28/03/2008 by Arielle.

I still fully support all male dogs being castrated. We have had 3 cases of prostatic cancer in the practice I work in in the last few weeks. These could have all been prevented with routine castration or removal of both testicles.Harry came in this morning. His responsible owner had booked him in for castration 3 days ago. He is a young Lhasa Apso who is carried everywhere at home and came in looking very sorry for himself.

His owner was obviously very concerned as he seemed unable to walk. He shuffled his bottom along and just sat down.

He had had a bout of diarrhoea after the operation. I checked his wound and it looked clean and healthy and he was on a good dose of Rimadyl painkillers.

The clue to his discomfort came when I lifted his tail to take his temperature. Poor Harry had a clump of faeces matting the long Lhasa fur around his bottom into a tight knot. Once this was cut away and I placed him on the floor, he had a little shake and his waterfall tail popped up over his back again. What relief for us all.

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22/03/2008 by Arielle.

One patient today stood out from all the rest. He was a beautiful 12 year old Rough Collie called Sable.His very distraught owners carried him in as he had collapsed at home. The only sign he had shown for the last few days was a straining to pass faeces. All he was managing to pass were hard ‘rabbit pellets’ as his owner described.I admitted him as he was very pale and I could feel a lump in his abdomen. X-rays revealed a growth of his prostate gland and the surrounding lymph nodes. The owners were devastated to hear that Sable had cancer and sadly it had progressed too far and he had to be put to sleep.

Had Sable been neutered when he was younger, he would not have developed a prostatic problem. We tend to advise neutering in bitches as routine as it removes all complications associated with womb and ovarian complications that can be lethal, but so too can leaving males unneutered be lethal as I witnessed today.

The only side effect from castrating is that your dog can put on weight (especially greedy breeds like Labradors), but their weight is entirely in your hands! If it means feeding more low fat foods or adding extra carrot peelings or vegetables to their food to bulk the food out and make them feel full, then rather that than losing your beloved male pet because he has developed a prostatic (or testicular) cancer.

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17/03/2008 by Arielle.

The RSPCA brought in a stray cornsnake in a pillow case. The RSPCA inspector explained that she wanted it put to sleep as it had been found in the streets of Nottingham and they had no facilities for keeping snakes.I removed the most beautiful orange cornsnake from the pillowcase. It was obviously very cold but appeared in good condition and I could not go ahead with the euthanasia on such a healthy creature, so I took it home!

My children were delighted but my husband was not happy. I took my daughter Emily to town to buy some food for her (we christened her Tango). This was an eye-opener for me. The pet shop owner opened a freezer which was full of containers with various sized mice and rats. I bought the smallest frozen mouse and left the shop with my 4 year old daughter fascinated by what she had seen in their freezer.

Having never owned a snake before, I phoned a friend for some advice. She is a snake enthusiast and rushed over to look at Tango. When she offerred to take Tango, I did not hesitate. I was not relishing the thought of feeding it the little pink mouse.

I am more of a lover of ‘furry creatures’ but we all learnt so much from our beautiful stray cornsnake!

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10/03/2008 by Arielle.

I took my 4 children plus a friend to Crufts today. We were all so excited and joined the throngs of animal lovers at the NEC. The section with dogs from all over the world was our favourite.What a wonderful selection of loving, happy dogs that were still full of wags for the us all when we must have been the thousandth hands that were stroking them that day! My children were fascinated by all the different breeds and I was so impressed by how healthy and happy all the dogs were.

I lost my 4 year old daughter Emily at one point. My son noticed that she was not with us and when I turned around all I saw were masses of people and my heart skipped a beat. It didn’t take long to find her at the dogs for the disabled stand. She had stopped to pick up a coupon that had fallen out of a Eukanuba booklet (one of the many free booklets we were all handed). When she looked up to hand it to me I had gone. I felt very guilty when she told me this!

We also managed to get very lost on the way home as I took one wrong turning, so it was a long drive home but certainly worth it as we loved our day.

It is a reminder to me how good the breeders are in the UK and how much they love their dogs.

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03/03/2008 by Arielle.

Sadie is an overweight 13 year old Collie cross Shepherd who has not been neutered and is suffering from a womb infection called a pyometra. The owners have opted not to have her spayed (the treatment for this horrible infection where we remove the whole infected womb and ovaries) as she is so old and the quote for the full operation and aftercare was almost £500.

I sympathised hugely with the client as Sadie is very old and so we have started her on a relatively new treatemnt procedure which involves an injection on day 1, 2 and 8.

The injection is called Alizin and it is a drug that contracts the muscle of the womb to clean out all the pus that is there. Sadie is obviously also having antibiotics.

So far it is successful and she is still bright although she is off her food and still drinking a lot of water. The drug company says that there is a 95% success rate with these injections.

The biggest side effect that I can see is the terrible mess for the owner. Sadie has long fur and she has a bottom covered in smelly pus and just leaves a trail of pus wherever she goes (including at the surgery). The owner is very patient and has put towels all over the house but it must be so unpleasant.

It is also quite a sore injection and not cheap on its own so has some drawbacks there too, but hopefully we will see a result with Sadie as she is a sweet old lady.

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