Our Dog Piper - Turning One!

On the 29th of October, 2014, our dog Piper, will turn one. Well, we hope that is her birthday, as on her vaccination card, and her RSPCA paperwork, the dates are different by two weeks.

Piper - during the first week in our family

So, was the second six months of her life as eventful as her first?

Let's recap what she happened to her in the first six months of her life....

• Fear of thunder
• Kennel cough
• Giardia infection (causing diarrhea)
• Limping front legs
• Unerupted lower first premolars
• Car accident (she was a passenger)
• Hip dysplasia requiring a Double Pelvic Osteotomy
• Demodectic Mange

Quite an impressive list, don't you think?  If you want to read the indepth version, go here.

How have things resolved for her? 

Well, she is no longer fearful of thunderstorms (as far as we know), but she is still reactive to new noises.  She is also now given the nickname of "the doorbell", as she lets us know if anyone is approaching the house. Even though the noise is similar, she reacts to it... I guess its because we do too by approaching the door ourselves.

Her kennel cough and giardia resolved quickly.  She is no longer limping on any of her legs (thank

A dentigerous cyst - the thing I wanted to avoid in Piper
which we did successfully, because the unerupted premolar
was extracted before it could cause  a problem.

goodness).  We ended up extracting her unerupted first premolars, as I couldn't handle the stress of knowing that they were there, due to their potential to form into a dentigerous cyst (a bone eating cyst which can fracture the jaw).

She recovered well from her DPO surgery.  Gee that was hard keeping a kelpie crate confined for four weeks, and then restricted exercise for another two weeks.  Benefit of drugs, and previous crate training, but unfortunately, we had to rely heavily on drugs.

The demodectic mange is still ongoing, as the treatment for this is at least 4 months.  We have her on the weekly injections.  Her final skin scrape and injection will be around her first birthday. 

A demodex mite - they live in the
hair follicles, causing damage, and make
hair fall out as a result.
Common in young dogs.

What a birthday present!

So what has happened in the past six months?

Ringworm

I do not believe it!  Tegan saw this bald patch on her lip, and I couldn't believe that the treatment for mange wasn't working.  So I performed a skin scraping, and there were no mites. 

I did a fungal smear - and there were the fungal elements, waving hello at me.

As I did not believe what I was seeing, I performed a fungal culture - and grew a furry fungus!

Please note - ringworm is not a worm - it is a fungal infection that causes a sore that look like a round circle (in the old days, people thought it was a worm).

She had a "kerion" which is an infected ringworm on her right lip.  She most likely picked it up from digging around the yard. Whilst that is responding to treatment, it is a slow process. It can take up to six weeks or longer for the infection to totally clear.

At the time of writing, her lip is 98% normal. Phew!

An itchy dog

If Piper gets just one flea on her, or even the thought of a flea, she starts to scratch.  All of our animals are on monthly flea control throughout winter, and fortnightly during summer anyway, but I could not believe it when she started chewing around her tail end.

I hear the voices of all of those other pet owners who proudly proclaim that there is no way on this God's earth that their pet could have fleas.   I was saying the same thing to myself too.

We could not see a flea on her.  We gave her a capstar tablet, and put on a white sheet to find that pesky flea - we did not see one!

She occasionally scratches at her ears too, although they are crystal clear with no discharges or smell. 

Watch this space on her itchy skin!   Or I could be lucky with her, and it goes no further than good quality, regular flea control! 

How lucky do you think we feel right now with her? 

Even though we have not seen a flea, even though she is on good quality flea control, the fact that she is itching on the lower half of her body, automatically gives a good 90% odds on bet, that she is allergic to fleas.  It doesn't mean that she has fleas, just means that she has exposure to fleas.

And given her active lifestyle, that is very likely.

All we are doing to manage this itchy dog,  is have her on fortnightly Advantage during the summer months.  The fact that she responds to that treatment, means that this is most likely what is causing her itch.  My other alternate medication is fortnightly Comfortis. I have not needed to do this at the time of writing.

What about her ears?  Again, likely allergy related, but this has settled down too. Phew!

Fingers crossed that she doesn't develop any other allergies to pollens or grasses! (probably just jinxed myself there).  These are a lot harder to diagnose and treat.  Of course, it would mean allergy testing, and referral to a dermatologist - joy!  another specialist! 

No matter how much good my veterinary dermatologist is , it would be nice to not have to visit another specialist any time soon.

Those of you who have had itchy pets, know how frustrating the management of them can be.

Weak muscles

Getting Piper into the right position to have a special frequency vibration
go through her muscles to re-active the ones that have been lazy. This
is from her second visit.

As a result of her hip dysplasia, and consequently the surgery to repair that, Piper's muscles are not at their full functioning potential. 

Piper is now visiting a physiotherapist at the Animal Referral Hospital, and at time of writing, we have only had two visits.

Tegan with Piper, preparing ourselves for our next appointmen.

Read more about her first visit here.

Every day, she has daily exercises to re-train her body to use all of her muscles. As a result of her hip dysplasia, she is strong on the upper half of her body.

Slowly, but surely, we are getting there.  A slow road ahead

We are just thankful that other than all of these issues, she is a lovable, happy, sociable dog.

Overall, we feel she has had a good first year.

 

She comes to work with us some days, other days she spends with Tegan.  She sleeps on someone's bed every night, and as far as she is concerned, she is a family member.

Before anyone goes on about treating Piper like a child, when she is actually "just a dog", there is one thing I have to say in my defence.

 If I treated Piper like a child, she would be sleeping in her own bed! 

The way we try to treat Piper is with compassion, kindness and affection.  We know that she relies heavily on us for a lot of things, and we rely on her too for the things that may be lacking in our lives.  Those of us who have a pet will know exactly what I am saying here.

Shall I talk about money?  Just because I am a vet, does not mean all of this costs nothing.

Most of the problems with Piper were managed at my veterinary hospital, but when it came to the orthopaedic surgery and the physiotherapy, she needed specialists.

Pet insurance, for me, is like a protective blanket.

Piper has pet insurance, and that has covered the bulk of her specialist veterinary fees.  Whilst Piper's policy has an excess of $125, the only things I have put a claim in for is her giardia infection, her hip dysplasia and consequent physiotherapy.  

If I didn't have pet insurance, and I wasn't a vet, her veterinary bill would've been in excess of $8000.00.

 

As I had taken out pet insurance for her, from the day she joined the family,  her pelvic surgery cost me only $125.00.

So far, with all of her problems, I am probably $800 out of pocket - not bad considering all of her medical problems.

I had taken out her insurance policy because of our experiences with our previous dog Teddy. He had B cell lymphoma that needed a specialist oncologist. That cost over $10 000, and to this day, I don't quibble about spending that money on him. I just wish I had taken out insurance for him.

Many years ago, a reporter called me to get my opinion on people who spend lots of money on dogs or cats, and getting things done like chemotherapy or kidney transplants.  I asked her what type of car she drove. She said BMW.  How much did that cost? She said over $60K. I asked her why spend that much on something that just gets you from  A to B. That is all a car really is.  I personally think spending that much money on a car  is ridiculous, but I don't judge harshly those who choose to spend their money that way.  They have their values, and I have mine. Obviously, conversation did not end well.

Who is she to judge how I may choose to spend my money? or how any other pet owner spends theirs, for that matter.

As an animal loving family, we knew that we would spend whatever we needed to spend to keep Piper healthy, but we also knew we were not in a financial position to spend thousands of dollars.  We knew our financial limit.

Piper's pet insurance is the best $770 I have ever spent. 

Vital Facts:

Piper is a pure breed Kelpie. Her siblings were Sally, Liz and Kelly.  Her RSPÇA name was Tammy. We met at the RSPCA Rouse Hill one hot Saturday afternoon, and she was the last puppy in the shop.  The other dog didn't like cats, which would not have suited us (as we had two cats at home).
 

What are her nicknames?
Her proper name is Piper.

Her nicknames include "problem child" and "doorbell".

Her "dog park come-to-me" name is "Pup - Pup", she will stop whatever she is running to, look around, and then come back if needed.  Amazing to see!

Her favourite visitor?

My eldest son Haiden (whenever he comes over to visit us, she goes ballistic).  I should video it sometime, as she really just goes nuts!

Her favourite cat?

Dash

We call them the "kissing cousins"

Her favourite treat?

At the moment, it is ice, but that's because we have had a few warm days.  She loves her "bully sticks" and scavenging the cat food. Oh, and pieces of cooked chicken too.

Piper, fast asleep, in her most favourite sleep position - between
Dirk and I.
 

Thank you for following.
I am Dr Liz, the mad vet of Bellambi.

Piper is our newest, special family member.

She is also the Practice Manager, and Food Control Supervisor (two jobs she takes very seriously).

Don't forget send her happy birthday wishes (and good luck and good health in the future).