Rappie

The suffix -oma does mean tumour, but tumour (at a very basic level and in Latin) means swelling. Remember the four cardinal signs of inflammtion? Calor, dolor, rubor and tumor? Heat, pain, redness and swelling. True, most of the time tumour is used as a synonym for neoplasm but it is not necessarily so. Thus haematoma = blood swelling. Lets not forget that a bruise is an injury resulting in a haematoma, which does not require an underlying or neoplastic cause (other than the injury itself). From Stedman's: Haematoma - a localised mass of extravasated blood that is relatively or completely confined within an organ or tissue, a space, or a potential space; the blood is usually clotted (or partly clotted), and depending on how long it has been there, may manifest various degrees of organisation and decolourisation.

Can she still chew? If she can't shut her mouth at all and there is no physical obstruction or abnormality, then trigeminal neuritis is a possibility that I would consider. It's not particularly common and is not painful but affected dogs cannot close their mouth and often require a gruel-y type food or small chunks that can be swallowed. Any sudden change in appetite is worth a vet check up though.

Then its a seroma (which would be unusual) or a haematoma with a consolidated clot (serosanguinous fluid). Draining a fluid pocket in the ear is frequently unsuccessful as the pocket remains and often refills, it is a good way to get a cauliflower ear. It usually requires full thickness sutures applied to most of the ear flap to get re-adherence, quickest resolution and cosmetic result. I would use a pressure dressing with caution as it needs to be left on for a long period of time to maintain pressure and is an excellent way of creating an ear infection. Similarly, tiny holes in large pockets with dead space make me concerned about infection. The fluid had to come from somewhere and usually takes a reasonable amount of pressure to separate skin on the ventral surface of the ear from the auricular cartilage. The most common cause is damage to one of the three main auricular vessels and these can take a while to heal as they are fragile after damage. My recommendation is a vet visit.

Very generally, milk chocolate is toxic at roughly 30g/kg. Dark chocolate and cooking chocolate are more toxic, compound chocolate has very little real chocolate and white chocolate is not chocolate at all One thing to keep in mind if you are concerned is that chocolate can delay gastric emptying - normally we have a window of under 2 hours to induce vomiting, but this may extend up to 4-6 hours for chocolate ingestion which gives more time to decontaminate if needed.

Excellent work !!!!

Dogs can carry bordatella in their nasal passages for up to 12 weeks. As a general rule though, 10-14 days after the end of clinical symptoms - sneezing, coughing or any ocular or nasal discharge.

Each of the specialist hospitals have surgical specialists with interests in orthopaedics. There is the Small Animal Specialist Hospital in North Ryde (Andrew Marchevsky), Veterinary Specialist Centre in North Ryde (Tony Black and Stephen Fearnside), Animal Referral Hospital in Strathfield (Sarah Goldsmid and David Simpson) and the University Teaching Hospital in Camperdown (Kenneth Johnson). There is also David Lidbetter in Parramatta and Max Zuber in Gladesville (both are surgical specialists working in private practice).

There were a few confirmed cases in western Sydney a few years ago - if I remember correctly amongst more than one litter of greyhound puppies. I have also seen a suspect case in an unvaccinated adult dog - high index of suspicion for it after a fairly long discussion with a neurologist.

Glad to hear you're on track again Westiemum. I only have the one Pseudomonas ear going at the moment but we've had some weird weather lately so seeing lots of seasonal allergies early. Last year though we did have a bunch of them and it was tracked down to a particular batch of a particular ear cleaner. I'm not sure of the exact details, it was not a contamination issue but a set of common factors that led to several infections being seen at once.

I know Bub is home and pooping free now, but I thought I might add my thoughts. Respectfully to those that think otherwise, intravenous fluids are not overkill in treating an obstipated dogs with an entire colon full of bony poop. If I had a dog that was blocked up enough to be off it's food, I would recommend fluids and xrays too. A 24 hour period on fluids can make a significant difference to how much poop can be shifted - its much easier to remove hydrated bony poop from a rectum than concrete poop which is firmly adhered to the rectal mucosa. With the exception of the odd extra firm nuggety poo, or in cats, Microlax enemas are pretty useless when you have a dog literally full of poo.

There is quite a wide spectrum of opinions regarding the what / how / why of pain relief amongst members of the veterinary profession, let alone dog owners. I try to be quite pro-active about providing pain relief and managing post op pain. I work on the principle that if I think it is likely to hurt, then my patient gets whatever pain relief I feel is appropriate while it is under my care. I don't agree with using pain as means of preventing movement or activity, others might but I don't feel that it is productive. Pain is stress, stress is not beneficial. If one of my patients had 4 surgical extractions (as opposed to very loose teeth that fall out when the tartar gets scaled off) they would get pre-emptive pain relief in their premedication, local nerve blocks prior to the extractions, post op pain relief and likely some take home pain relief as well. Wherever possible, I try to create gingival flaps before removing teeth so that the holes can be closed with suture material - reduces the number of sockets to fill up with food and the gums heal very quickly and patients will eat a meal on the night of the surgery.

LOL, thanks PRS He was put on daily oral ivermectin, 3 weeks of cephalexin (antibiotics) and weekly malaseb washes. Apart from that, he got Royal Canin Medium junior, some intestinal wormers and TLC. Once his skin was improving we desexed and vaccinated.

I don't know what you're talking about

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Those people that work at that clinic are suckers for mangey pups, obviously. ;) ;) I mean, not that I would know anything about it.... *runs and hides*

I have seen demodex being discussed on the boards recently - I've also recently been treating a very special young dog that has it. (I also have permission from his new owner to post his gorgeous mug on the interweb ) This little dude turned up at our clinic in June, one of our clients found him under their house. He was a stray, no chip, skinny, full of worms, lacking a lot of hair, about 6-7 months old and weighing a touch under 11kg. After speaking to a few of the right people, we ended up with council approval to treat him while he waited out his time in our hospital and then find him a new home if no one spoke up for him. I did a skin scrape on him and found a raging demodex party in his skin - we describe an infection by how many mites we see on a single 'field' down the microscope. Normally when we catch demodex early, we see may 6-10 mites per field. This guy had 30-40 very alive mites per field. Literally creepy crawly.....this is a generalised case of demodex. So, here are some photos from the day after he arrived: Week 1 Week 1 - #2 We started him on a premium dry food, antibiotics, oral ivermectin, weekly Malaseb baths and liberal doses of TLC applied by all members of our staff (including our boss, who took a few days to realise we'd hidden a puppy in our isolation ward ;) ) And one week into treatment - at this point he was still leaving a trail of dead hair and scurf and scale behind wherever he walked. Week 2 And at 6 weeks into treatment (and now a lovely 15kg): (Scuse the willy in the next one - he's not perfect!) Week 6 Week 6 #2 Handsome and huggable no? He's since gone to a new home where he is very much loved. He had his first negative scrape today. Although he's got some other health issues we need to work through, he's given a whole veterinary hospital a serious case of the warm and fuzzies. He turned up on our doorstep and we've done what we can to help him. The council paid for his initial diagnosis and treatment which covered his first week in hospital, the rest has been done with love by myself and a dedicated team of nurses with the aid of a few soft hearted people in the council team. He's now got a great home with a lovely family (and the best bit is that we still get visits ;) )

The general public can purchase killed vaccines to administer to their own animals - that is F3 (cats), Parvac (dogs) and (I think) bordatella vaccine. Vaccines of any kind should only be administered to healthy animals with normal temperatures, hence the health check that is (or should be) part of the vaccination process by a veterinarian. Only a registered veterinarian can sign a certificate that provides proof of vaccination.

My usual first choice would be an injectable opiod like buprenorphine (Temgesic - an S8). The downside is that its duration of action is variable, usually 6 to 8 hours, maybe 12 if you're lucky. I don't have access to injectable tramal but if I didn't have a choice of S8 drugs (and some practices don't have much of a choice) then I would consider it for non specific abdominal pain. I use it quite often (orally) for post op pain control at home after abdominal surgery. Without knowing the cause of abdominal pain I would be quite hesitant to reach for a NSAID.

Any animal can react adversely to any drug - it does not mean the drugs themselves are bad. I prescribe tramadol reasonably frequently and find it to be very useful and quite well tolerated across a wide dose range. I have had the occasional dog react badly to it and we do not use it in those animal again (I see more frequent reactions to antibiotics and NSAIDs). It is a synthetic opiod, but it is also an effective analgesic and gives us options for dogs with gastrointestinal and renal issues or where we can't assess their metabolic function. The options for take home pain relief that is not an NSAID is quite limited once we exclude tramadol. S8 drugs are regulated and not dispensed for administration by the owner except in very specific circumstances. It's always worth discussing any concerns with your veterinarian prior to administration but not all outcomes can be predicted.

I would recommend administration as described by Persephone. I will also add that Rikodeine tastes pretty nasty, even though it is definitely not the worst. Not sure that dogs have a particular preference for fake cherry :D I would try to get it in, then follow up with something very tasty.

I normally follow a treatment protocol using doxycyline (an antibiotic) and niacinamide (Vitamin B3) along with general good diet and fatty acid supplementation.

I've seen cases of DLE in a few Border Collies, but also other breeds like Labs, Golden Retrievers and even a lip lesion in a Silky Terrier. I have had reasonably good success treating it without using steroids, with the exception of occasional topical treatments.

Nope, no 3 yr feline vaccine here (yet). I believe (from reading a poster at WSAVA in 2007!) that in the US, that all the components of the combined vaccines are available as individual vaccines. Currently, the only way we have to give calicivirus etc is as part of an F3/F4/F5/F6 anyway.

The AVA has just released their new vaccination guidelines - they've been in the works for quite some time. It recommends a 3 yearly protocol for core vaccination (parvo, distemper, hepatitis) then annual vaccination for additional vaccinations if they are required (parainfluenza / bordatella / leptospirosis etc). It has prompted a review of our protocols even though we are already on a 3 year protocol. Feline vaccination is a bit tricky - the recommendations are for a 3 year protocol but no one has tested a 3 year DOI. Do we (the profession) take the leap of faith, or reluctantly stick with the registered protocol, or go halfway and do 3 year with patients who are 'low risk'?

HR for a dog that size would be between 100 and 140bpm - so sounds just fine! :D

Sorry to hear you're having a hiccup Westiemum A total ear ablation is a big deal (as I'm sure you're aware) but sometimes it's the best way to make a dog comfortable - even though it's not something to be taken lightly. Like I have said before, it sounds like your vet is on the ball so I'll send anti-bacterial wishes your way that it doesn't come to surgery. I will say though, in the case of chronic ear infections - there is nothing like having a dedicated owner who is committed to the treatment. Best of luck with it, I know how frustrating they can be - don't hesitate to PM me if you have any questions or need moral support