What would you do when your dog bites your friend?

On Friday I had a very distressed Man ring up to say that his dog has just bitten his neighbour and she had to go to hospital for treatment as there where several puncture marks. Apparently his wife was letting someone through the front gate and the dog got out and rushed forward and bite the neighbour. Now he was asking my advice did he have to euthanise the dog? Legally I do not think you have to, but you know you have dangerous dog on your hands and you could never be sure that it would never happen again. He decided to bring the dog down straight away for euthanasia. He was very upset and I can totally understand why, that would be the hardest things to do to let your beloved dog go because he bite someone. The dog was staffy cross and was happy and relaxed in the consultation room. The man could not decide whether to be present at the euthansia but eventually he decided to be with dog. First time we tried to hold the dog he went to bite me, which made everybody more nervous so we had to put a muzzle on the dog. We then euthanised the dog, checked the heart had stopped and then we helped him carry the dog out to the car, the owner was still very upset. I really felt for the guy but I think he did the right thing.

Ruff ruff bites another dog

Yesterday, I took the dogs for another walk down behind our houses. I normally walk them down to behind the houses on a lead, then when I check there is no one around I let them off for a run. I think it is the best thing to see them running free. Normally we never see anyone down there, but yesterday Ruff ruff ran ahead of me around the corner, then suddenly I heard a man yelling and our dogs running back towards me. The man yelled at me that Ruff ruff had bitten his dog ( a fluffy white dog) The evidence was clear Ruff ruff had fur in her mouth. I was very sorry for the guy and annoyed at Ruff ruff. It is awful to have your own dog attacked by another. Thankfully there was no damage and the guy calmed down. I am not sure why Ruff Ruff attacks other dogs, I think it is out of fear. I suppose I must be much more careful where I let them off the lead. Officially the only place you can do this is at a dog park, but Ruff ruff does not do well at all at Dog parks. I am unwilling to always have them on a lead as watching the dogs run, and knowing that they will always follow you is one of the great joys of owning a dog.

Death of a family pet.

Last Saturday my auntie to rang to tell me that their dog had been admitted to hospital, with a swollen painful abdomen. The Vet was now advising them to transfer to an after hours center for intensive care over the weekend, the bill could have been in thousands of dollars. What should they do? This is always a difficult question, but harder when it is about a family pet that I could not see.
I rang the vet hospital where the dog was staying and spoke at length with the vet on duty about the case. There was no way they where going to spend thousands of dollars at an after hours center, but there was the possibility the dog might get better by just staying on a fluid line. I suggest The dog stay at the hospital without supervision. It was against the policy of that vet hospital, but as long as the owners understood that it would be okay. On Sunday the dog seemed brighter and was able to go for a walk. They where very hopeful that he might go home the next day. But Monday came and the dog was a lot worse and they decided to euthanize. I felt sad for them and so much more involved as I knew that dog. It also made me wish I had my own vet hospital so that I could have helped treat the dog.

Value of pet loss sympathy card

I was looking at Parkridge Animal Hospital on the web, and I noticed they had a review

Park Ridge Animal Hospital is a fantastic...‎

By carpet - 22 Aug 2008

place to take your pets. I had to have my 12 year old cat put to sleep a few weeks ago. They were very caring and they sent us out a hand written card a few days later, with their sincere condolences for our beautiful cat. I would recommend anyone to take their ...‎

www.truelocal.com.au/business/...animal-hospital/park-ridge.

To me it shows that end of a pet life is so important, and people often remember vets for the smallest of gestures. This really encourages me to continue to promote pet loss cards

I was sent this email today about the intelligence of dogs. I think we all believe our dogs are smart, it is great when there are studies that demonstrate that.

Dogs Think Similarly to Young Children and Can Learn Words, Counting Skills and More

Dogs have an intellectual capacity similar to that of a two-year-old human child, researcher and author Stanley Coren said at a presentation to the 117th annual convention of the American Psychological Association.

"One of the most recent breakthroughs is that people began to use tests which were originally designed for young humans -- for pre-linguistic or limited-linguistic humans -- to see whether dogs had certain capacities," Coren said. "And that allows you then to do a whole bunch of things, not only to determine whether a dog has a certain thinking skill but to place him in terms of where would you be in terms of human beings, as well as in terms of other animals."

According to Coren, who has written more than a dozen books on understanding dogs, recent studies have confirmed that the animals have a higher cognitive capacity than scientists had thought. They are able to learn the meaning an average of 165 words, including hand signals; the record for most words learned tops 200. Coren said that dogs are also capable of performing basic arithmetic that involves counting up to four or five, and that they have been shown to intentionally deceive humans or other dogs.

Coren also reported on studies comparing the intelligence of different breeds of dogs. He noted that there are three different kinds of dog intelligence: instinctive intelligence, which is highly breed-dependent; adaptive intelligence, which involves problem-solving and learning from the environment; and working and obedience, which involves trainability.

According to measures of working and obedience intelligence only, the top seven "smartest" dogs are border collies, poodles, German shepherds, golden retrievers, dobermans, Shetland sheep dogs and Labrador retrievers. The hounds have the lowest degree of obedience intelligence.

"We all want insight into how our furry companions think, and we want to understand the silly, quirky and apparently irrational behaviors [that] Lassie or Rover demonstrate," Coren said. "Their stunning flashes of brilliance and creativity are reminders that they may not be Einsteins but are sure closer to humans than we thought."

Note: I taught my son to read at 8 months. At one year he had 50 word reading and vocabulary skills. Animals tend to remember what causes an emotion in them, like food or attention. 'Dog Beach' is a good example so remember this if you intend on training your take to talk or read!-)

Sources for this story include: www.usatoday.com; www.apa.org.

Overweight owners own overweight dogs

I found this article in the Australian newspaper this weekend.

Strange but true

THE adage that dogs look like their owners is true, at least when it comes to being overweight. Researchers weighed dogs and cats and their owners at a veterinary clinic. There was a strong link between the dogs' weight and the body mass indexes of their owners: fat dogs were more likely to have large owners. In contrast, the cats' weights weren't related to their owners', the study in Public Health Nutrition showed. Does this reflect cats' independence?

Public Health Nutr

2010;13:102-106

(Nijland M, et al)

This finding does not suprise me much at all. There is so much more need to control dogs eating and exercise habits. Dog owners can much more easily control how much food they give out and how much walking they do. In contrast it is very diifiuclt to exercise a cat or even refuse a demanding cat food. In saying this vets also need tobe very sensitive when talking about overweight dogs

another busy day at work in the life of a vet

I knew it was going to be another busy day when I arrived to find 3 patients waiting for me. The first patient was a dog already in heart failure now drinking excessively, I took bloods and sure enough it had elevated urea and creatine, most likey renal failure but the owner was keen to start treatment , so we placed the little dog on fluids. that was only the beginging of the day, we had to euthanasie a dog that was a long term client, we had treated the dog for everything from cushing, diabetes, vestibular syndrome, arthritis and many other condtions. it always especially sad when you know the dog. we had a 4 week old kitten suffering from neurological signs, apperently they had taken it to a pet shop and they had placed a spot flea treatment onto a small kitten, the next day the kitten was showing neurological signs. unfortunealty the the people had no money to treat the kitten at all, euthanaisa was the only option they where heart broken. I have noticed there is no warning to not treat very young kittens, just advice not to. Next we had two puppies with vomiting and diarrohea, one tested positive for parvo and the other negative, the puppies where 6 months old and never vaccinated, also full of fleas. again after much discussion they euthanasised the sick puppy and took the other one home, again much tears and angusih. ahh the life of a vet!

Aussie, our cat's birthday today

Our Cat Aussie turned 9 years old today, well it was exactly 9 years ago that we found a little kitten near the milk factory after the Australia Day celebrations at Southbank. Aussie has certainly used up several of his lives, being bitten by a snake, hit by a car, and has been in several nasty cat fights. So it is great to be able to celebrate his birthday today. We gave Aussie a tin of smoke tuna and plenty of attention. I hope we have many more birthdays with Aussie.

Home from Holidays,

We came home to find that one of our gold fish had died, well I thought he looked like he was going to die many years ago as he had a tumour hanging out of his head. But I think it was cleaning the fish tank well just before we left that might have been too much. We bought these fish when Patrick was born, almost 6 years ago. Jim our house sitter did a great job looking after our pets, he put the Goldfish in the freezer. So when we arrived home we had a little funeral for the fish and we buried him in the front garden along with other fish. All our other pets look well, in fact Rainbow our Labrador appears very fat. No more treats for Rainbow. I think it was a very good thing having a pet sitter as they did not have to go into kennels