lucknow

Oh how awful. R.I.P. Kaisie Take care, this is an awful time..

I agree with you regarding instruction for caring for dogs. My only point is that we already have a system in place the same as licencing for reptiles. Apply by mail, dont need to show any knowledge of husbandry requirements or ability/wish to meet these, pay an annual fee and off you go! I kept licenced snakes, lizards, birds and frogs for over 10 years with no checks whatsoever. Paid my fee and off i went. Rather like dog ownership.

Bloody Pet Shops.. We had a 9 week old British Bulldog in at 3am the other day with a URTI. Owner had 'researched' aussie bulldogs for a year until daughter saw this (extremely cute) pup ina petshop and apparently this was 'the one'. Pup scanned to confirm microchip on sale and none was found, all paperwork was 'lost' but would be posted to her, oh and by the way, if when she took pup to a vet for vaccinations they couldnt find the chip 'just bill it to the shop'. Poor owner was stoked that she had found dog of her dreams, and white to boot (already had dermatitis on his face and she had no idea so research was obviously limited). Nothing sadly, was too out of the ordinary so far until vet told me papers showed sale price of $3000!!! For an unchipped (and given no chip when he supposedly done, and no paperwork, presumably unvaccinated) pup with a respiratory infection 2 days after purchase, I can only say OMG!.

I believe the husband can't afford the rent? IT is hard to make good decisions when you're stressed. I suggest following PF's advice and sitting down with the ex and going through a plan. Maybe use a mediator/counsellor from Relationships Australia? You wouldn't be going to counselling to stay together, but to minimise the fall-out from the break-up. I know many people who have done this and it has really helped them come to a satisfactory arrangement for both parties. IF everything goes to sh*t, you can always contact PACERS (Steve on this forum, who is really a woman named Julie) to see if they can help you work something out. Good luck. Relationship breakdowns are hard enough with out all the crap that goes with them! Husband cannot afford the rent on his own but he can get someone in to share and help with the bills, same as has been suggested for the OP - which she said wouldnt work as she doesnt have time to for the dogs for various reasons. If there is a viable way to avoid rehoming them it is better than the alternative. I agree actually sitting down and discussing the situation (as unpalatable as that can be when in the midst of a breakup) preferably with a trained mediator would at least help to come to an arrangement. I'm not certain of the legalities for every situation but when I went through my marriage breakup we had to attend mediation prior to property settlement (it may have been different as children were involved but we weren't seeking parenting orders). No reason the family pets cant be included in the mediation process - they were in mine.

I'm sorry for your situation but also a little conused. I understand you are worried about affording or even finding suitable accommodation for you and the dogs together and that you dont have the time available to care for them as they deserve. You're worried about the ability to rehome the older dog and the effect it would have on both of them if it were to happen, but you have also said you dont think your husband wants to leave either the house or the dogs. Surely if he wants to stay and keep the dogs and is capable of caring for them that would be the best thing for them? I know it is not something you want to do but isnt it better than rehoming them? Sometimes being a pet owner means making the hard choices for their sake rather than for ourselves.

I cant comment on Medibank but I am with Pet Insurance Australia. Dog has been insured 1 year yesterday (it was his 1st birthday present). We have had almost $10,000 of claims and found them generally fantastic to deal with. After all these claims his premiums have gone up to just over $300 per year (with a high excess of $500 per condition per year as I elected when taking out the policy).

that stump looks very bulbous, i would think it is excessive post operative swelling? Should reduce and neaten with time.

Good luck! Fingers crossed that everything goes well and Nala enjoys lazing around during the cold winter months.

I am a dog owner, former foster carer (and still have occasional 'private' foster dog or litter through work), veterinary nurse since 1996 with a special interest in emergency (the field I have been working in since 2006) and pregnancy/neonatal care.

Afaik no problems with the legalities of euthanasing this way in Australia. We use it routinely on very small animals and bigger ones that for whatever reason we cant use the traditional intravenous method. Lay the animal on it's right side (so the left side chest with the closest access to the heart is up) and then simply palpate to feel the heart (so you are directly over it) slide the needle through the ribs to the heart which is usually not deep in the the littlies drawing back on the syringe until you get the rush of blood to show you are in the heart and inject. As it is an overdose of anaesthetic (and can be used as such, I know an older vet who has used it for cows in desperate cirsumstances in the past) it is instant. the only thing I dont like about it is that it can be painful as you put the needle in (some will struggle) which is why I often gas them down first. Every circumstance is different so what is appropriate for one animal wont be for another.

Catheters can shift especially if the animal is moving a lot but it would be pretty rare if it were taped in place properly in the time frame for a euthanasia. Blockages would be rare also. a lot of vets still use needle and syringe and these obviously cause more problems. I think some are just lazy and sadly a few are so cheap the few cents they cost matter to them. We dont always use the extension tubing, it depends on the situation. When we do they cost us nothing as we can reuse old ones (dont need to be sterile in this case obviously). If your pet has a catheter in (and preferably extension tubing so they dont need to touch them again) you dont need the sedation from then on. sometimes it is helpful when a catheter is not already in.

I believe our vets usually sedate the horses first (I dont go out on calls so knowledge is 2nd hand) but one of the vets had a hard time recently. She went out to euth a horse that was down and had been colicking much of the day. Skipped the sedation as she thought he had no chance of getting up but he did, and before he went down he took out a fence and almost her head. She said shes never skipping step 1 again!

I like injecting directly into the heart too but unless they are unconscious I gas them down first.

Unless we know an animal will get distressed we dont give a sedative initially. It drops the blood pressure and so getting a vein can be more difficult. If we need to we can stop and give a sedative, wait for it to take effect and then continue.

Sometimes things go wrong. Veins collapse, needles move, blood pressure is too low to even find a vein, whatever. It is truly horrible when it happens in a pets final moments and something I find distressing as a staff member assisting - I would hate to face it as an owner. Happily it is fairly rare. Where possible we place a catheter away from the owner. They are easier (for me anyway) to get into reluctant veins, we dont have to worry about owners getting distressed if we have to try a few veins and it is easier especially on the patient as we can concentrate on just them without distractions. When it is safely taped in place we take the pet back to the owner and the vet can then perform the procedure without extra staff present so it is more quiet and relaxed. Often the smaller pets will be on their owners laps as they drift off. Some owners dont want to be separated from their pets at all and that is fine. We explain everything clearly before we start and as we go along and if at any time the pet gets distressed we stop and reassess out approach. If need be we sedate them and wait 10 minutes or so. Its a very long time since we had a bad euth in the clinic. We still have an occasional white faced vet coming back for a home procedure with hair raising stories. Honestly I wouldnt worry about it too much. If you are ever in that situation you can ask the vet to stop and take a new approach if things dont go smoothly. Sorry your friend had such a bad experience and her dogs last moments werent the peaceful painless ones s/he should have had.

My 48kg Bull Arab type had surgery on 2nd feb. His surgery was complicated by a bowed tibia (vets only explanation for this was possibly a damaged growth plate as he was perfectly straight when he had a check at 12 months old for insurance, he was 19 months old when he had surgery). He had a pin to straighten the leg, TPLO plus a wedge. Initially recovery was excellent despite a post op infection at day 3. It seemed to resolve completely with 3 weeks of antibiotics. At 7 weeks post op he had follow up x rays which showed excess fluid still around the joint but as he was showing no lameness whatsoever it was hoped to not be infection and we were given the go ahead to start short walks. We managed one walk and besides a little slow afterward everything looked fantastic. Sadly 2 days later Hugo suffered an avulsion fracture where the top of his tibia broke away as a result of the pin so we went back to surgery on 4th April. The original pin was removed and the fractured piece was pinned and wired into place. 2 days later Hugo developed another infection and he was started on antibiotics again. 2 weeks after that when everything was looking good Hugo became acutely lame and depressed with swelling over the stifle so a second antibiotic was added. He took several days to respond and in the meantime the wound 'erupted' in two places so we had lots of delicious ooze to deal with. We are now 4 weeks after the second surgery and while the infection is controlled it is still present with another localised swelling looking almost ready to open (the other two are healing). I currently have the 'better out than in' attitude and am glad that I like cleaning out festery type sores! Hugo is still quite lame but hopefully this is due to the infection as his x rays 2 weeks ago were looking OK with everything still in place, just a heap of fluid, presumably infection, around the joint. Bright side is at least he is easier to keep quiet now as cage rest has been a nightmare when he is feeling well and with no pain. While I hate the idea of a 3rd surgery it is most likely that it will be needed to remove the implants once the bone has healed in order to completely stop the infection. Now we are just hoping for no more complications and that he has 4 legs at the end of it! Sorry to throw in a less than bright side story, and I have to take some responsibility as I didnt pay enough attention when he started showing very subtle lameness. I gave the vets a nice complex leg to play with (you should have seen them almost rubbing their hands in glee when they saw him, especially when I said I had insurance!). Good luck with your girl, I would definately do the same thing if I were given that time again, just maybe a bit sooner!

Vets have to learn and sadly there is a large supply of unwanted animals that are going to be euthanased anyway. We can euthanase them, or we can anaesthetise them, allow training veterinarians to get some valuable hands on experience and then euthanase them. The animals dont suffer any pain from it so while I find it distasteful I dont have a problem with it. A very large vet I worked for in the past used Greyhounds being euthanased for the same purpose, we also used them as blood donors. Not nice but a fact of life. As for the fact that the animals were terrified - that isn't the fault of the university. They dont breed them for the purpose of experimenting on them, these are poundies whose time is up.

sorry to hear poor Indie is having such a hard time. When we have an animal in hospital that wont eat we syringe feed. Hills AD is very high calorie and doesnt need extra water added (shake the tin really well before opening or just give it a good stir). You can use the same idea with other food run through the blender or baby food. for dogs that dont tolerate the high calories or fats or after long periods of not eating we start with Lectade and graduate to Ensure or similiar before we start the 'blenderised' food. The majority of our patients start eating after a day or two - whether that is because they are actually improving, because they remember how good food can be once we kick start their gut, or because they get sick of us and find it easier to eat and get rid of us is is a common discussion topic on long shifts! I like the di-vetelact idea also, I have used it a fair bit on underweight fosters to add some calories and a lot of dogs seem to really like it. Good luck, I hope you get to to the bottom of it and he is back on track soon.

I agree. There are an awful lot of overweight dogs out there whose owners state that they have to change their food regularly becasue 'they get bored with it'. More like the dogs eat larger volumes than they need when food is new and interesting, fast forward a few days/weeks and the dogs eat enough to satisfy themselves instead of eating for pleasure. I assume this is an older pup if you brought him/her home in august? I wonder if growth has slowed and your pup just doesnt need as much food as previously. Some dogs will naturally regulate their own food intake especially if its not 'interesting'. I have a dog like that - when its plain old dry food she will go days on end eating half a cup of food a day or less (sometimes nothing). Add some tablescraps to the bowl and she would eat until vomiting if allowed. She is never underweight, but if there are lots of goodies being given she gets fat easily enough! Are there any other signs that worry you such as weight, behaviour etc? If not then I wouldnt worry about switching around unless it makes you feel good.

Dear lord but they are beautiful.

I bought a thunderbird B120 off ebay last year. the unit itself was about $150, add in extra wire, a battery (12v sealed unit designed as back up power for home alarm systems) and a solar charger, total cost was around $250. I am also going to add the plastic wire holders that can be nailed to our paling fence as the little plastic posts are too flimsy, too few, and stand back too far from the fence (and I hate having to whipper snip around them).

So it could be something in the house you are in now that wasnt present in the SE burbs? ie different carpet blend, type of grass etc I think its all been asked and considered with much more knowledgeable advice than mine anyway so dont know why I felt the need to mention that.. Sounds horrendous for both of you to be going through and I just wanted to wish you luck and hope you have a happy outcome with a full recovery.

As far as I'm aware any of the creatures that suck blood inject local anaesthetic or their version of it so they can feed undisturbed. If the dogs dont look uncomfortable when you remove them (and is it just you that gets the ulcers, or the dogs too, this can be a reaction to the saliva) then I would feel pretty safe continuing that way as you dont have diseases or toxicities to worry about. RE Phenobarbital anything between heaven and earth is possible? Ticks are attracted to body heat rather than scent I think, so I personally wouldnt think it likely but maybe someone from a high tick area would know better than me. Is she a different coat type to the other dogs?

One of my past dogs (and one current) was fantastic with everything in our house except birds and neonatal kittens. We dont have 'pocket pets' anymore but given her responses I would imagine she would have been the same with these. She wasnt trying to kill as such (at least I dont think so) although the end result was the same the one time someone got careless with one of the pet birds. Her behaviour was to my eyes exactly the same as when she got hold of one of the younger kids soft squeaky toys or a balloon, she would toss it around and generally play enthusiastically having a fine old time. My first dog was good with all prey type animals but under supervision only. He did manage to frighten a guinea pig to death (piggie was in its hutch) just staring at it one day, those little guys drop dead very easily!

Hugo (48kgs) was 78 at work yesterday but he is sore and sick fighting an infection post ortho surgery, normally in the 50's i think. Sasha (overweight at 20kg, should be around 18kg) about 100-120, definately not a fit dog! Interesting conversation actually, the heart rates already posted are much much lower than we generally see at work. I can generally raise eyebrows when I tell the vets about a pointer I was 'vetting' at an Endurance Trial a few years back. Heart Rate prior to the start was 60, after the first leg it was 56 and never wavered from that. It is almost unheard of for us to see animals with that level of fitness in our practice. I would be interested to compare the obviously athletic dogs rates posted here with their rates at the vets. Somehow I think we would just get more proof the average patient we see is underexercised and undersocialised!