Sandra777

Is there a quick(ish) way to discount this? Blood count or anything? ETA: or prove it

What ideas do people have.... My 18 month old Staffordshire Bull Terrier bitch has had 2 episodes of this within the last 3 weeks. Virtually unable to walk on the backlegs, all the muscles of her body and legs are tense, stomach muscles exceptionally so. Tail curled out and away from anus which has that sticking out look they get when they're constipated. Dragging one rear leg (both times the same leg) and/or refusing to put it on the ground. She is extremely fit, very heavily muscled. Does not have pyometra (been checked) First time I thought she was constipated and had a bad stomach ache as she had been getting more food than normal as she was underweight after a long road trip to multiple shows. Massaged her, gave her a spoon of oil and some lean meat (appetite not affected!) and within an hour she was much improved and was 100% OK the next morning. On this occasion she was also very cold to the touch. Second time was last night, not quite so bad, no change in her diet. Gave her no food at all and no oil (didn't have any ), massage, gentle manipulation of her legs and this morning she was OK but not quite 100%. Vet visit this morning revealed nothing, no pyo, no temperature. Nothing obviously wrong with any joint, no pain in any joint (not x-rayed). Manipulation of all her joints produced no reaction. Stomach still a little tender but everything inside seems OK to palpitation. Vet gave her metacam which she had mid morning and is now (9pm) 100%. Only suggestion was that she is extremely muscular on the inside of her hind legs (sorry, Staffords are meant to be) and this could be causing some sort of tension on her ligaments and tendons and she could have a pinched nerve "somewhere" causing her intermittent pain. Very active bitch and she does have the tendency to run in to things as she doesn't bother to look where she's going. Been to the chiro and had everything realigned about 5-6 weeks ago but she isn't looking or acting like she did before that visit, when it was obvious something was amiss Personally I'm leaning towards it being her eating something that doesn't agree with her, getting a stomach ache and this makes the rest of her muscles tense up and perhaps spasm. We do have weird fruit trees around here and the dogs will munch on anything! Any other ideas? Edited cause I really didn't give a 13kg dog 10ml of metacam

Looks more like a DDB x Boxer x who-knows-what to me. Sorry - this story makes no sense to me. Put the two drunken bogans down and keep the dog.

We have 11 entire male dogs here. Four generations in fact and three of them are littermates. We have no fights, no issues between brothers and they are three years old. And to those who say not to get two puppies at the same time, we had four at one point. Currently we have two pups who are three months apart. Guess that makes us extremely crazy I suspect your dog knowledge may be slightly more advanced than Evo8gold - no offence to them! - different sceanario completely to the average pet owner I would think. Evo8gold. WHY do you want two dogs. If you want two so they're company for each other then IMO you'd be better off getting one, training it, waiting for it to get through the nightmare stage and get another then. Personally I would go for a dog and a bitch, but gundog temperament is a bit different to what I'm used to so that's just me. In a pet situation with gundog breeds I think I'd go dog and bitch or two dogs (one or both neutered) before I would go two bitches - bitches aren't called bitches for nothing! What are you going to do if they turn out to hate each other when they're full grown? What are you going to do if they love each other dearly and hate to be parted and one dies when he is only six or seven, and the other one frets almost to death? What are you going to do if they love each other dearly and live to a ripe old age, both dying within a few weeks of each other - how is that one going to make YOU feel? Personally I would never recommend two pups at the same time to the average pet owner. I've kept multiple pups from a litter and I know how much hard work it is! ETA: You are not adopting these puppies, you are buying them. Sorry, pet peeve!

Poor Crystal and poor owner. What a horrible thing to happen to any animal. It doesn't take a particularly large dog to bring down a horse if they do it "right", so an elderly unwell pony, probably relaxed and snoozing would be relatively easy game. It must have happened very quickly if no one heard anything and Crystal was only 200m from the house.

And another child bitten in Brisbane today too - south side I think it was from memory. No mention of the breed or type but "neighbours say the dog has always been aggressive"

+1

Mine love pig trotters. But not for the sensitive stomach as they're quite fatty and lots of softer bone/gristle which they can chew and swallow easily but perhaps not digest so well. And being pork it can be hard for some to digest anyway. Pigs heads are great too - mine just leave the jaw and the row of teeth - not a nice thing to stand on!

Free beneful ??? Er, no thanks I'll pass

What sort of patty are you talking about? All the commercial ones I know have fruit and vege already in them so in effect what you are doing IMO is drastically reducing the amount of usable protein your dogs are getting and bulking out the little goodness in the patty with unusable vege & fruit and unbalancing the whole premade patty Adding sardines and eggs etc is great, but IMO what you are doing is buying patties then making your own, why don't you just make your own (with some tweaking). Just interested Kids like MacDonalds - I'd never be taking the dog eats in it seconds as being any sort of recommendation (especially a Lab ) Yes I do agree with raw feeding, big fan here and I'm NOT picking on you, but I see this so much - "my dogs love it" as if this in itself was a recommendation. Dogs love dirty baby nappies too

Oh, OK when you said he was an American Staffy I assumed he actually was something like one, not a known crossbred. Yes there is the Bitza test but it really isn't all that great. Unless you need really need to know (like for the council) I wouldn't bother with it and would go with posting a picture here instead too

Am confused. He is an American Staffordshire Terrier and you have papers to prove it yet you still want to check if he is an American Staffordshire Terrier? or He is a dog which you think is an American Staffordshire Terrier but you don't have papers to prove it and you want proof that he is an American Staffordshire Terrier? The Bitza test isn't reliable. People on here have got really weird results from it. I understand that if you send a sample from an Amstaff you are likely to get a result saying it is an Amstaff OR an APBT. If you have papers and wish to prove he is really of that pedigree then the quickest and easiest method would be to have his sire and dam DNA profiled then you can get him profiled to prove he is the progeny of those two parents. ETA: never thought about the DNA tests for genetic diseases they add extra issues

I would ignore the SPCA person and find out if this specific bitch suits you and your family temperament wise, then arrange a neutral meet with your dog and guage how they get on. Sometimes dogs just hate each other on first sight and there's often nothing you can do to change that idea. I have owned Staffords for over 30 years and have never found them to be particularly great with other breeds because they have a unique play style all their own - too much for most other breeds! Smaller dogs they can hurt unintentionally with their rough play, larger dogs they often view as a challenge You've definitely got the right idea about getting a bitch rather than another dog though. The age thing could be a small issue, but dog and bitch together are almost always fine. Don't be surprised when the bitch ends up being the boss though! Good luck

Mine aren't regularly treated for fleas so can't help you there. Personally I wouldn't give her anything for fleas unless you actually have a problem. Worming I would stick with what she's used to if you want to worm. Me, I go fecal sample to see if there's even a problem.

As Bubitty said, it depends on the dog. I assume you have Staffords, so be very careful about bones that breeds like Collies and Labs have no problem with - I have had a Stafford choke and die on a brisket bone (including the meaty part) as he had the jaw strength, determination and greed to force it down his throat before it was small enough for him to swallow. Yes he was supervised. I know of 2 other Staffords who have choked and died on brisket - it is soft enough to compress and slippery enough to slide easily. Chicken carcases are much loved here and even the crazed gulpers can't manage to get into trouble with them. 1/2 chickens with some of the meat removed for people dinner are good too - more of a meal than a carcase obviously. Turkey necks are good for Staffords but avoid chicken necks, they can just crunch and swallow (or don't bother to crunch!) Whole beef ribs are great if the dog tolerates a lot of bone (and obviously you need to feed some actual meat to balance up the meal) Mine adore pig trotters & pig heads too! Start simple and don't give three different types (species) of bone in three days or you'll never know which one the dog is having a problem with if it as one. Don't use the dinosaur bones/cattle joint bones you can find in some supermarkets. A Stafford WILL try to crunch it up and can break teeth on these things.

Definitely something I would consider. If it works well it saves a bitch having two litters. (Obviously if all the pups have the same sire it's a great way of being disappointed) IMO is an obvious solution in breeds which have large litters but doubt it's going to be widely used by people in breeds where two is a big litter As for the cost of DNA, well it's pretty minor compared with the cost of raising two litters when one would give you the same result.

Just curious as to what you think breeders do with their dogs after they have bred from them? Yes SOME are rehomed to pet homes (and yes I have rehomed SOME to pet homes) because to be a serious breeder you simply cannot keep everything, but "breeding dogs" are really no different to any other dogs - they are pets first and a very long way second they are occasionally bred from. As others have said, you don't need to keep them separate except for when the bitch is in season. Let them be pets and friends first and foremost. As others have also said - how are you going to determine that your dog is the best mate for the bitch you buy? This isn't something that can be done when the bitch is 8 weeks old. What are you going to do if the dog and/or the bitch aren't "good enough" to breed from - either they fail some relevant health check or they simply don't measure up to the breed standard physically or mentally? I think you need to go back to the drawing board on this idea. The world doesn't need any more badly bred dogs of ANY breed. If you are serious about wanting to breed, take your boy to dog shows or start doing obedience or agility or flyball (yes Beagles can do these things) or train him up to to drag hunting (is that done in Australia??) and find out if he has anything to offer the breed before you even think about buying a bitch and commencing to create dogs which should not be born. I don't know how Beagle breeders feel, but I know in 'my' breed very few ethical breeders will sell a bitch to a pet person who already owns an entire dog.

Really can't be bothered with the B-S anymore. What is so confusing about Staffordshire Bull Terrier and American Staffordshire Terrier???? People who don't know the difference obviously haven't done enough research to own ANY dog. It must really be confusing for those wanting to own a Greyhound, or is it a Bloodhound or maybe a Dachshund they want. IMO breeders are the ones who should be educating the public on the correct names of breeds - ESPECIALLY in the case of a breed such as the Staffordshire Bull Terrier which has enough useless owners (and breeders!) out there. Not even going to comment on the blue issue.

....... Nah. Short version: If the breeder doesn't know what breed the pups are then I'd be a bit worried. ENGLISH Staffy's :rolleyes:

Pacing is when both legs on the same side (of the dog ) move forward in unison, trotting is when diagonally opposite legs move forward together. Suggest you google for pics if that makes no sense Mouthing your dog is showing the judge your dog's bite instead of the judge parting the dog's lips and looking for themselves.

I am a buyer - I have subsequently bought 2 different breeds to the first breed I bought, as described, pre internet days as a mere young teenager who wasn't taken seriously. I speak to people virtually every day - people who are confused about where to go and what to do, people who want to know what to ask. I'm not talking about people who have phoned up to ask to buy a puppy from me, I am talking about random people who genuinely don't know what to do (ETA: I am talking all breeds, not just SBT buyers) All in all I would guess I have more experience with the buyer's perspective than most buyers. And how will it help having some comments on a forum which can't be verified and could be either taken out of context or could be pure lies? How does anyone here know what you say about these breeders you want to expose is anything like the truth? Who is going to verify the information you want to make available to all? Take them to court, get your verdict then come back with a proven complaint. I'm 99% sure that if/when you do name these breeders everyone with any knowledge of the breed is going to say -"well I could have told you they were dodgy". Bad breeders are actually pretty widely known amongst those very people you want everyone to ignore - those ethical breeders breeding "mainstream" dogs.

You will often see a dog that is winning regularly be it because it is a good example of the breed or not siring a number of litters. I often hear from breeders saying that they are going to use so and so cause it is so good and has won so much. I have seen grand champions that have the wrong movement and yet they continue to be put up. I am not saying that all judges are face judging but it is starting to get beyond a joke. I am more than happy to see a dog win consistantly if it is good, but when it is a bad example of the breed it is giving false hopes to the owner/breeder/handler. It is also interesting to see some of the dogs that are winning consistantly at all breeds can not win at a specialty. In the past 20 years I have seen a lot of things change in the show world but you have to wonder why there is less and less people showing now than then. Leanne I agree with what you have written Leanne and the bolded text above has hit the nail on the head! Or don't even turn up! I vividly remember a double header show 7 or 8 years ago, the all breeds show was won by a dog (went through to RU BIS) which wasn't even entered under the breed specialist at the specialist show that afternoon. Breed specialist had never judged in the country before so 'he didn't like the dog last time' wasn't a viable excuse. Owners were there (they stayed for the all breeds specials) so pressing engagement elsewhere wasn't a viable excuse either!

That will certainly help, ignore advice given by people who attempt to breed (not bread FFS!) dogs which conform to the Breed Standard and who have made a long term commitment to the breed There's plenty of info out there about breeders, both good and bad. It's called phoning or visiting breeders, asking sensible well thought out questions, and gauging their answers against your own good common sense and your previously "well researched" knowledge. Ask for references Call breed clubs and ask if xyz is a member, how long, how active Call the Canine Control in the state the breeder resides. Ask if xyz is a member, if they have a registered affix, how long they have been members. Figure out for yourself which attributes of the breed are most important to you in your new pet and future (possible) breeding bitch and figuring out who breeds these attributes by research and by intelligent questioning of breeders you visit/phone. I managed to do this pre-internet days when I was merely a young teenager.

I hope this is simply a bad choice of words. LUCK should have nothing to do with finding a good Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Surely finding a good Staffordshire Bull Terrier should have been the first priority - not the colour of it's hair. Why? Why does an ethical breeder need to expend their time and energy attempting to raise the quality of a colour which does not conform to the breed standard. Nose: BLACK is pretty simple really. I have bred blues so IMO I am in a better position than many to see both sides of the debate. The blues I bred occurred in litters bred for type temperament and soundness. The blues I bred were sold to pet homes as they did not conform to the breed standard. (Nose: BLACK) What would go a long way to helping others make a more informed decision would be the simple knowledge that in Staffordshire Bull Terriers breeding a blue to a blue for multiple generations can not possibly have been done for the betterment of the breed. Anyone truly interested in breeding good dogs will not EVER breed like this given the abysmal quality of the blues available to do this with.

OK - now all my alarm bells are ringing. There are MANY threads on here about why the blue Staffordshire Bull Terrier is a thoroughly stuffed-up bad idea - yet you state you looked at this site and didn't find any advice that helped you in your search?????? You say these breeders are "well thought of" but by whom? What did the contacts for the various breed clubs tell you when you called? - these contacts are on this website - which you used as a tool to make your decision to buy a blue. You bought a blue bitch with the thought you would breed. That was your first mistake. You bought a puppy from someone you didn't think had cared for the dam of the litter very well. That was your second mistake. Yep, sounds like the breeder isn't very good at all and if I was you I would be going directly to my nearest lawyer to start a suit under whatever consumer laws apply in your state. Don't involve Troy and this website in your fight until you have a ruling through the courts. Good luck. ETA: you say people should be allowed to leave feedback about breeders - should breeders be able to have a right of reply to this feedback? Unproven accusations can do irreparable damage to people's reputations.