dancinbcs

Why are you testing the whole litter? i presume most of the litter would be going as pets and so if they are carrier or clear isn't important? For any recessive condition, where carriers are completely unaffected, there is no point in testing puppies that are going to be desexed pets. It doesn't matter if they are normal or carriers and just lines the pockets of the testing labs. All else being equal, you might decide to test several puppies to help you decide which one to keep but in most litters there is a stand out puppy and if that is the case, that should be the keeper regardless of it's DNA status. You only need to worry about it being a carrier when it comes to breeding the next generation. You should never compromise quality just to keep something that is DNA normal.

I may be wrong but I think they have to do spinal x-rays on the puppies as well before they are sold. Personally I don't see why they are so popular all of a sudden, especially at those prices. Like BBs they were always a dog owned by select group of genuine fanciers that were prepared for all the potential health issues to keep the breed going, not the sort of dog everyone wanted as an easy care pet.

I'd say $3000 is about average at the moment because people are willing to pay it. For some obscure reason they have suddenly become the dog of the moment and demand is high so the breeders are cashing in. They are however a very expensive breed to produce with all the health testing required so I wouldn't imagine too many breeders could break even at $1500 per puppy and that is with nothing added for all their time and effort raising the litter. With all the potential health problems in the breed they are not a breed where I would be looking for the cheapest dog. If they have to have a Frenchie, then they need to save up and buy a good one from a reputable breeder who is doing everything necessary to produce healthy puppies. Otherwise, there are still plenty of other lovely registered purebreeds available for $1000 or less from health tested parents.

How big is the dog? That beats the 5 kilos of mince and a bottle of cod liver oil, a friend's 20kg dog ate.

The greyhound people use a hollow plastic hair roller taped to the end of the tail. Treat with something like iodine to dry the cut up and the hair roller provides a protective cage that allows air to get to the wound.

I will guarantee the vet doesn't even know that you have a problem. Vet nurses fob people off all the time with excuses like that. I would be marching into the vets tomorrow and waiting until the vet speaks to you personally. I cannot believe he would not squeeze you in for a 10 minute procedure under the circumstances if he knew them.

Apart from the usual stuff like socks (lots of socks), their bedding, door frames, garden tool handles, plastic and aluminium dog bowls there have been a few stand out items. One dog that never chewed anything else, ate the power cords from a brand new vacuum cleaner and a full seat size shiatzu massage cushion in the space of two weeks. A 12 year old swallowed a sewing needle and thread that by some miracle stuck in her throat and I managed to get it out by feeling with my fingers for why she was gagging. The needle stuck into my finger and the whole lot came out. But the most bizarre thing ever eaten and swallowed would have to be a full cake of Solvol soap by another dog that never destroyed anything else. I have had dogs lick soap bars before but cannot even begin to imagine how bad Solvol must taste. It came back up as a grey, sandy slime. Today would have been the 20th birthday of this dog if she had still been here. :D

Ring the vet you have an appointment with on Monday and ask to speak to the vet or have them call you back and explain the situation. If that isn't possible turn up there and demand to speak to the vet. Don't just talk to vet nurses who will fob you off. Most vets are very reasonable if you speak to them direct, not through the nurses.

A first cousin mating is very common in dogs and a lot are bred closer than that with no problems. Undescended testicles are very common in all breeds and while it is believed to have a genetic component, no one has discovered what it is yet. I believe there could be nutritional link to it as well but we just don't know yet. So long as he isn't intended for showing and breeding, the vet will find and remove the missing testicle when he is desexed. I am surprised that the breeder didn't notice the toe when she clipped his nails and trimmed his feet. There is however a rare short toe gene in some breeds but both toes on the outside of the foot usually stop growing, not just one. Puppies with this seem normal at 8 weeks and as the foot grows the outside ones don't. The shortness of the toes affected varies a lot from very short to hardly noticable, so some affected dogs are no doubt bred from because no one noticed. Again it is really only an issue for breeding but may also affect performance if you were planning on doing agility. In everyday life, dogs missing a toe get around just fine. I have known a couple of top winning show dogs that had to have a toe completely removed due to infections that got into the bone and they continued to win after the toes were removed. Please let the breeder know asap. It is highly likely she has never encountered the problem before, so will need to do a lot of asking around to find out if anyone else in the breed has ever come across it. If not it could be a one off mutation in your puppy. That is how genetic problems start in a breed. One dog has a mutation as the embryo develops and if it is bred from it passes the faulty gene on to the next generation.

The dogs I know that have had chemo have been sick from the treatment. It is very expensive ($8000-$30,000) and longest I know of a dog surviving is about 12 months. One didn't die from the cancer but from kidney failure caused by the chemo. Not something I would ever put a dog through. I and several friends have had some great results with Traditional Chinese Medicine on cancer dogs. I had one get 3 bonus years and know of a few others that have lived 7+ years after treatment. Results vary depending on the age of the dog, the type of cancer, how advanced it is and what the general health of the dog is. It is much cheaper than chemo and has no side effects. My dog was treated by Dr Ann Neville, a vet in East Bentliegh in Vic, through my vets in NSW. Having recently lost another dog suddenly to a very advanced cancer, before we could treat her, I suggest x-rays to see if it has metastasized before embarking on any expensive treatment. My girl had a tiny lump removed last year that was se pre-cancerous and we weren't worried. It now seems that it was a secondary cancer. If we had x-rayed her then I might have had time to treat her but by the time we did x-rays the cancer was everywhere and I only had her a matter of days. She had no symptoms except a very occasional cough.

Could be a grass seed or glass splinter embedded in the foot. I would be suspicious of a foreign body if it is just one spot on one foot.

Most medium size working or gundogs would be happy in your situation. It is more a matter of deciding on the look and coat your are after, and getting to know some dogs to decide on the personality you want. If you want less hair then a GSP or a Curlie Coated Retriever would be good choices. Both great breeds that train well and are robust. Maybe try to go to some dog shows and get to meet some of these breeds and their breeders. Meeting the dogs will tell you a lot more about them than lots of descriptions on here.

As one of the instigators of the development of two genetic tests for my breed, I can tell you DNA TESTS WERE NEVER INTENDED TO ELIMINATE CARRIERS FROM THE GENE POOL. The whole point of having genetic tests is to keep as many dogs as possible in the gene pool while safely breeding no affected puppies. Once a DNA test for a recessive condition is developed it means that condition is no longer a problem and no more affected puppies need to be born. Every animal, including humans and all dogs, carry several defective genes. The ones with a DNA test are just the few that we know about. Eliminating carriers of one condition by DNA testing just leads to an increase in the concentration of other faulty genes that there are no tests for. Short sighted and stupid. We are only in the very early stages of DNA testing for dogs and no doubt lots of other tests will be available over the coming decades. It may end up that each breed is tested for 6-10 different genes. We already have 3 in my breed. If we eliminate the carriers of all those conditions, how many dogs do you think will be left to breed from? The most important points of breeding dogs are still temperament, sound construction and breed type. Using DNA testing to still produce quality dogs while avoiding disease is smart. Just breeding all DNA clear for disease dogs is dumb and will spell the end of dogs altogether.

Legally, unless she has something in writing about a refund then, she isn't entitled to one. Having said that, most breeders would refund the money once the puppy was resold, possibly less re-advertising costs. Everyone I know would refund the money but then most breeders I know do not take large deposits, or even take deposits at all. Their main concern is that the puppy goes to someone that really wants it right up to the last minute. If they change their mind then they weren't meant to have the puppy.

I've heard of several lately that have been treated with Advantix. The dogs have all survived with moderate to no symptoms, so even though they are still getting ticks it seems to reduce the amount of poison they can inject.

Husband is on his way to the vets shortly to see if they have any. Otherwise I'd have to order online and it would take a few days to reach me. By which stage it might be useless? Is there anything that can be bought from either Woolworths or Big W? No idea what supermarkets stock for ticks but if you cannot treat with anything just keep searching them for a week and watch for any odd signs. A change in their bark or even a droopy ear can be the first sign, well before the vomiting and wobbly leg stage. If everyone is all ok for a week you should be in the clear and not have to worry about them again.

Ichthammol Ointment from the chemist will draw out infections and foreign bodies. Can be used on people, dogs, cats or horses. I don't know how anyone lives without it in their medicine cabinet.

Removing ticks at 3mm means that the dog is unlikely to be affected. It sounds like the ticks were on her coat but did not embed into her for a day or so. The main worry is that there may be another that you missed, in an ear or the anus or even down the throat. Ticks usually have to be embedded for 2-6 days to cause a problem and if they are all removed she should be fine if there are no symptoms in about 2 days. From first symptoms you usually have a day or so but a lot of owners miss the first symptoms. Once they collapse you only have hours at most. Our vets recommend Frontline be put on if you find a tick in case there is any others that have been missed as it will kill them within hours. Advantix doesn't work immediately on attached ticks it apparently needs to be on a while to be effective. Finally, yes, ticks can spread to other animals. I once found one 4 days after returning from a tick area, on a dog I hadn't taken. The dogs that went with me were on Proban for the trip and were fine but 4 days later one of the dogs left at home had a tiny, just attached, paralysis tick on his eyelid. So lucky it decided to attach there or I would never have found it. Dogs have also been known to pick up ticks at shows in non-tick areas if they are with dogs from tick areas.

Yep, mine always just spat the suspension all over me and I had no idea how much they had. A friend also nearly killed one of her puppies when it inhaled the suspension. When I worked for a large pet warehouse many years ago the owners tried all the wormers on their greyhound puppies. None of the suspensions removed any worms but the same puppies treated the next time with tablets, excreted worms. After that they told us to not recommend the suspensions to anyone. They still carried them because some people still wanted to buy them but did not recommend them. I give the tablets with some nutripet on them. Let the puppies lick some of the nutripet first, then pop the tablet down their throat with a little nutripet to make it slippery and let them lick the rest off your fingers. Some actually just grab the pill and swallow it because of the nutripet. Then they all suck the remnants from each others mouths.

Yep that is what I thought too... They come into the area via another means - but I thought it was scary that there had been 4 cases of late at the local vets. Yes, and it always pays to check what sort of tick it is, just in case, unless you are very familair with ticks in your area. The few bush and cattle ticks I have found on my dogs over the years have all been taken to the vets for them to check under the microscope.

I have only ever had second opinions on my own dogs if my vets have sent me to specialists. I have been lucky to have exceptionally good vets at 5 different practices over the years. Some of the vets working for them have not always been so good and if I doubt anything I check with the head vets before doing anything. The vets used by my puppy buyers are a different story altogether. Several different ones have made some very wrong diagnosis. Whenever a puppy buyer rings with a bizarre diagnosis, I send them for a second opinion to a breeder vet and I have lost count of the errors made by these vets that just treat pets. Apart from a small handful of vets that I know lots of breeders use, I don't trust vets at all.

no, testing for luxating patella in toys at vaccination time say 8-16 weeks is not recommended, it is a condition that develops as the dog matures, much better to test for patella lux at around 12 months old and above as any younger and the manipulation may do some damage on such young bones. and theres no point in testing so young as many dogs seem to develop this condition when they are older not that young. Dealing with PL for about 26 yrs now, written articles on it just incase you haven't heard of me, been plastering the info on here for about 6 yrs now. Does that apply to all breeds? My only experience with it is with some very experienced breeders of a breed a bit bigger than a toy that is prone to patella problems. They have never had a dog develop a problem if the patellas are tight at 6 weeks. Of course you need a very experienced vet to feel for it and most wouldn't have a clue how to do it safely.

All the puppy suspensions are pretty well useless. I just use Drontal tablets broken down to the right size.

how much granulated garlic per kilo of dog? Trying to remember from a long time ago but I think I gave my 18kg dog about a rounded teaspoon a day, so a small dog wouldn't need much at all. It took a few weeks to start to work and I kept it up until the feet were close to white again.

The only dogs I have ever heard of with paralysis ticks in that area, have picked them up at shows, from dogs that have come up from the coast. The owners can also bring ticks back on their belongings if they visit the coast. The Goulburn/ACT are is too cold and dry for ticks to live there for long but they can certainly be brought into the area on other dogs, vehicles, and especially in things like mulch that may have come from a tick area. I once brought a paralysis tick back from a trip to Brisbane Royal. I found it 4 days after I got home, on one of the dogs I didn't take on the trip.