chiara

I was attached once by two dogs... good thing my rottweiler was a champ an defended me but can't think of what would have happened if I had been walking a little fluff ball... anyway I don't know about other states but this was in QLD and as for authorities I called the council (they already knew the dogs) they have records and keep track of offences, they will also confiscate the dogs if the oweners don't comply with regulations. As for breaking up a fight I think I heard something about pulling the dog's behind legs back and separating them that way but you would need one person per dog and you would alway run the risk of the dog redirecting aggression towards you, I now carry a loud air horn which I haven't used as of yet but in theory should scare off an approaching dog... I can say though it's all about attitude (personally I don't have that) a few times walking the dog with hubby we've encountered dogs that were approaching aggressively and even jumped a couple of fences and got out of their yards but hubby just takes a few steps forward confidently like I'm calm but ready to go for it if you come any closer and without fail they all retreat!!! it's amazing to see but I'm sure I wouldn't have the same effect!

Awww it's so nice to love and be loved by a pet. My rottweiler has always been protective of me and will comfort anyone in the family who's not feeling well but now that I'm pregnant he is my shadow, much more protective of me, poor hubby can't hug me without Hugo coming to investigate that everything is cool, he sits as close as possible to me always and comes to smell/inspect the belly every day, he will even guard the bathroom when I'm in the bath and if I duck my head under he freaks out! He's so cute!! and we all love him so much!!!

AWWWW best pictures ever! so cute!

OMG that's so cute! Once I saw a lady walking at the dog beach with a cage on her shoulder with a green bird inside... I think the harness is a better idea! love it!

I take my dog swimming at the Canine Cubby in Yatala QLD they have this toy but ran out and only take orders (seems hard to get!) however you should buy it online as it's a lot cheaper that way. http://www.ozpetshop.com.au/product_info.p...roducts_id/2760 That's and australian site and sell it for $29.95

Thank you! That's encouraging, we just want our loved pet to be safe and happy, we are looking for a good kennel/pet resort what ever you want to call it we don't really care about the cost and we are happy to travel. Oakway can you recomend any around brisbane, sunshine coast or gold coast. Today we are going to see one in Ipswich. Thankyou

Ya that's what got me, we're going to check it out tomorrow

Ok so going off the Imparra pet resort thread... I'm now looking at possibly placing Hugo with a pet sitter at their house... pro and cons anyone? My thought is if he's in a good pet resort then the worst that can happen he has not much interaction for a week and would possible be bored but he would be safe and fed... obviously we would buy him play time but who knows if that's used or not anyway now i'm thinking what if he gets stressed with all the other dogs barking what if he gets kennel cough... ecc ecc With the pet sitter the thought was he would be happy if it's the right person but I found usually they have their own pets at home... what if they don't get along... what if the pet sitter is a bad person and lied about what a wonderful time my baby would have with them... there's no way of knowing and no one to rescue him.... sooooo hard to decide!!!!! Help anyone!!!

Hi, That's really good to know, I thought as much I mean it looks clean and he would be safe and well fed... we can only hope that the play time we would buy for him is actually used but there's no way of knowing, I'm now thinking if anyone has other suggestions... I've looked at maybe a pet sitter at their house, my only worry with that would be that we wouldn't really know the person and who knows how they would treat him... however if anyone knows/can recommend someone in Brisbane please do...

I wonder if our dogs knew what a huge deal it is for us to leave them what would they think? would they feel special or think we are all a bit insane...

So yesterday I was talking to a friend who says she found a nice pet resort in brisbane that has the webcams in the resort rooms so you can keep an eye on your pet... anyone know of any such resorts I can't seem to find it.

Hi, I would definitelly go timber - treated timber that is - plastic won't hold the cold out and will get very hot in summer. We got our dog a beautiful oversize kennell with all the trimmings - window and a porch... he never uses it! So don't go spending a fortune expecially if you are not going to have an outside only pet. Just my experience though I'm sure if my dog was outside only he would use his kennel... maybe...

Oh well we learn something new everyday! I didn't know about kennel cough... I guess it's the same risk you take at the dog park... I'm really keen on hearing about first hand experiences with the Imparra Pet Resort, I mean it can be all nice and clean but if the people don't care about their guests it's not worth it.

Haha yes well aren't they all spoilt now a days... mine is too! It's always good to start early, I started 3 weeks ago for march (we didn't know we were going away) and the best option I wanted is unavailable... just limits your options so I think it's good to go early and do the research, you should have a look at the resort in person, they are quite nice about visits. I went to see a pet resort near home (Brisbane) and it was atrocious... looked like a dog jail... no way I'd send Hugo there.

Hi, I'm going in a couple of days so I'll definitelly update you, I have a rottweiler but he's a big baby, I just want him to be safe and have a good time, he doesn't have separation anxiety or anything so if the place is good and ppl are nice he would be fine... I thought dogs were vaccinated against kennel cough... mine is... can he still get it??

Hi all, My husband and I are going away for a week (business/holiday before our first bub arrives), anyway unfortunatelly for one reason or another the people we would usually leave our furry baby with are unavailable. We would usually not EVER consider a pet resort for our wonderfull little boy but we really don't see what else we can do. We have researched all sorts of options, doggy sitting, leaving him with a pet sitter at their house, and pet motels, we like the look of the resort rooms at the Imparra pet resort, our little hugo is used to being indoors and never sleeps outside, so this would be great. We are inspecting the resort next week, but would love the hear if anyone has used them and has good or bad feedback! Help us please make the right decision for our little furry baby. Thank you!

Thanks for the post, Hugo's eats a mix of dry food raw meat and bones, cooked veggies with meat and sometimes canned food. We were going to change to full raw but with his operation looming we thought it best to leave it to later. however he does like raw meat and seems to have to upsets when he eats it, I do have some concerns about vegetables and other nutrients which I would assume are not found in meat. My thought was to give him raw and cooked meals also... Do you think his brittle bones might be a result of diet?

Update on Hugo: Stem cell therapy was a no go because his bones were already too far damaged from HD. But that was a while ago and yesterday Hugo had his first hip replacement surgery. I am yet to talk to the vet myself but husband did, he said Hugo is ok and in recovery. However there were complications apparently his bones are not as hard as they should be I think brittle was mentioned and therefore in the middle of the operation his pelvis apparently collapsed, his operation went on for an extra 3 hours as they tried to fix the problem. I don't know what consequences this will have on Hugo's recovery... I will be talking to the vet today. However I will be posting about a vet who left my baby boy on the operating table and went god knows where and about the other vet who might have saved Hugo's leg by caring enough to go back in and operating alone on my baby! yap you read right apparently one of the two vets left and went.... I will be posting about this as soon as I find out just why... but unless he was having a heart attack I cannot figure out why a doctor would leave the operating table... In the mean time does anyone know about brittle bones and how this condition might be helped??

Hi all and thanks for keeping the thread alive... I've been busy researching stem cell therapy. I had a very informative chat with Regeneus (thank you lovealab) staff who promptly referred us to the local vet whom does the procedure (lucky for us it's only 15/20 min ride). The local vet called and we set up a free of charge consult, which I think is great! We are going on Thursday so I'll have some more information then, however for now we hope stem cell therapy might help Hugo, from my understanding it can help dogs deal with joint pain, it creates cartridge and heals muscles and tendons. It's a relatively new procedure so they are still finding new applications for it, originally it was used on older dogs who suffer osteoarthritis, however they have mentioned it's now being used for repair of tore ligaments and for the relief of pain from HD ED and the like. I've been told that basically they would harvest a small sample of fat from the patient and then extract stem cell, which would then be injected (in our case) in between the hip joints, the cells would then become cartridge, this would then relieve the pet from the pain of the hip joints grinding against each other. For a young dog the procedure would last 5-6 years then the procedure might have to be redone. This does not cure HD but if it takes away the pain then your pet would be able to lead a normal life. In the US the cost is less than for a hip replacement, so I'm hoping that's the case here in AU. The recovery time is 7 days and optimal results can be seen at 7 - 14 days. Again I'm no expert and I'm looking forward to talking to vet about it. Milomum I would seriously consider stem cell therapy for your pup, surgery would be very lengthy and very expensive considering it sounds like every joint is affected, but with stem cell once they harvest the fat and extract the cells they can inject all the joints (for the same price from my understanding). I hope this might be the solution you've been looking for.

Interesting you mentioned this because I read an article about stem cell therapy and I was quite interested but didn't find much out there about it. I couldn't even figure out if it's an option for a young dog to have so if you have some info or you could forward contact details of who could help I would really appreciate it. Thank you

Well I'm just about to loose my mind trying to compare vets... is it just me or do others find it really difficult to extract information from vets? I mean I realize the surgeon will need to see Hugo before going in to operate but I am not about to drag him to see 5 or 6 surgeons while I decide who's the best qualified... I have the diagnosis all I want is to know how experienced the surgeon is what kind of implant and technique they use and how much it costs.... is it wrong of me to assume this information should be given to me before the vet sees Hugo??? How do I even know if someone is experienced how do I know I'm not getting ripped off? If it wasn't for this forum I wouldn't even be looking... so thanks everyone for the references. PS I've been in contact with Dr Mitchell :-)

My vet is Gordon Corfield, has anyone had him operate on their pups? he's at the Gold Coast but can also be found in Springwood at the SVV. We went to the Holistic vet again last week to get Hugo realigned as he was having more pain and could hardly get up from his bed, he's doing much better now. In regards to hip scores and how young a pup is before diagnosis, well Hugo's parents were supposedly in great health and had no HD, after doing so much research on this condition it does seem to be quite random, even if two dogs have perfect hip scores it's not to say they won't have pups with HD, and again there is always an environmental factor... in short you never know! the best thing is to get pet insurance straight away because HD and ED are not fatal conditions and can be treated however as most of us know they are very expensive conditions to rectify. I would also urge any dog owner to follow their instinct, I was told HP didn't show up until at least 12 months and xrays could only be done at 12-18 months... b****t Hugo was walking with a sway at 5 months, I kept asking people if they thought he was walking funny but no one but me could see it. The most obvious signs I saw in Hugo and which after a bit of research were confirmed were: as a small pup he would bunny hop around (be careful as lots of pups will do this especially in grass and don't have HD) swaying when walking, can look quite funny like a shake of the butt. in long walks the pup might just sit and refuse to keep on walking. cracking noise of the bones when the dog/pup gets up or sits. difficulty in getting up from a laying down position. when dealing with HD the dog will put most of the weight on the front legs, so keep an eye out for development of the upper body and muscle loss in the lower body. Anyway I just want to say to people out there not to give up on their pets if they have HD or ED because it's manageable and treatable. I've heard of pets being put down because of this condition, mainly because the operations are so expensive, short of getting vets to cut prices I URGE ALL PET OWNERS TO GET INSURANCE!!! it will help and just don't give in!

Hey all we are still hanging on!! I've been super busy so sorry for the long silence, I read all your threads since. Thank you all again! We are managing Hugo for now as we are saving up for the THR. We found a surgeon and now we are just saving saving saving! Hugo is doing well considering, he's taking his herbal pain killers and anti inflammatory, I started him on raw, which our holistic vet recommended, he seems to like the raw meat so we're all happy. I'm really concentrating on preparing for the recovery, I'm teaching him how to walk with a sling, shopping around for a crate... still debating if that's necessary as he's quite happy to lay on his bed all day and night so not sure about that one. If anyone has had THR and has any tips and hints to give about recovery I would appreciate!

I read about stem cell therapy but I don't know if it can be applied to hip dysplasia and how it would work, most of the information out there is about the benefit for arthritis. Does anyone have any information about this? We are still debating however we are leaning towards surgery, I'm sure it will be a difficult few months but the prospect of a full recovery is very attractive. Then again maybe it's wishful thinking and I'm just rushing it because I want my pup to be all better asap... If only he could talk to me!!!!

hummm that's interesting... what type of hip replacement did you consider? We are looking into cementless system with Kyon implants. I'm just reading up on this new technique, however I asked the specific question will there be arthritis in the hip later on in life and the answer was no. Will have to read up on this one