fainty_girl

Thanks Anne :) , Jessie is eating again, so I haven't had any issues getting tablets into her. I've been crushing them and mixing them into her food and I bought her some more beef mince today because she loves it. :)

The blood test was $140. My dogs have never needed blood tests, so I didn't have any idea what the cost would be. I was surprised by the bill, but of course I don't regret taking Jessie at all. I've been pretty lucky with Jessie so far and previously she had only ever gone to the vet to be desexed when we first got her and for nail clipping. The vet is great with nail clipping, it takes the vet and a vet nurse (it used to take two vet nurses) to clip Jessie's nails and they only charge around $25. They are great at their job and I trust them. To give you an idea, years ago I took Jessie to our previous vet to get her nails done, but when it came to getting Jessie ready when they saw her behaviour they told us that she didn't need her nails clipped and they didn't clip them! So then I ended up taking her there at another time and she used to be sedated to have her nails done. On a family friend's recommendation, we heard about a different vet and we booked Jessie in to get her nails done there while under sedation. They discussed it and decided not to sedate her and said it wasn't necessary, and they used a method there to try and keep her calm. It has worked really well for Jessie and the staff there are great with her, even though she isn't an easy dog to handle & examine when she is afraid. Last year I had a $1500 vet bill for my other dog, so I understand that owning dogs is expensive. I am not concerned about paying bills for the dogs...it is my responsibility as their owner and I can afford to pay them.

Just thought I'd update with a photo that I just took :)... Jess has got her appetite back and ate close to a normal size dinner and was eyeing off everybody's dinner. She was licking her chops after eating a piece of chicken...

Jessie's blood results all came back ok! :) There was one result that was slightly higher than normal but the vet thought this could be due to stress, but other than that we just need to keep giving her medication and keep an eye on her :). If the same thing happens again the vet said she'd want to sedate her, but fingers crossed nothing else happens. Thank you for your help everyone :).

I'll be ringing them at 9am when the vet who saw Jessie will be working. I've never had to wait on blood results for a dog, but on Sunday I was told that they would be in late on Monday, but obviously they weren't. On the invoice it lists the testing as "Biochemistry, Haematology + T4". For Jessie's 30 minute visit at the vet it set me back $384...I was pretty shocked when they told me the amount, mainly because I didn't walk out of the vet with an answer as to what is happening (that is the nature of the beast, I understand). I'm glad that your Bella is doing so well :). I grew up with a beautiful kelpie X named Tammy and when she was 15 she went downhill all of a sudden when her kidneys went . So when Jessie was suddenly unwell it worried me. When Tammy passed away we adopted Jessie and she was meant to be "my" dog, but she had other plans and has had an incredibly strong bond with my mum since day 1. My mum had a horrible year going through cancer treatment and Jessie has been so great for my mum, she has been such a loyal companion and I was also worried for my mum when I saw that Jessie was unwell because they are so close. When my mum was recovering, Jessie stayed by her bedside all the time and was very protective, basically guarding my mum. Jessie is the definition of a velcro dog! My other dog that I have now is a Kelpie X and she has been a very expensive dog in comparison to Jessie, she is trouble on four legs! I am keeping my fingers crossed that Jessie's blood results will be ok. I'm relieved that she's eating again, so hopefully that is a positive sign too.

Thank you for your help everyone! I really appreciate it :). persephone, Jessie was growling when I was trying the tablets yesterday and this morning, and while she has never bitten me, I didn't want to push her to a point where she would bite me. Jessie's blood results haven't come into the vet yet, so I need to ring for them tomorrow morning. Today has been a very good day for Jessie...I was at work today, but my family said she was doing better and had perked up. When my brother was eating a hamburger she started eyeing off his food, so she had a taste of hamburger meat. I just fed all the dogs their dinner and Jessie actually ate! I am SO relieved that she is eating! I gave her mushy dog food (mixed with some water) with a bit of cooked beef mince (because she had a taste for hamburger meat, I cooked some mince just with oil and chicken stock). She ate normally, so I crushed up an antibiotic tablet and mixed it with more beef mince and she scoffed into it. She seems much more like her normal self, so I hope her blood results come back OK and hope that she continues to improve. I'll talk to the vet about everything tomorrow morning and hopefully they will have her results by then. As for the medication she is on: Yesterday she had a Meloxicam injection at the vet At home she is on: Cephalexin 600mg - one tablet, twice daily Meloxicam 1.5mg/ml 10mL - 1.5ml once a day (she started this today) It was an expensive trip to the vet, that's for sure! I must have jinxed myself the other week when I was saying in conversation how cheap it is for Jessie to get her nails clipped at the vet (she used to get sedated at another vet) but they are able to clip them without sedation at this vet. I was watching all of these people paying large vet bills and was considering myself lucky with Jessie.

Thanks persephone, I tried with ice-cream last night and this morning and I got it into her. It was messy, but the best I could do. I tried putting it in as far back as I could with no ice-cream and held her muzzle while my mum massaged her neck. It looked as though she swallowed it after a while, but she didn't and she spat it straight out. I got her liquid pain medication into her this morning, so liquid medication is far easier. tdierikx, I'm not pussy footing around with her...I'm trying to get her to take a tablet without her spitting everything out and without getting bitten by a 23kg dog. It isn't easy with Jessie because she is very cautious (when we first had her she was labelled a fear biter by the vet), so trying to get a tablet into her mouth when she is clamping her teeth and growling at me isn't fun. Jessie normally loves her food and normally every night she'll eat a whole glucosamine tablet in her dinner without hesitation, I've never had to force her to take a tablet because normally she will eat just about anything. I've also ordered a dog pill popper online, but i'm not sure how long it will take to get here. The vet told me to call this evening because that is when they'll have her blood-work back. I will talk to them about how difficult it is to get her to take her antibiotic and see what they say. This morning both of Jessie's eyes still look red (but no bulging) and she is still off her food. Yesterday the vet said that if Jessie doesn't improve the next step will be to anaesthetise her to examine her and x-ray her.

I've had no luck with the second dose of antibiotics...the schmacko trick didn't work this time and she won't eat a plain schmacko either. She just had a drink of water though and is pretty sleepy, so I will have to try again soon.

I just managed to get Jessie to eat a little bit! I mashed up some of my brother's dog's food with some water, and at first she refused it, but then I dunked a schmacko in it, then I scooped some on the schmacko and got her to eat it, then she finished off what was in the bowl. It was only a small amount, but I'm glad she ate something :), she looked a bit happier afterwards too. I'm glad she's a schmacko addict! I'll get a few different types of dog food from the supermarket and see if she likes a different brand to try.

We got one tablet into her! I tried crushing it and mixing it with milk and syringing it into her mouth, but I only got a little bit in before she totally resisted. Some of the ground up tablet was at the bottom of the syringe like a paste, so my mum suggested getting it out and putting it on a schmacko...it actually worked! She happily ate the schmacko and then had a drink of water afterwards.

My dad tried putting the tablet in her mouth before and holding her muzzle, but it wouldn't work and she just ended up spitting it out. I tried offering her some milk but she wasn't interested. She wouldn't try any fish either and normally she loves it. She just turns her head away from any food we offer . She had a drink of water this morning, but she hasn't had anything since. I'll have to try again soon with the tablet. Yes they checked her eye pressure and it is normal.

Thanks persephone, Jessie has always eaten nature's gift, but she only ate it on Friday night when I mixed it in with some coles dog food (casserole style) that my brother's dog eats. She won't eat natures gift or the casserole food now though. I just tried her with chicken mince and with chicken thigh fillets but she wouldn't try either (my other dog swooped in and stole her chicken mince with the tablet ) . She sniffed and licked at the chicken thigh and picked up a tiny piece but then she dropped it straight away. How can I get her to take her cephalexin tablet when she won't eat and putting the tablet in her mouth didn't work either. The vet got me to open her mouth several times and she felt around in her mouth and checked her gums and Jessie was ok with this. She was able to open her jaw wide. . Jessie was called a fear biter by our previous vet when I first got her, so she was muzzled when blood was being taken and her neck was being felt, etc. Jessie did pant a bit when the vet was feeling around her neck.

Hi everyone, I took Jessie to our regular vet today but I don't have any answers as to what is wrong. The bulge in her eye went down overnight and now the whites of her eyes are just a bit red and there is a small amount of discharge/tear stains below both eyes. This morning my mum noticed that she had a blotchy and red rash on her tummy and she is still off her food. I took the photos of her eye to show the vet and she said it was really helpful to have the photos. They took some of her blood and I will find out tomorrow evening if anything has come up in her blood-work. They tested her eye pressure and it was normal, her temperature was normal, and the vet couldn't see anything concerning at the backs of her eyes. Jessie just has some clouding in her eyes due to old age. Jessie was given antihistamine, pain relief and antibiotics. I wish I had an answer as to what the problem is...the vet mentioned several different things, like a possible allergic reaction, a bee sting, a dental abscess (underneath a tooth that was slightly broken). If Jessie doesn't improve they said they would need to anaesthetise her to really have a good look at what is going on. She is still off her food, but will take a schmacko (they are her favourite), but she is chewing a lot slower than normal, when normally she would just gulp it down. The vet said to give her soft food, so I'm going to go and buy her some chicken and will see if she'll eat something and take her antibiotics. So no answers yet, just a hefty bill from the vet! I hope she gets better soon! megan_ , I just wanted to clarify, I wasn't concerned at all about a 30 minute drive, I was worried about taking her to a different vet that had a very poor review.

Thanks kirty. I just checked on Jessie again and was going to try and take those photos for you and check her with a torch, but she was asleep on the lounge, so I didn't want to bother her. I am in Sydney's north.

Thanks for your replies. The only emergency vet is about 30 minutes from here, and when I looked them up online there was a recent review that was very negative . My regular vet is excellent, I am very happy with them and really trust them. Argh, it is hard to know what to do ! Why do these kinds of things happen late at night when my vet isn't open .

Update - May 2014: Just in case anybody has found this topic because their dog is experiencing similar symptoms, I thought I would post an update. I'm no expert, so I have no idea if Jessie's illness from last year is linked to what happened to her, but I want to share this. Jessie went off her food again a couple of weeks ago, she vomited a few times and became progressively weaker and was not herself. Unfortunately, she ended up having a tumour next to her liver. It did not show in her blood results or an x-ray, but could be seen in an ultrasound. She was a very sick dog and our family made the decision to put her to sleep 9 days ago.....R.I.P. Jessie My vet is closed at the moment so I will be calling them first thing when they open tomorrow... Last night when I went to feed Jessie, she was very picky with her food and was only taking tiny mouthfuls. At one point she stood back from her bowl and looked at my brother's dog's food (he eats a different type of dog food). To get her to eat her dinner I had to mix some of my brother's dog food into Jessie's food, then she ate it. I figured I must have put too many veggies in her dinner. Later in the evening I noticed that both of her eyes looked quite red, but didn't get too worried because sometimes her eyes get red when her fur goes into her eyes. But I have some eye solution that we use to flush out her eyes occasionally, and that normally helps her. I didn't put any of this in her eyes last night though. Tonight when I gave her dinner, she wouldn't even touch it, then when I looked at her I saw that there is a problem with her left eye. It is swollen and there is a bulge on her eyeball. What could this be? Other than not eating, her behaviour hasn't changed, but I'm worried about her eye Jessie is 9.5 years old.

In my experience it can take time to bond with certain dogs. It took me years to really bond with one of my dogs. I love her to bits now, she is such a sweety. My dog bonded very strongly with my mum, so she wasn't missing out on anything. My brother's dog Rusty is loveable, but I find him to be really irritating at times. If my brother moved out tomorrow, I wouldn't miss living with Rusty.

If you're not in a hurry to buy tags, I normally get mine from this ebay seller. There aren't any listed at the moment though because the seller is away, but you could always favourite the page and check on it in the near future. http://myworld.ebay.com.au/zirphx/ The tags are hand engraved and are always lovely.

My cattle dog's nails grow very quickly, she has never been a very active dog so I think that is part of it. I used to have to get her sedated to get her nails done, so she had them done less often then. I go to a different vet now and they don't sedate her there and they handle her really well, they have done a great job getting her more used to having her nails clipped. The vet recommends going every 6 weeks, sometimes due to my work schedule it gets pushed back a bit longer. My other dog and my brother's dog never need their nails clipped. They are both very active dogs though.

That's a really funny ad :laugh: .

The collar was from this Etsy seller :) : http://www.etsy.com/shop/Iggywear It is a limited slip softie collar and they are in this category: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Iggywear?section_id=6290289 I bought it a couple of years ago and it still works great :) . Because my dog pulls on the lead, the lady who made the collars reinforced the collar with a "strong fusible web" at no extra charge. This is my girl wearing the collar...I only use it as a walking collar, she has a regular collar that she wears normally.

The easy-walk harness did the exact same thing to my dog Tilly. If she walks in it for anything more than a few minutes, it rubs on the skin behind her legs. I use a non-slip collar that is lined and it is very gentle on her neck. She can't get out of it and even when she pulls like an absolute freight-train, she doesn't end up with a sore neck. The collar is like the one below, just with a different design on the outside of the collar:

Many years ago my friend had a pet duck. On one occasion I tapped on the glass door when the duck was outside and from then on, that duck hated me with a passion. Whenever it saw me through the glass door it went totally nuts :laugh: .

My brother found a sweet old staffy that was lost a few weeks ago. It was shaking and had a slight limp and it wasn't wearing a collar, so I walked over to check on the dog and put her on a lead and took her to the nearest vet. They scanned her for a microchip and checked her details, so I hope she was picked up by her owner. She was a lovely dog and looked well taken care of, so I think she was just lost and was scared. If the vet had tried to turn me away, I would have rung around to find a different vet to take her to, I was certainly in no position to take her home with 3 dogs living here.

If all of the dogs charged each other, I can't see how you can expect the other owner to pay your vet bill, because it sounds as though you were both at fault. I hope your dogs and his dogs are alright though. Just try to learn from what happened, keep your dogs on a lead and work on their recall. I've made mistakes with my dogs and while it is obviously very upsetting, just try to learn from what you did wrong.