dwynwen

good to hear .... it will make things easier around here ... right now I have both dogs on multiple daily meds and I have to keep little checklists .... eta .. now that I think about it I could have asked the MIL, the FIL used to take both.

My girl takes thyroxin and digoxin. I've always given them at different times but although I manage to give the digoxin at 12hr intervals I have more trouble getting the thyroxin on time. I can't find any mention of them _needing_ to be given separately. Anyone heard of any interactions with these two drugs? (my vet seems happy for them to be given at the same time but sometimes I think she goes with the 'easier for the owner' solution, so I'm double checking)

dual cab - pups in the back seat. (my dogs like their comforts) This is clearly no good if dogs spend extended periods in a stationery vehicle (ie if you take them to work) - in which case I'd go the cages (with some sort of weather/shade cover)

I did find these instructions on ehow.com Their pic is a bit OT .. I think you could do a better instruction S'nT. (they do stress the danger of the bandage being too tight which is good) ed (twice) to fix incorrect link :-)

double post gremlins

Funnily enough - the one bandage that came off had this - I think the tape used was too narrow though - he has a double coat doing a bit of a shed so not enough grip I suspect - your pics are great. I'd not seen it done that way before this week. tenoplast is my new best friend. I've taken off the mega bandage and just put on a very light one today as he's lounging around the house - the wound is now just a raw patch between his toes where the tumour was removed. Just keeping it clean while hoping for a bit better ventilation to help it heal. (he's still on ABs, back to the vet tomorrow)

Soffban is great stuff! I hadn't heard of it until this week. Some of the online pet supply stores have it - Soffban Synthetic orthopaedic padding 7.5cm x 2.7m much easier to apply than cotton wool.

I thought those socks with the anti skid pads maybe ... we're trialing this for when he has to go out for toilet breaks etc. The neighbour says it looks funky .. I'm still deciding if that's a good thing.

the specialist didn't use vetwrap. The others (and I) have used non stick dressing on wound, then soft bandage, then vetwrap then a elastic adhesive bandage up the leg onto the hair beyond the non stick part of the dressing. Makes for a fat foot but it tends to stay put.

My boy has had multiple bandage changes on a hind foot over the last couple weeks ... by three different vets and myself. Ironically the most expensive dressing change (yesterday by a $pecialist) has lasted less than 24 hours. It's just coming off like a loose sock. The others have stayed on pretty well until changed (2-3 days max). He does not chew/pull/lick or otherwise interfere with the bandage. I've not been able to find very much online about paw bandaging techniques - I've pretty much copied the vets' method. I'm doing ok but there's room for improvement. Does anyone have any links to good instructions (with pics or video) for bandaging?

so he had fluid there BEFORE the op? My boy had a massive swelling a day or two after the op - just a blood filled sac my vet assured me (not the vet that did the desex) ... lasted maybe a week then shrank to normal 'empty' size.

Akita - the specialist called it "Tracheal collapse" and said it's part of age related upper respiratory disease. We were there to check her heart and the narrowed airways showed on the xray. She has a nasty cough a few times a day but copes ok. Not sure if it's the same as the condition you're talking about. I know her breeding and don't know of any problems in the lines BUT it's not something I've gone looking for - she's a pet, never bred. She has a history of seizures, on thyroid treatment for years to raise her levels to high normal. Hasn't had a seizure for quite a while now and I suspect the heart meds fixed it not the thyroxin... She did have two rbb snake bites when she was younger. I suspect she has too many weirdnesses to be a useful study for any one thing :-) eta - she has some arthritis and rear end weakness but was a seriously agile escaper when she was young - joints etc pretty good for most of her life.

large breed, started at about age 10, now 12 doesn't seem to be getting worse - the heart condition will probably get her first :-(

not toxic, but can be an allergen for some dogs.

I get them in olive oil .. 106 can, feed once or twice a week as part of a meal (40kg dogs) They get fish oil capsules daily.

I have a dog with a heart condition too, although not CHF - she's on coQ10 also on vet advice. There's an good yahoo group called CanineCongestiveHeartFailure - it's pretty tightly moderated and they have a very low tolerance for the more 'out there' therapies.

Last time I checked, that stuff had way too much sugar in it for ME to eat... let alone the dogs.

My Suki (12yo akita) has been incontinent to varying degrees for years - ... at the moment she wears pants and pad at night only and I keep 'mattress pads' designed for humans on the inside dog beds. I have a piece of 'vet bed' on top of a trampoline bed outside for her - rejected it for use inside as the backing is not waterproof. I keep bicarb and vinegar in stock for the occasional cleanup job .. She doesn't have trouble with urine burn - probably as she only leaks intermittently (mostly not a large volume) and I don't leave the pads on 24/7..

This is what we use. The fitting came from bunnings and is installed on the shower head. The little black lever is switched to either 'shower' or 'hose'. We have a length of garden hose with click fittings either end and a trigger nozzle. Because the hose is connected up high it doesn't get tangled around the dog's feet in the tub.

I've been using a human incontinence 'mat' for my girl who has been leaky on and off since we got her 10 years ago, aged 2. At the moment she's pretty bad. Not on any drugs atm as propalin stopped working and the hormone treatments had side effects. She's an inside dog. After the raves here, I finally got curious enough to order a piece of vetbed which arrived today. I was expecting a waterproof backing and that the mat would wick the fluid away from the dog so they're not lying in a wet patch. I tested it with some water - the wet area stayed really wet and the backing leaked a little bit. When I hung it up the water ran freely out. It dried pretty quickly. Are we talking about the same stuff??

Does anyone feed beetroot tops as part of their dog's raw diet? I've searched (here and elsewhere) and found lots of refs to beetroot but not the leaves. (Billinghurst doesn't seem to believe in indexes ... ) I know people eat them so I'd guess they're ok.

My Suki has been incontinent to varying degrees for years.. we had her on Propalin for a couple of years and it became ineffective. Once she was off it I realized she'd been having a low level side effect of some kind because she was a much happier (but leaky) dog off it. I suspect she had mild nausea .. We tried Stilboestrol but it made her bleed (yes, she's spayed). So now we just manage it - she wears pants with an incontinence pad at night and I put mattress protectors on all the dog beds as well as one of those plastic backed picnic rugs on the one human bed she likes to get on.. Does your girl leak/dribble constantly WP? or just flood the bed when she sleeps? The mattress protectors we use hold a couple of litres ... they're brilliant and machine washable. eta - we have a couple dog beds that are sponge rubber with a plastic waterproof cover - also use a folded synthetic fill doona which is washable. A couple old snooza type mats have stood up to a _lot_ of washing.

There's a good yahoo discussion group for canine IBD. It's a disease that ranges in severity - every patient is different.

My old boy (rip) broke an upper canine and I took him to Sydney Uni - they were planning to do a root canal but found it was too far gone when they got in there and ended up removing it. He was just fine - ate bones etc as he always had.

Thanks for that Fastgals .. that one looks quite good - might order one.. (their collars are really pretty too)