stormie

I'd request another scraping to rule out demodex. There's two different types of mange - sarcoptic and demodex. Sarcoptic mange makes them incredibly itchy where as demodex doesn't. You won't always see demodex on a scraping and I have known of cases where it eventually took a biopsy to find it. The fact the littermates are all the same is a bit odd. But again, this could fit with demodex. Thyroid function might be something worth testing too. Failing all that though, I'd be requesting a referral to a dermatologist who can help you get to the bottom of it.

Interesting to see it used to be used in humans in the 80s but was pulled off the market due to costs and also caused stomach upset/ulcurs. I suppose not to lose money on a product they gave it to dogs. Very dangerous for cats by the way. ETA if you read up on Non Steroidal Anti Inflammatories in general we still dont 100% know the mechanism of function of these drugs. So it becomes a balance of probabilites. I would rather now people take their animals to an alternative practitioner for a try and natural/dietary remedies instead of whacking them straight on NSAIDS - they fix nothing. In fact in already injured dogs they create further injury as the animals pain is masked, they feel invincible and use that injured part. I would rather my dog whinge a little then go for a run and hurt himself further. My GSD Krueger was given a week of Norocarp after hip x-rays, after they wore off the poor bugger could barely get up he had over done it and caused more problems instead of pacing himself as he usually did. Now NSAIDS are resevered for emergencies. I just checked all our NSAID pamphlets. Rimadyl, Carprofen and Norocarp all have similar Side Effects and all mention that there have been rare cases of death. Metacam and Previcox have no mention of death...

I wouldn't grow a large breed pup on raw. It's just too risky if you get the ratio's wrong. The ratio of calcium to phosphorus needs to be right and you also need to ensure you're not over doing the calories. Get it wrong and you risk affecting the pups growth and causing long term damage Instead, I'd be looking at a good quality dry, specific to a growing large breed and incorporate raw meaty bones like chicken wings/necks, turkey necks etc, all of which are mostly balanced in their ratios. Once pup is out of its critical growth phase then by all means look to change to raw.

I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. It must be very heart breaking for you. I've heard of dogs having mild GI upsets with any non-steroidal, but never something as severe as you described. Is it possible your boy received some cortisone at some stage of the treatment? Also, it is possible that the original symptoms he was showing, was stomach pain rather than spinal pain - they present almost exactly the same. It may have been that he had some sort of upset tummy to begin with and whilst the Rimadyl, being an anti inflam would have initially helped the pain, it would have made any tummy problems much much worse. I hope you don't think I'm being insensitive offering up other suggestions. Of course it's possible your boy just had a very bad reaction to the drug. But sometimes too, there are other factors which may not be mentioned or known at the time. My thoughts are with you...

We see the same with the Boss' Newfie puppy. We put all the dog beds out in the sun during the day and Orbit and their other dog, a xbreed, spend hours sunning themselves to warm up. The Newfie puppy prefers to lay on the cold tiles in the laundry. Weird dog!!

I wonder if people are being misinformed or misunderstanding the whole vaccine issue. I just read a topic about someone who has been told on Facebook how bad vaccinations are after mentioning her pup is due for its first booster following puppy vaccines - something which is still being recommended on the new protocol. I wonder how many people hear this information about how 'bad' vaccines are and are just not vaccinating at all. The other thing that is possibly interesting, is that the media releases regarding the 'outbreaks' are being given out by the Disease Watchdog program, which is run by a vaccine company that is VERY MUCH against anything other than annual vaccination.

Vaccinations are not a bad thing at all. It's the reason Australia has such a low incidents of diseases. The issue is more about vaccinating APPROPRIATELY, only if required. The annual vaccination regime is becoming a thing of the past, but it doesn't mean people shouldn't be vaccinating at all. We would recommend you have this first annual injection, then go onto the 3 year protocol. Or, you could titre test triennially to ensure your dog still has immunity. I know a few only do the puppy shots, but I think many recommend the puppy shots and the first annual, and then either no more at all, 3 yearly, or titre testing.

I kinda took from that 'example' post that they were saying their Dobe is from working lines AS WELL as going to be a big boy, hence why they wanted to find a suitable trainer. But I get where you're coming from. I get sick of people who want to brag about how big their Dane is going to be, like it's a good thing.

True, Souff. There are plenty of vets out there linked up to pet shops, to ensure new puppy buyers go to their clinic for their shots and therefore hopefully retaining them as clients. They are in the same league as Dr Chris, IMO, making money from pet shops. I just find the whole commercial aspect of the TV vets we have, a load of crap. So much of the tv show is faked for dramatisation. Their 'referral' cases often aren't referred from Bondi at all. We've been called asking if we give permission for one of our cases to be on the show, as a Bondi case. Same with what goes on in his clinic - a friend had a dog HBC that ended up at Bondi seeing CB. More time spent getting the perfect shot and doing retakes than actually working on the dog. Why can't we have a vet show like RPA? One that just shows it all how it is without the glamour and drama? And one with 'real' vets, rather than pretty boys and girls wanting to look cute on camera. Vets who don't get sucked in by the fame and fortune and end up promoting supermarket foods as the ultimate in pet nutrition. I just have zero respect for him as a vet - IMO, not much of what he does sounds like what 'real' vets do.

Sas from DOL was supplied with a tonne of the stuff to try on her allergic dane, complete with all the supplements they recommend for allergies, but unfortunately it made him worse. But it depends on the dog really...

Not quite the 'Aussie Hero' is he. Gives vets a bad name eta: he's sold out with the whole Optimum food thing, so I wouldn't be surprised if PP's has offered him money as well.

We're roughly about $250-300 for a scale and polish. We had a new client in recently that paid $900 for a scale and polish at another clinic - no extractions, nothing else, just a simple clean. Outrageous! Bones are helpful for prevention, but once there's enough build up to need a scale, bones are unlikely to remove this. But definitely recommended post dental

I'm wondering whether this smell might just be 'puppy breath'?

Does that mean they don't go away?????? No no, they do go away. It's like a trauma lump. Orbit's last one was really cool - it started off large and flat, but completely changed as it all organised itself and got smaller but taller. Then it just slowly went down. Can take a few weeks but they eventually go away. His first one took aggges - weeks. After about 3 weeks I started to get nervous so sent some cells off to the lab just to be sure. But still just trauma!

It happens whenever they poo. The idea of anal glands is as a scent marker - on each bowel movement some of the liquid is expressed with their poo, as a calling card. Dogs want to mark their home territory too. I've seen Orbit's anal glands squirt out when doing a poo in the yard. Feral, I know...

They can get these lumps from any injection, not just vaccines. Probably more commonly seen with vaccines because in terms of injections, are the most frequently given. My boy has had two injection site lumps - one from antibiotics and the other from an antihistamine injection.

Yep - plus, the lifestage that the heartworm tests are able to detect, take 6months to develop from the time of infection, so a test now would be pointless anyway.

Some dogs for whatever reason, just don't empty their glands properly when toileting. And those dogs will need their glands expressed manually. For some reason it seems to be common in the Dane puppies I've seen, that don't seem to empty their glands properly and they overflow. Orbit needed it done monthly as a pup, but grew out of it and hasn't had a problem since. He's on raw now too which helps. I just learnt to tell by feeling, on the outside, whether his glands were full. I felt them after being emptied, then just gently ran my fingers around the area and if they were full, it was very obvious because they were quite big. This is all without entering the anus too, so nothing gross. Then I'd just palm him off to my boss to do ;) There's no harm in checking if they're full - last thing you want is them leaking out in your house because the smell sticks around for ages. But yes, we'd much prefer you didn't do them yourself cause us vets and nurses would much rather stink our clinics out for doing it and also hope that you all get abscesses cause they're our favourite thing to deal with. And of course, because we want to suck as much money out of you as possible

Sorry Holly, I don't have any specific evidence other than I just know how the digestion system of a mammal works. I'm sure if you google digestion, you'll get plenty of information as to how food is passed through the body. Digestion is a process - it doesn't happen in one place, but rather, from the moment it enters the mouth, through the stomach and then through the intestines. It's always moving and being digested along the way. As I said, easier to digest foods would just be broken down sooner in the journey than those that take longer. Remember too that food isn't completely digested - it's just broken down into smaller bits and once at the right 'texture' so to speak, the bits that can be absorbed are, until everything's been taken out of the meal and you're left with the waste product. This explains it better than me - once the food is ready to leave the stomach, it does. It doesn't wait around for the other components to be ready to go with it. So the kibble would be broken down and certain parts of it would exit the stomach first and then the mince, when it's ready. But the mince would not be waiting around any longer in the stomach than if you fed it on it's own.

The digestion rate thing is a load of rubbish. People seem to think the body digests everything in one place and it all sits there until it's all been digested. This ISN'T how the body works. Food enters the stomach where digestion starts. It then passes through the intestines where food is absorbed, from start to finish. Some bits are easily digested and may be digested sooner, but it all keeps moving until it reaches the output and is slowly digested as it moves through. If those theories of different digestion rates were true, everyone who fed raw meaty bones would be in big trouble, because raw meat is digested much faster than the bone, which in some cases, isn't digested at all. I feed raw and I occasionally see bone fragments in Orbit's poo. I can assure you that by feeding raw meat with kibble, doesn't mean that the meat 'sits around somewhere' waiting for the kibble to digest. It's all constantly moving and constantly digesting, from the moment it enters the mouth to the point it exits their behind.

Yep, Porp drools but mostly only when he's having to wait for his meal or a treat. Occasionally if I'm eating something really yum he might drool but he's mostly over the drooling over my food, thankfully! And yep - we get bubbles!! It's kinda funny - imagine if that happened to us when we are watching someone eat something yum!

You should stay on an elimination diet for 12weeks because that's how long it can take. But usually you would expect to see a reduction within about 2-3weeks.

If your dog has a food allergy, it could easily be anything that it has eaten previously - and easily more than one thing. I have a dog with an allergy to chicken and fish. The Eagle Pack Lamb and Rice still has chicken fat in it, too. What sas says is true and really, would save you a lot of money and give you more of an idea. You could spend money buying the EP, but what if there's something else as well as chicken? like fish? Starting on a proper elimination diet is not only going to save you time and money, it's going to give you proper results. The incidents of food allergy (on its own) is actually quite low. In fact some of the Derms are now opting to put patients on Atopica trials BEFORE they do food elimination diets, because that gives them a better idea of whether it's environmental or food, because the Atopica doesn't work so well for food allergies.

I was thinking the same thing after watching the fire hazards story on Today Tonight just before.

I'm not sure whether you can get it anywhere else. It's not a prescription only drug, but it might be like a pharmacist medicine that is only available through vets. Maybe speak to your vet about it? We also put a lot of Renal patients on medications Fortekor or Enalfor. Vets usually have their own preferred treatment regime and tend to stick to what they know, so these are just the medications we would typically give to those suffering renal failure.