Rappie

An unidentified rapidly appearing lump in an area with loose skin would get at least 2cm margins on either side, if not 3cm to cover the possibility of a mast cell tumour. The good thing about elliptical incisions is that they are easy to close, the down side is they get longer when they are closed

Resource guarding is tricky and I think a long term improvement does require the assistance of a behaviorist (veterinary or otherwise) - there isn't really a quick solution to it. Also broadly speaking, if you can't fix a situation (in the short term), I would recommend avoiding the situation by just not giving bones, over the alternative of potentially aggravating the situation. They growl because they have something they value and they want to keep it. Acknowledging the growl, then going and forcing them to give the bone is just going to reinforce that, yeah, you were going to steal their bone (and probably get you bitten). Similarly if you keep backing off whenever they growl will support the idea that growling will make you go away. Removing the bone is the end aim, but they need to first learn to associate your presence with "good stuff" and hopefully learn that giving up their bone will be worth their while (they'll either get it back, or get something better, and you've "always" got something good). Hopefully Cosmolo can get you back on track

I'm going to do my bestest to be there :rolleyes: I'm honoured to be on the list too and congratulations to everyone nominated!

Symmetrical wear of the canines like you describe is often due to playing or carrying with balls, due to the position the ball sits in when they carry it around. Wear from chewing at things often involves the incisors instead. There's not much you can do except prevent access to whatever is causing the problem. For the most part, it is a cosmetic problem. As the wearing away is a slow process the points of the teeth are 'sealed' off to outside world, compared to a fracture of the same tooth where the pulp cavity would be exposed to oral bacteria etc. Watch the teeth for any signs of pain (difficulty eating or picking things up, chewing on one side of the mouth) or discolouration of the tooth (anything from pink through brown to yellow).

Bit off topic, but people ALWAYS do this the minute I start listening to a dog's heart. Thump, thump, there's a good dog, stay still for the vet, thump. Argh, my ear holes!!!! The dog with the loudests thumping owners are usually the ones standing rock solidly still too On topic, if that statement was prefaced with 'never pat a strange dog on the head or neck' I'd agree. Shoulder or chest is much less threatening to them. Meanwhile, my two dogs are fans of the 'insert head under human hand and pretend its like a pat' maneouvre.

No need to apologise for anything WhiteEagle The urine specific gravity USG is how we measure the concentration of the urine, it's a comparison to the 'weight' of water which is 1.00. As urine is created, there end up being a lot of things dissolved in it and these increase the 'weight' or concentration of the urine. Excess water consumption will make the USG decrease, loss of body water through dehydration will make it increase. A USG of 1.008 means that the urine is not being altered at all as it passes through the kidneys. If she has been drinking a lot of water, this may be normal - so if I found this on a random urine test, I would retest it to see whether it ever went up - and try to include a 'first wee of the morning' to see what the concentration is after several hours without water. If this were a result of a decline in kidney function only, it would usually be quite progressed to have a 'normal' USG so low and I would expect our measures of kidney function - the urea and creatinine, to be higher. I have recently seen a case where a cat presented for vomiting and being off colour and I admitted it for observation at the owners request. As this particular cat was a 'senior' of 15 years old, we decided to run a wellness profile as a screening test (even though my suspicion was that the cat had a 'clinical furball' - it ate intestinal food overnight and was back to normal in the morning). I collected a urine sample at the same time, and the USG was 1.022 which, although shows some evidence of concentrating ability is far from normal for a cat and suggests that 'something' is affected the way the kidneys work - the rest of the in house urine test was normal. I collected a sterile sample directly from the bladder to keep in the fridge. The blood results came back with a mild elevation in kidney enzymes, and some evidence of mild dehydration. A dehydrated cat should have a USG of at least 1.040 - so I sent the sterile urine off for culture. I got the result back today and the lab has grown very high number of a single type of bacteria - so this cat has what we call an 'occult infection'. Sometimes we do the same thing and get a negative result - in which case we have ruled out chronic urinary tract infection. My concern in some of these cases is a chronic low level kidney infection, normally concentrated urine is a horrible place for bacteria to live but dilute urine is great. If a culture was negative, and the USG was consistently low then I would go looking for the 'why' with further tests. At the beginning I would also monitor the water intake over 24 hour periods, even if it required separating the dogs, it's important that we know whether the water intake is excessive or not. Obviously, I don't have personal knowledge of your dog, only 3 tiny bits of information so you should be guided by your own vets who have examined her and can interpret the test results with that in mind. I'm also happy to be labelled as one of those 'young vets' who seems to do a lot of tests - so be it. I have great faith in the adage "You miss more by not looking, than not knowing" - this doesn't mean doing useless or worthless tests, but sometimes we just need more information.

My concern would be that a dog with a USG of 1.008 is not concentrating their urine at all, and I would expect the urea and creatinine to be higher if that were the case. You might be asked to get a few different urine samples to compare the USG and see whether it is different on different days. I would measure her water intake over a few 24 hour periods to get a handle on how much water she is drinking and whether it falls in 'normal' range or not.

Do you mean 1.008 for the urine specific gravity (or maybe 1.018)? (It will usually be a number between 1.001 and 1.050) Are they running a urine culture and sensitivity test?

If you are following a Proheart injection with dimmitrol, I would start the dimmitrol on the due date for the proheart injection (12 months from when it was given). If you are repeating the Proheart injection there is a period of leeway because the moxidectin has a 'reach back' effect, but this does not exist for dimmitrol - it should be given once a day, every day with no breaks (unless you are heartworm testing prior to resuming treatment).

The first thing I would do is to get a urine sample checked by a vet - it can rule out a lot of things like kidney issues and diabetes and may indicate whether a low grade or chronic infection is the cause of incontinence. If there are any abnormalities there, they can be followed up, otherwise you could trial the medication if it is indicated.

I have used it a bit with good results. Mostly I end up using it on patients that are too difficult to medicate (cats that are devil spawn, and dogs that are like rabid land sharks) but the results have been quite good. I have mixed feeling about slow release injections too, but I'm also well aware of how poor compliance at giving twice daily meds can be. Does his skin start with true urticaria, the soft slightly inflamed welty lumps and then progress to staph, or are you just starting with folliculitis that gets worse? (I've seen both, so it's just a general question). Do you usually cephalexin or amoxyclav for skin? Using the high doses?

With regard to radiographs, we must keep the films themselves as part of the medical record - if there is ever any question over what they showed we must be able to produce them. There is no issue with you having the information on them - if they are digital, it should not be a problem for you to have a copy, likewise for standard films you could have a digital scan or photo of them. As for medical records, vet do not have to provide you with a copy of the clinical record. Pathology results should be ok, certificates - yes, a summary of investigations / results / medical condition but not a copy of their clinical notes. There is an expectation of professional courtesy to transfer all records to another veterinarian on request. If you have a particular clinic or vet that you would like to see for a second opinion, you would either call and ask for the records to be sent to them, or you can ask the second clinic to request them for you.

Idiopathic epilepsy (seizures with no identifiable cause) has a typical onset between 1 and 3 years of age, so this would be a consideration for your boy.

As Sam&Saki said - any swelling of the face / mouth / throat or any difficulty breathing should have a vet visit. Dogs that only have a local reaction can just be monitored closely. It is unusual to find the sting but occasionally we do and if it is still present I would gently scrape it from the skin. You could also use an icepack to reduce pain and swelling.

How old is your dog? Epilepsy is what we call a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning that to 'diagnose' it, we have to rule out all the other likely possibilities first. This is a situation that many people face when we're working up seizures - we cannot find a metabolic reason, which means the cause is likely to be in the brain, but is it an electrical / chemical problem, or a structural one (which is where the MRI comes in). In some situations it is reasonable to do a treatment trial on anti-seizure medication to see if this improves the situation. The disadvantage is lack of diagnosis. Many people do not have the means to do advance imaging, so I would recommend that you speak to your vet about other options. Due to the location of our practice, we do have the alternate option of referral to a neurologist for a second opinion. Obviously a human cannot replace a machine, but the neurologist has a wealth of experience and gives very practical advice. This might be an option for you also. ETA: Generally speaking, medication might be started when seizures occur at a frequency greater than one every 4-6 weeks, but this is dependent on other factors such as triggers, severity and duration. Whether or not it is an appropriate option is something you need to discuss with your vet.

Ideally both chest rays and a cardiac ultrasound would be done, they provide different information. Chest radiographs allow assessment of both the size of the heart and it's impact in the chest - whether it is affecting airways, whether there is fluid on the lungs, whether the vessels are larger than they should be, whether there are large lymph nodes or masses in the lungs themselves. An ultrasound will characterise the murmur and assess contractility of the heart chambers and the dynamics of blood flow. Depending on the age or clinical presentation of the dog, it may be more important to do an ultrasound first but we would usually start with rads. It is generally accepted that chest radiographs are the starting point if we are looking at starting a dog (that we suspect may have mitral valve dysplasia) on heart medication. I generally will do chest radiographs under sedation and my personal choice of drugs results in a 'twilight' type of sedation where a dog is still able to walk but when kept quiet will lie still with minimal restraint for us to take the radiographs. They will still breath normally so there should not be artefactual changes in the radiographs. It is important that they are still and the majority of the time a 'normal' dog will not remain still enough without sedation. GA is required for other types of radiographs, especially for lameness or spinal radiographs, but I am happy with IV sedation for chest / heart rads. The price isn't size dependant, you still need the same number of views / plates, same amount of time and same number of personnel to take the rads. $350 is about average for sedation, hospitalisation and radiographs - I would expect more if you are running blood tests as well, and that is something I would recommend if the rads are being done with a view to starting medication for congestive heart failure. Ultrasound done by a specialist (either internal medicine specialist or a radiology specialist) in Sydney will be around $350 - $450.

There are two rules when dealing with pus (or other goober filled) pockets. 1. Keep your mouth shut. 2. Don't look closely at things while you squeeze / prod / poke or you'll get it on your face. 3. See rules 1 & 2.

I think a vet is a good call. It's an odd place for any lump, gareths suggestion of a haemangioma / haemangiosarcoma is certainly a consideration given it's appearance. Edit to add (because I'm pedantic) - it's a lump on his scrotum, because if he's desexed he has no testicles

Generally speaking, I pluck if there is a problem and recommend NOT plucking if there is not. Similarly, I recommend cleaning if there is a problem or a history of problems and not cleaning if there are no issues. I feel that it is possible to both over pluck and over clean, ear hair does serve a purpose but sometimes it's a hinderance. However, I've seen a lot of unhappy ears and dogs who have problems from plucking.

A diet trial, done properly (strictly) should be considered as a diagnostic test. If the skin condition improves (and this may take up to 6-8 weeks to occur) then it supports a food allergy. If the skin condition does not improve, it suggests that food is not the issue - it does not mean the food trial was a waste of time or money. A strict flea control trial and food trial are both things that I would try to have done before referring an owner to a dermatologist, as are skin scrapes to rule out mite infestations and possibly also sticky tape tests to determine whether a yeast infection is present. With regards to ear infections, it is important to remember that ears are lined with skin and in many cases where dogs (or cats) have allergic skin conditions they will also have ear infections. The ear, when it works well is well designed but when things are going badly it can cause of all sort of issues - a deep, dark. damp, non-expandable tube with a thin membrane that can perforate at the the bottom, that gets inflamed easily and can swell itself shut. Yeast infections tend to be secondary infections, so secondary to allegies, or structural problems (such as calcification of the ear canal after chronic infections). One significant problem I face is cases where an ear infection is not treated to resolution, it looks better but is not treated completely - and it keeps smouldering on because it just looks better on the outside - thats when we get a big problem that is much harder to treat (and sometimes impossible to treat medically).

It's difficult to comment on description alone. It is not uncommon for some older dogs to get small fleshy pink lumps known as sebaceous adenomas, which do not require specific treatment unless they are causing a problem. These probably account for 50% of the things that owners refer to as 'moles', the rest are an assortment of skin tags, nipples, ticks, mast cell tumours, follicular cysts, pigmented spots, callouses etc. I would always recommend monitoring any lump for change in size, shape or characteristics (like colour, pain etc) and getting a vet opinion if you are concerned about it.

I have heard of some survey that says 'people in the park' rate higher than dog trainers and vets for 'where I get health information about my dog'.

It's pretty hard Every single time we come home and open the front door, there's Dusk grinning stupidly and waggling her bum, and SCSI bouncing excitedly up and down the hallway. She just luvs her hoomans. Actually, any hooman will do :D

Fatty lump is good I have had a few rapidly appearing lumps which I have done an FNA of and sent off to a pathologist. One appeared to be a lipoma, the other appeared to involve spindle cells and was suspected to be either a sarcoma or possibly a fibrous reaction to 'something'. In both cases the lumps disappeared spontaneously and after a discussion with the pathologist we suspect both may have been exaggerated local responses to insect bites. Not saying this is the case in Zero, but I would monitor the lump with close interest to see what happens.

That was their 'glamour shot' day I'll add one of SCSI for good measure...