Red Fox

I've no experience with this kind of surgery. But if it was me I'd probably rinse the wound/stitches with some sterile saline solution (available from the chemist), then dab it dry with a cotton pad or tissue.

Thanks Ness

Thanks, I'm doubtful that I will. But in case of anything happening I'd hate to be combing throught the phone book looking for one. I was thinking that I would just get the details of a decent vet, print it out and put it in with my stuff in case it's ever needed. Do you have the details of the Adelaide Animal Hospital Bully? Are they opened 24 hours? The concept of an 'emergency vet' is a bit different to what I'm used to. Our local vet is only opened normal hours and then has a mobile no that you ring in case of out of hours emergencies.

Doesn't necessarily have to be Glenelg, though close would be a bonus. The only good vet I know of in Adelaide is in Gawler so that's a bit far out lol. Really anywhere within a 30 min radius of Glenelg would be fine. In all likelyhood we wont be in any need of a vet. However if for any reason we were I'd want to know that I could trust them

The link I posted also has slide on collar tags if you go to the 'Stainless Steel' section. They are fantastic as they slide on to the collar, wont come off and dont jingle around. Shouldn't have gone to the site to get the link for you though, I just bought a new tag ETA: Pics (from the website) so you can see what I mean

Try here http://www.boomerangtags.com/store/list.php?A=G&ID=2 US company but the postage is very quick and cheap and the tags are excellent.

Can anyone recommend a good vet and/or emergency vet in or near Glenelg? We are going away for a few days soon and I want to have some details on hand in case of emergency. Thanks

My dog rarely wears a collar at home. I only put one on him if we have kids here and I might need to pop a leash on him quickly. I have a fenced front yard so I'm not overly worried about him running out the front door and he stays inside the house when I am out so I am not really worried about him jumping fences or escaping. But if for any reason he has to stay out in the yard (practically never) I pop a breakaway collar on him just in case. The problem I have with the breakaway collars is that they work a little too well, if the dog escaped while wearing one and somebody tried to catch it by the collar it would simply come off. We are going away in a month and taking Kei with us for the first time. I plan on keeping a collar with ID on him at all times however I wont be leaving him alone at all so it's not too much of a problem.

Herm Sprenger make a nylon collar with a metal buckle release: http://www.petsprovidore.com.au/collar-adj....-sprenger.html If getting the collar on and off is a pain though try teaching him to sit quietly to have his collar put on. It might take a bit of patience to start with but once he realises that not sitting quietly for the collar means no walkies he'll catch on pretty quick

Only one more month to go!

I can't help Fran but I know how you feel. As a kid I had a kelpie x, she was so smart and hyper and affectionate ALL the time that I guess I just took it for granted that all dogs were like that. After her I didn't have a dog for 10 years - and then along came Kei in 2008. He has never been overly affectionate, nor energetic. In many ways he is such an easy dog to live with, and when I think about it he is everything that I *thought* I wanted in a dog. The part that really gets to me with him is that he is such a low drive laid back dog. Most people cant understand why that's a problem. I mean how can it be bad to have a dog that is content to lay around all day and doesn't bug you for attention? But I am a person that is go,go,go all the time. I want a dog that will want to get out there and run around with me. Who is willing to throw himself into a training session rather than lay around all day. I do try and appreciate the good points but it's hard not to feel like there is something lacking there some days... I do have a bond with him though and he hates to be away from me but he is definitely not one of those dogs that want to be on-top of you all the time. He'd rather do his own thing. I dont mind that part so much but it does make me treasure the nights where I wake up to find him on the bed and cuddled right up to me. I guess we just need to learn to appreciate our dogs for who they are without comparing them to anyone else

I've seen them around quite a bit on O/S sites but never Australian. I have wondered if they'd work exactly the same as a normal prong. To be honest I dont mind the look of them, and yes part of that is because they would be much less obvious on a short coated breed. Not that I'm ashamed of puting my dog in a prong at all I just get sick of answering when people ask 'Whats that?' I find that 99% of the people have never even heard of a prong collar let alone seen one and those that do know what they are tend to have strong oppinions either way. I have a cover for my prong but never use it. Apart from the fact that it's a little fiddly to put on it does little to conceal the collar on such a short coated dog as you can still see the way that the collar stands up and away from his neck even with it on.

The grippy lines that K9 Pro sells are really quite light but the clips are heavy duty brass and might be a little heavy for him. I'm not sure if they come with a smaller/lighter clip but I'm sure Steve could tell you that if you asked. BlackDog will custom make orders too so that might be another option. That way you could chose the length, width and clip which is suitable for your dog. If it's any help to you I just chucked my 15ft grippy K9 Pro line on the scales and it weighed in at 238g

Yep, my local Big W has a pet centre which sells Sentinal, Interceptor, Advantage etc along with a heap of other flea and worming products. To be honest I find them to be no cheaper than the vets and a lot more expensive than buying online. For the past 12 months or so they have also been stocking Hills and Iams. The prices on the food are comparable to what you would pay anywhere else - maybe a little cheaper but not by much. They dont sell the prescription lines though, only the vets can sell those. And yes, the staff there have NO idea. You would think that if you had a 'Pet Centre' you would at least have a few qualified staff to over-see it. But no, there is never anyone in there, you press the button if you want something from behind the counter (worming/flea meds) and someone comes in from whatever area to serve you. The worst thing is that a lot of people go in there and ask for advice on the products (many of them being new dog owners who don't know any better). A few months ago I heard a staff member telling a customer that "Yes, this flea spray for bedding should be fine to spray on your 6 week old puppy" ;) Stupid sales people. I told the woman to buy some Advantix instead.

I've got both the BlackDog 33ft long line and the K9 Pro 15ft grippy line. I like the grippy one ;) The clip is a very solid, the line is light and it's so easy to hold. The BlackDog lines are nice too, I used to use it a lot when my dog was a puppy but I did end up with some nasty rope burns on a few occasions when it twisted and slid through my hands. I dont have that problem at all with the grippy line - that's not to say it wont injure you if you're not careful though. I made the stupid mistake of standing in a loop of the line a few months back and not realising. When my dog lunged it snapped around my ankle HARD and I ended up with a lovely red burn from the rubber (which then turned into a nasty red scab within a day!!) there for almost a month. Needless to say I watch where I put my feet now! Oh well, at least it was a 'pretty' scab though - it was in the pattern of the rubber Oh go on Huski, buy one! You know you want to

Yep, sounds like cat pee. We had a tom cat that used to pee on my back flyscreen years ago. We scrubbed it with bleach and then get the hose onto it. Though we eventually did replace the flyscreen which was fairly cheap and easy to do.

Hmmmm... not sure exactly which posts you are refering to but if you knocked on my door and asked me what I though you should do I would give you exactly the same answer - which is keep your cat in, remove the food from outside and hound the local council until they do something about it. Sorry, I dont think you are a "bad" owner nor do I think anyone else is implying that you are. And I dont understand what is wrong with suggesting that you remove your cats food from the front porch and keep him inside for a bit to protect him from a supposedly viscious dog

My cat likes to sleep on a chair out the front of my yard during the day too. However I would NOT letting him out if I thought he was at risk, nor would I be keeping food out on the front porch - or even the back porch for that matter! IMO that is only going to encourage stray animals to your house (dog, cats, possums etc.). If everytime the stray dog comes to your doorstep it gets fed and therefore rewarded for it's visit then you are only re-enforcing the behaviour. (Perhaps you could try putting the cats food in the laundry instead?) Yes, the dog IS the problem and no it SHOULDN'T be roaming the streets or entering your property. But if there is a way to help minimise the chances of that dog choosing your doorstep than I cant understand why you wouldn't do that? And if you really think that your cat is at risk of being hurt by this dog then why are you even putting it at risk by allowing it to be outside? Yes, cats do get grumpy when they have to change (and I have a particularly obnoxious Burmese who will scream the house down to get his way), but the fact is that the cat will live if he has to stay inside for a bit. You could also look into something like a cat run for your backyard if you really want to let him out and keep him safe at the same time. And yes I can see your point - why should YOU have to do all the hard work when it is THEM that are the bad owners and allowing their dog to roam into YOUR property?? Well in an ideal world you shouldn't and it's NOT fair. But if the council is not doing anything then you need to protect your own animals first and minimise any chance that the dog will decide to lob on your doorstep day after day. And I agree with the others that you should take your complaint further. It's not acceptable for the concil to just do nothing about an ongoing problem I dont suppose you could erect a temporary (or even permanant) fence out the front of your yard?

Rufus and Coco make a spray called 'Bug Off' that is supposed to repell them. I have a bottle here that I bought for my Ridgie but I've never used it so I can't tell you if it works or not. Perhaps I should though, he doesn't get bitten all that often but when he does you can really see the lumps come up! It does have a strong citronella fragrance though which I wonder whether would bother the dogs

I have a question re bloat and exercise and feeding- what exactly would you term as exercise? Obviously if the dog has been for a long walk or run you would not feed it for an hour or two. But what about a few minutes of training or spontanious bouncing around? Would you still wait a full hour before feeding? I always try to leave at least an hour (if not longer) between exercise and feeding and no excercise for at least 2 hours after eating but often have the problem of my dog deciding to do zoomies before dinner or having a quick bouncy one minute training session in the morning then not knowing if I should hold off on feeding him In these cases I try and leave at least 30 mins of quiet time before his meal but I wonder if I should be leaving it longer... What are others thoughts on the matter?

Yeah, there's no way you'll get a crate in a boot that narrow You should be fine getting a Large (36") soft crate behind the seat though. To give you an idea the measurements on a Large soft crate are 91cm Length x 65cm Width x 65cm Height, Weight 6 kg. It would fold down to the length x width and around 2 inches thick

We have an upright Dyson which is pretty effective at doing the job. If it's only a small patch you can use a cheap grooming glove or a stiff brush to rake it up

;) She's gorgeous MP!

ahhh very very true - I should add that we have a Kia 4wd and a Magna so plenty of room in both for luggage ... we don't travel with the crates up/open (our boys travel in car harnesses in the back seats) so our crates travel folded up in the boot of the car Same here. I wanted an XXL sized crate for my boy but there was NO WAY it was going to fit in my car We bought the XL instead. Still plenty of room for Kei and it fits in the car fine ;)

I bought my first crate which is a 36" from a Lab breeder. She uses that size for all her dogs ;) As far as soft crates go we have the K9+ Royale in an XL and I can't recommend them highly enough - excellent crates and the lady that sells them is absolutely lovely to deal with. I'm sure if you gave her a call she would be more than happy to recommend the right size for your dog If you are looking for something a little cheaper than that try here: http://www.topbuy.com.au/tbcart/pc/Lightwe...y-161p14748.htm This crate would be the right size for a lab. While they don't have as many features as the K9+ crates they are still pretty good and very reasonably priced. Also be sure to consider the size of your car if you are wanting to take the crate out with you. No point having a huge crate that you can't fit in the car! eta: linky to the lab sized K9+ Royale: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/K9-LARGE-ROYALE2-SO...=item3a5911dfe8 We have the next size up which fits a Ridgie