Staranais

Depends what you think caused the marks. If it's likely she has gotten nipped by another dog a few times, or rubbed her head against the bars a little, I think that's all part of going to a kennel. On the other hand if the marks are so serious that they must have been caused by her getting seriously beaten up, or being seriously distressed and self traumatising, then I think you'd be in the right to complain & ask them to explain the marks. Also, did you tell them she was a show dog with shows scheduled when you took her to the kennels? My dog has come home from the kennels or daycare with scrapes and nips before, I'd rather she got those than had a boring time sitting by herself all day. If you didn't tell them that it was imperative your dog stayed pristine, they may have assumed you were an owner like me and didn't care if your dog got a bit chewed up so long as she had a fun time.

Interesting, and sounds like a good idea.

Yes. If the kennel club doesn't do something in response to these stories, & these problems, then IMO they're practically digging their own grave.

LOL, which is why vets can never please everyone, I guess. I too would prefer to find out what's wrong with the leg. If it's a joint issue, then if they can localise the limp to one joint, they can just radiograph that one (and possibly the same joint on the other side to compare) & it shouldn't be over-the-top expensive.

This one irks me a lot!! (note: a lot not alot!!). I have to say the one on DOL that really really gets my goat is "conformation" vs "confirmation"!!!!! Do people want to conform that the dog confirms or confiorm that the dog conforms!!!!? But it does make for some funny reading some times!! You and the other posters who have said they don't like people saying "alot" will LOVE this. Hyperbole and a Half, "The Alot"

That is very sad. Any animal being sent to the works makes me sad, but dogs make me even sadder - on some level, it just seems like such a betrayal of trust to me. Even most of the feral dogs I've met or worked with seem to have an instinctive desire to trust and communicate with humans.

Affect vs effect is my other big pet peeve!

Er, I don't get it! What am I missing? com·pli·men·ta·ry/ˌkämpləˈmentərē/Adjective 1. Expressing a compliment; praising or approving. 2. Given or supplied free of charge ETA, I'm an apostrophe nazi too. I think Brooke means it should be complEmentary: com·ple·men·ta·ry/ˌkämpləˈment(ə)rē/Adjective 1. Completing; forming a complement. 2. (of two or more different things) Combining in such a way as to enhance or emphasize each other's qualities. More » I am a self confessed Grammar Bitch. My Dad would be proud of me Ah, so the appointment isn't going to be free, but it's going to emphasise the qualities of the previous one. Confusing. Thanks!

Er, I don't get it! What am I missing? com·pli·men·ta·ry/ˌkämpləˈmentərē/Adjective 1. Expressing a compliment; praising or approving. 2. Given or supplied free of charge ETA, I'm an apostrophe nazi too.

The specialist veterinary opthomologist that I spent some time in clinic with reckoned he operated on sharpei to reduce excess forehead skin & entropion very commonly. I'd wonder if it's more common with back yard bred sharpei than registered ones? Either way, something for the kennel club to do something about if they want to retain good public opinion (i.e., I think the kennel club either need to show that it's the BYB and not them producing these dogs, or if it is them, do something to stop registered dogs being bred to such an extreme).

Good luck and let us know how you guys get on.

Could be a lot of things, if it's associated with the move to a new house. New type of pollen in the neighbourhood? Carpet or dust mites that she's allergic to? A few fleas left over from the last occupants? Different types of plants encountered where you take her for walks now? The distribution of itchiness on her body might give you a clue as to whether it's something like fleas (typically itchy lumbar back & thighs) or something like a plant or rug that she is lying on. If she has a flea allergy, just one flea bite can be enough to make her scratch like crazy, there don't need to be enough fleas for you to see. Have you tried flea bombing the house and treating all the animals for fleas at the same time to make sure there are really no fleas there at all?

Yes, I agree. Possibly also an elizabethan collar if there's a chance he'll disrupt the wound site.

Over here they allow all breeds to train & trial in the obedience & tracking portions of IPO, but not the protection phase. I don't know if the Aussie clubs have similar rules or not, hopefully someone local to you can help.

Maybe it depends on exactly what you're classing as nutrition. I was only including lectures specifically about cat & dog food in the estimate I made. But if I included related lectures (things like lectures on the principles of monogastric animal nutrition, comparative gut anatomy & physiology etc) then it would probably be more like the total you're quoting, Stormie.

Interesting to find out what you Aussie vet students do. Makes sense that it's similar to what we do.

No idea really, hopefully one of the Aussie vets or vet students can answer. Although, since I can automatically register to practice in Ozzie when I graduate (and I believe your vets are automatically eligible to register to practice in NZ), I'd presume our degrees are fairly comparable?

Tee hee, if only that was true. We got probably 10 lectures on companion animal nutrition in 3rd year, and another 4 or so in 5th year as part of our companion animal medicine paper, plus two field trips to different pet food factories over the course of the degree, and we spend a week in the freezing works where we get to see (among other things) exactly what parts of meat animals do and don't get sold as pet food. And no, none of this is optional, and yes, it is examined. And that's just companion animal nutrition, we have whole papers on ruminant nutrition. Vet students don't graduate as experts in nutrition by any means, not unless they do a lot of independent research, but we definitely do study the subject. To put it in perspective, we probably spend as much time being lectured on companion animal nutrition as we do being lectured on cardiology or gastroenterology.

She is exceptionally cute. I love the huge bat ears!

Not so much with the desexing he didn't bounce back well, but it would have picked up his liver shunt and saved him getting a lot sicker later on. It also would have saved a lot of time, money and heartache with misdiagnoses too. He's fine now had the op to repair it but I nearly lost him from the effects of the shunt because it wasn't picked up early on. Oh I'm sorry. I guess there's no way of offering blood screening that will make everyone happy. If you offer the tests, some people say that they feel like they're being pushed into spending money or being made to feel guilty, but if you don't offer the tests, we get situations like yours where you'd really rather have had the option & where the dog would have benefited from it.

There are at least a couple of posters here who have dogs with chronic gastrointestinal issues. I'm not sure if any of their dogs have been definitively diagnosed with IBD, though.

Different SAR groups probably have different rules, but we allow people to start training dogs that are up to about 2 years old. Any older, and by the time the dog has finished the training (which will probably take at least 18 months or 2 years), the dog has a very short working life span left (most SAR dogs will retire at 8 or 10, since it's quite hard work). If you're just doing it for fun, I guess you could start whenever you wanted to start.

My girl had shoulder OCD. Shoulder OCD is rather different to the elbow dysplasias, or any other joint dysplasia for that matter, in that if you get it treated there's a much more favourable prognosis. So, if you have to have a joint problem in a young dog, it's a good one to get. There are two stages to OCD - in the first stage the cartilage over the humeral head cracks (technically this stage is just called osteochondrosis or OC), and it may progress to a second stage where the cartilage actually rips back forming a moveable flap (osteochondritis dissecans, OCD). If it only reaches the first stage, the dog is often assymptomatic, and the defect may heal back up by itself if the dog rests the joint (or even if it doesn't). The dog is more likely to limp by the time the second stage is reached. The second stage doesn't generally heal back by itself, but the dog sometimes can rip the cartilage flap off by itself and basically do the same job as the surgery (except that the flap remains inside the joint, where it may calcify & eventually do damage). Surgery is generally only recommended if the dog is limping. The aim of surgery is to firstly take the cartilage flap off to prevent joint damage that will lead to arthritis, and secondly to promote the growth of new cartilage by scraping the old damaged cartilage away. If the old damaged cartilage is removed, new cartilage will grow back slowly in its place - it's never quite as good as the old cartilage (technically it's fibrocartilage, not true articular cartilage), but will do the job in most cases. We had surgery when my girl was nearly a year old, since she had developed a large flap in her left shoulder that was making her limp intermittently. We only operated on the shoulder that made her limp, even though both showed radiographic signs of OC. It was expensive, and the crate rest afterwards & rehabilitation was a huge pain. But it was worth it, she now comes hiking with me regularly and I have just started to jump her, and she's doing fine - no limping at all. However, if your vet hasn't yet run radiographs, he won't be able to tell for sure if it's OCD yet - hopefully it just turns out to be a strain or sprain.

Why is that, WoofnHoof, did something bad happen during the anaesthetic?

Do SARDA do tracking/trailing work? I don't know much about them & have never talked to them, but was under the impression they were mostly USAR and wilderness airscent? Could be wrong, though.