Category: HELP!

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• Help For Cats
• Help For Dogs
• Help For Rabbits
• Help For Other Species

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Thunderstorm & Firework Anxiety In Dogs

thunder phobia dog

After every thunderstorm or firework night I wait for the calls:

  • Dogs wandering the streets far from home
  • Dogs that have gone through windows
  • Dogs with lacerations from escape attempts

What we don’t see nearly enough are the dogs that just suffer in silence, panting, trembling or hiding at home. Noise phobias are common in dogs, and there’s a lot your vet can do to help.

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Reverse Sneezing in Dogs

dog snorting gagging

‘Emergency Care’ (details below)

How to Tell Reverse Sneezing from Choking

  • Reverse sneezing causes minimal distress and gums remain pink
  • It can usually be stopped if you call or distract a dog
  • The dog is 100% fine immediately before and afterwards

If in doubt, see a vet immediately. True choking is often fatal. No vet will criticise you for being careful, even if there is nothing wrong.

Now dive deeper…

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Help! My Dog Is Limping

why dogs limp

This isn’t just a catalog of limping dogs. By knowing the leg problems that dogs get you have a better chance of preventing some, identifying others and taking them all seriously.

I’ve gone back through our records, found the top 20 with pictures. The list below is sorted into ‘puppy’, ‘adult’ and ‘common’ problems. Visit this page to see which problems happen in the front or back legs and how to tell which leg is sore.

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How You CAN Get Overweight Cats To Lose Weight

Imagine the outrage if a character called Fat Dog (or fat anything for that matter) was created today. Yet, there we were in Adelaide in the 1980s watching Fat Cat tell us to go to bed at 7:30 every night.

The fact is that an overweight cat is taken less seriously than an overweight dog. We see fat cats as fun and loveable, and somehow beyond our control. Like Garfield and his lasagne.

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How You CAN Get Your Dog To Lose Weight

Overweight dog stuck
prevalence overweight dogs
The rising rate of overweight dogs

Have a look at this chart: are you as surprised as I was when I put this together?

It shows the results of the last five studies where vets have taken percentages of overweight dogs in the US, UK, and Australia.

How can you make sure your best mate doesn’t end up as another statistic in the dog obesity epidemic?

Answer: read on. It’s positive, 100% judgement-free and based on 25 years of successfully helping dog owners like yourself.

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Help! My Puppy Keeps Peeing In The House

puppy peeing on floor

25 years ago, in my very first week as a vet, a lovely bouncy Cocker Spaniel puppy taught me a hard lesson. Innocently enough, I asked his owner “so, how’s everything going?”

Right in front of me, without another word, his owner burst into tears. Back then I really didn’t know what was going on. I sure do now.

Toilet training, house training or potty training. Call it what you will, but it’s the greatest challenge most puppy owners will face. As vets, we might consider ourselves masters of keeping puppies healthy, but we often look on helplessly at training problems.

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Help! Dogs With Cuts & Cats With Wounds

‘At A Glance (Details Below)’ What to do

When A Dog Or Cat Gets A Cut

  1. Don’t handle the wound if it looks clean, just keep your pet out of the dirt
  2. To remove dirt, rinse cuts in a solution of ½tsp salt to 1 cup water
  3. If there is serious bleeding, apply a tight bandage using clean cloth
  4. As long as you see a vet immediately, a tight dressing should do minimal harm and may be lifesaving

Now dive deeper…

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Help! My Cat Is Peeing Inside

Cat urinating in house

‘At A Glance (Details Below)’ What To Do

Why Cats Urinate In The House

  1. The cause is usually anxiety, territorial stress, urinary tract disease or litter box problems
  2. It’s not bad behaviour; most cats will stop peeing inside if you treat the cause and don’t punish
  3. Clean up areas with cat urine using enzymatic cleaners to reduce odour and prevent recurrence

Now dive deeper.

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Help! My Dog Has Kennel Cough

‘At A Glance (Details Below)’ Essential Facts

What Is Kennel Cough?

  1. A persistent infection of the throat with a bacteria and a virus.
  2. Causes a dry, repetitive, choking cough and fever.
  3. Mild cases often have sneezing, runny eyes and noses.
  4. Highly contagious wherever dogs meet. Incubation is usually 7 days.

Now dive deeper.

Recently we saw a 9 week old puppy who came from the breeder 7 days earlier. The day before we saw her she had started coughing, and by that night it had become very bad. Being a Boxer puppy, she wasn’t letting it get her down but you could see she wasn’t her normal self.

She has kennel cough. She hasn’t been around other dogs so where did she get it from?

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