Cavalier

What's the difference between a pressure dressing and a pressure bandage? I have my own ideas (eg. to me a pressure dressing would be one of those that I described - actually, Rappie described it better - being a Vet, she can - but I mean the type where the dressing/bandage is on both sides of the ear flap and the ear is sutured to resemble a quilt. Whereas a bandage to me is something that wraps around something) but I'm not sure that everyone reading would be on the same page, nor whether I am right. Pressure can be applied to an ear without a bandage - my OH operates on human ears a lot and, although sometimes he does stitch through to hold a dressing on there are ways and means of applying flat pressure against the ear flap. A haematoma is a "tumour of blood" so by definition, even if the problem is caused initially by a breaking blood vessel, if the pocket is full of lightly blood stained serous fluid then it isn't a haematoma. I realise that vets refer to it as such, but by definiton it actually isn't. Anyway, Boney is doing fine and having an experimental/new treatment. A haematoma is not a tumour of blood! It is simply blood outside of a blood vessel. As I stated in my previous post - the lightly blood stained fluid is what is left over after the blood forming the haematoma has clotted. There would be a big clot left in the ear (this is surgically removed when vets perform the surgery) What you are doing is not an "experiemental" treatment. It has been tried by vets many times before and has a very low success rate. This is why we perform the surgery. Ummm what do you know about the new/experimental treatment that is being carried out? I haven't discussed it. It is something that is now being done in place of surgery which gives a better result if successful. HAEM = blood and TOMA = tumour. Do vet nurses do medical terminology these days? Rough Latin translation. A haematoma, strictly speaking, to qualify, must be blood filled. There is no way in human medicine that this space filled with serous fluid would be called a haematoma. I am not a vet nurse - I am a qualified veterinary surgeon with many years experience. Call it what you will. Your dog has a haematoma and needs to see a vet.

Dog is having testosterone levels tested today. His testicles are extremely small and we could not get a semen sample from him - plenty of signs that the implant has worked! Regardless of this the owners still want a full refund and want us to pay for the alizin injection to abort the pups. If only they listened to us and got their bitches desexed..... Will update everyone on the testosterone results when they come in.

Yes dogs with severe HD can produce normal offspring BUT they are much more likely to produce pups that go on to have high hip scores. Hip scores are usually done at 18 months of age but hip dysplasia can be diagnosed at any age, although it is usually only recognised once dog owners bring their 9-12 month old pups in to the vet because they are limping or "walking funny"

What's the difference between a pressure dressing and a pressure bandage? I have my own ideas (eg. to me a pressure dressing would be one of those that I described - actually, Rappie described it better - being a Vet, she can - but I mean the type where the dressing/bandage is on both sides of the ear flap and the ear is sutured to resemble a quilt. Whereas a bandage to me is something that wraps around something) but I'm not sure that everyone reading would be on the same page, nor whether I am right. Pressure can be applied to an ear without a bandage - my OH operates on human ears a lot and, although sometimes he does stitch through to hold a dressing on there are ways and means of applying flat pressure against the ear flap. A haematoma is a "tumour of blood" so by definition, even if the problem is caused initially by a breaking blood vessel, if the pocket is full of lightly blood stained serous fluid then it isn't a haematoma. I realise that vets refer to it as such, but by definiton it actually isn't. Anyway, Boney is doing fine and having an experimental/new treatment. A haematoma is not a tumour of blood! It is simply blood outside of a blood vessel. As I stated in my previous post - the lightly blood stained fluid is what is left over after the blood forming the haematoma has clotted. There would be a big clot left in the ear (this is surgically removed when vets perform the surgery) What you are doing is not an "experiemental" treatment. It has been tried by vets many times before and has a very low success rate. This is why we perform the surgery.

Mokha and OP, I am sorry to hear about your furkids and what they are going through. So glad you got a 'mud roll' Mokha ! That must make you smile. I hope you don't mind me taking this slightly off posted topic but I am wondering. Mokha do you know your lab's parents hip/elbow scores ? This is something I am very paranoid about wiht our lab and although he's fine at the moment aged 5 months, I'm keen to prevent it happening (we watch his level of exercise / impact / jumping etc). But I know we do everything we can to avoid -but sometimes it's just unavoidable. This might be a really obvious question but I'm interested to know whether sometimes - can the sire/dam's hip scores be ok but the offspring still suffers ? Definitely can unfortuately We have two GSDs both parents had 0:0 hips and both have very severe hip dysplasia. Unfortunately HD is a polygenic trait - meaning many genes play the part in determining whether a dog has bad hips or not. This is why it is proving to be a very difficult disease to "breed out".

Paw licking is almost always caused by allergies, either to environment allergens (grasses pollens etc) or food allergies (less common than environmental). All my dogs are on allergy medication - I always know if I have forgotten a few days because the paw licking starts again! I would be consulting a vet who has a special interest in dermatology to get a better solution

That is still an aural haematoma The fluid that comes out of haematomas is called serosanguinous, as the bloods clots very quickly so unless you catch it within 5 mins or so you will not see fresh blood. Unless surgery is performed on the ear it will shrivel up into a horrible looking cauliflower ear Yes - surgery was performed on the ear. It wasn't a haematoma as it contained lightly pink stained fluid and not blood. I have seen a few hundred in my time and this wasn't one of them. The lightly pink stained fluid is the serum left over after the blood clots. The blood clot would still be inside the skin. What you are describing is a haematoma and without the surgery as Rappie described your dog will end up with a horrible looking cauliflower ear. Please take your dog to a vet

That is still an aural haematoma The fluid that comes out of haematomas is called serosanguinous, as the bloods clots very quickly so unless you catch it within 5 mins or so you will not see fresh blood. Unless surgery is performed on the ear it will shrivel up into a horrible looking cauliflower ear

Good for you but ask any kennel owner who sees clients cards or receipt sheet weekly every year & you will see the greater majority of vets DO rip people off. What we see is very much the norm & just do a ring around & you will soon learn what is normal. The last 6 months has seen the most dramatic price rise in vaccs & yes for a product that isnt expensive yet has a massive profit made & why because its the most common thing people go to the vets for. We get breeder discount & what we pay & what the joe public pays & we save alot of $$$$$$ It isnt about vet bashing but about the fact many vets are very greedy & all you her is the equipment is expensive,that is part of the industry & something you now when opting for that field just like we do with our choice of equipment . The yearly heartworm also has a pretty price tag & again this has no equipment expense except keeping cool. I certainly dont want the best for nothing but i expect prices to be off value to what it cost to purchase said product even after adding a product margin. There is a difference bewteen providing good service with good prices & been plain greedy Its not about being greedy. Its about overheads!! Our clinic runs on a 10% profit margin, once vet and nurses wages, rent, electricity, equipment rental, registration fees, consumables etc are taken out. The 10% profit is accumulated and used to improve our practice, purchase new equipment (to better serve our clients), update our premises etc. Do you know how much a bottle of Proheart costs? Last price was $1500.... Our xray machine broke not long ago.......$20 000 for a new one. Medical costs are expensive - to get a ovariohysterectomy done at a human hospital would set you back (in real money terms - ie what medicare pays) a good $15000-20000. Vets are expected to do it for $200, and we still get called a rip off. Your average small animal vet with 5-10 years experience gets paid about 60-70K per annum - the award rate is $50K for the highest level. I believe this is a reasonable wage, but is certainly not huge and not deservig of all the flack which vets cop out there.

Most nurses/groomers get paid more than junior vets. However 35 per hour is more than senior vets as well.

Im a vet and I dont even earn that much!!

You would think. Im not referring to myself (all my dogs are desexed) Im referring to a client who claims her bitch is pregnant (which she is) after her dog got an implant. There are no guarantees that another dog hasnt got to her.... Anyway - we are taking a semen sample from him this week to determine the cause. and when pups are born she should DNA the pups and so called sire. Good idea. She came into season 8-9 weeks after the implant was placed in. This particular dogs throws very distinctive pups (this is litter number 3 - very irresponsible backyard breeders of cross breed dogs) so should be very obvious when the arrive who the father is.

You would think. Im not referring to myself (all my dogs are desexed) Im referring to a client who claims her bitch is pregnant (which she is) after her dog got an implant. There are no guarantees that another dog hasnt got to her.... Anyway - we are taking a semen sample from him this week to determine the cause.

Has anybody who has had a suprelorin implant placed in their dog had it fail and end up with a pregnant bitch??

Its difficult to explain when you dont understand the anatomy. Arthritis only develops in a joint, you do not get arthritis on normal bone. Also, arthritis is only painful in a natural functioning joint where you have arthritic bone grinding on cartilage/other bone. Because you have an artificial joint replaceing the natural hip joint, even if there is arthritic bone development on the rim of the acetabulum, it will not cause any pain because the bone that it used to rub on to cause the pain has been removed and replaced with metal.

When you think about it that doesnt make sense at all. A total hip replacement involves removing the hips ball and socket joint completely and replacing it with an artificial titanium one. All the bone with arthritis is removed, so it no longer affects the dog. The dog cannot develop arthritis in a titanium joint. Its completely impossible. If you dont have any natural joint you cannot have arthritis! Total hip replacement is the gold standard option for medium to large dogs with severe hip dysplasia and severe arthritis in the hip joints. The second best option (especially for smaller breeds and the only option for toy breeds) is the femoral head excisional arthroplasty.

Small breed dogs do very well after the femoral head excision procedure. We have also performed the procedure on larger dogs (up to 40kg) and they are doing well.

Sorry must have been a misunderstanding there....yes the proedure does nothing for the other joints in the body which can still readily develop arthritis, however in this dogs case it is the hips that are the crippling problem. The femoral head excisional arthroplasty is the salvage procedure - not the total hip replacement. Total hip replacemet is gold standard!! The only reason you do a femoral head excision is if the owner cannot afford a total hip replacement or if the total hip replacement fails for whatever reason.

Watch out for vomitting, signs of abdominal pain (hunched apperance, flinching when touching his belly), constipation and blood in stools. Dogs very commonly become constipated after eating cooked bones, and the bones can also become stuck. Hopefully he will be just fine!!

I was told there is no guarantee of no arthritis later on, and also that xrays are only a tool in deciding on surgery as the xrays can look awful, but the dog may be better than the xrays suggest. Mine is an example as her xrays are just horrific. Every vet is different and obviously they have examined the dog and know what they are doing. You cannot get arthritis in a hip that has had a total hip replacement. After the surgery the joint is an artificial metal joint. There is no "cartilage on cartilage" joint to form any arthritis. Chiara - your specialist is correct in saying there will be no arthritis in the hips later on in life - it is physically impossible for the arthritis to develop! Good luck with Hugo. We are considering total hip replacement for our 4 year old German Shepherd boy. Managing him conservatively at the moment, but his xrays were no where near as bad as Hugos by the sounds of it.

No thats not what I meant. What I meant from that comment was as more families are moving to town, and the stray/camp dogs are still roaming the streets spreading these diseases, more people are actually bringing their dogs to the vets to actually be diagnosed with these conditions. Before they were just left to die out on the streets. The situation is also the same with heartworm. About 25% of untreated dogs test positive to HW up here. All because of the large number of untreated dogs acting as a reservoir for the worm. Its not a huge issue for us. We knew the situation before we moved up here, so its what we expected. We do our best to advise pet owners about the high risk of these diseases and what they can do to minimise the risk. I estimate about 50% of the pet owners I speak to have had a puppy with parvo at some stage while living up here and most are purebreds from reputable breeders and the owners have done the right thing by getting the pups vaccinated. As the dose of virus pups are exposed to here is so high until they have had their third vaccination they are still at very high risk. All we can do is educate people about the risks and do our best to help people when they find their pup has become infected with one of these diseases. Luckily with parvo our success rate with treatment is around 95%. Distemper pups are not usually that lucky.

I would definitely give a tetanus vaccine and an anti-toxin, you can get them at stockfeeders or equine vets OTC. They are just given sucutaneously.

What discussions and considerations are given towards the importance of socialisation experiences within the pup's critical period of development? IE 8-16 weeks of age? I agree this is an important factor - but the risk, especially for parvo infection, is way too high in this town, so the risk far outweighs the benefit of socialising. We recommend people socialise their pups with dogs they know are fully vaccinated and o their own property only. We used to do puppy preschool from 8 weeks of age (after their first vaccine) but got cancelled after the second week after a parvo outbreak in all the pups. The dog club had a similar situation.

I have treated a few Addisons patients and none have been in cardiac arrest - but one was very very close. He came in after a week of being generally unwell and his heart rate was only 15 beats per minute. Within 24 hours of treatment he was almost completely back to normal. Your dog is very very lucky !!!

Please are you able to be specific then? Precisely where is this threat and how extensive is the range? You have indicated you are in the NW of WA and both the Kimberly and Pilbara are very vast regions in that part of the state. My neighbor works in the mines up that way (two weeks away and two weeks back) and he's heard nothing about it. He has three dogs of his own which he leaves here, but is passionate about dogs in general and always has his ear to the ground picking up bits of information. Obviously dogs that lack immunity are at risk should they be exposed, but perhaps you can also clarify what you mean by "completely up to date with the vaccinations .....". All the dogs I have seen with distemper were puppies under the age of 6 months who had never had a vaccination. I would consider a pup who has not had all 3 primary vaccinations not up to date. I am not going to disclose my exact location on a public forum, however I can tell you I am in a major north west town and from discussions I have had with the other vets in the North West (There is only Karratha, Port Hedland, Newman, Broome and Kununurra), all 4 vet clinics still see distemper in the towns. The mines are a huge distance away from the major towns, we dont publicise what diseases we are seeing on a regular basis in the local newpapers - thats just ridiculous. So of course a mine worker is not going to hear about a case of distemper in a town 700ks away. We do however discuss the risk with our clients when they bring puppies in for vaccination. We recommend they do not take their puppies out walking or socialising until 7-10 days after their 14-16 weeks vaccination. The local dog club with not accept puppies for puppy pre-school (not will our clinic) until after the 14-16 week vaccination.