.com Forum · Real Show Dogs

KrazeeFoxx, I PMed you.

And I'll change my wording in the future so that it doesn't seem like I'm telling people to do something without actually investigating the matter for themselves.

-Jillian

True and with that said...

People have been giving home vacs for years, and years. It's not something to be scared of. And it's not so comlicated! You have to learn the how to's and Do nots...but you can learn.

On the diet topic:

Does your vet sell commercail dog food at his clinic? If, so do you really think he's going to tell you another more healthy way to feed when he can push commercail dog foods on you?

Our Vets don't seem to trust us to know how to take care of our own pets. I agree that not everyone can make home ration deits.l don't know how, But those who do...and put the time and efort into feeding there dogs a NON-commercail diet...CONGRATS!
I myself don't. Because its a bit more exspensive, and with 3 young children I have to watch money.

I love my vet, but some are just jerks whehn it comes to people looking to try to do things for themselves. Of course it hard for them to know which people are educated enough to try.

~Mandy

quote

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posted by KrazeeFoxx
Jillian- you are a child so 1/3 of your life does not carry much weight. You are still in high school.

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This is an incredibly immature statement. Are you sure you're not in high school? I can't tell at this point...



Julie

Edited to remove bold...
Okay so I'm a bad speller as well...

lol, Julie - and I'm actually not in high school.

I'm in college.


Mandy - very good points

-Jillian

Thank you, I always love a good debate. ~wink~

~ Mandy BRK

Having worked at a clinic who "pushed" things on clients, I take everything that comes out of a vets mouth with a grain of salt.

I recently had to take a dog in for OFA and blood work, it was my first time at this particular clinic and came highly recommended from other breeders. Theyre counter staff was EXTREMELY ignorant, and acted as though they had never worked in an animal field. I was appaled that they would hire people with no animal knowledge to answer the phones and talk with customers. So much so that I complained to the supervisor and was very close to never returning. The actual vet staff was wonderful, did awesome xrays and were very fast.

My son went through a very tough illness when he was an infant, we went to many different doctors, emergency rooms, specialists and not one could diagnose him correctly, and the illness persisted for nearly 8 months. I took my sons health into my own hands, and within a week he was 110% healthy. I did tons of research, found a specialist out of our health care network , and demanded that my insurance still covered the new specialist. Sure enough after all of my research I found what I thought was the cause of my sons illness, took him to the new specialist, and he got better immed.

I dont care what kind of accreditations one holds, I never have and never will. We have a world of information at our fingertips, and a little research will take you a long way. I DO vaccinate my own pets, feed a partially raw diet, and natural supplements. Our vets at work think im crazy...I think they're ignorant.

Tawny

Hi
I give my own vacines to my 11 dogs. It is very simple my mother is a registered human nurse and it is very easy to do. You need to make sure that you give the right ones there are some that can be fatal to certain breeds (ex. lepto is fatal to dachsunds). They are very easy to get through dog magazines. It tells you everything that is in the shot the only thing is, is that you have to buy 25 at a time. But you can get them through your vet if you have a scipt for them then you can buy individual doses. Vacine giving is fine as long as you no what you are doing. Just for everyones info in every state a registered DVM has to give rabies to both cats and dogs. This is a shot that cannot be admistered at home as it comes with a certificate that has to be signed by a vet. Just as long as your pups get into the vet at least once a year for a check up it is fine. You might want to do some research on vacines that you absoluty have to give. There is certain vacines like the vacine for Limes Deases that is not nesary in some areas. Over vacinated can be harmful and alot of vets will over vacinate to get money from you. As far as the whole know your vet thing! A good vet will asist you in getting and teaching you how to vacinate your animals. I saves a trip for you to the vet and min. the potentail for your pet to pick up some kind of virus or deases at the vet. And going to the vet can some times stress your animal out. This is my opion my friends are in vet school and I will be going to be a vet soon as well.

I do my own vaccines (not rabies, as only vets can do those)... I also have some emergency adreline (sp?) in case of a bad reaction...

It was one of my vets that got me doing my own vaccines, even told me where to get them...

I friend of mine that has been breeding dogs for over 40 years did her own puppy vacs last year... 3 out of the 5 pups had bad reactions and she nearly lost them... She rushed them to the vet... She'll never do her own again... But those pups would have had the same reaction had the vet given the vaccines...

If you want to do your own vacs, talk to your vet, they can show you the proper way to handle and prepare the shot and the proper way to administer.

Jen

Wow, this topic has become quite the heated debate. I don't often post lately here but thought that I would post now. I have cats and dogs.....right now it seems that my show cats have been more in the fore front than my dogs since I have a litter of kittens right now.

I must say that I vaccinate my kittens myself routinely and intend to do the same when I have my first litter of pups. I am not schooled in veterinary medicine nor do I claim to be a professional in that area however I am a trained human medical assistant and am very comfortable with needles etc.

I do believe that dogs and cats should visit a vet on a regular basis but I am not of the belief that a vet has to give the injections. Rabies of course is a different story and the law requires that it be given by a licensed vet.

I feed a strictly raw diet and it is correct that most vets do not agree with this approach however it works for my dogs and my cats, most vets don't necessarily agree with alot of different thing that show/performance owners and breeders do with their dogs but we are the ones that know our animals the best....we are the ones that are with them everyday.

As far as frequency of vaccines is concerned it is now recommended that vaccine boosters be given every 3 years . That is right 3 years not every year. It has been proven that over vaccination has probems as well as under vaccinating. My 2 year old boxer has had all her puppy shots and her first set of boosters....she will now get titres yearly. I am not sure why you would think that titres needed to be done monthly to insure that the dog was properly immunized. If a dog is as immune as Jillian's dog is I am sure that one month later he will not be totally susceptable to disease.

Of course this is just my 2 cents. I believe it is important to find a vet that you can trust but I also believe that we as owners know our dogs more than anyone else. Even moreso as owners of show/perfomance animals. We spend a great deal of time with these guys and we always know when something is wrong even if a vet may not see a problem if our dog is not acting like itself it is us who catches it not our vets.

Jennifer Herr
Terregale Boxers
Terregale American Curls

Sorry Jillian, just wanted to comment on the rude remark,

Julie

My mom is a Tech and we give all our vaccinations exluding rabies at home to our 5 dogs and 3 cats. Its really no different injection wise than giving a diabetic dog insulin. Some dogs do react to vaccines but they will do it no matter who gives the vaccine. I also work at a boarding kennel that offers bordetella and distemper vaccines. So when dogs come in that need them I give them their shots also.

Our dogs don't go to the vet annually for a checkup although they do go to work with me regularly. We keep a close eye on all of our dogs and know even if the slightest thing is off. We just call our vet if something is strange and he tells us what to give them becuase we also have a ton of medicines since overdue meds can not be used but still have been found to be good for up to 9 years after the labled expiration date. If something is sounds serious we take them in. There are no hard feeling becuase we skip the annual exam.

CarMel

I adore the vets that I use, there are 3 at the clinic and the are all wonderful. None of them have ever given me a straight answer on any supplements though. When I had a dog with hip problems, I put him on glucosamine and I believe it helped. The vets just said that they don't see how most supplements work either way (not sure if they do or do not), so they don't discuss them. The one vet is constantly "dogging" my choice of flea preventative- I give brewers yeast and garlic tablets. I stumbled on to this because a spaniel I had at the time had coat issues so I put him on that, and then I noticed that fleas would not touch him. At the time I had a bad flea problem and was constantly bathing, treating the house, yard, dogs, you name it. I put all of them on the brewers yeast and garlic, and I haven't seen a flea in over 5 years now. This may not work on all dogs, but it has worked wonderfully on mine.

One of the vets asked me if I wanted Frontline awhile back, and I told him again about how I deal with fleas and he told me that I was crazy if I thought that would help. He checked the dog I had in there, and not one flea on him. So I went home, and got a couple more of my dogs, and brought them in and told the doc to check for fleas... not one on them. I still don't think he believes that all I use are the supplements, but oh well.

Our dogs dont get any flea preventatives. They live in outdoor kennels but we have NEVER had any fleas anywhere on the dogs or thier bedding.

CarMel

I one of those people who LOVE their vet, but I am not particularly found of his desk staff. Just this last week I had to take my new (had him a little over a month) cat to the vet to get his rabies vaccine and also take care of a tape worm problem. When I made the appt I told them it was a new cat, when I got to the clinic I again told them I had just got him and he had tape worms. They proceeded to start lecturing me on the bad aspects of letting a cat outside, I stopped them in the middle of their spiel and said Oreo does NOT go outside first of all I don't allow it and second of all he is deathly afraid of being outside. The receptionist then told me well going outside is the only way he could get tape worms... I had to argue with her for 5 minutes that my cat does NOT go outside EVER! So then she said well then he has fleas..... ummmmm NO. So then here comes another lecture about flea preventative and how tape worms are contracted. I again had to stop them and tell them I was fully aware of how animals get tape worms, and that again my cat did NOT go outside and did NOT have fleas.... however as I had already told them 3 times he was a NEW cat, who had been found as a stray by his previous owners, who also had 3 other cats who DID go outside, and they had never taken him to the vet.... so if she would please keep her lectures to herself and get off my back it would be appreciated. Now my vet who not only knows me from his practice but from the work he does at the zoo where I work, asked me if Oreo had been outside or had fleas and I said no and he said welp must have been from his previous owners then. LOVE my vet hate his staff!



Tyleino

It must be really neat to work at a Zoo. What do you do if you don't mind me asking?

Here in Maine we have no zoo's or aquariums. It really bites.

I would love to work with carnovors, or avains, Anything but the monkeys!

~Mandy

Most clinics will only take all our teams veterinarians achieve a diagnosis and apply a set treatment and monitor the progress of these pampering pets so that no complications get to your feet at any stage of recovery.