Rappie

Thanks Perse - yes I do have a lot on at the moment - roll on the new house.

While I'm incredibly grateful to be up at Crafers in this lovely home for seven weeks it will be marvellous for us all to be back in our own space - so roll-on the new house. As to the meds... I'll give it some thought but two weeks ago the vet reviewed him and felt his regime was OK. The only med he queried was the Gabapentin from the Emergency Hospital and I feel thats the most useful drug of the lot - so its staying!! Although I have plenty of it, I might talk to the vet about chopping out the Loxicom altogether and see how he goes with just one pain med... hmn...

Sorry to hear about his woes but just wanted to add a thought. I find gabapentin a very useful drug for managing chronic pain in older dogs, or neuropathic pain in dogs of any age. It does seem to work better in conjunction with other meds for pain relief, ratehr than as a sole treatment, however it still has effect when it is used alone.

It looks more like a deep pyoderma or folliculitis. Discoid lupus typically affects the nasal planum (the black part of the nose / nostrils) and causes ulceration and depigmentation.

I should clarify that monitoring the BGL at home does not replace regular vet visits. It just means you will have a much clearer picture of what is happening with the levels, and mean you won't need to go to the vet every time you are worried/curious about her levels.

We have some clients who regularly email us a curve and it's quite useful for us to monitor how things are going. You're right that it doesn't replace a visit but even just being able to measure a blood glucose reading at home means that if you're ever concerned you can check and identify periods of hypoglycaemia. It is important not to overdo it though, not only does it risk causing aversion but the general concepts of measuring and managing diabetic pets do differ slightly from humans and we tend to monitor trends and not adjust doses based on spot measurements (unless it is very low - in which case you need to discuss with your vet).

I'm sure you'll get more support from other owners of diabetic pets, but I can certainly understand how you might feel like you've been thrown in the deep end. You will get the hang of it and it will become much easier. Make sure you have a good communication flow with your vet, don't be afraid to ask any questions and generally keep in touch. I think Kirty's advice of thinking about what you might want to do about cataracts if (when) they occur is a great one as often it's a decision that has to be made at a critical point and it is much more stressful.

I'm more than happy to field general questions if you gave them, either on the forum or via PM. Obviously I can't give specific advice related to your dog but if there is anything you've forgotten to ask or are curious about then shoot.

I may be mistaken, but I thought that Austral and Canley Heights were part of the same group of practices.

Edit to add: a quick google says the Gills are associated with both, so all though it is a different practice the vets should be the same but I will leave that to others to confirm.

With your feedback in mind Rappie, I did just this today. I took some morning tea for the vet and vet nurses and a thank you card for all that they do in caring for Bruno. Thanks for the card idea Sandgrubber, and wow Harley what a thoughtful gift you gave!

May your kindness be paid back twenty fold in puppy snuggles (or kitten kisses, whatever takes your fancy)

Maybe more of us should take the time to provide an occasional bright light in our vet's day by sending a thankyou note of some sort.

Please do. I have every (personally addressed, not a thankyou to the practice) card that I have been given tucked away in a box. I pull it out occasionally when I've had a bad day and someone or something has made me feel awful. I do remember each of the patients too, and I have a collection of photos to go with the special notes. As much as I appreciate these tokens, they are mostly for patients that I have euthanased, some after a long course of illness, some that I had never seen before the day. It would be just as nice to get a card with a silly photo just for taking care of your pet after a routine surgery

Maybe little thank you's from their regular clients might make up for some of the heartache and stress that goes with their jobs? Everyone likes to know they are appreciated and matter. I would be gutted to lose such wonderful people from my life.

Yes it would Very often the only feedback we get is when someone has something negative to say, but even little gestures like a genuine thankyou on the phone, cards, food treats, any thing really will make a difference.

One of our regular patients has just had her second enucleation and is going great guns :) She developed glaucoma secondary to diabetic cataracts so was already blind. It's definitely made an improvement to her demeanour despite her always being a lovely dog!

She did blood and urine test. Everything came back normal which the vet was surprised.

Has the vet entertained the idea of hypoadrenocorticism (Addison's disease)? Poodles are predisposed and the absence of any clinical findings may be significant in a sick dog as normally you would see some changes in the bloods due to stress / cortisol release. It is something I would consider particularly with a good response to steroid treatment.

Mark Bilson at SASH in North Ryde is an opthamologist and was brilliant with my old blind boy. Good luck - hope he is ok.

Mark Billson is fantastic The benefit of a referral to SASH is that if required, your pet will also be seen by other specialists in different areas such as internal medicine or neurology.

We just returned from a short break in Coffs Harbour and saw plenty of signs for pet friendly accomodation while we were there. I'm not sure that any would let you leave pets unattended there, but there are (at least) 4 large vet clinics there - they might perhaps either do day boarding or know of a day care type facility in the area

It surprises me as some drugs for example Advantix are something like 0.1ml per kg dog weight. So I can buy a larger amount and divide between 3 or more dogs.

Ectoparasiticides have a particular legislated restraint that means it is illegal to use the product in any manner that contradicts the instructions given on the packet. It's written there in capital letters on the pack and in the insert. Of course, you may do what you like at home but it is not appropriate to instruct others to do it.

I have treated a few dogs with insulinomas. The articles that I've read most recently have suggested that although surgery for a partial pancreatectomy remains the gold standard, the survival time with prednisolone only is longer than previously thought, and more favourable than the other medical treatments that have been used.

Feel free to PM me or ask questions here - if I don't respond though just shoot me a PM to let me know you've posted

I have a little 'retiree' who lives with me and turned 19 in November. He's a bit dottery and arthritic and sleeps like the dead because he's quite deaf. He just potters around during the day and doesn't cause any trouble :)

Does anyone have any idea what might be going on here? Can struvite crystals appear and disappear in the space of 24 hours?

It's difficult to make any conclusions based on the information here.

It's very easy to get 'excited' by the presence of crystals in urine but the context is a very important part of the interpretation. Crystals may be a feature of normal urine and are affected by a variety of other factors in stored urine including storage temperature, time from collection, pH and so on. While they may be a marker of underlying disease they are not a disease in themselves.

Struvite crystals in particular form from supersaturation of the urine with the various salts that are required for their formation, so they can appear in very well concentrated urine as a normal feature (and thus not be present in more dilute urine). They can also form as a result of bacterial infection and often the associated increase in urine pH.

The presence or absence of white cells, red cells and bacteria needs to be considered in teh context of urine concentration and clinical signs and the only way to rule out an infection is to take a sterile sample of urine from the bladder and culture it.

Off the top of my head I think our price for parvo / distemper is about $125, parvo only about $100. I haven't run one for a while so would need to double check but PM me if that is useful :)

I have not seen problems from ingestion / absorption of tea tree oil from shampoos but it is not uncommon for me to see dogs with skin irritation (from mild to severe) after being washed in products containing tea tree or eucalyptus oil.

I have tried explaining that and she just says "It's because he's desexed. The vest says his metabolism decreases by two thirds." Any research that show thats not the case?

Well it is true to some extent but it's also an excellent reason not to feed them as much food....having a dog desexed is a not an excuse to let them become a coffee table on legs.

I've seen these for sale at $2 shops and the like. Is this it?

Yes it is similar to that - thanks. I remember the spikes being different, but perhaps it was the same as it the same colour and the outside covering of the webbing is quite similar. I asked where it came from and didn't really get a straight answer. I thought it was an odd thing to be a 'real' collar and evidently if it's being sold in the bargain shops I wasn't too far wrong.

I saw a dog recently wearing some kind of training collar and I wasn't sure if it had a particular name. It was a webbing and rubber collar, with spiked studs about 1-1.5cm long (rubber ones) on the inside of most of the length of the collar. Is there a particular name for this type of collar so I can refer to it specifically in my notes?

The studs / spikes were similar in shape to these ones.

The best means of keeping the teeth clean are mechanical - daily brushing, dental diets / chews or bones (if you are comfortable feeding them). We seem to be having good results with PlaqueOff but it also needs to be used in conjunction with some mechanical means of cleaning the teeth as it won't just make the plaque fall off by itself :D

No problem I didn't mean that to be terse, I was just flicking through the forums while waiting for dinner to arrive and thought I'd mention it. Clearly lacking the brain function to write a more complete sentence :laugh:

Stella my 3 year old BC has been on Kalma which is Prozac for over a year now.

Kalma is alprazolam, which is the same as Xanax.

If there is a histology diagnosis of microvascular dysplasia, that is probably your 'shunt' - there may not be a visible / identifiable abnormal vessel.