kiwikitten

He was recently desexed and I think he had a dental at the same time (I'll check that). He has seen TWO vets already, vet didn't think it was a grass seed. A collapsing trachea and a reverse sneeze are very similar symptoms but the noise he makes is distinctly a nasal sniff not a cough or "honking" sound. (I have a chihuahua who honks so I know that noise well!). Its the runny nose that is annoying him.

Its been too long for it to be kennel cough, and none of the other dogs have caught anything. He doesnt have a temperature, and his lungs sound clear. Only clinical sign of anything wrong is slightly raised lymph nodes. I am suspecting allergies, but would like someone who is experienced with poms to tell me what kind? He is currently on Artemis Grain Free diet, so unlikely to be wheat or grain related.

I have a foster here who also spent the first few weeks cocking his leg on every corner in the house and sprinkling on it. It is marking behaviour. Annoying as hell, but as he has settled in, he has been doing it less and less. I leave the back door open so he can come and go when he feels like it, and he always goes outside to poo and do a proper wee. He is 8-10 years old, and is learning what is acceptable house behaviour and what is not. As for my own dog, she was an excited piddler and a submissive piddler. This is where she pees whenever someone arrives home, or sees her after being absent for more than 5 minutes. She peed when you looked at her, talked to her, touched her, moved her, or told her to do something. This behaviour has taken substantive rehabilitation over the last 18 months and I can now say I rarely get piddled on anymore :-) As for being worried about coughing, if you ever get a small breed dog as a foster you will need to become familiar with the concept of a reverse sneeze - it sounds like they are about to keel over and die, and indeed, one of my dogs has been known to do it until he vomited, and yet there is nothing wrong with them.

I know someone who had great success getting a patchy bald coat back into good condition by switching to Artemis Grain Free food - sometimes its a food allergy.

I have a 8-10 year old male pomeranian in foster care, and he is intermittently snuffling, sneezing and very loudly snorting back snot from one nostril (or he sneezes it out). The snot is clear. He has been on antibiotics and prednisolone - neither has made much of a difference. I was wondering if this a pomeranian version of the reverse sneeze or is there something else poms are prone to getting like an overactive sinus. He is not otherwise sick, and there are days when he shows no symptoms at all. He does seem to be worse when he is excited (reverse sneeze?) or when its sunny and hot (allergies?).

It shouldnt cost you more than $70-$80 to get parvo and distemper - they dont bother with hepatitis testing. Google search for a homeopathic vet in your area as these guys do titre testing, as opposed to normal vets who prefer to vaccinate. There is a vet in Thornbury, Melbourne who does it for $110 (bit expensive) and one in Geelong who charges $80.

I choose not to vaccinate for KC - the vaccination only protects against 2 strains of KC, and there are actually about a hundred different types of viruses that can cause it. Its like the flu, there is always a new variant each year. Its also a mild disease that is easily treated (provided the dog is otherwise healthy). The vaccination also only lasts for 6 months, not a year (another thing that vets dont normally tell you) so half the time your dog is unprotected anyway (which is why vaccinated dogs still catch it). I think the recommended titre test period is every 3 years from a positive titre, that way if it comes back negative later, you can vaccinate. So your dog is essentially still on a 3 year protocol. And as for the heartworm vaccination, that stuff was recalled by the FDA in America and Canada years ago. Its only been put back on the market recently under a monitored trial, and is only to be given to dogs that cannot use another form of heartworm prevention medication (pill or spot on).

"To rehome the dog without desexing the dog would certainly be illegal in Victoria" - Apparently not, its only if a shelter or pound does it. DPI said a CFCN is the owner of the dog in instances where they obtained the dog from somewhere other than a Vic shelter/pound, therefore they can do what they like with the dog, including rehoming without desexing, just like any private owner of any dog can sell or give it away undesexed. So they could have rehomed the puppies with a desexing contract, or they could have taken the temporary foster care approach - either way, there were options. Guess it takes something like this to figure out all the ins and outs, and develop a plan for future situations.

It would be solved if there was some temporary registration issued at zero cost in the name of the shelter/pound/rescue group who takes responsibility for rehoming the animal, and not the foster carer. With say a 6 month period of grace before permanent registration is required.

I'm beginning to believe that these prescription diets are a crock of #### anyway. My cat was on that stuff for UTI crystal prevention - aside from vomiting it up all his life, he still died from a crystal blockage. Probably would have been better to put him on a natural BARF diet with no crappy corn/wheat/grains in it - which is what that prescription stuff is still full of.

But they probably would cover the auto-immune diseases and cancer that over-vaccination causes dogs and cats. How ironic.

Look up "homeopathic veterinarians" - most of these will do titres. There are two in Victoria - one in Thornbury (Margaret O'Riordan)who charges $115 and one in Geelong (Paws to Heal) who charges $80. Animal Options in QLD do it for $69. These do not include the hepatitis testing, as titre results for parvo are deemed indicative of immunity for hep as well. Low distemper titre results are usually ignored, as there is not enough exposure to the disease these days to bump the immunity levels up. So the parvo results are definative. I believe that with puppies the 1 year booster is still recommended as protocol, but that is enough. This is because the mother's antibodies passed on to the puppies (pre-birth and through milk) can interfere with the vaccination sero-conversion, so full immunity may not be conferred until then. Or you could titre test after the 16 week shot to check that it has worked.

Can you explain this further? What about a person running a rescue group that has dogs on their own premises, and out with other foster carers. Most people I know keep a few foster dogs themselves. Many keep the dogs for a quarantine period, then get the vet work done, then place in a foster home. What is this person's position?

Actually, having spoken to the DPI in Victoria, the law does not apply to rescue groups - only registered shelters and pounds. So not sure why the rescue group would feel that "the law made them do it" - maybe because they extrapolated the shelter law, and thought it automatically applied to them. But if you are a CFCN it does not. So the foster care arrangement with a prospective owner until an appropriate desexing age/size/weight would have been a perfectly valid option in this situation. So now I am even more upset at such an unnecessary death!

Please do not misunderstand. We do not suggest this is an alternative to early age desexing generally, but only in specific cases where the dog or cat's life or future well being is at risk and where this had been stated by a vet. We would never be involved in passing on an undesexed rescue dog where there was any risk of the animal having a litter. And if we had an animal in the early stages of pregnancy we would always abort. I do understand, and I am all for early desexing in pets that can handle it. But breeds like chihuahuas, sighthounds, and flat faced dogs, all present with anatomical issues that increase the odds of surgical risks being experienced. In these cases, it is better to err on the side of safety first. Chihuahuas for instance, in addition to anesthesia sensitivity, also have soft tracheas (making it more difficult to keep the airway open), lose heat quickly (making them prone to post-surgery hypothermia), and often suffer from hypoglycemia (also a common problem post surgery due to fasting). All these risks are exacerbated when they are tiny puppies. People say "we do tiny kittens without any problem" but chihuahuas are not cats, they have quite different physiologies.

I think that is the most sensible option for sure. I am sure people will present the dogs at 6 months for desexing rather than face losing them permanently. I dont know why some rescue groups feel it is essential to spay regardless of the age, size and breed, it seems that the attitude is "better dead than bred".

Second and third that! And tiled floors :-)

The pup in question came from a pound in Sydney, and was in care with a rescue group in Melbourne that utilises foster carers. The puppy was being desexed prior to being permanently adopted. What do you do? Do you hold the puppy until it is 6 months old, and then rehome? Or is there any way the puppy can be sent to its prospective owner under a temporary foster care arrangement? Lort Smith has refused in the past to desex a 4 month old chihuahua puppy (privately owned) even though it met the 1kg minimum weight, so I think most vets are reluctant to desex these tiny dogs early. Even kittens at 8 weeks are 3 times the size of a chihuahua puppy.

The law in Victoria is that all rescue puppies must be desexed before leaving the shelter and going to a home or in to community based foster care. The puppy would probably have just been on or over 1kg - but even that is too small for a breed known to have issues with general anesthesia and problems with regulating their body temperatures (hypothermia is a common post surgery complication).

Yesterday a 12 week old chihuahua puppy died while being desexed prior to going to its new home. Has anyone had any experience in getting exemptions to the Vic mandatory desexing rules?

Ok was that an au eBay shop or os Overseas - I think it came from the US. I just do a search, include international sellers, then rank them by price + postage, cheapest first (but always check the seller rating).

There are also these little toothbrushes with picks on the end made by Colgate, which are perfect for tiny dogs. Not sure where you buy them here, I got mine at the supermarket in NZ, but havent seen them in any of my local supermarkets, although a friend was given some in a giveaway promotion. http://www.colgatewisp.com.au/wisp/HomePage

I paid $20 per bottle of the Petzlife gel, got it off one of the online stores on ebay, free shipping included.

There was a Facebook page set up that was telling people not to foster or adopt animals from pounds, claiming that this would be "the biggest mistake you can make'. I'm not sure of the name of the page, as I ignored it, but it was posting all over a number of rescue group pages.

I have bought some of the oral gel that people swear by, but havent gotten around to using it yet so cant comment if it is as good as people say. You can get it in Australia but its twice the price, so best look online for it (ebay has the best options for price and delivery). Its called Petzlife oral gel or spray. You can read the reviews of the product at Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Petzlife-Oral-Care-Spray-Peppermint/dp/B000NNJ5CI