stormie

The dog should only need one C3 vaccine now. If they're wanting to cover Kennel Cough, the injection needs to be done twice, 4 weeks apart, however the intranasal only needs doing once.

WP's where are the main itchy areas? If it is FAD all it takes is one flea bite to cause a big reaction which can take a long time to go away. And I guess there's also the possibility that if he could have developed a flea allergy that he could also have developed an environmental allergy too. Cortisone isn't the greatest, but sometimes they can just get skin inflammation from a reaction to something which unless treated, gets worse. So a simple short course of cortisone can break the cycle. Did the problem completely go away with the last course? It may be that it just wasn't long enough so there was still some inflammation which then got worse again after the cortisone. If it's an all over problem, reality is nothing is going to offer the instant relief that cortisone will. I guess that's why it's used so often because it really is quite often, the only thing that works. If it's just a more localised area you could use Cortavance Spray which is great because the cortisone isn't absorbed into the blood stream. But obviously if it's an all over problem this isn't going to be very suitable. I would do an antihistamine trial to see if you can find one that gives some relief and also look at increasing Omegas in the diet to benefit the skin. Alpha Kerri Oil is great for sore inflamed skin and helps to create a bit of a skin barrier too. Also try the Calendula Tea like Erny suggested - seems a lot o people have success with that. What a lot of people forget is that skin is an organ. A dog with chronic skin problems (ie long term inflammation) that aren't treated can actually be fatal. Just like having a liver that is infected and inflamed for a long period can be too. Obviously this isn't something that you'd need to worry about, but it's another reason why cortisone and AB's have their place. Unfortunately, I know of a dog who's owners are not treating his chronic allergies and he's dying.

Actually it can. Pancreatitis can be chronic or acute and can and does occur after a single very fatty meal.

The HW Injection isn't a vaccine. It's just heartworm preventative in a slow release formula that you inject all at once and it slowly releases the drug over a period of a year. As for testing prior to using prevention - The drug used in the daily tabs, DEC, can react with the babies of the heartworm, which can kill the dog. This doesn't happen in the modern monthly/injection drugs, which work by just killing the larval stage of about 0-30days old, so if a dog does have a heartworm infestation, giving the injection or a monthly treatment will not harm the dog.

We used to do it routinely at our last clinic but don't here, but then all animals are microchipped so the desexing status ends up on the registration details. You should be able to ask them simply not to do it

Orbit can speak and growl but it doesn't sound very scary Mind you he was a bit of a nervous nelly at the Peter Alexander shoot so I'd say he'd be just as worried on a film set unfortunately

We send ours to WA and it's $85 without consult and about $110 with one. It depends which virus you're testing for as Hepatitis isn't done at the Lab but is sent overseas. We only do the Distemper and Parvo titres which are done at the Lab in WA.

I'm going to disagree with this. I think you'd be surprised at how many people actually have no idea puppy farms exist. I didn't until DOL. My boss didn't until me, as with our other nurse we work with. I actually think Stormie being a vet there would be very few who work in the profession who don't know where pups in petshops come from. The general public I agree whole heartedly with you, that many still are unaware. Sorry, I should have added - I'm a nurse and my boss is a vet who's been practising for over 20years now. Before DOL, we all just assumed pet shop puppies came from owhers who had an accidental litter when the dog next door jumped the fence. We had no idea puppies were bred on such a large scale in such facilities. I think the whole issue has only recently come to public light in the last few years and so we're getting small articles etc in Vet Journals, but prior to these times, there was just no information or education unless you went looking for it.

I'm going to disagree with this. I think you'd be surprised at how many people actually have no idea puppy farms exist. I didn't until DOL. My boss didn't until me, as with our other nurse we work with.

Thought it was great. Does anyone know if they put up video of their nightly stories? Would love to post a link to the story on FB.

And this is where the mis-interpretion lies, I believe....the one between health issues in purebreds as opposed to cross-breds. People assume purebreds have health issues because they are purebred, and this is true....it's the early inbreeding and linebreeding that set the features but also set the heritable diseases. So they assume that crossbreeds don't have the same issues....but this isn't true because crossbreeds are the product of purebreds, although not the same type, and the heritable diseases are still there and still happening. exactly

Thats ok Jed, I don't see it as picking on me. A good discussion about the health of our breeds is never a bad thing! With regards to the SM thing, I would have to disagree with you. Georgina Childs (Neuro) did a study just in Feb this year in conjunction with the NSW Cav Club. Out of the 60 ASYMPTOMATIC dogs which were planned to be bred with, 50% had SM syrinxes. I'm not saying xbreds don't have problems, but that's not the issue here. We're dealing about the future of our Purebreds and whilst there are the health problems that exist, people are going to hear about them. Isn't this the reason we educate people to go to registered breeders who health test? Because we know the problems exist and do our best to avoid them? I just get so frustrated when people (and I'm not picking on anyone in particular here at all) get annoyed when people, vets, etc talk about the problems in purebred dogs like they don't exist. They do exist and are certainly a problem, IMO. But whilst we ignore it and just stick our heads in the sand pretending it's all lies, it's not going to get any better. I think the main problem is not that these shows say that purebreds have problems, but they they don't mention that xbreds are thus prone to exactly the same problems that purebreds are, if those breeds are used in the cross.

This is what my thoughts were - can't deny that the dogs are what we made them but it came across as though he was saying all pedigress have health issues and are inbred - it could have been more balanced. How about breeders who have bred out the problems? But I think we'd be hard pressed to find a purebreed that doesn't have problems in its breed? I think it would be close to truth to say that most purebred breeds have some sort of health problem within that breed.

I didn't think there was much negativity against purebreds at all. He just spoke the truth :D You can't deny humans have created the problems that we see in our purebreds today. I only heard him mention HD, which is no secret in many breeds, SM in Cavs - again something which has been shown to be very widespread in the breed and the mention of Bulldogs needing C-Sections atleast 50% of the time - again, isn't this common knowledge? These problems aren't going to go away whilst we deny they exist. Great series and an absolute credit to him.

I would probably want a referral to a specialist. Hope she is ok :D

Voltaren (oral) shouldn't really be used in dogs. The dose generally required for any effect would be toxic.

Can you provide me with more details as my breeder that I bought my akita from told me to feed eukanuba soaked in water with a good dollop of natural yoghurt. A bit of yogurt won't make a lot of difference. You should never add any other type of Calcium Supplement though. I have given yogurt to my dogs and do feed Euk. Yep - this. Nothing wrong with adding a bit of natural yoghurt to feed - the cultures are great. I was just meaning that the concept of adding something for extra calcium is a no no with puppies already on a balanced diet.

People should NOT try to give extra calcium to growing large breed puppies, unless it's in the form of meaty bones, where the calcium to phos ratio is correct.

If you're this worried about him and it's as bad as you say it is, you should take him to a vet. Whether that be your 'regular' vet or the one you used to do the surgery.

Sounds like an infection, particularly if he has been licking the wound since last Thursday. Half a day isn't long enough to see effects of the AB's - you'd need atleast 24-48 hours before they'd start to work. May not be a bad idea for another check, but if the wound is now being left alone and is still otherwise in tact, I'd probably give the AB's a bit more time to work.

We guess CCx too. Worth a vet visit just to be sure but if she is 6months old it would be rare to have a skin condition which sent her that bald in that short a period of time. Not impossible, but just unlikely.

Have a look at Ziwipeak dehydrated from NZ. It's available in australia. btw: I'm getting very very wary of imported anything for pets. example here Might be best to read the whole article...

We had this discussion at work about Hills today. They call themselves premium but I wouldn't. Their prescription range is great and is invaluable in many situations but I wouldn't touch their Science Diet if you paid me. The ingredients are probably the worst of all the 'premiums'. I only found one that had a meat meal but it was 4th down the list after 4 different components of corn. The others just had poultry by product and again, after the corn. Euk, well atleast they have a real meat listed, but we know its not really the number one ingredient after cooking and probably ends up only being a small proportion of the food - the rest being corn. I know lots of Dane people who feed Euk Large Puppy and find it grows the Giant pups nicely so in that regard, I don't mind it. In terms of it, and Hills, being a premium pet food, maybe in the Industry, but not for my dog. He's a carnivore

I would assume it would just be part of the diagnosis process. Rather than sending every seizuring dog for imaging or analysing cerebro-spinal fluid, they'd just be started on the more common medication. If that fails, then you pretty much rule out epilepsy and know it's something possibly more difficult, so then you could suggest the fluid analysis, or CT etc. The only way you'd really know for sure its GME or a tumour would be imaging or analysing cerebro-spinal fluid (for GME) which would be pretty expensive to do first up.

ty I have been searching for something like this , going for a 2nd opinion on my little girl soon , not happy that she is on cortisone long term, but atm it is stopping her fits as fit meds didn't cut it . I want to see if there is a alternative.can only hope , not impressed that all say to do bloods b4 and after, yet my vet never mentioned it My dog never had blood work before either. Remember, the pdf is a guide only. I am confused as to why cortisone would stop seizures? It can help in a couple of situations of seizures. Firstly its anti - inflammatory action would stop seizures in cases like GME, which cause brain inflammation which can cause seizures. Secondly it can also reduce the size of some tumours so incidents of seizures due to a tumour (or the resulting inflammation around the tumour) would be helped with cortisone.