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Canine ehrlichiosis is cause for considerable alarm for the millions of dog owners around the country.
ABC News 27/1/2021
The arrival of Ehrlichia in Australia has been devastating for some remote dog communities. However, there is no reason to panic, and prevention is easy.
Here I’m going to help Australian dog owners to understand the risks, and know how to easily prevent it.
Continue reading “The Outbreak Of Ehrlichia In Australian Dogs”
If you have an itchy dog, it gets very frustrating very quickly. Nothing seems to help for long, and everyone tells you something different. Is it the food, is it grass, is it mites?
This is an opinion piece, not a regular clinic article. I have been seeing itchy dogs for nearly 30 years and have yet to see one who cannot be helped. Here I’m going to boil down all the conflicting advice into my simple step by step approach.
If you research home remedies for ear infections you’ll find all these choices…
The reason there is so much interest in home remedies is simple: dog ear infections can be extremely frustrating. They are common, they keep coming back and they can get very expensive. That’s without even mentioning the discomfort they bring to dogs.
I’m here to tell you that you can stop ear infections. But it’s never easy.
Continue reading “Can You Treat A Dog’s Ear Infection Naturally?”
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?”
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”
Hair loss, itching and skin wounds are one of the most common and frustrating skin conditions of rats.
Continue reading “Causes Of Itching, Scratching & Hair Loss In Rats”
There’s a new health scare in dogs and cats. Four common flea and tick treatments are being linked with nervous system disorders like muscle tremors, twitching, unsteadiness and even seizures.
Most of the discussion so far has been from the USA, but Australians have a unique perspective on this. The drugs we’re talking about are the best chance we’ve ever had to end the greatest fear of many pet owners: tick paralysis.
Continue reading “Do Popular Dog Tick Treatments Cause Seizures?”
The most common health problem in guinea pigs is itching and scratching caused by mites. It’s a simple problem with a simple solution. However, as you’ll see, there’s also a lot of rubbish being said.
Continue reading “Help! My Guinea Pig Has Mites”
When faced with the bewildering array of heartworm and flea treatments, dog owners have two choices:
An amazing number of dog owners using option 2 will buy Sentinel Spectrum. One look at our chart of the flea and heartworm treatments for dogs and you’ll see why. It does ‘everything’.
Why did working with Red Panda change my views on flea control? The answer contains an even bigger message about product safety and feline health.
Continue reading “Why Pandas Made Me Care About Flea Control”
Every seen a mangy dog? Probably not, at least not the way I mean. You have to be my age or older, or travel to disadvantaged places, to be likely to say yes these days. What passes for ‘mange’ now is nothing compared to what it looked like up to a generation ago.
Continue reading “What Causes Mange In Dogs?”
I’ve previously discussed ways to kill fleas on pets and stop them coming back. Part of the solution may also be environmental flea control.
Continue reading “How To Kill Fleas In The House” ‘At A Glance (Details Below)’ Emergency Care
What if common treatments recommended by your vet are causing deaths in dogs and cats?
‘Does Bravecto Kill Dogs?’ is a popular Facebook group with over 25,000 members dedicated to fighting the use of the popular 3-monthly flea control.
Continue reading “Does Bravecto Kill Dogs?”
Is natural flea prevention an alternative for pets? Are there safe, non-toxic home remedies you can use to prevent or kill fleas?
I’ve listed some below and given my views on the safety and efficacy of each.
Continue reading “Natural Flea Remedies”
Those who know us know how much we enjoy chatting about your pets. What you may not know is how useful it can be.
Here are two examples from one week last month. Just two of many.
Continue reading “Why chatting is a vet’s job too”Why is it so hard to know?:
Update 2018: visit this page for details on the ongoing Senate inquiry into pet food safety.
Perhaps the biggest scandal of pet ownership in Australia is that there is no independent monitoring, testing or licensing of pet food products, and nowhere to turn when they cause harm. And equally shocking to vets is that it is easier to buy flea control products that are neither safe or effective than it is to buy good ones.
Continue reading “Myth 7: If it is sold for pets, it must be safe”I think the popularity of vet television shows might explain why this could be my most common question from dog owners:
Ted and Millie have been seeing us for over six months now. Ted has a joint problem, recently diagnosed and treated, while Millie has mostly just ‘come along for the ride’. A few weeks ago, however, Millie developed itchy skin associated with pinpoint scabs on the head.
Continue reading “A Tale of Two Dogs, One Skin Problem (and a surprisingly simple answer)”