Originally Posted by Vash the Stampede

arkon comes out with "80% of ten year olds have retina damage", and I'm the one stirring?

Look, arkon's posts are renowned for their bizarre statements (not to mention downright untruths, such as "front loaders are frowned on because they save water"; yeah, they're so "frowned on" that the government gives you a rebate if you buy one! ) but this time he's really excelled himself.

I just wonder if he actually believes half the stuff he comes out with.

Originally Posted by jad n rich

And i will make a serious attempt not to get drawn in to something that isn't my argument, i dont doubt that its a problem, and a serious one, its just that i cant believe that the figure is that high is all! It just seemed to me that 80% of ALL the 10 year olds in a country is a very high percentage. No more no less.

Originally Posted by Vash the Stampede

80% of ten year-olds in Australia have retina damage? First I've heard of it.

A source for this bizarre statistic would be nice - but seeing as it's arkon, I won't hold my breath.

Originally Posted by Luma

My 4yr old has been begging me to buy him shades as he's always saying "Mummy it's too bright the sun hurts my eyes".

Thanks for the info Arkon I'll go buy my kids some shades.

Originally Posted by kizbut1

Bloody hell Arkon, where are you??? PLease, please dont say Brisbane ... and I'm truly sorry you are feeling so bad .

Kiz

Originally Posted by Tiggs+Graz

Hamsters are grumpy, bad tempered and don't do very much at all (until about 2 in the morning when you are woken up by the squeak on the wheel) - and hamster bites hurt like hell! Not imo a good kids pet. Get a pet rat instead much friendlier and easier to handle (we had one that liked eating crisps and drinking beer! )

Tiggs

Originally Posted by arkon

This is our single bigest regret about coming to Australia. We brought our two dogs in the false belief they would have a better life too. The reality is so far off the mark though. We have snakes on the land, paralysis ticks in the area and heartworm to deal with. It's too hot for them and have to get them shaved twice a year. There is hardly anywhere they are allowed to go for decent walks. Although the individual vets bills seem less than back home, the number of times we have the boys at the vets means the cost for vets here is far higher for us. FLEAS are a massive problem, hardly a month goes by without me having to fumigate the house and dogs. They both have now developed some kind of skin problem with bald spots due to all the scratching.

Then theres the cost and stress of getting them back to the UK when it all goes pear shapped here.

So yes there is a lot to think about if your planning to bring your dogs out here.

I should also mention thunder storms which are much more frequent here and the dogs are scared sh*tless of them.

Originally Posted by MELANIE6

I brought my beloved golden retreiver from Uk at the age of 8 and also got a dog from a Sydney pound. Also had a big flea problem cos i used to use Frontline like i did in the uk but found it didn't work as well over here so changed to Revolution, i get it from www.pricelesspets.com.au - cheapest place on the net. Then they finally stopped scratching at the hair grew back. Revolution also covers heartworm. I also bought an Oyster shell paddling pool just for the dogs and kept in full all summer and he would just lay in it whenever it got to much for him, and believe me in Hawkesbury it gets over 40 a lot of the time.

Sadly lost my retreiver to cancer three months ago, and yes even though he was terrified every two months or so with all the storms, we used to put him in bed with us to stop him crying!! I wouldn't of come here without him!!!

Good luck with the dogs.

Originally Posted by arkon

No it's not Brisbane, They have much larger mozzies and the heat comes with more humidity. I live in rural mid north coast NSW on the *holiday* coast. To me it's actually not really that rural as I'm only about 20k to a major town and another 40 minutes to another. No different in location than say Warwick is from Coventry, Or even Meriden from Birmingham. In fact Meriden is a very good likeness to my current geographic location from everywhere else EXCEPT it's nothing like Meriden, Because when you drive from Meriden to Coventry or Birmingham or even Solihull there is shit loads to do there. Here you can drive the same distance to their big towns and it's like the life is being sucked out of you while your there.

I was 38 when we came here 2 years ago, now I'm about 102.

Originally Posted by annqldau

In case you are thinking of owning a dog in Aus it's not always as easy as the UK. After my parents having dogs all my life and 20 yrs of dog ownership myself it's a whole new ball game out here.

Your dog has to have the usual UK yearly injections plus a yearly injection for Heart Worm to stop mozzies injecting a parasite that can get into the dogs heart, there's also a monthly tablet for the same. There are all the usual UK worms as well like roundworm etc..

Then there are the ticks if you live near livestock or bush... ordinary ticks, cattle ticks and paralysis ticks. So far our dog has had two paralysis ticks and survived, you can get a serum that may stop them getting paralysis when they get caught by a paralysis tick but the serum itself can kill them and makes them more suseptible to paralysis tick poisoning for weeks after. After all this they can then just walk out and catch yet another tick. For ticks I use Frontline to control this if possible as the drops are supposed to stop for 2 wks for Paralysis ticks and the spray for 3 wks, there also collars around.

Fleas so far don't seem quite so bad as UK but they are about.

Then there are the cane toads, if they bite a cane toad they can die so you have to wash their mouths out using a special method with water and rush them to a vet with fingers crossed.

Snakes so far, touch wood, our dog has not come across but if he does you can guess the scenario (Twenty-seven species of terrestrial snakes are found in the Brisbane area. These include the carpet python, common tree snake, keelback, yellow-faced whip snake, white-crowned snake, and small-eyed snake. Most common species reported are the carpet python, common tree snake, and yellow-faced whip snake. Australia has some of the world’s most venomous snakes and about two-thirds of these may be found in and around Brisbane. Snakes can be found in almost any suburban backyard and even in the city centre. A number of snakes around the Brisbane area rate very highly on Australia’s “potentially lethal” list. These include the coastal taipan, tiger snake, death adder, rough-scaled snake and eastern brown snake. Of these dangerous snakes, the eastern brown snake is now the only species regularly found in Brisbane suburbs. The others are uncommon or absent in most parts. Eastern brown snakes are reasonably common at the mouth of the Brisbane River and west of Indooroopilly. Red- bellied black snakes have become very rare since the introduction of the cane toad).

Lastly there is night time, you can't leave the dog out in the dark in case the Cane Toads get him or the Pythons if it's a little dog or in case your dog gets the Possums etc. whilst he is out.

Vets are all over the place more popular than UK probably because there are so many things to get your pet. In QLD you have to register your dog yearly and it has to wear a little yellow numbered tag for identification. We have also had our dog chipped although the chips in my area of QLD only track ownership they don't have the dual ownership and thermometer chips yet. if lost your dog goes to the pound same as UK and you pay release fee.

So the gist of this little bit is think twice before buying a dog in Aus and be prepared it's not like having a dog in UK... except the dog is still great company.

Originally Posted by Rudi

I think you need to be really careful posting something like this because experiences are very area specific. When people have not lived in Australia and learned for themselves, they can take all this sort of information out of context.

My experience

Yep - agree on the annual jabs plus the heartworm jab, monthly tabs etc.

Where we live there are no ticks except in the high grass areas (meadows). We don't walk the dog in these sorts of areas so it's never an issue.

We have never seen a flea in Australia - have 2 cats as well as a dog (one of the cats roams quite a bit). The only time I put flea treatment on them is before they go to the kennels or cattery.....maybe once a year. I had to treat the cats regularly in the UK.

No cane toads where we are.

Never seen a snake, although I guess there are snakes somewhere. It depends on the type of garden you have though.

Not a problem to leave to dog out after dark. She does sleep inside at night, but that's a choice, not a necessity.

We pay a one off lifetime registration with the council. It is a requirement to have the dog micro-chipped.

As far as I know, dog ownership in Australia is higher than the UK......don't have any source to back that up but I thought I heard it somewhere.

If you have a much loved family pet, do your own homework about the are you are going to, don't leave them behind because of what you THINK you know about dog ownership in Australia.

Rudi