I have begged, scrounged and hunted for old, new & discarded items to sell, now i've just booked a slot on our local market to do a car boot....£10.00 it's cost, if we can sell everything it should, "fingers crossed" make enough money to pay a small chunk of our rent that we owe....
Since my husband lost his job, On 1st March we have clocked up nearly £200 in rent arrears and £50.00 council tax arrears, and that's with our rebate off !!!!!! Sick to my stomach, never thought It would come to this......
This is the first time my husband has been out of work since he was 16, he's 40 now and has paid thousands into the system, yet he gets £72.00 a week JSA, and the council want most of it !!!!! I HATE THIS COUNTRY....
We have a choice the council say, scale down our luxury's !!! Why the hell should we, get rid of our dog whom we love dearly, Its not his fault he's poorly and costs £160.00 per month to keep.... he would be put to sleep, no one would take him on with his ailments!!!
if I sell my phone and car and get internet turned off I have no way of finding a job, or travelling to a job when I get one!!!! catch 22.
so my answer to the council is, bog off, I will pay you when I can "if I can"...
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Is there any chance you could have treatment for your doggy at the PDSA or your vets offering treatment cheaper or free as you are claiming certain benefits?Councils are not very helpful or sympathetic there is no way i could ever part with my doggies i'd rather starve ir live in a tent! xxx
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Id not thought of that Della, He's insured but he's had so many claims its gone up to £89.00 per month now. And if we cancel we wouldn't get insurance for him again, he's such a liability. Its a lifetime policy, he's had it since he was born so any breaks in his policy would be suicidal. We are both applying for jobs, I have got 6 applications out at the moment but its hard to even get an interview, even my husband is finding it hard and he's a Master Technician with Qualifications coming out of his ears, We are in south Yorkshire and every job we apply for has over 100 applications!!!
The council can get stuffed, I wouldn't part with my dog for nothing, Hubby keeps saying "he will have to go to Boxer Rescue lol" Over my dead body xxx
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I've saved some money on his prescription food, vets charged £98.00 per bag per month, I've found it online for £57.00, So a massive saving of £41.00. I've spoke to Kennel club insurance and if we come down a tier in benefits his allergies wont be covered and that's what he's poorly with all the time
i love my dog too , so don't take this the wrong way as I'm not for one minute suggesting you should part with him/her, but we have found in the past, luckily not with our current vet, but the previous one seemed to think that because we have insurance…luckily ours only cost just under £11 a month with Tesco and thats gone up as our dog has got older, but when they know you have insurance they want you to have this that and the other tests done and try to say that your dog should go on this or that diet. we had this when we first got our dog. we believe she has OCD and not an allergy as she attacks her own body. she couldn't be more healthy but would come up in rather sore patches on her skin in all sorts of places. I knew in my mind it wasn't an allergy and w e proved them to be wrong. i hated putting my dog through blood tests, she had been punished enough by her previous own. we got her as a rescue dog after the RSPCA removed her from someone, she can with a cigarette burn to her ear too!!
But since a change of vets, loads of cuddles, tesco or asda own brand dry food and although she she has OCD tendencies she is fine. she is healthier than me apart from she is now ageing and showing it, but I believe had we have stayed with the other vet we too would be in the position you are now, with expensive vet and insurance bills.
because i don't know you or your dog, I'm not matching suggestions to you in any way at all, just want dot let you know our experience as not all vets are right all the time.
I know others who have been prescribed things from the vet but for one reason or another didn't continue with their advice and the conditions were no worse for it, and some better too.
sending you hugs and to your lovely dog too….. I'm not getting at you just really feel for you. like others have said they would give our pets a better life than we give ourselves. i hope things work out in the end for you. xxx (((((hugs))))))
Oh thank you that's very kind of you and I know exactly what you mean. He's a male boxer, 4 years old in August. We have changed vets last year, I don't want to name and shame but the vets we used from him being 9 weeks old was ?ets4?ets. To cut a very long story short, every time he got a lump or infected cut, they wanted to operate and chop bits off him.
By the age of 3 he had 1 lump removed off his eye lid, lump removed off his under chin "deep infection" caused when he slipped on garden slabs and grazed his chin, then it got infected, 1 toe removed, which was horrendous for us to see his pain and very long recovery, again due to infection. They charged us £400.00 for allergy tests!!!, he had reactions to everything he ate, turned out to be allergic to , beef,beef pulp, pork, lamb, wheat, rice, potatoes and many outside plants and grasses. Its been awful, then we was advised to see a new vet who is much cheaper and prefers to try and treat b4 operating. So glad we did, this guy has been fantastic, and the dogs allergies have really calmed down now we have him on Royal Canin DR 21. So what you are saying is absolutely right, we was getting ripped off left right and centre.
The old vet wouldn't even let us through the consultation room until we had produced his insurance certificate, our new vet always gives us the cheapest option and his care has been 100% and his prices are so far from the old vets prices.
The old vets once prescribed Prednisolone for 5 days for a flare up, they charged us £96.00 with consultation. Our new vets prescribed the same for 5 days for a flare up, £26.00 !!!!!
Shocking, I even reported them to the Insurance company because I said they were very bogus and ripping us off, I was advised by them to move vets but by this point they had claimed over £5000 in claims and we are having to pay for it now with high premiums.
Sorry for the long msg, but yes you are spot on with what you advised.
thats such a sad story, m so sorry to hear you and your dog have been put through all that.
You did the right thing changing the vets. I think where my FIl goes, although he doesn't have insurance to my knowledge, its like they keep giving him pills for that and the other. when i have asked what are they for he doesn't know. I won't argue with him (family and all that!) but we know he is being ripped off…coz vet knows he will just pay up,they try it on.
You have insurance to help you, luckily we have only used it once or twice in the 9 yrs we have had the dog.
Our pets are like babies and i know we'd do anything we can for them, they can't speak so its up to us to make sure they aren't ripping us off… where we can, but its not easy.
We moved house about 14 or so years ago. we have a different dog now, but we are paying fees for annual boosters worm tablets etc, just the normal stuff, but are paying less now that we used to where we used to live all those years ago.
I know this is all off topic, but we love our animals, some dogs hate the vets…its not surprising sometimes, but our vet always hugs our dog and he gets a kiss back….(from the dog.. not us lol lol) i bet not all vets get that Its shows he is genuine and cares. he does a lot of farm veterinary work too and even does phone-ins on the radio. Certainly if you find a good vet keep hold of them xx (((hugs)))
Oh thank you, He's my baby. My kids are grown up now so he gets all my attention. Everyone knows him, his names Winston lol. He huge but just as soft as toffee with people. He can be selective with other dogs, some he likes, some he grumbles at and some he's just intrigued by. Soon as we walk in vets the assistant will say "Hi Winnie" that's his nick name. And the vet, well he just loves him, he rolls round the floor with him b4 he even checks him over!!!
When he was a puppy everyone used to stop and fuss him, he has one of those faces, now people who don't know him cross the road, he does look very intimidating, even r vet told us he's big for a Boxer.... He's very protective with me. Where we live we are surrounded by fields, I used to walk him down a muck path twice a day, one day we were walking and there was a guy walking towards us, no dog with him!!! and to be honest for what ever reason I felt uneasy he wasn't dressed for walking down a muddy field... so Winnie must have sensed my emotions and walked in front of me, about 3 feet in front, when the guy got closer Winnie came to my left side between me and the guy , glared at him and the guy passed then Winnie walked behind me until the guy got 10 feet away and he kept looking back at him as I turned to look back the guy had stopped and looked back at me so Winnie started growling, which he had never done b4.... The guy quickly turned around and walked away!!!! Then winnie didn't leave my side until the guy got out of view, he then ran on and carried on sniffing doing what dogs do!!! Im so pleased I had him with me intuition told me he was a weirdo... No way was he getting near me while Winnie was there. I haven't been down there since it scared me.
Just goes to show, dogs have a fab sense of emotions and he knew what to do.
that was lucky. I have never been able to take our dog out, scant even walk down our road but when ours is all puffed out she lookalike a staffie or pit bull type, she isn't she is just a mongrel but has more staff in her, when OH has taken her to the pack, its in town as we don't have local parks; we too have tons of fiefs surrounding us lol, he has been stopped in the park as he lets her off the lead for a run and parents have said to him to take the dog away. we know our dog, but respectt that others may not like her but for no reason its wrong to automatically assume that our dog is dangerous.in fact she is very good with children and when other dogs hate to be pulls and tugged at he doesn't mind at all. not that we would cleave her alone with children as no one really knows what could happen. dogs are usually more well beams when their master is close by. but my oh replied….. pleaseeeee no parents take offence to this, but he said to the mother, how do you know your children aren't going to grow up and mug old ladies…….. she was not amused, but neither was my OH when our dog was being accused of going near her kids when she didn't. she obeys every word she is told… for me about 80% of th time but for my OH 99% of the time, but the mother could never in a million years know or predict what the children were going to do next… non of us have crystal balls. i just wish dog owners weren't all branded as bad owners.
ours is great company of rme,although she doesn't go out for a walk in the day she has a big enough garden to run around in. she isn't a big dog, just strong lo ,so looks protective..
they are great for sensing when you don't feel well too. Cat also are good with that.
apologies for anyone getting bored as we have taken this off topic a bit but its nice to be able to chat about our fur babies… they are wonderful for stress relief too. I wish ihad known about PAT dogs when she was younger as i think she would have trained well. I know they say you can teach an old dog new tricks ,but i think once a dog i s10 its unfair to put them through rigours training, mentally and physically. I think she would be great to be taken into hospitals and old peoples home s etc as he just adores the fuss,
Thanks for spending some time chatting with me about the dogs, its nice to take your mind off of pain for a while , but think as its gone mid day i really should get dressed now.
I used to do car boots, always ended up coming home with more junk that I went with, a lot of people leave stuff behind that they can't sell, so keep your eyes open for people that are leaving, especially the last ones to leave. I made most of my profit like that. We used to say, this time next year we will be millionaires, in true Trotter style.
Bring the dog along, put a hat in front of him with a sign saying "Vets fees badly needed, all donations welcome, please buy something from my stall". I guarantee you will sell everything.
Lol, that made me smile. I've never done one b4, not up early enough lol. But ye good idea bout the dog though, he's got one of those faces people will prob want to buy him!! but he's definitely not for sale.
I just want to make enough to pay a chunk off the rent arrears to keep them off our backs for a few weeks. Fingers crossed xx
Best of luck for the car boot sale and hope you sell everything. I don't know whether you have facebook but where I live there is a buy and sell site, where you can normally sell items for more than you do at car boots and people collect them from you.
I hope that your husband is not out of work for too long.
Hi, Have you or your husband thought of doing some work from home.
Field Agent is an app you down load that sends you jobs to do and pay you. For instance they are currently doing marketing projects in Tesco stores on a variety of products, and pay you between £4 & £5 for each one that you carry out. Really straight forward, you just follow the instructions they send, which is generally to go to the store and take a picture of the product displayed and send to them.
Another one is Empty House List. They pay you £5 for every empty house you take a picture of and forward to them.
There are also lots of telemarketing companies who use home workers, and actually pay a basic hourly rate, on a self employed basis.
The other thing is if you have any broken gold, one gold jewellery that you don't use, this is a brilliant way to get some quick cash. The price of gold is really good, and a lot of on street jewellery shops are now doing it. I was paid £130 last week for (1 earring, 1 baby's ring & 2 thin broken chains) I was gobsmacked at how much I got.
please go to the PDSA .they are great..the vets are vets that give their days off to the charity..so just as good...and when you pay for a vet they DO rip you off!! trust me i know!! at PDSA you make a small donation...some times you may have to pay for medication but thats ok...and the special food vets recomend are usually what they sell...its usually easy to digest food..so supermarkets own puppy food usually is as good but so is coley fish and rice! perfect for easy digestion!..please dont be bambuseled into paying through the nose..vets know we love our animals and would do anything to help them...all you need for PDSA is proof of the benifit you are on...you can but ask... love pondminstrel xxx{thats my greyhounds racing name..or should i say his ex racing name!! i rescude him}
Thanks for the advice, its not the vet fees that's the prob, we are on an on going claim. He has £10,000 per year limit and we pay 10% of the bill, but because we use a small village vets we have to pay up front then claim it back, its the piggin insurance that's killing us £89.00 per month and if we cancel they wont re-insure him ya cant have any breaks in the policy!!!
He cant eat ordinary food because when we had him allergy tested the results came back that's he's allergic to everything, so he's on allergenic food. We've trailed the internet for hours and there's nothing out there without the things in that he's allergic to. His eyes swell up, he gets infections through the sores he breaks out in... its just not worth the heart ache and pain he suffers. I've been up to vets today with receipts for over £200 to claim back but it takes about 4 weeks for the claim to go through and send us a cheque!!
I've even rang round several new insurers and they will insure him but not for anything that he's already been claimed for, which in his case is everything lol.
PDSA are very good but in our case, been insured and paying what we pay we just have to find the cash to get him treated then claim it back minus the 10%... Its like the dentist, a licence to print money... Hopefully myself or my husband will find a job soon, in the meantime we use a credit card to pay vet fee's and hope we get it back b4 the bill comes out.... shuffling money like crazy is very stressful.
hi,i couldnt insure my ex racer as the cost of insurance was collosall as after they have finished racing they have a lot of problems..arthiritis ,,bad teeth etc..so i had to pay untill i had no money left..PDSA insurance plans but for my ash,it was still to high..they also have very funny digestive systems and was told only to feed him a certain brand...£67 a bag!!! after fighting him for a mouldy old fish head he found and ATE!!..and no diverse effect i weaned him onto a cheaper one..and he was fine..but if he was out of sorts i used to give him fish [cheap pollock or colley] and rice..as i said and he was fine..sorry im waffling now..lol keep me posted how you get on please xx
Don apologise, I can waffle about my dog all day, love him to bits. Aren't they funny dogs, Winnie's so sensitive to food, environmental factors ect. and our old Jack Russell was 17 when we had to have her put to sleep, just old age really... she cost us about £500 in 17 years, hardy as an old boot she was!!! Although Winston's the best dog for his temperament, he's def the last pure breed we will have... far too expensive. Best with the Heinz 57 !!! don't have much health problems with them. lol. Will keep you updated.
hi shelly..my baby was attacked on the beach and died 2 weeks later from his injurys...the sheepdog [well known attackers] ripped ashs genitalia off..i nursed him for a week then he spent a week in intensive care..finally i had to have him put to sleep..that was two years ago and im not over it ...every day i re live the incident,as i witnessed it...i am blubbing now!...he was so good [greyhounds are known for their passive temprement]..and i loved him..xx jenny xx
Oh god Jenny that put a lump in my throat. That must have been horrendous for you and him. What happened to the sheep dog? Was its owner with it? I hope you reported it...
I had a similar incident with Winston and a sheep dog, He was only 12 months old, still very placid and scrawny. We were down the field had him on a lead and this silly women came over to us, with her dog, no lead on and said "is he friendly" as she said that her dog jumped on mine, on his back and was attacking him.... So I kicked her dog in the head, it got off mine... i was in a state of shock... Mine never even tried to stick up for himself. I screamed at her, the owner... and I told her if he had any marks on him she was getting the vet bill!!!
She just looked at me and said he must have growled at him!! I said, "he's never growled in his life, he's still a puppy for gods sake. She said he'd never done anything like that b4, I found out a week later, from another dog walker it had attacked her black lab, and she had said the same to her, "he's never done anything like that b4" But the black lab owner reported her to the police...
Anyway, my dog is 6 stone of muscle now and much more wiser and courageous, she always keeps her dog on the lead now because she knows mine would rag it to bits if tried it now!!!
I've also had a run in with a guy with a black lab on 3 occasions, this is over the past 12 months, he walks his with no lead, his dog lunged at mine the 1st time and Winston just sat down he was scared, the 2nd time it came running at me so Winston lunged back at it, I screamed at the guy to get it on a lead and he just said, "oh there dogs its fine" !!! stupid man...
3rd time my hubby was out with Winston, and of course I had told him about the previous incidents so he knew what to expect, so as usual the black lab came rushing up barking so my hubby said, put it on the lead mate. The guy just ignored him so hubby unclipped Winston, and all hell broke loose... my dog jumped on this dogs back and bear hugged it, he got it round its neck and the poor lab was just frozen with fear, winnie would have torn torn it to bits, so my hubby grabbed his harness and pulled him off and then told the bloke to get his dog on a lead b4 r dog killed it.... and the bloke gobbed off at my hubby!!!!!! so my hubby told him to politely go away b4 he hit him lol. Hence this stupid guy keeps it on its lead now when we pass on our usual walk... y would anyone want to put there dog at risk like that?
so now Winston has attitude with dogs, because he always thinks they are going to attack him so he gets in first!!! its awful to see dogs fight it makes me feel physically sick....
hi..the owner of the dog just lets it run about and terrorise every one ..the lady who i got ash off is a solicitor and her husband is a proffesor in criminal law...we fought very hard for my boy but without going into the ins and outs the bourogh council cocked up and the dog wardens were sacked for not following procedures...but we fought for a year..it went to the ombudsman but my friends said it was such a cock up that if it became comon knowledge it would have been the councill would have been destroyed,as their was to many lies and covering up...they thought we would just go away..but they didnt bank on me having so much clout with my law friends...my friend runs a rescue centre for greyhounds they are her life..and she had a special conection with my ash as she personally rescude him and saved him from death...also she paid all the intensive care fees which came to over £ 1,600 ,,she does fundraising of all kinds..on this occasion she swam the width of lake windermere!..the dog never got caught even tho we personally found out all information..but nothing was done about it..hence the cock up!..the laws have now changed but it wont bring my baby back..and i cant give another racer a home as im frightened...b,,,,,,s..i have a cd of one ov his races and a memory book made up of his pedigree..races and pictures..condolence poems from a lady down south that i never knew...and my friend paid for ash to be cremated seperatly and had his ashes put in an engraved wooden box with a brass plaque on...his race name was pond minstrel..if you google it it will show some details..not much as you have to be in the greyhound fraternity to acces files/forms and pictures...sorry about the spelling but im sobbing my heart out! xxx
That is disgusting from the council, but you tried everything and he had so many people fighting his corner. Bless him. Our council dog warden was the opposite, over the guy with the black lab.. I called them he told me to report it to the police but we had no idea where he lived.. anyway the dog warden went and waited on the lane were it was happening and unfortunately never came across him. But the warden did keep in touch and rang me several times to see if we had bumped in to him again....
Fortunately one day we were walking and he was just putting his dog in to his car at the end of the lane, so I took down his registration plate and if it does happen again I will have some form of info to give to the police so they can trace him. But Since my dog fought back and got the best of his dog, I have a feeling the guy wont risk it again... My hubby loves Winston as much as I do and I know now if it did come to it again, my hubby would not think twice about giving him a clout!!!
Just a shame for his dog, you can tell its not very fit or that young "like his owner!!! I would never put my dog in danger, I know dogs fight its natural, but its also a responsibility to have your dog under control, which he clearly has not.
Your story is heart breaking, surely this stupid women keeps it on a lead now? Thanks for sharing your story it must be very hard to have those images in your mind and I would never get over it xxxx
thanks..i tried to upload a pic of him but it wouldnt ..i could only send you one if i had your email..and i know thats probly inapropiate..jenny xxx..and the dog and owner have dissapeared..probly all the newspaper press..it was a long ongoing article lasting several weeks...and the man must have know something was wrong as his dogs mouth must have had blood on it...anyway enough! or i be scriking again lol xx
Sorry to hear about you baby I'm not really a pet person but I do like animals I'm badly allergic to cats and mildly to dogs. Its outrageous the way some people don't seem to care wat their dogs do to other people's dog. My condolences to you . Sithy
hi,aw thank you..i will never get over losing him ..i relive the scene in my head every day...he had an awfull life as a top racer..and i gave him 3 years of perfect bliss...with never a hard hand or hard voice..xx
Hi eversohappy. I've just seen your post and it brought tears to my eyes. You are obviously a very loving, responsible dog owner and I wish you and your doggy better times ahead.
My husband is a very skilled technician and he was made redundant 3 years ago and like your OH he suffered the indignity in his eyes of having to claim JSA and again like your OH had worked all his days and paid thousands into the system and was entitled to scraps while the Jeremy Kyle generation and others creamed the system and did very nicely! Eventually he found a labouring job which he took and the work was hard a d he worked with a bunch of idiots and he was really down about it but thank The Lord he has now found his dream job that he is skilled for with great money but the down side is that he now lives in Canada. We have family out there and the plan is once my son has done his A levels on 3 years time, we are renting out our home and emigrating before this damn country gets any worse!
I for one can't wait to get away from here with all the problems the politicians have caused. I could start ranting for hours about the the things they have done but I know we are not allowed to be political on here.
I know exactly how you both are feeling right now and if you ever want a chat then please inbox me and my thoughts are with you both and of course your lovely doggy xx
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Its shows he is genuine and cares. he does a lot of farm veterinary work too and even does phone-ins on the radio. Certainly if you find a good vet keep hold of them 
We own our home, do not claim benefits other than DLA - mobility only - can I rent out my spare room? Won't I be taxed on the rent?
Well its happened!!
Feeling very low today
Shower
Just a lil rant feeling on my own at the minute 
