Puppynovice

Thanks everyone :)

I've just had to start my mini foxie on a new heart worm / all wormer treatment. He has previously been receiving Proheart every month (for heartworm) plus the drontal all wormer every 3 months (for hook, tape, round worm etc). Because the Drontal is for a 10kg dog (and my boy is only 4.5 kg), I was advisef to give him half a chew every 3 months for the drontal all wormer. Anyway, Proheart is no longer available in the 6 pack tablets. So I have decided to buy Interceptor Spectrum. It covers all of the above (heart worm and all wormer) so now I only need to give him the one treatment every month. But what I need to know is how much. The Interceptor chews are for a 4-11kg dog. So should I give him half a chew (as in the drontal all wormer) or the full chew every month? Any ideas?

Thanks for that. I will start to gradually reintroduce his normal food and see how he goes.

Just after some advice on my little mini foxie. He had the runs for about 4-5 days. During this period I tried fasting him twice and limiting him to a boiled rice and chicken diet. He continued to squirt runny poo. So we took him to the Vet Monday morning. She said he probably had a bacterial infection from something he ate (he's always exploring the backyard and putting things in his mouth!!). The vet gave us Flagyl to give him daily for 7 days and to coninue the rice / chicken diet until the situation improves, and then start reintoroducing his normal meals gradually. His last runny poo was just after we left the vet on monday morning and he hasn't done one since. The problem is he hasn't done anything at all since!! At what point should I start worrying that he hasn't pooed at all since the Flagyl? Do I start reintroducing his normal foods now that the diarrhea has stopped or should I wait for him to actually poo first? He is very active but seems to be hungry. I have been feeding him nothing but the boiled chicken and rice and only a third of his normal food intake. No treats or anything. He has definitely lost weight, but seems very happy and alert. He's sniffing around for food all the time.

Hi. There was never a question of not testing for heartworm if that is what I needed to do. I was just checking that I'd read it right and was really peeved that the vet never advised us about this in the first place as if I'd known I would have never let the heartworm treatment lapse for 3 months. I am really annoyed and really worried about my pup now. I am as my username suggests a puppy novice. Perhaps not so much as when we first got our boy 7 months ago, as I've learnt heaps in that time. And I'm now a lot more in the know on heartworm treatment! As for the receptionist, I'm hoping it is my husband who misunderstood what she said. He is prone to do that! I will be grilling him closely later today!

Thanks for that. I'll check out the Milbemax. I've also checked the Guardian instructions and it also says to give 3 monthly for intestinal worms. So basically what it is saying is it does cover heartworm but ONLY if you give it monthly? This was never explained to us by the vet who gave them to us. Now our current vet (well the receptionist assistant person) has told us as long as we take Drontal chews (their recommended worming treatment) monthly he will be covered for heartworm. i don't understand this at all either as it doesn't even say it covers heartworm on the specs. They also said our other option is the 12 month injection which as I said before I'm not at all keen on. Do vets have a problem with heartworm treatment? Well at least the 2 we've used so far are making things very confusing for us. What each wormer covers can be looked up on the product information on the internet. My personal view is i prefer to do my own research rather than trust the advice of someone trying to sell me the product. FYI, click here for Bayer Australia's material safety sheet for Drontal. In all the other guff you'll note that Bayer states its use is for intestinal worms only . Your vet's receptionist needs a slap up the back of the head for two things: dispensing veterinary advice and being WRONG. Id be inclined to print off a copy of that safety sheet and shove it up the receptionists left nostril. There is no way in God's green earth I'd give a dog the heartworm jab. Far too much information around on harmful side effects. My personal regime (well for my dogs) is Drontal tablets 3 monthly for intestinal worms and Proheart monthly tablets from September to March for heartworm. My dogs hate the chews. Bear in mind though that where I live has very cold winters and that period covers any mosquito activity easily. I am no fan of the monthly treatments for intestinal worms, heartworm and fleas. Fleas are not an issue here for the most part and I don't hold with treating for parasites that aren't a problem. If I lived in a more flea prone area I might use a different regime. Oh, and vets often charge like wounded bulls for wormers - check out prices on the internet. I like your regime. We live in Canberra too. But I have a question. If you say you only give the Proheart from September to March then there is a 6 month lapse. Does that mean you need to do a blood test before restarting the Proheart at the start of each Spring? This is the dilemma I have now. Our last treatment was 3 months ago, which is apparently fine for the intestinal worms side of things but not the heartworm. And we now supposedly must have a blood test before giving heart treatment again. i don't have them tested at the beginning of spring because I'm happy that I've treated during the time that mosquitos can spread it. However, given that it seems your pup has never been effectively treated for heartworm, giving preventative could kill him if it takes out adult worms in his heart (IF he has any). In your case, I'd say a test for the presence of heartworms would be a smart move. You'd probably be unlucky if he's got any present but better safe than sorry. You might want to ask for vet recommendations. I'm southside and use the Animal Medical Centre in Phillip and Inner South Vets in Narrabundah. I'll warn you though, neither are cheap. Thanks. We did give him the Guardian every month at 3 4 5 and 6 months - so every month for 4 months. Guardian covers heartworm if given monthly apparently. We then stopped as we were advised to then give it every 3 months when pup reached 6 months of age. This is why I am confused because the vet should have known that it only covers the heartworm if continued to be given every month and not every 3 months!

Thanks for that. I'll check out the Milbemax. I've also checked the Guardian instructions and it also says to give 3 monthly for intestinal worms. So basically what it is saying is it does cover heartworm but ONLY if you give it monthly? This was never explained to us by the vet who gave them to us. Now our current vet (well the receptionist assistant person) has told us as long as we take Drontal chews (their recommended worming treatment) monthly he will be covered for heartworm. i don't understand this at all either as it doesn't even say it covers heartworm on the specs. They also said our other option is the 12 month injection which as I said before I'm not at all keen on. Do vets have a problem with heartworm treatment? Well at least the 2 we've used so far are making things very confusing for us. What each wormer covers can be looked up on the product information on the internet. My personal view is i prefer to do my own research rather than trust the advice of someone trying to sell me the product. FYI, click here for Bayer Australia's material safety sheet for Drontal. In all the other guff you'll note that Bayer states its use is for intestinal worms only . Your vet's receptionist needs a slap up the back of the head for two things: dispensing veterinary advice and being WRONG. Id be inclined to print off a copy of that safety sheet and shove it up the receptionists left nostril. There is no way in God's green earth I'd give a dog the heartworm jab. Far too much information around on harmful side effects. My personal regime (well for my dogs) is Drontal tablets 3 monthly for intestinal worms and Proheart monthly tablets from September to March for heartworm. My dogs hate the chews. Bear in mind though that where I live has very cold winters and that period covers any mosquito activity easily. I am no fan of the monthly treatments for intestinal worms, heartworm and fleas. Fleas are not an issue here for the most part and I don't hold with treating for parasites that aren't a problem. If I lived in a more flea prone area I might use a different regime. Oh, and vets often charge like wounded bulls for wormers - check out prices on the internet. I like your regime. We live in Canberra too. But I have a question. If you say you only give the Proheart from September to March then there is a 6 month lapse. Does that mean you need to do a blood test before restarting the Proheart at the start of each Spring? This is the dilemma I have now. Our last treatment was 3 months ago, which is apparently fine for the intestinal worms side of things but not the heartworm. And we now supposedly must have a blood test before giving heart treatment again.

Thanks for that. I'll check out the Milbemax. I've also checked the Guardian instructions and it also says to give 3 monthly for intestinal worms. So basically what it is saying is it does cover heartworm but ONLY if you give it monthly? This was never explained to us by the vet who gave them to us. Now our current vet (well the receptionist assistant person) has told us as long as we take Drontal chews (their recommended worming treatment) monthly he will be covered for heartworm. i don't understand this at all either as it doesn't even say it covers heartworm on the specs. They also said our other option is the 12 month injection which as I said before I'm not at all keen on. Do vets have a problem with heartworm treatment? Well at least the 2 we've used so far are making things very confusing for us.

I need some advice urgently. My Mni Fox Terrier is now 9 months old. At 3 months we took him to a vet who gave us the Guardian Chews all wormer treatment which also covers heartworm. So we gave him one at 3 ,4 5 and 6 months and were told to then give one every 3 months after that. Since then we have started going to a new vet. I don't want to continue with the Guardian now as my dog doesn't seem to like them and it's a pain getting him to chew and swallow them. I wanted to swap over to something which does all the intestinal worms plus the heartworm. I had planned on doing the Drontal chews and a separate heartworm treatment like Interceptor or even the all in one Sentinal but both products say do not give to your dog if it has been more than 6 weeks since it was given its last heartworm treatment. But as we were told to give the Guardian every 3 months once pup reached 6 months of age it has been more than 6 weeks. So we have waited the 3 months on the advice of the vet and he is now 9 months old and is due his next worming and it HAS been more than 6 weeks since he was given a treatment. So does this mean I really can't start him on a different heartworm treatment because of those warnings? I am very confused and need some advice. Our new vet is pushing the 12 month heartworm injection which I am not keen on at all. Any advice please?

Just an update. Three weeks down the track and he's still the noisiest dog in class but he has improved tremendously from week one. He still goes nuts from the moment he leaves the car, barking in anticipation of what's to come. He listens to my instructions and does the exercises most of the time except the last 20 minutes or so when he starts to get tired and lose interest. In between exercises he is still barking at the other dogs but nowhere near as much as before.

Thanks heaps for your help.

Thanks heaps for that. I guess I just felt useless and bad that he was upsetting all the other member's enjoyment of the session. He really is a very sweet and gentle dog. He just loves meeting people and gets very excited and he obviously wanted to play with the other dogs as he hasn't had much contact with other dogs to date. As it was our first session I will not give up on the club just yet. Do you have any tips on how to stop him barking at other dogs and people when out on walks? He just gets so excited and will not listen to me. He is a very intelligent dog but when he's distracted that all goes out the window.

He is 5 months old and no he hasn't had much socialisation with other dogs - people but not dogs. This is the whole reason we're putting him in training school. The vet said we should keep him away from other puppies / dogs until he was 16 weeks old. I walk him most days and he gets very excitable around other dogs and kids and always barks at them. And yes this was our first lesson.

The second option....just let him bark and carry on without giving me any ideas on how to settle him. She just said do the exercises. Which was fine when I was getting him to sit and stuffing his mouth with treats. He already knew how to sit as I'd taught him myself. But he kept getting distracted during the exercises and of course in between the exercises when the instructor was telling everyone what we were doing next etc, he just barked and carried on. Most of the other dogs ignored him. One who was much bigger in size was actually backing off. He was probably bemused by the strange little dog! Oh and the instructor apparently said to everyone, 'we ignore naughty dogs'. My husband told me this as I couldn't hear her from the barking.

Well my little Mini Foxie went to his first obedience class yesterday and it was a disaster! It was so embarrassing. While all of the other dogs were well behaved (mostly), my boy decided it was a good idea to bark at every single dog pretty much for the entire hour lesson. He was the smallest pup there but the loudest and naughtiest!! Is this normal? As he was the only puppy there that did this I would assume not. Is it just a stage he is going through? How do I stop him barking at every dog he sees? Just today on our afternoon walk another little dog walks past with it's owner and mine starts barking excitedly and pulling on the leash at it. At the training yesterday I really had no idea what was going on most of the time as I couldn't hear the instructor and spent most of the time trying to stop my boy barking and pulling on the leash at all the other dogs. Am I the only person here with a naughty and excitable pup? This is really worrying me as apart from the fact my boy is not focusing on his training, I am worried he is annoying all the other owners in the group.