disintegratus

Chlorhexidine is a surgical grade disinfectant and antiseptic. it's used to sterilise surgical implements, flush wounds , and all sorts of nonsense. It's about $16 for a 500ml bottle from chemist warehouse. Fecking amazing stuff.

Ooh, and super glue for use in closing wounds in a pinch.

Chlorhexidine definitely. Wouldn't be without it.

Sheesh, I hope the poor thing won a bloody meal!! That is not "lean", or "slim", that's horrific.

The golden paste has worked well for my lot. I didn't really notice a significant improvement, but I certainly notice these days if I take them off it.

Rose hip vital has done wonders for one of mine. We got him as a 10 year old (bull arab mix), and I honestly thought based on his condition that we would be lucky to get 6 months out of him. He's put on muscle tone, now has little to no pain, and we've had him for over 2 years now, and going strong! The others, the rose hip has worked alright, but nothing close to what it's achieved for Coda. I'm having success with Glyde with one of the other oldies, it seems to work well in conjuction with the rose hip for him. I buy the rose hip vital equine, it's much cheaper and the only difference is that it contains 98% rose hip, 2% molasses. The dog and people versions are 100% rose hip. All 4 of the older ones get turmeric paste mixed in with their food too.

Not so much glucosamine, but still joint support/pain relief, I use rose hip vital for some of my dogs. One of them was in really bad shape when I got him, to the point where I actually thought we'd only have a few months with him (The rescue told me he was 10). He's a completely different dog since being on the rose hip vital, he's put on a huge amount of muscle on his legs that were super wasted, he moves so much better, he'll be kicking along for a while now I think!! I buy the horse sized tubs because they're much more economical for my lot (I have 4 out of my 5 on it and they're all big dogs), and the only difference is that the dog version is 100% rose hip, the horse version is 98% rose hip, 2% molasses.

Firstly, I don't agree with the sale of animals in pet shops as it is currently done. That said, all of these people all over the internet that were clamouring to have these particular animals removed that day, where would they have gone? At least they were inside in the market place, in open cages with airflow, with a huge amount of foot traffic going past (so any animals that were heat affected would be noticed and attended to immediately, if only to avoid looking bad in front of customers). Was the temperature any cooler anywhere else? Could they guarantee that the animals would have gone somewhere where the temperature was more appropriate for them? Or, more likely, would they have just been shoved "out the back" and away from the public's eye? Hot weather just sucks, and everyone is uncomfortable when it's hot. Having lived through many summers/heat waves without air con and multiple animals, it is tough on everybody involved, especially when you're stuck not being able to escape from the heat.

My sister feeds it to her two, they do fantastically on it. She feeds it with beef/heart mince, and it's been great, seems to really keep them full too. For the last week or so, she's been feeding them kibble instead as her online order didn't arrive when it was supposed to, and they have been acting hungry, which is out of the norm for both of them.

Very talented. I tried my hand at needle felting, but stabbed myself one (million) too many times...

I used to make ice blocks for my ferrets (before they were in the nice air conned house!!), and I've found it best to freeze the kibble on its own first, then put it in water to freeze up an ice block, otherwise it absorbs water and goes gross and mushy and all over everything. For the dogs, I usually made either a weak stock mix or just plain water, I had a nice big container that was just a tad smaller than their main water bowl, so would just dump it in the water bowl so they could have a nice cool drink.

I bought one for about $13 from Kogan.com, works like a dream. I actually bought it for crumbling up chick starter for baby quails!!

One of my sister's cats is an absolute stress head, he's had a couple of urinary blockages in the past. Haven't had any issues with that since switching to Kirkland signature, evenjoy through stressful times like moving house (stress seems to have been a trigger for this before)

If it works for your animals, it's absolutely worth the price of membership for that alone, it's a huge saving on similar sized bags of premium kibble.

I still use it :) I love it, the dogs do really well on it. I recommend it to everyone so much i think that costco should start paying me for endorsement! I prefer the grain free one, but will get the regular one if that's not available, haven't had any issues with either of them. My sister feeds it to her cats and found that they didn't do as well on the grain free one, their coats became dull and ratty, but they do amazingly on the regular version.

Nope, I never do. They only get crated overnight during the hotter parts of summer coz it's far too hot in the bedroom for us and 5 dogs. They don't have access to water in the bedroom either. If I've got a sick dog, or one recovering from surgery etc, I will give them access to water, but I'll usually confine them to the bathroom instead of crate them, that way it's easier for me to clean if they do defecate in there.

Is it only your son the dog is getting narky at, or is it all of the workers at the property? If it's everyone, It will probably become a big enough issue to be dealt with fairly quickly without your son kicking up a fuss if multiple tradespeople are getting harassed by the dog. If it's just your son that the dog has taken a dislike to, perhaps just appease the dog (especially if it's a short-term project), and maybe bring it in a bone or long lasting chew if that's an option? at least that might keep it busy for a few hours a day? I know that probably isn't the best long-term solution for the dog, but frankly that's not your son's concern. Being able to do his job without harassment is.

I'm so sorry to hear that Persephone I never wanted to use baits because they're just generally awful and I was concerned about relay poisoning of my dogs and also of native wildlife. Unfortunately, living in a most decidedly not rodent-proof house in the middle of cow country, we have more than a few, so I use racumin and traps. I only use snap traps or live catch traps (then humanely euthanase them)

Naaaw, that's very cute :) Kinda reminds me of my rats though, sometimes (especially with a big litter) as the babies get older, mum develops a habit of sleeping basically standing up jammed into the corner of the tub so the babies can't get at her nipples. Then they just swarm her and she lays there with a pile of squirming babies under her looking at me as if to say "YOU. YOU did this to me!!!"

I live near a small town, and reasonably often go shopping at another larger (though still rural) town. I quite often leave whichever dog I have with me tied up out the front, though never out of line of sight. I also always make sure that if they are tied to a signpost etc that there is plenty of room for people to get past without having to interact with my dog, and also a short enough lead that they can't get even close to the road. I am comfortable doing it this way where I live, but I would never even consider it in suburbia/city. On a similar side note though, I stopped at the general store on the way in to melbourne the other week, and I got out, left the car running (with one of the dogs on the back seat), and as I approached the door realised I still had my rattie on my shoulder. Popped him down on the bench at the front of the store while I went in and got a drink. He was perfectly fine (if a little confused as to why I'd put him down only to pick him up again 30 seconds later!) I do so love living in the country!!

I wish someone would steal my dog poo!! I'm not sure I'd notice if they did though, there's sooooooo much of it!!

None of us know the full story, so I don't think it's necessarily fair to make a judgement call on the owner. For example, our Bull Arab x is 40-odd kilos of the softest dog you'll ever meet. You can't even raise your voice around him without him freaking out and cowering/shutting down. Prior to him living with us, he was owned by my sister's best friend, and the only time he has ever had a hand laid on him was when he got in a fight (was targeted by this particular nasty bitch) with one of her now ex-partner's malamutes. Even that was not a "punishment", they were just trying to get the dogs apart. He adores my OH, but often gets freaked out by him, because he has a fairly deep, masculine voice. I can give Tex a command with no issues, but Nathan will say the same thing, and Tex just panics because he feels like he's being yelled at. (Yes, Nathan is working on it!) He snuck out the front door a while ago and went for one of the goats (no one realised he was inside because he'd snuck in in the first place to have a lie down!). I was up on the decking and I heard this blood-curdling bleat, and saw him dragging the poor girl around by her back leg. I yelled at him while I was still a good 15-20 metres away (and up on the decking, so yelling was the only thing I could do) and he bolted. Luckily enough he ran straight back inside. He wouldn't come near me for days. I'm not trying to explain or excuse the behaviour of the owner of the dog, but sometimes it isn't necessarily as black and white as it seems. All of mine "know when they're in trouble" ie, they read my body language and react to the fact that I am unhappy with something. I have never once taken it out on any of them, but to watch them in that situation, you would think that I beat them to within an inch of their lives everyday. ETA: No goats were harmed in the making of this example, in fact a couple of weeks later this same goat was happily grazing within 2 metres of Tex (on a lead this time of course!)

I get couches for free from gumtree, or if I want something fancy, a couple of dollars of eBay! We're on property here too, so when they're sufficiently destroyed, they go down to the burn pile :) They have nice beds inside where I can make sure they don't destroy them!

I could never be so cruel as to make my dogs sleep in these... ...how would they turn them into snow??? ETA: my dogs are often forced to look sadly through the window as they lie on bare plastic or timber because they made their comfy beds into snow.

pm'ed you :)