lovemypooch

Hi Missme, Matilda seems to have the same fussy habits like ralphy, we too had to hand feed him at one stage and boy was it a struggle... We did monitor ralphys levels with the urine sticks at one point - mainly looking for ketones but ralphy passed alot of glucose through his unrine so the sticks were useless to us. From what i remember we use to take ralphy in for his curve once a month but towards the end he had cancer and was at the vet every week so they would check his BCL while he was there - even through all his operations etc his levels would still remain pretty steady. I understand how frustrated you must be and i can only tell you that in time things will improve I would honestly speak to another vet, our first vet said he could ONLY eat Hills w/d-i/d which was not true, your matilda will be so much happier eating something she/he enjoys the insulin dose can always be increased/decreased according to what she/he eats. oh.. one other thing we use to add to his food is gravy, we would buy the Low Fat one and mix it up and poor it onto his food - this sometimes helps

Hi Missme, Our dog was diagnosed with diabetes early last year but sadly passed away this year (rip ralphy xo) When ralphy was diagnosed he had a strict diet of Hills w/d. Ralphy had always been a VERY fussy eater and didnt adapt well to his new diet. On the w/d he lost too much weight so the vet swapped him to i/d which he didnt like either. His blood sugar levels were all over the place at first and it didnt help giving him food he would eat, we had to change his insulin dose acording to how much he weighed & what he ate etc etc. anyway.. we eventually had to change vets due to our current one closing down. We spoke to our new vet about ralphy's eating habits and how he wasnt adapting very well to his new diet, our vet said it is ok to give him a different brand of food and that we can change his insulin dose to suit. We ended feeding ralphy Advance Weight Control both wet & dry combo, he loved it and his blood suger levels remained at a good steady level. We also were able to feed ralphy treats during the day (dog bikkie after insulin shot). We only had Caninsulin, ralphy was on 44 units twice daily. we would go through roughly 1 vile per week. I also called around to different vets in the area to find out who was cheaper as our current vet was charging $74 a vile, i found a vet who sold it for $49 where abouts are you located? i can rec a good vet in brisbane..

I took out a policy with rspca for my pooch, it costs me $34.80 per month for the PetCare Plus which covers accidents & Illness

Has anyone tried California Natural pet food? I currently feed my pooch Advantage but i have heard the this particular dog food is great for pooches with skin allergies/skin problems.. any feedback would be great Thank you!!

Why did you buy it then if it had so many obvious issues? I havent bought it All Im saying is that if I was buying from a reg breeder Id expect better. love my pooch is the poster who bought the dog. When we picked him up he had no obvious signs. . around 5 days after we bough him home we noticed he was loosing hair, we took him to the vet last week to get things checked out. We love the little guy and will do anything to make him better he's still happy and playfull, im not angry nor do i feel like i've been put out, its just one of those things, it can be cured so thats all that matters

ok..im sorry if this sounds too gross but they looked like grains off rice but some were joined together and others were like one single rice grain, they were flat looking, does that still sound like roundworm?? Oh yeah that sounds like tape but real bad.I dunno how a 9 weeks old pup could have tapeworms that bad.Did she have flaes when you got her coz thats how dogs get tape they get them from swallowing fleas. oh no!! yeah he did have fleas, the breeder said she put frontline on him but the poor little guy also has ringworm and pyoderma, i contacted the breeder and she has no idea where he would have got ringworm from. anyway the vet has given clavulox for the skin prob and malaseb for the ringworm but i'll have to take him to the vets about the tapeworm tomorrow, can tapeworm kill pup's? oh, i put advocate on him Monday last week.

ok..im sorry if this sounds too gross but they looked like grains off rice but some were joined together and others were like one single rice grain, they were flat looking, does that still sound like roundworm??

I've just discovered tapeworms all through my puppies poo, he's only 9 weeks and i cant beleive how big and long they were (sorry if it sounds gross but never seen anything like this) I've just given him drontal allwormer but according to the breeder he's been wormed??... we also found out on Friday he has ringworm too :p Since i've only just noticed the tapeworm im gonna take another trip to the vets tomorrow. He;s also on antibiotics to i hope its ok mixing drontal with Clavulox.

Thanks for all your feedback I've just made an appointment to see another vet later today i'll get them to do the skin scrape and check for ringworm etc, hopefully its nothing too serious.. As mentioned before i have emailed the breeder and explained what the first vet has advised inregards to the skin problems so i'll wait to here back from her also, im sure after explaining everything she will offer some advice or advise what to do from here..

Hi Cockerlover, I would have thought so too.. I have just emailed her now so i'll what responce i get - I just want to chat about possible hereditry conditions etc

I have just come back from the vets and she was very suprised at how bad it is. She said its extremely uncommon for a dog of his age to be suffering from skin conditions. She said its highly unlikely its mange and flea's would not be causing it either. The dry patches are only on his back not under his tummy or paws. The vet didnt want to do a skin scrap because he is too young. She said to bath him in Malaseb and she gave me some antibiotics (clavulox) She mentioned it could be hereditry. The breeder said it could be from the carpet cleaning but considering its not on his tummy or his paws in find it hard to beleive... not only that it was a company who uses all natural products - no chemicals. We are to take him back in two weeks and if things havent improved we will need to see a dermatologist. Should i contact the breeder again?

I picked up our new puppy from a registered breeder last week on Monday, he's now 9 weeks old and eating, playing etc as normal... a couple of days after bringing him home i have noticed dry patches of skin on his tail and on his back (between his shoulder blades) but now its looking like he's going bald. He is scratching but no flea's have been found on him.. his skin is not red or inflammed just very dry and scaly. I am getting a little concered now as the baldness is getting worse, the breeder said not to take him to the vet until his next vaccine which isnt for another 3 weeks. I also got our carpets cleaned about 1 month ago but it was an all natural carpet cleaning company - so no chemicals were used on ouir carpet. Any advise would be very helpful Thank you

Thanks for all your feedback. Sadly our pooch passed away on 24th March, it was very sudden and we are not completely sure what happened. Our boy was only at stage 1 with his cancer so we figured we'd still have a few more months with him, I feel lost without him. weeks & days before he passed away he was his happy self. The day before he passed away he started to eat ALLOT of grass, I called my vet and was told he would be fine - he possible had a sore tummy (acid in his tummy) and the grass was neutralizing it, all that night I felt something was wrong but since the vet assured me he would be fine I tried not to let it worry me. the next morning at 4.30am my partner went looking for him and found him in the front garden, he was alive but couldn't move, we immediately rushed him to the 24hr vet, the vet told us he had a heart murmur & his eye's were also fixed and dilated. I knew in my heart that this was the end, sadly he passed away within 10 mins of arriving at the vet. After all the tests, xrays, ultrasounds, blood work etc etc they found no evidence of any heart problems, to this day i still have no idea what happened. We hadn't started chemo yet so I know that wasn't the cause, maybe it was just his time. R.I.P Ralphy - Always Loved & Never Forgotten

My springer was diabetic & absolutely loved the water, if he had a drink he would dunk his whole head into the bucket (he had been like this all his life). Suddenly i noticed his water consumption was increasing to the point where i would be filling up 4ltr buckets of water twice or three times a day, i took him to the vet and he was diagnosed with Diabetes Mellitus, he was 8 yrs old when we found out. it may be worth while taking your little fella to the vets for a check up.