Chia

She is on antiimflammatories and painkillers to help manage her arthritis. She's doing really well after her trip to the vet today, barely licking her wound - but obviously very glad to be home. Our vet told me that he examined her closely, and she has secondary tumors all throughout her mammaries as well as all over her body. He said it might be an option to remove some of them, but it would be a major operation - she would need to be desexed, and have all of her mammary glands removed. I don't really think I'm willing to do that to her, when she is already so old and frail... it seems selfish to put her through that.

Hi, My family has a 14 year old Labrador. She's had a pretty good life, with some rough spots - she was hit by a car when she was about 4 years old, but recovered well; and three years ago we had to have a maligant cancer removed from her leg. She has severe arthritis, but we have adapted. I've changed our routine to fit her a bit better, and we had an extra gat installed at the side of the house so she never has to climb stairs anymore. We though she was doing alright until last week I found an egg sized lump on one of her breasts. We took her to the vet, and sure enough it was another cancer. They warned us before that it would probably come back, and also that she probably has secondaries. I've been going over her carefully the last few days, at she has at least 6 smaller lumps spread over her body. Things are difficult because my parents moved away this year to go on a government posting, and now I am looking after our dogs. I love the dogs dearly and don't mind looking after them, but I can't handle the idea of having to put Hannah down when the rest of my family isn't here to say goodbye. This is the decision I felt I was faced with last week, when the vet told me to have a careful think and decide what to do. I spoke to my parents and we deciced we would get the breast tumor removed, as it is in a reasonably accessable spot and would not be a terribly invasive surgery. She's at the vet now, having this done. My parents will bo home fore a month over christmas, and we have come to a tactic agreement that when they are here we will have her put to sleep, when we are all able to be with her and before she can get much sicker. I am having trouble, I guess because I feel really torn. I think it would be best for me if my parents were here when it's her time, because it would be so hard to do alone - I've loved that dog since I was 6 years old. On the other hand, she has been constantly suprising me over the last year. She gets worse, and we adapt. She is still bright eyed, she can walk short distances, take herself to the toilet, enjoys meals, and obviously enjoys being around people. She is very spoilt now and spends all her days with me, sleeping in our lounge room. Whenever anyone walks past she rolls onto her side and waves her paw impetously at them to give her a tummy rub. She is a very stoic dog, and the vet told me she must be in pain but would never show it. I don't want her to get sicker, and I feel like it would be the right thing to have her go gently, with all her family around her. On the other hand, I have a desperate desire to squeeze every single day I can out of her, and not let her go until I'm sure she is no longer enjoying being alive. I'm feeling lost and confused, and I don't know how to reconcile these two things. What is the right thing to do?

Thankyou so much, you've been very helpful.

Wow, thanks a lot, I think that makes sense now. Just to confirm I have the right end of the stick = a desexed dog might be slightly taller, but less bulky? I am def. getting him desexed - my brother used to have an entire male and he was a nightmare (wandered all the time), plus I promised the breeder than I would. I think I will probably just get him desexed now - I'll never know what he would've looked like if I'd waited, but you can't miss what you never had and I think he's very handsome already.

I just had a chat with the breeder and she says it's fine to have him done now, but if I want to leave it until he is 12 months or so he would probably grow a bit bigger and more "boyish". I'm not really sure what to do... he's nowhere near as big as our old dogs (12 and 14), but I imagine it probably takes quite a few years to grow into full size? (I'm not sure, I was very young when those dogs were pups and I don't really remember them being any size other than they are now...). Desexing him now won't stop him from growing, surely? As I understand it, he just might be a little smaller than he would have been otherwise? I've always admired the big blokey labs, but I adore Finn regardless of what he looks like, so I'm not really sure how much I care. In short, I am now more confused than ever.

Oops, I really should have mentioned that. He's a Labrador.

I've just booked Finn in for desexing, but I've just realised he might not be old enough. He was born on 19th of May, which I guess makes him almost 5 calender months old or 22 weeks old. Is this old enough to be desexed, or should I call the vet again and have it reschedueled for next month sometime? ETA: He's a Labrador.

I called around and got a few quotes, there are a couple of places that will do it for about $240-60, which is a much better price. Thanks for the help.

I have no intention of not having him desexed, but if I can save some money I would obviously prefer too. There is a note on the RSPCA page that due to heavy demands, they are currently not providing services to non-members who do not have a concession card. Which is unfortunate, because otherwise I'd take him there in a minute. Yes, he is chipped, has all his shots, etc. I have only just started looking at desexing because my breeder advised me to wait until he was 6 months old, as did my vet when I asked them about it when he got his shots.

My pup is abut 6 months old now, so we've decided it's time to get him desexed. Our usual vet is very good but also quite expesive, and they have quoted us about $350. He's a 5 1/2 month old labrador male, both testicles descended, and probably weighs around 15 kilos (it's been awhile since he's been weighed, so I'm not entirely sure). Is $350 about the usual price? I don't have a concession card or a membership at the RSPCA, so I can't use their clinic (which is considerably cheaper). We can afford $350, but money is tight and if this is at the higher end of the price range I would like to find somewhere a bit cheaper for what is a standard operation. Re: looking around - can I just call vets and ask them for a quote on desexing? I've never had to "shop around", so to speak, for a service like this, so I'm not sure if this is the best thing to do. I'm in Canberra, if anyone has anywhere they'd particularly like to recommend.

Yes, we do have Sean as our instructor - I am very pleased, I remember that he was recommended by the instructors at our puppy preschool class, but managed to loose the bits of paper with his contact info.

Progress! We're booked into a Dogtech group "adolsecent" class starting on Sunday, which will run for 5 weeks, and I am intending to go and talk to the Belconnen people in person so I can suss out the club sometime soon. If it looks good, I'll join at the beginning of next year. I would like to go to Symonston, but it's a 40 minute drive each way and we're trying to cut costs where we can (makes me wish Action offered decent services, but that's more than a little O/T...)

We just completed puppy preschool 2 weeks ago, and I'd like to move Finn on to proper obedience classes. He's 4 months old now. Ideally, I would like to join a dog club but I'm not sure how possible that is going to be. The one in Symonston looks good (and I took another dog there a few years ago), but is a bit far away to manage, especially with the cost of petrol at the moment. I had a look at the Belconnen (Mitchell) Dog Club website, but it says that dogs have to be 6 months old to join obedience classes. They offer puppy classes, but from the description it's pretty much all stuff that we covered at puppy preschool or that I already know. I'm really looking for group classes - I've been doing a bit of training on my own, but having the direction and help of an instructor is invaluable, and I enjoy the group classes as much as pup does. Plus, I think it would keep the costs down? Does anyone have any recommendations? Google isn't doing much good at all, unfortunately.

You might try using a ceramic or glass bowl - one of ours is very, very picky about what she drinks out of. No plastic, no metal; so she's drinking out of a ceramic bowl thing we got from a plant nursery.