Akay

Here's a good article on the grain debate written by Dr Bruce Syme, a vet in Australia who is the developer of the Vets All Natural food and other products. This might help you in your decision. http://www.vetsallnatural.com.au/index.php...6&Itemid=82

this sign would be inviting idiots to let the dog out IMO. Locks are the best defence. The water meter guy can arrange a meeting time to read the meter, you don't need to provide unfetted access to your yard. We did this when we moved to a house where the electricity metre was inside the gate, which we had locked because of the dogs. They phoned us to let us know when they would be coming to read it so we unlocked the gates that day and kept the dogs inside.

Another vote for Wahl KM-2.

I use Anvet a Kedron and couldn't be happier - lovely vets and very thorough and caring. I've also found the vets at the Brisbane Vetinerary Specialist Centre (BVSC) on Old Northern Rd at Albany Creek to be very knowledgable and caring. In an emergency I've taken my dogs there and I've found them to be very thorough. I've also used QVS at West Chermside in an emergency and and as a general vet and I actually found the people at Albany Creek a lot nicer. Even though the standard of treatment might still be the same I like to feel comfortable in the surroundings.

I'm so sorry Crispy. My dog had a bad reaction to Sentinel Spectrum, he was nearly 14 and he ended up having to be put to sleep. I found it so difficult to get over the fact that I had killed my dog. He was the most gentlest, kindest dog and I felt like a big ogre killing him. If you know in your heart that it was the vaccine, you have to find a way to get past that. What kind of helped me was to think that it was a rather quick & painless passing compared to the other multitude of ways that he could have died.... I dunno, it's so hard and I know exactly what you're going through. The irony of it all is that it happened because you loved your baby so much :-(

I can take a dog or two, I'm in stafford heights and we're not having any flood problems. If safe I can come and collect the dog/s. Not willing to take aggressive dogs as I already have two males who aren't the submissive types, but they're not aggressive.

Oh important point! I have to use Draino semi-regularly to keep ours running freely. My hair + dog fur must be too much. So she was right. I'll have to be a bit more careful then!

There were a couple fatal attacks in the Alice Town camps in 2008 I think. This organisation is sorely needed. There's a lot of canine suffering in the communities.

I highly recommend Anvet at Kedron. As Huski said, they are lovely people. The two vets - Rod and Susan are compassionate and they take time to explain things to you. The vet nurses and receptionists are also very nice. I can't fault the care I have received from them and their prices are very reasonable.

I'm amazed at how many people shower with their dogs! It's my preferred method for bathing them. Saves the back a bit and is nice and warm for them in winter. My mum always used to advise me against it because she didn't want the drains clogging up with hair, but I haven't had that problem!

I've never had a problem with any vet receptionist in any of the vets I've been to. I give them the big thumbs up!

We've been feeding meal for pets for 5+ years and before that we were mixing up vets all natural complete mix with fresh mince. The meal for pets is the Vets all natural mix and roo meat. You should have a look at the vets all natural site http://www.vetsallnatural.com.au/ and read all of the information and fact sheets that are on the site. The pet cafe site also goes into quite a bit of detail and is worth a read too. It's worth reading all of the information because you get an excellent idea of the theory behind vets all natural, and then it's up to you as to whether you agree with it or not and wish to put your dogs on it. It lists all of the ingredients in the mix and why Dr Syme believes the ingredients are necessary in the dog's diet (basically he based the diet on obervations of wolves. The VAN mix is fermented overnight because Dr Syme says that the wolf eats the gut of the prey animal first and in the gut there will be fermented grains etc). It's not a mix that you can easily put together yourself as he puts in a lot of ingredients that probably aren't easily sourced from the supermarket. This is different to the Dr Billinghurst BARF patties, which include ingredients that you could more easily put together yourself. I personally like VAN better. I highly recommend the meal for pets from Pet Cafe as our dogs absolutely thrive on it. I also think it is value for money. My cavalier is on the allergy blend at about $6.50 a pack, which lasts his 3 days (he's a big cavalier). So it's averaging just over $2 a day, which I think is brilliant for what you get! If your dog doesn't like the roo meat you could altneratively by the VAN complete mix in a packet that you soak overnight and mix with the mince of your choice the next day. Dr Syme does go into a lot of detail why he recommends roo meat. A few times I've heard people comment that the dog doesn't digest the food properly because they see the oats and split peas in their poop. The people who say this haven't read enough about the food, as Dr Syme specifically states that a couple of the ingredients are purely put in their for roughage to ensure the stool is well formed and also to help with expressing the anal glands. Our dogs have never ever had a problem with their anal glands. I can't recommend it highly enough. A few people on this site feed VAN, so maybe a search on that will also be useful to you.

My dog had skin problems for along time and I tried everything; elimination diet, dry food that was supposed to be good for skin problems, malaseb, aloveen and other shampoos, prednisilone, 4 weeks x antibiotics etc. I then tried Dr Bruce Syme's meal for pets allergy blend and I haven't had an itchy dog since putting him on it. Absolute godsend. I get it from Pet Cafe. Having him itchy has been a constant source of anxiety for me and now I can relax. I'm one happy dog owner!!

That sounds very positive. I'm leaning more towards opting for the surgery. Hopefully my Cavvy can live a long and healthy life once she has the operation. The vet did say she has grade 1 in the other knee but I'm hoping it will be okay if we fix the other knee up. Sounds like your experience went very smoothly which is very promising for me. Did you have a normal vet conduct the surgery or a orthopedic specialist? My vet quoted me roughly $1000 for him to do it or it would cost me $3000 for the specialist to do it. He's done about 20 of these operations in his career but doesn't mind doing my Cav but he did say he would probably lead me in the direction of a specialist to do the operation if the dog was over 30kg. Hi, it was a normal vet that did the operation and she did a wonderful job. I think if he's done 20 already he should do a good job you'd think.

I'd recommend the surgery. We had our Cav done and he has been fantastic ever since. The post op care wasn't as onerous as some are making out and I don't really understand the comment about the person that would rethink it seeing a dog post op. My brother looked after him after the operation and everything went fine, he was kept in the bathroom and carried outside to go to the toilet. It all went really smoothly. He was only about a couple of years old when he had it done and he's 12 now and has not had one single problem.

Natural Instincts has a clothes wash that you can buy. It's all natural. You can usually get it from the chemist or health food shop - white bottle with dark blue (?) writing.

I've fed prawns to mine before but without the heads. I think there's potential for the hard, sharp point on the head to cause some trouble.

I found the GP vet at QVS a bit abrupt. Not sure if it's the same person or not. You'll be pleased with Susan and Rod at Anvet, both lovely people and damn good vets.

I highly recommend Anvet at Kedron. Very good and caring vets. The vetinerary specialists on appelby rd are also very good but I only use them in emergencies as I have found they are quite expensive.

I've done a lot of research on this food and it is recommended that it be fed with bones, just like the BARF diet. It's the best food on the market and beats kibble hands down. Good luck with your deicision.

Poodlefan, I'm glad it worked out in the end, I hope I don't get a repeat with little Benny. Megan - I agree about the fears of dehydration if the dog has been vomiting a lot and hasn't been drinking. When Benny had HGE I think he saved himself because he drank copious amounts of water. Kiesha - that's exactly how Benny was, just not himself, tail down etc. I'm glad you are taking her to the vet today, and like Megan said, if you feel you're vet isn't taking it seriously enough, consider another one.

My poodle Darcy has had HGE twice. It is rapid onset and dogs need to be on a drip ASAP. Get them to check potassium levels too.. low potassium is an HGE indicator. wow, twice! Once is bad enough. It's pretty scary. Do you have any idea what may have caused it in your dog poodlefan? I know it's very difficult to pinpoint the cause, we never could work it out. I'm surprised that the vet has let it go on for this long actually considering all of the possibilities that have been mentioned here.

Agree with Poodlefan. I asked about blood in the diarrhoea, because when my dog was exhibiting the exact symptoms your dog is, he had haemorrhagic gastro. Along with the symptoms you mentioned he also had the blood in the stool.

Sorry to hear your dog is feeling sick. I tend to agree with Sheridan about taking her back and investigating this further. Is there any blood in the diarrhoea?

I can't recommend the food highly enough. We have a 13 year old that bounces around like a spring chicken and a 12 year old that has had a high-grade heart murmer for years and we think it's the food that is giving him longevity. This was proven to us recently when we switched him onto artemis dry food he did nothing but cough and cough and cough, which can do quite a lot of damage. Moved him back onto VAN and his coughing was cut dramtically, if he had artemis all along I reckon he would have died about 2 years ago. I do have to agree with people here who say that it's not good for dogs with allergies. My dog appears to have a grain allergy and I have had him off VAN for a couple of weeks and his skin condition has subsided. The other two dogs have no skin problems whatsoever and their eyes are clear and coats are really good. Their stools are also well-formed. We feed the already mixed stuff that we buy from Pet Cafe - it is mixed in with roo (it is possible that my dog has a roo allergy). At $6 a kilo packet I honestly don't know how they make a profit on it. He's definitley in it for love not money. I have been impressed with all of the VAN products I have tried, including; the flaxseed oil, the natural shampoo and the joint formula (which is A LOT cheaper than other brands including sasha's blend and jointguard). People will talk about parts of the mix the dogs don't digest and think this is a problem, when if you read his papers it's becomes obvious that the things that the dogs don't digest, aren't meant to be digested, rather they are put in there to add bulk to the stool. Another thing with the stool is that the beetles in our lawn start breaking it down over time, whereas they didn't touch their stools from the artemis (I think there's something in that). Also the stools are a lot more pleasant in terms of smell when they are eating VAN. My brother did a lot of research on dog food at one point (almost to the point of obsession) and he settled on VAN. Good luck with it, I hope you find the same success I have :-) Read up on the site - he has a number of factsheets that you can look at and in my opinion, his theory seems to be spot on (by the way, anyone reading this wanting to debunk anything I have said, please don't, I've heard it all before and I have formed my own adult opinion - thanks).