holly

In regards to varying vet charges for vaccinations, vets can get greedy. My exboss was always the second cheapest in town, some charged $55 for a c4 when he charged $38 back then. He eventually had one of his friends, non doggy person, work the front counter, who also believed the spiel, if you can not afford a vet, you can not afford a pet. I fought tooth and nail to keep vaccinations and desexing prices down, as a 'community service', she eventually got her own way thou and all prices went up. He still gives breeders a discount, not as good as some have quoted here, but still a discount The annual vaccination is the vets main stay, I don't think they will be in too much of a hurry to loose it, they were very upset when Frontline and Advantage began to be sold via pet shops and online vet products stores

Thou I would have no problems self vaccinating my own adult dogs, I would never sacrifice a full puppy check, to make sure all puppies leave us healthy and well, the vet has listened to the heart, chest, temperature, checked ears and skin. Sure, I am an experienced dog person, but I think I owe it to my puppy buyers to pay the additional bit and have them checked out by a trained professional. In regards to vaccines, we use to buy them in at the clinic for under $16 (C4 =C2i), but, there are many BYB's that have come in for 'routine' puppy vaccination and worm infestations, coccidia and the like have been picked up, should those BYB's been allowed to self vaccinate, some of the puppies would have die as a result. There was over a 100% mark up on vaccines, then of course there is at least a 15 min consult for some pups (@$80 p/h for most vets) and a I have gone in for a routine 12 week vaccinate that has taken 3/4 hour, because i had some concerns, so I htink the price vets charge are justified, the annual vaccine certainly isn't I would like to be able to self vaccinate my adults and I always seek veterinary assistance if my dogs are not well.

HI Rex I tried turkey necks and rice with mine, so konw how much it is costing you a week, have you tried contacting the larger poultry suppliers personally and see if they can sell it to you cheaper? My wholesaler was able to get them and also fish fillets for under $3.50 per kg. The SS was recommended by one of the top vets within our breed, it may not hurt to try Super Coat Special and see how you go, it is certainly more affordable and within your budget, your specialist may well decide against it, but what do you do?

Hi Inspector Rex, a favourite dog of mine, has been diagnosed with I.B.D . He was put onto Eukanuba FP and Enzyplex. Since then his owner was told about Supercoat Special and to introduce this at 50:50 until he is only on S.S, it is a third of the price and he is doing great. S.S will not work for every dog, but it maybe worth a try, otherwise I have found FP brillant, it is around $110 for a 15kg bag, a 40kg GSD requires 4-6 c a day, whereas S.S is $35 for 15kg. One of my dogs was being treated for food alleriges and I was told about a natural fish and potatoe diet, which I put him on, only for him then develop a lesion on the anus and I immediately freaked out, as our breed can suffer from Anal Fruculosis. On consult me vet ruled this out, I asked for him to do a blood test, he also said was not necessary. A.F can be tied in with IBD too. He was put on FP and nothing else, has not had another lesion, he could very well have gotten his because of the chopping and changing of the diet adn too much fish oil, which made his stools burn his bum. It can take a few weeks for a new diet to start to do its job Rex. Anyway a month later, his litter sister is diagnosed with Hyperthyroridism, something nearly unheard of in young dogs. Again, I got sick to the stomach, as this is a auto immune disease, with a Mendals Law inheritance response. Off he went, after the symptoms I gave them, which were none for my dog apart from scratching, yet for my peace of mind they did a full health profile, it all came back negative. He doesn't have IBD, H.T, nor anything else. I have put all of mine on Advance Turkey and Rice, as he was put on this, after the FP with great results. Now that summer is disappearing, so too has his scratching and he is also on Advantix, which does mites and mozzies, we get those horrible sandflies up our way in summer, that drive me nuts too. I am not sure why he has seasonal scratching but luckily for him and me it is an auto immune disease You could try the FP, SS or T.R foods, I have found previously, some of mine still got hot spots on SS so never bothered trying that food again, Advance works best with mine You need to stick that diet only and cant' give anything else, thou if you are a mother hen like me, I do sneak in a lamb flap a few times a week as he loves to chew and I love white teeth but I must never tell my vet, he wouldnt' be too happy.

How's Ollie? does he have any facial paralysis as well?

Byott, sorry there was not enough information given here the first time. Do you mean, your pup has HD at 5 months of age and you wanted us to comment on the ethics of the breeder using parents that are 14 & 20 in their scores? If so, firstly, it depends greatly what the sublaxation scores of each were. If your pup has HD with symptoms, going by Dr Willis calculations, those dogs that score for HD by 6months had a marked decrease in hip status over the next 2 years, that is the health of the hipds declined. I would advise you start to discuss with your vet additives such as Sashas Blend, Glucosomine etc to build what healthy cartilidge there is. Swimming is an excellenty exercise to improve a dogs hips in that it will build up muscle around the hip joint withou causing concussion injuries. As I said before there are breeders that will use failed stock, there are dogs that are failures, where the breeding partners are chosen wisely and the incident of HD is far less. The puppy I bred with HD, came from a dam with a total hip score of 3:6 and a dog of 4:4. This pup was symptomatic by 10 months of age and is the only one out of 9 pups to be so. Obviously, for some reason, the mating didnt quite click. A breeder can do everything right and it can still go totally wrong. Have you discussed your feelings with your pups breeder? I hope that they have been more supportive then my breeder was :rolleyes: Good luck Holly

Hi boyott it depends too on where exactly the scores are worse adn also what other siblings, parents etc have as scores. I am doing some reading on HD, hip scoring, sedation vs full anaesthetics and more. You may find these two links I found today interesting: BVA means scores the art of hip reading and also hip scores and breed averages in Australia hip scheme in Australia hip evaluation resources, excellent links the way in which your dog was xrayed has a bearing on the score, please see the The Art of Hip reading link, so to what anaesthetic. There are dogs that have been xrayed using full anaesthetic and Failed, only to be rexrayed within a month, using sedation and pass. Is your dog symptamatic at the moment? I personally would not use a dog that has failed, but others do, there is more to using failed stock then jsut your own dogs score, perhaps you can start your own investigations into your dogs background for hip scores and then make an informed decision. I had a bitch with a total score of 52, she came from two passed animals, but the dams sister had poor hips and the sire being German, well I will never know as they use a different scheme, the ZW, she was not used in breeding, she was desexed, she also had no problems physically, so if I was a BYB, I would have never have known and just bred from her because she was such a lovely girl, with a sweet disposition. Xraying at least you know part of the gamble you take with polygenic diseases good luck Holly I am heads down, bums up at the moment on this topic :rolleyes:

a friends young son was given two chicks by his grandfather, they turned out to be meat chickens and by 6 months they couldn't walk any more they were too fat for their legs, unfortunately, the boy lost his pets. I am not sure how they get meat chickens as fat and fast growing as they do. I pay the extra 2-3 dollars for free range, the eggs taste nicer for starters :rolleyes:

thanks for that espinay being another quiet day at work, I poked around for a good source of information on growth hormones and you are right, they are not fed growth hormones from what I could find, but produces use antibiotics to stimulate growth in poultry: Antibiotic resistance Confusion between hormones and use of antibiotics as growth promoters is understandable and a contributing factor to consumers’ misconceptions about the use of hormones by the chicken meat industry. It is evident that the disclosure of information and usage by of antibiotics by the poultry industry is not helpful to this concerning and growing problem. The ACA acknowledges that the overuse and misuse of antibiotics by humans for health purposes is the greatest problem in the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. However, we see the use of antibiotics for growth promotion in poultry and other meat products as a contributing factor in the process. CHOICE has tested 130 supermarket chickens for vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) and synercid-resistant enterococci to ascertain the extent of this problem in Australian chickens. We believe that this information is essential to demystify such issues for consumers and provide incentives for more appropriate ways to provide low-cost quality products to consumers. It is acknowledges that the use of antibiotics could have diminished since the Swan Report of the 1970s, however, the fact remains that such information is not readily available to the public. Improvements in production systems and technologies would support such a trend, though the wider public requires the facts to back this up. Similarly, public policy requires such information to ensure that we address the serious issue of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in our community most effectively and do not pursue applications of antibiotics that are not a large risk to consumers. source: choice.com.au

I agree, free range is better. I pay extra for free range eggs, but the cost for a full bird! outrageous. We are concerned about hormones in our foods too, pork is another great example. We did try raising our own pig, he was free range and had a happy time, our then vet advised not to use commercial rations as they are fed on hormones, AB's and the like and white pigs are not allowed out in the sun when on the feed. We fed ours pumpkin and corn only, but in the end the pig ended up like one of the pets, so we couldn't slaughter him, but also could't live with a big boar, OH friend bought the pig and he said it was nicest tasting pig he had ever had :rolleyes: A local Greyhound trainer was nearly done for a dirty drug test on one his dogs, but he was able to trace the hormones back to the chicken meat supply. it is hard to eat healthy these days when we live on budgets.

Cheyzzra maybe ask your vet the pros and cons of feeding such bones, they are the ones that have to go digging for trapped foreign bodies that refused to be passed out the other end. My vet feeds his dog cooked chicken, for the above reason I stated, it was he who told me about the change of chicken farming, I have rarely seen the 'boilers' for sale these days, unlike days gone by

I agree cooked bones are a no no for dogs, chicken bones are a lot safer now, as the chickens are fed so many growth hormones that a 8 week old chook is now the same size of what a 4 month old once was, the chickens bones are much softer these days. If you were to cut a lamb leg bone in half, while still raw and then try doing the same when cooked, this may bring home the fact of what cooking does to such bones. And just because a pet shop sells a food/treat, doesn't mean it is safe for our pets. They sell raw hide bones too and these have been known to lodge in the gut of dogs and slowly kill them due to bowel blockage, I don't give my dog raw hide bones either, fussy aren't I Raw bones are best, IMO :rolleyes:

Shepin she is in the right body weight range. Keep an eye on these funny phantoms and short and irregular seasons, sometimes it can be early signs of Pyometra later. Edited

There could also be a medical reason for the condition. My Mum's dog was a fussy eater, it was nothing to come home for a visit to watch her dog lazing on the leather couch and Mum hand feeding him roast chicken I tried to talk Mum into stopping it but she said he will not either any other way. Two years later his spleen twisted around his stomach, it was not torsion, his spleen was an odd shape and overly long. After his spleen was removed and Mum finally switched to BARF, she has had no problems with the dog. A bitch I know of, had an enzyme defiency and when put on Enzyplex her condition and appetite improved also. Nutrigel, also stimulates appetite You may have a fussy eater, but for less than $150 (I hope that is all it will cost you) you can have a full blood work up and maybe an xray just to make sure there is nothing wrong. If her physical turns out to be all normal, then you go onto mind games to stimulate eating.

I use to use Coprice Calm Performer, I htink it was called on my T.B mare and she was a lot calmer then on full grain feed. I used Coprice for two bags full with my dogs and then threw it in the bin. What I liked about it was the rice element and to it, I added chicken mince, it is not a product I would call complete, when the first two ingredients are primarily fillers. Those dogs I used it on for hot spots, got no better, in fact they looked worse, but the old addage if it works for your dogs than why stop using it? Others use this product and love it. I get the best results from a premium biscuit brand, I feed most of mine this and am sticking to it, regardless of cost, saves me visits to the vet.

I was thinking as Lablover, if your dog has never sat, is there a problem stopping your dog?

If anyone was to know the answer to your question, it would be your vet, afterall they must study dog anatomy before they get their BVSc. I am going to speak my mind here, I really do think you think you need to relax with your puppy, otherwise you are going to turn her into a nuerotic mess, temperament problems, before long Your puppy is a very normal looking female puppy from the outside, I do not have ultrasonic vision so can not comment on the inside. She is one of the sweetest looking puppies I have see no DOL, you are very luck to have her.

do U not know? *shakes head*

If your vet gives your dog the all clear, ask about some Metacam, it is a wonderful non steriod anti inflammotry. When my old girl was speyed, she was in terrible pain that night and her white cell count was abnormal. She was a reluctant walker and just laid on the cool damp grass all night. The vet gave her a injection of metacam and pethadine and within half an hour she was back to her old self. I now have a bottle of Metacam on the shelf, for times when my dogs need pain relief. It is a major operation, women, are not to do any work for 6 weeks after a 'desexing' (hysterectomy) take her to the vet for a check up.

I am in the 'hate Supercoat' minority too, they always get soft poos on it on the verge of diarohea, Advance is much better for my dogs, dearer but love the results esp at poo patrol time

Hi Spice I remember Zac's deminishing waist line and I wasn't his breeder So glad Zac has trimmed down, keeping him a bitter leaner, will see him head into mid to old age all that bit sounder. My boy that was 45kg and 68cm, was quite a rolly polly as a youngster. I was given advice from an eldery breeder of "nothing like lovely fat babies to give them something to grow into" and unfortunately, he developed Pano at 7 months of age, combined with his kamokazing off our then unfenced verandah, left him injuring his elbow and took some TLC to get him right. It didn't effect later in life but pained me to see my baby hobbling around the place at just 7 months. These days I try to keep my pups leaner, not skinny, but not roly poly :D

U just gotta love them ears, Alibear, lol A GSD at maximum weight should be 40kg. I did have a oversized 68cm dog, in lean condition, weigh 45kg, that is way oversized. GSD's used to Medium size, you don't see that much these days. My boy is 40kg, at 2.5 years of age, 65.5 cm and large boned. Growing dogs too fast is no good for the skeletal system

That's ok Kitkat. Most of our puppy buyers that gave me big weights were fat pups/dogs, but there was one where he was not fat, medium size, yet weighed over the normal

Bronx, Kitkat, beats my 8.5 month old girl by 10kg, Cute pics Holly

If he keeps looking for food, low calorie snacks, like 4 x 4 biscuits are great, they have about 9% protein, so wont upset his diet too much as a snack