Mooper

Thinking of you all, Grots Have fun at the bridge, Sambucca. Your mum, dad and grotty sibling will love you forever.

Well done, DagBoy and Ebony! If Ebony is any bit as difficult as Jack (ACD x GSD) was when we tried our paw at herding, you've done brilliantly He's now in retirement after a brilliant career of training sheep to run marathons :rolleyes:

I'm sure she'll help you dig a new garden bed for leafy greens

I can't afford organic meat for me, let alone my dog. But I do grow lots of parsley and silverbeet organically in my own garden, and he gets those in his BARF mix.

Thanks, morgan. I'll check out the link. dogbesotted, I must join that yahoo group you told me about

Thanks, schnauzer

No worries, Lewis & Lyn. I'm pretty much hearing what I want to hear at the moment and ignoring anything too gloomy! Jack is just too full of life to possibly succumb to these nasties just yet.

A few years is wonderful, Lewis & Lyn, and good on you for taking Jake on knowing that you would be managing his cancer issues. Staffyluv isn't a vet, but has been on a steep learning curve for the past two years of her own Ollie dog's fight against cancer. She's a pillar of strength for me And knows the ins and outs of this dreadful cancer as well as her vets (conventional and homeopathic) do. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Some DOLers and ARFers already know my bad news ... Jack the boofer had a lump checked during his annual vaccination a couple of weeks ago. The lump has been there for yonks, unchanged, so we thought nothing of it. It came back as a mast cell tumour. A week after that he went in for surgery to have the tumour removed. It was about 15mm across, just under the skin, and was fortunately in a fleshy part between his ribs and hip on his right side. Today we got the pathology results back ... it was a grade 3 tumour. We were so sure it was going to be grade 1! He's shown no change in behaviour, his weight is stable, his appetite is voracious as ever ... now, a week after the surgery, he's back to playing with his toys and being a lovable doofus. I just can't believe it. They say every dark cloud has a silver lining -- the tumour was completely excised so the margins were all clear. *phew* I'm going to do some reading to find out what we can expect next. Staffyluv and Ollie dog are a tower of strength, and I of course know about the roller coaster ride they've been on. I believe Ollie's MCTs were grade 2, but not completely excised. The vet said Jack's lymph nodes feel good; I'm not sure if there are tests she can do there, but I imagine if the cancer were systemic already, they wouldn't have found clear margins, right? I know we need to keep checking for lumps constantly, and get them tested as soon as we find them, then removed if necessary. I imagine this can only go on for so long ... Jack will be 8yo in February and is otherwise strong as an ox, but the surgery understandably knocked him about for a couple of days this time. Is there anything else we should be doing, or expecting? Other than saving up for the next bout of surgery or perhaps chemo, I'm not sure what to expect next. Here are some pics taken after surgery last Thursday, so you can see how much they chopped out. And here he is sporting this season's newest fashion accessory, The Dish.

I have no idea about a memorial, apart from framing a favourite photograph. I'm sorry to hear of Belle's passing. It must be hard knowing that you didn't get to say goodbye but I'm sure she understood. She was clearly a much-loved family pet

Jack eats 1/2 to 2/3c of Science Diet each morning and BARF each evening. His urine still burns the lawn. But at least, being a boy, he goes against something like the washing line or fence, which means I don't need to whipper snipper that area :rolleyes:

I hope you have *years* of cheap vet bills hereafter! What a run of bad luck. How are all the patients?

Oh, Pix ;) Your mum loved you, Kaeleigh. Rest in peace.

Oh, I just saw this in my searching. What wonderful news, Jodie! You and Ollie dog are an inspiration

You and your Mum gave Iko some very happy times, and vice versa. Be proud of that. It sounds as though you can also be proud of having protected your pack from what was becoming an increasingly unpredictable threat. I hope I'm never in the position to have to make such a decision. Hugs to you and your mum.

Your questions are quite broad, Joanne. You'll find a lot of information here on the forum, so I suggest you start researching by using the "search" function here. If have access to databases of journal articles (eg Web of Science, or even Google Scholar) you'll find a wealth of articles that way. If you don't have access to the full papers, check your local university's library catalogue on-line.

I don't know about the runny poos, but Greenies do make dog-poo green because of the chlorophyll in them. And I've recently discovered that polarfleece tug toys make rainbow-coloured poo

I'm left-handed, too, leopuppy and I play Ultimate Frisbee for humans, and bought a couple of ML's club discs for Jack :D He's not a great retriever, but over the years I've kept it exciting by keeping sessions with his Orbee ball short, and only bringing the Orbee out for these occasions. This seemed to help with the frisbee -- we're gradually building up to having Jack bring the Wham-O disc back half a dozen times. He's nearly 8yo so he's a bit slow on the uptake ;) but he's doing well. And, really, it's just a bit of fun and fresh air at the local park. We don't have any clubs down here. I'll have to try and get out with Jack this weekend. It's been a while, with the winter frosts and cold. But the weather is beautiful at the moment, and just windy enough for me to blame the wind on my bad throws ;)

Thanks for that info, Stormie. I did some hunting as a result ... it seems they were acquired by Mars and then created this "new formulation" of rubbery, completely soluble Greenie. More info here.

Thanks for that explanation, ridgesetter

I'm not sure what you mean by a guaranteed analysis -- are you saying that pet-food manufacturers are exempt from the usual requirements of labelling their food and its nutritional content, but that the super-premium dry food companies will pay a laboratory to do their analyses? If they do well on it, Daisy, you're on a winner Give it a few weeks, I guess.

What a tough decision to make, but an incredibly loving one. Bless you for knowing when it was time to say goodbye to sweet Tango. Take care of yourself

DagBoy, that's not quite BAD enough to be good!

Well done to you both! Did dagboy tell you a dirty joke to keep you relaxed while you were out there? If so, you'll have to share

Good luck tomorrow