stormie

Sorry stormie ! I guess I was super frustrated because clearly they didn't know what I was asking about when I was asking about the titer test (as I had to explain to them what it is) but they still felt it was adequate to give me their opinion on the subject. I wouldn't have minded at all if they respectfully accepted they don't know and went to ask the vet. It really bothered me as they just refused to help me. No need to apologise! I agree with you and I just get saddened that there are that many nurses out there who don't seem to give a damn about their jobs. Sure, we're paid peanuts, but doesn't mean you need to give peanuts in return. But maybe I'm just lucky cause I found DOL :D . But seriously, DOL has taught me so much ; haha and my vets too - they now diagnose 'cold tail' thanks to dol!! So many things I may not have known about, but have now read about and gone off and done my own research and been able to form my own opinions on things. I think it's great. Plus it makes my job so much more rewarding because I am included in case discussions and even get asked for my opinions on things!! I just hope those nurses who you have all had negative experiences with, have gone away and done some research on the matter so that they can better answer the question next time.

The pricing aspect sucks, because unless the vets send directly to VetPath in WA, they will incur the charges from their usual labs for them to send the blood onto VetPath. For example, for us to do the inhouse test with VetPath for parvo and distemper, would cost us roughly $44 (that was last years prices so would be different now) - cost price to vets that is. But for us to send the blood to our usual Path Lab, who then sends it to VetPath and do the same test, costs us alteast $100. I can't remember the exact price, but will look it up tomorrow. I know many people would like to think we could just charge the client a similar price too, but unfortunately it just doesn't work like that and we do need to add on the appropriate fees etc to those prices. So for most vets using their regular labs, its easy to see how the price can reach up to and over $200...

These posts about the 'kids on the front desk' really upset me. Not because I'm offended, but because I think it's sad that these nurses/receptionists give the rest of us a bad name. I wish someone would call us up and inquire about 3-yearlies or titre testing! Maybe then my boss would listen to me and start doing it Staranais I think you are right regarding the manufacturers. Whilst they still say their vaccines should be given annually, that's what vets are likely to do. Particularly the older vets who were around before the days of parvo vaccines and saw how bad things used to be, I think there will be some reluctance for them to want to change the protocol and risk things going back to how it once was. My current boss is quite unsure about it. Some might call him narrow minded and say he doesn't keep with the times, but really, we don't get sent any information about the new protocol, and the specialist centers/uni's aren't putting on any seminars about it, so we don't really get any scientific reports on it at all. He's not the sort to look something up on the internet either - he wants cold hard facts from reliable sources too, before in his view, he risks his patients lives on something he hasn't got any information about. My soon-to-be boss is more open minded and went to listen to Jean Dodds and is interested to offer titre testing in his new clinic, but he has also admitted that he is apprehensive due to the lack of information within the veterinary industry. I have told them about the new protocol being taught and the conferences, but again, it's not any information we have had shown to us, so its really just been word of mouth...

Orbit comes to work with me daily, so I do put him on the scales atleast once a week, but I don't take a lot of notice of what he actually weighs - more on how he looks. If I think he's looking a little leaner, I'll weigh him, then will put him on regularly to make sure he's putting on weight etc. With regards to feeding, I feed raw, so try to stick to the 2-3% body weight, but again, mostly I just go by how he looks. With his weight, he should roughly be eating about 1.5kg food per day. My mince meat comes in 1kg packages and his RMB's are the same, so each meal I do roughly know what weight of feed he's eating, but some days he might get 2kg, where as other days he might get 1 or 1.5kg, depending on how fatty each meal is.

I wonder if the cows milk is too high in fat/calories which is whats affecting the growth.

Hi, The dose is 0.5mg/kg and 5-10mg/dog. I would give your dog half a 10mg tablet once a day. Human antihistamines don't have the same success rate as they do in people though, and sometimes you need to try a few different ones before you find one that works. In my experience though, antihistamines have done very little to help contact allergies and irritants unfortunately.

If it's just a scale and polish, her normal diet would be fine. It's just like what we have done when we go to the dentist for a general clean and check up. Best thing would be to wait until your vet discharges her as they will be able to tell you exactly what was done and discuss an appropriate diet for her for the following days. The mouth is very quick to heal, so even if she has had some teeth out, she should be back to normal within a couple of days.

Skin issues are also very much hereditary, so for this reason alone, I would not be breeding him. Not something that's fair to pass onto the owners of his pups, or the pups for that matter

Orbit burps all the time. Sometimes he has a couple of swallows and licks his lips - I just call them sicky burps. I've never worried about them - better the air is out than in!

Choco's Mum - I'd follow your vets advice. Orbit developed allergy symptoms very young - 10wks - and being a growing giant, messing with the diet isn't something you want to do. Have a look at Eukanuba's FP Response - it's fish and potato and is what our dermatologist recommends, and from memory, the protein, fat and calcium/phosph levels aren't that different from their Large Puppy, so this might be something you could use for an elimination diet if he hasn't already had fish. I waited until he was about 10months old before we started our elimination diet. Also, don't go changing foods and feeding lots of different things just yet, because it's possible that if he's an allergic dog, he's only going to develop allergies to the new things you feed him. The simpler you keep his diet now, the easier it will be to do the elimination diet as you'll have more options. I started Orbit on Eagle Pack as a pup, which is a great food, but has quite a few different ingredients in there, so it made it that bit harder to find meat options to use. We ended up using horse in the end. Watch what additives you use in your foods because it's possible that what you're adding might be a problem. I wouldn't be switching to raw straight away either - not until you've done an elimination diet, because for all you know, the meat you end up feeding might be the culprit. I'd recommend seeking a referral to a dermatologist. It's not cheap, in fact, dealing with atopy can be quite extensive and expensive, but I recommend getting started on a proper treatment plan asap. Dermatologists have a lot more knowledge of skin than your general vet and will help you get on top of things sooner rather than later.

I'm so glad I never had that problem with Orbit!! Not sure it'd be so fun with a giant sized one.... or maybe it'd be easier

Could this be because the vaccination protocols for children have been dramatically increased in the last 20 years, overloading their immune systems? Just a thought... possibly... but, I have environmental allergies (animals, pollens etc) and had limited vaccinations as a baby and even today. My half sister has hayfever too, as do other people on my dads side, so in my case, I'm sure its genetic.

I have an allergic dog, who was allergic since a puppy. I don't vaccinate him anymore, and give him a combined heartworm/monthly treatment. I only treat for fleas when I need to. Personally, I think the major contributing factor to the high incidence of allergies, is the fact that allergic dogs keep being bred with. The dog who 'just gets itchy from couch grass' still has an allergy, and whilst it doesn't seem that bad, has the potential to pass it on to it's offspring, and potentially create ultra allergic offspring. Most commonly, allergies develop later in life and worsen as the they get older. It's easy to then point the finger at treatments, as they''ve usually been used often up to that point. Another thing to keep in mind, is that a high percentage of the dog population, or in particular, those with owners who care enough to take their itchy dog to the vet and get an allergy diagnosis, probably treat worm/heartworm their dogs. So it's easy to point the finger at those things because it's something they all have in common. Unless you took the same dog, and never gave it those treatments, you could never really be sure it was those things that caused the problem. I'm not saying this is wrong, but just that there's a whole lot more to allergies than meets the eye. I am all for minimal treatment.

Cortisone suppresses the immune system so it wouldn't be fighting the tumour's growth. It has lots of uses. One of them is for use with particular types of cancer - it does slow down the progression of some.

Not always - cortisone is a type of chemo and is used in some cancer patients to slow progression. That's a bit harsh though isn't it? We're only hearing one side of the story here. I'm not saying it's the case in this situation, but it's not uncommon for owners to turn down big expensive work-ups in the first consult, and to just give drugs etc a chance and see if they get some improvement. It sounds like the vet made the initial diagnosis based on what she was presented with, and sounds very typical of MMM. Conditions like MMM can take a long long time to resolve too, so it might not be too concerning for the vet that there wasn't much improvement so soon. Unless we are in the consult room at the time, listening to everything that's been said, I think it's a bit unfair to insist the vet be hauled before the board, etc.

I'm sorry to hear about the diagnosis of your boy Unfortunately though, vets aren't super hero's and can often only really go with what they are presented with to begin with. It's not until things develop further that they are able to get a better idea of what is going on. Blood tests would not have necessarily shown that your boy had cancer either. In fact, often those with cancer have relatively normal blood results. In the early stages, probably the only way your vet would have been able to make a correct diagnosis would have been if she'd referred you to a specialist for a CT scan, which can be very expensive, and I can only imagine that in those early stages, she didn't feel it was necessary just yet is the symptoms looked typical of MMM. It is unfortunate though, that you had to be the one to point out issues and insist that your boy wasn't right. I'm all for conservative treatment, but I think that once a client returns because the problem hasn't resolved, then further work up should be done. But remember, they are just normal people too, who can and do make mistakes, as I'm sure everyone has done in their job at one time or another.

I've never smelt parvo... I guess that's a good thing, seeing I've worked in clinic for 4 years and we've not seen a case! Unfortunately some smells are just really hard to get rid of, no matter how much you clean the room, spray deodoriser etc.

Such sweet pics, Schmoo! The hyperlipidemia (fat in blood) could have been brought on by the pred, but it's also seen with diabetes and also pancreatitis, with the hyperlipidemia bringing on the pancreatitis. You can also get hyperlipidemia with liver disease. Still sending lots of good vibes!!

Obviously I don't know the full ins and outs of your case, Schmoo, but we often refer clients to the specialists for an ultrasound and I'm pretty sure it's under $500. But that's just for the US and not with them taking over the case and doing their own work up. Hopefully you get some positive results with insulin

Sorry to hear Sweep is unwell, Schmoo.. What about an acute attack of pancreatitis? Pred can bring on pancreatitis, and pancreatitis can also bring on symptoms of diabetes, seeing the other role of the pancreas is to secrete the insulin. If the pancreas is inflamed, you can also sometimes have a subsequent inflamed liver. But, a dog on pred can also have an enlarged liver just from the pred. Diabetic animals are also more prone to infections, so its possible he has diabetes (it can come on in a matter of weeks) and now has a secondary infection in his liver or somewhere else, causing the pain. Blood results should give you an idea whether he has pancreatitis or not, or if he's ketoacidotic (advanced diabetes), or if the liver is involved and inflamed. With or without these results. an ultrasound woud be useful too... Sending lots of good vibes

Yep - that would be a good combination. Generally the companies will recommend you use two different products, one that affects the fleas life cycle/development, and one that kills the adults. Sentinal works on the breeding cycle and advantage just kills the adults, so good combination. You could also replace the advantage for capstar tablets.

1. photos 2. more photos 3 yep! even more photos!!!! but seriously, I agree with what the others have said - in particularly, starting as you plan to go and not treating the puppy like its the most important thing in your world. Coming into a new pack, your pup will feel more relaxed if there is a clear leader.

yes, Orbit is Porpee. Started off by our vet calling him Orbis, which then became Orbis the Porpoise. So porpoise and porpee has now kind of stuck as his nickname and he's referred to as the big blue land dwelling sea mammal

Glad to hear Munchin! We're starting our dilution regime tomorrow. Fingers crossed he goes ok! And also fingers crossed there's enough there to follow the new regime and I don't have to order another 2 lots of viles!! :rolleyes:

Some piccies of Porpee... this is his neck on the second day of hives - was the same all down his back. This is his back today - can see how he's all moth eaten from where the hives turned to staph