pqueries

1. I have a Doberman puppy , I want his ears to be erect. I want him operated upon for this . My friend told me that it is not necessary and the operation is painful and is not without complications .Kindly advice.

Hemu ; Chandigarh :India

Advice by Dr S.P.Singh - Ear cropping is the name for the surgery for your pet . It is an elective procedure with no health benefit to the puppy ,done in few purebred puppies as the breed trademark,but the most common need is to get the erect ears .No doubt this cosmetic surgery is involving complication risks and the most common is not getting the ear erect, after so much of different bandaging ,taping and spending your precious time and money with the aftercare.

And if you are into, prevention of cruelty toward animals ,then your puppy don't need it.There is no medical , physical , cosmetic need as per my opinion to disfigure your puppy by getting the ear flaps ( pinna) surgically altered.

9 April 05

2. My puppy needs vaccination and my I wants to avoids repeated visits to the vet office and want to get him vaccinated against all the diseases on one day only.Advice.

Vikas ; New Delhi

Advice by DR S.P.Singh - Getting your puppy vaccination against all of the diseases is not possible on one day as it not beneficial and so not recommended. There is a set schedule for the vaccination .Which may differ a on the basis of age of dog , health and type of vaccine. At Delhi You can follow the schedule as given in dog vaccination schedule. Your repeated visits to the vet are beneficial in other way also as during these visits your vet can also check the puppy for other frequent health problems and management advice so not only you can get your puppy vaccinated as per schedule but can also solve numerous growing puppy related issues.

Seedog vaccination schedule

4 may 2005

3. I have an important query.Last year,my Pomeranian who was 8 died of Kidney failure as her kidneys contains high percentage of BUN.s per the vet's opinion,the cause was Ticks.However my dog has hardly or never contracted ticks as we made sure that she was kept clean & healthy with a regular dose of Vitamins & tonics.
Please let me know if the cause was right & if so what could be done to avoid such a situation in future ?
regards,
Priti.

Advice byDr S.P.SINGH

Carefully going through your query , I wish to inform you that the

1.BUN is not always the sole indicator of kidney failure. There are other tests to be performed to reach the final diagnosis ,you have not quoted a single one (except BUN) . If other tests were done and kidney failure was confirmed , then only one can think of the cause of it . Any information regarding tests for blood protozoa ( important ), for Anemia, Jaundice, Ultrascan ?

2. What about the accompanying symptoms and treatment given ?

3.I experienced that it is very difficult to avoid ticks catching your pets ,doesn't matter how well aware and caring you are , and ticks may be the one of the numerous causes of renal failure .

In India the following diseases must be taken in account for renal/kidney failure because of ticks.
CANINE EHRLICHIOSIS
A rickettsial disease transmitted by ticks infected with the ehrlichia organism.

CANINE BABESIOSIS
A protozoan disease transmitted by ticks infected with the babesia organism.

4.Your veterinarian's opinion who was treating your pet ,must always be weighed heavily.

And for the second important part of your query, you will find an article for the prevention of ticks and renal diseases very soon.

Opinion by DR Ritu practicing vet in Australia

I would tell her that there are diseases related to ticks causing renal disease but there are plenty of other causes of renal failure and in the absence of ticks and absence of other signs it is most least likely scenario.

June 2005 ;Query from Shivani Sood ; Shimla

4.I visited your cite today while I was trying to find some information on cocker spaniels I have a 6 months old cocker spaniel, Bruno, brown/golden with white patch on chest and forehead. I would like you to help me out on the following points:

1. We got Bruno through a friend of my husband who assured us that is of good breed. He has long ear, however, he has not developed a long coatand and is sleek in appearance. So far as I know cocker spaniels have a comparatively longer coat and are 'gol matol'
2. His coat is nice and shiney , but his short coat and sleek appearance makes me feel that he is not of a good breed. It does not matter much even if he is not a pure/good breed cause my family has come to love him so much. He is very loving loyal and playful. However, if you could tell us what should be his height and weight as per age,how much time he will take for full growth, how long should be his coat, it would help us decide if we are being too early in judging him, since, he is only 6 months old.
.

Actually till now we have not uploaded any breed specific information on website. If need be or required by you, we will work on it and provide that on pethelpindia itself.

Few links for your reference regarding cocker spaniels
http://www.ecsca.org/albumconform1.html here you can see few conformational photo's of champion English cocker spaniels.
http://www.canismajor.com/dog/cocker.html read a little about cocker spaniels.
http://www.barkbytes.com/history/ecock.htm history of English cocker spaniels.
http://www.petpublishing.com/dogken/breeds/cocker.shtml about cocker spaniels.

You got Bruno from a known family friend, so I think you have access to see his parents, largely seeing the parents of a puppy truly reveals its breed, but if it is not possible for you, then reading a little about the breed and its characteristics will be helpful. Go through the below mentioned links.

If you are not specifically into keeping a cocker spaniel and you were looking for a faithful friend only then It does not matter much, rather don't matter at all, the breed .Have you ever seen an orphan bitch (mostly in India) or a street dog who visits everyday your house or stays in your locality, they are mostly very friendly and faithful sweat dogs, 99% of them are non descript and are good.

Household training of pet does play an important role you can shape any dog of any /no breed according to your will and requirements. Teaching obeying with affection can be done by any dog owner.
Your puppy age is now very good for the training.

Trainers are there in your locality and you can get one very easily.

Generally a dog becomes adult at around 7-8 months of age.

I cannot afford to feed him ready-made food and I give him two big chapattis and milk in the morning, 1 chapatti in afternoon and two chapatti and non-veg (boiled) in the evening. Occasionally I give him some vegetables, fruits and pulses which he loves to eat (rather he eats anything edible). Is this diet OK for a dog his age? If I give him more he increase the frequency of motion and being working I cannot afford to be always available to take him out. Is this diet OK for a dog of his age? What else should I include in his diet?

Your puppy is 6 month old and is cocker spaniel, and then you are feeding too much to your little puppy. As per waltham research cocker spaniels have a tendency for getting obese.

Giving fruits and vegetables is a good idea to provide fiber, vitamin and minerals.

As you are working and not have much time, then opting for the good balanced ready-made diets will be better , convenient ,good for the puppy, and cheaper too ( as the per day diet comes to around 25 RS per day ).To avoid stomach upsets shift slowly to commercial diets if you want.There are few who also advocate feeding raw food to pets http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/sampleraw.htm for reference go through the website.

Giving dietary calcium supplement with prophylactic vitamins and mineral supplement will be good for him if you stick to the homemade diet. Include boiled egg and homemade paneer with brown bread .Soon we will be providing the balanced homemade diet in Indian conditions for you and other several pet owners who are feeding there dogs the home made diets as till date the commercial preparations are not so popular in India. You should also include 3-5 ml of corn oil and cod liver oil in his daily diet.

3. He has almost no hair on the lower throat portion, is it okay?

No problem if he is comfortable with it. Look for any redness, abnormal itching or parasites.

4. Bruno has potty trained well and so long as we give him food as per fixed schedule he is OK. However, I want to give him some crate training. However, I could not find dog crate in Shimla. Can you guide me finding one in any nearby town or in Chandigarh?

Yes you can find at Chandigarh and probably at simla.

5. My dog was 20 days old when we got him and his tail was not docked. I just could not bring myself to have it docked so has a long tail and is never tired of wagging it. I love to see him jumping around and wagging his tail on coming home. Did I do anything wrong by not getting it docked.

No tail docking is not at all needed. What is important ,is to love your dog as it is , mutilating a part of body will never ever beautify your dog or any body. It is now banned in some countries.

6. Should I get him neutered?
Yes get him neutered now, if don't want to use Bruno for breeding. It will be the best decision to be made for his and your benefit.
Do send a pic/s of your pet.
Regards
pethelpindia

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