The most common cause of lumpy skin on a cat's neck is miliary dermatitis. This is a type of dermatitis cat's get where they get little crusts form on the skin surface. It's just one of the many ways in which cats are peculiar. 

First of all a couple of definitions:

Castration is the desexing of a male dog by removal of the testicles, sometimes this is referred to as neutering

Spey is the desexing of a female dog or bitch when the ovaries and uterus are removed. 

If you have moved, changed phone numbers, or rehomed a pet from someone else you will need to update their microchip details.

Cats are great groomers and clean freaks. Their tongues are really rough specifically so they groom themselves with it. Because they are so good at grooming you won't often see a lot of fleas on them. There are a few things though that can give it away.

1. Look under their chin. 

You'll often see live fleas here or flea dirt. It's the one place on their body that they can't reach to groom with their tongue or their paws. The fleas will often hide out here so lift up that chin and part the hair

Frontline is effective for reducing the chance of your pet getting tick paralysis. No product is 100% effective for ticks though so make sure you still check your pet daily for deadly paralysis ticks. 

Frontline needs to be applied more frequently for tick prevention than is does for treating fleas. It is really important that you apply it as directed. 

Dogs

Use Frontline Plus and apply it every 2 weeks for Ixodes ticks (the paralysis tick). Make sure you use the size appropriate for your dog.

Dental X-rays can save your pet from ongoing painful conditions or save them having painful procedures that are unnecessary. 

A case that proves the point

The X-ray you see above is from a cat that we did a dental on a couple of weeks ago. Just from an examination under anaesthetic I knew that most of the teeth would need to come out. You might think if you're taking the teeth out anyway what's the point in x-raying them?

xrays allow us to visualise the roots of the teeth, see where they are, and in some cases if they still exist. 

Cat fights- we've all heard them:

• That horrible yowling in the front yard at 3am. 
• The hissing and screaming as they dig their claws and teeth into each other
• The dogs barking because they hear it all too!

Cat fights are not just a problem for us, they are a big problem for the cats involved. As far as armory goes cats are pretty well equipped- sharp claws, sharp teeth capable of penetrating flesh and unreal flexibility make them a mean fighting machine. If you're the weaker cat, you're in trouble!

What is pet insurance?

It's not life insurance for pets, Pet insurance is medical cover similar to a combination of Medicare and private health insurance in the things that it covers.

Is it worth it?

If nothing ever goes wrong with your pet you will probably feel like it was all a waste. But, when things do go wrong they can be very expensive. In the past week I  have had to refer 2 dogs for surgery with a specialist which will probably end up costing between $3000 and $4000. This is just an average week for us. This sort of scenario is not a rare thing!

Easter is that time of year when there is alot of chocolate around. While chocolate is yummy and has alot of positives there are 2 things that are bad about chocolate:

1. It makes you fat
2. It is poisonous to dogs and cats

I can't do anything about the first problem for you but I can help you with the second issue. 

How does chocolate poison dogs and cats?

Chocolate contains theobromine which acts as a nervous system stimulant in dogs and cats. Whether or not they are affected depends on:

Our cat Sydney had been losing weight over the last 12 months. He was having difficulty moving around and was just generally stiff for some time. About 12 months ago we ran some bloods on him as I suspected that something was wrong but the tests were all normal.

2 weeks ago we reran the blood tests because his appetite had become ravenous. He's always been food obsessed but this was just ridiculous: