jrm88

The company cant guarantee that the drug is equal throughout the chew, therefore one dog may not get the full dosage while the other does and you basically dont know. Alot of people do it and never have a problem, but its up to you whether you want to take the risk

Leo had a good time Few people didn't turn up I think due to weather? Hopefully more ppl next month!

Sounds good

Im not too keen on bbqs and it doesnt look like we are going to get as many people as we hoped??? Im happy for just bringing a plate

Hi AmaCam, my standard poodle will be about 10.5 months old He plays very much like a puppy! You can bring chairs if you want to sit on, if there are alot of people there can be a shortage of chairs

That would definately be why they charge $100 if there are wealthy mansions all around!! The price difference between city/out suburbs can be quite a lot. Some clinics do not routinely put a catheter in, they just inject anaesthetic agent straight into the vein (e.g. large charity organisations would do this)and only put on fluids if bp gets quite low. I'm the opposite of you, I'm more than happy to clean up dog poop/vomit/whatever but no thankyou to humans!!

$100 may be higher, they may have their reasons. Maybe they are in a high rent area for the building so everything needs to be marked up more? Maybe they actually want to pay their staff a decent wage so they mark up their products more. I dont mind people shopping around, we do it for everything, but people just do not seem to understand how much it actually costs to run a vet clinic. And you being a registered nurse, should understand how expensive medical care actually would be if it wasnt for medicare! People think because they get their doctors appt for free and so many other medical procedures for free, they think the vet industry is a rip off when alot of vet clinics really dont make much profit at all. Also just wanted to say it does not take "2 minutes" for a nurse to hook up the line to the fluids. We are often dealing with angry/upset/scared patients who want to bite, struggle, scratch and claw at us. It takes 2 people (or 1 incredibly talented person) to put in an IV line. To put an IV fluid line in many animals is not straight forward. Oldies have crap veins, puppies/kittens get scared because they arent used to being restrained at all so freak out, cats are usually freaked out by dogs barking so try to bite/scratch us, some dogs just want to bite our faces off.... It is NOT straight forward to do IV fluids in all patients. (Altho we do get some very nice patients who have great veins and stay perfectly still )

Sorry but just had to point out that no, IV fluids are not a sham! Yes, we would love to make it mandatory to put all animals on IV fluids, but if we do that, we have to bump up our spey/castration prices and then those people that can only JUST afford to get their pets done wouldnt be doing it. Some vets do put every single animal on fluids, and that is gold standard, but some clinics have to make that decision between making it mandatory or optional (even if optional, if blood pressure dropped too low we would put the animals health first and put them on IV fluids straight away.) Yes, fluid bags may not cost that much, but what about the IV infusion pump, the giving set, the extension set, vetwrap, tape, catheter, the vet who went to uni for 5 yrs time to do it(or nurses), plus the nurses time to restrain. Vets are not out to rip people off, but if we did everything for the bare minimum it cost us, YOU would have no vet to go to as they wouldnt be able to afford to keep running a business! Speys are also already discounted at a huge price, if we priced them out as a proper abdominal surgery (which it is), the cost would be much much higher. It is a luxury to have a pet, not a right, so people need to make sure they have the money to provide basic vet care (which desexing is basic vet care) before they go out and get a pet.

Looking forward to it List of doggies pip1981 (with OH and baby Jeremy)- Dakota and Tika (if she's up to it by then) jrm88 - Leo List of food pip1981- marinated chicken wings, soft drink, plates, cups, cutlery, serviettes, condiments, etc. jrm88 - yummy biscuits maybe

Monelite, I got my results back within 3 weeks, it was a blood sample. Edit: thought that may have sounded rude, just meant to say that I know some people have slow result times thru ASAP but my exp was good

There is also the wisdom panel - http://www.asaplab.com.au/dnatesting/breedID/BreedID.html

Thanks for the info, since leo will only be 9 months we cant do the testing We have instead started doing some private lessons so i can learn everything properly and we can start doing foundation work with him. Thanks!

Hi just wondering if anyone could tell me my chances of being able to join an agility club in vic? In particular I was looking at actiondogs, vic. Pup is only 8 months at the moment but will i have to wait ages to get in?? Thanks!

- fixed

I have no idea about the technicality of it all! It is fairly new and from what i know gets sent to USA for testing. Will be interesting to see if people get somewhat believable results back unlike the bitsa test....

There is a new breed ID test done at ASAP with blood sample. We have tested it on one dog so far and results were 100% (on a pedigree purebred). Next is to test it on a crossbreed with known heritage (3 generations) to see how accurate it is!

Hoity, you basically want a breeder who can match the correct temperament for what you want. I asked my breeder for a more laid back dog that i could still have fun doing agility/obedience and thats exactly what I have got. He is more than happy to laze around but if I say its training time he jumps up and is ready to go. Cant give you much info on temperament vs. coat colour as I dont know enough about it

I didn't say what Vets but will now - WoofPurNay in Narre Warren SE Vic. I have been going to them for many years, before they built their new animal hospital. I also use another vet who is out of my way and far from cheap for all breeding related matters. Anyone who knows me also knows that I have had some massive vet bills in the past. I would have had her spayed sooner but frankly hate the thought of sedating a Pug, I know a few people who have lost pugs during surgery - Lizzy has already had an em c section and that was an awful feeling. I just hope she copes well with her spay. Not sure really why I started this thread other than I was surprised that the cost is much less than what I was expecting. I know who they are, and Im also surprised they are that cheap as I would expect them to practice good medicine from what I have heard about them. I guess as a client it is very hard to know what questions to ask to find out what standard your vet practices (and it would differ depending on individual opinion) I guess being such a huge vet clinic they can probably subsidise their desexing costs to make it cheaper due to earning their money from other procedures.

I think people should stop focusing on cost so much. A clinic who does it cheap may not have a nurse to monitor anaesthetic, may not routinely give pain relief, may not monitor blood pressure (yet still give an NSAID which could cause kidney damage) and lastly, may compromise your animals health to save money. They also might be a wonderful clinic who somehow provides best medicine at a hugely reduced cost but often you do get what you pay for so I hope people take that into consideration Edit: Not saying that I dont understand people are cost concious, but cheapest isnt always best

Leo loves standing around like he is the most awesome posing dog ever haha

Love the one of Bert chewing Sallys face haha

Photooooooos!

I'll bring plates/cups/knives/forks:):)

Yup depends what you want to know

Leo is very happy his bff will be there :p