ended up as police matter. In the end the Vet was advised to write the debt off because it was too dangerous to pursue. It's an unfortunate situation and I feel for people but at the end of the day, it's not the Vets people should be blaming, but rather those who have ruined it for everyone else by not paying.

Got it - Thank you. Awwwww Danois!!!!!!! Thank you!!!!! eta and whoever nominated me - thank you!!!!!!!!

Please don't try to do it yourself just yet - you don't even know if what you're smelling is full anal glands. A vet visit sounds in order - if they are full, ask the vet to show you where they're located and how you can go about expressing them yourself next time.

Can you describe the smell? Anal gland juice has a VERY distinct smell...

The most common way is with a novel protein and novel carb - eg rabbit and potato, goat and sweet potato etc. The carbs aren't really necessary though and just help to fill them up and keep the costs down. You really should do it for 12wks but should start to see results within 6. During this time you have to be VERY strict. It's important to only feed those foods though and nothing else, unless of course it's novel. Try to keep it simple though. For example, if you can use fish as your protein, try to use fish as your treats. After the 12wks, you start adding previously eaten foods back one at a time. So for eg you could feed chicken for a week and see what happens, if nothing, then try rice, etc etc. If you get a reaction during one of the re introductions, go back to the elim diet and see if the symptoms diminish. Keeping a diary helps, too. Make a note of what was eaten each day, the weather, temp and anything else that might be significant, eg got wet, rolled in the grass etc etc.

I think that's a pretty average price for a GA. There is often two types - IV and IV And Gaseous. I would assume that tlc's dog just had the IV, without being put on the gas, hence the lower price ;)

Oh no need to apologise. I was just laughing at our boss'. We're not even allowed to throw out used syringes! If we opened a new sterile syringe for certain things (not injections obviously) we'd get shot! That's funny. The clinic we run used to be like that with the previous owner. Everything was washed and reused! Our other nurse is stoked we use a new one each time now cause she doesn't have to clean them anymore.

The colon isn't a sterile environment so they wouldn't have had to sterilize anything. They may use disposable tubing though?

hahahaha I was just about to edit to *snap Danois*