Fourjays

Hi, can someone refer me to the lady I think it is, who does legal advice for rescue groups? Needs to be someone experienced in dealing with NSW/QLD councils. Preferably someone who does pro bono work, for a genuine rescue group in need at the moment. Reply or email to: [email protected] Don't want anyone's unqualified opinion, need proper, legal advice. Thanks in advance

If under stimulated, then yes, they will bark. Generally speaking, they tend to only alert bark though. Mine bark at people/dogs walking past the front of our house and sometimes at things walking down the lane way next to us. But they are perfectly happy up on the verandah watching people and dogs walk past out the back, and don't bark in that situation. They do make good watch dogs, so will bark at anything unusual. Don't confuse a gundog at work, compared to a gundog at home - they are in different modes and therefore behave differently. Males vs females - personally, I find my males more smoochy than my girls and my males are a bit more territorial also, so more inclined to alert bark. Have found my boys a bit more forward with other dogs also, but that is more a temperament/individual dog trait I expect. A GSP should be "biddable" which means responsive and easily trained. Don't be too concerned about the post above this one, as most of what is written is not correct for this breed. As a working gundog, the dog must be trainable and responsive to the handler - that is a very strong gundog trait - responsiveness to training. If not trained or properly exercised and mentally stimulated - they WILL take their own intitiative and create their own fun however. They are an intelligent breed after all, and need something to do. Obedience training for at least the first 12 months of their life is a MUST. Somewhere to have off lead exercise time is also highly recommended, typically an on lead walk just does not cut it with these guys, they are a high energy breed.

So sorry for your loss. He looked like a real sweetie. RIP little guy

My vet also checked out his lower back and rear legs and they don't seem to be causing him too many problems, although he is obviously less aware of what his back legs are doing at present. Most of the problems I am seeing are stemming from him trying to counter act how he is feeling and thus his stance is quite odd looking and his left side is the most affected as that is the direction of his head tilt. I was worried he was in a bit of pain in the rear due to the way he was standing, but it doesn't seem that way, so that is something good too. He has deficits, which aren't making this any easier for him, but at least they have't gotten worse also.

He basically got worse for the first 3 days. For example, Saturday he had no head tilt present, but was obviously very wobbly, Sunday there was a slight head tilt and eating was very difficult for him and yesterday he had a very pronounced head tilt, was vomiting after eating and his ataxia was much worse too. Today though, he has improved quite a bit and I am feeling a lot happier - yesteday I was quite worried due to the fact he seemed to be getting worse. I know it seems weird the progression of it. Been back to our wonderful vet today so he now has anti-nausea meds, she took one look at him and said yep, it's vestibular alright (she hadn't seen him yet). He does seem generally happier today as well, so a few good signs today.

Thankyou for all of that :) Tip 2 is good also, I have been putting his food bowl up on a stool as he was falling over if he put his head down. Also am using a non slip mat underneath him when he eats, and I stand and steady him also - this seems to be working well. He seems quite nauseous at times too. Have had to start leaving him downstairs though He doesn't even want to tackle the stairs now. Was able to leave him in a nice sunny room today though, whilst I was at work. He does seem to be getting worse with each day Back to the vet tomorrow to see if we can't do something about his back end to make him a bit more comfortable. He is very sad looking today too So hard seeing him like this I think it was the IVS that stopped him wanting to walk so far. He was always a little more unsteady on his feet after it and seemed to tire more easily. The IVS episode stopped me taking him for regular walks, and we never really picked it up again. He seemed to satisfy his exercise needs just going out as far as the lawn to toilet. The eyesight problem you mention may just be confusion. Also, bear in mind, if he has IVS, his world will be spinning, like being drunk. Hard for a dog to figure that out. Hope he recovers well.

Hi hortfurball and thankyou for all of that. My old boy is worse today and now does have a head tilt, which wasn't present yesterday. So yep, pretty much convinced it is vestibular syndrome. He is now also having trouble eating and is much wobblier today too, am also wondering if he is having some eye sight problems too. Thankfully he is happy to be helped out and seems quite thankful for the help to stand up properly and help with eating too :) We will just take each day at a time and hopefully he will be a lot better soon. Did you find that leaving a light on for your boy at night, helped him? Oh yes, he did have his ears checked, as ear infection was first thing that came to mind with the loss of balance. But all was okay there. So here is hoping he makes some improvements soon

That is odd with the tick although we do get them up here through summer time and it's not been unknown for them to travel back from the coast in people's camping gear etc and dogs to then be affected by them. One good thing about the cold weather up here - no ticks and the slithery things go away too :) Just going to keep the old boy quiet for a few days. He does have a sore back and problems with his back legs, but this was something very new and very sudden onset. Every time he shakes his head at the moment, he falls over (and is then most unhappy about that, poor boy)

Hi, vet asked me the same thing...haven't been near the coast and he hasn't been near anyone who has either. Weather here has been pretty cool for ticks the past few days too but I guess you cant rule anything out as far as ticks go. He has slightly improved now, and been to the vet and thoroughly checked over etc but can't find any cause for his symptoms. No eye movements whatsoever, so vet isn't sure if it is vestibular syndrome. No answers basically, just playing the wait and see game now, the main thing he has is dramatically reduced reflexes in both hind legs, lack of pinch response in his lower back and a pronounced twitch when standing in particular - but that's been present for a while, possibly is more pronounced at present. Neurologically he seems fine. But he just keeps falling over for no reason at all and is very wobbly

Anyone on here got any experience with vestibular syndrome in a geriatric large dog ( 14 1/2)? Waiting to get my old boy to the vets this morning but he got me up at 4.30am as he was crashing into the furniture. Not sure if it is vestibular related or something else, hopefully vet will have some answers. Not handling going up and down our stairs well at all (nearly fell down them in his desperation to get out to the toilet at 4.30), so I am supporting him for this now. He falls over when he changes direction, he falls over when he shakes his head too. Back legs and front legs aren't supporting him very well at all, mostly okay when he walks straight, but anything else and he goes splat There is no eye movements though which makes me think it's not vestibular Not had anything like this in him before and he was fine yesterday, running around paddocks and everything! Worry, worry

Incidentally, involuntary urination like that or even the opposite, can be caused by pelvic pain and discomfort also. I've seen it in a puppy that had severe sciatica which was affecting the nerves in the urinary tract and thus it appeared that the puppy had a constant UTI, when in fact, she was just in a lot of pain as her pelvis was not aligned correctly and the pain from the sciatica and the pelvis was affecting her urinary system. Had her chiro'd and this sorted that problem out. Similarly, I've had another old dog who was having some incontinence issues and he had some sort of lower back and pelvic involvement and a good chiro session has sorted him out for the moment. It can be worth getting all of these things checked out. Unfortunately, it does cost a little bit however, but worth it to make them comfortable and happy again :)

Hi Annabelle, Sorry to say, but she sounds like she is in some sort of pain to me. I very recently had one of mine doing very similar to this and she had a pinched nerve or a disc issue in her neck/shoulder and was extremely uncomfortable - at her worst I thought I was going to have to say goodbye to her as had never seen a dog in that much pain before She would pace, she would lie in the most bizaare places, didn't want to be with us or with the other dogs, was extremely reluctant to eat (and I am sure you know this, but food is very important to a GSP!) and she would whine and cry for no apparent reason - standing or lying, it didn't matter. All sorts of abnormal behaviours! I would recommend a good check over by a good chiro vet or performance dog vet - she may need x-rays even. My girl was treated with a course of steroids, anti-inflams, and valium to calm her down as well as regular chiro's, stretching and very gentle exercise only. She is as good as gold now, although if she is silly she has flair ups (and she is 13) - it also took a good couple of months to get her sorted out. And btw - I think some over zealous pulling on her collar/lead by my husband when out walking one day, is all that it took to trigger the problem my dog had (most likely there was already an undetected problem though). Was there any sort of incident that occurred whilst your parents had her? Is she fully weight bearing on all her legs when standing? My girl started off with only a very slight weight transference off the front leg that was affected, so you have to pay really close attention as they are excellent at masking their pain and discomfort from you.

And people really panic too when they think there is a snake involved. I witnessed a lady this year who in her panic, just about reversed her car into someone elses just because there was a snake nearby (nowhere near her car though!). And then there were the other end of the spectrum - the curious people who threw caution to the wind and wanted to get as close as possible to the snake to see it (4 1/2 foot brown btw).

Just to add - check the size of your dumbell as well. Often if the DB is too large (sticks out too far from sides of mouth), the dog will roll and mouth it. Also with the breaking for the retrieve, don't always let the dog do the retrieve. Labs are pretty keen retrievers naturally, but she needs to learn to listen to your command. Keep her on lead whilst training the steadiness for this and every few throws (randomise this part), you go out and pick up the DB and retrieve it and return to hear and release, but don't give her that DB. Doesn't matter if it is a wait/stay that you leave her on, but give her a command to stay put, whilst you go out and retrieve that DB yourself. The other suggestions for stopping breaking are good ideas too. Sometimes it takes a couple of different ideas and methods to resolve some of these sorts of issues.

Hubby didn't have anything else to add to this thread, he supports the idea that the dogs are scenting/tracking human scent in the areas of the cache, which would be the most consistent thing, except that the age of the scent would be an issue as some caches don't get found for quite a while! Good luck with it!

Most caches are plastic containers - around here the Sistema ones are popular, or else micros which tend to be magnetic of some sort. They'd be the most popular kind of caches, you do get all sorts of things from Ammo cans to plastic tubes and at the moment, there is some 'race' with garden gnomes even! But training for sistema's would work well I imagine. I will show this thread to my hubby - he is an avid cacher (okay, fanatic from my point of view LOL), he's done over 1000 now and I am sure he will have some ideas for you, he regularly takes one of our dogs out with him.

Hi, it is a PetSteps folding ramp. I got mine from the US when a friend living there, moved back here, so I saved a bucket load that way. It takes up a bit of room, but I have a large car so that isn't a problem at all. I have seen them available here but for more than double the price I paid Well worth the money that I have spent though, it makes life so much easier for my oldies and even my youngest dog prefers to use it too.

Consumables for an enema - could be tape/string used during the GA, gloves, swabs, cotton wool balls, KY jelly/lubricant, small plastic cup to put the same in, syringes or yeah, even disposable tubing. That's a pretty cheap GA I might add, I'd be super happy with that price

My lot all have Bona Fido stay dry beds + I bought one for them for Christmas that sort of looks like a mattress?? It's popular with the oldies In summer, they sleep on trampoline beds with sheets/cooler types of blankets, on them. In winter, all beds have doonas added for warmth and extra padding. I must say, they Bona Fido beds have been very popular with all of my guys and the oldies tend to snooze the days away in them. Haven't looked into steps for the bed - my old boy can sometimes make it up there still but if he thinks he can't, he will ask me for help (pathetic puppy dog eyes...). Biggest concession I've made for the oldies is a ramp for them to get in and out of the car (Holden Rodeo). This is something that the old dogs really do love!

Hi VJB - have you also just tried soaking her kibble - just run warm/hot tap water on it till it floats and leave it to sit for about 20 minutes. My youngster also doesn't like his kibble - hasn't from day dot - and if I add things like sardines, mince, whatever, he happily gobbles it all down. But just give him dry and he turns his nose up (he's not silly!). When he came back from kennels, I had the opposite to you - he happily ate the dry food and was excited about it (first time ever!) but has regressed to being unenthusiastic again. So I give him 10 minutes to eat it and then take it away and he doesn't get the bowl again until it is the next meal time (I feed twice a day). This has helped, though sometimes it takes a whole day before he decides he is going to eat, but eventually he is hungry enough that he decides he had better eat it before it gets taken away again! I have never had a dog like this before, all the rest of mine are chow hounds and will eat anything and everything that are put in front of them The problem with adding things all the time is that is what they come to prefer. It's okay if they will eat the kibble plus what is added, but you need to get her back to the point where she will eat the kibble and then she can sometimes have other things, if that is what you want. This is why I stopped adding things to Kalebs kibble and started just picking up the bowl and only allowing 10 minutes for him to eat it, then take it away for the rest of the day. Have you tried just getting some cheap homebrand sardines in oil (can she have those?) and just pour the oil from that all over the kibble and mix it in well and add some water as well - I find that got my fussy boy gobbling up his kibble in no time as well and even my oldies who can't tolerate too much fat in their diet, tolerated the sardine oil as well. I hope she gets back to normal soon

Speaking from personal experience on this - yes! More so when the person wants to be out of their pain and suffering and you as their closest family member have to sit and watch their complete agonised suffering, right to the very end... Our animals are very lucky!!

I loved working as a vet nurse too. I couldn't handle the pyscho cats though - loved working with the dogs though and guinea pigs and the like. Was definately one of my favourite, and most challenging and rewarding jobs I've done. There are so many positives, making a difference to the animals and meeting some of the wonderful caring owners out there. The positives tend to outweigh the negatives but I think that would depend on where you are located and what your client base is like. I actually started working at the vet the week I had a death in my immediate family, and then I had to assist with a euthanasia - I have no idea how I held it together! I found that as long as I didn't know the animal personally, that assisting with euthanasia's was fine. Where I had known the animal a long time (and at this clinic, I knew a lot of performance people coming in), I found it very very hard to deal with. Toughest euthanasia I did was with a little dog that had been hit by a car with a badly broken leg and unfortunately she had a heart condition that rendered her a non candidate for operating. Her owners were away, she had been being looked after by someone else. So I had to sit and cuddle her whilst she was given the injection. She was a beautiful little dog for her breed, and it was heartbreaking to sit there and cuddle her in her last moments. Best moments for me were the emergencies - being able to keep calm, work as a team and save the life of an animal in desperate need. Seeing them recover and go home - that is just the best

LOL, thanks for that, you can tell I am not a country girl I suspected this was probably the case though... So is it feasible to limit his access to where it is placed, in some way?

Not sure where you are exactly, but just over the border in NSW, we found Mt Warning Caravan Park, which is very dog friendly. The really nice camping spots they don't allow dogs (say they have too much wildlife in that spot) but they have other camping spots around the cabin area etc. We also found a kennel in the area that would do day drop offs, so we could go do the theme parks at the Gold Coast (though don't go when daylight savings is on, as you have to leave an hour earlier to make it back in time to pick up the dogs!)

I can remember a few years back, going to an amazing off lead dog park (somewhere within driving distance of St Ives?) and it had a great beach there for the dogs. I remember being amazed at the size of this park (not fenced) and how happy all the dogs were playing in the water together, it was a very nice park. I think someone was swimming with their dog too. Lots of good dog friendly beaches right up and down NSW, my fave spots being around Bermagui area and also at Byron Bay where the dog beach is right there in town.