jelibeybi

I have family there and spent a couple of months in London in winter and wouldn't say they're less friendly or whinge more. I'd also say the culture is overall similar. I find America more dissimilar actually. Anyway, two of my friends lived in England for a year and had a great time. As long as you look into all the requirements regarding coming in and out of the two countries and living there (medical stuff, quarantine and council regs) I'd take her. I'm sure she'd rather be with you than not.

When he's looking at you (if you can whistle) try a steady whistle and make the pitch go up and down, that used to get my dog to do the cute head tilt when he was a pup :) Having said that he looks adorable!

Wouldn't the eye gunk problem be year round if it was eyelashes growing wrong?

That makes me feel better :) I don't like the look of that tinned food either; it just looks ick! And I'm worried a diet that overly restrictive will cause other problems.

Hi, I used to hang around here some years back and thought I'd ask for thoughts on the following very long post (sorry) My dog, a Schipperke had an oxalate bladder stone removed surgically a couple of months ago and he's now on Hills U/D. The diet is extremely low in protein (as protien promotes calcium production) and the protein that is in it seems to be plant based. He recently had his teeth cleaned and because he's 9 they did a blood test on him. It showed low protein levels (and one other problem, but he'll be retested next month as she said that could just be an anomaly) which the vet said was to be expected from the diet. I asked the vet about long term issues to do with such low protein levels and she said she didn't know of any, but that sounds odd to me. Anyway he's also gotten dry and cracking on either side of his nose only since being on the diet. I forgot to bring it up with her, but I did ask one of the other vets when I took in in for a urine analysis a couple of weeks ago. The other vet said it was "unlikely" (from her look, she was thinking "is not" but was being careful) to be from the food, but it's been about TWO MONTHS an only since he's been on this food. He's had Hills twice before and his coat went dull on it so I've never had a great impression of them and reading the ingredient list on this food did not improve that. There is another diet - Royal Canin S/O, and my dog was originally on Royal Canin with no problems. The vet's a bit dubious about it since it is supposed to help with both calcium and struvite stones. It's a really low protein diet too (not as low as the u/d) and produces an acidic PH. From what I've read recently the MOST important things are 1. Very dilute urine (which is ok now as the food he's on seems to make him drink more) and 2. Alkaline or neutral PH in the urine (he's currently 7.0)but the alkaline PH is much less important although highly desirable. I can get the S/O tinned just like the U/D which will help with the water thing. There are other things, but those seem the big ones that come up over and over. From reading around there's conflicting studies regarding restricting of calcium and protein. I am thinking of talking to my vet and trying him on the S/O diet but adding some extra chicken for protein (beef is bad, turkey and chicken are apparently the better choices) and apparently you can add something to the food to make it more alkaline. I'd also be happy to have his urine tested however regularly for crystals she thinks and maybe blood tested every six months. I can test PH at home and I can buy a thing to test the density or whatever it was (slips my mind atm). Am I nuts? Or does that sound reasonable? Apparently around 50% develop another stone within 3yrs diet or no. As I said I'd be talking to the vet first.