We seem to be getting conflicting advice about all kinds of things. Our vet says one thing, and forums like this say another. My first instinct was to accept the vets advice, because we have not had a dog before. But now I am not so sure. We were concerned that we were walking Martha too much as over the course of a day she was walking about 6-8 miles. The vet has said that that is fine (she is now 6 months old). A breeder I contacted said she shouldn't be walking even half that.She is a German Wirehaired/Short haired pointer cross.
We were advised by the vetenary nurse to get her spayed ASAP. I said how I had heard that there was a potential problem with spaying before the first season, but they said no, the problems caused if she were to get pregnant so early would outweigh the ones caused by early spaying. When I took her to the kennels they were shocked that we had had her spayed so young. Now I am worried about what we have done.
Martha was ill for about three weeks with bloody diahorrea before the stool samples were ordered. She had two strong injections, and two courses of Buscopan before a correct diagnosis was made.
The vet seems very knowledgeable and up to date in his info. He was recommended to be by a couple of people. But the kennels didn't seem to have a very high opinion. It is soooo difficult!!
We went were we thought was best, and followed the advice of the vet. Now I am worried that we have damaged our beautiful dog. Please advise.
Joanna

5 minutes per month of age is a general guide :) So at 6 months, 30 mins, which you can do 2 or 3 times a day with a good rest in between :)

You NEED to have a vet that you trust implicitly .....they may be a great  vets but if YOU don't have the trust in them then I think you should change.

Only YOU can decide whether you want your pup spayed early or not ..there are pros and cons for both sides ..use google.co.uk and have a look around, read about the pros and cons and then decide :)

I think the spaying's a fait accompli now, Mel ;)

I suppose so, but I still can't help worrying about it!

Hardly JG ...the Vet isn't allowed to do it without the owners permission ;) I know of bitches who have been spayed early and are fine, same goes for bitches who have been spayed late .

I had a letter from MY vets the other weeks offering to spay Delta for *n* amount ...now at least my vets has waited until she approached 1 year old ...have to be grateful for small mercies :D :D Mind you, my vets are great :)

I mean in this particular poster's situation, Mel. I read it that the bitch has already been spayed, and now the owner's wondering whether it had been the right thing to do.

Joanna, if I've read it right, and this is indeed the case, please don't worry about whether or not early spaying was right - what's done is done. If you feel your vet can't be trusted, however, then the best thing to do is change vets. It's very important that you should have faith in your vet, because only vets are allowed to treat a sick animal.
:)

Ahhhh ...I have caught up now :D :D :p

Should I immediately cut down to two half hour sessions, or do it gradually. Is  she going to miss the long walks she has been doing for months?? (She always seems very reluctant to stop her walk and go home afterwards).  Do you think we will have damaged her legs or anything? Is there anything we can do about it if we have? The vet said that 8 miles a day was no problem for her. How can he have got it so wrong. I feel v.bad now.

Hi Joanna, as I think you know now, the reason we discourage over exersise is to protect the growing joints from damage in the early months. There is no way of knowing whether or not there has been any damage done to Martha's joints, so please don't fret about it now, it's water under the bridge. :)

Now that you have the knowledge, you can adjust the exersise and you can always come back here to ask any further questions that you may have. There are so many experienced people here, that somebody is bound to be able to help. Of course we are no substitute for a good trustworthy vet for when your dog is ill. So don't worry so much :) we are here to support eachother.

Dawn R.

There are a lot of experienced dog people on here, and beleive me that counts for a lot,you can learn an  lot from peoples experiences.
And if you feel at any time that you dont trust your vet then move....
We did this with our old Lab, and never regreted it.so go with your gut instinct.
HTH.

Joanna I just wanted to add, everyone has to start somewhere. This is your first dog and we all make mistakes first time round. Please don't beat yourself up about it. If you are asking yourself sensible questions and doing your own research until you find what you feel is right already then you are doing fine. I remember the days when I used to buy a different flavour tin of Pedigree Chum Select cuts in gravy for every day of the week :rolleyes: and panic if my dogs wormer was a few days late because the vets said it must be done every three months etc, etc. I look back and laugh now, but despite my mistakes, I still have that dog and he is nearly 11 now and still healthy. Learn by your mistakes but don't blame yourself for them. At the end of the day you were following the advise of someone you should be able to trust. Unfortunately, as you have discovered, it is not always the case.

Enjoy your dog, keep doing as you are doing, i.e. learning, and relax. :-)

Hello and sorry to make this short and sweet, am in a bit of a rush. I would think that 8 miles a day at 6 months is a hell of a lot, my Giant Schnauzer is 19 months and only now gets 2 hour+ walks, which I would guess add up to about 8 -10 miles. Don't blame yourself, it is hard not to trust someone who is supposedly an expert- however, your vet may know a lot about dogs in general, but had he/she actually raised any dogs in your breed? My first point of inquiry would always be with the breeder- Molly's breeder has been in the business for a decade or three, so probably knows a bit more about the specific traits of the breed than a vet GP. I was worried about my pup being too skinny, but the vet kept telling me that it's bad for them to be overweight. I showed the pup to the breeder at 5 months, by which point she was very skinny indeed, and the breeder was very upset about that. But the vet thought the pup was fine! (she turned out fine, by the way) So much for the vet knowing what he was talking about in this instance...

I couldn't help but to laugh at the comments about the puppy becoming pregnant so young...as if that would happen by divine intervention! Did they not think that perhaps you were not a complete idiot and were capable of protecting the pup's innocense through the first season? Well, it's done now, stop kicking yourself, but ask yourself if it is worth going back to someone whose advice you don't feel you can trust 100%. 
I find even the thought of the practice of neutering at a young age quite abhorrent, and this combined with how long it seemed to take them to do anything about the bloody diarrhoea would make me think twice why some people have had less than flattering things to say about this vet.

Good luck, follow your instinct and if you don't think you are given good advice by the vet, then vote with your feet. ;)

>But the vet thought the pup was fine! (she turned out fine, by the way) So much for the vet knowing what he was talking about in this instance...

Umm if she turned out fine wasn't the vet correct to say it was OK? :)
The vet in the OP's case is not necessarily being thick but is merely expressing a professional view that he is not alone in.  There seems to be quite a body of veterinary opinion that restricted exercise is counterproductive and the development of muscle and ligaments is useful in supporting joints and preventing damage.  Within the profession is seems the jury is still out and more research is required so it is reasonable to have ones own opinion but I don't think it is reasonable to condemn the vet for holding his :)

Isabel, a Giant Schanuzer puppy is not supposed to look like a whippet, and when I expressed my concern about her not eating and ribs beginning to show through, the vet said that was fine and normal!!! My dog turned out fine after  I took advice from the breeder, ignored the vet, took the puppy off commercial muck and fed her fairly intensively for about 6 months. At 5-6 months my puppy was at least third smaller than her litter mates, you would not believe they were from the same litter, and looked like a starved and neglected cruelty case! Ther breeder was quite angry that I hadn't come to her earlier and couldn't believe that the vets kept telling me how normal the puppy looked. I can't look at pictures taken of her around that time, because I can't stop kicking myself- how anyone can say that puppy looked healthy is a mystery. It didn't help that she also refused to eat, so it wasn't a case of me just not feeding her enough. She , thankfully, started to eat after her tummy calmed down a bit (badly damaged by the stuff I had previously fed her, no wonder she would rather starve than touch it) and had made up the weight by 12 months. However, her coat has taken a lot longer to mature than expected, even at six months she only had a fluffy puppy coat!
So yes, in this instance the vet was plain thick and a right idiot- he was the same guy to tell me to starve the skinny puppy as she was so sick with the commercial muck! Luckily, he no longer appears to be with that practice and the other vets there are very nice and seem to have a few more braincells. My ignoring this idiot vet is the reason why my dog now appears to be healthy.

Sorry, you did not make it clear in your post that a change of diet changed her condition it sounded like she came good anyway :)   In my experience, though, it is often the case that show orientated people often prefer their puppies rather on the "well-filled" side and vets and working type people often prefer the ribs to show a little in a juevenile although admittedly not as much as your dog appeared to :) 

I took my Bracco for her 6 month check up and the vet told me she was grossly over weight.  I had to point out that in fact the bracco is a loose-skinned breed and what she was saying re "if you can pinch more than an inch!" was completely wrong in her case.  The following time I went she told me how well the pup was looking.  I actually became a bit paranoid about feeding after that so I can imagine how you must be feeling.  Another thing was that one of my dogs had an itchy skin.  He was put on antibiotics, special food, etc., etc.,  When the vet left the locum saw him at his check up.  She said that it was such a low grade infection it was probably due to the vegetation at this time of year.  I was just to keep on top of it with antihistamine.  My new vet agrees.  I suppose it just boils down to conflicting opinions.  You are dealing with people and not machines.  What one person thinks another might not.  I think regarding general things like exercise though they should all be singing from the same hymn sheet!!!!

I would agree with everyone on here that says if you are not happy with your vet, change.

Once, I thought my cat was pregnant and I took her to the vet to confirm, the vet said that she was just bl~~dy fat and to put on a diet (those were his exact words). Anyway, 3 weeks later she had kittens on a pile of shoes. I was so angry as I cut down on her food when she needed it the most. One of the kittens died. I complained the the Royal vetinery college saying that if a vet could not tell pregnancy, then surely then need to be re-trained. I also changed practices straight away and have been really happy with where I have taken my cats and dogs for the past 9 years. My vet even had a tear in his eye when my dog died.

I am getting a puppy in a few weeks and have asked the vet about spaying and they won't touch her until she is at least a year old. My breeder recommends she should be approx 18 months and mid-season.

Different people have different views on this subject and you have done it now, so I wouldn't worry too much.

With regards to walking 6-8 miles is far too much. No breed of dog should be doing that much so young.

IMO - find a different vet.

My previous vet presribed an overdose of sedatives, which, combined with a booster vaccination, proved fatal for my dog.  In hindsight I wished I'd reported him to the RCVS but I was too upset at the time to think straight.

I'm not keen on the vets we're with now either but at least if I'm not happy with their advice or opinion I'm not afraid to speak out :)

I think I have been lucky in this practice. There are 10 vets there and I used to chose between 2 of them, depending on what was wrong with the animals. Unfortunately, one left just after my dog died and the other is due to leave in a few weeks as they are starting a practice together up north. I will have to get to know the others.

My partner took his staffie in for boosters and the vet he saw would not even see the dog without Sam being muzzled, this dog is fine with vets and has never caused a problem. I won't be taking my new rottie to see the same person that did sams injections - there are another 5 to check out (unless I see one of the partners).

There is nothing worse than trusting a vet and then they let you down. There is nothing wrong with speaking out. Its our right to protect our family.

I think it is a little unfair to judge a vet just because he/she asks to muzzle a dog before giving an injection ! I have seen a few vets/nurses bitten in practice a few times by a nice dog that wouldnt hurt a fly, they too have a right to protect themselves.

I agree that vets need to protect themsleves but there is a fine line between knowing hoe to 'read' a dog and being over cautious. My Lab is quite nervous at the vets, but if handled calmly and confidently she is OK. However if thye tried to put a muzzle on her she would go balistic and some vets would then say - told you so she is a dangerous dog.

Dont forget that whilst vets have had years of training it was across humdreds of species, you know your dog, especially if you have had several of the same breed, a lot better than most vets do. A really good vet will tell you when they are not sure of a diagnosis and ask you questions that will help to confirm/deny a possible diagnosis.

The practice I use has a vet who insisted years ago I muzzled the dog I had taken in because ALL the breed are known to be nasty & unpredictable ! A sweeping statement about any breed but bearded collies ? I refused & told him I would hold the business end. She had managed to remove a claw & I couldn't stop it bleeding so it needed veterinary attention. He gave her a local in her foot making sure I had this very aggressive bitch under control all the time(he missed the fact that her tail was wagging normally all the time)& he then sorted her claw out saying all the time "don't let go as she will bite me if you do", actually all I was doing was giving her some india type head massage. When he had finished he told me I could let her head go after he left the room as he didn't want biting. The students who were in the surgery(all 5 of them)started to laugh as she was laid totally chilled out giving me her paw to massage. He tried to cover all his tracks by saying Old English were noted for being aggressive in his experience So when I said that's all well & good but you know very well I have BC & Bearded Collies, he blushed & fled the surgery leaving his nurse to apply the dressing. I like the practice but my dogs notes all have a big notice on them that I will not see him except in an emergency.

When I had my last BC PTS he couldn't have been nicer, apparently he got a rollicking off the then senior partner over what he said to me & told to not make any more such remarks & although it was many years since he saw one of my dogs he had not forgotten

One thing I will say is that they do not push early spaying/castrating down the clients throats & the vet I usually see is wonderful with all the animals & never has a problem even with the naughtiest pet

I think the least they can do is ask the owner if the dog is okay with injections. He's had a lot worse done to him without a muzzle, when I took him once becuase he had an ulcer in his eye, I thought it would be a good idea to put him in a muzzle as I don't have the strength of my partner to hold his jaw. The poor dog was more irritated having to wear this thing (it was his first time), it made the examination near impossible.
For a vet to walk into a room and immediately assume that a dog is aggressive because of its breed is a little unfair.