stormie

Yes and he has adequate protection :) It's the same for every dog. A dog who is vaccinated annually could walk parvo into a clinic, as could someone coming in off the street to purchase something. My point was more that as a dog who has had his puppy vaccines, he has shown to have adequate protection several years later. The WSAVA even make mention that vaccines quite possibly last a lifetime. My dog does not have any contact with consulting patients and never enters the hospital but he does walk through the waiting room of a morning when we arrives in the mornings.

That's funny. My dog comes to work (vet) and has since he was a puppy. His last vaccine was at 16weeks and (touch wood) he's never contracted anything. Annual vaccines are outdated. Most of the vaccine companies recognise this and MOST now have 3 yearly vaccines available. With the guidelines available from the AVA and WSAVA there is no reason clinics should still be pushing annual vaccines. If a dog does not seroconvert a vaccine, then it likely never will and vaccinating annually will not improve that. We need to be aiming to vaccinate more dogs/puppies, not less dogs more often!

I don't understand why so many vets go blank at the suggestion of titre testing. All the regular pathology labs we have ever used offer it and there are a couple of very well known vaccine companies who also now have in house titre testing which they regularly come to talk to us about. We have stuck with VetPath in WA to keep costs down and when we just do the two tests, Parvo and Dist, results are generally back within a couple of days. The reports I have seen all look pretty self explanatory so I'm not sure how the results could ever be difficult to read. I also don't understand the boarding issue. The Vet clinic up the road from us refuses to board dogs who have had a 3 yearly C3, despite it being the registered vaccine. Thankfully we haven't had too many issues with kennels only taking intranasals. We follow the WSAVA guidelines for vaccines for both dogs and cats. We have the information from the Vaccine Guidlines Group readily available for people who want more information. But basically we do 3 puppy shots, then another one a year after. Then it's 3 yearly after that or titre testing. Kennel Cough for those who regularly go boarding. Cats are the same. People are often surprised we do 3 yearly vaccines for cats despite not having a registered triennial vaccine but the evidence is documented that annual vacc's just aren't necessary so why do it? Clients seem happy though and most still return for regular check-ups - probably because they believe we're actually just wanting to do what's best rather than keep our pockets lined.

:D

I think this is where they make a lot of their profit. If you compare the prices online there is a big difference - sometimes three times the price through the vet. Or even more! I recently paid $25 for 200mls of liquid paraffin, in the supermarket it is $3.15! & $15 for an enema, at the the chemist the same one's are $15 for a box of 12! Live and learn I guess. Just on this, I can't speak for all things, but I have occasionally ordered human medications through our Veterinary Wholesaler and I actually pay more cost price than I would if I actually went to a chemist. So it's not always about a huge mark-up. And with all things, online prices will always be lower due to a huge reduction in overheads. I've compared online things like parasite treatments as well as prescription medication and generally these places are selling stuff for only about $3-5 more than what we can buy it at. Most profit is made through services, eg consults, surgery etc :)

I'm not a vet but have worked with several. I believe that $75k figure to be correct, but not the starting salary. I remember the newer grads starting off on the $40k mark and moving up from there. This was about 7 years ago though so may have changed a little.

Beautiful!! I love the first one - perfect lighting! I have a couple like that I took of Orbee using the Autumn leaves for backgrounds.

I just love the colours of Autumn. A friend took this photo at our polo club recently. It looks stunning when the leaves turn brown

Take Your Dog To Work And Let It Eat the Pigs Ears Day :D (Orbee comes every day but Fridays are pigs ear days :laugh: )

Makes me sad hearing all these stories about vets making it difficult. It was so simple for us to set up a VetPath account and they supple us with all the packing, canisters etc for the courier company. It's not that much harder than sending bloods off to our regular lab really. And it's so much cheaper for the client sending direct to WA too.

The Vet Surgeons Board most certainly take complaints very seriously and are known for being more about the clients than the Vets :)

Just referred to tumours in general. Out of those though, they say that about 50% will be malignant.

I got these stats on Mammary cancer from a Repro course I did recently... Desexing: before the first heat results in a 0.05% lifetime risk of developing mammary cancer. After 1 heat = 8% lifetime risk After 2 heats = 25% lifetime risk After 3 heats = 50% lifetime risk After 4 heats = greater than 75% lifetime risk

Ethanol is a commonly used treatment (I believe one of only two). Helps stop the antifreeze being metabolised and then destroying the kidneys.

Caz I am so sorry for what you are going through. I cannot imagine what you could possibly be feeling right now. Like everyone I am so sickened to here what happened to Buddy and I cannot comprehend how this could happen. You're in my thoughts