vetrg

The drops (tropicamide) that are used to dilate the pupils for examination are not known to have any effects on pregnancy. Due to the topical administration the amount systemically absorbed is minute

I worked with police dogs in the UK while the local force was trialling Belgian Shepherds. The officers commented that because they were smaller, although great at their jobs, they felt that they had less "threat value" (than say a 40kg long haired GSD) so were forced to actually commit to sending the dog in to attack more often, which would often lead to counter claims from the offender for bite wounds! Having said that, their best display dogs were all belgians because they felt they were better able to turn it on/ off in the appropriate situations. They used to come and do a display at the charity dog show I was involved with and their control over the dogs was amazing.

I will wait for the brickbats to be thrown however: here it goes. There has been no large scale study to show that vaccination causes disease. The greatest step forward in medicine and disease prevention was, and still is, vaccination. We live in a smug post vaccination world and enjoy its benefits. I have watched dogs die from leptospirosis, parvovirus and distemper- all of which were in unvaccinated dogs. If you titre test your dogs then you can chose to vaccinate or not. Otherwise vaccination schedules should be adhered to as per manufacturers guidelines. Had this dog been vaccinated yearly- was it due a vaccine? This was a 17 year old dog- it is going to die from something. Why blame vacciantion- might have stolen some grapes, might have drunk antifreeze, might be old and wearing out. Older dogs have reduced active immune response, there is some debate about whether we should increase the vaccine schedule in older dogs for some antigens. Give me a break and speak to some of the older vets (not many left now) who have dealt with parvo and distemper outbreaks prior to vaccination and ask them how many think vaccination is a bad idea.

Dry eye in most dogs is a due to an immume mediated destruction of the tear glands. It can also be neurological in origin (loss of nerve supply to the tear glands) or congenital. There is believed to be an inherited component in the predisposition of some breeds to develop dry eye. The treatments of choice are cyclosporin (as made up drops or Optimmune ointment) or Tacrolimus. These will stimulate the glands to produce more tears and also help to reverse the immune destruction of the glands (if caught early enough). These may be supplemented by topical lubricants and false tears. Redirection of the salivary duct from the mouth is used in cases which have failed to respond to medical management. Untreated dry eye will lead to corneal scarring, opacity, irritation and possible ulceration with evential blindness resulting. Dry eye is an extremely uncomfortable condition so effective treatment should be instigated as soon as possible. Long term managment with just lubricants usually fails as they are not applied frequently enough to keep the cornea wet. Treatment in all cases is ongoing.

Yep. Why don't they want to go via the ACES eye scheme? any testing is good but if the data is not in a nationally collated scheme with some guaranteed level of consistancy applied, then the benefit is limited to the tested dog, not the breed. Just interested in why you don't like the scheme.

The data that I have seen from ACES gives the disease as a percentage of submissions so that should aim to give a prevalance. This may be skewed by who submits dogs for testing, as some breeders are very keen on testing while others are not, so some bloodlines may be over represented but this can only be overcome by a greater take up of the scheme.

To answer questions like this we would encourage yearly screening under the ACES (australian canine eye scheme), even in breeds with few eye issues. This allow trends to be monitored and emerging diseases to be identified. Some breed societies use the data generated well, others appear lacklustre in this area. ACES is due to go online soon to allow the data to be more easily used.

I use the results of drug testing on animals every day in my practice. Working in a specialist branch of the profession where drugs are rarely specifically licensed (and therefore safety tested in animals) the 'byproduct' of human testing is that it does provide useful safety and efficacy data enabling me to use human drugs 'off label'. Careful what you wish for- no animal testing means no safety data for these drugs in animals (however useful or not that data is for human extrapolation).

Bruce has retired from clinical work but is doing a FANTASTIC job as liason and organiser for the ACES (Australian Canine Eye Scheme).

Having had a run of glaucoma dogs my cunning plan is to find a cure by christmas and get a Nobel prize- will that do?

I suspect you won't get many replies as it's rarely done in dogs,more in horses but still uncommon. We'll talk when you are next in or give me a bell.

Small animal vets won't keep tetanus antitoxin as it would go out of date. Horse vets will have some. Dogs are relatively resistant to tetanus however, the risk of tetanus depends in part on soil type and how long it can survive. Some soil types (and my vague recollection is that clay soils are the worst) have a MUCH higher tetanus contamination rate than others. All the dogs I have treated have done well (n=2) compared to horses.

"Of greater concern, the misuse of antibiotics is morally indefensible because of the risk of bacterial resistance." Thank you Dazla! I have made this point before about Angel Eyes only to have people saying it's the only thing that works. I spend a lot of time at work explaining why I won't give antibiotics randomly for diseases I do not believe are bacterial. Rational use of antibiotics is use of the correct drug, appropriate for the condition, at the correct dose, for the correct duration. I can't understand why people would chose to have their dog in long term, low dose antibiotics to counter a cosmetic issue. Many of the show animals will place and win and get used at stud while on Angel Eyes thus perpetuating the problem. Perhaps we should attemp to breed lines with more functional tear ducts?

We certainly see affected ACDs in Melbourne also

www.aht.org.uk They also have a useful section on the website of frequently asked questions