DMA

Great to hear she's well & truly on the mend. She'll be back to digging huge holes, eating kitchen spoons, & everything else she usually does before you know it

They're the best vets to have. My vets are the same. In fact they all know my pack too! To top it off one wants my Alice & another wants my Maze! Well they aren't getting them!

Well all I can say is I hope those other "vets" have gone broke by now...

I don't blame you at all for going nuts at them as that's really irresponsible of the vet(s) in question. I'd be moving vets, if it happened to me, but I know the ones I go to wouldn't pull that stunt. I demand the "real" C5 because, due to my pound volunteer work, my pack would be at serious risk considering what I get exposed to - especially Parvo.

Poor girl. I hope she recovers soon. Kennel cough can be caused by at least three viruses &/or Bordetella. Furthemore there are a couple of variants of Bordetella as well although bronchiseptica is the main villian I'm told. As for life span, etc, well it depends which virus or bacteria we're talking about. Distemper & parainfluenza, for example, can only survive a few hours, but Bordetella can last up to months. Transmission for all of these virus/bacteria can be aerosol & physical contact from what I understand. And humans can be carriers.

Depends what vet you go to I know 2 who dont do Parinfluenza and Bordetella in their C5. you have to get a C7 to get them both Really? Well that's really misleading of them considering it's pretty much an industry standard of what's in C5. I know of several bording kennels who demand all dogs have C5 vaccination. And I'd bet good money they wouldn't be impressed kennel cough isn't being vaccinated against. Nor would I & I'd move to a different vet if they tried to pull that stunt (not that the ones I go to would).

Antobiotics are given because kennel cough can be caused by a couple of viruses &/or Bordetella bronchiseptica which is a bacteria. And considering Bordetella is rather common, if the dog has kennel cough caused by one of the viruses, it can get considerably worse if Bordetella kicks in as well. Now antibiotics maybe useless against a virus, but it can deal with Bordetella (& any secondary infections caused by other bacteria). Needless to say the C5 vaccine covers Distemper, Hepatitis, Parvovirus, Parainfluenza & Bordetella. PS: Paws crossed for a speedy recovery Clairyebell. It sounds like you're doing everything you can, so there's no reason why your little girl won't recover. My Maze got it, a few weeks ago after I adopted him from the pound, & has fully recovered.

It's not kennel cough from my experience. My Maze, after only a few days coming home from Wyong pound, after his initial adoption , had kennel cough real bad. Essentially it sounded like vomiting followed by a large amount of mucus being "vomited" (or more precisely as being coughed up) in front of him. This went on for a few days, even after seeing the vets & getting antibiotics etc. Futhermore then my Digger got the same thing, even with vaccine protection, nonetheless he came down with the same thing. In truth I don't know what your dogs has. But the number one thing here is to see your vet tomorrow morning. My golden rule is whenever there's blood it's serious. So see your vet.

My experience of having cattledogs as companion dogs is that their behaviour is varied according to individual dogs. For example the recent ones of the family... Anzac is happy-go-lucky type & will get along with everyone. Smokie is wary of strangers & keeps his distance, but won't attack unknown humans although he may become aggressive with unknown dogs albeit it depends what the dog in question is doing. Max was aggressive to any strange human or dog outside of the house &/or yard, but just kept his distance if an unknown person was in the yard or house, but was very suspecious of strange dogs in the yard or house. Digger is like Anzac. And the new boy is an unknown quantity, at the moment, because I've only had him a week. He comes across as a happy-go-lucky type but he has had one serious fight with my Athena (which he didn't start I might add).

Basically cattledogs rush in where kelpies fear to tread. :D Actually kepliechick is probably the person to ask here as she has much experience with all three breeds.

They certainly are regardless of them being blue or red. It's said they are born white due to the Dalmatian in them.

Great photos everyone! That bridge one at sunset is great as are the waterfalls & so many others! Now given winter has really hit us, here's a couple of photos to warm everyone up... my dogs were certainly nice & warm last night!

Oh my. Oppppssss Please forgive me Sasha! They do seem so adorable together though

Oh these are so cute It looks like Sasha is being a good foster mum too!

I use Frontline on all four of my dogs & it's usually great. The thing is, though, you've got to use it every month. In the case of a dog already infected with fleas, as I've had done in the past when I switched to Frontline, you may have to use Frontline in conjunction with a more immediate treatment such as flea powder, flea shampoo, &/ or a short dose of pills such as Capstar.

I know my dad, years ago, tried to use one once, but the dogs ignored him using the whistle pretty much completely...