grabonsam

You could try making your own bikkies from Dr Harry's recipe. You can then make them whatever size you like. Mine love em. Great for fresh breath too. Lots of carrot, parsley, bit of natural bran, wholemeal flower and little bit of light mozzarella for flavour. Recipe readily available on line. Just google Dr Harry's dog biscuits.A little bit of extra cooking time makes them nice and hard so they last a bit longer.

Great to see Cooper looking so happy. Must be a big relief for you too.

Please consider making a report to the vet board. It sounds to similar to our situation not to be the same specialist. It didn't help for us, he was found not to have done anything wrong. However, I know he lied in his response to the board - you get to see a summary of the reply. If enough people submit complaints one day the board will take notice. As bad as it is for you both tonight he will get better..

I know EXACTLY what you're going through. When I called the specialist for help I was told by staff the surgeon was not available, "we're are a surgical centre you should see your local vet". I did. Then the emergency vet at Essendon. Both places were shocked at what had been done to my boy. I left several phone messages for the surgeon, he didn't respond for 3 days until after my referring vet had called him and blasted him! (My local vet no longer refers to this pig.) He requested that we return for him to have a look. He kept us waiting for half an hour despite him having made the appointment time! His first comment when he finally cAME OUT TO SEE US WAS i DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE CARRYING ON ABOUT "THE DOG'S NOT DEAD"!!!!! I asked for reimbursement of vet and medication costs (didn't mention the lost wages for a week staying home with him) and was told it was not his fault and that I shouldn't have gone anywhere without his authority - despite being advised by his staff. He called me a liar and told me his staff would never make such a recommendation. Your boy WILL recover I'm sure. But he is going to have a tough time. The skin on my boy just kept going black and shedding, that's why I thought he'd loose his jewels! The severe pain was under control within about a week of tramadol and valium, but pain did linger for a while. The skin on his scrotum took close to a year to really look normal. My heart truly goes out to you and your boy. It's so awful to feel so helpless when you can see how distressed they are.

Yes, he's a beautiful, gentle boy and the universe has dealt him some tough blows! Mongrels who bought him as a puppy had him debarked! I adopted him 7 years ago. He's only 4 weeks post cancer surgery, the tumor margins were clear, so I can only hope that there is no recurrence. He's recovering well, still very tight and sore, but a tough little soldier - well big soldier actually, he's a big, old style border collie. I'm sure your boy will get better, he's having a rotten time too! All the best.

Emergency vet at Essendon gave my boy Tramadol injection, followed with tablets for about a week for severe clipper rash on his scrotum. Also gave him antibiotics, valium and a topical local anesthic /cortisone cream. Poor boy was in agony! Never seen him so distressed.Thought at 1 point that he might have to be castrated just to add insult to injury!. It took him a very long time to recover. Once he was no longer in severe pain (several days), I used bepanthan - the one that looks creamy not the oily one that looks like ointment, there are 2 varieties of bepanthan. It definately helped him, He'd been clipped for TPLO which he didn't need as arthroscopy showed no injury to the ligament. Went through it all for nothing.So called 'specialist' claimed it was my boys 'sensitive skin' and nothing to do with the job done on him. However, he has been clipped since for other things with not even a little pimple! Most recently was very large area for removal of large soft tissue sarcoma which has basically been removal of muscle and skin from outside almost entire thigh, and large rotation flap to repair the defect. Different specialist to before.. Huge area clipped including groin, abdo, inner and outer thigh - again, not even a mild rash. I see others here have had bad experience with prep for major surgery, would be interesting to know if was the same surgeon/specialist - perhaps he has become a little complacent now he has a big reputation! I wouldn't allow him to give a vaccination after our experience!!!! Hope all goes well for your boy. Just get him some strong pain relief.

Beaufort House Adelong NSW This beautiful old building has 4 motel rooms attached where dogs are allowed to stay inside. There is a small park across the road and plenty of grassy areas to for a walk. Adelong is about a 15 minute drive off the Hume and is a lovely, quiet alternative as a stoppover on the way to Sydney. Cynthia is a very friendly hostess and makes the best coffee outside Melbourne. www.beauforthouse.com.au

Beaufort House Adelong NSW This beautiful old building has 4 motel rooms attached where dogs are allowed to stay inside. There is a small park across the road and plenty of grassy areas to for a walk. Adelong is about a 15 minute drive off the Hume and is a lovely, quiet alternative as a stoppover on the way to Sydney. Cynthia is a very friendly hostess and makes the best coffee outside Melbourne. www.beauforthouse.com.au

I need to travel from Melbourne to Sydney in August. For comfort reasons (for 1 border collie) I need to break up the trip. Does anyone know of a motel or B&B about half way between the 2 cities? I'm only interested in truly dog friendly places, not places that consider a fenced yard and kennel to be friendly! I'll be travelling with 2 borders who are very well mannered and used to sleeping inside.

There's a woman in Cranbourne who has a great reputation with dogs and has been treating them for many years I think she comes to the pet store in Newport once a month as well. One of my friends thinks she's fabulous. There's another in Sydenham who treats dogs - not sure how much experience. I can hunt down names and numbers if you want.

Does anybody know how much TNS testing costs if one parent is a carrier?

One of my mates got the implant for her boy to prevent puppies until she was sure about breeding. The vet told her it would prevent him from making puppies for 12 months. Unfortunately it failed the first time the girl came in to season. He is now the proud father of seven!!!

My 26kg, 6 yr old boy has used it. 50mg 2-3 times a day for a week. No adverse side effects, just a bit drowsy for a few hours, and it provided great pain relief for him. I was very impressed at how well it worked for him.

Mobic, the 2 legged equivelent, comes in 15mg tabs, and costs about $19 for 30 tabs. A 40 kg 4 legged would only require about 4mg I think, ie 0.1mg/kg. Not sure if the mobic comes in different strengths, but it does require a prescription.

Thanks for replies. I'll call Mark and ask if he can recommend someone in Melbourne. I might take my boy to see Wing Tip and get an opinion from him, someone has to be able to work things out and get him comfy and active again.

Thanks CavsRcute, unfortunately I'm in Melbourne. I wonder if Mark could reccommend someone down here? It sounds like it could be worth a try as the metacam doesn't seem to make a difference here either.

My BC boy hurt himself at the park 11 weeks ago. Local vet thought he had a partial cruciate, so rest & metacam. He's also had accupuncture & chiro treatment but continues to put mimimal weight on the leg when he's standing still. However, he can fully weight bear on the leg to pee, can stand on his 2 back legs with his front legs in the air (this is NOT encouraged, but sometimes happens!), runs and jumps at birds and planes in the back yard and several other weight-bearing things that don't seem to bother him. He uses both legs to scratch the grass to cover his scent when he's used his bowels and doesn't seem to have any problem with that either. When he lies down on his side he often gets a lot of strong (kick action) muscle spasm in the whole leg, and smaller finer spasm in his outer thigh muscles - towards the top of his leg. He's had an arthroscopy, done by a specialist - with the expectation of TPLO surgery to follow. However, the report after the arthroscopy was that the cruciate was intact and the knee was pristine, no inflammation in the joint, all bone ends normal, patella normal, couldn't find anything wrong. His lower back, hips and hocks have been x-rayed by another specialist, with no problems evident. The knee x-rays showed maybe a small effusion in the sore knee and maybe small changes at the bottom of the patella - yet the arthroscopy showed patella and knee to be normal! He's been only lead walking for all this time and he's used to spending over an hour playing with his mates in the park so he's doing it hard. So far my bank account is a few grand lighter, but my boy is still resting the leg whenever he's still and still getting a lot of muscle spasm. He's been to a very reputable physio, who found a lot of tightness in his back and thigh muscles, which she's been able to help, but without a difinitive diagnosis doesn't want to continue treatment - which is fair enough, as it hasn't changed the problem with the leg. We're both VERY keen to get back to our normal routines in the park, so is his little sister! I'm very reluctant to let him off lead while he still has the spasms and rests the leg when he's still. Does anybody have any suggestions as to what might be the problem or what alse to do? Thanks.

Hi, I've lived with a diabetic border collie girl. Prior to diagnosis she needed to pee 3-4 times overnight and was drinking heaps, fortunately she was able to give a quick bark to wake me when she needed to go out. After a week on insulin she slept through, didn't need to go out at all over night. If your vet is on the ball it really shouldn't take more than a few weeks to get reasonable diabetic control with insulin injections. Once the blood sugar is controlled, the excessive thirst settles - less drinking, less peeing. It's probably worth a visit to a vet who has plenty of experience with diabetes management just to get things under control. I was doing my own blood testing and adjusting insulin doses myself, with minimal assistance from the vet. But I've had a lot of experience with diabetes. My girl also went blind, but she coped brilliantly and walked without a lead as long as I kept talking so she knew where I was. Happy to 'talk' via the private email thingy whatever it's called if there's anything I can help with.

My BC boy has a fantastic thick, long, shiny coat. He eats sardines in OLIVE oil twice a week, not any of the other varieties. He is bathed in either plush puppy natural body building shampoo or aloveen. He usually gets a light rub down with the aloveen leave in conditioner. Swell so fresh once he's dry. Not sure if it's his diet/cleaning regime or if he's just incredibly lucky. Like odin-genie above I get heaps of compliments about his coat and other BC humans in the park asking how I get his coat to look like it does. Good luck

No idea what's wrong with his leg, but he doesn't go back to the specialist until monday week to get the stitches out and for further assessment. I don't think the cotton wool would work, as he fibres would get stuck on some areas that are a bit weepy, but thanks for thinking of him.

I'm a bit worried about using the zinc oxide, isn't it hard to clean off? Also, are you still able to see the skin clearly to assess, or does it leave a white residue. Can it make him sick if he does lick at it a bit?

We had exactly the same experience with our tibbie girl when she had an exploratory procedure under general anaesthetic, to check her anal glands for cancer. The specialist vet asked me before the operation, did she have any other conditions. I said she had a strong tendency to skin allergy. After the operation, all around her rear end was exactly the same as your boy's. I can only think that the hair was shaved right down to the skin & then copiously swabbed with anti-bacterial stuff. And the combination had appalling consequences for her skin. In fact, it looked exactly like serious burns. She screamed in agony. Vet gave us neotopic....but she still screamed in agony. Finally, like you, we got to another vet who gave anti-inflammatories, anti-biotics & something for the pain. Also neotopic-H cream. It was a horrible experience for that little dog....the severe pain & distress went on for days. Took a couple of weeks to get close to being normal. I couldn't even say that it had been an necessary operation. The specialist vets said there could be cancer...yet the only evidence was her glands were blocked. I asked could it simply be impacted anal glands. Well, she had the op....with the results showing no cancer....but the anal gland was impacted. Like I'd suggested. We were extremely annoyed.....having paid around $800 for an operation which had not even been needed, but resulted in agony for our little one, as a consequence. Interestingly, when the vet who finally gave emergency aid for her, phoned that vet hospital for specific info.....they had no mention of the anal gland surgery, nor of the serious skin consequences on their records. Frankly, I think they were worried they'd get sued. I understand your frustration. The operation cost me $2200, to just to find out his knee was fine. So far I've speant another &300 on vet consultsand medication, with probably more to come, also, baby sitting costs and lost pay from missing work to take care of him adding about another $600 so far, and we're not done yet.