Behaviour Bites - Quick Fix and Success Guaranteed

Make my Day!

Welcome.   Behaviour is a fascinating topic, and it is something that everyone seems to be an expert on.  Frustratingly, it is also a topic where the success of  treating it appears to be user dependant, and can be easily de-railed by a single stressful event.

Don't we all know the dog who had its nails cut too short at one time, and now won't let anyone near their feet? I know several of them, which is why I am the one ending up whispering sweet nothings into their ear, using lots of "happy juice" (aka Adaptil spray), and lots of jollying up, to get those pesky nails shorter!

Anyway, back to the quick fix!  Did I draw you in with that title? Sorry. There are very few quick fixes when it comes to fixing up behaviour. But wouldn't that be nice if there was a quick fix that could be guaranteed!  I would love to be able to give you a five minute, guaranteed to work, no ifs, buts or maybe's, solution to your pet's anxiety problem.

I also promised "success guaranteed", but I lied.  I can't guarantee success when it comes to an
anxiety related problem, because it is a mental illness... like us.

 You can't shake someone, and say "snap out of the funk you're in"... it doesn't work like that for us, and it doesn't work like that for our animals.

The reality is, the only behaviour problem that can be "cured" is one that is a training issue - as an example - the dog jumps up and all over you - you train it to behave in a different way.

There is something that we really need to talk about - We need to have realistic expectations.

 We need to remember that there are many published solutions to thunderstorm/firework phobias, trillions of words written about it, and, still, pets are being euthenased because they are suffering.

"Is the boogeyman gone yet?"

At the end of the day, it is a welfare issue - if your pet is showing any signs of anxiety when it comes to anything, the earlier it (the anxiety)  is treated, the happier everyone is going to be.

If you wait until your pet has destroyed three bathrooms, and two sheds, as  your trigger to  then decide to see professional help, well, don't expect miracles.

There is no cure for true fear related anxieties and phobias.

It is equally important for you to remember, that I am veterinarian with alot of interests, including behavioural medicine, but I am not a specialist.  If you are reading this, and you are at the stage that you are frustrated, angry that you have tried everything and that is failed, and you are looking for hope - then I suggest you ring your local vet, and get an immediate referral to a Veterinary Behavioural Specialist.  Sadly, the longer you leave it, and the more years your pet has been anxious, the harder it is going to be get them back to functioning normally again.

  I can guarantee that if you are serious to finding the solution for your pet, then we can help you, whether it be directly, or through referral to a specialist.  Sometimes the solution may be a permanent one, helping them across the rainbow bridge, but in many pets, it is a combination of medication and home care.

And that is the truth. I am Dr Liz, and I am here to help you and your pet. Call us on 42 845988 and get the ball rolling.

The musings of Dr Liz - 2013 Reflections

The past few weeks have been "quiet" on the blog posting side, not because I was slacking off, but because it is sometimes wiser to keep your mouth shut (or in this case, stop my hands from pressing the "publish" button.)



RIP to our dear Fitz

I have been reflecting on the events of this year - the highs, the lows - on a personal, professional and business level.   You see, for me, these three things are so intertwined,  that the sadness of what I do professionally can bleed into the other two.  And with that, the other two need to be really joyous to be able to cope with the constant onslaught of sadness.

And when you get a year where the personal and business sides aren't so great, then.... reflections help put it all into perspective. 

My parents always taught me to smile - every day - no matter how you may be feeling inside, or what the outside world may throw at you.  So I do smile - every day.  Don't our pets do that to?  Whenever you see them, aren't they always smiling at you? Happy to see you?  Doesn't that make you feel better? 

My parents also taught me to take deep breaths, and face challenges that life may give you.  After all, the challenges I face can no way compare to the challenges that they had faced in their youth, or the tragedies that others have or are facing.   Our pets also have to face challenges now that they never had to - all of the things of our modern lives - the things that take us away from them, like the computer games and the hard working families that barely have enough time for each other, let alone the family pets. 

As a veterinarian, I, like many of my colleagues have had an emotional ride - sometimes it is "Woo Hoo - how exciting - we have helped your pet make a full recovery".... to the lows of saying goodbye to old  friends.  As Russell Vale Animal Clinic is in its fifteenth year of business, sadly, this year  leans towards saying goodbye for many of my beloved pets.  And so, reflections allow perspective.

I keep an album of all of the beautiful cards of thanks I have received over the years... they include

Dr Liz (me) with Tegan, and an abandoned kitten - now known
as Patches and in a loving home - One of our "wins" this year!

notes of thanking us for our care in the recovery of loved pets, as well as thanking us for our gentle hands at the end. This year, this book has been opened a lot more than in previous years - to reflect upon  as well as to add to it.

"Not to hurt our humble brethren is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough.

 We have a higher mission--to be of service to them wherever they require it."

Saint Francis of Assisi (1182 - 1226)

The core of what we are at Russell Vale Animal Clinic is to be "of service" to our animal friends whenever they require it, with kindness and compassion.

It is this thought I hold close to my heart during my reflections.  Have we been true to ourselves this year? Have I and my family been of service to our  animal and human friends?  And if we  have, then it is a good year.  And upon reflection, that is all anyone can ever ask of themselves - to be true to oneself.

It is easy to look at the superficial things of business success  (the awards and prizes) and business failure (the old beat up car, house needing repairs, and lack of money in the bank account) - and find that the balance sways from side to side, with the equally sway up and down of the emotions (success/failure).  It is easy to feel despondent about life not being fair, or go the way you had planned it to go,  or to be angry at those who attack you.

But it is with  love, truth, compassion and kindness which makes a family and a life, and in developing this, our lives are enriched.

As you reflect upon this year, remember to be kind to yourself and to others.   If you have been true to yourself, then it has been good year, irrespective of what has happened around you and to you.

I am Dr Liz, and on behalf of all of us at Russell  Vale Animal Clinic, we wish you and yours a safe and Meowy Christmas, and hope you all have a Barking Great New Year!

A funny/bizarre/is it a full moon? thing happened on the way to, at the, and on the way home from the office, dear!

One of the things that is exciting about the veterinary profession, is that you never know what is going to turn up, or who you are going to meet.  

This post is all about the lighter (or weirder) side!

Just another Sunday at the vets....
Many years ago, before I was the boss of Russell Vale Animal Clinic, I used to work the Sunday shift at another vets. It was usually boring, and mostly consisted of re-checks of the cases seen during the week by the "regular" vets.  And most Sundays, I had no vet nurse for back up or reception.

This particular Sunday started like any other - I cleaned the cages, fed and walked the animals, answered the phone, and served at the counter.  I was in the back kennel room, and I didn't see the elderly gentleman walk in with his dog, but there was an almighty screech of the door bell.

When I walked out to the reception area, there he was, sitting down, with his dog sitting very quietly next to him.  The man looked at me as I walked in, but the dog was very obedient, and didn't move - he was looking lovingly at his owner. 

"How can I help you", I asked, leaning over the big front yellow counter that separated me from the

A bit stuffed!

rest of the room. The counter was quite tall and wide, which meant that I couldn't see the bottom half of the owner nor of his pet.

"My dog is stuffed", the owner said. As a vet, I am used to  a lot of different comments on what the owner thinks the problem is, but I had never had anyone say that before.  They usually say or "they are not well", or "I think it is time", or " you tell me, your the doc".

I walked around the counter to face the gentlemen, and said " I am sorry to hear that, let me have a look at him, what is his name". All the while, the dog's loving gaze doesn't shift.

And as I start to move closer to the gentleman and his dog, I realise that something is amiss.  The gentleman grabs his dog, on both sides of him, lifts him up and swings him around, so he is now facing me, with two glass eyes, and a loving expression.

The dog, literally, was stuffed!  This dog had cancer, which was treated by one of the other vets in the practice, who the gentleman thought was working that Sunday. Alas, it was me.... facing a stuffed dog.

The look on my face was priceless, and fortunately, the vet hospital did not have CCTV, otherwise, I have no doubt, it would've made it onto youtube!


The sex change -
The consultation room can be a magic room sometimes.  It sometimes doubles as the "sex change room". 

At every vet check, we go through which sex the pet actually is -  there are usually only two kinds - male or female ( though we have see the hermaphrodites - the ones who look like girls externally but are boys internally or a mix of the two)

It is always a funny moment when you lift the tail of the kitten, and instead of it being a girl, it is a boy.  It is even funnier, when the client says "how do you know".  A hard one to answer - the two testicles sitting in the scrotal sac gives it away a little bit, I guess.

Your dog ate what?
TV shows are made of the strange things that dog's eat.  We have had dogs eat tampons, used condoms (gross, I know -  can you imagine what it was like when we made them vomit it up? eeewww).

The strange ones come when you xray the dog because it has a back problem, and find a strange object in the stomach.  Or the dog that is "not doing right", pass a blue coloured poop (on further investigation, it was the arm of a little blue teddy bear).

The Clayton's stitch

Many years ago, a gorgeous dog, named Barry came in with a cut on his leg.  It was a big cut, and you could see the muscle underneath.  It needed stitches.  We anaesthetised Barry soon after he came in, as we know that the sooner you stitch it up, the less likely that it will get infected.

Barry went home the next morning, happy as Larry.  The wound looked great, and he was happy.

But the owner was not happy at all when he saw the wound.  "I am going to sue you". the owner says, angrily, and in a very threatening manner.

I was absolutely dumbfounded.  My associate vet had  worked hard to clean the wound, flush it well, and then close the skin using "plastic surgery quality" dissolving skin sutures, so you can hardly see a wound. They had stayed back to do it, without asking for any extra pay, even though they were paid it.  I stayed back to help him with the anaesthetic, as it was the type of surgery that this vet loved to do.  At the end of the surgery, the wound  looked amazing - all you could see was a shaved area, with a little line where the laceration had been. 

"There are no stitches!" Barry's owner exclaims. " I am going to report you to the Mercury, for
ripping people off.... there are no stitches there at all. How can you rip people off like that."

To this day, I have no doubt the owner still believes he was ripped off because we managed to "stitch up" a really deep laceration with the care and skill to make it look like nothing had been done. 

This is the "Clayton's stitch"... for those who remember the slogan... it is the stitch up you have when you haven't had a stitch up.

The high rise balls! (graphic terminology ahead!)

Desexing a male dog is never a routine procedure. Usually, the boys have two testicles sitting in the scrotum (sac), and the surgery is a routine one (with the little anatomical variations that vets have to deal with, but owners are usually non the wiser).

It is becoming increasingly common that we see the dogs with only one obvious testicle, and then we have to go searching for the retained (or cryptorchid) testicle.

But I was accused once, when I was a newly graduated vet (so over 24 years ago), of pushing the testicles up higher instead of removing them.

"Ya shoved them up higher!" this agro male shouted at me, a few days after the surgery. " I took my
dog home, and he had these two things swelling up every time he saw me"

As a new graduate, I hadn't yet developed the skill of keeping a straight face when the pet owner says something completely stupid.  Admittedly, I still haven't developed that skill, which is one of my faults, but I know I will never win an Academy Award for acting! 

What this owner was concerned about was the swelling of the accessory sex glands which sit on either side of the penis, and become swollen when the dog is excited.  As that area is shaved, coupled with the fact that this was probably the first time this guy actually looked at his dogs abdomen (as he needed to check the surgery wound), the bulbous swelling was a real shock.

Fortunately, my grey haired and bearded boss was walking past and overheard this discussion, and gave his appraisal of this situation " Why would we shove the balls up higher for you to see? Do you realise how  difficult that procedure is, because, technically, that is impossible to do!  If that is what we did, then we didn't charge you enough!"


Welcome to the mad side of my veterinary world - there are a lot more stories, but when I shared them with my  family, I was told that they were "funny weird" not "funny - ha ha", and I guess you guys want "funny ha ha" (but I did share some "funny weird" because I couldn't help myself).

This is mad Dr Liz, signing off... end of November 2013..... thanks for all of you being part of the animal mad animalclinic family.

And the silly season is yet to begin....