Galgo News

Category: Advice

  • Hydrolyzed diet for dogs

    I recently had to visit an emergency vet with Rosie, who had bad diarrhorea over a bank holiday weekend – why is it always a bank holiday when they are ill?!! Starving her hadn’t worked and she was pretty poorly. Half hour with the vet – £300 consultation fee (UK rates!) and £17 for kaolin medication. So I claimed from my pet insurance. A query came up from the assessor vet – had it ever been suggested she have a hydrolyzed diet? I’d never heard of it – in the first instance – and secondly the vet had recommended chicken and boiled rice for a few days – the usual recommendation for a dog with an upset stomach.

    I’m pleased to report that firstly Rosie made an excellent recovery on the kaolin, chicken and rice, and secondly the pet insurance paid out on my claim.

    This is a weblink to an article on a hydrolyzed diet.

  • UK Vet Fees – they are a rip off – people cannot afford them!

    The Competition & Markets Authority are looking into vet fees. About time too! They are ab absolute rip off because vet clinics have been taken over by big businesses like hedge funds, pension funds, pet insurance companies. I’ve discussed this recently on my blog but now the news is out there about the CMA action.

    Read about it on this weblink. If you scroll to the end of the article, you can HAVE YOUR SAY. Please do comment as it all adds fuel to the fire of the diabolical vet fees and the companies which own them.

    In conversation recently with a veterinary nurse, she said that pet owners now are not taking their pet to the vet when it first falls ill but trying to medicate themselves. Often this results in the pet becoming more ill, so that when the vet finally is consulted, sometimes the illness is too advanced and the pet is euthanaised! And if the owner wishes for the pet’s ashes, this charge is also proving prohibitive.

    The result of this –

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  • Pheromone – why it is good for a calmer for dogs

    A question was raised on social media recently by a lady adopting a rescue podenco, which will have spent 3 days travelling to her in the UK. She was concerned about the podenco being stressed out and asked for advice on any product to help calm the dog. This was my comment in answer.

    Pheromone is a natural ‘product’of a female body when it gives birth as it calms the newborn and takes away the stress of birthing. This is why it is so important for a newborn animal to suckle soon after birth. I occasionally use a product with pheromone called Beaphar CaniComfort for my blind podenco when travelling distances, as he sometimes gets upset by the very loud noise of car tyres on rough tarmacadum – because of course he can’t see it. Not all products which claim to calm an animal contain Pheromone – so you need to check the ingredents of a product and discount it if it does not have Pheromone.

    Read about Pheromone on this weblink. It calms the animal without tranquilisng it.

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  • Protectora Scooby – galga Mistral hoping for a forever home

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    From Protectora Scooby.

    ‘This beautiful girl who is supposed to be adopted soon will probably spend the rest of her life in a kennel in our shelter because she is positive for leishmaniosis and people are more afraid of this Mediterranean disease than of Putin!

    With the right treatment, they can live well for many years. It’s not fair that dogs with leish don’t have the chance at a normal life and the love they deserve more than any other dog.

    If you can to give this galga, her name is Mistral, a dignified life and make her very happy so she would thank you with all her love and heart writes to: adopciones@scoobymedina.org

    An adopter with experience of taking on a dog with leishmania has this to say.

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  • Lipomas in Dogs

    Lipomas differ from Lymphoma lumps as the former are benign. To learn more about them, click on the weblink
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  • Physiotherapy for your dog

    Several years ago when I adopted my galgo Polar from Pepis Refuge in Pedrera, I consulted a canine physio for treatment to his damaged hind knee joint. It was interesting to see that the work she did on him was very similar to that used by my physio on me when I injured my shoulder.

    Weblink to article about canine physiotherapy.

  • Benefits of vitamin C for your dog

    Read the full article here

  • Vets in the UK – taken over by hedge funds and insurance companies result in exorbitant fees!

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    Vet groups in the UK have been taken over by hedge funds, insurance companies and other groups concerned only with making a profit. This results in fees which many pet owners cannot afford. For people on their own or elderly, a dog or cat is their only companion and the situation is such now that they cannot afford to have a dog or cat because they can’t afford the diabolical vet fees. As wth most things in the UK – it’s yet again RIP OFF BRITAIN! Whatever happened to the caring society?

    My experience recently was that my Podenca Rosie had bad diarhorrea and starvation for 3 days did not sort it. Wouldn’t you know it, it was a bank holiday in the UK! So I telephoned my vet surgery which was closed and was referred to another surgery. Usual consultation – check heart, pulse, temperature, gums – prescribed a probiotic paste. Consultation fee – £288 inc vat – total bill £341. I’ve paid it, of course, but that is a huge amount when I’m long retired and living on pensions.

    Below is a letter posted on facebook by a vet which says it all.

    From David Thomson

    My letter to the RCVS (Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons)

    I am dictating this letter so my spelling and grammar may be incorrect for that I apologise.

    It is with a heavy heart and a lot of depressive soul searching that I am sending this email to a governing body that I used to hold in great esteem.

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  • What is a veterinary behaviourist?

    Read the full article on this weblink

  • Why you should microchip your pet

    Dogs should be microchipped 400
    It is an EU law that dogs,cats, equines and ferrets (yes, even ferrets!) are microchipped. It doesn’t cost a lot, but it does mean that if your pet is lost or stolen, it is easier to trace. And one should remember that when adopting an animal from an EU country, you should register the microchip in the country in which you live. Again, it’s not difficult. All my Spanish dogs at our French farm were registered with the French microchip database through our vet. Our Spanish dogs with us now in England have their microchips registered with the UK microchip company, such as Pet Log.

    This weblink gives you all the reasons you should microchip your pet.