Scales of Justice

knobbles, A dog who scavenges carpet, insects, bugs etc.etc. and displays the colitis type symptoms with blood your dog has I would suspect very strongly for pancreas insufficiency. Please take your dog to the vet and have a blood test done to check for pancreas insufficiency.

Holly, Fidos is not tea tree oil based it is pyrethrum based. Hope you have some luck. Edited to add: I suspect many so called "grass allergies" are actually allergies to harvest mites in the grass

Holly, I have been in the same predicament as you. I tried everything over a period of months - the food allergy bit, Frontline, all sorts of different heartworm treatments which treat lice, fleas, etc.etc. and got nowhere. My dog continued to scratch and it was not from fleas or dog lice. I got to the point where I was on my hands and knees combing through the grass with a magnifying glass to find out what was causing the trouble as my dog scratched at certain times and usually after rainy spells and usually after laying in the grass (ie not in the dry periods). I finally found a tiny red mite in the ground and did some research and found that it was a harvest mite (I even caught one and took it to the vet for identification and it proved not to be any dog lice or mites - it was a red mite/harvest mite, which do not actually live on dogs). The only thing which I have found to this day which has stopped this is Fido's flea and tick wash. Holly, you have the goats next door so you must be in a rural farming type area - check out the harvest mite thingo and try Fido's flea and tick wash. This was the only product which seemed to work. I had tried all sorts of things prior - bacterial/fungal flea rinses, food allergies, etc etc and the list goes on. Good luck

Holly, I swear by aloe vera. It is an invaluable topical for anything like bites, stings and allergies. I have found that the raw plant is the way to go. Cut a piece from raw aloe vera and dab it on. What type of allergy are you dealing with - what are the symptoms? I have done a bit of personal research on allergies and another thing which you might like to follow up on would be harvest mites, which apparently are a big problem with sheep and are known to bite dogs (apparently they don't live on dogs but they do bite them causing extreme allergy). I think these types of allergies are concentrated on the underside of the dogs (ie. legs, belly, tail and undersides of feet and pasterns). Apparently these mites are cyclical only hatching out at certain times of the moon phase and are a big problem to farmers. Most dog people have never heard of them and I suspect many unknown allergies could be a result of these harvest mites. (They are microscopic and very hard to find and the fact that they don't live on the dogs makes it difficult to actually find). Edited: Removed reference to "Eukanuba FP' as I just realised you tried this.

Mucous on dog droppings could have many causes. Some common ones are roundworms (usually jelly mucous), giardia bacteria (slimy mucous coating), colitis (sometimes streaked with blood), allergy. Worth checking out recurring mucous with vet.

If I were you, I would be worming the puppy despite the vet saying it is all clear. You can get many false negative readings on hookworms. The vets check stools to see whether hookworm eggs are present and a negative only means that eggs are not present - not that hookworms are not definitely there ie. immature worms could still be there but not breeding. The lifecycle of hookworms is very short and worms may not be laying eggs today but by tomorrow they could be shedding thousands of eggs. If the puppy came from a large overcrowded kennel it is possible that it could be coccidiosis but the pup would show signs of being unwell as well as blood.

Now I know why you were having a bad day!!! Sorry to hear about Molly

Has she had a course of Metronidazole - 7 day course.

Stitch, You can blame the food all you like but others of us have reared many large breed pups on THAT FOOD and never had any problems with it at all - no joint problems, no unsoundness of any kind, beautiful coats, tight feet and pasterns etc.

Stitch Eukanuba is a COMPLETE food - it is not meant to be substituted with mince and veg. If you had problems you should have just fed the Eukanuba!

xyro, If you are feeding Proplan why do you need a coat supplement? Proplan (depending on which one you are using) has enough coat supplements in it already and the 26% protein is fine. 40% protein in the coat supplement sure does sound like a lot to me - I would be very cautious. Proplan puppy is an excellent food for a growing puppy and you shouldn't need anything else for coat as it has all the necessary oils to keep the coat nice. I have raised GSD pups on this and coats have been lovely - collies are around the same size so I can't see why this wouldn't be adequate for your pup.

Roxanne, This condition looks typical of what happens with large breeds with incorrect feeding. If the breeder has only fed meat this would cause an imbalance. It is imperative that you don't use guesswork with this pup's diet. You should get this puppy onto a totally balanced diet (a puppy growth formula with no extras) straight away and the situation may quite possibly right itself once the imbalance has been attended to. Minimal exercise. Good suggestion to see Robert Zammit in Sydney. To all the others who said that the puppy should be shipped back to the breeder ie. out of sight out of mind, problem will go away - what about the poor puppy? The puppy is a living being and deserves a chance and should not be treated like a commodity.

If agree with Fifi Don't pump the calcium into this dog. If this is a large breed change the dog's diet to a Large Breed Growth food such as Eukanuba. It's not the amount of calcium you put into the dog it's the balance between calcium:phosphorous that's important. Not for amateurs to calculate - Growth formulas have been prepared for this

Well said persephone My sentiments exactly!

For all those above who are using teatree oil, I have been told by my vet that teatree oil is toxic to dogs. Obviously if people are using teatree oil and the dogs are OK then its probably not too toxic but I would certainly have some caution about using too much teatree oil. I will not use it.

You may have fleas breeding around your home. You need to arrest the life cycle of fleas by continually treating the dog (as you are doing) but also by arresting their breeding potential. You can change to Advocate monthly heartworm which is fairly new and appears to be very good or alternatively stay with Advantage but you must try to find the source of where fleas would be breeding. Check around your home and exterior to see where this could possibly be. Check where dog hair gathers (ie. nooks and crannies, under cupboards, carpets, bedding etc) and have a good clean up. If you are really desperate, you could mix up some Malaban (not for the dog) but spray the grassed areas and paths externally to try to reduce the numbers of fleas which are reappearing on your dog. I'm sure if you do this you will eventually get on top of the problem. Keep up with the Fido's between Advantage - this is a good product and will help keep the numbers of fleas off your dog between monthly treatment while you treat the internal and external areas of your home.

mcboxer I had a dog which got bitten by a white tipped spider. All the skin around came up in a raised lump and within a few weeks the patch (about the size of a drink coaster) had turned the skin pitch black. I thought she was going to get gangrene and need amputation. I was told by the vet to use paw paw cream on the wound and months went by and nothing seemed to take the problem away. So I cut fresh aloe vera from the aloe vera plant and tape a poultice of the fresh aloe vera plant (cut open to expose the inner part of the plant) and taped a new piece every day on the wound. Within a short space of time the wound looked much better and within 3 months the skin had normalised and the hair had started to grow. Within 6 months you couldn't see where the problem had been. Aloe vera - Great

What you describe sounds "sus" to me. She may have a bacterial problem which has arisen from the initial kennel cough in which case she should be on antibiotics. If you have already done this - get a second opinion from another vet it may not be kennel cough at all.

Hi Lablover, Have read all the remedies above and because so many things have been suggested I did not originally post my answer, but having read that you are at your wits end I decided to reply with the all time cure for hot spots. This is an old remedy I have used for years and IT WORKS!!! Buy some Friars Balsam from the chemist and paint it onto the hotspot (daily) - (Not for internal use). This stuff is magic - it dries the hot spot out and adds a coating which deters further activity underneath. I would be mighty surprised if you did not find this to be beneficial. The hot spots should cease activity within a day or so (couple of days at the most) and the patch should clear away and regrow hair within a few weeks. Also with true hotspots you should keep your dog out of water (no baths no swimming). If this doesn't work then it's not hot spots you are dealing with!!!