ishka81

Hi All, Sorry for the long delay in reply. To answer a few questions: these dogs DO NOT have a history of ever escaping from the yard, and in this case the gates had been tampered with and the dogs were clearly let out or stolen. They were found 3kms away from home, she had left them safe and sound (she had sighted them at this point) at 2.30pm and the council (Gosford) had picked them up by 3.30pm. The phone call she received from them to advise they had been impounded was at 4.50pm. The officer she originally spoke to at this time told her that she could pick them up tomorrow but that they would be desexed before she picked them up and was quite horrible to her on the phone. My friend with the help of quite a few people managed to get her dogs out the following day, undesexed. When she queried the phone call from the night before the person she spoke to advised that they had no idea what she was talking about - council officer on a power trip maybe?? The younger of the two dogs had a deep gash on her back leg that was quite badly infected by the following afternoon when they were collected and the vet advised it looked significantly like ropeburn. All a very weird and disturbing occurrance all around. The dogs are now safe back home and the gates have been padlocked and they have invested in a security camera. They also submitted a police report, but without any hard evidence, the police are doubtful anything will occur, they provided photos of the tampered with fence as well. Hopefully nothing else happens again. Thanks again for all the replies!

I know I agree with you all about it all sounding dodgy, she's never had an issue with anyone getting out before but has had some issues with one neighbour recently and is thinking they may have let them out when she left. This was just the information that she got from the first call at 4.50pm and then she couldn't get back in touch with them as they had all left. I think it's highly doubtful they'd be spayed tonight as you all have said. She was very upset and I'm hoping she misheard them or has misunderstood something and can get it sorted out when she gets there. I've told her about the three day period and passed on the advice, thank you so much for all replying! She's headed down there with her husband first thing in the morning to try to sort it all out, he works strange shifts and was uncontactable when it happened and had their car, but they'll hopefully get some answers in the morning! Thank you so much for the kind offer though!

Hi There, I'm wondering if I can get a fast reply about this, a friend of mine has 2 female staffy's both microchipped, the older one registered. The older girl is registered as a breeding girl and the younger one (just a puppy) was due for registration next week. She lives in Central coast NSW. Today she had an incident where she left to pick her kids up, her dogs were in her yard safely when she left, and within 2 hours of leaving she had a call from her local council advising that they had been found 3 kms from her home and they could not find the microchip on the older dog and she will be being spayed either tonight or tomorrow morning as well as the baby. She is absolutely devestated, as she has proof about this, and no way of getting to the pound to pick them up and she is also upset because she can clearly feel the microchip on her adult dog. Because they called her just before 5 they told her she could not have her dogs until tomorrow once they had been spayed and would not allow her to come in to show her proof. Does anyone have any adivce?

We still don't know, the RSPCA vet did his desexing, and there's a general lack of information and basically a big "don't know" when it comes to just about everything about him?. My vet has made notes on his account just in case, but she couldn't see just from looking and he doesn't have any scarring on his neck. He let out a woof earlier that nearly made me jump out of my skin but was over so quickly not sure if I'm oly hearing things, only time will tell if he has been or not, but thanks for all your advice! Going to the vet wasn't a complete waste of time either as she explained the risks of debarking and we know what to look for if he has any issues in the future.

I just thought I'd clarify, that the RSPCA had him on deathrow and the story (so I've been told) is that they were hesitant to allow him to go, as they felt he was untrainable., he was adopted by another organisation based in Melbourne to a specific member as a private adoption after their insistence that they wanted him. And I've adopted him through that dog rescue shelter. I'm not quite sure of the ins and outs of all of that as it's all a bit foggy, our adoption all happened incredibly quickly. I'm really grateful to give him the opportunity for a good life with us and, so far, he's barking, but not what I would consider excessively, we have a 3 and a half year old female lab who is a good girl and only barks when she has good reason to, and he seems to be following suit, with the exception of getting a bit silly when he sees my kittens in their cat run running around (I'm a foster for another shelter with kittens). So far he's responding well to basic training and I have a dog trainer coming to work with us all next week for an afternoon as a start and dog obedience lined up to begin very soon. Thanks to those of you who clarified the legalities of debarking as well, I understand that while he's not in any pain or anything, as things are so new, it's still bothering me a little to hear him, as it doesn't really sound natural in my opinion. I'll be asking my vet to make notes on his account as well just in case anything else arises, living in a regional town with lots of busy bodies around I'm expecting something! I'm not exactly an experienced dog owner, our lab is the first dog I've had since I was about 8, so don't really know what I'm doing with medical things, etc! Just doing my best to give them a good quality of life as part of our family. I'll keep you updated with what the vet says, might have a chat to them as well about what I was advised by their staff, so they're aware, fingers crossed he has only barked himself hoarse!

Hi All, We have just this weekend adopted a rescued 2 year old death row labrador who the shelter suspected had been debarked, but so far we have been unable to confirm. Is anyone able to enlighten me as to how we can tell? He sounds like he has a bad case of laringytis, very hard to describe, his bark is definately not a whisper, there's some sound to it, it's been suggested that he may have kennel cough from being held at the RSPCA kennels, but he doesn't have any evidence of other cold' like symptoms, he's happy, boisterous, clear eyes, clear nose, etc. I've called our vet and made an appointment for him to just be looked at tomorrow, but nearly had my head bitten off by the receptionist when i explained the situation as she thought I was asking for him to be booked in for debarking, and when I further explained she said this was highly unlikely as debarking is illegal in Australia and vets would be deregistered if they were to perform the procedure. Reality is though, that people do the wrong thing all the time, so to make a blanket statement that there's no way is a bit unrealistic in my view. He hadn't been desexed by whoever his previous owners were (no real idea of his history) and was only desexed last week, it doesn't make sense to me that you would go to the effort of having your dog debarked but not desexed. Really murky about this one. Does anyone have any advice as to whether or not the vet will be able to tell when they check his throat? Is there any other way that I'll be able to tell? I really don't want him ending up on antibiotics when I go because they cant tell one way or the other and decide to be safe, when he's just had this procedure done at some point in his life and it's now just the way he is. I also have a feeling i'm going to be facing some judgement in years to come from people who hear him and think we're the ones who put him through this, not that I care, but I'd like to have a concrete explanation!