HappyGirl83

We charge $300-380 weight depending. Includes blood work (not a full panel), IV fluids during the surgery (not pre or post Sx), pain relief after Sx and for 3 days after and post surgery care (recalls etc). We also have surcharges of $50-100 for in heat, preg & obese bitches. Fully qualified vet nurses & techs and monitoring equipment and hospital gowning, caps, masks, gloves (you would think gloves would be standard in surgeries wouldn't you? In some places sadly not!). Full nurse supervision post surgery. These things are definitely not standard with most desexings in my area. There are definitely cheaper options in my town, people find this out when they are price shopping. We won't compromise patient care just to meet the vet across towns prices. Desexings, especially spey's, barely cover costs. And as mentioned above, people call them routine because they are done often but they are fairly major surgery. As for IV fluids during surgery, every single patient who goes under an anaesthetic gets them with us. Any patient with an anaesthetic risk level of 2 or more may have pre/post fluids, pending on the vet's decision & blood work. You get what you pay for very often with vet care!

Good on you pugger

If there are that many fleas in your yard, the amount on your neighbours dogs is definitely a welfare issue. I have seen a Golden Ret brought down by flea anemia so definitely a big deal.

Ahhh I am in love guys! Keep the big boofer pics coming!

Comfortis is the way to go for me! Loving it right now!

With my old lab, I have never once trimmed her nails in 13 years When she was younger we used to walk/jog twice a day on roads and concrete paths, and now she is older she loves to hang out on our concrete courtyard. My litte dog doesn't wear his down quite as well...I tend to trim the tips off once a week. I'm not sure if the diference between him and her is a size thing, feet placement or what!

If the nails aren’t wearing down naturally and have gotten long, the quick may also grow longer than normal in order to provide nourishment to the whole nail. So therefore ends up being less nail you can actually trim.

Vaccination – vets only. Microchipping, currently in QLD is a bit hard to define. I have had the run around by a few organisations in trying to find this out! I am a qualified veterinary nurse, and due to the impending regulations on animals here in QLD requiring Microchipping we are trying to get our nurses accredited. Last I heard when I spoke to the AIRC (Animal Industries Resource Centre) they will have courses set up soon but it will be clearer once the regulations are put into place.

I think that there would be some people who would use this kind of service. Especially for elderly clients, who aren’t comfortable driving a lot themselves, or who may have larger breed dogs that are reluctant to get into the car. Dropping off prescription diets and medication refills on these visits could also be handy. Collection of blood samples to run back at the clinic or to send off may also be useful for owners who do not want to go into the clinic, especially for patients who stress there. Just my thoughts! Actually I am very interested in holistic and alternative methods myself, I do not know a lot about them. My old Lab was just diagnosed as having tumours on her liver and mets in her chest (likely hepatocellular carcinoma). She has not been biopsied for these just had an ultrasound and radiographs, I decided against a biopsy due to the fact she is 13 and already compromised…didn’t want to go through an anaesthetic. It has already spread to her lungs so she does have a very poor prognosis. In fact, everyone is surprised she is still with us and doing so well. At present we just have her on the L/D diet and are basically just making her comfortable as possible…there isn’t much else I can do.

I would say if you have sat down and thought out the pros and cons, and it still seems like a good idea to go for it!! The only other thing I will add is to make sure your local council is ok with 3 dogs, mine has a 2 dog limit.

I typically live in a boiling in summer but bitterly cold in winter area, but we do occasionally see the odd tick case mid June/July. Often these tend to be the more severe cases, because tick control has lacked and so have the daily searches.

Some people do split packs, but if the product is in ineffective or causes a problem, Merial (people who make Frontline) won't have a bar of you because you haven't followed the manufactures directions. But if you do decided to do it, make sure you get a 1ml syringe so you can accurately draw up the correct dosage for an under 10 kg dog. Having said that, with the bad track record Frontline spot on has had with flea control the last few years we are having second thoughts on recommending it as tick prevention. The spray still seems to be doing a good job though. For a tick control top spot, I would prefer Advantix. Just remember to be cautious when using if you have cats in your household and only ever apply it to dogs.

High peak is the warmer months, Sept through to March, but the little buggers can be an issue the whole year round. Look out especially after rain fall. Another tid bit to add is remember to avoid having your yard bushy. Trim back over grown areas, especially if your dogs like to hang out in those spots.

Dentals really do depend what tooth needs to be removed and why it needs to be removed. As others have said, some require drilling the tooth in half first and then removing. Healthy teeth that have a fracture (such as a slab fracture) can take a long time to remove, because ultimately the root on that tooth is still healthy and very well attached. When giving an estimate for a dental, vets will give you a costing of the higher end of the bracket. This allows for the time for the tooth removal, and also the possibility of finding other teeth that need extracting once a full examination can be done under anaesthetic or once tartar has been removed. Pre Anaesthetic Bloods $75 General Anaesthetic $150 Scale & Polish $100 Extraction $100 – 150 Analgesic Injection $15 Antibiotic Injection $15 Oral Antibiotics $25 Hospitalisation $20 (is she staying overnight to remain on fluids, post GA?) Recheck free $0 This would be $500 - $550. A $600 estimate is more than adequate, in case the extraction does take a lot longer than expected. If she was having pre & post anaesthetic fluid therapy, that would be an extra $50. Most clinics include fluids during all anaesthetics included into the price.