temperamentfirst

I've noticed that feeding lamb or mutton (including bones) to my dogs brings on hotspots. Since stopping all lamb and mutton we haven't had any hotspots. Last year, I fed one of my bitches mutton bones twice in a week. Didn't think of them having the same effect as actual meat! SHe got an awful hotspot within days. To fix the hotspot, I used Elocon lotion, which is only available form the vet or on script from the chemist. Works incredibly well - better than anything else we've tried.

So very sorry - it is so hard to lose them, and the hole they leave is enormous. Be kind to yourself - you did everything you could and he knows how much you love him.

I don't know why you posted as you are not interested in any advice or opinion that happens to be against the brace. If one of my dogs was in this state, I would not be content with metacam and rest, I would investigate fully. If you really care about your dog, at the very least do an X-ray and ultrasound. If the cruciate has totally come away from the bone, surgery ASAP will make a huge difference. The brace will not solve that problem. Do you actually understand the anatomy of that joint? There are some excellent specialist orthopedic surgeons, and they are worth the expense. Like others, I have to wonder if you have a connection with dogsinmotion as you are so determined not to listen to the advice of people who have been there, done that!

Chicken broth: boil thigh cutlets until the meat falls away. Strain and and syringe it into her. If fat is a problem, use chicken carcass or just breasts, boil as above and strain. Also, have you tried goats milk, or honey and water? I don't know what she is allowed to eat, such as sugars, salts and fats. She is lucky to have such a caring owner and vet.

Well said - is there any way this could go on the puppy listing pages?

I was thinking the same thing ........ I think that is a GREAT idea - and it isn't just about Border Collies, but ALL puppies!

We put one of the new buffaloes down, but kept the dogs off it for 6 weeks. Also put it down in the spring and were prepared to water it a lot, but the rain did it for us. So far it is coping really well. The other lawn is a mix of kikuyu and buffalo and copes with mad playtimes daily. We have 3 dogs and often an extra. I think that the mix of buffalo and kikuyu is the best. Couch just turned up its toes and died - it was a shocking waste of a lot of money as it couldn't cope with the mad running.

Made a donation today - you are doing such a great thing for these poor dogs. Wish I could give more.

We have a game that we play with every youngster. My OH stands maybe 10 metres away, and we take turns recalling and treating. It gets the pup fixed on where we are at any time. We gradually stand further apart. It even worked on my parents spaniel who is not what you'd call recall focused:-) the other thing we do is call and then run away from the dog. They can't help chasing us.

Does anyone know of a good dog walker? My parents live on the North Shore of Sydney and need a walker for their young spaniel.

It is so very hard to know when we should let them go. My old girl has similar problems and an X-ray confirmed it was compression of the spinal cord at the thoracic lumbar junction and at the bottom of her lumbar vertebrae. She is now on cartrophen and needs more acupuncture and laser. I am lucky that we can afford this, as otherwise the vet said her quality of life will be pretty bad. I know that if we could not help her then we would be facing your dilemna in the next few weeks. I think that putting them to sleep is much kinder than letting them suffer as dogs are so stoic that we just don't know how much pain they are enduring.

Well, the Vet has ordered a special kit to test for ammonia, and will run bloods as well, including thyroid. We have also had her staying here for 10 days and by the time Easter is over, it will be more than two weeks. She seems normal and after her neck was adjusted she did get much more energetic so we are wondering if that was a cause. Also,(huge sigh) under my intensive questioning, it came out that despite my firm instructions re feeding, they were giving her pet meat, full of preservatives! The vet said that if she is susceptible, that might have contributed, along with being bored stiff from lack of exercise and socialising . She certainly hasn't had any episodes here:-)

We've found that coloured dry food, and or dry food containing wheat cause skin problems in our dogs. The other trigger is lamb - including dry foods containing lamb, and raw mutton bones.

The other really good thing is that you can pick up any that get too dirty and take them outside for a good soaking and scrubbing!

I have checked re flea treatments, garden sprays etc. I did find out they have been giving her liver treats from China and pet grade meat - wonder why I try sometimes as I repeatedly tell them to only use meatfruit able for humans to avoid preservatives etc, and I buy them liver and lamb treats from Cafe Bones which are Australian products. I do wonder if my dad just got anxious - when she is here she is very active, but at their place she doesn't get much exercise, so it may have been exuberance. I keep telling them she needs more exercise and they used to have a dog walker, so when she goes home I'll try again.

Unfortunately it isn't her mouth as the tooth is fine. Turns out that it was tartar, and not painful at all. The vet went right over her and physically she appears fine. She is staying with us and if she has another turn, we will record it, or rush her to the vet. We are also investigating environmental factors. Today she seems a little less active with our young dog, but apart from that seems normal. She did snap at him when he bowled her over during a game, so I think it is worth getting Barnsleys to go over her too.

My parents' Cocker Spaniel is approx 18 months old. This afternoon my dad rang me in a panic. Mimi had suddenly gone crazy, jumping on furniture digging up cushions back legs twitching, heart going very rapidly. Rubbing her face along the carpet. So we went straight there, and of course by the time we got there she was back to normal, except she did rub her face along the floor a couple of times. My dad said she had had a similar attack a couple of weeks ago and he thought it may have been a spider bite. Both times he laid her down and wiped the sides of her face with damp towels, which she liked. If she was still having symptoms we were goiing to take her straight to ARH. When I examined her, I found what looks like a badly chipped molar. Could this explain the crazy attacks? We have brought her home, and I will take her to the vet in the morning, but was wondering if anyone has seen this sort of behaviour linked to a broken tooth? Or has anyone heard of this sort of thing in Cockers? As far as we know, each event happened shortly after eating. She had a bone this afternoon, but lately has been refusing bones.

We had the same problem, so I got a bulk lot of big 'foam' tiles that interlock - a bit like the stuff yoga mats are made of - it is fantastic as the pups find their feet really easily as the tiles have the tiniest bit of give in them and the surface is slightly textured. You see them at camping shops, sometimes with holes in them, but we got solid and at a bulk place. These tiles were fantastic, best puppy surface we have had.

Ours pups are born and raised in the family room. We only breed from dogs who themselves have great temperaments, so the pups have a great start. Keeping them in the family room happened by chance when we first bred - we had set up a quiet room etc, but the mum insisted that she have the pups in the lounge room, and that she raise them there! We gradually lengthened the time the pups were in the house until now they sleep in the family room until they go to their new homes. We find that the pups are exposed to so much noise and activity as they develop that they just aren't bothered by much. Of course, the mum being part of the human family means she doesn't give any scared or anxious signals to the pups either. The pups have a huge day run that they have access to whenever the weather is fine, and a smaller one that is covered during wet weather. They are handled from birth by immediate family and later by friends, all of whom the mum knows, so again she isn't signalling stress to the pups. The pups get heaps of stimulating activity, even a mini agility course to play on, and enormous amounts of human interaction. Now our kids are adults, we get neighbours kids to come in so pups get used to kid movements and noises. When they are about 6 weeks, the pups also get pack discipline form the other adult dogs - we are very fortunate that all our dogs are very good with puppies. Actually, the other dogs are in the family room except during the shelling, but while the pups are tiny the other dogs are never in unless we are there to supervise. We believe that the pack discipline at home makes a great difference when it comes to older pups interacting with other dogs at the off leash.

We dumped Frontline too - currently using Comfortis and flea free.

How far will you travel?

Our dogs grieve - specially when an old pack leader goes. Last year we lost a beloved cat. All the dogs grieved, and the remaining cat went very strange. He yowled a lot, refused food and became clingy. The strangest thing is that he has taken on some of the behaviours of the cat who died. The remaining cat was definitely the subordinate and quiet one. He still is far more vocal, and does things he never did, but that the other cat used to do!

I swear by using lean protein plus cooked pumpkin and roast cabbage - dogs feel full, and they lose weight. Sometimes feeding almost nothing will put their metabolism into famine mode, and they don't lose much weight, so it is important to give them reasonable amounts of food.

Just about any vegies and fruit, except lettuce. One dog was a real problem - she stole mangoes and avocados. Peeled the avocado and stained the carpets. Buried the mango peel and stone under the couch cushions, so for a while I thought I was mad as the mangoes kept disappearing.

Our last litter was vaccinated at 8 weeks. My vet attends many seminars etc and when I told her we'd like to wait until 8 weeks she said that the seminar she had just attended covered a lot of research on pups' immune systems. According to this research most pups' immune systems kick in just before 8 weeks and prior to that their bodies do not respond to the vaccines. Hence vaccinating earlier that 8 weeks often will give no immunity at all. I am sorry that I don't have the details of this research. We had decided not to let any pups leave until they were 10 weeks, so waiting until 8 weeks was no issue for us.