Erny

Oonga and Maia .... super team work from you both. Well done .... you done good, girl . Take a bow . You deserve it.

Good!! Someone else I can hide Mandela behind!! I'm not so sure I'm going to have that much opportunity to *click*

I hope the weather is not going to be as bad (windy) as it is today . Hold on to your hats, folks.

Oh ..... well I'll be there in any case so I might just leave it up to 'surprise' :cool:. .... you might change your mind. I'm sure there's a lot of people there whom I'm gonna make feel better .

You might be surprised, Nek. Think I might hide Mandela behind Diesel . Yeah well, after this seminar all you'll need to do is *click* and it'll all be good .

Any chance of a photo? Would it show up?

Well, I hope someone here might know some answers to some of your concerns. It is such an unusual sequence of events and (fortunately) not something I expect would occur frequently, so not sure if anyone is really going to be able to help you. I'm sure there will be many who when reading your post would be offering you and your boy good thoughts though. I can only imagine that you would have been absolutely beside yourself when it all began .

Thanks for the link, Tomas. I'll go have a squizz. He's not been having cottage cheese since I switched EP formulas (2 days' ago) from the holistic large breed puppy to the duck & oatmeal. Prior to that, cottage cheese, goats' milk and yogurt were the only things that sustained him in between him barely eating.

Bacchus - I'm of no help to you whatsoever in this, but just wish to let you know my thoughts are with you and your boy. What a traumatic experience for you both. I really hope you are able to see him back to full health. Best wishes Erny

Hi Erny, I would use White vinegar diluted in distilled water,not ACV,this has yeast involved in it's production,to me that is a no no with ANY allergic dog. Tomas. Thank you Tomas. When I was desperate the other night (poor love .... his ears were really bothering him) I did use white vinegar (diluted in normal water, I admit - cooled boiled water ok?) and it did assist with taking the heat out of his ears and reducing the overall redness. I'm finding the tea bag treatment has been helping a bit and I thought this might prove a bit more soothing. . I did this again after the bi-carb treatment and it seems to have soothed them a little. They became very red again after the bi-carb.

<sigh> All these allergies. It is really frustrating isn't it. Perhaps it is the result of global warming? Everything else that is bad is, so they say . Interesting thread though, and if it's ok with you, Kavik, I added it as a link to my current thread on "Allergy/Intolerance". It will I think be very handy when one day someone (or any of us) need to do an archive search, it will remind us of the information contained in each. BTW, I used the bi-carb rinse around my boy's head (muzzle and ears) and he seems to be itching that bit more now that it has dried. I'll give it a little while longer, but might try the ACV - very diluted as he is somewhat sore and the under-ear-flap area is quite sensitive.

Kittycatt .... great that you've taken a step towards control by using a lead and glad things are improving, if only by small amounts at this early stage. But why not keep him on lead when you have a visitor, seeing as you know that visitors are one of his weaknesses? Take him with you when you need to step out of the room if your visitor/s are not the doggy types to understand what to do and how.

Further to my post above and in relation to the itchy/inflamed ear flap problem, I read Kavik's thread on Skin Problems In which this link was quoted Dog Health / Nzymes.com From the website: I've just applied the "spray bottle" formula (applied with cotton balls) for tonight and will try the rinse formula tomorrow.

You talking about an agility comp, or some other? If it is agility .... I would pull out if I thought the grounds were too unsafe (slippery) and/or if the equipment was wet and also slippery. I guess you take a punt on when to pull out.

... Jigsaw, I'm still "studying" his poo. Mostly are good'ish (ie coming better). But some are runny - although mainly the ones he does when he's been running down at the park. As a complete aside ..... I noticed in the last two days that he's made a couple of attempts to whiz by cocking his leg, but he didn't really know what his back leg was doing. That made me laugh - he actually looked a bit surprised, as though his back leg had a mind of its own. Today he did a full on cock the leg pee up against a weedy bush at the park. It was his first one. .... I liked his puppy squats. My boy is growing up!! And just something else that is going on. It's his ears. The inside of his ear flaps become angry red and are hot. They are also sore to touch. So something is still happening in the allergy department. This is not a completely new development, but they've been pretty bad in the last 2 days. I've been taking the heat and the redness away by using cold tea bags that I keep soaked in the fridge. They've been helping. Will be speaking to one of the holistic helpers I'm in contact with as, if I can, I'd prefer to avoid having to administer cortisone. Anyone else got any idea's for this? I'm hoping it is something that I can bring under control and have it settle down, but I feel I need to do that fairly quickly before it creates more trouble for his ears than what there is already. I have massaged his ear drum from the outside and it does not appear to be sore. Only the flaps and the redness goes a bit patchy further down towards the ear canal (where the gristley bits are).

Thank you Ksmith . Yes, it is a huge difference and sometimes I tend to forget just what a difference it really is until I go back over and compare photos. I hope your boy's problem is something also which can be worked out through diet. I went with EP holistic large breed puppy for the lower protein content compared to some others. That, and because it is also recommended by many - for general use as well as for use in growth issues such as this. If it is dietary (and from what you recently say, then it may well be), then remember not to be in so much of a hurry to load the weight on. Sure ... you want them healthy and with some cover, but the bone structure is the focal point at this stage. If you feed too much it can encourage faster growth spurts, and you don't really want that, assuming carpel laxity is the issue. Bulking out can come later.

Yes - I think I will be, now that I've changed his EP formula he's doing much better. Mind you ..... he's a larrikin around other dogs (to the point of being obnoxious ) and the health and development issues we've been working through have somewhat delayed training, so I'll probably come incognito . One thing I want to check on though - my understanding was that Uta would be working with the clicker combining it with drive training. Reading here more recently, it seems as though the clicker is being used to simply refine obedience training that is already there, not necessarily having 'drive' as a training component at all? .

As I was saying ..... about 6 or 7 weeks later, not quite right yet, but much better ................ And this one is more recent, although he went into 'drive' and was sitting back with front legs out a bit (although you might not tell that due to the angle of the photo), so it makes him appear a bit flat footed. His toes are tightening up (they tightened/loosened quite a bit throughout his development phases) now that I've switched his diet again. And here's one of him at the beach (this was about 2 months ago) ...

..... he definitely grew!! In my opinion, he was and is a 'late bloomer' in terms of muscle development/filling out. I was careful to do very little (ie next to nothing) in terms of 'forced' exercise. IOW, the majority of exercise he got was by his own volition, not through on-lead exercise. Once his front legs straightened out, what was noticeable was 'floppiness' in his front legs, from the fetlock down and I was concerned on that for a while because he had a tendancey to go over on his knees during running/play, but that too has strengthened with time and with free exercise. He's still quite 'leggy' and lean, but I have since and more recently realised he developed a food intolerance, but I've now switched to Eagle Pack Duck & Oatmeal formula. This is an adult formula and although I would have liked for him to stay on the puppy formula for a couple more months, he's at an age (10mo) where switching over is ok. Here's some photo's (they're not very good as it was difficult to get him to stop in place whilst I snapped the shots) but they might give you an idea of the improvement in his legs : Pardon him being on a slippery floor in this one that follows ..... I was actually in the middle of cleaning the floors and had partially lifted the carpet piece : And then, about 6 or 7 weeks later .... Sorry ..... having trouble getting photo's up. Refer next post .....

My pup developed carpal laxity syndrome - signs of which appeared 3 days after he came here (he was 8wo when I brought him home). Like yours, my boy was underweight/nourished (3.5kg at 8wo), so it was a fine line between increasing weight and not feeding too much. If you feed to much, you encourage bigger growth spurts. The bones grow fast, but the ligaments don't keep up, and this causes the twisting/knuckling over. So the condition can be caused by either under-nutrition or over-nutrition. All I concentrated on was keeping weight gain down to about 1kg per week (even though he was very ribby/thin and the temptation was always there to beef him up, this meant for him, feeding less that the prescribed amount). I fed Eagle Pack Holistic for Large Breed Puppies (my boy is a Rhodesian Ridgeback) and within about 6 weeks of feeding this and this only, clear evidence of the condition righting itself was visible. By about 8 weeks in, his front legs were amost completely straightened and his toes weren't stressed either (this is caused by the bowing out affect of carpal laxity and the extra pressure of weight on the outside of the foot). I would definitely recommend you consult a specialist. If it is diagnosed as carpal laxity syndrome, I'd also be somewhat wary of anyone who wants to splint your dog - I believe that's still a fairly common practice and I'm not convinced that's entirely necessary nor necessarily best - but I'm not a Vet/Specialist myself and I can only tell you what worked in my own experience, so check it out first if it comes to that.

Ditto here.

I've been fortunate enough to not have been in a position where ticks have been likely or occurred, so I'm afraid I'm not the expert to give you the advice you seek. But in the interim of someone coming to your thread with their knowledge and/or experience, you might like to read the link on Paralysis Tick Poisoning - prevention for some information that might help you. I'm interested in the Permoxin rinse and the fact you can give your dog a spray (and re-spray) if you feel you're going in to 'tick-happy' terrain. But I'm not sure how it stacks up against the other preventatives (ie whether its chemical component is kinder to the dog, or conversely, more harsh).

T3AA and T4AA results have come back normal. I am so happy to have ruled thryoid/auto immune issues out of the equation. Still going really well with the new Eagle Pack diet/formula. Mandela's stools became somewhat sloppy but one this morning looks a little better, so I'm hoping it is just a matter of his system adjusting. It will be so good when poo is not the focal point of my life :love:. But I can see he's put weight on and he looks stronger over all. Thanks everyone for letting me unravel this one out loud with you. It's not over yet, but with any luck I'm on the home stretch .

How old is your pup?

Kittycatt .... I'm sorry. We're steering away from your problem and the reason for your thread. Actually, reading your OP, I think you already part way know the answer to your problem. IE : Establishing boundaries. Of course, you need to set the boundaries and you need to be consistent in your expectations that those boundaries be observed. Following the NILIF program ("Nothing In Life Is Free") is one very good way of firming up some respect from your dog and also in getting you in the habit of expecting things from your dog - something many don't do. If you're not sure of what this is about, a google search will give you a tonne of hits and info, but basically it is about getting your dog to do something for you first, before you give him ANYTHING. Also, follow the "TOT" program/exercise which is explained in a sticky at the top of the training forum here. When there's a behaviour problem in existence (such as pushiness) I tend to put a stop to sharing couch and/or bed with the dog. Some will scoff at that, but with the boy I have now, I actually notice a considerable difference when I have allowed him up with me compared to when I don't - and that's even though he's only permitted up with a command. I believe it is relative to his age, which is at the 'smarty pants teenage' phase and I've pulled the reins in a bit until we get through that time.