stormie

My boy gets a mince/meat meal in the morning and a larger RMB meal at night, with a offal, eggs and some veges added here and there

What crap. Vets are NOT payed to advertise their food, unless of course the vet is working for the company as their consulting vet. Selling food in a clinic is no different to selling drugs. Vets get nothing but the retail profit (which is very little) for selling food. Sponsorship doesn't necessarily mean money, Midol. We have a sign on our wall that says we sell Science Diet, and in return, they supply us with a portion of our food for boarders. We don't get paid for it.

What made you first feel you should wipe? Was there a discharge? Or was it simply the smell? Is she short haired or long haired?

What is there around that area that needs regular cleaning??

I've fed lamb necks before with no problems too

This is what doesn't make sense to me. I'm not sure why people think that foods determine the rate at which other foods are digested. Meat would be digested at exactly the same rate, whether its fed with bone, dry or even plastic! If say it takes 30mins for meat to be broken down by the digestive juices, that is still going to be the case, no matter what it is fed with.

Unless they choke on a chicken neck, I would think that so long as it goes down, they should be fine. The bone pieces in the necks are quite small, and once it goes down it will be digested as it passes through the intestines anyway. Most troubles happen when things pass through that can't be digested at all...

Were you intending on adding fresh raw meat to his kibble? I am sure they know not to feed both together, but in seperate meals. Can someone please explain why meat should not be fed with kibble? The body doesn't store everything up to digest at all the same time. The meat would have been digested long before the kibble would - it doesn't sit there waiting for the kibble to be digested first. Otherwise feeding something like a chicken wing would be just as bad, as the bone takes longer to digest than the meat.

How awful for you Tetanus is pretty rare in dogs. Still possible though. Toxoplasmosis might be another thing worth considering...

Would you be complaining if it was your animal that the vet was taking an extra amount of time to examine or urgently needed attending to in its hospital cage?? I get a little bored of people bagging out vets here for charges. If people think their vet overcharges or overservices then change vets. Edited to add not aimed at OP as I don't read her post that way! I think vet charges are quite reasonable. Wish I was as understanding as you Sheridan... 3 puppy vaccs and ultrasound. $259.80. (including the so called 10% off for breeders rates) Don't know about you - but to me that is not what I would call reasonable.... Sorry, but that sounds very reasonable to get 3 vacc's and check ups and an ultrasound for that price. I don't know any of our referrral vets who charge less than $250-300 for an ultrasound alone. Vet is one of, if not the, lowest paid professions. They also have one of the highest rates of suicide due to such a high level of stress. Maybe people should stop complaining about prices and be thankful that we have access to such a high level of vet care and diagnostic equipment for our pets. If you don't like the prices, go to uni and do the courses yourself. Or don't have pets. Simple.

It's not uncommon for dogs to throw up any bone pieces they can't digest too... Do you feed breakfast? Is the dog vomiting on an empty stomach? Or is it after a meal? What is in the vomit?

Nope - SD is not irradiated. They're sourcing their ingredients from Aus now too (well, that's their excuse for the major price hikes!).

Just be careful what you supplement with... Your dog may have food allergies in which case you may end up supplementing him with something he is allergic to. Same thing with supplements which contain plant extracts - its possible you will make it worse if you give something or apply something topically which he might be allergic to...

I've used it. I use a dog specific coal tar shampoo which helps too, with an occasional rinse in pinetarsol. It all depends on what is making your dog itch though... I would be trying to get to the cause, eg fleas, food allergies, environmental allergies etc, rather than just treating the symptoms.

Colitis is simply inflammation of the colon and is different to inflammatory bowel disease. It may just be that he ate something which upset him, was stressed, etc and most cases pass within a couple of days. In most cases of colitis, with-holding food for 24hours gives the colon a chance for the inflammation to go away and settle down, and a bland diet after that helps prevent it becoming irritated again. Usually this is enough to get things back to normal. If it continues to persist, then you ideally should have it worked up more thoroughly to investigate a cause and go from there.

Maybe invest in a crate? That way have total control over how active he can be. Some quiet training and games will give mental stimulation and help to tire him out.

It's a wonderfully in depth subject atopy, isn't it! Derms told us that the most common cause of allergies in dogs <6months was food, and that food allergies were a lot more common than people think. And I'm talking true food allergies involving histamine etc, not just intolerances. The company that runs the SPOT test (which gives food allergy results) have data showing dogs symptoms improving by up to 30% by simply following the food results. Many atopic dogs, as Zayder will know, have allergies to many things, such as pollens, insects and food, so it's important to cover all aspects to get the best out of your treatment. We've done two blood tests, in the hope of comparing results. First one came back with about 25 positives, all of which are in very close proximity to Orbits environment. The second test gave us poor results as we were told by someone poorly informed that we didn't have to withhold cortisone, when if fact you do. But what small results we did get, closely matched the first test, so that's something. The blood tests aren't cheap, and I probably wouldn't base results purely just on the results of one test. And I wouldn't go down the immunotherapy road unless under instruction of a dermatologist. It's an expensive process that needs to be done right in order to get the best results. I'd like to get skin testing done but there really is no way on earth we could withhold cortisone for the time needed. 3 days off it and Orbit's practically ripping himself open. Maybe some day though ;)

Or what about making little elbow pads to cover the callouses?

not to mention pancreatitis from all the fat from the ham/ham bones!

Man, that's crap! I really feel for you guys... Have you been able to dig and ask any more questions? I thought that was odd about the withholding when you said it, have you been able to find out about that? Why don't they recommend immunotherapy? That all just seems odd :) Our derms do everything in house, which is great from the POV of knowing that the person you are dealing with did the testing!! Hope you have some answers soon... Just gets more frustrating. The Pathologists have now admitted to giving us the wrong information with regards to withholding. The lady we first spoke to who told us not to withhold has admitted to telling us that as apparently that's what she was told. So not sure exactly what's going to happen now, hopefully they'll either refund us or give us a retest. They just didnt recommend immunotherapy based on their results, but there was barely in readings. The highest number we got was 44, and its measured from 1-5000. Had planned to take both results to derm, but might put that on hold until we know exactly what's going to happen with the Heska. The only slightly positive thing is that quite a number of readings >0 we got on Heska, do match the positives we got with SPOT, so I guess that's a start!

As in her general breathing is faster/laboured??

Agree 100%

Well, Heska results are in.... according to them, Orbit showed no or minimal levels of allergen specific IgE. All very strange seeing both tests look for IgE yet one came back with positives and another with nothing. But according to gribbles, they dont recommend immunotherapy! So frustrating... The results say it may be due to recent administration of cortisone, which if that's true, we will not be happy as we were confidently told there is no need to withhold. Definately not what I was expecting... eta: what little readings we did get on the Heska, does match up pretty well with the positives we got with the SPOT test though.

We don't do it, though Pfizer are constantly visiting us telling us we should - marketing!! Very rarely do they show signs of pain the following day, in fact most the most common concern from our clients is trying to keep them quiet! In most cases it probably wouldn't hurt, but whether it's necessary is debatable. Obviously some feel more pain than others, but personally I think that each case should be treated individually, rather than just whacking them all on it. eta: vets who don't send home with pain relief are callous? It's only a recent thing by Pfizer in particularly to promote a take-home dose of Rimadyl, so that would mean prior to about 12months ago, most vets are callous...

Still waiting on the HESKA results. I might give the lab a call today or tomorrow if we've not heard anything, just to make sure they actually got it!! Poor Zayder.. I have heard of both people and animals feeling off from the injections, and have offered wondered how it makes them feel after having the intradermals done too. Overall, how would you rate the success of the desens. inj's? I've not had any experience with them - do you think it makes a difference as to where they come from and who makes them up? Or is there just the one place that makes them that everyone goes to? haha hope I'm making sense! The labs that offer the blood tests also offer the injections, but I was planning to leave them up to the Derm.. I just wanna make sure i do it all right!!