sandgrubber

"Vets" are an extremely diverse group of Homo sapiens. Some of them know more than others :rolleyes: Some of them were asleep in class when the one lecture on canine body weight was given or failed that part of the exam. To my knowledge, there are no institutions in place to ensure that vets do learn the things they didn't pick up in their short time vet school.

Pumpkin got Kennel Cough from her 12 week round of vaccinations. From there the virus turned up in the next litter of pups, starting when they were 5 weeks old. Lark, who comes from the affected litter, is now 13.5 weeks old and still coughs a few times in the early morning. No other dog on the property has come down with KC though I think some unvaccinated dogs have been exposed. (I run a boarding kennel and recommend C5 but will accept C3). Question: Is Lark still contagious? Can she go to puppy training classes?

I don't remember exactly, but it was around $3 including GST (they quote prices without GST because they sell wholesale). They have beef, mutton and roo.

I have an 11 yr old Sibe in the boarding kennel who loves Mandarins. They haven't killed him yet. Also had a tenant whose dogs used to eat not only the oranges and date palm fruit, but also whole LEMONS with no apparent bad effects.

There's an active thread on cheap dog food meats in Perth. . . lots of good SOR suggestions.

South St has always been a great source, but not always the cheapest. But if you're feeding one or two dogs, low prices are good enough, you don't need to travel distance and buy 20 + kg at a time for rock bottom prices. Leonarts is often the cheapest source of chicken frames. Phone ahead and have them hold them for you. Different branches have different prices/availabilities. Better Pets and Gardens gives discounts to registered breeders, and is often very competitive with City Farmers for a lot of things. I haven't tried them for meats. City Farmers isn't bad for mince. Jurien Pet Foods mince is top quality, but they have a minimum of 40 kg and they have just upped their prices.

Where are you in Perth, and how much do you buy? There are a couple outfits that deliver to the kennel areas . . . varying products of varying quality. Even if you don't live in a kennel area or buy 20+ kg at a time, you can often get a breeder or kennel manager to add a bit to their order and on-sell to you.

Sounds to me like you've got the bases covered. YOu didn't mention the obvious . . . fever, lethargy, looking sick. If she seems to loose the fighting spirit, doesn't eat, or otherwise changes behaviour, I'd be in touch with the vet, pronto.

My first girl got a localised deep pyroderma. Nasty. Scary. A breeder suggested putting her on BARF diet. Six years later and she's never had another serious incident. Or perhaps I've gotten better at dealing with the problem. At the slightest sign of pyroderma on any of my dogs, I get out the clippers and leave a bald spot around the patch and pour on whatever I've got on hand to get rid of bacteria and keep the area dried out.

I think the quality of the walking is as important as the distance. By all means, avoid forced walking. And avoid things that will cause them to jump and twist, particularly on hard surfaces. My pups start going ~ 1 km at 6 months and by a year they're going 3 or more km. They also play a lot of dog tag on two acres of sand. The last four sets of hip/elbow scores I've gotten are 2:1 h 0:0 e, 2:1 h 0:0 e , 3:1 h 0:0 e and 3:1 h 0:0 e. (Most of these are improvements on sire and dam's scores).

I have a 70 kg mastiff X doberman in the boarding kennel who would like to come and join your digging crew :rolleyes: . He's gotten down about 800 mm and the trench is a metre or so long. That's the main trench. There are several others.

I worry more about what shape the dog is in than about how much I feed them. If the ribs and waistline have disappeared, you're feeding too much. Labbies, if allowed to call the shots at mealtime, tend to become blimp-shaped. This is not good for their health. If you can see the individual ribs, a bit more food wouldn't hurt. My big Labbie boy gets one and a half largish chicken carcasses a day, plus two carrots or equivalent fruit/veg, plus a handful of dry biskets (soaked in chicken blood) plus some nutritional supplement -- and if he's lucky a small oily fish or some yoghurt or an egg. The chicken may be swapped for some other raw meat with bone. Your boy may require more or less food than this . . . but it may give you an idea of how much should you move to a BARF-style diet.

Provide a digging area for your dogs. It should have soft soil and be in a shady position and stay somewhat moist in summer. You should be able to train your dogs to constrain their digging to that area. People think dogs like grass, but many of them prefer sand. Avoid rounded pebbles for mulch. Many dogs will swallow them. My eight dogs do not bother the cactus garden much (large cacti). Agaves also survive without protection. Protect young plants or you will never see them grow up.

I, personally, would avoid anything that contains more than 2% salt.

Labrador not eating is an abnormal situation. Labrador too fat is all to common. How old is he or she? How long will he be staying there? How lean or fat was he when you left? Is he showing any signs of distress or ill health. If if it's a stay of a few weeks and he's otherwise well, I wouldn't worry; if he's got a bit of fat on him, a period of not eating may do some good. He'll eventually eat whatever. I agree with others about canned food vs dry food vs wholistic diet.

I was told that working them out in dry sand can also help. Not that there's dry anything around here these days.

It depends on the dog (eg, possible allergies or digestive problems), the dry food used, and the mix of fresh and dry food . . . among other things. For my money, chicken carcasses or meaty frames are preferred because they give a better balance of calcium to potassium (ie bone to meat). . . and it's nice that they're dirt cheap. If they're too big for your dog, get a good meat cleaver and whack them to bits. I use a supplement that's high in zinc and other trace nutrients . . . feeding beef won't up the selinium which is commonly deficient in diets, so might as well up the whole lot together. On the other hand, the greyhound racers down the street feed just beef muscle meat and their dogs aren't short on bone and seem to be tough as nails.

carrots are another good fill. My dogs love them raw . . . hence I don't bother with pumpkin. But the basic way to get a dog to loose weight is to use a balanced diet, and keep reducing portions until the dog starts dropping weight. Good luck on the epilepsy thing. Hope it turns out to be a passing worry.

Like others, fish are good, but I'd be concerned about the salt if you feed enough of them. Also about the price. Strong smelling, oily little bait fish -- eg mullies -- are even better. You can get them frozen for a relatively cheap price.

There's no such thing as "The Barf Diet" . . . it's about like saying "The Chinese Meal". BARF is a style of feeding carnivorous animals, not A diet. Try google'ing the word (add 'dog' to your search terms to avoid getting a lot of vomit references). You'll find lots of suggestions. I feed BARF style . . . the local butcher (or Leonards) is a good place to start, and the markets for fruit and veg. The stores that other people have listed will stock some of the secondary things you may choose to add. But unless you want to pay as much for your dogfood as you would for barramundi steak, I'd suggest using chicken frames as a main staple and building from there.

In my experience MOST dogfoods, including the less permium brands, will give refunds for many reasons. It's much cheaper for them to pay off a customer than to get bad publicity.

A tubal ligation is not a spay. It's simply a thread tied around each of the phallopean (sp?) tubes, which stops eggs getting to the uterus. It does not affect hormone balance. That's actually the downside. It does not eliminate the chance of pyometra and it does not stop the bitch coming into season. My repro vet won't do a spay/Ceasar, but has no problem with a TL/Ceasar.

My father was a medical doctor and liked dogs to have sex. He wasn't bothered by girls coming on heat, boys fighting, and all that stuff. He insisted on tubal ligations. I would have one done if I had a girl who needed a Ceasar and was tp be retired from breeding. It's a two minute job once they're open for a Ceasar. I agree with others, though, it's probably swelling you're looking at. I remember a certain dog who got the nickname of "tennis" after being doctored. That for 'serve me up another pair of balls'. He had massive swelling and really looked like he hadn't been done.

Altough I agree with all the advice you're getting, don't panic. As I understand it the chances are still better than 50:50 that your pup will be fine. Many Labbies with 2's in the elbow never limp; and I know of a couple prominent Lab studs who have a 2 on one elbow and who have thrown a lot of sound pups. A 7:0 hip score may indicate injury and tell you nothing about genetics. (I can't locate the article, but I remember seeing an article that showed the probability of HD/OCD in a lab pup based on the status of the sire and dam. If I remember, clear sire and dam had 10% chance of having affected pups. This rose to 15% if one parent was affected and to around 25% if both parents were affected . . . has anyone else out there read the paper . . . I'm sure it's on the www somewhere.) It's unfortunate, but chocos are in such demands that marginal breeders may cut corners to get choco pups.

Thanks for varied advice and opinions. The bill at Murdoch came to over two grand. Still waiting biopsy results. I live next door to a dog shelter and had a yarn with the woman who runs the shelter. She suggested a vet for a second opinion. The second vet apparently didn't bat an eye . . . just said dermodex mites and prescribed ivermectin (sp?), plus some ointment (which appears to be marketed as a treatment for chafed cow udders). The consensus is that the dog will have to be on meds for life, and that the cure may be slow, but the condition can be kept in check so the dog gets its hair back and can go on to a relatively itch and pain free life.