Scrappi&Monty

It's at the very base of the ear, sort of where the hairs protect things from going into the ear canal. If it was on the ear flap more I would be able to clean it out fine, but it's a bit hard to access. I tried saline solution last night but he barely let me touch it, I didn't want to stress him out so I left it at that. Should I try that again? I don't know if we have any betadine anymore, I'll go have a search (His ear is folded inside out)

The dogs had a little tiff tonight at dinner, very unusual for them! I was in a hurry and was getting ready so I left them unsupervised (which I do sometimes as I trusted them to be good) Not sure who tried to steal whose food but Scrappi got a nip to the ear. Heard a growl/yap, ran out and Scrappi was holding his ear weirdly and head tilting. He has a wound in his ear which seems to have stopped bleeding now but it's very sensitive of course so I can't get a great look. Wondering what I can do and if we need to go to the vet tomorrow. Should I somehow clean with saline? It's quite hard to reach though, and he's sore to touch it. Should I give him half an aspirin for pain relief?

Monty takes sentinel/Interceptor as a treat. Scrappi DESPISES them. He is a smart little fella, won't even let me cut it in tiny pieces and dose like a tablet, still spits it out (he will take aspirin tablets fine). I have to slice the chew up into tiny pieces, and make up some disgusting concoction in a bowl usually consisting of some of these: tin tuna, tin sardines smushed, peanut butter, mince meat, cream cheese, kibble, apple, honey, ham, sausages, mashed banana etc

Turns out Milbemax is the same as Interceptor (milbemycin and praziquantel) it just has a little bit more of the drug in it.

Thanks @Rappie This is what we were doing: Scrappi (12kg) - Fleas: Advantage (Imidacloprid Pyriproxyfen) - Worms: Interceptor spectrum (milbemycin oxime and praziquantel) We give Scrappi two because we used to give Sentinel, but he got a flea bite and turns out he has flea allergy dermatitis. Sentinel doesn't kill adult fleas. Monty (22kg) - Sentinel Spectrum (Lufenuron, milbemycin oxime and praziquantel) But I was thinking of changing these up a bit, I had found some cheaper alternatives (not that it's an issue, I'll pay more for better)

We feed raw offal so I feel like protection against worms, particularly hydatids is important right?

I need to buy more dog worming meds, and was thinking of swapping from Sentinel/Interceptor for a change. (Because apparently it helps prevent the parasites becoming immune to the poison?) I found one called Canimax that Prevents Heartworm Treats Roundworm Treats Hookworm Treats Whipworm Treats Tapeworm it is a 6-weekly dosage and is only $38 for 4 tabs (would last us 6mths) Scrappi is approx 12kg and Monty is approx 22kg. And the large dose is for 10-20kg dogs, would that work? Each large tablet contains: 0.2mg Abamectin, 100mg Praziquantel, 450mg Oxibendazole.

You may be able to return it to the pet shop or exchange it for the right version. I'd probably crate train if I got a puppy now, makes things a lot easier apparently.

Our corgi x Jack Russell rescue has turned out feet, no knuckling as such but just ballerina feet similar to your 3rd photo. I doubt diet would have fixed our situation, (although we did feed him supermarket food until he was 5, because we didn't really realise how bad it was! I'm not sure it would help the legs, but personally I wouldn't feed those brands of dog food that you mentioned. I'd be looking at "Pet Food Reviews Australia" website and feeding a 4-5 star food.) You'll definitely have to see some sort of specialist though, that will probably cause some issues for the pup in the long run. As mine was a little rescue pup it wasn't a worry, but since your daughter bought her from a breeder that is a cause for concern because obviously it's legs shouldn't be doing that.

As mentioned above, Nutrigel is great!!

Oops!! Hahaha Totally forgot to check!

https://www.petrescue.com.au/listings/558466 This little girl just popped up if you're still interested

I'd cut out the pasta and the tomato paste. Surely tomato paste isn't good for dogs as part of their diet (the occasional bit won't hurt) but I feel like it's quite acidic and has sugar and stuff added...? Pasta won't hurt them if fed occasionally either, but it isn't really necessary, I wouldn't recommend it. Here's what we feed in our house: Breakfast: Kibble Usually Black Hawk but we have tried Meals For Mutts & Savour Life recently. They were all great, MfM made them have stinky breath but t was sardine flavour. We used to feed supermarket kibble, and Monty was on Hills Science Diet at RSPCA... wouldn't recommend any of that. Hills was full of so much corn that it (and the dog) smelled like Doritos. And it costs a fortune! Check out this website; Pet Food Reviews Australia And for dinner we feed raw. - Big Dog BARF patties are great, - OR, A Prey Model Raw balanced home made meal of 80% muscle meat and 10% Organ (liver) and 10% bone. (Which generally works out for 20kg dog and 12kg dog to be: - a chicken drumstick each - a 20g piece of chicken liver and a 20g piece of lamb kidney each (I think. Can't remember exactly.) - and bulk the rest of the 450g up with meat (lamb offcuts, lamb/beef/chicken hearts, chicken giblets, pork offcuts, etc) Google this: - Perfectly Rawesome - Raw Feeding Calculator and have a look at raw feeding

Well, I was terrified of dogs as a child. Until about the age of 8 I was scared of them, and when I was even smaller, apparently I would scream and run to the nearest adult and climb up their leg hahaha. My parents both had dogs their whole lives until they got married, and tried their hardest to get me more confident around them. Then when I was maybe 9 or so I wasn't so scared of them, just a bit timid, but I thought they were cute. Then we got one and the rest is history, dogs are now my favourite thing in the world! Also, regarding cats, I do really like cats and I want a cat one day, but I sort of don't understand cats like I do with dogs. I just get dogs, and cats do weird things that I just can't predict yet. Comes with practice I suppose!

He's a cutie!

Yes, off topic, but Greencross has something to do with Pet Barn, and Greencross goes around and buys the independent clinics to put under their franchise. They own 160 practices in Australiasia. They are also linked to City Farmers & Animates, and also offer grooming, training & pet adoption. So basically it's a big Pet Care corporation "aiming to consolidate the fragmented veterinary services, pet food and pet accessories markets across Aus & NZ."

(Just hijacking a little, sorry) How much did you pay for this? Maybe something I might consider for my next pup. I wonder if any other vets do this. I'm not too sure if I like Greencross as a company though. They buy up all the independent vet clinics and I'm not sure that's a good thing. I did a work experience/placement type thing there and although the staff there were fantastic, I got the feeling that they weren't too happy about the "big boss" and rest of company...

@allnatural in my opinion Pro Plan isn't that good. Better than super market food but not brilliant. Check out the reviews on Pet Food Reviews AU. Very informative website! I can get Meals For Mutts at our local pet shops; Pet Quaters and Pet Barn (I think), and Pet Stock. You can order it online from plenty of websites with usually free shipping!

You need to make the play pen fun! Also if possible tire her out before you put her in the play pen because then she'll want a nap and should settle more easily. I'm sure there are videos about this on YouTube on these channels, I can't remember in particular but I would reccomend these people for training help (also of course you can as a dog trainer at the local obedience club) https://m.youtube.com/user/zakgeorge21 https://m.youtube.com/user/kikopup https://m.youtube.com/user/InTheDoghouseDTC Good luck, keep us posted

Toilet-training-wise it is good to get into a routine. Take her to the toilet spot after food, a nap/sleep, having a big play, etc and any time she seems to be displaying her pre-pottying behaviour haha. (Things like sniffing, circling, acting suspicious) Set up a schedule similar to this: (It might be a bit different for puppy pad dogs, we have a yard so my dogs go outside.) 5:30pm - Feed, then after that give her opportunity to go if she wants. 6-6:30pm- if she didn't go before, give her another opportunity. Sometime inbetween then, have a little play, or cuddles, or let her have a nap if she wants to. 10:00pm (or whenever YOU go to bed) - Toilet time, make sure she definitely goes before bed! 6:00am (or whenever she lasts until) - Wake up, straight to toilet spot.

Check out this website: http://www.petfoodreviews.com.au/ and also have a read about raw feeding here: https://perfectlyrawsome.com/ https://www.rawfeedingmiami.com/ http://www.vetsallnatural.com.au/ And just have a general Google around about it. Search something like DOL raw feeding and it'll find loads of threads. We usually feed raw for dinner and kibble for breakfast. We used Black Hawk for around 2-3 years, and it works really well for our boys. Some people don't think it's good but it seemed to work well for my pair. Definitely a vast improvement from supermarket pet food for Scrappi and the RSPCA had Monty on Hills Science Diet (which smelled like Doritos there was so much corn in it!!) The emu oil in BH seems to be good for their coat. We were previously feeding just crappy super market foods until we found out that they were really bad and the cause of the bad coat and skin Scrappi had! Recently tried Meals For Mutts (Sardine & salmon, but not the grain free one) because the ingredients are really good quality & it's a great food, the dogs love the kibble and we've used samples of it for training before. Except they didn't do very well on the MfM, made them stinky and have stinky breath, and their poops were bigger and I think I switched too suddenly as it made their tummies a bit upset. The bag we just finished was SavourLife Kangaroo, that worked really well for our dogs, just as well as BH did. They donate half of the profits to rescue!! I haven't tried BH Grainfree yet (the brand new one) but the ingredients, although grain free, seem to be not as good as they used to. The emu oil (selling point of the brand) is much lower down the ingredients list, but they have added fish oil & coconut oil too so that's good. So since we haven't tried it I'm not sure how good it is. The reason we tried them on new foods recently after feeding Black Hawk for years is because of the company's change of hands and I'm not sure if the ingredients have been changed. I don't think they have if you buy the old packaging, but I think they might be about to. We also feed this: http://bigdogpetfoods.com/

Budget Pets has this food on sale at the moment. Works out to be only $3.99 a kilo. https://www.budgetpetproducts.com.au/m/product/natures-goodness-grain-free-chicken-duck-and-garden-vegetables-dry-dog-food-20kg/8787/

If your dog only had a few sips it should be ok. Just call your vet for advice

The breeders have obviously weighed up the pros & cons and decided they'll risk the possible consequences of early desexing to ensure their pups are never bred from by backyard breeders. Yes, there are risks to early desexing but in my opinion it's not a deal breaker if I liked pretty much everything else about that breeder. Our rescue pup was desexed around 8-10 weeks old (as most rescue pups are, unless they are on a desexing contract) there haven't been any issues at all and he's 8yo now.

@Boronia In regards to golden paste, I've heard it makes them smell a bit like urine? Is that true? I've been thinking of giving it a go with Scrappi. We already give him bone broth every now and then. I'm going to make a big pot of it soon too.