cavNrott

The Betadine cream is ok but no way will I use the liquid on an open wound again. The damn thing was stinging enough as it was without the Betadine making it worse.

I find Betadine stings more than peroxide. I used Betadine on a good size graze on my leg and I sure won't use it again. It stung like blazes and didn't quit stinging for about 5 minutes.

No by-products are listed on any of the Sunday Pet Food bags.

One of my dogs can't have bones anymore so it's not an issue with us now, but I've never fed my dogs any weight bearing bones. I've fed chicken and turkey necks and wings but never legs.

It's so important to consider how old you will be in say, 10-12 years when thinking of getting a dog. It's not just about 'how old is too old to get a dog but about the dog's life expectancy and your own life expectancy. I think early to mid sixties is the limit. We may live to be eighty but we don't know what our health will be like. Because we're fit and healthy in our early to mid sixties is no indication that this will be the case in our early seventies. My two Cavaliers are the last dogs I'll have. Eight years ago I was running around the obedience ring with my Rottweiler with folk much younger than me and I was a darn site fitter than most of them. I now have spinal problems. I can take my dogs for a short walk each day and fortunately that's enough for them because they too are elderly. I worry that I'll fall off my perch and there will be no one to care for my dogs. It would be best if they go before I do so they are not left without me and everything they've known since they were 8 week old puppies. If they go first I will sadly live out the rest of my time without a dog.

Same here BC Crazy. If he injured my dog the bastard would be singing soprano for a very long time. This tiny dog would almost fit in the palm of his hand. The extent of the injuries he inflicted on this little dog are horrific So he's a surgeon, big deal. This makes him no less of a vicious arsehole. There's something very wrong with someone who could do what he did. His actions are not those of a sane person. Since his violent attack of this tiny dog has attracted so much publicity I doubt too many people would want him wielding a scalpel anywhere near them them when they're anaesthetised. At least the girlfriend of five weeks duration reported him to the police, resulting in him being charged. I wonder if the wife did take him back or if his solicitor thought this would be in his favour in court. If she took him back it doesn't say much for her either. I would be more than a little concerned for the children. Not only are children messy little people but they need constant time and attention of the mother.

It's actually spelled Hydatid This variety of tapeworm comes from ingesting offal of farm/wild animals. This tapeworm is unlikely to affect our dogs unless we feed the offal from animals than have not been classified, in which case we would need to medicate the dogs for Hydatid tapeworm. Sheena since your dogs do eat this kind of offal then of course it's wise of you to worm them with a suitable product every three months. As for knowing the kind of tapeworm Sentinel and Interceptor cover, I can't even pronounce it let alone spell it. You need to research. If you do a search for Sentinel you will end up in the right place.

You shouldn't need to have had these dogs to the vet every week since before Christmas, that's ridiculous. You desperately need a new vet and you need to take responsibility for administering medication when it needs to be administered or the dogs won't receive any benefit of the medication. We can see you're frustrated with your dog's condition and you're trying to do what's best for them, even to the point of having a dog walker come in on the three days you can't walk them. However nothing will change until you find a caring vet to help the dogs.

Sorry but I have selectively quoted some of your reply for the sake of brevity. Do your dogs have access to outdoors at all times? I'm getting the impression that he's pooping inside the house. If you are serious about clearing up your dogs problems then it's not too far to drive to get the BARF food that evidently agrees with him. You could buy a few boxes to keep in the freezer if you have enough freezer space. Otherwise you need to find a new supplier or make the drive to get the BARF. Research for a supplier closer to you. Why are you looking for alternatives when you have found two foods now that your dogs have done well on. Feed them the food that is best for them and quit swapping and changing around. You need to get serious, your dogs are suffering. Firstly you forgot to give Interceptor and the dogs got worms and now you didn't give milk thistle as you should have and again the dogs suffered ill health. For goodness sake give the dogs their medication products correctly or they won't work as they're supposed to. We all have to be responsible for giving medication on time and we managed to do it without too much effort. Your dogs went for six weeks or more without any protection from worms or heartworm. What did you expect? You have to get serious about the health of your dogs and again, give the medication products properly. You can't expect them to have cover if you don't administer the medication within the due period. To repeat...Interceptor does prevent tapeworm if given correctly. It is your responsibility to administer the Interceptor on time. The dogs access to outdoors. They have no option but to poop in the laundry if they're shut in there. .No, if he's showing those symptoms he is not ok, he is sick. He needs a comprehensive blood test to discover all his levels, not just his liver levels. I'm sure there is more than one vet in the Sutherland shire. Do some research and find a new vet. I would like to know what abdominal surgery this dog had. You said he had his appendix removed. A dog does not have an appendix. Perhaps you could clarify.

The tapeworm that can be found in raw offal that has not been passed as safe for human consumption is the Hydatid tapeworm which is not the variety of tapeworm we're discussing here. Some research perhaps and all will be revealed. I don't think I suggested dogs ingesting fleas is the only way they would catch tapeworm but I do think it's the most likely way. I did in fact say that the dogs could be getting tapeworm from eating possum poop but that was probably in another of my replies in this convoluted thread with all the confusing quotes and double posts. I agree with your suggestion that Charjas should treat all members of the household with an all wormer from the chemist.

Another point here. You said your dog had his appendix out. I don't know what kind of surgery he had but dogs don't have an appendix. They do have a small pouch called a caecum but I haven't heard of a dog having surgery to remove the caecum. edited for terrible spelling.

You need to find a new vet. This one is not helping your dogs. Holistic Select is a good quality dry food. Science diet is rubbish and vets push Hills (Science Diet) products because they sell it and make a good mark up on it. I can't imagine why this vet has your dog on a product for hair balls! I would be stopping that food and putting them back on the Holistic Select immediately. If you're concerned about the protein content go to the Canidae website. They have a full analysis of all their foods on the website. I was researching this last night as I'm interested in the fat content of their dry foods. Your dogs are obviously picking up intestinal bugs which is why they improve when they're on Flagyl. It's probably from the possums. Likewise the dog must have picked up tapeworm eggs in the possum droppings if you are sure they've not had fleas. Edited to add: A lot of dogs vomit on Drontal. That's not at all unusual. Drontal causes your dogs to vomit so it is not a suitable product for them. Though Interceptor does indeed prevent tapeworm you would be better to use Sentinel in case your dogs pick up fleas from the possums. My dogs have been on Sentinel for years and have never had worms or fleas. Mark the date when your dogs are due for Interceptor or Sentinel in red letters on your calendar. That way you won't forget it and you'll save yourself and the dogs, a heap of problems. Edited to add: Many dogs vomit on Drontal, that's not at all unusual. Since your dogs do vomit then Drontal is not a suitable product for them.

That ^ bolded part is not correct. Interceptor does prevent tapeworm. Of course if Charjas forgets to give Interceptor regularly there is no protection against any worms, including heartworm. Charjas, in order for your dog to have tapeworm it must have fleas. Tapeworm comes from the dog ingesting fleas when they bite at the itch. It would be best if you use Sentinel instead of Interceptor to prevent a flea infestation. Again, if you forget to give the dogs the medication they have no protection against anything. I don't know your history either but I wanted to assure Charjas that Interceptor does prevent tapeworm.

No there's no list on DOL. We don't all have the same needs with pet insurance. You need to look at Choice, they'll have listed their preferences and recommendations. The other way is to do your own research and read what each pet insurance company has to offer and definitely read their PDS for general exclusions and breed exclusions. This is what I did and it's tedious and time consuming. I'm ok now with the company I chose but there were a lot of teething problems and they do increase their premiums by a massive amount each year.

Those hard synthetic bones are dangerous. There are plenty of safe dental treats available now. The soft dental chews from the supermarket are useless for keeping teeth clean though. Why not give your dog raw bones to chew. Not the large weight bearing bones bug softer bones such as chicken wings or lamb ribs. See what the vet has to say when you go there and please update us. I hope your little dog won't need dental surgery.

Well, I'm due to buy another bag of dry food and unfortunately I won't be buying Sunday Pet food. I'm not prepared to buy a huge bag when my small breed dogs are fed mostly a raw diet. I do like to give them some dry food and I also use dry food as treats and as much as I like the Sunday Pet Deliganics Senior, I will buy my usual Canidae in the 6kg bag. I don't go through dry food quickly enough to buy a large bag but the small bag won't last for long, plus it's too expensive to be buying the very small bags.

What exactly is your agenda here? I was wondering the same thing.

I just received my policy renewal documents for my two dogs. After an increase of 98% last year we have another 50% increase this year. I'm not with Pet Plan though. It gives me some small sense of satisfaction that I have $1200 worth of vet bills to send for reimbursement for which they pay 80% of the total amount less my $100 excess fee. I'm so upset that my dog suddenly became unwell and that he will have ongoing health problems but thank heavens I have both dogs insured. This $1200 bill was racked up in only one day plus a follow up consult. A couple of xrays and some meds and there we are.

When he had the ear infection he was probably scratching his ear and caused some damage to the skin around the area of his ear. I would massage some coconut oil all around the flaky area and it will more than likely clear up fairly quickly. I doubt it would be mites causing the problem. Try the coconut oil. If he's shedding large flakes of skin it's not the regular kind of dandruff particularly as it's not flaky in other areas of his body He probably needs to see the vet about the weepy eyes and the localised itchy areas. It could be a seasonal allergy but I would have him checked out.

Problem is BC Crazy is that they don't have a 6kg bag. So we're left with the option of paying big $$ for a few small bags or buying the large bag and maybe having to throw a lot of it out because it's gone stale. it doesn't make sense not to have a medium size bag. Surely if all other good quality brands have a medium size bag there must be a good reason why this is so.

Yes, please do ask, Jennifer. With one or two small breed dogs the food would likely be too stale by the time we got through two thirds of the large bag. To keep buying the small bags to ensure freshness would be too expensive.

I wish they had a list of stockists on the website. I can't find it anywhere. Question please Jennifer: Does the Deliganics Senior come in only two sizes? 1.5kg and 11.8kg? If so they really need an inbetween size around the 6kg mark.

Excellent work Aidan

Neocort is stock standard issue in our house for all minor injuries.

This ^