cavNrott

I don't think she could go past a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. I've always had large dogs, firstly GSD's and then Rottweilers. I now have two Cavaliers and they're amazing dogs, I wish I'd known years ago how gorgeous they are. A Cavalier KC Spaniel fulfils all your mum's listed requirements. They do shed and need to be groomed as their long hair tends to matt. A soft slicker brush is my friend and makes grooming easy. With regular brushing and grooming the shedding will be minimal. My first Cavalier is a Tri colour boy. I fell in love with the breed so much that I needed another one. My second Cavalier is a black and tan girl. As much as I also wanted a Ruby, I reluctantly stopped at two Cavaliers. My dogs are very quiet, no barking just for the fun of it and they're well behaved dogs who were easy to obedience train. They're a smart breed but they have zero road sense but I doubt that would bother your Mum.

Erny, I'm confused about feeding the dogs the spent Calendula flowers. Surely after they've been seeped in boiling water...and in my case left to cool in the water there wouldn't be much nutritional value left in the spent flowers. What is your opinion on this? I now use a small coffee plunger for my Calendula tea which works well. If I strain the tea 3 times and add a little more of the boiled water to the tea it will spray easily in an ordinary spray bottle without clogging up the works. My dogs don't have skin problems but can get a little scurfy after being bathed at the groomers. A spray with the tea eliminates the scurf and keeps their coats shiny and healthy looking. Perhaps the groomer is not rinsing as well as I do. It's been my practise to do a final rinse with AC vinegar in the water. Would you advise replacing the vinegar rinse with a Calendula rinse?

Ah Ricey, Hobbes has been your beloved constant companion for so many years. He's your boy. You will know when the time has come for him. You know and understand everything about your boy. You'll know better than anyone if his quality of life is causing him distress. I wonder if dementia is as distressing for a dog as it is for a human. I suspect not. Dogs accept 'what is' with good grace. He'll look to you for guidance when he's unsure of himself as he always has. One of my older dogs is now deaf and she looks to me for guidance more so now than when she was younger, as Hobbes does to you. For now, for today, live and love the good life with Hobbes. He expects nothing less of you.

So Sorry for your loss MonElite. Godspeed Divani

That pic is a classic :D

I am so sorry for your loss. Godspeed Dallas

I think I would be on my way to the vets. Mainly because this is a bit out of the ordinary and you don't know what may have caused it or what the implications might be of leaving it to see if it clears up or gets worse.

You're in WA right? Perhaps more vets there would use VetPath as they are also in WA. Maybe a call around would help you to find a local vet who does the titres for a reasonable price.

Then it seems my local vet's quote for $170 to titre test is reasonable. I think what we need is a list of vets in Melbourne who do titre for a reasonable cost. I wonder are other states having the same issues as we here in Melbourne.

The anise section? What section is that? Please enlighten me. If megan used an iphone or similar, auto-correct migth have changed that to anise, instead of abuse. Yep I think we figured that out. Damn auto correct.

The anise section? What section is that? Please enlighten me. I think Megan means the abuse section. Poor bloody dog Ah right, the abuse section. I hope they find the owners of that dog and prosecute. Those people deserve to be charged with gross animal cruelty and should never be allowed to own another animal.

The anise section? What section is that? Please enlighten me.

I thought Parvo was mostly a disease of the past. I need to get out more and find out what's going on around me. I didn't know Parvo was still a serious issue in some areas of Melbourne. I understand in these areas titre testing is an insignificant issue and convincing people to vaccinate is of great importance. Though why people would need to be convinced is beyond me. Surely if you decide to get a pet dog you'd want to vaccinate against a fatal disease.

Thanks Staff'n'Toller. My lovely vet agrees that there is little to no interest in titre testing. At least she was interested enough to follow up on the print out I gave her. As it stands I will probably pay the $170 per dog that she quoted me to titre test them. This, she reminded me, is not normal practise for their vet practice and suggested I ensure that I see her for the titre testing. Put simply, the vet practice is not titre testing animals at this time but she is happy to titre test my dogs if I want it done. $170 is certainly a more acceptable quote than the $350 per dog that the other partner quoted me. In time things will hopefully change and pet owners will be more informed and more interested in titre testing rather than regular vaccinations. Really it's up to us as pet owners. If we show interest then the vets will respond.

I've done the same Pebbles. I'm getting on in age now and my 2 dogs are 9yo(deaf girl) and a 10yo well behaved boy. I don't trust my family members will take care of them and I don't want my elderly dogs ending up in the pound. They're used to being very important beings in my life and used to being cared for with love. I've stipulated in my will they are to be PTS at my vets who the dogs know.

If my vet had a handbook, she didn't mention it. I gave her a print out of the info re the inhouse testing kits and she followed up by calling the company who provide these kits. I didn't keep a copy of the print out so don't recall who they are. If they are Greencross then she did say that they told her they would do the titre test. I'll wager they test with the kits they sell where we get only a positive or a negative result of immunity rather than the level of immunity. This is where she came up with the price of $170 for the test. I'm uncertain if this is in addition to the normal consult fee. Further to this, I emailed Vetpath and they replied that they don't keep a data base of vets who use their services and that there are a few vets in Melbourne offering titre testing. They suggested I would need to call around to find one located nearby. Vetpath kindly attached a link to the WSAVA Vaccination guidelines with a suggestion that I 'pass the guidelines to my regular vet and spread the science'. It seems it's not an easy thing to do to have our dogs titre tested if our vets are not aware of VetPath and don't use their services. As my vet said "they use a local pathology service and they're not interested in going through the hassle of opening an account with VetPath as the majority of pet owners are happy to vaccinate and are either not aware or not interested in titre testing as it's cheaper to vaccinate". Are our vets so reluctant to accept change? Are they so disinterested that they don't bother to keep abreast of information on latest developments that are readily available to them? If we as dog owners can inform ourselves of the value of titre testing what is wrong with our vets that they don't seem to be interested in the slightest? How can we trust them to do what is best for our dogs if they're so relucant to embark upon new research and new methods of ensuring immunity from these diseases? Frustrated rant over. I seem to be banging my head against a wall even trying to find any information.

I had the same experience with vets in Vic. My vet who now says she can do it for $170 said it's too much of a hassle for the practice to open an account with Vetpath. When I told her that there were vets in Vic charging only about $80 she didn't believe it and suggested I had misunderstood. I'm also presuming that $170 fee would be for bloods taken in the course of a consult for other reasons. I'll bet if I went there just for a titre test there would be a consult fee on top of the $170.

Nope Brunswick west is in the Northern 'burbs'. Mt Waverley is a S.E.'burb'.

I wonder how the Copenhagen Zoo can get away with doing the things they do. Why are other zoos sending them animals when they're killing them off for no apparent good reason. I would have thought their practises would cause world wide concern amongst other zoos and that it would be treated as a matter of scandal. Why aren't other zoos condemning the Copenhagen Zoo?

Our vet who gave me the quote of $170 called the company who sells in house testing kits and they told her they sell very few of the in house test kits. They said there was no great call for them. Instead they said the vet can send the specimen to them and they'll do the test. The in house tests kits come in a set of 12 so the vets need 12 people who want their dogs titre tested. The vet said I'm about the only person who's asked about titres. She said people are happy to vaccinate at $80 a pop rather than pay for titre testing. BTW for those of us who were asking about pronunciation. My vet pronounces it as tie-ter rather than tee-ter.

I had this discussion with my vet just 2 days ago. She will titre test for parvo/distemper for $170 per dog. I'm in Mt Waverley. I'm not sure if that's a reasonable price but it sure is better than the price the male partner in this practice gave me a year ago. He wanted $350 per dog!! Don't know of anyone in the Brunswick area but it might give you an idea of pricing.

What an interesting reply Did you consider that people were interested in your problem and wanted to help in their own way? We took the time to reply to your post in good faith, whether or not you found our suggestions helpful. A far better outcome than having your original post ignored don't you think?

I've just seen this thread and offer my belated first year anniversary condolences. Lisa your boy was a true beauty. That first year anniversary is a very sad and difficult one. You were so lucky to have eachother to love

Absolutely agree.

Is there any reason why the dogs have to sleep outside in this large crate on the deck? I suggest you buy two small crates and allow the dogs to sleep inside the house at night. You can place the crates side by side so they'll be close to eachother but are safely confined to their own crate. If they're sleeping inside the house they won't be distracted or disturbed by any wildlife creatures of the night. This breed is really an 'inside' breed. Do they spend any time inside the house with you? We are now getting into Autumn weather and some nights get really cold so they would be better inside the house at night as their coats don't offer much insulation against cold weather. The existing large crate can remain outside on the deck for daytime use.