Malamum

I'm so sorry to hear this. Kenny is one of the dogs I remember from my early days on DOL.

Our Alaskan Malamute used to be very prone to hot spots. Rainy but warm weather was what tended to bring them on. These days I'm very vigilant about not letting him get wet and if he does making sure he is thoroughly dried. The first time he had one, half his back was shaved and I think it did more damage than good. The fur took a long while to come back the same and I believe it made him more susceptible to them in that area. The best thing we found was using the forced air dryer on the area multiple times a day. The aim being to get rid of any moisture and to keep the area as dry as absolutely possible. From a medication perspective we found Savlon antiseptic powder to be the best as we could apply it to the area without having to actually touch the wound (which he really didn't like as it was obviously very painful) and it was also easy to apply through his fur. Then once it had scabbed over we would use a stop itch tea tree oil based spray. He hasn't had one for a few years now - touch wood.

The tiled kitchen/family room is their domain. Access to anywhere else in the house is by invitation only.

Ok false alarm. It wasn't actually a leach. It was a massive earthworm all caught up in his fur. Mum and Dad were coming over for lunch so while the OH held Indy down Dad had the job of removing the supposed leach. Everyone had a good laugh at my expense once the earthworm was removed. :laugh:

I thought you weren't supposed to put salt on it. I've done a bit of a google search and it says to get something really sharp and get under the teeth. However that is easier said than done when you've got a whole heap of fur and an uncooperative dog to deal with.

Help, Indy has a massive leech on him. It's obviously been there for a while as it's massive and very full. We know that just pulling at it is not the best way to remove it but are at a bit of a loss at what do. Help, I'm freaking out as I hate leeches with a passion.

Yes, weird but also very funny. There is something about the pictures that just makes me giggle. :laugh: that is now two days in a row I've got the giggles on the train due to links shared by DOLers.

Yea, that's how it is for us too. Same here. When talking to them I say Mummy or Daddy but I never ever say that in front of anyone other than the OH and if I'm talking about them to someone else I use their names or say "the dogs", I never say they are my kids or use the term furkid.

I'm another one whose dog was way too big and too heavy to be carrying around. I also believe the risk to be minimal so even if my dog wasn't too heavy I'd probably still have had him just walk on a leash.

We've ended up training ourselves more than we've trained the dog. We never ever leave any food on the bench that he can get. I can walk out of the room for a minute or so as long as he can still year me and I tell him I'm watching him but any longer than that and anything is fair game. If we must leave the kitchen and we have food that is out it gets put on top of or in the microwave as he can't get to it then. He is fairly picky though and truly believes that you don't win friends with salad so it's really only meat or bread we need to worry about. Fruit and veggies are ok as he has no interest in those.

I'm not that keen on patties either to tell the truth as I like to know what I'm feeding them. I gave him a chicken back last night which I'd bashed with the meat mallet and then cut up a bit and he seemed to eat that easy enough. I think I'll just stick to backs and necks and not give him wings going forward. If he starts to look like he is struggling with those then I guess buying a meat mincer is the answer.

Glad to hear he is doing well.

Thanks for the tips everyone. I'll give the Canine Country patties a try and I'll see if I can get some minced carcasses from the butcher too. Getting a mincer and doing it myself was a last resort (due to to the time factor) but I'll do it for him if I have to. In the meantime our other dog can eat the Billinhurst patties as she doesn't seem to have a problem with them, but she will eat anything. :laugh:

One of the signs associated with vesicular disease is for them to have a bit of a head wobble (we now call Kira Little Miss Bobble Bead :D ) with the tendency to nod it towards the left hand side. When she looses her balance and stumbles it's always to the left as well.

So glad he is home safe and sound.

Do a search on vestibular disease. One of our dogs has had two bouts of this and I absolutely freaked out the first time not knowing what was wrong with her. Every time she tried to stand up and walk she would fall over and then panic and get all distressed. It was like she was drunk and it was horrible to watch. It cleared up after a about a week. This was probably about 2 years ago. It reoccured about 6 months ago and we knew exactly what it was this time. However I don't think she's fully recovered this time as I think she still gets dizzy but she's just learnt to adapt to it.

So sorry you are going through this. I hope he is found soon.

I've never had anyone comment on my using of prong collars but my dogs have a long thick coat so I guess they are not easy to see. I probably would have just laughed at the woman and told her to go for her life, ring the police and make a fool out of herself. There is no reasoning with nutters like that.

We just had our almost 10 year old (large breed) dog put under a general for a full dental and everything went smoothly. The vet never mentioned to me that his age would be an issue so it never even occurred to me that it might be.

I will get into trouble for saying this, but why not take it to an experienced trainer who has experience in rehabilitating DA reactive dogs. A sound and structured obedience program would surely overcome these kinds of problems in many dogs? That way you get both the mental and physical exercise as well as solving your problem. Megan never said her ideas were instead of getting professional assistance. The idea I believe is to supplement that. In my personal case I have seen a professional and have a pretty structured obedience program in place, however my dog will still never be allowed off-leash around other dogs.

Very very cool! I also love looking at the pictures.

Indy is going to be turning 10 this year and has been fed BARF since he was about a year old. Recently he has started to baulk at things with bones such as his chicken wings. He eventually eats them but takes his sweet time about it and spends a lot of time licking them first. He's been to the vet to have his teeth checked (they put him under and did a full dental check) and there are no breakages and no specific problems but the vet did say his teeth have worn down a fair bit and he's worn a lot of the enamel off so it may be painful for him to eat bones now and that there is not much we can do about it. I bought a meat mallet and have been trying to bash the shit out the chicken wings first but that doesn't seem to be making too much difference. I bough him some of the Billinghurst BARF patties with the thought of switching him to those but he's turning his nose up at them and won't eat them. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do for him going forward? Also do you think the bones in chicken backs are denser and harder than in the wings or less so?

I'll also be keeping my eye on this thread for any useful tips as we also have the same issue. Last year Indy killed two blue tongues and I hate it. The poor little things don't stand a chance. I've seen another in the yard a few weeks ago and Indy got a hint it was there the first time the other day. He must have heard it rustling in the bushes and was quite intent on going in looking for it. I called him inside before he got too focussed on it and locked him in for a few hours to give the blue tongue time to hide again. We live next to a bush reserve so I'm not sure why they want to come into our yard where they are likely to get munched.

We had a fairly quiet night. A house across the valley was having a party with the music thumping outside but I can live with that. No fireworks anywhere near here which was nice.

Our dogs aren't allowed in the bedroom let alone on the bed. They have their area downstairs in the kitchen where their crates are or they can use their dog door to go outside. They tend to hang inside until we go to bed and then they often move outside.