Staff'n'Toller

It's hard to understand what actually happened without knowing the dogs history of illness and whether it was that excitement phase of anaesthesia or the dog was genuinely distressed. From what I can gather it might be the former but I guess we'd only find out by getting a copy of the visit history. It's probably not advantageous for your friend to have a copy of that though, will most likely just cause more upset. There's a chaplain at Lort Smith Animal Hospital - I'm sure they would welcome anyone, even if not a client of the hospital to make a time to have a chat. Other than a caring Vet she would be the best person to see as she would understand the euth process and how things can go 'not as expected'. See here. If she is still having trouble in the next 4-8 weeks pm me I will see if my boss is happy to have a chat to her whilst remaining impartial to her regular Vet. He tends to know *exactly* the right things to say in these situations.

Hopefully someone can help you with the NSW laws but I am not aware of any such law pertaining to this. If they can get a hold of the companion animals act and meet a policeman down there it may help with the cowboy rangers.

They can still blow in the time it takes you to move the animal if they have friable veins.

If the dog gets a small amount of euthanasia solution they go into 'excitement phase' which is like when you would be waking up out of an anaesthetic but we generally don't remember it. We try to avoid it at all costs. An intramuscular injection will hurt the dog and still take 5-10 minutes to work. There's no real point to doing intravenous sedation as it takes time to place an IV catheter so the vein doesn't collapse and you can use it afterward for euthanasia solution. Using a face mask and gas also upsets the dog as they hate the smell. <--- All of this creates more tension and generally upsets the owner more. The quicker it is all over the better. Euthanasia is a subjective thing, it depends on what's going on with the dog's body system (blood pressure) and medications and temperament. Sometimes with pets that have had numerous surgeries and not a stable temperament well it is just a crap situation for Vet and owner. In the worst case scenario we might take the dog into the other room and do a quick intra-cardiac injection and rush them straight back to the owner as death is immediate after an intra-cardiac- and no owner wants to see their dog injected into the chest cavity it's far too upsetting. Hope that helps with your question. Your friend may benefit from having a chat to an impartial Vet that wasn't present, even one who is not attached to the same clinic, to help ease how she feels about things. Often it can really help.

I have used some of the PAW shampoo it's very nice. Yes the chews do smell like a chicken coop! Don't shove your nose into a full container of them.

Ours is still not with the wholesaler. Some science diet is filtering through but Z/d - not as yet.

Advance Arthri-Care chews with 500mg stabilised green lipped mussel powder have been re-branded and are now selling under exelpet in the supermarket. Same factory and (looks to be) same ingredients. Pity the helpline couldn't impart that information when I rang them when the Advance chews went 'discontinued' but anyway, if you were giving them and want to grab them again they're in Coles. Pure Animal Wellbeing have been acquired by Blackmores. They have recently released a chicken flavoured chewable multi vitamin, and a chicken flavoured B Vitamin and L-Tryptophan chewable. PAW are keen to hear of any feedback on these products. They have been approved by the APVMA. Cheers! Mel.

Z/d is still out of stock here in Vic. You can get cans but that's all for now.

you're making a big assumption here too that a dog left after 5 months with it's testicles in is going to pretty much guarentee a dog that you cannot take anywhere. With respect, I don't think I insinuated they would not be able to take their dog anywhere, or that they are guaranteed to become aggressive. What I wrote was quite balanced. On the flip side it's irresponsible for posters to jump on here and say to a novice owner "Oh, of course leave the testicles! Your dog will be fine" and then neglect to warn about testosterone related behaviours. I see more entire male dogs that can't mix with the average dog community in an off lead capacity than entire males that can. If that is the OP's main focus (because for your average Joe Citizen it is) then yes I believe they definitely are better off having the dog neutered.

Not sure if anyone will see this.... I'll be back in Darwin for a chill-out week with my travelling buddies. :D :D It will be mid-June. We are meeting another DOLer at Nightcliff markets for brekkie crepes. Would love to catch up if anyone is interested in joining us Mexicans. :D PM me for the date. Cheers, Mel.

IMO the most benefit from desexing @ 5-6 months is that the testicles are small so less trauma = less pain and faster healing. The other benefit is removing the chance of testosterone related male behaviour, be that territorial marking, humping cushions or kids or other dogs (in which case he might get himself in lots of strife) and testosterone related aggression. Be aware that you will need to identify those types of behaviours most importantly with other dogs at the park etc. You need to quickly intervene if he is starting to eyeball, challenge, growl at or stand over other dogs. The issue with testosterone related behaviours is that very quickly the dog learns that he gets gratification in the way of adrenalin for this behaviour so is inclined to repeat it where he feels necessary and this is the key: we can't tell from where it moves from hormone related behaviour to learned behaviour- so when people desex their dog and find the problem still exists they have one big headache to fix it. It depends what you want to do, understand that everyone is biased- sports dog owners would say it creates taller dogs and delays the closing of the growth plates- that's a reasonable consideration; Vets are talking about the welfare of your dog, and the cost to desex a 5 month old dog is much different to a 12 or 18mth old as they weigh more; people who are just against desexing due to their own moral values will state as such- that's fine but it's a decision you need to make for you. If you want a dog you can take anywhere, most importantly you want a social butterfly that can go to the dog park each day and romp then perhaps you might consider desexing @ 5 months. With male dogs it's a very subjective thing, some dogs use and abuse their hormones in their interactions with humans and other dogs, some dogs "don't know they have balls" so to speak. Although in my experience I've had more than one person say "Oh he's a lovely male, he doesn't know he has testicles" and I'm watching the dog carry out the full gamut of dominant or challenging type body language to any dog in the general vicinity.

Lilydale Lake. Ticks all your boxes.

Puddleduck has been to Dinner Plain with her dogs.

I sell it to the retired golf playing dudes from the golf club across the road. :D

At his age I would perhaps find a club that was suitable where there's lots of people that you can neutralize him to, even if it means you start outside of any classes for the first month/s. He may also be going through the "I'm not sure if you're friend or foe so I'm going to get as close as possible to your face to find out" -may or may not be an explanation of why the jumping behaviour is so strong but right now I can understand you would be frustrated as he is learning to disregard the stim, is too distracted for food rewards AND he's getting intermittent rewards from people who aren't following directions. Try to remember that most people often have trouble following verbal directions and non-dog handlers have trouble learning the jumping 'dance' i.e. immediately turning away and giving no reinforcement. I would actually only take him to situations that are controlled and focus on enjoying your walks and choosing areas specifically for their low possibility of other humans hassling you/your dog for pats at this stage. Better that a trainer helps you who knows the specifics and you get some behaviour you can reward (or they can reward!) from one person each week instead of 5 fails out on the streets. In a larger club it can be a new trainer each week thus simulating your stranger scenario.

The consultant at Lort Smith is very good. Hold your fire until you see him tomorrow. Good luck.

Would love to but we don't have any. I have been to see a general vet with an interest in skin conditions and that was a 6hour round trip for no results. You can probably do distance consults. The dermatologist can get a full history from you, and then speak to your Vet in regards to what testing they want done, then remotely prescribe treatments or meds. There's no reason with email & skype these days that that can't happen.

Flea eggs can gather around in your furniture and around your skirtings so I would still run the vacuum around periodically. Once you have an outbreak you really need to treat all animals for a minimum of 6 months to get rid of the ensuing lifecycle. If you are not sure of the lifecycle then the makers of frontline, advantage, revolution all have that info on their websites. If you don't treat your large dogs they will act as hosts for your flea population. If you have a dog being driven crazy by fleas it's not really fair that all the adult fleas need to jump on the one with the allergy to die. Unfortunately if you have a dog with flea allergy then you have no choice but to treat all animals continuously to ensure you have no fleas. You may get away with it over the dead of winter but from Oct-April you'll have to wear the cost. If you only frontline when you see fleas for one month you will never be rid of your population.

Total care is a medicated flea shampoo I have tried Advantage and Frontline and nothing seems to stop them. It's probably fine for a dog with fleas only, but this dog has chewed itself raw and the medication component in the shampoo may sting or irritate the skin further.

Capstar from Coles or Woolies, once a day until you get some Frontline onto him. I'm not sure I'd use a flea shampoo on a dog with broken skin.

Ditto. If your friend wants a Jap Spitz 'ready to go' jogging, cafes, accepting friends into the home etc. Then she may need to consider whether this dog is right for her. All the Jap Spitzes I have met are generally very friendly outgoing dogs. Thanks for your reply Staff'n'Toller. I do agree re rethinking whether this is the dog for her... But I'm think she doesn't want to feel like she's giving up on the dog. She's having family over for Easter, with little kids etc. so my husband & I have taken her for the weekend (we've spent time with the dog prior, she knows us) as it would have freaked the dog out too much being around so many people. We're reasonably experienced dog owners, have a Jap Spitz ourselves, so we're trying to do what we can with her to work on this problem while we have her. We feel we have made some baby steps today, but husband has been bitten twice already. It's tough. A clicker and food will be your best friend. I'm making a gross assumption but losing control of bladder/bowels and biting seems like an extreme reaction. I can understand a dog would take a while to warm up to it's new owner but it just raises some red flags for me. :D If she decides to persist then more power to her. I think she will need a consult with a very good behaviourist though.

Ditto. If your friend wants a Jap Spitz 'ready to go' jogging, cafes, accepting friends into the home etc. Then she may need to consider whether this dog is right for her. All the Jap Spitzes I have met are generally very friendly outgoing dogs.

When Geordie had tendon surgery he was on about 4 kongs a day. Did you use ACE? Valium is a nicer chill out drug, shouldn't zonk her out. Hydrotherapy as soon as she can- that will make her tired.

He will fetch a ball but drops it just before he reaches me. I make him sit, hold the dummy in front of him and wait him out, click and reward when he holds it even a fraction. I'm no expert, but my dogs learn 'pickitup' very early on, if they drop it, they are asked to return it to hand or it doesn't get thrown again. Sit outside, in a chair, throw the ball once, if he is crazy about fetch he will eventually get frustrated that you don't grab it when he drops it on the return, wait for him to shove it in your lap, then transfer that presentation to your hand. There is no incentive for him to return anything to hand if he is allowed to drop items. I can see where you would be frustrated, you are right he doesn't understand as he hasn't learned the last part of the exercise.

Does he play regular fetch with you with a ball in free play? Are you using a bridge/marker word or just producing the toy?