Quickasyoucan

I saw pics of Lewis Hamilton the f1 drivers bulldog in a first class cabin with an assistance dog harness on. Amazing what money can buy. Can't think of a single reason why a super fit young racing car driver would need an assistance dog. Fakers ruin it for genuine people. Just like dog law breaking owners ruin it for the law abiding ones

My crossbreed - staffy x bc or kelpie is prob nearly 11. Still crazy but does get a bit sore if he overdoes it. Has had a few stomach issues but definitely does not act like an old dog yet. Still hates skateboards and loves to play ball at any opportunity!!! Only started going grey this year

Ninahartland I am very sorry for your loss - rest easy big boy. Cancer is a horrid insidious thing.

I am very sorry to hear about all the sick dogs and those that have passed away. We had a scare last month with my 10.5 year old boy when a routine check up for a couple of lumps revealed a possible enlarged spleen (or liver lobe) on palpitation. We had an ultrasound and Jake's spleen has no masses but is not perfect. The vet says that sometime in older dogs the spleen does some regeneration. The word on the report is hematopoeisis. I looked it up it is the creation of new blood cells outside the bone marrow. Anyway same ultrasound revealed thickened pyloric region of stomach and a 'bright (echogenic material); pancreas. Jake then suddenly got very sick with acute vomiting a few days after the initial ultrasound (he was well on inital exam) and they had to do an endoscopy for suspected foreign body blockage. Result is that he has an inflammed and thickened pylorus and duodenum as well as the slighly unusual spleen and pancreas. The vet told me that they cannot rule out neoplasms (cancer) in either the spleen or the stomach even though they did take endoscopic biopsies of the stomach because only a fully thickness biopsy will give a definitive result. At the moment it is being treated as inflammatory bowel disease with a side does of chronic pancreatitis. He has just had a 2 week course of antibiotics (2 different types) as well as being on an elimination diet (only Hills ZD food). At the moment he is well but I do not know what the future holds. He has had no more vomiting episodes so far and does not seem to have lost any more weight other than the initial change of diet and vomiting episode. So I fully understand the not quite knowing. Having read up on stomach cancer, I have to say that I had pretty much decided not to operate or do chemo should it be cancer, as even with surgery prognosis is poor and only extends the life by a few months. Having seen the little 5 year old girl next door go through last ditch after last ditch attempt to save her from acute myeloid leukaemia (not that you wouldn't want to throw everything at it) as well as witnessing my uncle trying last resort chemo, I have personally come to the conclusion that if it is hopeless you are better to enjoy the time you have left, although that is just my opinion

I think carter has a lovel boy head, nothing feminine about this boy! I love rotties heads there is something smoochy about them!

We were told not to swim on recovery from a TPLO as it hyper extends the knee.

We tried conservative management with my 19kg crossbreed. We did medication, physio including hydrotherapy, but we ended up biting the bullet and having a tplo. I scared myself reading the Internet but surgery and recovery were uneventful. We are coming up 3 years post op and at 10 have had no lameness and only the occasional soreness when jake overdoes playing ball. Being a Stafford x bc or kelpie he still hits the exercise pretty hard and no probs with other leg so far. From my reading tho I definitely would not go de angelo with a large breed. Good luck with your dog

Thank you both for your responses. Jake is much better and back almost to his crazy self. ATM he is on Id and a kind friend has made abig batch of boiled chicken breast mashed on with potato . I am rolling up little balls for treats. Just waiting for biopsy results so fingers crossed.

Just over a week ago I took my 10 year old stafford crossbreed (very young acting, healthy and active) to the vets to have a couple of lumps looked at (they turned out to be benign). Whilst I was there I mentioned that a couple of times over the past few weeks he had had thrown up his breakfast occasionally (found it when I got home). They palpated his stomach and believed he had an enlarged spleen or liver lobe, so propsed an ultrasound. Ultrasound was done the next day. No mass or nodules on spleen though it is slightly odd looking (aparently a spleen can have areas of regeneration in an old dog?). What they did find was a thickened area in the pyloric region (bottom valve of the stomach) but again no obvious masses. I was advised to put him on a low fat diet and treat for possible chronic pancreatitis. He had no clinical signs at that time apart from that mentioned above. That was before the long weekend. On Monday night he developed a fleghmy cough/gag and seemed very uncomfortable. I went to the vet on Tuesday and they gave him an anti-nausea shot which seemed to settle him down during the day as well as some stomach settling medication called losec and some anti nausea tablets. However we were up all night as vomiting began and again signs he was distressed on Tuesday night notwithstanding the medication and I took him in as an emergency at 4 am. They re-did the ultrasound and found what they thought was a "white" foreign body in his stomach so went in with an endoscope to try and remove it. They only however found fragments which they said would pass but a very inflamed pyloric area including a narrowed but not blocked passage to the duodenum which was also inflamed. The vet told me there were no obvious masses but they have biopsied in several places and I am waiting for results. she has however warned that the results may be inconclusive as apparently sometimes the scope biopsies are not deep or large enough and the only way to get a definitive diagnosis may be to open him up. He was in hospital on IV fluids, anti nausea meds and is now home with me on the same but is still intermittently flat and not himself although thankfully no vomit so far. The specialist vets have been fantastic but I am of course fearing the worst. Though he is 10 he is still very young at heart and I am not ready to lose him. So I am just wondering if anyone has had any similar experiences. Also does anyone have any ideas for low fat soft/mushy food (no lumps as they are less likely to pass). I have some I/D cans but would like to give him something he might enjoyy since all treats are now off the agenda. Any thoughts much appreciated. PS thank god for pet insurance though I did feel better when the guy next to me paying for his malamutes treatment told us he had spent $23K on his dog in the past 16 months!

We kept a pup from our litter of welsh springers many years ago. Sian the mum tolerated bronwen the daughter but they weren't what i would call inseparable. In fact when bronnie died of cancer at eight Sian who was about ten or eleven got a whole new lease of life as if to say finally she's gone and I can have all the attention back. Motherly she was not lol!

Mine wakes me up by shaking his ears so they make a flapping noise at night so I can put his cover back on him in his bed. If that doesn't work he bashes his body along the bed to wake me up. Wish he would learn to put the covers back on himself.

I have been told barking is a good deterrant and that many housebreakers will avoid houses with dogs just because of the noise factor particularly in higher density areas. Easier to break into the ones without. I don't expect my boy to protect me, if anything I expect to protect him. That said though given many people's prejudice against bull breeds and the fact that people will cross roads to avoid you, I always feel pretty safe when out walking with him. I think many dogs can be a good alert to something not quite right in a house, but that's as far as I would want it to go.

We had a very good experience with Sydney Uni for my dog's ACL. They also have fully quallified anaesthetists rather than vet nurses (I am sure the other specialist centres do too but maybe not general practice) which gave me extra comfort. The orthopaedic surgeon was Professor Ken Johnson. I see Max Zuber is also listed there as a lecturer.

It's like the perfect storm, pack behaviour, entire animals, cooped up in a backyard with no training or socialisation. And a catalyst for aggression when someone brings in a high value item. At least my dad said the RSPCA in the UK said breed is irrelevant and that any pack of dogs could have done that. And they are focusing in that article on the background to the attack.

If that little chap were to end up in a pound and not chipped, he'd probably be listed as a Staffy cross. The smooth coated ones looked gorgeous, but solid like staffy crosses. Mine is a staffy cross, I posted it to show what PF meant. The dogs on the link are probably much smaller.