Hubcitypam

e-mail me -- Houndkeeper@sbcglobal.net

The file on mine is pretty much worthless -- I never use it. Mine was from King Wholesale and they are out of the large ones, so maybe they are no more.

Petco and Petsmarts use drying cages, as well as other groomers. It enables them to do more dogs as opposed to hand drying. The dog is put in a steel kennel like the ones at the vet's office and a hose blowing hot air is hung on the front. The steel can hold the heat very well. The very first thing I do when I call a new groomer for Poodle is ask if they use drying cages. Even if they say no, I still ask to look before I leave when dropping him off.

Sounds perfectly logical to me. Treatment puts a major stress on the dog and the heat might add to it, especially if she leaves him outside a lot in the summer. Some dogs with health issues that couldn't stand the shock of the treatment are treated using Heartgard.

If herniated is the same as ruptured, then they do show up on x-rays...or at least that is what the neurologist used to help diagnose Rex's. A disc had ruptured between his shoulder blades making him lame in both fronts. Rex's had ruptured into his spinal column and was inoperable. We tried rimadyl, tramadol, metacam and deramaxx (at 150 a day). The deramaxx was the only thing that gave him any relief at all. In the end we even tried morphine which he fought terrifically. Would certainly get to a neuro to see about a prognosis.

Ticks are creepy nasty critters, but they don't have anything to do with heartworm. It's spread by mosquitoes..... I think some vets in the <5 cases per clinic per year are on that map don't push it...in fact, I had one tell me I was crazy for asking for Heartgard when I was in one of those areas. I know Elaine told me that in Albuquerque it is heavily recommended on the "wet side" of the mountains and not so much on the "dry side"...and that map would bear that out. However, with something as serious as heartworms better to be safe than sorry.

My vet is not a big fan either -- he certainly doesn't push it. He said it works on less than half the strains out there and they are constantly morphing. Poodle got it when he went to the groomer at another vet. That vet only gave it once a year but insisted that the injected form worked better on adult dogs

See Aarons post above -- he'll send you some for the cost of postage!

Wouldn't 2T. or so be considered a supplement rather than a food source?

Dreamaxx worked far better than anything else for Rex, but his pain was pretty severe. It is supposed to be very hard on the gut, but we never had any issues in that area, even though he had an iffy tummy. I could be torally wrong, but Deramaxx seems like a bit of overkill for arthritis to me. Rex was 90# and was on 100mg then we went up to 150. The generic cost us almost $4 a 100mg. pill.

Would be interesting to know more. A DVM has given me donated meds for my foster Kenny....

Oh Boy -- does this bring to mind the infamous "hohoo thread". Cracks me up every time. Especially Greenstgreys answer in post #21... http://forum.greytalk.com/index.php?showto...0&hl=Hoohoo

we have some shrubs/small trees growing on the fence line that I periodically cut back. Poodle and Buck occasionally graze on one in particular but I've never given it much thought, except to notice that they never throw up afterward. When we were in Abilene and Buck was upset he made a beeline to a similar plant and started grazing like a cow, ripping leaves off with gusto. I asked our host the next day what it was and he said it was a small elm of some kind. Turns out the grazing plant of choice is slippery elm which is good for digestion. Odd how they know what to go for.

Oh no! Mabel you were a good mommy....

You are supposed to be able to do it immediately, but old timers have told me it doesn't work as well on a clean dog. A lot of people say wait two days before or after a bath. The Frontline can go on a couple of days late too...

Shutting down grooming and obedience classes doesn't really sound so simple to me. Arron, in the CDC conference they had said they had been working on a vaccine for a couple of years. What is the usual time frame from inception to mass produced widely distributed effective vaccine? Surely a lot longer than a Poodle could go without grooming.

It is advisable that dogs be kept away from each other until an effective vaccine is available. This means NO DOG PARKS, NO INDOOR GROOMING, NO BOARDING KENNELS, NO GROUP DOG TRAINING CLASSES. That seems a bit over the top -- actually the entire "Sky Is Falling" tone of the alert is. Good grief, after all these years there really isn't an effective vaccine for kennel cough -- how soon do they think researchers can pull an effective flu vaccine out of the air? It would have to be months or years. Poodle would be pretty darn fuzzy after a few months with no grooming. The CDC hearing link doesn't sound very dire -- Only a minority of dogs, a small number of dogs, experience complications such as pneumonia, just like the humans infected with influenza, certain populations of humans are more prone to development of pneumonia. And it's a small number of humans compared to everyone else. So that is the same with canine influenza virus. It's a small population of dogs that will develop complications, most likely bacterial complications and these dogs do need to be--have their treatment supervised by a veterinarian... And lastly, I want to emphasize most of all that this is not the deadly virus that certain sources have played it up to be. We have a very low mortality rate. And this is a disease that I would characterize as one of high morbidity and low mortality. Thank you.

I LOVE rib tips. Probably no worries as you are right they are not as splintery. Still, you might sleep better if you got some bread in him...and the other hoodlums have to have some too. They told me to tell you to make a bread run.

before greyhounds I had a yorkie and a cat that conspired to open the cabinet door and get KFC wing bones out of the trash and they lived to tell the tale. Can you scoot to the QT and get bread in some form?...maybe play let's make a deal for a couple of hot dog buns?

load him up with bread and you should be fine.

Rex came up lame in both fronts. We took tons of x-rays and went to the specialists (both neuro and ortho) who could not find anything and he kept getting worse and worse. Against my vets advice (he has much more faith in acupuncture saying it has a far better proven clinical track record ) and upon others recommendations we sought out an AVCA vet who was not only a DVM but an instructor at the college here. We went several times but quit after a month because 1.) it was not working and 2.) I could no longer stand to watch mellow mellow Rex scream and lash out during his adjustments. Finally my vet said he was positive that the problem was dead center between his shoulder blades so he took one more set of x-rays and back to the neuros and orthos we went. That time they saw the problem. They said they were 90% sure it was something called a Smorls (sp?) nodule which is where a disc ruptures into the spinal column and is inoperable. They said there was a 10% chance it was GME, which had an equally dire prognosis. The specialist said they JUST happened to have an opening for a $1,200 MRI in 30 minutes if I'd take it right then...if not the wait might be a month before they could schedule him again. Suddenly I felt like I was at an auto dealer. I asked for a second and called my vet who said that an MRI would be academic and a waste of money as either way there was really not much that could be done. Rimadyl did nothing for Rex. Then we tried Tramadol, Metacam, Duramaxx and finally Moraphine, which he did not tolerate well at all. Hope Buddy is feeling better soon.

Buck broke his toe (simple frature clean break) a year or so ago and my vet did not want to even splint it...but maybe he is in the minority. He said he was hesitant to splint broken toes as it transfers the pressure higher up the leg. . He just had me keep him on some pain meds until it felt better. Hope he is doing OK and keep us posted.

Yes, it could be vaccine related or it might just be a co inky dink. I wouldn't wig out over one tossed breakfast --just keep an eye on him for more vomiting and/or blood.

Godspeed pretty girl.