General Chat

Some years ago after paying out for an expensive flea collar (lasts 6mths) we discovered Mini was allergic to the thing >>>>threw that away after 6wks and settled for oiling her every month. €30 for 4 applications or with 2 every 2 months.

Found out a couple of years ago Mini is allergic to bites and that includes Mozzie bites so after several vet visits we discovered what is was and every couple of weeks during mozzie season she goes for an injection. If not she scratches herself raw.

Took her to the vet on Wednesday as her scratching was bad and no amount of bathing brushing her was helping. So yesterday she was retreated (only a week after previous treatment) and her coat brushed using a stripper brush ( just bought )
Today we waited for a peaceful scratch free day, she uses a chair to scratch her back. and guess what !! ?

The bl@@dy steroid injection hasn't worked this time.

>>back to the drawing board or more to the point the vets table on Monday !


I even managed to put this on general as she has had me soooo distracted with her yelps and grunts.

Wits end has anybody ever dealt with this before

Trying to remember what we used to keep mossies away as children ... pos lavender water or Eucalyptus?

Anyone else remember?

Could be diluted in a plant mister

Hi Carol its lavender water that is usually used. Now that I hadn't thought about. She has been showered in all sorts of shampoos. It might do her street cred in smelling of lavender lol ( she likes to be the tough dog at all of 11" tall ) but if it helps her. Will be buying that ....Thanks

I feel for you. I've had cats allergic to fleas. How did the #*(&% species manage to survive if it was allergic to *fleas*??

The thing about fleas is they live on the critters, or at least spend time on them. So something like Advantage has a chance to work on them. (Time for ours to have their spring treatments, or I'll have a couple of scabby cats again ...) It does seem to work, the monthly (expensive) applications.

Mosquitos, yikes. They're hit and run artists.

And anything you put on an animal, they'll lick off. Morons.

No useful advice, just commiseration ...

Mosquito netting? ;)

Just been taking a look round & found this site:

http://altmedicine.about.com/od/aznaturalremedyindex/a/mosquito.htm

Janey we have mozzie netting in the van but she gets bit outside plus I hate to own up but the younger one takes the netting of the door so we have to have flexi nets up.
The fleas are sorted as they are treated each month as you say not cheap but worth it.
It's them damn pesky mosquitos that are the trouble.

Carol will check that site out

Oh Anne your poor Staffie I just hope she enjoys showers,

I had a cat called Thomasina and she was allergic to cat fleas etc. She was a lovely cat. My ex-husband and I bought her for £5 from the pet shop. i was the best £5 ever spent.
When my husband and I split up i kept Thomasina and It was as if we lived together. She lived to the ripe old age of 18 and died in 2002.
i can't really remember what I used to use for Thomasina's fleas but the problem didn't seem so bad in the winter.

Carol thanks for that site, will look in further detail, for me as much as her, as I can't cope with the jungle juice spray smell/taste as it sets my asthma off.

I was thinking of wrapping her up in mosquito netting. ;)

Maybe with one of those nice wide-brimmed hats with the netting hanging down and tied with a bow around the neck ...

Patricia,
lovely to hear that Thomasina had a good life. No the problem in winter isn't there it is only this time of year and will last for about 3 months ( although this is getting longer as I am sure we didn't see the critters until the end of June last year !

Janey pmsl I have to say I grinned at that thought when you 1st mentioned netting. trying to imagine her in a little coat made of it. Bows mind are a different matter its street cred here she has to think about !

Janey
your idea isn't that daft at all apart from the wide brimmed hat with a bow.
but a coat made from netting ?

And there I thought the hat was the best part!

It is true, if you don't mind your mutt looking ridiculous, netting is very light and flexible and it would be pretty easy to zip up a ... what do you call those all-in-one long underwear with the trap door? Union suit.

I was just reading this, when I remembered being young and hip and hanging out with people obsessed with Adele Davis and brewer's yeast:

http://www.geocities.com/petsburgh/zoo/1224/fleas.html

Apparently feeding one's pet all that brewer's yeast may not be a good thing, but rubbing it into the coat is recommended, along with feeding lots of garlic. Mosquitos wouldn't want to be anywhere near her any more than you would.

Remember environmental things too -- no standing water, all that sort of thing.

We have a huge cedar hedge at the back of the garden, and mosquitos just love those things.

Me, I'm working on my third cat with FIV -- feline equivalent of HIV. The symptoms started about three weeks ago -- anorexia, basically. This one went off his food, but is now gobbling down the tinned stuff I'm trying for him. Don't know whether it will help. The first one to go about 3 years ago just kinda starved to death (well, we had him euthanised) after the $500 tests didn't produce a diagnosis. The second one was known to have FIV already, but still needed $500 in tests to produce no diagnosis. I've decided that cats are capable of dying without having $500 worth of tests first. He'll get all the wet food he wants, and if it doesn't work, he'll get a peaceful needle. Dang, pets make life miserable some times ...

Awww Janey I hadn't heard of FIV, but I think euthanised is a nice idea for them, when the time is right. Yea having pets sucks sometimes but the rest of the time, well we keep getting them !
Both my dogs will cause me problems in old their age ( as if they aren't already ! ) as both of them have joint problems. Mini had a broken front leg not set right when on the street and the pup (don't cringe I didn't name her Minx ) has hip displaysia (sp) from being thrown out I found her at 8wks old !
Both will have arthritis eventually Mini is now 7 and Minx only 4 but by then I reckon mine will be worse so they will still out run me !

luckily where Mozzies are concerned I live on a camp site so they do spray heavily as in all the tourist areas just not in the hills where I like to run them. Oh I can't feed them garlic as I can't do the smell.

Instead of the hat I was thinking of a huge elvis type collar ! what do you think ?

I believe the technical term you are seeking (or so google images just told me when I asked for *cat funnel collar*) is "Elizabethan collar". ;)

http://www.arcatapet.com/fullsize/10073.jpg

I can tell you there is nothing like a cat bumbling around the house in a plastic one of those.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/28/60407400_64be642d86.jpg?v=0

Runs into the doorway it's trying to go through. Backs up. Runs into it again ...


I grew up with an epileptic cocker spaniel, and then a St Bernard. She didn't live long enough for the hip displasia stage -- undiagnosed bone cancer ... ever seen a 3-legged St Bernard? She got along well for some time, but then it metastasized to uterine cancer ... Blasted pets.

ahh Janey no I was thinking of an Elvis type collar, both of mine have had the funnel collars it goes 1 step 2step thunk you lift the head off the floor and go 1step 2step thunk !

Luckily all my dogs have stayed 4legged, my magpie did go blind in 1 eye and that was a problem taking him to the vets !

Magpie! Eek!

www.petitionspot.com/petitions/deathtomagpies

I'm jealous, because we don't have magpies, and they sound quite fascinating. Not that I'd enjoy seeing them murder baby birds.

... That's the cats' job ...

(No, if I have any idea there are nestlings around, which there generally aren't here, I've been known to keep the cats inside for a week. That's fun.)

May as well go whole, er, hog.

http://images.buycostumes.com/mgen/merchandiser/27044.jpg

If that didn't keep mosquitos away, I don't know what would.

I had mine from a baby ....so it behaved (sort off lol ). Did use to have attack problems on jewellery and painted toenails ! but other than that he would happily sit on my shoulder even outside when I walked the goat ( I kid you not ) ....We put many a car in the ditch cos I was walking a goat with a magpie on shoulder and a chicken following !