vetrg

Playing devil's advocate: why in all these posts are people breeding "non health tested white fluffies" or just some person having a litter from their pet dog castigated when registered breeders of pure bred dogs should be exempt from early neutering 'cos their dogs are special? I see registered pure bred dogs all the time with preventable (ie able to be tested for and eliminated) disease. When I encourage the owners to tell the breeder so they are aware of the issues the owners are almost always met with hostility and denial from the breeder. I believe that early neutering would be impossible to enforce and as a vet I don't see how I could be forced to neuter pups of that age if I considered it inappropriate. If the veterinary profession does not police this it would be unenforcable and if it is anything like the docking legislation in the UK it would be impoaable to police

No- the time of implantation is more important than the time of mating. Also if you have a larger number of pups they have smaller placentae and are often slightly smaller than small litter size/ single pups

Another way of getting projects underway is to tack them onto an existing (funded) research program. Often if the issue has a human equivalent ie the dog can be used as a model for testing human therapeutics then you can get the medics interested and they have MUCH more funding available.

For car sickness there can be 2 issues: motion sickness and anxiety. If the dog is vomiting through stress then he needs to be desensitised to the car. My dogs treat the car as a mobile dog bed, curl up and sleep as they have travelled so much. Try feeding him/ petting him in the car when is is not going anywhere so the car is a nice place to be with no motion involved. He will then want to go in the car rather than it being a place of stress/ feeling ill. Rather than sedatives there is also a anti nausea drug from Pfizer called Cerenia (don't know if it's available in Australia yet) with a licensed use for motion sickness that I have used successfully- it is a high dose so works out expensive if you have a big dog but again gets over the whole "everytime I go in the car I feel ill, so I get stressed, so I feel worse" issue for the dog. Some anti histamines can also help with motion sickness. Some ginger products can also help. All of the desensitisation issues take effort and time- be patient and good luck.

I would be very careful interpreting 2 case studies. Vaccine related sarcoma is a well recognised phenomenon, especially in cats, and the vaccines are often given at the same sites as micrichips. Vaccine related sarcoma is more common with some vaccines and especially in Th US they vaccinae for many more diseases than here. In 16 years of veterinary practice the only issue I have ever had with microchips is migration of the chip. We returned about 10 dogs per week to their owners via the chip details. I would rather chip and get my dog back and run the (exceedingly low) risk of a foreign body related tumour

Unfortunately some sort of ongoing treatment is often required as the incontinence is due to reduced pelvic floor musculature secondary to the hormone loss after spaying. There are 2 main medical options: sphincter muscle tighteners (such as she is on now) or hormone supplements to replace those missing hormones. I have given my dog "Incurin" tablets from Intervet. I have found I can pulse dose her with those and they appear to have a effect that does wane over time but it means I only treat her for 2 weeks or so every 6-9 months. Having said that I have treated some dogs who require both sorts of medications ongoing to maintain continence so it depends how bad she is. The leakage can be worsened by low grade cystitis (secondary to the incontinence) so it is worth watching her for any signs of discomfort etc when urinating

Vets are there to maintain the health and welfare of the animals. If they are required to check all chips, then report any dog that is not chipped, the owners of unchipped dogs will not seek medical aid for that animal. The responsibility of the vet is to the animal, not to enforce legislation. Having said that I am in favour of compulsory chipping- if all cattle and horses can be chipped in the uk then i'm sure all dogs can be.

Out of curiosity what is classed as 'over vaccination'? General consesus is the yearly vaccination protocol. Google "Jean Dodds" and "over vaccination" for some ardous reading. Interestingly, Jean is the main writer on the subject and I often wonder why there are not more experts writing papers on the subject. :p Ok, thank you I will. I did read on a pet site many months ago, Dr. Becker I think. She recommended every 2 years was enough as the vaccine stays in their system. She recommended a blood test for antogens first before re-vaccination. The vet we used to goto wanted to start my cav at the start with puppy shots again because we had missed last years. The vet we go to now, said as long as she has had all her puppy shots its fine. Sad to see yet another vaccination discussion: there has only been one large scale, peer reviewed study on the adverse effects of vaccination (to my knowledge) and no one has published another refuting its findings. The study came from the AHT looking at disease emergence in the 6 months before compared to the 6 months after vaccination (on a yearly schedule). NO significant difference was found suggesting vaccination did NOT precipitate disease onset. Having worked in a poorly vaccinated sector of the community and seen litter after litter die of parvo, slowly one by one despite our best efforts, I vaccinate yearly for parvo. If you don't vaccinate you should do titres unless your dogs live completely isolated from all other dogs. I realise this will precipitate a hailstorm of comment but since I have to deal with the outcomes of non vaccination it is a point I feel very strongly about

My understanding (based on vaccination protocols in the UK) is that vaccination will reduce the severity of the disease, not necessarily prevent it, however it will stop the dogs shedding the disease. Unvaccinated KC dogs will shed for about 6 weeks regardless of the severity of their symptoms.

It very much depends on the medication whether they will be safe to use. The use by date is the guaranteed date from the manufacturer that, if they have been stored correctly, the drugs will still be effective and safe. Most drugs remains safe but may lose efficacy. Many drugs are also tested stored at "room temperature" = 8=24 degrees ie temperate climate room temperature. If you store drugs on a windowsill in the open or even just in a cupboard on a 40 degree day you may compromise their function. Some of the spot on drugs are the least stable and I would be cautious with an out of date spot on. Most tablets are good for some time after the use by date however there is no come back on the manufacturer if there is a problem.

As a member of a profession much maligned in this forum I would like to thank you for reminding us that most of our clients do appreciate us! In return I would like to reassure you that the vast majority of vets love their job and their patients and are trying their best for them at all times.

I have dealt with this many times in the UK in both entire and neutered bitches with no noticable effect in the dogs that ate the pills

This condition usually requires surgery to resect the stump down to cervix to prevent recurrance.