harryviolet

Re the Wandering Jew - is that a viney creeper with purple flowers? There is one of those along our back fence but the dogs have no way to get near it as we're on the low block and there is a retaining wall and garden between the lawn and the fence ... would they have to touch it for it to irritate them? Wandering Jew has white flowers and is a green leaf. There is a native version called Scurvy Weed with bright blue flowers and the same leaf. If your dog has atopic dermatitis like mine, inhalation of the allergen is the main route. Doesn't sound like wandering jew.

www.vetnpetdirect.com.au were great

I have had the same puppy but mine has never had a flea in her life (I have never seen a flea here in the 7 years I have lived here except when I bought a new kitten and she must have had a few eggs on her and I caught 3 fleas on her and then triple flea bombed the house). My 8 month old puppy had cost me a fortune at the vet. The expensive creams from the vet did nothing to the itchy bleeding parts of her tummy. Antibiotics did not help. Nor did anti-histamines but maybe I did not try enough. She has been on Advocate as there was a thought she could have mange and this treats that as well as fleas and ticks - she didn't have mange. (I have to have her and the kitten on flea guard as I have a business here with people who bring dogs to stay). I will keep a diary and see if her redness today is repeated in a month when I give her the next Advocate tablet. What HAS helped are: 1. cortisone tablets - low dose and I give her one when it is getting to the point of bleeding - like this morning but maybe that is the Advocate treatment she had yesterday. I use cortisone reluctantly as they will shorten her life. 2. Emu oil - when she sees the container she does rollies over and loves me to rub it into the red bad areas. So soothing and will turn a scratching unhappy dog into a sleepy puppy in about 10 minutes. 3. Raw aloe vera - easy to grow - pull off a leaf and cut and rub. She loves this also as it is cooling and soothing. 4. Tea tree oil. Again soothing but not on areas with skin lesions as I think it would sting. 5. And FINALLY, cyclosporin (Atopica) each day @ $7 a day. She has been on these now for 17 days and apart from this morning, I would swear she was "cured". Hopefully can go down to every second day soon. 6. She has been on lamb, rice and vegetables and I have just ordered a product from WA - Natural Pet Food which claims to be just lamb, rice and veggies as life would be much easier with kibble at least for mornings. It is hard to tell with food what is non allergic as it takes 3 weeks for a food change to show effects. Mine was not too bad on Eaglepack. Godo luck!

For me, going to a dermatologist is a major thing as it is a 2-hour plus drive there and back and a cost of $?? 600 + and I am unsure of the outcome. At least on Atopica I get a 6-month "cure" for $500 (enough tablets to last 6 months) although when I have saved up a bit more, maybe I will take her to the big smoke and a dermatologist. Also my vet tells me she has to be off cortisone and having had the food elimination diet for 8 weeks before she can have skin testing so Atopica allows her to go off cortisone and over the next 6 months I will think about possibilities on the food elimination diet ....

My golden retriever puppy 8 months has had severe atopic dermatitis since she was 3 months old. Tried everything as I listed on another thread. I am reluctant to use cortisone as it will shorten her life dramatically and she is sooooo gorgeous. Vet suggested atopica - and it has been a godsend. Suddenly almost all itching has gone and the red welts, pustules and pimples all over her are disappearing. We have not been able to desex her because of the skin inflammation but now maybe I can book her in. The cost is high. My vet has ordered 100 tablets for me which will cost me $500 from a ??compounding chemist. My Olivia has been on Atopica for 10 days and I am very happy although poor. Apparently Atopica has no bad effects on her like cortisone. Pamela

I do have a rat trap up in my chook house which is a council recyclable square plastic bin with straight sides about 30 cm high and I have added some nails on each side which hold a piece of wooden round curtain rod. On this is placed an empty tin (a Milo tin) which has a hole added carefully to the bottom and it is threaded on the rod. The thing is to have it so the tin easily spins on the rod so the hole has to be just the right size and ground a bit. Fill the tub with water. Then add peanut butter to the top of the tin and the rat will walk along the rod, touch the tin in the middle which should spin as soon as it is touched, and the rat will fall into the water and if the water level is correct, it will not be able to get out - ie should be lower than the rod so it cannot get back up on the rod but also high enough that it cannot just sit in the water with its head out of the water. I think this would be a relatively quick death in which the rat's fight and flight response would ensure lots of endorphin release so it would drown within a few minutes. Cannot harm your dogs should they decide to pluck the drowned body out and eat it.

My vet has ordered me some cyclosporin @ $5 a tablet if I order 100 and I have agreed to this. Sparky Tansy you say "just a single kibble which I found for him which is lamb based... " - I would love to know what this is. Is it Eagle Pack? That was the second to last kibble I tried on Olivia and it may have been OK but there were other variables. I may try going back to that. Tonight Livvie looked at Lamb 4 Legs and some lamb forequarter and said "No ... not that hungry". Sigh ....

so u are doing the roo and potato elimination diet? Drove me crazy. Are you seeing a dermatologist? I havent been able to get there as my pup was too young for the elimination diet when she would not eat roo tail. Have you tried cyclosporin yet? It is amazing to have all the problems simply fade away. No more redness all over her.

I can get roo tail and she will not eat it! Leaves it lying around. I have to be careful here with the bush rats and it was just too hard with her being fussy (for a retriever!!) and not eating it for a day or two or three and the rats. I run a B&B here so have to be careful about the rodents. But she generally will eat a lamb shank although has been known to bury them although I can usually see where she has buried it and retrieve it for the next day. I figure if she buries it she is not that hungry.

I lost this puppy who ate a mouse/rat that had eaten some of the Talon bait that I only placed on a high shelf in the pool filter box accessible only via a mouse sized hole around the pool pipe entry point and then climbing up a pole to the shelf. She accessed the pool garden on the Saturday night and I thought nothing of it, except that the door lock was malfunctioning as she was not normally allowed in the pool garden in case she fell in the pool, and she did not show symptoms till the Monday afternoon when she was ataxic - staggering. Immediately rushed to vet but no idea what was wrong with her. Vet turned out not to have facilities for blood testing on site so 20 more hours was lost until he got back results of clotting factors the next afternoon. Too late. She died of cerebral haemorrhaging three days later. I never got to say goodbye to her. It broke my heart. I will have no baits on my property and I watch my new girl like a hawk. My new golden puppy is now 8 months old. She is my precious girl. No baits. No chemicals of any kind. No matter what. Two new mousers. One's name is Felicity Mouse and is a Siamese Blue Point and the other is a Guineau Fowl chick called Primo being raised by her adoptive chook mum. Kitten is three months old and being "trained" by me. Allowed into pool garden area late afternoon for an hour or so. Massive clean up of all outdoor areas to remove every possible shelter area for a rodent. So far ... only a couple of droppings in pool filter box area. I live in the country with horses and poultry so bush rats and mice are a reality.

Thanks for that advice. For an elimination diet the roo was fine but my girl is just a puppy so she needs her bones at least and so the best I could do was lamb and she is fine on that. I buy lamb shanks and she also seems OK on "Four Legs" lamb/veggies/rice from the refrigerated section of pet food in Woolies. She was also not too bad on EaglePack lamb and veggie kibble but I stopped all kibble 3 months ago. All I can say is the Atopica is amazing .... ;'

I have a dog friendly self contained accommodation in Kangaroo Valley NSW. It has 2 acres of triple fenced lawns and garden (chicken wire as well as dog wire and strained wire). Berry is 20 minutes away and 10 minutes further on, Seven Mile Beach offers miles of leash free beach heaven (dogs on lead while you enter via Shoalhaven Heads). Dogs are allowed inside, although not into bedrooms or on sofas. It also has an outdoor kitchen overlooking the pool with wooden fencing that neither a King Charles or a Great Dane could escape from so guests can go out to dinner and leave their best friend with a bone or two. I have had over 340 dogs stay in the last 7 years and never had a problem with a visiting dog. I have a dog also but she has her own garden in the rear acres so does not meet with the visitors unless by request. www.kookaburrahill.com.au and am also on Stayz. Here is my puppy in the front 2 acres I also give 6 stars out of 5 to Rock Lily Cottages in Brogo near Bega NSW. The owner is a GREAT dog lover. Gorgeous cottages and there is also a Lake House in Akolele just north of Bermagui. www.rocklily.com.au and www.holidaycottages.com.au

Hi all. I am new here. Looking for advice to buy cyclosporin cheaper. My vet advised me to get online and look. I am now buying Atopica at $7 a tablet which I am using 1 per day. I have an 8 month old golden retriever pup with severe atopic dermatitis. My vet at the large vet hospital I go to says I cannot go to the dermatologist he works with until she is off cortisone and we cannot do that yet and she has to be on a food elimination diet for 8 weeks and I cannot do that as I tried the kangaroo but she is a puppy who will not eat kangaroo tail and I am not prepared to feed her only kangaroo meat and potato for 8 weeks. She has had atopic dermatitis since 3 months of age. It followed her vaccination but also the start of the paspalum season and I have 9 acres of head high paspalum next to my back door. All over her body is a red "rash" of pimples/ boils and she is hot to the touch all over. Scratches till it bleeds. She has been treated with anti-histamines, anti-biotics (including pulse therapy), cortisone creams (useless), and I use episoothe shampoo, emu oil topically (great), raw aloe vera (she loves this) and tea tree oil. Started on cortisone a few months ago but this will shorten her life with destructive effects on her liver and other organs so I keep it in reserve and use 10 mg once or twice a week. I feed her only lamb, vegetables and rice - never kibble. Take her to a beach every day even though it is 40 mins away and almost never walk her on grass. With this regime, I am exhausted and poor but the red welts and painful itching is perhaps one or two nights a week only that we do not sleep, until the cortisone kicks in. Started her on Atopica 10 days ago. Instant "cure" except for 3 days or more after she ate a bowl of cat kibble and some wet tuna by mistake she got some redness and had to be fed some cortisone as well. Now back to NORMAL. Playing a lot more and simply HAPPIER and scratch free for the first time and I am sleeping. I am just horrified at the cost. $200 a month. Any advice as to cheaper - eg generic - options. One poster here said "I get it in liquid form from a compounding pharmacy and it costs me $550 for 100ml - which is cost price." Sorry for the long post.