Winterpaws

Go on - you know you want a trip to SV

SV????

Espinay - he is a malamute, well that is what he was chipped as. So that might be worth doing more tests as well. I know the vet did the thyroid but I don't think he looked at anything else

Malamutes can be prone to ZRD too so may be worth ruling out.

Glad you plan to do a scraping as it really is the best way to see what is going on - it should at least tell you if and what bacteria is present.

I will ask for that test as well

In the meantime he has attacked his tail and it is red raw and he is in obvious discomfort Not sure what I could put on it tonight to soothe it?

Just gorgeous!!!! As you can see in my sig we have one

What breeder did s/he come from?

Stormies post reminded me that when he went in before the vet had take a sample of tissue in case we needed to do a biopsy in the future. I've just gotten off the phone from him and we will head back down tomorrow morning as he wants to have another look at what is going on and possibly take another sample

I'm going to ask for a course of AB's - it won't hurt him

I think you might be on to something Sas. It makes sense that it is all over and seems to be getting worse rather than better.

I'm tempted to just give him some cephalexin and see if it helps. I have a heap left over from when Tina was sick...... but probably best to get vet to dispense some more

Espinay - he is a malamute, well that is what he was chipped as. So that might be worth doing more tests as well. I know the vet did the thyroid but I don't think he looked at anything else

The first one is his tail and that is after I washed it with some vetadine - the whole top of his tail was a black scabby mess.

The second photo is on his body - he has patches like that all over him. His coat is neat, no matts but it is a lot thinner than he normally has???

I just took some photos

I'm tearing my hair out here trying to work out what is going on with Charlies skin

It started a few months ago when he was chewing at his coat. We went to the vet who saw one flea and we were told it was a flea issue and to treat with comfortis and it should resolve. He also went on some cortisone for about two weeks

But he still kept chewing at his coat. I also noticed that his coat was really thinning from the shoulders back and he has these large dry scabby type sores all over his skin.

Went to a different vet who thought thyroid and we did a blood test. That came back negative and so we were told to put him back on steroids and it was an allergy. I did the steroids for about two weeks but it made him manic so weened him off them. Whilst he was on the steroids he was still chewing anyway

He has stopped chewinh his skin but I just went to groom him and was horrified. The whole top of his tail was a dry scabby sore. When I started grooming through his coat I found more large patches of dry scabby sores. He gets brushed through every other day and I do a big grooming session once a week

I am at a loss as to what is going on. Prior to this he was on a raw diet. They're now eating some eaglepack and I introduced the Bruce Symes omerga oil supplement for skin.

It's not an allergy and it is not fleas (they are all on regular comfortis). Something is causing this scabby dry skin but what??? The vet is going to tell me to put him on steroids but that doesn't fix the problem

Has anyone else come across this???

Brave guy

Stupid woman for walking her dog OFF leash on a day with forecast gale force winds along a pier :D

http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?show...536&hl=pier

I wanted to buy all my cat food and dog food through them but they were just too slow to respond to queries and it worried me a little.

They have a great range though!

To be honest I am really not sure what possessed me to give them bones as I never do because of the issues we have....

He has tried to vomit a couple of times this morning but I think it was just a small piece of bone as did a sharp piece on his bed this morning. Of course this all happens on the day when I don't have my car here....

I'm monitoring him and he looks fine. If he looks like he is going downhill I will try find a friend at home to come take us to the vet

Never again will I do the bone thing - I end up a complete stress head

Oh and I have a kilo of turkey necks left in the fridge

Thanks everyone

He is fine and yes I think he may have swallowed in an awkward way - he scared the bejeesus out of me!!!

I've watched him like a hawk and he is fine - gums look good, bouncing around like his normal self so he should be OK

I gave the boys some turkey necks for dinner tonight. I'm not normally a bone feeder as Charlie can get a bit food posessive but figured with these they could eat them straight away and there would be no remnants to guard

But when he was eating his second one Charlie started yelping and whining. I put the other dogs out and let him out of his crate and he stopped almost straight away and then raced back and ate his last neck.

He seems OK. Gums normal and he had a small drink of water then

Vet said to just keep an eye on him and if he appears to be in discomfort then to take him down

Has anyone else had this happen - just need some reassurance

I think Snooza does one don't they?

For our big dogs and the one who has athritis we bought a cheap cot mattresses from Ikea. Then at Spotlight bought a double bed egg shell foam cover and cut that to fit the two ikea mattresses. Then put a cover over the top of the two. Nice and thick and the dogs love it. Cost about $40 a bed I guess

What do you mean you've tried separation? Have you seen a behaviourist?

If the bulldog begins to shows signs of aggression towards the other dog we separete them - also we sepearte them when they are eating (which is normal) We have not seen a behaviourist - and i dont have the belief that a dog therapist can help resolve aggression issues. I guess i may be naive in that area but i have never heard of it actually working?

So essentially rather than trying everything possible to resolve the issue you are going to pass the buck to someone else by rehoming one of the dogs....

You do realise that if the new home ends up with a DA dog they will more than likely just have the dog PTS.

As i said in an earlier post NO I AM NOT TRYING TO "PASS" my dog onto anyone else because she has a few problems. Hence the reason i logged on here to get professional advice and advice from others that have been through the same thing i dont see that as "passing" on my dog i see that as taking a proactive approach to helping my dog. I absolutely adore my Bulldog and will try anything which is why i logged on here!!!

Well I am truly sorry if your posts don't come across that way but you have been given really sensible advice

a) don't let them run togethor

b) get a behaviorist in to help

You didn't like that advice???

If you follow that advice and you still have issues then my comments would be completely different, but I am responding to what YOU write

Get them some runs or some way to separate them so the fights can't happen and then get some professional help and advice. That will at least give you an unbiased opinion from someone who truly knows the dogs.

If you don't believe in a seeing a behaviorist then I think it is very unfair to move the problem on to someone else.

This is the rule I always lived by when we had rescue and foster dogs - would I trust the dog? Was there any possibility that one day I might read an article in the paper and that dog had attacked another dog, or god forbid a child holding a dog. If you can answer yes then you have to ask yourself whether you can ethically rehome that dog.

I'm not saying give up on your dog - I'm saying you need to do everything to try and work out why the issues are happening and if there is any possible way you can fix them. If it means they live in separate parts of the yard then so be it

What do you mean you've tried separation? Have you seen a behaviourist?

If the bulldog begins to shows signs of aggression towards the other dog we separete them - also we sepearte them when they are eating (which is normal) We have not seen a behaviourist - and i dont have the belief that a dog therapist can help resolve aggression issues. I guess i may be naive in that area but i have never heard of it actually working?

So essentially rather than trying everything possible to resolve the issue you are going to pass the buck to someone else by rehoming one of the dogs....

You do realise that if the new home ends up with a DA dog they will more than likely just have the dog PTS.

You should make a complaint to the ombudsman. It costs you noting to do so.

Another member also had issues getting a pet insurer to pay due to an interesting interpretation of an exclusion (same insurer as CavnRott...) and I beleive she finally had her claim paid after going to the Financial Services Ombudsman.

With these policies you absolutely have to check all your documentation when you receive it. PetPlan had put a broad lameness exclusion on Bundy (horse) because I declared a minor injury where a foreign body got under his skin above his hoof. I queried the exclusion and they did agree to remove it.

Check, check and double check. If your claim is declined, show someone who knows about insurance your paperwork and ask them to look at it for you.

Did your policy schedule state that all skin conditions would be excluded?

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw-...i-1225941432530

IT is a beloved, if highly unusual, pet that a seriously ill girl could no longer care for.

Now her wish to find a new home for Buddy the bearded dragon has been granted thanks to the

work of wildlife volunteers.

The girl, known only as Rachael, walked into the Northern Districts Veterinary Hospital in Sydney

last week wearing a hospital wristband and carrying a hand-written note with instructions on how to

care for her lizard.

The girl is thought to be aged between 17 and 22 and told staff she had travelled from Melbourne

for treatment and was in hospital.

"She was a very nice young lady who was obviously quite upset," vet nurse Tanya Bennett said.

"She was verging on tears and was saying she didn't expect to come out of hospital so had taken

the day to get her affairs in order."

Included in her notes for care was a touching reminder that Buddy "loves to get tucked under his

blankie to sleep" and that he would only drink water after being squirted on the nose with a spray

bottle.

The Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service reptile expert Garry Pattinson has since

adopted the reptile and wanted the mystery girl to know her wish had been granted.

"We tried hard to find out who she is and where she is because we want her to know the animal will

be very well looked after," he said.

"This guy is very sociable, it's obvious he's been very well looked after. He's going to have a very

comfortable life."

It is thought the girl was a patient at the Royal North Shore Hospital but a spokeswoman said it was

impossible to track her down without more information.

Mr Pattinson said that with four-year-old Buddy's five-star treatment, he could live for 20 years,

feeding on crickets and vegetables.

Despite their fearsome name and seemingly spiky "beard", central-bearded dragons are relatively

docile and their rubbery spikes are designed to deter predators rather than do any damage.

Do you know who Rachael is? Contact The Daily Telegraph at [email protected]

Why is that considered expensive? I look at how much a human surgery of the same length of time and really think I am getting a bargain with my animals. I wish ALL vets would charge just a little more!!

I wish ALL vets would charge a little less... not because I have a problem paying them, but because there are many people out there who are not rolling in money and often, the animals don't get desexed because of how expensive it is. $200 to someone making $400 a week is a LOT.

Do you realise how much desexing is already discounted?

To castrate a 30kg dog with us is $250.70 (pain relief, fluids, overnight stay, top of the line monitoring system).

Now if I were to calculate the same operation as if it were a 15min lump removal with an overnight stay, it would start from atleast $375.

I'm sorry, but owning a pet involves costs. What happens if the same animal gets hit by a car and breaks its leg? Should we discount that too because an owner can't afford to pay?

People seem to expect so much from vets. They want the best anaesthetics used, fluids, everything monitored etc to ensure the safest, smoothest surgery, but expect it to come without cost.

;)

A friends dog recently got into some rat bait when they were at another friends property. He had to take Vitamin K daily also.

He's absolutely fine now

Hang in there and I am hoping you have the same positive outcome

That's a pretty high dose for a relatively long time. Are you to wean him down with that dose at all?

We generally start a higher dose for around 5-7 days then reduce the dose for 5-7 days then reduce again.

Orbit (60kg) just gets one 20mg Macrolone every second day and that keeps him under control. He gets a bit thirsty on that dose (0.3mg/kg) so I can imagine what being on almost 2mg/kg would be like!

Is he itchy along his back/ tail base at all? The fact it's under his belly sounds like it could also be more of a contact thing - where his skin comes into contact more due to less hair coverage. But obviously your vet has seen him in person so I wouldn't want to suggest they were wrong etc.

I would start with Phenergan first - the older generation antihistamines seem to have the most success. The dose is 1mg/kg twice a day, which is awesome for you cause they come in 25mg tablets. So just start him on 1 tablet twice a day.

Thanks Stormie. I will keep the cortisone in my box of tricks for now.

Re dosage he said that for 10 days and then we would see what response we had. I only realised how large a dose it was when I saw the old bottle of cortisone that he had 8 weeks ago when he first saw a vet (different vet)

No not itchy along back and base of tail - it is all confined to his sides from the ribs down towards his hip and then all over his groin. He actually doesn't really go on the grass much either - he either lays on concrete or the wooden outdoor table . His outdoor bed is a trampoline bed that is that flea free material and he doesn't use kennels. But the beds in the kennels are flea free as well (Snooza d1000's)

He used the word atopy? I'm just baffled how this has started and he has lived here since he was 6 months old without any issues. Mind you the only difference I can think of is that the garden beds do really really need a weeding - but they are fenced off and he shouldn't be able to get to them

Erny I will try calendula as well. It will be interesting trying to get his coat dry

Erny do you give Calendula orally or as a rinse over the coat? Did you just buy from the health food store?

Rinse over the coat. Allow it to dry on the coat (ie don't rinse off). I think this is worth trying first as IME if it is going to work to ease the itch and redness you should see signs of improvement generally in 24 - 48 hours. Not a long time to wait to see if it is the right management treatment to use, before you go to using chemicals of any kind.

BTW - Calendula can be taken orally - it has good qualities.

I purchase mine from my local Health Food Store. A 50g packet will set you back about $8.20. Although the price varies depending on the brand (and, I find, the prettiness of the packaging).

ETA: When my boy has been really bad (skin wise) I tackled the first application (after I did a 'spot' application to make sure it wouldn't worsen the condition) by running some warm to hot water in the bath tub. About 3 inches deep. I put a fistful (scientific measurement ) of the calendula in the toe of a cut down stocking and tied it off. I left this floating/soaking in the hot bathwater. When the bath water had cooled to tepid (if the weather is warm/hot, cool is ok) and then put my dog in the bath tub. I used the stocking with the soaked calendula as a sponge (of sorts) to soak his coat and skin all over. The water in the tub had of course been infused and was the brewed calendula tea.

A towel dry off and one clean, fresh smelling and far less itchy and more comfortable dog, in my case.

I would need to wait for a warm day as we have a thick double coat which is really difficult to dry!!!!! But I might try a spot application?

I went out to the post office at lunch and put dogs outside - came home and Charlie had two huge chew marks and when I turned him over his whole grin area was covered in an angry red rash.

Went back to vets and he is adamant we need to try steroids. He gave me Microlone and said one 20mg tablet twoce daily for ten days. The poor dog is going to do nothing but drink water and pee if he has that much cortisone

Well, I can give no guarantees but I can tell you that I am happy with the 'stance' I took when faced with a dog covered in several hundred itchy hives (amongst other issues) and vets who wanted to go the antibiotic/cortisone route. Rightly or wrongly - it was my 'punt' ..., I adopted the natural route and wanted to see what I could manage whilst I continued to work on what the cause of my dog's skin issues were. WP, you've probably heard me sprouting the wonders of Calendula Tea baths/washes and how they kept the itchy skin (and potential secondary skin infections) at bay.

I won't say anything to jinx myself (ie my dog) but I can't help but think I've made headway (with A LOT of ups and downs along the way and potentially still in front of us) but I have managed to stay well clear of cortisone and antibiotics with my admittedly only semi-educated approach.

So, with all of that being said and knowing that I'm not advising you (as I can't), I'd try the Calendula Tea. This might at least buy you some extra time to see if you can work out the REASON for the skin issue and be able to deal with that without turning to steroids.

Oh ..... and I don't trust the thyroid testing our Aussie labs do. IMO they aren't thorough enough and rely on the thyroid tissue being destroyed by 70%. Which means that a negative result doesn't necessarily mean that thyroid is not an issue - just means that it hasn't gone on long enough for it to show up in our thyroid results.

Erny do you give Calendula orally or as a rinse over the coat? Did you just buy from the health food store?

Yes, there's nothing at all wrong with trying the natural route first (so long as the dog isn't in misery, in which case steroids can bring great relief). I wouldn't be keen for my dog to be on long term steroids either, unless it was necessary.

About the flea allergy, once a dog is sensitised to the flea saliva, even one flea bite can cause a massive reaction. So it's quite possible that the dog is reacting to a flea bite allergy without you seeing fleas on the dog, especially since this is the most common canine allergy. Have you flea bombed your entire house. & thoroughly decontaminated his bedding, to make sure there are no fleas anywhere?

The idea with flea bite allergy is, to my knowledge, to get rid of all the fleas & give a short course of steroids to break the cycle of itching & scratching. Shouldn't need long term steroids so long as you can completely control the fleas.

& how did the vet determine that this was flea allergy dermatitis? To my knowledge they can normally have a pretty good guess due to the appearance/distribution of lesions on the dog (on the lower back, thighs, belly), plus the history, but you can't know for sure until either the dog responds to flea control or you do intradermal testing.

I think flea allergy dermatitis seems to most logical after ruling out everything else. They did take a tissue sample to test and they also took some bloods. He was showing classic symptoms of a thyroid issue and we were certain tests would come back this was the issue.

He's never had an issue with his skin in the entire time I have had him and now all of a sudden he is chewing his coat out

WP's where are the main itchy areas?

If it is FAD all it takes is one flea bite to cause a big reaction which can take a long time to go away.

And I guess there's also the possibility that if he could have developed a flea allergy that he could also have developed an environmental allergy too.

Cortisone isn't the greatest, but sometimes they can just get skin inflammation from a reaction to something which unless treated, gets worse. So a simple short course of cortisone can break the cycle. Did the problem completely go away with the last course? It may be that it just wasn't long enough so there was still some inflammation which then got worse again after the cortisone.

If it's an all over problem, reality is nothing is going to offer the instant relief that cortisone will. I guess that's why it's used so often because it really is quite often, the only thing that works.

If it's just a more localised area you could use Cortavance Spray which is great because the cortisone isn't absorbed into the blood stream. But obviously if it's an all over problem this isn't going to be very suitable.

I would do an antihistamine trial to see if you can find one that gives some relief and also look at increasing Omegas in the diet to benefit the skin. Alpha Kerri Oil is great for sore inflamed skin and helps to create a bit of a skin barrier too.

Also try the Calendula Tea like Erny suggested - seems a lot o people have success with that.

What a lot of people forget is that skin is an organ. A dog with chronic skin problems (ie long term inflammation) that aren't treated can actually be fatal. Just like having a liver that is infected and inflamed for a long period can be too. Obviously this isn't something that you'd need to worry about, but it's another reason why cortisone and AB's have their place. Unfortunately, I know of a dog who's owners are not treating his chronic allergies and he's dying.

So what are the chances of him still having a flea when there is no sign of the other two dogs or 3 cats having any issue with fleas. Can I try giving him something else along with the comfortis every 4 weeks or should comfortis be enough to work? He's had 3 lots of comfortis over 8 weeks

I did find little red dots on his stomach like something had bitten him - in between his legs along side penis. He is biting all down his sides and leaving bit red sores. The vet said he saw no signs of fleas when he had him under the anaesthetic, neither did the groomer who did him a week earlier.

When this start he was on steroids for two weeks but they really messed around with him. He was drinking a heck of a lot of water and got really bloated

eta - which antihistamines should I try first? He is 24.7kg

Just putting this out to see what other people think and what your experiences are.

Charlie our double coated boy (chipped as a malamute but looks more biscuit samoyed) has a skin issue and I have no idea what is going on. He is 7 years old and we have had him since he was 6 months old and we have never had an issue with him or his skin.

It started about 2 months ago. He had what I thought was a hot spot so we went to the vet. Vet said it wasn't and that he had a flea (yes one) and that it was a flea allergy. So we started him on comfortis and he was on a course of steroids for 2 weeks. It seemed to get better.

In the last week or so he has been chewing at his coat again and his skin looks bright red when you part the coat. None of the other animals are showing any issues that it might be fleas and he has had 3 lots of comfortis over the last 8 weeks. If it is a flea (and I can't see any) then comfortis doesn't work as he only had some on Monday

The vet did some blood tests on Friday as we thought he might have a thyroid issue but they have come back normal and so he thinks it is a flea allergy. His reccomendation is that he will need to go back on steroids. I am a bit loath to put him back on the steroids as they really messed him up when he was on them.

I'm just not sure what to think. He was groomed about two weeks ago and the groomer also saw no evidence of fleas??

Should I give him something else as well as comfortis? Any thoughts on something we could try instead of steroids or how best to manage a dog on steroids.

Thanks!!! All sorted they will send me the right product. Easy mistake to make I suppose with the names a bit similar

Is there a phone number you can contact them on?

They have sent me the wrong product :D