karly101

Using the Hills prescription foods to make treats (I'm sure you can do the same with other brands!) Using canned food: Open the can and shake the loaf of food out of the can. Cut the loaf into 1/4" thick slices, and then cut the slices into bite-sized pieces. Bake the treats in a microwave oven on high for approximately 2 ½ to 3 minutes. Store baked treats in the refrigerator and discard leftovers after 5-7 days. Homemade treats should not exceed 10% of your pet's total daily intake because heat alters the nutritional characteristics of the food. Do not freeze homemade treats. For a conventional oven, follow the instructions above and place the bite-sized pieces on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes or until crispy. Using dry food: In a blender, add 2 cups of dry food and grind into a powder. Pour powder into a mixing bowl and gradually add about 1 to 1 ¼ cups of water, stirring until it forms a dough consistency. Shape into individual "treats" or "cookies" and flatten the dough using the back of a spoon (the cookies will not flatten like standard "people cookies" do.) Place treats on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes or until crispy. Store baked treats in the refrigerator and discard leftovers after 5-7 days. Homemade treats should not exceed 10% of your pet's total daily intake because heat alters the nutritional characteristics of the food. Do not freeze homemade treats. To enhance flavor, sprinkle oregano powder over the dry food treats. However, do not add oregano to homemade treats when Prescription Diet™ z/d™ or d/d™ foods are used. Cookie cutters make treats fun to make and serve.

I don't think we will ever achieve banning of puppy farms or selling of puppies in petshops...it would be nice to see more petshops partnering with rescues and I'm really surprised it hasn't taken off as much here as it is in the USA...the petshop can really make it work for them with advertising and I'm sure they wouldn't loose out sales wise. I think what can be done is demand better standards that are actually enforced at these puppy farms, so the poor bitches are actually treated humanely, so that how many litters they have is regulated. And preferably I would like to see desexing compulsory unless medical reason or membership with ankc but I think that will be impossible to police as they can't even get all dogs sold with microchips.

I am about to start DAP with mine.. I've heard varying reports on its success...mine is fine at home in his own environment... anywhere else and he's a ball of nerves. If I see no response I'll probably consider a herbal remedy.. DAP seems preferable to me as it doesn't need to be ingested.

Sounds about right.. ask about whether it is an ultrasonic scaling or not as some vets are hand scaling and the job probably isn't as thorough. Also try to compare like to like.. costs for pain relief and extractions if needed, is the dog under fluids etc.

I feed mine Ecopet rolls...make sure you read the label carefully for the rolls ... they are generally all quite high in salt. Ecopet is less than 1% but that is still quite a bit considering their other food is only 0.3%.

Aloveen conditioner and omega 3/6 oils added to the diet ...

Tennis balls hold all the dirt which is what will wear the teeth down... Any object which rubs against the teeth again and again can also wear teeth... so it can happen with a rubber ball as well, basketballs are apparently particularly bad as well. But weigh up the risks.. my gsd still has his tennis ball.. it just is only for supervised play and I try and keep it as clean as possible

I think the best thing to do would be to find someone who has some young labs and let them do a meet in the park, then they can see how lab hair gets everywhere! Plus show them how much energy these dogs have and need to burn off everyday. For active families (with probably older kids) who like to do things with their dogs (and don't mind dog hair) I would say a lab is ideal but for this family .. it really sounds like this is just going to head towards disaster.

I only give with supervision and now don't really give that often... only after hearing horror stories from my boss (vet) who had 2 dead dogs last year from chicken frames. It can happen though it is a very small risk considering the number of people who do feed them.

You need to report to your local council.. I believe if you give them the route and approx times when this occurs then they can have a ranger patrol the area and lookout for the dog..

More often then not mine will eat all their dry in the morning but occasionally if mine don't eat their dry they get it again for dinner with a spoonful of their dog roll on top ...it always gets eaten then. Some dogs do regulate what they eat... if they aren't eating I simply put it down to that they are not hungry enough to eat it.

I only went to this vet last year for annual vaccs (moved out of the area) but Blackburn vet (http://www.blackburnvet.com.au) is doing 3 yearly vaccs and offered them to me...they were quite helpful and did a good examination, I haven't been there for any health issues recently but they were good with my old dog as well.

The recipe I was thinking is what is posted on the first page.. I know it sounds a bit weird with the bread etc but it is all balanced and researched...it all depends if you want to home cook or not. Good luck.. I'm glad they are both feeling much better

In the case of kidney disease the prescription diets really do cover it very well.. and do make a significant difference imo .. If you do want to do some home cooking there is a recipe in 'Small Animal Clinical Nutrition' - for a low protein, low phosphorus diet suitable for renal disease that is nutritionally complete...(I'd also add fish oil to it which is in the Hills k/d) I checked it out for my friend but she decided to stick with Hills and her dog (a lab) is still going well a year later. Your vet may have a copy of this book...if not I think it is online somewhere.

I agree with sentiments above... its very normal for dog bites to superficially not look like much.. we had one case where the owner brought in one dog (a min pin) and not the other (a pug)... the pug he didn't bring in was actually far far worse condition than the min pin and unfortunately it did not survive (48 hours after the attack). The puncture wounds can be very well hidden in the fur and its not until its all shaved then you know what you are dealing with. The picture you posted looks very normal treatment for a dog bite. I'd probably pay the bill (excluding wart removal) and count your aunts dog lucky its not declared dangerous and do everything to make sure it doesn't happen again.

It really depends on your area.. where my work is the fleas are SHOCKING.. a lot of people are having to bomb their houses they are that bad and even though its winter we are seeing lots of flea infested dogs. So we recommend year round protection there.... BUT my dads house has a few fleas every summer so he sticks to flea stuff in the warmer months.. for my mums house I've never seen a flea there so the dog is on Interceptor. My boyfriends house has a few so the dogs are on Revolution year round.

For intestinal worms its fine to treat.. if its heartworm.. I'd probably use advocate which is safe to use without testing...read the labels as there might be some other products that are ok too.

My dog was desexed at 6 months and hadn't cocked his leg by then.. he didn't start till probably around the same age! Now he does it most of the time when he can be bothered I think! I guess its just slower maturity?

Bumping up a old topic but I was trying to remember the research at the time I read this and it took me this long to remember!.. A oldish article (1998) but my vet quoted this study as to why she thought heartworm prevention was necessary (in ferrets..) and I haven't been able to find much research on it since so keep all my crew up to date.. if someone has a newer article debating this I'd definitely be interested in reading..

Good on you for reporting....And for those that wonder RSPCA does assign case numbers and does give some feedback if you care to ring and check up on a report that you have made..only know this as I reported a petshop and it became an ongoing investigation.

I like Sentinel and use it on my mums dog... I haven't needed to use anything else for fleas at mums. For me and my boyfriends dog I use Revolution and canex.. I buy the 6 month pack and for me it is the cheapest way to cover him for everything..had a few more fleas there so Interceptor is not so good.

I've found optimum to be good..I tried supercoat but it didn't agree with the gsd.. but on all these foods I'd be feeding him 5 cups daily (plus his wet meal in evening) to keep the weight on!

C/d can be fed long term... s/d is the one that cannot. As for increasing thirst that is not true.. it just means that the dog is getting less water out of the food so needs to drink more to compensate for that...overall they should not be consuming more water than before its just that they are getting less from the food. They do make a wet c/d as well so that is something to consider. You could also look into Royal Canin but I'm told is more expensive? The diet is not designed to increase thirst.. rather it is low protein, phosphorous, magnesium and calcium that makes your dog have a more acidic urine. There are recipes around for homecooked low protein and phosphorous diets but I'd run these past your vet first (my vet had one in his nutrition for small animals textbook).

From what I've seen in the clinic.. Cartrophen (Pentosan) is your best bet and we just see improvements with it about 80% of the time..... we get a lot of clients who come back and say the powders do nothing.. and some who swear by them - hard too say as we don't tend to see them again like with the cartrophen. Different dogs respond to different things... we have also seen a lot of good results with the hills J/d as well.

I haven't seen any negative side effects nor heard of them personally however at my workplace its not very common that we do the proheart injection. It is not because we don't trust it.. but the monthly heartworm treatments are usually much more cost effective and thats what I'd probably recommend to you. Atm I'm using Revolution but am considering switching to Sentinel.