zayda_asher

I believe also the best time to titre is in the week or two (not sure of exact time frame) after vaccination - then you see if the dog has mounted a good response... if they have done so, then you know they are covered. Dr Dodd's again, suggests that If they haven't mounted a good response then its an immune issue and they are a dog for whom boosters will not improve their immune response anyway (so no point to keep jabbing them).

My guys haven't been done since they were 1yr and 2yrs and they are around other dogs all the time, I think our "herd immunity" is good and they are very healthy At least we know he is discussing this with us because he really cares about our dogs! I've been meaning to ask our derm if she has any more info on this we can pass on to vet... just haven't got around to it! So that might be something to do if you see / talk to her first... (let me know if she has any info!).

Jean Dodds says that if they show any titre level at all then they can mount a response.. it doesn't have to be at a certain amount, and that this level in the system will change depending on exposure etc. I don't vaccinate, Mas, I have this uncomfortable discussion with our vet every annual check... I'm with our Derm on this one.

Ah, no worries... I actually mis-read your intial post with the info from the vet... I thought it said if it was flea or atopy the vet would continue treating and not refer on... teach me to read properly! If it is insect allergies the derm can also do immunotherapy up for those as well.... Good luck!

If he has atopy you need to go to the dermatologist! They can test him so you know what he reacts to and you can put a plan in place that includes treatments like immunotherapy...

If your dog only has itchy skin, and not a skin infection, don't use the malaseb. Its medicated and quite harsh and will only dry him out further. If he does have skin infection its important to use the right medicated shampoo... Go see the derm before adding in any of this new stuff, you can make things worse throwing random bits at the dog and also limit your options of what you can use later...

I'd have a look at the AST Club of Vic: http://www.astcvic.com/ They have a few breeders listed and can point you in the direction of ethical breeders... I'd be careful of Adonas... you can drop me a PM if you want any more info...

that's very true as well! I have a dog that I have to be very careful with, as he reacts to skin contact with common things like tea tree... you can be trying to make your dog better, but actually be applying the thing that causes the response!

I would suggest seeing a dermatologist... their specialization is skin and diseases of the skin, they should be able to give you much more help than you've gotten so far...

ANKC could still have protested this and said they wanted to protect all their members, including their associates and those who don't show. If they did, and it was rejected, they should let their membership know, as its caused a lot of bad feeling with their assciate members in the past when they were excluded... I know people who left over the BSL thing, so they lost members!

The canine controls excluded all the associates when they were broking their deals for BSL, many of us with associates wrote and ask them to protect their associate members who also give them money and they basically told us to stick it... don't expect them to go in to bat for the associates...

Indeed!

I was gaving a look at the website, I wanted to view the code of ethics for professionals, but I couldn't get it to load (link broken?) - any way I can get a copy?

I'm no computer funky ..... I thought it did an auto download. But now I'm trying to find how to bring up the download box to check. I'm probably wrong. I have a hard copy and it's been scanned in page by page, so I have it 'saved' that way. I haven't used windows in years, so I'm not sure where everything is in it now... Most things used to go into the "my documents" folder unless you specified somewhere else, so it might be worth checking there

Unfortunately, the link 'broke down' whilst I was still working through it and before a 'save'. I managed to print a hard copy of it though, and it is from that which I quoted much of it in my preceding posts. I didn't include the first few pages, which was a pre-amble of the current laws/restrictions of the Act. Lesson here is to always download whilst you can... this happens a lot!

Ah, good work! Let us know how you go

That's an excellent idea!

No problems! I know it can be discouraging not to "see" results, I've been there myself with this stuff... So it is good to know that there are people out there that do contribute on the quiet Oh and when I said "wast time posting" in that thread up there, I didn't mean to imply that anyone in here was wasting time, poorly chosen words in a rushed post!! Everyone is doing a fab job! for your hard work!

Yeah, take pics of it so you can send them to your derm... if you don't have their email drop me a line and I can give it to you

Been there many times myself!! It is exhausting and doesn't bring the cash in! Just bare in mind that, just because people don't post, doesn't mean they aren't doing anything.. some people prefer to beaver along and not wast time posting I've just sent this thread out to a bunch of people and updated a thread on the AmStaff forum... hopefully that gets you a few more letters...

Never heard that before! So you're supposed to put drink bottle full of water in your garden or what? When I was a kid lots of people would have many bottles of water strewn across their lawn/garden. I think the reflection of the water through a clear bottle was supposed to scare the dogs. Though I've also heard that it's because the dog will know it's fresh water and so won't pee or poop there (like saying a dog won't toilet near their bed or food but forgetting that the dog doesn't own that yard and nor can it tell there's water in the bottle). It must've been on Tv or something again here, cos my area has started sprouting water bottles again... the dogs think they are nice objects to pee on

Hi Jed I've been following the update thread and keeping you in my thoughts... I'm so glad to hear of your continued improvement... Can't wait until you are back on board, missed you a bunch around here (no pressure though!)

Yeah, for some reason that one myth has become a very prevalent and enduring one that lots of people believe without question, even those that should know better

Unless he actually has adverse food reactions to those specific items, then not adding them to the diet wont make a difference to the secondary yeast infection he gets on his skin... Monica Segal discusses the myth of not feeding "sugars / grains to feed the yeast" in chapt 18 of Optimal Nutrition... I can type out the bit on yeast later if you want... need to get off the comp for a moment now though (sore neck!) Here's some more info: http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_yeast...f_the_skin.html This is from the first edition of Monica Segal's K9 Kitchen, instead of Optimal Nutrition, but its the same info: