Rappie

Once the 5 days is up there is a 48 hr break before you can start again due to accumulation of the drug.

LOL, not any more! They might be building a granny flat though :laugh: I'll let you know if we get our toddler a cubby house

I tend to agree that if there is a possibility of nausea then a treatment trial for it is worthwhile. While ranitidine and carafate help with acid secretion neither have an anti-nausea effect. The most effective treatment is probably maropitant (Cerenia) but it is also the most expensive however I would often start here for a trial. Other meds like Stemetil and Maxalon are also used but can also have some interactions and side effects. A drug called mirtazapine is often used as it reduces nausea and can stimulate appetite. Whether these are appropriate for Danny will require discussion with your vet or specialist. If he has also been praying he may even need some pain relief.

Unfortunately the only way to find out if there is something there is do a biopsy, so long as you are aware it may not be definitive (but it may also get a specific diagnosis too!). The metronidazole is used a lot for gut problems but for more than one reason - although it does treat the type of bacteria we find one gut, it also has a non specific anti-inflammatory effect which often leads to improvement in dogs with inflammatory bowel disease. In terms of treatment 'more' probably involves prednisolone but sometimes also other medications like tylosin (another type of antibiotic). A biopsy gives the opportunity to get a diagnosis that says yes, pred is likely. The alternative if all the other trials (diet, antibiotic, fencpbendazole etc) have been done and the treating vet feels that inflammatory bowel disease is most likely then it is sometime reasonable to do a trial with steroid (or other meds) and monitor the response. Sometimes this still might be the outcome if the biopsy is ambiguous.

Glad the nail is off :D Hopefully he won't be sulking for too long!

The biopsy will give more information but there is a chance it could either be non specific information, or not tell you anything new (neither of which are 'bad' things). Would the biopsies be collected at the same time as endoscopic exam, or with abdominal surgery? They will show evidence of inflammation, potentially evidence of neoplasia, some gut infections and general information about the structure and layering of the different regions of the gut. Endoscopic biopsies are easier to collect and allow examination of the inside of the gastrointestinal tract, but are limited in how much of the gut can be examined. For ruling in or out inflammatory bowel disease (which tends to be more generalised) then these are sufficient. If IBD is the diagnosis then it means that further treatment such as other antibiotics or prednisolone may be warranted. If the sample are 'normal' then it may be more of an irritable bowel situation. Feel free to ask more questions, it's not a small subject :laugh:

If it's not causing significant discomfort and is not bleeding or infected then ongoing monitoring is quite reasonable :)

Splash block means that you apply the local to the skin and quick (splash it on). It works well enough for nails at are hanging by a thread and need gentle encouragement but it does not affect any deeper structures. Ring block involves injecting the local around the area you need to numb.

I would pick something that isn't cash - gift card for the movies sounds good, or wine, food, some magazines or something. I'm not a great deal of help - I have a good friend from mothers group who sometimes needs her fish fed and plants watered. I trade that for very occasional dog minding, cups of tea and we swap baby sitting. She offered me a pot of cuttings this time which I didn't take because it wasn't necessary.

In situations like this where I have given the same advice it is really a matter of whether you want it to be resolved 'now' or are happy to monitor the nail. Unless the surgery being discussed was the remove the entire claw (digit amputation) It is usually just a brief intravenous anaesthetic and maybe a few minutes of gas in oder to pull off the nail, clean ups the area and apply a light dressing. For loose nails a splash block with local is often sufficient but the degree of pressure required to strip a nail that is more firmly attached will not be helped by topical application. Most dogs that are not a fan of nail ,clips are not going to allow the local to be injected to do a ring block. The alternative it to try to keep the nail short if possible and wait for it to grow out and fall off. Sometimes placing a light dressing over it will stop it getting stuck on things further.

I have not had any contact with Kristine so cannot comment on her, but I have made many referrals to Helen and have had no issue with her qualifications or the service that she provides. She is an expert in her 'realm' and does what she does very well, working alongside veterinary medical and surgical specialists as well as taking referrals from private practitioners.

Helen is great but she is not a vet- although I think she does have a dual qualified vet and physio on staff. There's no doubt that Helen is highly qualified but she's a PhD doctor Edit: clearly time has slipped past me.

Advocate is useful for localised demodex but the success rate for treating generalised demodex is reasonably poor despite the claims.

If you haggle on the price it means that you will be getting less, not just paying less. Bills may be higher for insured animals because owners are willing to go further with treatment, not becuase the costs are inflated. As has been mentioned, it is still important to have a means to pay the bills first as he insurance companies will reimburse you after the claim has been made. I don't know of many (ie any) clinics in my local area that accept direct payments from the insurance company. Many don't offer accounts either but will have facilities to offer credit facilities through other companies like GemVisa or VetPay.

Your neighbour is tactless. People often hear what they like in consultations - many times I have seen someone for a consult many months after the last time I saw them and they will recount what 'the last vet' said. In many cases I remember the encounter and between that and my clinical notes it is clear that our recollections of some situations are vastly different.

You can use an antibacterial shampoo like pyohex or malaseb as a preventative measure. Harder to leave on in this area for the 10 minutes but even a quick scrub and rinse off can help.

There's no specific guidelines for washouts when switching between NSAIDs with the same mode of action , but a full 24 hours (ie . 48 hours between doses) is usually sufficient if there are no underlying issues or problems. It is longer if your are switching to or from steroids or aspirin or less COX2 selective drugs.

It depends on for what purpose you're asking. The minimum washout period between different NSAIDS and drugs like prednisololone vary. Although the clinical effects of analgesia last 24 hours there can be some residual effects beyond that.

Bathing the eye with cooled boiled water or calendula tea to remove discharge as required will help. You can also use some of the lubricating eye drops available in any pharmacy. I most commonly use Viscotears during the day and Lacrilube or Refresh nighttime for evening. The gel base tends to be more effective than the liquiid drops or 'artificial tears'. In the absence of other conditions the redness is as you say due to collection of irritants and increased exposure so ensuring the eyes are kept lubricated can go some way to helping.

Vetpath (WA) run the tests in Australia while other labs might send them to the USA. It is not difficult for a clinic to get an account with Vetpath and only use them for the titre testing, if they want to.

Glad it was sorted out for you :)

In the absence of underlying or concurrent bacterial infection, I hope not.

If you are going to administer heartworm prevention I would do it year round.

If they are reasonably small and reducible and they are monitored regularly then what your vet has suggested is fine. They are reasonably simply repaired at the same time as a desex via a separate incision. Any sign of pain, discomfort or distension etc and they may need to be dealt with earlier.

It is easily available but discussion of its use on the forum is inappropriate. Not only because giving a dose as a volume per kg without reference to be concentration of the liquid is meaningless if not potentially extremely dangerous, but also because the use of parasiticde treatments are covered by a legislated restraint which means that the instructions applied to them on the label cannot be altered unless authorised by legislation. An exemption applies to a registered veterinary surgeon to alter the instructions for well accepted uses where an acceptable registered alternative does not exist or is not practical - using ivermectin off label to treat demodectic mange - yes, using it to save money on heartworm prevention, no. As an aside related to the commonly discussed 6 week interval, although it take several months for an adult heartworm to develop, juvenile worms can be present from as little as 52 days post infection. Yes, this is more than 42 days but it leaves only a small margin for error in dosing compared to the recommend monthly dosing.