help dog attacked

[K9Dave]

Yeh thanks.

 

[newfoundland]

I do think myself that a lot of nonsense is claimed about 'best diets' for dog, cats or indeed any other creatures. My father told me that when he was a boy here in England, there were no tinned food for dogs or cats, and yet in those days everyone seemed to have dogs and cats. He told me that my grandmother would feed the family pets with exactly the same food as she served for the family. So when she dished up a meal she would lay their bowls out on the table and serve them a helping of everything. Additionally she would add some dog meal to the bowls, even the cat's bowls.

These family pets survived and thrived and indeed reproduced in their season. Of course no one ever measured the nutritional or calorific content of their diet if they seemed to be getting fatter, their portions were reduced, when they got older their food was minced. No one frowned on this way of feeding animals or made people feel inadequate because there was no alternative manufactured food to sell. To this day, an elderly cousin who has raised lots of animals over the years, and had them live well, long into their old age, still feeds this way!

 

[subhanalah]

He really, REALLY needs a vet. It sounds like the wound is infected, and without treatment, he will possibly die.

It sounds really tough, but if they can't afford treatment, surrendering him to a shelter where they can provide medical careeuthanize the dog is better than letting the dog die slowly of infection.

 

[Sjisty]

Wow, talk about off topic! Well, we have an Australian Shepherd, Ruby. She's 18 years old. Over the years we have had many financial issues, with hubby being in the construction field. That meant we couldn't go to the doctor when needed and the dog couldn't go to the vet if needed. Luckily, we are all healthy, including the dog.

As far as vaccinations, there are "cheap" vaccinations given monthly at Tractor Supply and at our local farm store, so no worries there. A $1000 emergency fund??? You've got to be kidding! It would be nice, but just not possible at this point in our lives, not with this economy.

Kind of dog food - we feed cheap grocery store food to Ruby. We add table scraps. She also finds eggs the girls lay in various spots in the yard. Oh, yeah, and all the "chicken poop" she can eat in a day. Again, she's 18 years old and other than being a little slow getting up when it's cold out and getting a bit deaf, she is still a happy and healthy girl.

Our other dog, Spud, lived to be 18, was blind and deaf for the last year or so. He had a tumor since the age of about 16 which the vets wouldn't treat because he was too old. It burst in the middle of the night (or at least that's what we think). There wasn't a vet in town who would see him at 2:00 a.m. We waited until 7:00 a.m., poor guy howling in pain, and took him to animal control, who graciously euthanized him for us for free. We were also able to bring him home for burial. Lost respect for all vets that I called that night.

I consider myself a responsible pet owner, even though Ruby hasn't been inside a vet's office in probably 10 years. We did take a sick chicken in a few years back. We carried her in a cardboard box, after calling the vet's office to see if they could treat chickens (they said yes, bring her in). The vet looked at her, literally just looked - didn't touch, didn't take out of the box, just looked with his two eyes and said, yes she looks sick. Gave us a bottle of some kind of antibiotic, charged $80. The chicken died and I lost all respect, at least for that vet.

So, I guess the moral of this story is we are all human and there's only one who has the right to judge us. I'm hoping He's an understanding judge some day when I stand before Him. In the meantime, I can understand people who might not be able to afford taking their pet to their local vet. I also understand people who can, they are very lucky and so are their pets. Doesn't give them the right to preach to others.

Live and let live, guys. Climbing down from my soapbox now.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

Wow, talk about off topic! Well, we have an Australian Shepherd, Ruby. She's 18 years old. Over the years we have had many financial issues, with hubby being in the construction field. That meant we couldn't go to the doctor when needed and the dog couldn't go to the vet if needed. Luckily, we are all healthy, including the dog.

As far as vaccinations, there are "cheap" vaccinations given monthly at Tractor Supply and at our local farm store, so no worries there. A $1000 emergency fund??? You've got to be kidding! It would be nice, but just not possible at this point in our lives, not with this economy.

Kind of dog food - we feed cheap grocery store food to Ruby. We add table scraps. She also finds eggs the girls lay in various spots in the yard. Oh, yeah, and all the "chicken poop" she can eat in a day. Again, she's 18 years old and other than being a little slow getting up when it's cold out and getting a bit deaf, she is still a happy and healthy girl.

Our other dog, Spud, lived to be 18, was blind and deaf for the last year or so. He had a tumor since the age of about 16 which the vets wouldn't treat because he was too old. It burst in the middle of the night (or at least that's what we think). There wasn't a vet in town who would see him at 2:00 a.m. We waited until 7:00 a.m., poor guy howling in pain, and took him to animal control, who graciously euthanized him for us for free. We were also able to bring him home for burial. Lost respect for all vets that I called that night.

I consider myself a responsible pet owner, even though Ruby hasn't been inside a vet's office in probably 10 years. We did take a sick chicken in a few years back. We carried her in a cardboard box, after calling the vet's office to see if they could treat chickens (they said yes, bring her in). The vet looked at her, literally just looked - didn't touch, didn't take out of the box, just looked with his two eyes and said, yes she looks sick. Gave us a bottle of some kind of antibiotic, charged $80. The chicken died and I lost all respect, at least for that vet.

So, I guess the moral of this story is we are all human and there's only one who has the right to judge us. I'm hoping He's an understanding judge some day when I stand before Him. In the meantime, I can understand people who might not be able to afford taking their pet to their local vet. I also understand people who can, they are very lucky and so are their pets. Doesn't give them the right to preach to others.

Live and let live, guys. Climbing down from my soapbox now.

I'm sorry you've had such crappy luck with vets! I've run into a few questionable ones here and there, and a few that I didn't care for. Like anything else, part of it is personality and bedside manner, and part of it is actual skills. Surprisingly, studies show that good bedside manner often trumps actual skills. That one always throws me for a loop.

So few schools offer classes about chickens or small animals (like pocket pets) for that matter. I interviewed at another school before deciding on the one I am attending and all they taught their students was cat and dog medicine. If you wanted to learn large animal, you had to live at a different campus. I love my school because they force you to take classes on everything from horses, cows, birds, exotics, and small animals like dogs and cats...no matter your concentration.

You should see some of the surgeries our school does on chickens! It's pretty crazy! I think to get good bird care, you have to see someone who specializes in birds, but unfortunately there are few around. Treating pet poultry just isn't profitable enough for some people, yet they'll see them even when they aren't comfortable with that type of animal. It's ethics I'm not entirely comfortable with!

 

[TLWR]

My dogs are well traveled, so they have seen lots of vets. Some worth their weight in gold, others, not so much.

I've fed raw diets (to determine food sensitivities) then back to a kibble avoiding the stuff that didn't agree with the dogs. I've had vets that were behind me on feeding raw and others saying I was going to kill my dogs by feeding raw.
Wheat and chicken were issues. Wheat for one greyhound and chicken for both of them. Lamb was also a no go. So beef/fish or other novel proteins were our options.
During all the issues with my male greyhound, issues involving his kidneys, my vet and none of the specialists we consulted with or saw, suggested any change to his diet.
I've only had one vet try to push Science Diet on us even though they all carry it. A second one suggested it and left it at that.
Even after telling the first SD vet why it wasn't an option and having him read the ingredients to me and explain why he thought it would help, I would explain yet again, the ingredients in the food were not something I was interested in feeding my dogs and several of them did not agree with him... cut off the nose to spite the face....

Vaccinations - I don't follow the traditional vaccination schedule. I live where a rabies vac is good for 3 years. I wish that would be reevaluated and extended, but every 3 years I can live with. The rest, are done not on a yearly basis, but more likely around 3-4 years. My dane is the first dog I've had that wasn't 2 or more when I got her. So she had full round of vacs when I got her and a year later I did another round of "useful" ones for us. This vet would like to do them all yearly, but is ok with me not doing that.
I've had vets in the past tell me they had started encouraging their patients to not do yearly vacs adn then only the necessary ones for their situation.

So, in my long winded fashion.... like everything else, no two vets are alike. Hopefully people have the ability to use one they like or at least can work with.

 

[newfoundland]

I 100% agree with you Sjisty! Your dogs have survived and thrived on the care you have given them and I for one applaud you! I think it is very wrong to be judgemental of people particularly when we know, many have known better times when affording everything for their animals was not an issue. They have not given up on their animals even through these lean times and I am sure do their very best to provide whatever they can for them. Would these people who judge sooner folk hand their animals over to animal welfare groups to languish in kennels for who knows how long, because affording annual vaccinations is a problem? Do people even know how recently, relatively speaking, this level of health care has been available to animals? I say don't beat yourself up about it. I have presented my dogs for annual vaccinations, hardpad, distemper and parvo virus for years. (We do not have rabies here). One day a vet told me it was unnecessary in older dogs who had been fully vaccinated over the years and just a waste of money as well as an assault on a older system. I still have my younger dogs vaccinated but when they get to about 8 years, no more. This is of course my opinion, others may disagree.

 

[SavageDestiny]

I'm not sure what your issue is here. Even if the shelter euthanized the dog (which A LOT of shelters would not) it is STILL better than letting the dog die slowly of infection. Get a grip on the passive aggressiveness.

 

[subhanalah]

I'm not sure what your issue is here. Even if the shelter euthanized the dog (which A LOT of shelters would not) it is STILL better than letting the dog die slowly of infection. Get a grip on the passive aggressiveness.

um...stop accusing me of such things. I agree it's better to have the dog humanely euthanized, people should be realistic and not think they can pawn their dog or cat off on the shelter to and them receive medical care.

What's your problem?

 

[YardBirdMom]

I've had no bad experiences with Vets. Answering questions is fine and all but don't answer if you do not KNOW the answer. When you have no knowledge of dog food for instance, don't push one (Science Diet comes to mind) because a sales person told you it was good. Get what I'm laying down? This business practice puts kind of a dark cloud over the industry so that NOTHING is credible to those with some knowledge on the subject of animals. People trust that the DVM title would ensure they are getting accurate info which is not the case for a Dr with no classes on Diet besides what the food companies tell them. Passing on that inaccurate info is wrong. That is all.

First and foremost, I never said anything about dog food or knowing about dog food, or Science diet. I've never fed it and didn't intend on feeding it ... not sure why you are ranting on about that in your response to me

I remarked about vaccinations and bad experiences with vets. You did say you were going to be a vet and changed your mind. Typically those who start something, without finishing, is attributed to a bad experience, laziness, a change of heart, or a shift in interest. Personally, I don't CARE what people feed their creatures. To each their own.

I 'get' what you are laying down, which is an anger toward vets in general and the pet food industry. Since you are quick to point out what you do not like to feed, how about using "some knowledge on the subject of animals" to give "accurate info" about what a dogs diet should be.

It's easy to hammer an industry you have a problem with, but you are not being part of the solution when you complain about it without offering alternatives. You're just tossing generalizations and I've yet to see you site a source as to why "Science Diet" is bad, not that I care. As I said, I haven't fed it and don't plan on it. Just pointing out the hypocrisy.

PS: I think I'm finished with this thread as well. It is like playing "Round Robin" -- going nowhere and nothing will be resolved.

Pursuant to the original topic: I hope the animal survives and it's wounds heal. Surely the owners love their pet whether they have the money for veterinarian care or not.

IF anyone got offended by my personal opinions I apologize because it was not my intent. I was not/am not criticizing a person for lacking money. Money is a necessary evil in this world, but lots can be done without it when it comes to animal care.

For myself:
I still believe, will always believe, that for me I will not own animals I do not have the money to care for.

Not all situations require a vet because my skills for mending my creatures is fairly high. It's taken me YEARS to acquire those skills and I utilize them whenever I have a situation I know I can do. The rest, true emergencies, require an expert, to which I am not.