~Anne~

Even a vet can't diagnose by feel. MCTs in particular can take many forms. Several of Boof's were moveable and round.

I take mine to the vet EVERY time I find a lump regardless of what it feels like, looks like, or it's rate of growth. When Boof was almost 7 I found a wart like lump on his hind leg. I felt it had appeared quickly. It looked pretty innocous though. He was going to the vet for a dental check anyway so I had them check the lump. The vet was unconcerned and felt it was most likely a lipoma. While he was under getting his teeth done they removed the lump and sent it off to path. I was shocked when it came back as a mast cell tumour. Fast forward another few years and he has now had 5 tumours removed of various grades. They each came up in a different area and looked a little different. One was found by my vet when I was showing another to him. The one the vet found was udner the skin and that was why I didnt see it or realise it was there. None were overly large. They can do a simple needle biopsy during the consult to see if it is just a lipoma. I'd get the biopsy done at the very least. Olivia on the other hand has had two lumps come up and both are lipomas.

Anna, I am so sorry. RIP little one.

I hope your dog has recovered now Kayla? Without a ct scan, who really knows what is happening. Monte suffered what we thought was an idiopathic vestibular episode in January this year. He was diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy at approximately 2 years of age. He was 11 when he suffered the vestibular episode. Sadly, he never fully recovered and we now consider there was something a lot more sinister happening. After his initial but slow improvement, he rapidly declined over a 2 day period, 3 months later, before going into status epilepticus.

The article fails to recognise a lot of things. It is true that the way a dog reduces body temperature is through panting and through sweat glands on the pads of the feet. However, dogs also have veins that carry blood like a human. If the veins closest to the surface have cool air blowing on them, it helps to cool the blood. Just like a human. This is why a dog will lay flat on its belly on cold tiles to cool itself. It can't get the same effect through fur. Most dogs have very little fur on their bellies. If the fur is removed, the dog does have more opportunity to cool itself simply through the blood it carries through it's veins. For the cold climate and artic breeds the coat insulates them and stops the cold air getting to the skin where the veins are. I can understand the logic in espinay's post above and I do not think that all dogs benefit necessarily from being shaved. I also agree that if you shave a dog because you're sick of the hair then you are doing it for nothing. The dog will still shed. It will just be short and spiked hair which is harder to remove from material if you ask me! My mother in law's BC was shaved every year. I never saw a problem with it. Tasha looked like a puppy each time. She was friskier and cooler. Her coat always grew back beautifully.

Here's hoping for some good news soon.

I feed a pug specific kibble (Royal Canin) and the kibble is created to a specific size and hope for brachy breeds. It's meant to help them clean their teeth I think. It doesn't work on mine be use they Hoover kibble. They don't chew it.

How is crumpet progressing? I hope she is improving well for you.

The diet restriction is testing and it should be considered this by your vet. I hope you can get your little one sorted. Being itchy all the time would be awful. I can recall when we first took one little girl in called Channel. She was going insane with itching. She would make little cries of distress trying to satisfy her itch by scratching. She was one that was allergic to chicken, beef and dairy. The first time I gave her dairy after her elimination diet she broke out with 2 hotspots almost instantaneously while she ate!

The pound isn't obligated to tell 'us' anything. If anyone is interested I am sure a call to the pound would answer this query however.

I agree with Ruralpug and I was thinking the same thing re: an insect bite.

great news for crumpet. It's great to hear she has come through the surgery well. Looking forward to some more positive updates and clear path results.

Im sure it must be a worrying time for you . There is a thread in palliative care above about splenectomies. It should help you although e reason is for cancer in that thread. However the info should help I think. It seems dogs and humans can live very well without a spleen.

Wow, it must be crazy where some of you live. I've never had a problem such as described by many in this thread.

I didn’t say you did say anything about Rocky’s – I made the comment that the usual suspects come out to play when it comes to criticising Rocky’s – if you thought I was including you in that group then maybe you are the one who's over-reacting. My head is just fine where it is – but thanks anyway for the suggestion :) I fail to understand why people can’t look at a request for assistance and decide to either assist or not assist – if you don’t like the group, just ignore the request. What is achieved with all the sniping – absolutely nothing. But that's DOL I suppose - lots of many wonderful things happen on here, and then there's the other stuff ... From the perspective of the pound, the thread and the website link was very critical of them. Then responses here were critical of the rescue. Who knows which is a victim or villian here.

Hoping today brings some news. Has there been anymore sightings?

100% agree. We are becoming so close to dogs that attributing human feelings to them is now seen as normal. They're a very, very, very different species to the human and to understand them, we have to understand that difference. Angeluca, I may have missed it but are you now saying that it isn't cross breeding that is the issue but just poor breeding generally? If so, do you acknowledge that different breeds have different temperaments and drives and that some may more easily be negatively affected by a lack of socialisation and other factors? Although you could say it the origin of the potential behaviours like aggression may be found in the genetics, there are also many other contributing factors. The biggest being that dogs are canines and therefore their behaviours and drives are not based on, or formed, in the same manner as ours.

Gorgeous. He looks like he has found a great and active home! Lucky boy!

Sorry about the typos. I hope it makes sense. :laugh:

How can your dog be on an elimination diet if it is on cortisone? Elimination diets do work to discover food based issues. They work well but you have to understand what it is first and conduct it properly. You can't discover what is setting him off of he is on cortisone though? the cortisone would give a false result. I have put two pugs through elimination diets and both times we were able to determine what foods were the likely triggers. Each time it was the usual suspects and no, it was not grains. Beef, chicken and dairy were culprits. Given that, we could not feed kibble because even kibble at says it is allergen free will have had oils and or flavours added that are made from beef or chicken. In fact I have even been told that many kibble a are sprayed with a beef or chicken based oil like substance for flavour. The concept of an elimination diet is to have the dog eat only protein it has never had before and therefore not developed an allergy reaction to. Usually this means feeding goat or camel. I didn't use kangaroo because a lot of kibble a and commercial foods contain roo which means the dog may have already had roo and it's immune response activated to that type of protein. Once you find the novel protein, a filler or carb is added to ensure the dogs gets enough food and to add to energy intake. Note well that this diet cannot be fed for life as it does not contain the correct balance of nutrients. The dog must not have any other food type at all over a period of 2-3 months to ensure there is adequate time to settle the skin condition. If there is only a light improvement, but definitely an improvement noticed, then it could mean the dog also has a reaction to something in the environment. You then introduce 1 normal protein type at a time to the diet and you watch for a reaction. I wouldn't add anything more frequently than a week apart. That is how you then identify what proteins are setting the reaction off. I'd say go back to the drawing board IF you think it is related to food and do the diet without cortisone.

I think the world is big enough for the mutt and the purebred. I don't particularly want to see a world without either.

Can't be too rare because I also recall having to escape dogs and a friend whose neighbour's dog injured her brother when he jumped the fence to retrieve something. I was bailed up once by a dog and thankfully his owner came out before I was attacked. I knew Snoopy next door was of to be messed with and I never grabbed at him or touched him particularly when he was on his chain. When old Red the dog from across the road escaped the yard everyone knew to call Bill to let him know and not come out and try to round him up. I agree that it is an owners responsibility first and foremost and Ill argue that it is the media who has made you scared to walk your dog. The media and DOL has done it for me. I never knew there were so many aggressive dogs out there, sick dogs and poorly bred dogs until I came on to DOL and started reading about it in the papers and hearing it on the news.

Dogs being aggressive is not a new or growing phenomena in my opinion. Why the hysterics though? The media. There will ALWAYS be dogs that bite. They're an animal. You can't reason with a dog, you can only control it and not everyone is good at controlling their dog.

Agree.

It is normal and acceptable practice to treat for pain and make the dog as comfortable as possible while waiting for permission from the owners to perform surgery. It's not just permission but also confirming who is responsible for paying the vet to do the surgery. I assume he is being given pain relief. I don't think it was ideal to have the dog remain in the pound. However, who pays the vet care bills if he sits in a surgery for 2 weeks whilst waiting for the legal process time to lapse? Where is Clr Dickens with this one? Sure, we can all say 'mean, nasty,uncaring vets, the dogs are more important!' but given that so many vets give so much by way of time, resources and discounts ad freebies already, how much more blood do we expect? Sometimes rational action has to be weighed in to the discussion.