aj88

i would say no bones for two weeks - the sutures used are disolvable and they usually take a month to come out completely. Although the mouth does heal quickly, i wouldnt give bones for two weeks. My ridgeback girl had her two canines out and she was absolutely mortified that she couldnt have bones that she went scavaging around the yard and found one buried - io caught her after she had been chewing for 5minutes and she made her gums bleed! Anyway. If you dont feed wet food i would suggest soaking her biccies for 10minutes so at least they are soft for her to eat and wont hurt. I wouldnt change her diet drastically to what she normally has otherwise it might upset her belly and i wouldnt give just mince otherwise you will get one blocked up greyhound. Soak the biccies and mix it with mince - perfect

Obviously Josh is the 'top dog' I have the same issue. I had three girls and we recently just got a new pup. My two youngest girls (2 and 1 and a half) have accepted her fine, except the 2 year old is a bit snappy at meal times but thats ok. The 1 and a half year old couldnt care less but thats just the kind of dog she is. My oldest is 13 and she hates the pup, new puppy wont go near her at all because she knows that she will just get bitten. For me i find it not a big deal because i know the heirachy system will sort itself out in due course. The balance has been upset and now they have to work out who fits where now. My oldest will always be top dog and its her way of showing new puppy that this is how things work here. New puppy has worked out when she can go near gem (old girl) and when she cant. And i think now they have re-established order Basically your dogs are re-establishing rank, this is where the agressiveness comes from. To stop this violence you have to establish that you are this packs leader. Buy a crate if you havent got one and put new pup in that, let the other dogs sniff out the new puppy. If they growl step in front of the crate and let them now that this is not tolerated. You have to show puppy that you will protect it from other dogs and show the pack leader dog that you are now the leader and will not allow aggressiveness. But make sure you reward positive behaviour - this works better than being negative. How long has new puppy been in your house for???

Aw poor boy My old old Ridgeback girl was always licking her lips and i went to work to have her check up and found out she had a horrible infection in her top two canines. After talking to my boss about it we decided it was best for her to remove both her canines. About two days afterwards after the pain had settled down, no more lip licking. She was on soft food until her sutures had disolved and no bones until they were disolved (much to her dismay but i didnt give the other girls bones just to be fair) Once all healed she is eating fine, all her normal food and playing just as rough with her sisters as she always did! As far as eating and playing go its fine. If you notice when your dogs chews at toys and bones they tilt their head to the side and use their pre molars, the canine teeth are for holding onto objects and also to defend themselves (he still has three good canines left!) In the wild they use the canines to grab and rip at their prey but hopefully your boy doesnt need them for that! hehe The bottom canines though keep the tongue from falling out, if you remove them the tongue will hang out all the time. I havent seen it happen myself so im not sure how far it hangs out. you may want to ask your vet about that one We generally anly remove the bottom canines if it HAS to be done, otherwise we leave them alone. i hope i helped you a teensy bit!

Carrots like that are great for his teeth!! One of the nurses at work always gives her boy a carrot for a treat and he loves them. But yeah you wouldnt want to feed him a whole bag, but thats the same as everything and no one is really that silly. hehe

As a TRAINEE vet nurse yes i do know this but as a TRAINEE vet nurse i am still learning. Since animals cannot tell us verbally when they are in pain, we must always treat for anticipated or presumed pain. Why would you want to deny your animal pain relief when it may in fact need it. Yes animals show signs of being in pain but still you cant always be sure. I guess our standars of care are just a little higher than those of other clinics, but have known this for a long time because the standards of care at most clinics make me sick.

usually the pain killer they are given is in the pre med which last about 8 hours and also given an anti inflammatory injection which is 24 hours. Pretty sure that a surgery like that your going to feel pretty painful for more than one day. We give the client the option of extra pain relief buyt we do advise it, its just our standards of care that every patient that has endured surgery shall be given extra pain relief. No Doctor would ever send home a human patient without pain relief that would undergo a surgery like that, animals should be any different. There is a higher chance of infection if the patient is painful after surgery and it also delays recovery time.

oh yay! She must be feeling better then ;)

WHAT???? Pain killers should be used after desexing, id like to see you go through an ovariohysterectomy and not have any pain killers.

I though heartworm was a vacc only?? Canine cough is the only vacc im aware off given up the nose. We do not recoomend it to our puppy owners & if they chose to use it its against our advice. Good vets will give the pros/cons & the risks but most dont because its a good money earner & the prices they charge are plain ridiculous . It may be convient but i wouldnt waste that much money when there are safer options & cheaper options.Isnt that hard to give a monthly/daily pill unless you have a health issue that makes it a problem. We have vets here charging betwenn $120- #170 ,i say come in sucker actual bottle for vets to buy is $1000 from suppliers hence why it is so expensive

than bandage should only be on for few days (either taken off or changed) please tell me your vet told you this! anf they should have put cotton between the toes to stop discomfort and to stop pressure sores in between. pad cuts are nasty because they bleed so so much poor girl, i hope shes ok

learn how to put the tablet down the throat- easy and you know its down there. one of my girls hates ALL chews even drontal so she gets the fist down the throat - takes 2 seconds and its done. I normally give them a drink first so that their throats are slimey - not nice to have a huge pill down a dry throat

4 weeks in between each vac is fine.

There's nothing wrong with a responsible owner making a well thought out decision that their dog is better off not being desexed. However anyone who can't keep their dog in their own yard is not a responsible owner and clearly not capable of caring for an entire bitch. Hmm if your breeding then by all means dont desex but ive seen to many nasty pyometras (uterus infections) to say 'yes not desexing your bitch is a good idea if you have thought it out' because you wouldnt have thought it out that carefully because a uterus infection can kill your dog. And $200 is a small price to pay to get them desexed

i dont vaccinate yearly, my girls get AB titer tests

My girls get washed once a week. I use the hydro bath glacier ice wash which is made so you dont have to rinse it out. They all have beautiful coats and good skin, never ever had a problem with skin issues. Also i dont put the water on their head so water does not get into their ears. The only ear issues i have had is today with my girl with a grass seed in her ear so shes at work withe me now waking up from her GA. Poor baby got such sore ears So yeh basically what everyones saying -buy a good shampoo and you can wash once a week. Dont buy supermarket (well whoever buys animal products from supermarkets shouldnt have pets anyway that stuff is just crap! hehe) brand. Vets can order in good shampoo, i order mine through work. If you have a hydrobath, glacier wash is really good. Smells beautiful!

oh thats great about detroit and very sorry about rambo! poor little bloke I was quite disgusted by all of the comments you recieved as well, sometimes in high stress situations like these you never know what choices you will make. But looks like you made a good one to keep fighting! And people who leave comments like those have no right ESPECIALLY when they dont know the full story. There they are going on and on about you not receiving antivenom and all the time you were. Good on you! And good luck for little detroit i hope she keeps on fighting and pulling through

wow we charge 38 for a c5!!!! i would have thought 65 was alot? Depends on what your obedience clubs requirements are. Most places where dogs come in contact with eachother require a c5. All my dogs get antibody titre tested, i dont vaccinate every year, i dont like it ignore my part about 'depends on what your obedience club requires' i just read your it only needs a c3. If thats all it needs then that is fine, cheaper to =) but maybe discuss AB titres with your vet if your not a keen vaccinator (hehe)

wow we charge 38 for a c5!!!! i would have thought 65 was alot? Depends on what your obedience clubs requirements are. Most places where dogs come in contact with eachother require a c5. All my dogs get antibody titre tested, i dont vaccinate every year, i dont like it

I didnt pay cheaper - I paid through the nose at a specialist medical and emrgency clinic. What's with your red herring in this thread? have you read the entire thread??? well you said AV dopesnt cost 4 grand, how do you know that that clinic doesnt charge that much? Yep just finished reading the whole thread, i reply as i go. is that a crime. Not one of you has sympathised with the owner. I am mixed up in this topic, and i have a different srt of opinions both for and against what the owner did.

I didnt have $10,000 cash lying around when my dogs were envenomated either. I had the option of finding it or to PTS - not to just take them home. There's more to this story than meets the eye. Besides - AV does NOT cost $4000. How do you know what clinics charge for certain drugs. Just because you paid cheaper doesnt mean it is that amount everywhere. I know we are a hell of alot cheaper than most clinics, prices do go up and down and yes i hav seen invoices from vet clinics where their anti venom has cost 1000 for a vial. At least if they were at home the owner could watch them instead of them lying in a vet clinic overnight with nobody there. Then they could ring the vet if they were needed. I am NOT saying thats the best thing to do but you cannot blame people if they cant just give up on them, not everyone is the same. And you need to sympathise with their wishes.

Sadly Colleen, the vets (around here) actually state that payment must be made on the day, or they dont treat your animal (for anything). I hate them with a passion, and now go elsewhere (which is pretty hard with my panic attacks ) because of their "money over an animals life" attitude. Okay.....my little rant. I spent thousands with these vets over an 18 month period (many years ago now) as I had a horse with cancer. But then I rang up once to tell them my cat was ill and I was bringing him down (he couldnt stand up, wouldnt eat) and they automatically said "payment on the day"....I was pretty well flat broke at the time, so asked if I could pay 3 days later (my payday) and they said NO. I pleaded with them, and in the end they said to bring down something of value to hold in their safe until I made payment. Not that I have anything of value (car cant fit in their bloody safe), but I had a piece of jewellery that was left to me, so I took that down. Signed a form etc to say I would pay on certain day, and had left the item there as collateral or some BS. The cat didnt make it through the night, but they didnt bother to tell me until the next morning that he had died. :p (and after all the blood tests, x-rays, and being put on a drip etc, they still didnt say why he died, but the blood tests showed liver enzymes were high) And they had the bloody cheek to ring me back and ask me if I wanted to fork out another $40 for them to dispose of the body, or to come and collect him. I cannot tell you how much I hate these particular vets, and their staff. They practice is a semi-rural area, and all they think about is bloody money. It makes my blood boil. Oops, sorry for hijacking the thread Jettica. Thats really horrible. I would hate to work there!!!!! some clinics do shit me We will allow payment plans to some clients and in certain circumstances (not all i must add) If people say i can pay tomorrow we normally let them (unless we know they dont pay) There are just lots of variables that will determine wether a clinic will allow payment plans or not

obviously you dont have a business head. Yes vets care and wont to help the patient but its not that simple, it still is THEIR business and it is still is THEIR ass on the line. If a vet did that to every single person that baught their animal in then they would be up to their heads in debt. The business then uses their anti venom and then they have to buy the venom the next day to have it on hand so then thats out of their pocket. Show me a vet clinic that will do this up front, without GE credit, insurance or anything?

Holy cow, that is exy then. I know the local vets here wont treat with anti-venom unless payment is up front. Which is kind of hard if you dont have a credit card or that amount in the bank. To be honest, I dont have $4000 (just thinking if my two dogs got bitten) anywhere, so my dogs wouldnt get treated if I had to pay upfront. Does pet insurance cover this kind of thing? That might be an option for those who cant pay upfront. Oh, and if it was for my child, I would hope the hospitals would treat first, and you could pay up later. I would sell my car if it came to that. Im a vet nurse and when owners dont want to pay for treatments and preventions (heartworm, desexing blah blah blah) i get really mad because it is their responsibility. But when something like this happens i can sympathise with them. Not everyone buys an animal thinking the worse will happen, thinking they will have to fork out 4000 bucks. Not everyone has that much money in the back and not everyone has a credit card. With the prices of mortgages atm and fuel it is very hard to pay that much money. I certainly dont have $4000 in the back, i have a house to pay for! If this happened to my dogs it would be different because i work at the clinic and so payment wouldnt be an issue i would be allowed to do installments - not all clinics allow this. Its not being harsh its just we have to pay for those drugs and treatments and pathology and it comes out of our pocket and stuffs up cashflow. Although our main interest is in saving the animals, it is still a business and still has to work. So i can understand this, it is horrible, but i sympathise. Most hospitals will let you pay over time - they wont just let people die because the parent/patient cant pay up front. In response to your question about insurance. Most clinics allow GE credit, which means they pay us, then you pay them in payment installments.

she just said she couldnt afford the AV - the vet probably advised to put them on it but not everyone can just fork out 4000

sentinel only sterelizes the flea egss, does not kill them and capstar will only kill the fleas that are on your dog at that time, it isnt a prevention. so all the little nasty buggers that are in the environment just crawl back on. you need to get onto a monthly prevention. use capstar first to kill them then put revolution, advantage or frontline on MONTHLY to control. it takes awhile, keep at it! it took me 4 months to control the fleas on my girls. but i kept at their treatment and havent seen a flea first as i said above, you dont need to control the environment. you will not kill the pupae. control your dog and you will never see one.