The Life Of Hugo

[Toujour]

My favourite one so far is http://petproductsontheweb.com.au/

Free postage too

This is all hypothetically assuming that the worming tablets will cost me the same as what they cost Toujour though

pretty sure if you vet doesnt have the same figure, check another vet shop.

otherwise i can post you some - the only thing is they arent in a pretty label box - when i buy them they open their huge jar and ask how many i want (which i usually buy like 30 of them) then they place in an empty little jar for me to take home.

[Gretel]

<I also asked the vet about tick cases coming into the office in a week and he estimated about three. Is that a high occurrence?>

I don't know if I'd call it high but that is about three dogs who may die from tick poisoning.....

[Toujour]

<I also asked the vet about tick cases coming into the office in a week and he estimated about three. Is that a high occurrence?>

I don't know if I'd call it high but that is about three dogs who may die from tick poisoning.....

.... in one week, scary

[Dju]

I was just doing a silly estimation in my head, I did not actually research that far into it. I was actually thinking back when I did that calculation that I could was Hugo with $20 tick/flea shampoos or something.

I'm very.. careful with my spending. Our family is kind of.. not so wealthy so we try and do the best we can with what we have. I hope I don't look like a terrible person counting all these pennies, Hugo's wellbeing is really of the greatest concern to me and I want to do it the right way, but I also want to do it in a way that doesn't hurt my wallet.

[Dju]

I hope those dogs didn't die I'm not really sure how the whole thing works with ticks, I know you're supposed to check your dog for ticks all the time by running your fingers through his fur but so far, Hugo is nice and clean! Asides from the flea dirt on his ears. Which we got rid of when we gave him a bath after the flea treatment. Lovely soft ears once again!

And thanks for the offer Toujour, we'll check our vet first

Edited November 24, 2010 by Dju

[Toujour]

I was just doing a silly estimation in my head, I did not actually research that far into it. I was actually thinking back when I did that calculation that I could was Hugo with $20 tick/flea shampoos or something.

I'm very.. careful with my spending. Our family is kind of.. not so wealthy so we try and do the best we can with what we have. I hope I don't look like a terrible person counting all these pennies, Hugo's wellbeing is really of the greatest concern to me and I want to do it the right way, but I also want to do it in a way that doesn't hurt my wallet.

im only 22 and bought my own house (which mean i have bills and home loan repayments) i watch where i spend my money too.

there is no tick prevention that i can find that you can spend $20 a year on. shampoo is not convincing enough for me to protect a dog against ticks

btw: my dogs are my 'fur kids' (probably not the only person out there) all my 'spending' money goes to them.

Edited November 24, 2010 by Toujour

[Dju]

You'd have to be pretty well-off to buy your own house at that age, don't you though?? I can't see myself actually owning a house until I'm like.. 50.

Anyways let's not get into that :p

With the heartguard tablets, to be even more super penny pinching, what about cutting the large breed dog tablets in half? Would that work or is it just wishful thinking? :p Or even something like using a generic brand of heartworm prevention like Valuheart or something? I always buy myself generic medicine and it seems to do the same thing but I'm thinking it works differently in the dog world, maybe?

Edited November 24, 2010 by Dju

[Toujour]

You'd have to be pretty well-off to buy your own house at that age, don't you though?? I can't see myself actually owning a house until I'm like.. 50.

Anyways let's not get into that :p

With the heartguard tablets, to be even more super penny pinching, what about cutting the large breed dog tablets in half? Would that work or is it just wishful thinking? :p

No not on a big income.

my house was a run down old housing commission house. the place was a bomb! lucky for me my dad works with bobcats and excavators and my pop is a concretor and my cousin is electrician came in handy to make the place liveable. still lots of work to do but the income wage only stretches so far

i wouldnt cut the chews in half!

btw: i have a partner who is extremely handy around the house. But all the dog expenses come out of my pocket.

Edited November 24, 2010 by Toujour

[Dju]

Yeah I was thinking that maybe the medication wouldn't be evenly dispersed through the meat chew so it would be safer to scrap that idea.. Wondering about generic brand medication though, and how that works in the dog world.

[Toujour]

Yeah I was thinking that maybe the medication wouldn't be evenly dispersed through the meat chew so it would be safer to scrap that idea.. Wondering about generic brand medication though, and how that works in the dog world.

hmmm i know that purina makes afew products that you can buy at woolies in the pet section. i havent and probably never will use them.

actionly i have used the cat wormer from there - but it was for my ferrets (back in my high school days)

[Dju]

I am curious to know whether they have the same ingredients and everything. Since I use generic medication myself when I'm sick because there's no difference between brand and brandless. There's no use throwing away money for someone to put a pretty label on a box, you know?

[KumaAkita]

Generics in vet products work the same as in human medication.

Some generics have the same "active ingreedients" as their brand premium counterparts, however have other "fillers" which may or may not react with you. For example, the active ingredients are the same in both products, but (for arguments sake) the generic comes with a coating that contains Lactose. If you're lactose intollerant, you will have an issue with the generic, but not the brand premium - not on the basis of the active ingredients but on an additive that it contains.

This is NOT to say NEVER use a generic, quite the opposite really. Just be aware that they may have different ingredients. Just read the packaging - or the information available from the manufacturers website.

Kuma is on Interceptor Spectrum - they don't do a tab that treats a dog over 45Kg, so I sent them an email asking for advice. I got a call from a really lovely lady at Novartis who gave me heaps of advice. I also suggested that they do a Giant range anyhoo... My point is, if in doubt ask a professional - whether that's your vet or a manufacturer. The people at Novartis that I spoke with were vets...

[Dju]

Ahh I see! I was looking up that stuff online and I found this:

http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2008/...tworm-scam.html

I don't think I want to research any further

[Dju]

In Hugo-related news, since I've driven this topic way.. off-topic as it were--Hugo is too smart for his own good and we're considering sticking a crayola up his nose to rectify this situation. A short while ago, we started to treat him after he did potty outside, and quickly enough, he's caught on that pottying = treats, so he tries to potty all the time, whether it's in the right place or the wrong place. Just today, we let him potty and brought him back inside, only for him to pee himself again once his feet touched the ground inside his playpen. No treats for you mister! Not sure how to rectify that problem, I suppose we will have to be giving him no treats when he potties because we can't have him holding half in and going again once he's put back inside.

Hugo's potty issues have been all over the place actually. Recently, after I slept in past his whining (which is weird since I am a light sleeper and whenever he shuffles about in his cage, I can hear it in my sleep), he couldn't hold it in any more and peed on his bed. After then, even though I've been setting an alarm for 4am in the morning to take him out, he still pees in his crate. It's super frustrating, we've had to wash his bedding five times already in a week! My vet says his crate must be too big but I think he's just forgotten that bed = clean place.

[SDDU]

::

Edited November 24, 2010 by SwedishDogsDownUnder

[Dju]

Hello Sharon, just popping in to say :: are we? ;)

Today I did a most terrible thing to my poor Hugo. I accidentally clipped his nail too far. Oh my gosh shock and horror, we were trying to clip his nails which he always most strongly objects to every time we try so consequently they're getting far too long.. Anyways. He was thrashing about, and I was just trying to get one more done when he kicked his foot, and me, being in a hurry to get it over and done with so I could stop torturing him, blindly clipped, and just caught the very tip of the quick. Well he screamed and walked away from me to grumpily sit in the corner and I see that his toenail is bleeding. Dear dear me. Cassie told me not to react if I do accidentally hit the quick (I think it was a matter of trying not to foster him being afraid of the clippers, although if that's so, we're way too late to curb any phobias he has of those things), so I had to walk out of the room and it took everything in me not to scoop him up into my arms and start crying and apologizing to the heavens about how terribly sorry I was that I hurt my little baby!! It was very difficult to restrain myself and I got a good yelling to from my mother who couldn't believe that I drew a single drop of blood from her pookie pudding pie. I really need to start desensitizing him to those clippers, he's downright terrified when they come near him, but clipping his nails is a necessary evil and must be done apparently, so I just hope that I can do it!

On another note, as we were discussing canine yearly preventatives the page before, I finally figured out the system I am going to use to shoot my boy up with chemicals designed to kill any foreign lifeforms that enter his bubble.

Advantix: $56.50 (halve the dosage for the 10-25kg pack, given every month)

Valuheart: $8.35 (given every 3 months)

Intestine: $8 (tablets that are from the vets and apparently cheap or I shall bother bother bother Toujour for some )

Total: $72.85

The larger Advantix tube is 2.5mL and the smaller breed one for dogs Hugo's size comes in 1mL, so I figure if I use a syringe I can perfectly halve the medicine up and it should be pretty much exactly the amount he needs, month to month, if not a bit more than he needs!

Valuheart I have read is a good alternative to Heardgard, my only regret is that it's in tablet form and not yummy chewable, but it seems silly to pay $40 more just for the added benefit of real meaty goodness when I can just shove a pill in a chicken neck or something. They contain the same active ingredient which is fantastic, only Valuheart doesn't control intestinal worms but my intestinal wormer will do that anyways, so not a big deal. The reason why I noted down that I'd give the medication every three months is because I have done quite a bit of research on heartworms in general and apparently they take 4 months to fully mature.. and they only actually fully mature if the temperature is above a certain amount blah blah blah. In fact, if Hugo gets infected December 1, I could treat him March 1 or April 1 and he would still have heartworm protection as when I treat him, the worms wouldn't be fully matured enough to be immune to the active ingredient in the heartworm medication! I will still talk to Cassie about this just to see what she says, but we're both fans of "treat as necessary", so I doubt she'd be angered by my musings. :D

The intestinal tablets, I mean, if they work as well as Drontal and so on, then they're a keeper.

All in all, I'm pretty satisfied in what I have there. I have all round protection from heartworm, intestinal worms, ticks and fleas, and it's at a good price which means my wallet won't be hurting at the end of the year and I can afford to save more for Hugo's emergency vet bill fundage too . Because everything that I don't spend on yearly preventatives just means more money to buy him something else he needs, like those juicy cuts of meat Hugo goes ga-ga for . Or I can continue to build up his emergency funds for if he ever needs an emergency surgery or something like that. But I know what Hugo wants me to buy him. You can see it on his face, haha!

[Toujour]

I really need to start desensitizing him to those clippers, he's downright terrified when they come near him, but clipping his nails is a necessary evil and must be done apparently, so I just hope that I can do it!

i would place the clippers on the floor and when he goes near them - treat him.

[Esky the husky]

Why are you clipping his nails so frequently.?

Esky is 1 and never had her nails clipped.

[Toujour]

Why are you clipping his nails so frequently.?

Esky is 1 and never had her nails clipped.

Storm is 16mths and has only had her nails cut once (and boy were they long) they are all due for another cute - espically Raiven - there heaps sharp

[Dju]

Well Cassie told me that they should be clipped every 2 weeks, especially since we don't really have any pavement/gravel for him to play on, there's only grass and carpets on our property! I think she told me that if I can hear them clicking on the floor, they're too long?