The new Veterinary Oath.

At the 2014 WSAVA Congress, the new global veterinary oath was revealed.  

As I read this oath, a tingle went down my spine.

With my hand on my heart, my head up straight, I proudly state that...

"As a global veterinarian, i will use my knowledge and skills for the benefit of our society,  through the protection of animal welfare and health, the prevention and relief of animal suffering and the promotion of One Health.

I will practice my profession with dignity, in a correct and ethical manner,  which includes lifelong learning to improve my professional competence."

Yours

The Mad Vet
Dr Liz

Russell Vale Animal Clinic
And I share my extra (personal) line to the "veterinary oath"

"I vow to allow my face to be licked left, right and centre by all of my animal friends, as all that I do and am, is for them."

Dear Wollongong City Council - leave our dog beaches alone

Our dog Piper, who loves the beach!

Dear Wollongong City Council,

RE: Your Review of Dogs on Beaches and Parks Policy

There are many many areas in our beautiful city that do require your attention and review.

Our city centre is a dead zone, the shopping precinct at Piccadilly is an eyesore, and there are many side streets that still don't have guttering or decent playgrounds.

Weeds are overgrowing on the freeway, potholes are popping up in local side streets, and for all of this wonderful negligence, council rates have increased dramatically each year.


What I am trying to say is, albeit poorly, whilst we appreciate that you are showing an interest in our four legged friends, denying them access to the beaches is a not a cool way of showing it.

There are a lot of other more immediate, more serious problems that do need to be addressed in our beautiful city!  And we need serious people to deal with them.  Are you one of them?

I know stepping in dog poop is not pleasant, but if this is your reasoning for stopping our dog access, then you should also stop them from walking our streets too. 

Oh please do not say that you are considering that too! 

More people step in dog poop on our grass verges than they do at the beach.    I know that we clean up dog poop on our front lawn all the time, and yes, it annoys me too.

  But I am not writing letters into council complaining about it, I just try to educate pet owners on responsible pet ownership.

Let us get back to your existing park "off leash" areas.

So let me be honest with you....your park "off leash" areas suck.

We road tested a few of them several months ago, from both Wollongong and Shellharbour Council Areas, and we will continue to road test more in the next few months too.

And so far, what you currently provide for our dogs is appalling and substandard. 

The majority were near busy roads with no fences; they were really just a big park area with not much there!

So far, Piper has enjoyed the beach the most.  And you don't have to invest any big bucks here at all... just keep your mitts of our access areas to the beaches!

The rock pools, the waves, the sand dunes offer enough entertainment for our pets, and for us pet owners - we have a blast too!

Here are the links to my previous posts about the dog parks, where we "road tested" them on several points

We looked at

• Availability of drinking water
• Materials to clean up and dispose of poop
• Space available to romp
• Fences and Entry/Exit gates
• Visual barriers
• separate small and large dog areas
• Available activities - i.e fun stuff - either natural or man made

Each one was given a score out of 10, by us aswell as Piper. 

Shellharbour Beach

You should read, and see for yourselves how insufficient the grass areas you are currently providing ... if you are going to stop dogs from accessing our beaches, then you really need to invest big in providing decent off leash dog parks.

 I mean, lots of dollars to get them to any sort of suitable standard.  It will take a lot of dollars to get them up to any suitable standard, and that is dollars taken away from the areas that seriously do need your attention (I refer you to my earlier list of eyesores in the Illawarra)

Keeping dog beach access as it stands, or even giving us more green areas, isn't going to cost you a cent!  Win- win, don't you think?  And we will love you for it to when the next election rolls around.

Not sure what is out there for our dogs?  Here is an honest view of it all....
Wollongong Dog Parks....
Part One:

Part Two:

So, dear Wollongong City Council, be fair to all of us, not the noisy minority.  Please, pretty please!

Yours

Dr Liz, the mad vet from Bellambi Lane, on behalf of her family pet Piper

An exhausted Piper after a fun time at the beach!

Trouble Breathing or Walking? Paralysis Ticks could be the problem!

Is your pet having trouble breathing ? Is their pattern of breathing sounding very noisy as they breath out?  Are they also having trouble walking, or not going up the stairs as easily as they used to?

Of course, this could mean many things, such as old age, arthritis or heart problems... but these are also the tell tale signs of paralysis tick poisoning.

Last summer, 14 year old SuZu (not a typo) came in, with his owners in tears.  His owner thought SuZu  had reached the end of his days, even though he had been quite sprightly up until the day before. The rapid deterioration in him made the owner think of strokes or a heart attack.

Fortunately, the way he was walking (as if he was drunk), and the splat of the legs made tick poisoning top of the list of possibilities.  A tick search found the culprit (pictured below) - it was confirmed that SuZu had Paralysis Tick poisoning, and was going to live a lot longer.

 Whenever you do a tick search on your pet (which you should do daily by the way in our neck of the woods), you need to be methodical. You need to do what Dirk calls the "touchy feely session" - that is, you need to move your hands over your pet from the tip of their nose to the end of their tail. 

Those sneaky ticks can be anywhere - they can be up noses, down ear canals and up private bits (if you know what I mean).  Fortunately, though 80% of them tend to be on the front half of the dog.

What are some of the other signs?

• Some pets sound like they have laryngitis -- their bark or meow are a bit hoarse
• Vomiting/gagging
• Localised paralysis (eg ticks near the eyes can make it difficult for eyes to close, or a lip to droop)
• and of course, the walk as if they are drunk or weak in the back legs.

Most times the signs comes on over several hours, but I have seen cases that have walked the same for a week (and thus making tick poisoning low on the differential diagnosis list).

What are some of the more unusual signs?

With cats, their legs go all haywire when you go to pick them.
With dogs, vomiting/gagging only can occur, or just heavy breathing only.

If you find a tick?

We use a "tick puller", which looks like the other end of a hammer - it makes pulling ticks of eyelids and other sensitive areas very very easy.  Another method is the grab it, do a slight twist and remove. The problem with that method is, you need a pet that doesn't move much, and a tick you can grab onto and remove quickly.

My dad used the thread of cotton trick - he would grab a length of sewing cotton, make a small circle, and virtually wrap that around the head end of the tick (as the bum end is sticking out), and then he would close it until it separated the tick from the pet. 

If you are experienced, with good gripping fingers, you can just grab the tick and remove it quickly.

Leaving a "head" behind is not a problem.

Most times, however, what you think is a head, is actually a bit of the pet's own tissue as a result of the two sucking pincers of the tick.

If your pet is showing any signs of tick poisoning, then they need urgent veterinary attention. The neutralising anti-tick serum is administered, and hospitalisation is needed to monitor until they are walk, eat, drink, wee and poop.

The take home message

During tick season, any pet walking or acting funny is "tick poisoning" until proven otherwise.

I am Dr Liz, the mad vet from Bellambi.  If you find a small lump, and you think it may be a tick, do not be frightened to bring it in for our vet nurses Dirk or Tegan to check it out for you.  We do not charge to check out "tick like" lumps on our pets when it is tick season.