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If it was me I'd just call and ask for my pet's medical history to be sent to my new vet. Clear, honest and upfront. Hopefully stops reminder letters being sent unnecessarily (it would cost the clinic time and money to send out reminders too).

Contact details for vets in the places you're going. In an emergency you don't want to be trying to find out where the closest vet might be while worrying about a sick pet (speaking from experience it sucks).

A guy once told me that my cattle dog cross was a nice looking dog. She's an Aussie so I corrected him. Twice more I tried explaining but he wasn't going to believe me. He leaned down near Ivy and said "did your mummy get ripped off???". They was my cue to tell him to have a nice day and walk away. My 17kg whippet gets called a greyhound all the time. My fawn greyhound got called a deer several times by kids which was kind of cute.

My girls Ellie, Maddie and Ivy. They put up with me posing them in different places all the time and taking many, many photos of them :laugh: Dal the giant whippet. His whole life I've had people asking if he's a greyhound but he's not even close to that size :laugh: . He had his leg amputated 18 months ago and while he's a little slower and gets tired quicker than he used to he is still loving life at 13. He's got a completely unique hop because of that missing leg and the sound of him hopping through the house and along the hallway is one of my favourite sounds :D My amazing greyhound Stevie. A little older and greyer than he was in this pic but so much love for this boy. He will be 13 in September and I almost want time to stop because I'm not ready for him to be this old yet.

I haven't seen that statement of acceptance made by anyone. Things have to change. Things were changing. All I hope is that the opportunity to see if the changes are successful is given. Hence why I didn't quote anyone here. But the numbers have been staggering for a long long time. The numbers are also rubbery. The numbers are ridiculous. I know adoption has been improving every year since I adopted my first in 2003. And I got my pets straight from their trainer so I know the "official" adoption numbers do not reflect every adopted dog in the country. But the number that find homes after racing is only a portion of the dogs bred each year.

I haven't seen that statement of acceptance made by anyone. Things have to change. Things were changing. All I hope is that the opportunity to see if the changes are successful is given. Hence why I didn't quote anyone here. But the numbers have been staggering for a long long time.

I find it hard to pick a side. I know a few people in the industry, good people who I know care for their dogs. One who kept their racing dog in the house even when they were told that the dog would do no good on the track (they proved them wrong on that :) ). And some that are heavily involved in greyhound adoption as well. I've been offered dogs at the track and told if I didn't take them right then that they would not be making it back to their kennel that night. This was before I adopted my first grey and I went home devastated and feeling like I had killed that dog myself. I also have my boy Stevie at home. I was lucky enough to adopt him and he's been with me nearly 11 years. One week shy of his second birthday he was shot, they had obviously aimed for the back of his head and instead just hit his spine. This is his X-ray from last year with the fragments still in his neck (they're scattered throughout his face as well). Eleven years and it still makes me furious that somebody could do that to my gorgeous boy. And it obviously still happens, we saw that in Queensland. I love the breed, I love fostering, I've even enjoyed some time at the track over the years. But the sheer numbers of dogs bred and the number that get PTS is huge! We don't have a local track anymore but do have some local trainers still and seeing even the occasional young healthy dog making it's way to the vet for euth is heart breaking for me. How anyone that says they love the breed can accept the euth rates for greyhounds right now in this country is beyond me. I don't know that complete shutdown is the right thing but something definitely needs to change.

:laugh: :laugh:

Nope, I'm not adding it up. With a 13 year old whippet, an almost 13 year old greyhound with both new and ongoing health issues, a 16 year old terrier with heart problems (and the meds to go with it) plus the 2 Aussies and kelpie it adds up fast. I've spent over $2000 in the last couple of months easily but the actual figure might make me flinch. Best not to know the numbers :laugh:

Charting Maddie's growth.

I insured my mum's 2 dogs for her. In August her Border Collie was diagnosed with a fungal infection (Cryptococcus) and so far I estimate her bills just for this are around $5000. Just one of her medications is $4/tablet twice daily and treatment could go on for some time yet. The insurance company has paid back 80% of her bills without any issues. Waiting to see what her premium will be when renewal is due in May though. I also insure my own dogs but haven't needed to use it for them yet. At my vet clinic money is one of the hardest conversations staff have with clients. Euthanasia of pets with treatable conditions due to finances is difficult and extremely sad for everyone.

I was in a very similar situation last year. My boy had 2 surgeries in 2013 to try and remove a soft tissue sarcoma on his front leg. Pathology came back the second time saying that we didn't get the margins again (really hard to on a skinny whippet front leg!) and that the cancer seemed to be more aggressive this time. I was given the option of a third surgery with us being really, really aggressive and trying to get margins and then doing radiation or amputation. I decided on amputation. My boy turned 13 in November and we just celebrated 1 year post amputation last week. Surgery day was awful (for me, I was a wreck) but he coped amazingly well. He walked out of his hospital bed that first night and never looked back. It's a very difficult decision to choose amputation and I agonised over it mainly because of his age. I don't regret anything about choosing amputation for Dal, he's adjusted so well and is still his normal happy self. Every day with him is so special

My greyhounds used to donate.They've passed away and my current dogs are too small to donate now. They always got spoiled after donating, I figured they deserved it after saving a life.

Red in greyhounds is different to this. Not the best pic but this girl was registered as red.

I actually took my 7 month old Aussie to a Bunnings on the weekend. Didn't see another dog inside the store at all. A quick run inside ended up being a 30 minute socialising session for my girl though. At one point I think we had 6 employees hanging out patting Maddie. So if you weren't getting help at a Southern Adelaide bunnings on Saturday afternoon, I'm sorry.