142 North East Road, Walkerville. Ph (08) 8344 2000
There is a good reason why I had written 500 pet health articles before broaching the subject of diarrhoea in cats. It can be extremely frustrating. There is also a lack of good quality information for cat owners.
First a description, then a logical treatment plan.
Continue reading “Help! My Cat Has Diarrhoea”
Everyone knows that having an overweight dog is bad. But how bad?
Twenty years ago, Purina demonstrated a two year reduction in lifespan in Labradors kept in a laboratory setting. Now a recent large study in the US has for the first time looked at common dog breeds in the home environment.
Here is what they found, in graphic form.
Continue reading “Which Overweight Dogs Have Shorter Lives?”
Here you will find a checklist of suggested experiences for Australian puppies before 14 weeks of age. By following our advice, your puppy should grow to be a less fearful and happier adult dog.
Limited puppy preschool places are also available at our clinic on Wednesday and Thursday nights.
Continue reading “A Socialisation Checklist For The Aussie Puppy”
Keeping birds can be done well, and to the benefit of both them and us. But too often in doing so we take away the very thing that defines them: flight. So here are some suggested minimum case sizes to allow your feathered friends to enjoy their fullest lives.
Continue reading “What Is The Best Size For Budgie & Cockatiel Cages?”Every time I attend a conference, the lectures on immune‐mediated haemolytic anaemia (IMHA) are among the best attended. This is because almost no other common disease of dogs makes vets feel so powerless.
This page is a summary of two recent consensus statements from the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. It puts together the best of what we know into one guideline on diagnosis and treatment. Most importantly, it’s written in a way that dog owners can understand.
Continue reading “Immune‐Mediated Haemolytic Anaemia in Dogs”
Find the facts below about dogs and cats and coronavirus COVID-19. Keep checking this page for updates on the situation.
Vets across Australia are open as normal. Walkerville Vet requests that clients:
Now dive deeper…
Continue reading “Your Dog or Cat & Coronavirus COVID-19”
Quick facts (details below):
Now dive deeper…
Continue reading “Where To Take Wildlife In Adelaide”So your dog has had diarrhoea for more than two weeks, and you have ruled out all the more common causes of diarrhoea found here.
A basal cortisol level has even been done to rule out the 4% of these dogs that have Addisons disease.
What do you do now?
The answer is to consider the possibility that your dog has chronic enteropathy, or CE. This is a poorly understood group of related disorders that often respond to dietary, antibiotic or immunosuppressive treatment. Sometimes the solution is more than one of these approaches.
Continue reading “Chronic Diarrhoea In Dogs”
Dog owners in Adelaide are incredibly lucky to have so many beaches to visit. It is even possible to let your dog off the lead if you know when and where to do it.
It all depends on the rules set by each local council. I have spoken with each one, and visited all the off leash areas. There is even a map below. Here’s my review.
Continue reading “Leash Free Adelaide Dog Beaches”
The use of Atopica® for dermatitis is a tale of two very different species: dogs and cats. What was once a very useful drug in dogs has turned into an essential part of treating skin diseases in cats.
Now I use it far more in cats than dogs. Keep reading on to see why.
Continue reading “Using Cyclosporine In Dogs & Cats”
Laser therapy for dogs is now something that I get asked about regularly. It offers treatment for problems that are very frustrating to both dogs and owners. These are conditions like:
But does it work? Is this relief for suffering dogs or just another false hope?
Continue reading “Does Laser Therapy For Dogs Really Work?”“Unfortunately, there are people out there who don’t like cats — hate cats — and too often we see what happens to cats when they are trapped by these sorts of people.” RSPCA South Australia chief executive Paul Stevenson
“A law like this would give the worst elements of society Carte Blanche to abuse their neighbours’ pets” Brian May (guitarist in Queen)
Why are these two so worried?
New cat curfew laws proposed by Marion Council will allow the trapping of any cat found off the property from 9pm to 7am. Not just by council staff either. By anyone at all.
Continue reading “Do We Really Want To Live In A Society That Traps Cats?”
Has your vet asked you to collect a urine sample from your pet? Don’t despair! I’ve been guiding people through it for 25 years and no-one has failed yet.
Before we start, it might help to know why a pee sample can be important.
Continue reading “How To Get Urine From Dogs & Cats”Does your dog show any of the following signs?
Then you’re in the right place. Here you’ll find a lit of the possible causes.
Continue reading “Causes Of Ataxia & Weak Back Legs In Dogs”
A few years ago, a sales rep for one of the major dog food companies came to me. The serious expression told me that there was something wrong.
“Andrew, you’re not making enough senior dog food sales.”
This wasn’t a surprise to me. Instead I said what I always say: “bring me the evidence that senior diets improve the health of dogs and I’ll use them.”
See also: Do Cats Need Senior Foods?
Continue reading “Do Dogs Need Senior or Mature Foods?”Old dogs commonly develop a form of dementia we call Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome. I’ve written about the signs of CDS and its treatment elsewhere.
Here I want to update you on the latest evidence about foods and dietary supplements that might benefit dogs with CDS. I’ll discuss each ingredient first and then the foods that might contain them.
Continue reading “Foods & Supplements For Dogs With CDS”
If you have an itchy dog, then you know how hard it can be. What would you say then if you were told that one of the most effective treatments is sometimes not offered to you? Or that other times it should never have been used.
Prednisolone is a problematic drug, and I understand why vets avoid it, but sometimes it’s just what’s needed. Amber, who’s pictured above is a perfect example.
Continue reading “Should My Itchy Dog Get Prednisolone?”
Is there any other drug that can be all of these?
Love it or hate it, prednisolone is the most misunderstood drug in veterinary medicine. Its uses and side effects are too varied and complex to understand easily. Here I’ll help you to get informed.
Prednisolone is a steroid hormone. Even just that fact is confusing enough.
Continue reading “Prednisolone Use In Dogs & Cats”
News Flash: Since writing this, there have been increasing reports of feline parvovirus outbreaks in the northern suburbs of Adelaide. The disease appears on the comeback as vaccination rates decline.
A few years ago I started getting questions about a new cat viral outbreak called cat plague. Cat plague? I may have been seeing cats for 25 years, but this was news to me too.
A quick google and it all became clear: this is a new name for an old disease. It goes by all these names:
Continue reading “It’s True, Cats Get Parvo Too”
First aid (details below)
Now dive deeper…
Continue reading “Help! My Dog Was Poisoned By A Cane Toad”
Dante is an all-too-familiar story. I saw him recently for vaccination and immediately noticed the scar on his leg. What happened? He was running and broke his leg.
If this happens to your dog, here’s a quick first aid tip: carefully put the lower leg into a roughly normal position, wrap it in a t-shirt until it’s a thick roll and then sticky tape it. If you can’t do this, just keep your dog as quiet as possible. This will stop possible damage to soft tissues caused by excessive motion across the fracture site. Then go straight to a vet.
Leg fractures in Italian Greyhounds are common. If you’re looking to buy a puppy, or take out insurance you might well ask, “yes, but how common?” The answer may affect what you do next.
Continue reading “Broken Legs In Italian Greyhounds” I have no idea how most cat owners end up choosing a cat litter. If my experiences are anything to go by, it’s trial and error. I doubt they try more than a few before settling on a favourite.
This is a vet review of the common and popular types of cat litter in stores. I’ll help you understand:
*Note: if you’re here to check on a possible scam site, scroll down to the comments where there’s a lively discussion! Here is a quick summary of what’s been found:
This list changes quickly as sites appear and disappear so accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Remember: do not buy from any site using the word Cavapoo as this is not used in Australia.
There are also Facebook pages, which I am not able to follow. If you are scammed by one of these, contact Facebook directly to have them taken down.
Now dive deeper…
Continue reading “Cavoodle Puppy-Selling Scams”
Try looking for answers when your dog eats their own stool and you’ll quickly see the problem. All the advice is the same.
Some top sites have literally cut and pasted the content from others, and those that haven’t appear to be just rewriting what everyone else says. The reason is simple: because no-one has all the answers.
A recent study (and the only good one) found that success rates with the sort of methods they discuss are only 1-4%. And it’s even worse if you try one of the many products being sold: 0-2%!
This fits exactly with my experience over 25 years. But it’s not hopeless! I’m going to use what I’ve learnt plus the evidence to give you practical, realistic advice. There’ll be a lot less promises, but also a lot less wasted effort.
Continue reading “How To Stop Your Dog Eating Poo”
Dog owners now have at least eight choices for treating and preventing paralysis ticks on dogs. The following represents my personal opinion on which ones are better.
Click here to find out more about paralysis ticks and whether you need tick prevention. However, the best way to know if you live in a tick area is to ask your local vet!
I travelled to just such a tick area. In 2020 I asked each person at Acacia Avenue Dog Park in Newcastle which tick treatment they were using. Here are their answers:
Continue reading “What Is The Best Paralysis Tick Prevention?”
If a dog eats anything containing xylitol:
Now dive deeper…
Continue reading “Help! My Dog Ate Xylitol”
I see every day how hard it is to find the right way to stop dogs pulling on the leash. There are too many traps and too little good advice.
For these dogs, an appropriate restraint needs to be more than just comfortable and secure; it has to also be effective. So I put the question out to a select group of professional dog trainers.
Continue reading “What Is The Best Way To Stop A Dog Pulling?”Everyone has an opinion about what makes a great obedience class. I’ve got a lot to say on the subject, but I’ll start here: obedience has nothing to do with it!
The evidence is clear and consistent. When measured by results, reward-based training outperforms more ‘traditional’ methods. It’s also much less likely to cause pain or anxiety.
That’s why this article is going to help you tell the difference. By the end, you should be able to choose the right class for your dog. I will go through some clues you can use, and then use an example of two very real classes.
Continue reading “How To Find A Good Dog Training Class”
A normal chicken’s leg is a thing of wonder: shiny, evenly spaced scales completely cover the leg and top of the foot, giving you the unmistakable reminder that chooks are really little pet dinosaurs.
You know a normal leg when you see one, but it’s harder to notice when it’s not. Scaly leg in chickens often goes unrecognised in flocks until it either gets bad, or you end up at the vet for another reason.
Continue reading “How To Treat Chicken Scaly Leg Mite”
Have you heard this? The hair of double coated dog breeds doesn’t grow back properly after being shaved.
Continue reading “Can All Dog Breeds Have Summer Haircuts?”
There’s just one common cause of a lump on a cat’s face. Have a look at the picture above. I hope you can see that the left cheek isn’t chubby, it’s swollen. This is an abscess and it needs veterinary attention.
Continue reading “Facial Swelling In Cats”
Dogs can get all kinds of lumps and bumps, some serious, some not. That’s why I’ve previously written a guide to dog skin lumps with pictures. Just click on the picture to visit.
However, there’s one very particular swelling that I haven’t talked about even though it’s important, common and easy to recognise.
It’s the tooth root abscess.
Continue reading “Help! My Dog Has A Lump On The Face”
Do you have a dog that has a thyroid problem? Or have you started to suspect a low thyroid level could be making your dog sick? Then there’s something you need to know: hypothyroidism is the most poorly diagnosed hormonal disease of dogs.
Continue reading “Hypothyroidism In Dogs: The Diagnosis Problem”
Warning: this post contains descriptions of animal cruelty.
Images of racehorses being slaughtered at abattoirs have put the racing industry in the spotlight. And rightly so. But there’s also a connection that’s much closer to home.
Continue reading “Does Pet Food Contain Horse Meat?”
If you look up the causes of eye discharge in dogs, there’s almost always one missing. That wouldn’t be such a problem if what’s missing wasn’t also the most common cause in puppies.
Continue reading “Causes Of Eye Discharge In Puppies”
If you own a Dachshund, you probably already know about IVDD.
Intervertebral Disc Disease affects around 20% of Dachies over their lives. All of them will experience severe pain. Many are permanently disabled and some even die as a result of irreversible and severe spinal damage.
Visit our page on IVDD if you want to read more. Here I want to talk about some new knowledge of a way to reduce the risk of it happening.
Continue reading “The Best Age To Neuter A Dachshund”
Let me say this at the outset. I won’t treat your pet any differently whether you get pet insurance or not. What matters is that you get the information you need to make an informed decision.
So when Choice gave its ‘Shonky’ award to all pet insurance my first thought was, “that doesn’t ring true.” I get to talk to clients about their pet insurance every day. The experiences they describe go all the way from great to terrible and everything in between. Not just terrible.
It struck me that Choice’s view of pet insurance is from the outside. They’re not wrong (I’ll go through their statements below) but I think there are things that only users understand.
Continue reading “Is Pet Insurance Worth It?”This document is critiqued in the article on whether luteinizing hormone is harmful after neutering. At the time of writing it was publicly available on the Virbac website; it has since been taken down.
Have you ever wondered why vets recommend one drug over another?
We’ve usually researched it ourselves.
Or we have a wealth of first-hand experience.
However, sometimes the health claims are just too complex to easily assess. That’s when we might trust the company data. But how many vets have the time to double check what they say?
I’ve made a reputation as a ‘difficult’ customer, and I know I’m not alone. That’s because there’s often more than one way to look at the same data. Here’s just one example from the past week: a good product sold by nice people.
Just possibly pushed too far.
Continue reading “Fact Check: Do LH Levels After Desexing Affect Health?”
Here’s a shocking fact: around 50% of the people who get chickens end up with a bad experience, not a good one.
The reason for this is a lethal combination of inexperience and the falsely optimistic advice you get online. There nearly always comes a time when someone says to me, “no-one told us this before.”
Continue reading “A Beginners Guide To Keeping Chickens”Here is a vet authored converter for finding the approximate human age for your dog. It follows a complex calculation, not just 1 year per 7.
Continue reading “Dog Age Calculator”According to a recent survey of English cats, the average lifespan was 14 years old. Purebred cats were recorded as living to a lower average of 12.5 years.
These of course are only averages and include all causes of death from birth to old age. We regularly see cats with good care who do much better.
To help your cat live longer, it’s useful to look at the causes of death recorded.
Continue reading “How Long Do Cats Live?”
Have a look at the picture above. You could be forgiven for thinking that Barlie’s gums are just the result of a good chew on a bone. But hang on: why are there red spots a long way from the gumline and even on the tongue?
The answer is a disease you won’t easily find if you look up the causes of bleeding gums in dogs. Even though what Barlie had could have killed her.
Continue reading “5 Causes Of Bleeding Gums In Dogs”
Here are the most common reasons why a cat might sneeze. As nearly every one is associated with a runny nose, there’s also a description of the nasal discharge that goes with it.
For each, there’s a suggestion of the best treatment.
Continue reading “Causes Of Sneezing In Cats”
It’s easy to forget how refreshing Grumpy Cat was when she first appeared. If something wasn’t as good as the hype, then there she was with perfect one liner to burst the bubble. Coming from a cat like her, who could argue?
Grumpy Cat will always be the queen of memes, and perhaps the most famous cat of our time. Until now, I’ve refrained from talking about her death. But hopefully enough time has passed, because there’s a story in it about the future of cats.
Continue reading “The Death Of Grumpy Cat”
Does your dog do this? When mine gets excited or playful he starts sneezing.
Sneezing during play isn’t well understood, but it’s clearly one of the least serious causes of sneezing in dogs.
I’ll take you through the other common reasons, from minor to major. As nearly every one is associated with a runny nose, I’ll also describe the nasal discharge that goes with it.
By the time you make it to the end, you’ll be an expert!
Continue reading “Causes Of Sneezing In Dogs”
Nosebleeds in dogs are rare and worth taking seriously. Unlike humans, dogs almost never get an occasional harmless nosebleed. Causes include injuries, foreign bodies, infections, clotting problems and tumours.
At the end I’ll tell you how you and your vet can work out which one it is.
Continue reading “Causes Of Blood From The Nose”
Isn’t it always the way. You’ve been recommending something for 25 years with complete confidence. Then along comes a piece of very inconvenient evidence.
This time it’s about cats preferring moving water. It turns out that despite a whole industry devoted to promoting cat fountains, until now no one has bothered to see if they actually work.
Continue reading “Do Cats Need A Water Fountain?”
Recently I’ve seen two Australian Shepherd puppies sold with a list of 52 drugs to avoid. I understand the intention, but this list is incorrect and alarmist. It contains many perfectly safe drugs, some of which will be essential later in life.
Continue reading “Drugs To Avoid With The MDR1 / ABCB1 Mutation”
Remember Fred? Not long ago I told you how he was stolen and recovered 18 months later. This is the story of what happened next.
His path led to a specialist and a procedure called TECA that increasing numbers of dogs are getting. If you have a dog prone to ear infections, you should read this. Not just so you know it’s there if you need it, but also so you can avoid it.
Continue reading “Total Ear Canal Ablation in Dogs”