Arthritis is a painful condition

Sure your dog is not howling in pain but dogs aren’t like that. They might be wagging their tails looking to you for attention but that doesn’t mean they are not in pain. 

Make no mistake about it, If your dog limps or is stiff when they get up they are in pain!

Because dogs walk on 4 limbs not 2 it takes a lot more pain for them to limp than it does for us to limp. By the time they become lame they are at a much advanced level of degeneration than us weak 2-legged animals. 

Join us this Saturday the 14th June 2014 at 4pm for a walk out to Kanahooka point and back. 

This is purely a social outing and anyone is welcome to attend. Feel free to bring a friend!! 

Our last walk was a great success and we all had a really great afternoon. It's a fun but relaxing afternoon hanging out with other people that love dogs too!

The role of cartilage

Cartilage is a critical part of joints. It is flexible and is able to stretch and deform when load is applied to the joints. If cartilage doesn't get used it thins out. Thin cartilage can't deform as much and so more load is transferred to the bone. If the joint is arthritic this is particularly painful. 

A good night's sleep can make all the difference. A bad night of sleep can make things 10 times worse!

The type of bedding your dog has can make a big difference to their arthritic joints. Bedding:

What is pet insurance?

It's not life insurance for pets, Pet insurance is medical cover similar to a combination of Medicare and private health insurance in the things that it covers.

Is it worth it?

If nothing ever goes wrong with your pet you will probably feel like it was all a waste. But, when things do go wrong they can be very expensive. In the past week I  have had to refer 2 dogs for surgery with a specialist which will probably end up costing between $3000 and $4000. This is just an average week for us. This sort of scenario is not a rare thing!

People often believe that their dog is not at risk from getting canine cough because their dog "never leaves the yard". The opposite is actually true. The vast majority of dogs I see with canine cough are in this exact situation ie. they have little to no contact with other dogs.

What is canine cough?

Canine cough is an infectious disease of dogs which is also known as kennel cough, or infectious tracheobronchitis. We no longer call it kennel cough because dogs don't need direct contact with other dogs to get it.

Why is my dog scratching? I've already treated it for fleas so it can't be fleas that are causing it.

This is a question I get all the time. Flea control is always important especially if you have an itchy dog but just because there are not alot of fleas present doesn't mean that fleas are not the underlying cause of your dog's itch.

Easter is that time of year when there is alot of chocolate around. While chocolate is yummy and has alot of positives there are 2 things that are bad about chocolate:

1. It makes you fat
2. It is poisonous to dogs and cats

I can't do anything about the first problem for you but I can help you with the second issue. 

How does chocolate poison dogs and cats?

Chocolate contains theobromine which acts as a nervous system stimulant in dogs and cats. Whether or not they are affected depends on:

Patella (knee cap) dislocation

Claire came to us a couple of weeks ago because she was skipping on one of her back legs. She would be running along and hold one back leg up in the air and skip along with the other. This is a common problem in small breed dogs and is caused by a luxating patella or dislocating kneecap.

Oh no! Lily and Maja just chewed a box of rat bait!

Lilly and Maja came in earlier this week as they were found in the yard eating a packet of rat bait. When we suspect a dog may have eaten rat bait if it's within 1 hour of potentially ingesting it we give medications to induce vomiting to empty their stomachs.  This removes as much of the poison as possible to limit the amount that is taken into their circulation. Fortunately the poison contains a dye so it usually quite obvious when they have ingested the bait by looking at the vomit: