tdierikx

Actually, stray dogs are to be taken to the pound (or call a ranger to pick up and take), but cats are allowed to roam in NSW by law, so you are supposed to leave them alone. RSPCA NSW doesn't operate any pounds any more. The legislation is not very forthcoming on what happens in the scenario you describe about a private person (not affiliated with an approved rescue) taking in stray kittens and then trying to rehome them. Your best bet for answers would be the Office of Local Government, who are responsible for these matters. I would suggest that it would be best to contact rescue groups and offer to be a foster carer for those kittens, then all the legal stuff will be covered when the kittens need to be rehomed. I have a sneaking suspicion that if you don't microchip them and privately rehome them without overt advertising, then that would be the most obvious course of action. That's pretty much not covered under the current legislation - and incredibly hard to police - so I'm tipping it will be happening a lot. T.

One thing that confuses me a lot is who has literally thousands of dollars to "impulse" buy a puppy? Commercially bred pups aren't cheap. Those same people may also say they think that rescue pets (and even some registered purebreds) are "too expensive"... so yet another Catch 22... In most cases, even backyard bred pups can be more expensive to buy than a rescue pet. We had LOTS of applications for Lala's pups, and as they will be very large dogs once grown, we were blunt about that fact with every potential adopter. Most of the applications were for the merle/harlequin pups, as if they were somehow "better" than the other coloured pups we had... people want "pretty" more than they want a perfect match... *sigh* We only had one person we knocked back cause a fuss, and to be perfectly honest, by his reaction and tirade of abuse when he wasn't immediately given what he wanted, we were spot on with our summation of his lack of suitability for one of these pups. Hopefully with the new NSW laws, we may be able to trace what happens to poorly rehomed pets. If we can see trends of poor rehoming and bouncing in and out of the pound/shelter/rescue system, then we can maybe address that issue... we all know it happens with far more regularity than we care to admit. I don't think we'll find the issue coming from the registered purebred sector as much as from the completely unregulated rescue sector... there are still way too many cowboys in rescue trying to quickly rehome animals in their desperate need to "save" more, and that needs to stop. Cowboys give the entire rescue sector a bad name, and perpetuate the myth that rescue pets are somehow "broken" or "less than" pets sourced from other sectors. Make no bones about it, the rescue sector will end up being regulated... it's just a matter of when and how that is implemented. T.

The unspoken fact of the matter is that government has effectively outsourced their responsibility for unwanted/stray animals to a completely unfunded system of private rescues. They are reluctant to change this model, as they refuse to spend the money required to do something constructive about the issue when they know that big hearted volunteers will do it for them. The only way to change this is for rescues to basically stop all operations until government steps up and deals with the issue... but that's not going to happen because no-one wants to see euthanasia rates soar due to space constraints in the few pounds we do have operating nowadays. The government are banking on rescues continuing to do this work for free... so we are caught in a terrible Catch 22 situation if we want the current system to change in any significant way. RSPCA have decided to scale back their shelter business section (in NSW), and to focus more on their inspectorate activities... meanwhile, government refuses to be locked into any significant funding for that part of their business - and until the inspectorate does their job properly and fairly, I wouldn't suggest giving them any more funding either. The NSW government has finally put in some measures to make the inspectorate more accountable for the funds they do receive, but those could still go further, like maybe some KPI's that can be used to measure value for money spent... don't you think? T.

You may be right about necropsies @Mairead- I've only ever been offered it on one animal in all my years of pet ownership and working in the animal industry. I know that zoos will more often get them done on animals that have passed with little to no warning, so they can rule out issues that may affect other animals in their care, but never have I been offered one after a domestic pet has passed with little to no warning. The one animal that a necropsy was offered for was a goat kid that belonged to my work. The vet was happy to do it gratis, as he wanted to know what had happened also. The results showed an issue that could have become prevalent in our herd, and by making a few simple adjustments to diet and age of castration of the males, we never had another incident of the same nature (urinary calculi causing obstruction). Without that necropsy, we may well have seen many more cases of that problem, and deaths associated with same. The interesting thing to note is that necropsies actually don't cost all that much, and can be an amazing resource for future diagnosis/treatment of certain issues that may not necessarily present as expected during a consult, or even after most regular testing regimes. Just think of it as exploratory surgery without the need for anaesthetic (which is the biggest factor in any surgery cost really). T.

I'd be looking for a structural problem... I don't think the diarrhoea is his main problem here, and it may only be coincidental to the actual problem. If his bloods are all normal, and they've ruled out GI/internal type issues, then what remains is structural... his bones. I'd be looking for full spinal xrays to see if he's slipped a disc or similar at some point. Neck, Thoracic, and Lumbar xrays at the very least. My guess would be neck based on your description of the symptoms, but only an xray is going to confirm or rule that out. T.

Reinventing the wheel here... as there was a similar inquiry in NSW in 2023 - https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/committees/inquiries/Pages/inquiry-details.aspx?pk=2964 A myriad of findings and recommendations were made in that inquiry... no real action has been taken as yet though. WARNING: if you read through the submissions to the above inquiry, please note that some are quite distressing. The problems are many, ranging from inadequate education given to vet science students as budgets are tightened at universities, vets preferring to stay in urban areas and dealing primarily with desexing and dentals on dogs and cats, massive HECS debts necessitating staying in urban areas to sustain repayment of those debts, lack of mentorship for livestock veterinary practices, etc... then all of the emotional and business related issues that arise in the profession... it's a minefield really. Even the government hasn't got enough in-house vets allocated to biosecurity issues/monitoring, instead relying on reporting from already overstretched regional and rural private vet clinics. T.

When Harper pulled up very crook, her symptoms looked like either a kidney issue or an obstruction... hunching and drinking water excessively were the main symptoms. At the very least, a blood test would rule in or out the kidneys being the problem... but they actually showed a completely different issue, in that her red blood cell count was virtually non-existent - meaning a very significant internal bleed was happening. I'm thankful that the clinic had an ultrasound machine which I convinced the vet we could at least use to have a look at what was going on straight away rather than waiting for a specialist appointment to do the scan. We found the cause pretty quickly, and Harper was given her wings as a result - essentially her spleen had exploded due to a haemangiosarcoma, and there was no coming back from that, so euthanasia was the kindest thing for her. Now, if I had taken her to an emergency clinic (that are all run by corporates here), I would have been told that she needed a blood transfusion and possibly major surgery... with no guarantees that any of it would resolve the issue. Sometimes doing all we can isn't really the best option, as it may buy some more time for us to process what's happening, but at what cost to our beloved furry friend? Harper passed quietly and peacefully in my arms, surrounded by an awesome vet clinic team who comforted both of us through the process... which I will always be grateful for. Interestingly, I paid around $500 for Harper's final vet visit. We had a full blood test and an ultrasound, euthanasia and disposal of the remains (sorry for the blunt terminology here). We took up a good hour and a half of the clinic staff's time, which I'm pretty sure wasn't charged for. I was expecting a bill around $1800 for all that we'd done that afternoon. Possibly as I am a vet nurse and assisted at every stage of the testing and end result, I may have been credited for that, but still, the final bill was basically what it had cost in consumables to get that diagnosis and final "treatment". Conversely, when Pickles definitely had managed to get an obstruction and was vomiting up blood (she had Pica, so no doubt about the obstruction), we ended up at one of the local corporate run emergency clinics, where I ended up having to argue with the vet that Pickles needed to be given her wings rather than a raft of treatment options that weren't going to fix the problem at hand. Again, as a vet nurse, I have more knowledge about some things than the average Joe. I eventually convinced them that we were going to give Pickles her wings which was done. The final bill was around $650 just for the consult, euthanasia and disposal, as no treatment options were applied. Oh, and the next morning, I got a text and an email asking me how Pickles was doing after her visit to the emergency clinic... someone had forgotten to mark her deceased in their system... grrr! I had to call them and tell them to update their records to mark her as deceased, and I didn't even get a hint of an apology about the error. When Zeddy decided it was her time around midnight on a Sunday night, I took her to a different emergency clinic (also corporate run), where we gave her her wings with no fuss, and they must have applied some sort of discount, as the final bill was only $350ish - and I know that the consult fee for midnight on Sunday was at least $270 (was quoted when I rang to tell them I was bringing her in). All I can think of that may have reduced the fee in that case was that after I'd said goodbye to Zeddy and was waiting for them to make up the bill, I was talking with a young couple with a very sick cat who were not sure whether they should leave their cat in hospital overnight or take her home and wait for their regular clinic to open... the best place for the obviously very unwell cat was in the hospital, and I convinced them of that fact. They finally noticed that I'd gone in with my own pet, and was now sitting there holding only a collar and lead, and realised that I'd just lost my own pet, but still was concerned enough about their pet to talk with them. When the receptionist gave me the bill for Zeddy, I looked at her quizzically, and she just smiled and nodded at me, and looked over at the couple who were handing their cat to the vet for hospitalisation... I said thank you and paid with no further hesitation. Strangely enough, when I called my regular vet to advise of Zeddy's passing, they said they would have had to charge me $10 more for the procedure than I'd paid at the emergency clinic. 3 different clinics, 3 different approaches and final bills... 2 of those clinics will get return visits by me when I need a vet for any particular issue. I have no qualms about paying a fair price for services received, but what I also expect is professionalism and compassion during such a stressful event, which I don't feel I got at the other clinic with Pickles. T.

Most vet clinic customers want gold star service for little to no cost... which unfortunately isn't actually how things work. If you have a sick pet, and the exact cause isn't immediately obvious, then certain tests will at the very least open up other avenues for diagnosing/treating said pet. I'm definitely no fan of the corporate model of dealing with animal health services, but also understand that any diagnostics/treatments are going to have a cost attached that may not be blatantly obvious to the general public. There are a lot of "hidden" costs that go into providing what is seen/done in a consult, so when someone says a vet "only" did xyz, you can guarantee that abc costs have also been incurred behind the scenes to provide for that xyz consult. Everything in life and business has increased in cost over the past 5-10 years, so why are we expecting veterinary services to be less affected by those increased costs than any other business? T.

I have a 10 week old great dane cross pup... I was fostering the whole litter of 9 pups for rescue, and have adopted this pup myself. Most of the pups and mum dog have now been adopted, and a couple are with other foster carers, as the sheer volume of work involved looking after 9 large breed pups was better shared than leaving one person to do it all. From 8 weeks of age, my pup has had full access to both the house and yard at all times - and guess what, she's not perfect at toilet training either... lol! I leave my back door open at all times so that my pup can go outside when the urge comes over her, which has worked for doing poops, but she still occasionally wees inside. especially at night if I don't leave lights on leading to the back door. Last night seems to have gone well with no messes at all inside... yay! We've also been in heatwave conditions for a number of days during the past couple of weeks, which means that I've had to be vigilant at taking my pup outside to toilet at regular intervals and waiting for her to do anything at all (wee or poop), and then praise before going back inside to the air-conditioning... not fun being out in 38-40 degree heat waiting for a pup to toilet, but it has to be done. We get visits from the 6 year old up the road to acclimatise my pup with how children can get excited, squeal and run, and my pup has learned to adjust her play style to gentle when playing with the child who is almost the same size as she is. It would be so easy for her to monster a small child, but she's learned that she gets way more cuddles and interaction if she's gentle. We've had this 6 year child old visit with all the pups from only a few days old, so they all have a good grounding on how to play with small people. I've also been doing regular short obedience training sessions with my pup, and she now knows that to get attention from people, she has to sit nicely and wait for pats or treats. She has been trained to take treats gently too, so if the treater is a child, they get to keep all their fingers intact... lol! It sounds like you are doing all the right things with your pup, so now patience is the key until he finally works it all out, OK? It WILL happen... have confidence in that. T.

He is still only a baby really. Just think back to toilet training your children... how long did that take? You may benefit from purchasing a playpen that he can be placed in when he can't be supervised fully, or when you need to separate him from you or the kids when he gets over-excited and starts acting up. He needs to learn to be alone sometimes, but that you are always going to return and let him join in when he's behaving appropriately. T.

Did the breeder offer to take the pup back and give a full refund on return? Have you got veterinary reports stating that said pup is deaf, or is her condition based only on your own observations? I would look into getting a BAER test done on the pup to find out the true extent of her hearing/deafness. It is not a very expensive test, and will unequivocally prove deafness or not. Without definitive proof of the fault in the pup, you will find it difficult to proceed with any claim against the breeder. T.

Covering the crate also makes it more cosy and den-like for them... and they can settle faster. T.

This from someone who fought hard to have pets allowed by default in rentals and strata situations... does she now want to say that people in apartments shouldn't have pets because space is limited? At least AWL actually visited the apartment and spoke with the owners about the situation, and will most likely follow up in a few weeks to make sure that they are still doing the right thing. According to sources, RSPCA declined to act, giving the excuse that the dog had food, water, and shelter... how would they know that any of those were sufficient if they didn't attend? Seriously, I've personally seen RSPCA act on much less serious breaches of animal welfare than this dog's situation. T.

My question is why is an 11 year old pug outside at 3:30am? Why are both pugs outside at 3:30am for that matter? No excuse for them being stolen, but concerning nonetheless. T.

I fostered a Lab/GR cross that had to have TPLO. I confined him to a large puppy pen while he recovered. He was such a good boy and coped pretty well with the confinement. During his recovery, I also took on a mum dog with her pups, and he wasn't too worried that she was free and he wasn't. She'd come and give him kisses, and even brought her pups to visit with him too. The hardest part was supporting a 31kg dog's back end going out for potty breaks... I have a few back steps we had to negotiate that was hard work until he was allowed to slowly walk up and down them himself. I definitely recommend getting a proper sling for that job. T.