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Cat Registration – what you need to know

October 20th, 2013

From November 1st 2013 all cat owners must register their cats with their local authority and pay the appropriate fee.

Cats must be desexed and microchipped, and you will need to produce proof of desexing and microchipping to register. A sterilisation certificate from the veterinary practice that desexed your cat and the letter of confirmation from a microchip registry, showing your cat is registered with them and the number of the chip your cat carries, are ideal. You will need to complete a double-sided A4 application form available from the City of South Perth (or other appropriate local government jurisdiction).

The fees are $20 for 1 year, $42.50 for 3 years and $100 for life. You get a receipt and a numbered plastic tag to go on your cat’s collar.

Although the Cat Act was passed in 2011, any new legislation like this always seems to come upon us with a rush and at Millpoint we will do our best to help you meet the requirements of the act.

If you are a regular client of ours and your cat was desexed at Millpoint but you have mislaid your sterilisation certificate, we can print a duplicate free of charge.

If you are a regular client of ours now but your cat was desexed elsewhere, contact the vets who carried out the operation. If you don’t have this information, check to see if your cat has a sterilisation tattoo in his/her left ear. If they do and you present your cat at the clinic (appointment required) so I can sight the tattoo, I will draft a letter confirming they have been desexed. Again,there will be no charge for this.

If your cat is not microchipped we need to do this straightaway. As you are unlikely to receive paperwork from the microchip registry now before November 1st, we will give you a copy of the form we send to the registry. This should satisfy the council.

If your cat is microchipped but you have no record of the chip number, or if you are uncertain whether your cat is chipped or not: make an appointment for us to scan your cat and supply a supporting letter. There will be no charge for this if you are a regular client of this practice. Of course, if the cat has no chip we will need to insert one.

The form may look a bit daunting but I’ve just registered my own cat Waldo and the practice cat Hamish (more about him later elsewhere on the site) and it wasn’t too hard. I have always said that cats should be kept inside in Australia, and approve of all attempts to promote responsible cat ownership. Registered breeders have special conditions with which they must comply.

Where the money levied from cat registration will go, and how the new legislation will be enforced, remains to be seen. I would hope that the money raised would be quarantined for animal management, just like most of us would prefer speed camera fines to be used to improve road safety. If the money raised goes straight into general revenue then we may be replacing a Carbon Tax with a Cat Tax. I’m not sure how the legislation will be enforced as local council Rangers have a full workload and I can’t see the State Government that enacted this legislation putting more boots on the ground in the current climate of spending cutbacks. We will have to wait and see.

Posted in News

Mad Journalists Threaten Dogs !

October 19th, 2013

With apologies to and in acknowledgement of the fine and ethical doctors,lawyers and journalists of my acquaintance, and to Private Eye.

Follwing today’s front page of The Not-the-Eastern-States- And-Don’t-You-Forget-It Australian with the (possibly literally) screaming headline “DOG BITE PAIN” which featured the quotes (selective, we hope) of Dr Jenna Raleigh-Sation : “People need to realise that dogs are very dangerous” and Ms Ambulance-Chaser of Sue,Grabbit & Run attorneys-at-law (Australasia) Inc.: “the bacteria in a dog’s mouth increased the risk of infection and sometimes led to limbs being amputated”, this website sent a fearless reporter to seek the opinion of a WA Vet, any WA vet, Dr Y Dinyaskmee about this, by any standards, serious issue of dog bites and children.

Fresh from a severe mauling at the hands of a six week old Labrador puppy that he had been inoculating Dr Dinyaskmee had this to say:

“Well,I read the article and immediately thought of  all the people dogs have helped : Guide Dogs,Hearing Dogs,Assistance Dogs,dogs that visit hospitals and old age homes (including PMH), dogs that provide companionship to the elderly, the infirm and, most pertinently children. Kids and adults that would be unbearably lonely if they didn’t have the unconditional love of their dog. Dogs help physical health as well as mental health – children born into a home with a dog are proven to have a better immune system.And I could go on .. It would have been nice if Dr Jenna had acknowledged this by saying “a tiny minority of dogs are very dangerous” or even just used the word “some” but then I guess she just wouldn’t be Dr Jenna”.

“Not sure about Ms Ambulance-Chaser’s remarks either.Great exposure for her law firm but I have to say that cats have way nastier bacteria in their mouths than dogs and the only animals I know that have worse oral bacterial flora than pussycats are – you and me! And yes, human bites are very dangerous! In fact Dr Jenna, if we take out the tiny, tiny proportion of untimely demises and injuries from sharks, flying foxes,dogs and other animal related accidents (horses,livestock etcetera) I would venture that most unnatural deaths and assaults can be laid at the feet of people (in or out of cars). So Dr Jenna and “The Not-The-Eastern-States Australian” can we have a follow-up front page article on the risk posed to children by — other people! No.I thought not.”

Ignoring the fifteen year old toothless pampered Pug who was exposing his left femoral artery with a series of violent lacerations to his inner thigh, our stoical veterinarian continued:

“This is not my field and I don’t have access to the data to support it but I would hazard a guess that a sizeable proportion, probably a majority, of dog bites sustained by children are from their own family dog. Owning a dog is a personal choice that almost 50% of Australians choose to make – are we suggesting that should be illegal? A further tranche of cases would involve dogs owned by family or friends, and as seems inevitable with statistics quoted in this kind of reporting there is no indication of severity; just total numbers. It seems to suit the journalists involved to leave the threat of random dog attacks hanging in the air to terrify their readers. That’s gossip, not serious journalism.”

“Ms Ambulance-Chaser touches on irresponsible dog ownership. She is on surer ground here – there are a tiny minority (that phrase again) of owners oblivious to the capacity of their dog to cause inconvenience and, in rare cases, injury to fellow citizens. A meathead and a dangerous dog are a potent combination. Thankfully there are very few people in our community like this, because finding the dog after an attack, bringing the owner to court and extracting an appropriate punishment seems inordinately difficult. Perhaps Ms Ambulance-Chaser would like to turn her attention to our judicial system.”

“They’re right about one thing though – dog bites hurt!”

Posted in News

The Cat Act will soon be upon us

August 7th, 2013

The new Cat Act comes into force on 1st November 2013. I will blog about it closer to that time.

I keep my own cat inside and I recommend you do too. Just by doing that you prevent your cat falling victim to motor vehicle accidents, cat fight abscesses and feline leukaemia and feline AIDS. Plus the vaccinations are cheaper!

Posted in News

When Spring’s again you’ll bring again …..

August 7th, 2013

No,not tulips from Amsterdam but itching, scratching dogs and cats to Millpoint Vet Centre. So for my first blog after such a long break we just have to have a chat about allergies.

Perth is the allergy capital of the WORLD. Think how many kids and adults you know with asthma. Cats and dogs can get asthma but  far more common reactions to the allergies they suffer are skin and ear problems. I reckon every second dog in Perth has some degree of allergy and only the severity is in doubt. Lots of cats have allergies too.

Most of the allergy cases I see have allergies to grasses and pollens. That’s just the way it is when you have the amazing variety of plants and trees  we do in WA. Most of these allergies are, at least to start with, seasonal and the peak time for them is Spring (with a second and lower spike in Autumn). Dogs and cats can, of course, be allergic to house dust mites, moulds,insects and food too. These allergies tend not to be seasonal.

Dogs and cats can present a little differently so I’ll deal with my doggy patients first and add a few extra notes for the pussycats.

Typically itchy red skin is the first sign of allergy.It’s not unusual for dogs to scratch occasionally but any persistent itching (the technical term is pruritus) is suspicious. Classically the face,feet and underneath of the dog (belly,armpits,groin) are affected. If the allergy is left untreated severe self trauma may result and secondary infection occur. I read somewhere that around 30% of allergy cases present ONLY with ear problems. From my own experience I would agree and almost all ear infections I see are secondary to a primary allergy.

So how do I treat these dogs? For skin allergy cases in practice there are three treatment options. If the degree of itching is mild and especially if the dog is young  I prefer to trial anti-histamines with fish oil and shampoos as my first line of therapy. My reasoning here is that, if they are effective, you can give your dog anti-histamines every day for the rest of their life without any significant side-effects. Unfortunately there are many cases where this approach doesn’t work or where the dogs are chewing themselves raw and more urgent relief is needed.

My second option is to trial these dogs on cyclosporin. This is an immune-suppressive drug with a powerful anti-allergy action. Side-effects are limited usually to vomiting after dosing (and there are ways round this for most patients). It would be my favoured next step for all patients with atopy (allergy to grasses/pollens or other allergens in their environment) but cost prevents its use in dogs over 20kg for most owners. Treatment failures may occur if a/ the dog does not have atopy or b/there is an untreated secondary skin infection but otherwise it is VERY effective.

And thirdly, if the budget is limited or the dog is large there is prednisolone, a powerful anti-inflammatory corticosteroid. Now oral prednisolone at the lowest effective dose every second or third day can be a reasonable treatment protocol for an older dog but there are side-effects with long term use and we need to discuss these in a consultation so you, the owner,can make an informed decision on treatment. If possible, corticosteroids administered as creams or sprays are preferred as the side-effects associated with topical use are far less marked.

You will see that as I started to outline the therapeutic options above I included the words “in practice”. There are excellent veterinary dermatologists in Perth who can test your dog or cat for allergies and prepare a specific cocktail to desensitise your pet to their allergens but that falls outside the scope of this post.

Now for the pussycats. They can present a little differently with patchy hair loss and no apparent itching because they are very good at doing their scratching when you’re asleep or out. When I graduated nearly 30 years ago there was a whole category of feline alopecia (hair loss) and overgrooming  associated with presumed neurosis. As allergy testing became available more widely these cats have been recognised and reclassified as allergy patients.

Cats can respond very well to certain anti-histamines. There is no formulation of cyclosporin licensed for use in cats so if anti-histamines are not effective or not appropriate then I use oral prednisolone,often at higher dose than in dogs because if you can’t stop the itching quickly those cat claws can do an awful lot of damage to their own body.

I hope this brief run-through of allergy treatments will prove helpful if you need to bring your pet to see me. You won’t be alone!

Posted in News

They know more than we think

September 19th, 2012

For this football tragic the elimination of the Eagles in the second week of finals has been eased by a new English Premier League season. Footy tipping for the early rounds of the season at the end of a convivial dinner with friends seemed like a good idea.

The only irritation was provided by my youngest son, just turned eight, who at his turn would exclaim loudly “I’ll just ask Poppy” before whispering into the large floppy ear of our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and then remarking “What were the teams again?”As you may imagine, this slowed everything down A LOT!

Fast forward to mid-September. I’m sitting in second place but not sitting comfortably, oh no, because going strong in third place and only just behind is the youngest Buchanan/Poppy combo. If they overtake me we might have to carry on for the whole season ….

Do any readers have a dog or cat with unexpected abilities? I’d love to hear about them!

PS Next time my oldest boy has threatened to consult Waldo the family cat who he claims (perhaps justifiably if you know cats and Cavaliers) is far more clever!

Posted in News