laeral

Yes I probably should have had this in the health section!

I do make up my own golden paste Boronia. The dog and the horses all get some each day!

i will look at trying Glyde as well as the golden paste and she how she goes.

5 hours ago, Diva said:

4cyte has been good for my oldie

She tried this for 6 months with no noticeable benefits. I have heard good things about it though.

So my  GSD, Mica, is 10 now and has some arthritis in her hips and spine. She is still very mobile and active though! She receives regular myotherapy treatments through a spinal vet, that has shown tremendous results.

I am on the lookout for a new joint supplement for her as the one we were using i can no longer source. I give her tumeric paste in her feed as an anti inflammatory but would like to ensure she is getting the right supplement to help joint movement and arthritis.

Any recommendations on what other people have found beneficial for their dog would be very welcome!

Try having a black German Shepherd - yes they come in black - no he is not a Belgium Shepherd. I even had a person whisper dickhead under his breath at me one day. Whatever - I like Belgiums as well. But seriously, some male labs are getting more jowly but if Chloe is the one in your photo - wow. Not one of those at all.

I always get asked what Mica is! Then have to explain that yes they do come in black.

When she was in puppy school, the trainer would call her a kelpie. I had to correct her every session for 3 weeks, sometimes more than once. Wanted to get a sign made up for her saying - I am a GSD, yes a black one!

So sorry for your loss. Such a long time to share together yet it never seems long enough ????

Coincidently did you exercise her any less ?

You know what, she wasn't being walked much at all due to the hours I was away. I'm sure that had an impact as well!

Can you feed dogs drumsticks? I though weight bearing bones were a no go?

They're normally talking about weight bearing bones on the bigger animals that can't be digested. My dogs don't have any difficulty with them.

Great to know. She would love drumsticks or Marylands.

Thank you so much everyone for your ideas and suggestions, it's fantasic!

Just to be clear, I would never compromise my dogs health due to cost concerns or my ideals on what she should be fed. I am just trying to be reasonable about what I can afford. She has always done so well on raw that I am reluctant to change to kibble now, without trying some modifications first. If as she ages, she can't tolerate a raw diet so well, I would definily look at kibble. It's just that I would prefer to keep her on raw if I can.

You have all given me so much to think about. I think I really did get carried away with the amount of bone I was feeding her, and she wasn't exercising as much as usual. Totally my fault.

Thanks to all of your suggestions I have had a good look at her meal plan and come up with a bit of a plan.

Mornings - I will cut back her meaty bones to 3 or 4 times a week, ensuring that she gets meatier bones, like drumstick .! The other mornings will be roo meat or hearts. I will talk to my butcher and see what he has on offer. I love the idea of getting the butcher to mince up the liver! I hate cutting it up!

Evenings will still be the usual veggies with a bit of yoghurt, but I will increase the amount of veggies for more fibre. I will also add in pumpkin and maybe some oil. Currently she only gets sardines once a week, so may increase that to two or some salmon/tuna. And she also will get liver once a week, plus her joint supplement.

I think she would LOVE the whole chicken idea!

This week she is restricted to boiled chicken breast, rice and some digestive tin food the vet prescribed to give her insides some time to heal.

Thanks again to everyone, I always learn so much here!

Coincidently did you exercise her any less ?

You know what, she wasn't being walked much at all due to the hours I was away. I'm sure that had an impact as well!

Can you feed dogs drumsticks? I though weight bearing bones were a no go?

Any ideas what would be a good source of meat to increase in her diet? I buy her roo mince at the moment, as she is only having about 300gms a day. I couldn't really afford it if she was getting a kg a day. I will look into the hearts, but would welcome any other suggestions what other people feed.

While you have long days would you consider a premade barf? Still raw but bought frozen so you just need to get each segment out the night before. It might make life a bit easier for you at the moment whilst still meeting your health requirements?

I have looked into this but she needs about 1 1/2 kgs of food per day so it wasn't really affordable. I can't remember how many patties that equated to but it was a lot!

I use the pre made barf for the cat, she doesn't eat as much lol

Maybe a chicken frame every second day ..and a good chew of rootail/fish head or lamb neck on weekends?

Yes I think you are right,I will cut back on the chicken frames. I did start to feed a ridiculous amount due to ease. Poor mica

I would say yes to more meat, chicken frames and wings are very boney. A cheap source of boneless meat is beef or lamb heart, easy to get and nutritous.

Thanks, i will have a look in the supermarket and see if they have them available. I am a bit limited as I live rurally.

Thanks for the reply. I feel like her diet has worked so well for her that I am reluctant to change it, but a bit nervous that this will happen again. I might look at cutting back on the bone a bit but keep the rest the same.

My 8.5 year old GSD has been fed raw since she was a puppy. Up until now she has had absolutely no issues with her digestion whatsoever. She has always been healthy, not smelly, lots of energy, good teeth and a very shiny coat. Up until this week anyway. She had to spend the night at the vets on Tuesday as she was very constipated and needed an enema (sp?) The vets said she had a lot of small rock hard bone fragments stuck in there and was quite horrified what I had been feeding her To be honest I have been quite slack over the last 3/4 weeks as I have been working 13 hour days and have not always managed to blend veggies for her so she has been having a rather large dose of chicken frames for her main meals. Her nutrition has been quite unbalanced and I feel terrible that I caused this

I have been told to feed her no more chicken frames and only lamb neck occasionally. I think the vet wanted to push kibble onto me but she knows how I feel about it, and didn't raise the issue again! So now I am torn and not sure what to do. On one hand I sort of feel that the reason that this has happened is that I haven't been feeding her properly over the last few weeks, and she has thrived on her normal feeding regime for the last 8 years. Do I really need to change her diet? But on the other hand, what if the vet is right and I am feeding her badly and could cause this to happen again. Maybe she does get to much bone in her diet.

At the moment she is fed twice a day

Mornings - either chicken frames/lamb neck/roo tails or wings

Evenings - blended veggies, small amount of roo meat/sardines or offal, joint supplements. Sometimes she gets an egg as well

Does this seem like a decent diet? Or should I cut back on the meaty bones in the morning and give her more meat? If I cut back on the bones, what sort of meat would be a suitable alternative?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated :)

Christine works with Ian Bidstrup as mentioned above. She does the Wangaratta area, he goes to Seymour.

I have taken my GSD to David jones and he was ok. A real chiropractor though (lots of crunching!)

I now take her to Dr Christine Gee who is actually a horse spinal specialist vet who works on dogs as well. She does muscle stuff and acupuncture. She has made a HUGE difference to my girl. She can run and jump again for the first time in over a year. Christine comes up to the Wangaratta equine hospital every second Wednesday.

Thank you! I will try and get mine repaired now that I have the skin off. If it isn't fixable I will definitely get in contact to get a replacement one.

We stock replacement skins for our K9+ models. If it is the same style of crate, we may be able to find a skin that fits your existing frame if that is of any assistance.

What brand soft crates do people recommend? I have a k9pro one that is fantastic. Unfortunately I lent it to a friend whose dog shredded the mesh on the roof. K9Pro haven't had any in stock for over a year to replace it, so am now looking elsewhere.

It needs to be very sturdy as it's for a large GSD, and have good ventilation.

TIA

Couldn't you take the damaged crate to a shade maker or similar to have the mesh replaced? :)

They couldn't sew where it is torn with the crate intact. Stupid me didn't even know you could get the skin off the crate! I have taken it off and will take it to be repaired! Thankyou

Thanks for the replies. I was leaning towards the k9+ So that just confirms my thoughts! They look very similar to the k9Pro ones. Wish they came in black though as I need one for the house!

Yonjuro I was talking about k9Pro being out of stock. It is a different company to k9+. But thanks for your option on the Animates crates.

What brand soft crates do people recommend? I have a k9pro one that is fantastic. Unfortunately I lent it to a friend whose dog shredded the mesh on the roof. K9Pro haven't had any in stock for over a year to replace it, so am now looking elsewhere.

It needs to be very sturdy as it's for a large GSD, and have good ventilation.

TIA

Axe at 8 weeks and 18 months

Wow he is gorgeous!!

Hi Eddie, I have a GSD and I work full time. Sometimes over winter I am away from home 12 hours a day, much less in summer. She is home alone during this time and is perfectly happy. I have had another dog with her at various times, but to be honest she seems just as happy on her own.

She does however come inside when I am home and sleeps inside. Although at the moment she is choosing to be outside on the deck rather than in with me!

She does get a lot of exercise, particularly when she was younger. I would definitely know about it if she wasn't exercised enough. You may find that half an hour isn't enough. She also needed a LOT of training as she is quite energetic, wilful and prey driven so needed something to occupy her mind.

They do shed a lot though. Being black I often find hair on the floor half hour after I have vacuumed!

Mica is extremely attached to me and would turn herself inside out to be with me. I think you need to consider how much time you would let it inside as they are very attached to their humans.

But If you are prepared to be committed to exercising and training and let your dog inside when your home, I think it will be fine with being left during the day.

Fingers crossed for your dog!!

When my girl was bitten they took bloods and did tests to see if she was bitten as she wasn't showing any symptoms before they administerd the antivenene.

Ha ha ha. Gold!!

Okay I need some strategies to address my girls barking issue.

The situation is that I am living at a temporary house while I build my house. Mica has never had neighbors near her fence line until we moved here. One side of our fence is along the road (dirt country road). The neighbors across the road have thier letter box on our side of the road, so next to our fence. They also have a golden retriever that often comes with them ti collect the mail.

Mica has taken to barking at the neighbors and their dog when they collect the mail. It has gotten worse as time has gone on to the point the neighbors can't walk down their driveway without her going off. Understandably this is annoying them. I have never had to adress this before as this is the first time she has been somewhere with neighbors so close.

The fence is just a standard rural fence with chicken wire, so very easy to see out of. I also can't section this area of due to the size and shape of the yard, think 2 acres with most of it fronting the road!

The other issue is that she mostly does it when I am not at home, so I can't correct the behavior.

I need help with ideas on addressing this. Anyone have any thoughts ir suggestions? I am even contemplating a bark collar, though I would have to investigate how they work a bit more.