stormie

A few of us on here all use the same vet. I dont ask what he charges - he can have my first born child if he wants. Great vet, great people skills and his Practice Manager is AWESOME (that's Stormie on here - she's great) Oh ummm he's married, Raz, but I'll let him know of your desires

Why dont you do it like my GP who is just down the road from you guys. He has fees for normal and long consults. I think most GPs probably do that these days. I'd still expect to pay 2 consult fees if OH and I both went in and shared the room because we're taking double time. I'd also expect to pay per consult per animal if I lobbed up at your clinic with my lot. As I said earlier, the consult is per animal, not room space if we're all in there together. I still want my coffee when I come in tomorrow, Stormie. Infact I want a double shot because I'm bringing two dogs We have a long consult fee too - only gets used for litters though cause SV's too nice. Most of our new puppy consults go on for ages, sometimes 45mins or longer because there's so much to talk about. But they only get charged the normal consult fee. Our second animal consult is cheaper than the first. But hey, maybe we should be doing things for cheaper so people can afford to have lots of animals. We'll just stop doing all the discounted/free rescue work, stop treating wildlife and strays and dealing with all the stray kittens we get lumped with and have to vacc, chip, desex, board for free and then find homes for.

Lo Pan if you go in with more than one animal, you're going to take longer with the vet than you would if you just took one. If a consultation fee is $60 for a 15min consult, that's roughly $240 an hour. So if you go in with two animals and take half an hour, why shouldn't you be charged $120, like other tradies you mentioned? Perhaps we should start doing it like that. We just had a client have a 25min consult because they had a few things to talk about, but only charged them the regular 15min fee. Perhaps we should have charged them according to the hourly rate?

Well, technically having two dogs you are taking up two consult places, so I think it's perfectly reasonable if a vet charges two consult fees. Some have a 'long consult' fee which they might use for multiple animals and some might have a bit of a discount on the second. Best way to find out is to ask your vet

Yeah see for us, our daily walk isn't about tiring him out. It's just cause it's what we do. For me, a walk is just a basic essential, like food and water. Sometimes it might just be a walk down the end of the street and back if I'm really pushed for time. Other times we'll go exploring around the neighbourhood. But i'll be honest and say there are days here and there where we don't go - if it's terrible weather etc. But overall, it's just a given that we'll go out together sometime in the day just cause it's what we do. But then we do other stuff too. Games in the yard with toys and agility stuff, swimming, formal training etc. Or on weekends we'll go for a drive to find some nice bushwalks or rivers to swim in. I I totally get that not everyone has the luxury of time etc to be able to do these things and I'm so fortunate to work the hours I do and have a dog friendly swimming pool at work. But this is just how it is for us

I have not posted in this thread and I'm definitely not a CM fan! Think Kaz meant me - we all know how I feel about Cesar *insert naughty emoticon here*

Just so you know, this stuff is NOT safe for pets and can be fatal.

Just a question, and definitely not having a go, but for those who don't walk their dogs often, may I ask why? ie, why do you chose to throw a ball or frisbee, do some training etc for half an hour or so, rather than going for a half an hour walk? Obviously I get that some dogs may have problems which see them unable to be exercised too much, but for those with healthy, young/adult dogs? I should say that when I refer to walk, I don't mean going out to a dog park for a run around, but I mean an on leash walk around the streets etc.

I'm not sure i'd go as far as to say cruel, but I do think that a proper walk off the property should be a regular occurrence for a dog. I believe it satisfies an instinct to travel with their pack. I also believe in 'the power of the walk', in that just traveling on lead with their owners regularly does wonderful things for their minds. So nope, I don't think it's cruel or neglectful as such, but I do think dogs would be that much happier if it was incorporated into their lives regularly. Plus, it's good for our fitness too :p

Hahaha that's funny, Orbit likes company with bones too. He was so cute with this one today. Just lay there next to me whilst I carved it up for him - massive carving knife and all. Yay for the vanishing lump!!!

All the lucky dol doggies this Christmas!! Orbit had a couple of sittings at the bone and didn't get very far I went out for the 3rd this evening with a big knife and cut off the meat for him. It was too hot to have to do so much work for food! It's back in the freezer for another turn tomorrow.. and the next day... and the next few days after that I'd say!

Hahaha when my sister saw it she thought it was our lunch The awesome people at Orbits meat supply place organised it for me - $5!!!! He's had two goes at it and barely made a dent!!! It's going to last a lot longer than I thought!

Mucous is usually a sign of an upset bowel. The bowel secretes mucous as part of normal function to act as a lubricant, however when its a bit upset or irritated, it produces excess mucous which you see in the stools. It's not uncommon to see some blood with mucous too. Have you changed the diet at all or fed something different? Worming is also a good idea.

Santa came to Orbit!! He got some toys, some doggy biscuits, but I think the following was is by far his favourite.... to give you an idea on how big this thing really is and how much meat is on it

Agree with Staranais - there's no point switching to raw if you'll still be feeding something she turns out to be allergic to. Do an elimination diet first (because according to the Derms, allergies in puppies seems to more commonly be food allergies) then when you know what's safe, you can switch to an all raw diet.

Looks Greyhound with some GSD in there maybe?

If she's itchy, her skin is going to be inflamed and irritated and this combined with the scratching would be breaking the natural skin barrier and allowing the naturally present staph to take over. So I would think that it's the itchy skin causing the pustules, infections etc, rather than the other way around. I've never really heard of puppies being itchy and then having it resolve. The fact it gets worse in summer is more likely to be allergies, either environmental, fleas etc. After the malaseb baths, apply some alpha kerri oil or QV oil to her coat - it will help stop it drying out too much and also provide a barrier. But keep up with regular bathing to help rule out fungal infections too. You need to completely rule out fleas and flea allergy so get yourself a really good flea product. Make sure there's no wandering jew in your garden. After doing this and still no answers, you think want to look at a food elimination diet, so starting her on a completely new food with ingredients she's never eaten before. Another things Derms suggest, which is very difficult, is looking at whether inside or outside is more of a trigger. So she would spend her time completely outside for a couple of weeks, then the same thing inside. I didn't do this myself because Orbit was young and I just couldn't have him outside 24/7 for that long. Not many people can do it. I did the inside bit though and found his itching lessen whilst inside. If no change or still itchy after ruling out bacteria,fungal, parasites, food, then you've pretty much got an allergic dog. Adding oils to the diet can help but I personally wouldn't do this until after an elimination diet, in case the oils you use are a trigger (eg my dog is allergic to fish so giving fish oil was counter productive). Anti histamines can be great too, but sometimes its a matter of trialling a few before you find one that works. If it is atopy (allergies) unfortunately there's no real cure, though there has been some success with desensitising injections. For us, the only things that provide relief is Atopica (an allergy drug) and low doses of cortisone with antihistamine. I hope this helps. I probably wouldn't be totally happy with being told it will go away, because there's a pretty high chance it won't but will actually get worse. If you can, I would look at getting an appointment with a Dermatologist. They'll be able to tell you whether it's going to go away or not and help with a treatment plan etc.

So does that mean those who kept their pups inside whilst they were at work have disadvantaged their puppies? I took Orbit to work from Day 1, where he was inside. I could never leave a puppy outside in the back yard unsupervised all day - especially a pup as clumsy as a Dane.

awesome

Yap there's no reason you can't put up basic information here. You don't need to mention any names. People might be able to explain things to you to help you understand and come to terms with what happened. Feeling like your dog was killed by your vet is not going to be helping you.

Yap again I am sorry, but I must stress that the Vet Surgeons Board is very strict with matters of neglect. I am sure that if your vet did something wrong to result in your dog's death, they would not be turning a blind eye. May I ask for what reason you feel that the dose of medication your dog was given was too high? It may have been that your dog was just too sick and perhaps the illness was too much and was the reason your dog passed away, rather than the medication? I just worry that you have misinformation which is leading you to think your dog died due to neglect, when it may be that everything possible was done however it just wasn't enough.

Kashing how old is your puppy? Just that something you wrote at another time said that the pup you are getting will be 8weeks after Christmas so you will be getting the puppy after Christmas. You need to take your Gsd Puppy to an animal hospital if you haven't already. (The OP may have gone to the vet and left DOL open on their computer)

You can't compare grief and say one is worse. The situation might sound worse when put next to each other, but it doesn't mean that the person who went through the 'lesser' thing feels any different to what the other person is feeling. I'm sorry for the things that some people have experienced here. It must be a truly terrible thing to feel. But I know when I lose Orbit, for me, it will be the worse thing I can imagine and it's quite possible that I will go through the same grief you have gone through with your losses. I don't mean for that to offend people, but it's how it is. Just like we all have different physical pain thresh holds, I believe its the same with emotional pain. We should be thinking of how our own losses have made us feel and then feel empathy for Yap who is clearly going through a very distressing time.

I don't really see the problem, so long as the dogs needs are met. Instead of having the luxury of stepping out a back door to a backyard, a person in an apartment might need to walk or drive to a park. It doesn't necessarily mean the dog is going to be permanently locked up. Lots of people keep their dogs inside whilst they're out or at work, so again, I don't see how a dog in an apartment would be much different? A person could live on 100 acres but never walk their dog. The dog may not self exercise. Yet a person in an apartment could take their dog out for walks, to parks, bushwalking, swimming 3 times a day - surely the latter would be the better option?

I tried to get turkey necks from Inghams and was told it wasn't possible so I would assume frames would be the same.