spottychick

LOL My girl's the same If I give her a whole egg. She carries it around for ages. Places it carefully on the ground, rolls it around and chases it and only when it breaks does she realise it's food. At times I've had to take it off her and break it myself hahahaha

I always try to cook the white of the egg due to being told that raw eggs can prevent the absorption of Vitamin B. Apparently raw egg whites contain an anti-nutrient called avidin that binds to the B vitamin 'biotin' and prevents the body absobing it. Biotin is important for fatty acid absorption and maintenance of blood sugar, and is especially needed during pregnancy. Egg whites also contain digestive enzyme inhibitors but these are destroyed by cooking. In addition the whites are reported to be acidic when raw (alkaline when cooked - according to literature on gout and urinary stones) and my dog needs to keep his sytem more alkaline for health reasons. (Yolks on the other hand are alkaline when raw and acidic when cooked apparently) For all these reasons I cook the eggs just enough to cook the whites but not the yolks - usually by putting them in boiling water for a short time - with the shells still on. If for some reason you need to increase the acidity in your dogs system then it would obviously be a different story That said - my dogs get a lot of eggs - being dallies (one a confirmed stone-former) so it's part of a specific diet for them. If you only gave your dog a raw egg now and again it probably wouldn't hurt them too much. I just think it's good to be aware of the issues with raw egg white. BTW Egg yolk contains many more beneficial nutrients etc than whites - some people even advocate that the whites are not worth consuming!!! (Not me - I love my scrambled/fried etc eggs - all of them LOL) Oh and they get the shell too - sometimes still around the eggs and some ground up and put in their food.

LOL It's a new one on me but it's very cute. Are you sure she's barking "to herself" or is she trying to get YOU to play with her tho???

Hey sharee I just add in the yoghurt etc with the raw meat. The veggies get mixed in everytime while the other stuff they get regularly mixed in. Except the fish which I would use instead of meat and sometimes I also give them cottage cheese and/or egg separately - depending on what I've got in the fridge . If I run out of meat etc eggs are a good standby! I buy raw meat in bulk, break it up into smaller amounts to freeze and then have some in the fridge to last a few days. A friend of mine - who is much more organised - makes up two weeks worth of meals (minced meat, lamb shank and veggies) in separate individual containers, freezes them then has a routine where she brings one out of the freezer each day and gives her dog the one thats thawed from the day before. LOL I don't think I could be that organised and find it just as easy to make it up each night or maybe two days worth at once and then mix in the veggies etc on the night. The best meat is really what works for your dog. I give mine chicken but that's because they're dalmatians and they shouldn't really eat beef. But for other dogs beef should be fine. As long as it's good quality - human grade if you can afford it. I dry and crush (to powder) the shells of free range eggs and chuck some in their food occassionally - they have been known to steal eggs from under bushes and eat the whole thing with no ill effects tho. As for yoghurt - any decent plain yoghurt. Look for good acidopholous levels as the point of yoghurt is to give them a good source of probiotics.

What a great story!!

She is adorable! Sorry I can't help you with this tho. Talking to the rotty people is a good idea. I hope you find some good info and maybe try a different vet on Monday. Doesn't sound like that one was particularly helpful. That's a steep price to charge just to tell someone you don't know what's wrong!!! Let us know how this all goes. Give Tahli a big smooch from me :D

No problems bertie! I have no idea if the special dog formulations work any better or worse - or what difference there is between them (or why they are so expensive!!) - but since it's cheaper it might be worth trying the human one first anyway And if you don't think it's working you could always use the stuff yourself or for people in your family ;) It worked for my girl that's all I know

Years ago my old girl (11 at the time) started limping and it progressed into three legs plus she couldn't bend down for her bowl of food. The vet (in Canberra) wanted to give her cortesone but basically just said it's hopeless really "She's old and on her last legs so just get ready to say goodbye". I took her home, did some research and switched her to a raw diet with VANs complete mix. At the time there weren't any doggy joint supplements around like Sasha's Blend etc so - again after talking with alternative health types and doing research I walked into a health products shop and bought a big 1 kg tub of Nutralife Glucosamine chondoitrin with MSM - unflavoured - and a big tub of fish oil tablets. Three months later, problem solved. She's jumping over benches in the park and running around like she's 2 years old again! She lived to 18 and a half. It's still around and cheaper by far than the dog ones - in fact I just saw it advertised for $49.50 for 1 k or $79.50 for 2 kgs plus 200 caps of fish oil. Vitamin King If you shop around you'll probably find similar or even better deals

Is she okay???? My old girl did this sort of thing for a while after an operation - she had been over-anaesthetised at the vets who dosed her up while waiting for me to come and pick her up because "she was making too much noise" and about 2 hours after I took her home she went into a coma (non-responsive and her gums were blue). I raced her to an after-hours vet who put her on a drip and kept her with him over night. Anyway, she recovered and just after that she started fitting. She'd be sitting looking at me begging for food with the other dog and she'd suddenly start jerking and fall over!!! The second vet checked her again for me and I remember him suggesting lecithin for her as it boosts brain function and he felt that she might have had some effects on her brain from the anasthetic over-dose. I gave her a liquid form of it (which she seemed to love) for a couple of months and the problem went away. (wether it just healed by itself or the lecithin did it I couldn't say). ANyway - my thoughts go out to you both! ETA typo fix

Hi Sharee!! That's such a cute combination of dogs LOL I think it's great! I cant answer much of your post as I don't know a lot about either breed but I just want to congratulate you on wanting to get all the info you can and do this properly. This forum is a good place to find info - altho not everyone always agrees!!! The only thing I would say to your questions is I think feeding a raw food diet - or at least partially raw - to your puppy (and your adult dog too) is a good idea. I raised a pup on a mix of raw meat, raw meaty bones and Vets All Natural Complete mix and she did brilliantly on it. It does take a bit of effort tho and you need to know a bit about it but there are people on this forum that can help with that too. I also took the puppy to my vet regularly to check on her progress while on that diet - just to be sure. The vet was amazed at how well she did!! I will sometimes mix in good quality prepared food (eg Eagle Pack) and Nature's Gift tinned food but I try to stick to raw and fresh as much as possible including yoghurt, eggs (soft boiled) fish, cottage cheese and pulped green veggies. Good luck!!! And I look forward to pics!!! ETA - Yeah Willow's nice ;)

Hmmm I have to agree with ash&elar. Leaving aside all the arguments in here re law and peoples different ethical standpoints, my personal hope would be that if I happened to lose one of my dogs that someone would take her/him home and contact the local vets/RSPCA/shelters/pounds/councils to let them know they have the dog. Also that they'd take my dog into the vet and have them check for microchip details. But mostly I would hope like hell that they did NOT hand her/him in to the pound and most definitely not to the RSPCA. That's the last place I'd want my precious dogs to end up. Of course if I lost my dogs around here everyone knows who they belong to and the vets in the nearest towns in either direction and two Launceston vets would also be able to immediately identify both of them as mine without even needing a microchip check so that's a reassuring thing.

Thanks ari

Just an update - thought I'd use his old thread instead of starting another one. It's a bit of a long one - LOL WHen are my posts ever short hee hee Tango is now 9 years old!! According to the pittapatta thing I made a while ago anyway - having moved house I can't lay my hand on his file so I can't be sure. Anyway, lets assume he is! Yay and for a treat I took him for a big off-lead walk a couple of days ago. You wouldn't think he was 9 yrs old seeing him running around like a lunatic. We headed up to our closest walking trail which is down the back road from my house. Last time we went there it had been suddenly fenced and gated and a whole mob of scarey looking big cows (and cute calves) were in there (even tho it's actually Gunn's land). But I asked around and found out they are owned by "the footy club" and Gunns allow them to be put in there sometimes to keep the grass down between the trees. ANyway. We went through the gate (shutting it after us of course) and I let them off the lead. Tango raced ahead and was tearing around like crazy - he does these fantastic elegant leaps off hilly bits onto the path in front of me ;) . I was carefully examining the dirt path trying to figure out how fresh the cow tracks were - more out of concern for my dogs than the cows - altho I really wasn't 100% sure if Tango would chase cows or not. He had disappeared into the forest when suddenly up ahead about 4 massive black and white cows came trotting out of the trees and across the path with Tango sort of vaguely in the middle of them. He looked like he belonged there and was thinking "Oh cool! What are we all running for? Can I come too!" and then he sort of stopped and looked confused - like "Wait! What the *#@* are you guys???". He was in no danger, there was a lot of space between all the cows and they were trotting rather than racing in a mad panic. I was unsure what he'd do but he sort of sniffed a weed (self-consciously?) and then headed off in the other direction from the cows. I called him (because I decided the rest of the herd were probably just over the hill and I didn't want to encounter all of them) and turned around with Pepper trotting next to me (hoping he would follow) - and he followed immediately. I got us back through the gate and across the dirt road to the walking track on the other side of the forest, where we had to get through a fence. I lifted the bottom wire and tried to show Tango that he had to squeeze under it. He just looked at me blankly LOL But I was marvelling at how he was still right next to me even tho he was off-lead. I tried gently pushing him from behind but he freaked and backed away. Suddenly Pepper, who had been standing there patiently waiting for him to get out the way - pushed past him, hunched down, zipped under the fence and went into her "play bow" at him on the other side. With no hesitation, Tango immediately followed and they both galloped off down the path (leaving me to struggle my way under the wire while yelling "WAIT FOR ME YOU LOT" futilely after them) Hahahahaha (and yes I DID accidentally manage to kneel in a pile of cow poop!) An hour and a half - and three 'dead animal finds' later - we arrived back at the car with two exhausted, smelly happy dogs (and one exhausted harassed me!). Tango was so tired he slept all night and hardly made a peep until late the next day. He was so quiet I actually got a little concerned but as soon as I got food out he was all perky again. He didn't bark at me or leap about in the air over food tho, like he usually does. He was a lot more casual and laid back - for that day anyway. The boy really is gaining in confidence and fitness and his trust in me just seems to be sky-rocketing - especially after that walk. It was an unfamiliar walking trail and it's the longest walk I've taken him on - off or on-lead. I don't know how to explain it but it was the first time I felt confident enough to keep walking when I couldn't see him and trust that he'd keep up and find us - which he did - every time. A couple of times he tried to drag some of his "find" with him LMAO (Thanks for that lovely smell Tango) in his eagerness to stay near us. That's a significant thing for Mr Greedy!!! To feel that torn between scoffing something and being with us! When we weren't sure where he was Pepper would go seeking him, find him and stand on the path "pointing" in his direction. She is amazing! So we'd keep walking past where he was and he'd find us later (with some judicious whistling from me). It felt like a huge amount of bonding went on between us all during that walk. ANyway. Happy Birthday Tango and congratulations on making it to the grand age of NINE!!!

Hey Ellz Just wanted to say I could see exactly where you were coming from and I don't think you should feel bad about offering to help this dog IF NEEDED!!! Quite the opposite. I could see you weren't suggesting they immediately send the dog to you without doing anything else but rather that if it came to it, and there was no other better solution, that you were offering to help. It seemed to me to have come from a genuine place of concern for the welfare of this poor puppy. I'm not sure why it got turned around like it did - perhaps it's just an internet thing..... ETA - I agree that there could be a lot of reasons why an owner would want this dog back and may not have been responsible for what happened. I hope you're right Joel - it seems odd that any RSPCA would just immediately pts sleep a young dog like this. I sure hope it turns out well for this poor girl.

We didn't see the BC so your best bet would be calling Caroline and asking her. I've found DHT to be very easy to deal with and they keep dogs there as long as it takes to rehome them. Caroline and one of the shelter staff actually drove all the way from Devonport to us (in Launceston) on a Sunday morning to bring us a greyhound boy so from our experience, they've been very accomodating and wonderful to deal with. Yep, I've dealt with them a bit and that's been my experience too. Lovely people. They move dogs from one shelter to another sometimes to help find them homes. And that's what's happened to Penny the dalmatian. They moved her to Hobart on Monday and someone has adopted her (after yard checks etc). So YAY! (I guess.............. I was a little disappointed but really, do I need another one???......) I wish I'd known you might pop in there pokey - I was seriously wanting to check her out but couldn't get up there yet. Darn!

Yes I just had a look at the consumer affairs site and I can't say there's anything conclusive on there. A report of something nasty found several years ago in a ziplock bag of unidentified dog food that someone said was Canidae (but could have been anything) isn't enough to dismiss the other side of the coin where I've heard good things about the brand. The other issue seems to be from 2008 and relates to people who had dogs who loved the Canidae dog food and then Canidae changed the formula which made a lot of owners unhappy. Not enough information really. And they all seemed to be complaining that Canidae ditched the rice component for corn/barley and didn't warn them so the dogs got ill from the change of food. BUt I didnt see any corn in the Canidae ingredients and there are two kinds of rice in there now so has it changed again?? Not to mention the grain free varieties don't have corn, barley OR rice in them.... Like I said. All a bit too vague and confusing to base any judgement on. But it's always awful to read bad reviews of something you're considering giving to your little precious pup.

What happened to the scum who did this to her. There's just no excuse for this. None at all.

Awww dagnabbit! THey've moved her down to Hobart - which is even further away from my town.

Yes sorry, I should say they're sending out free samples of only two varieties - All Life Stages and the Grain Free Salmon hmmm I didn't look at the Platinum. It has a low protein level (a plus) but includes fish meal - which I try to avoid with tango. Wonder what kind of fish.

Yes she is. I've spoken with them about her and she sounds as lovely as she looks.

Aha! I finally got the search function to work! Just saw the australian site for this (in the DOL banner ads LOL) and I seem to recall it has a good reputation. Anyway - they are sending out free samples if anyone wants to try it Just go to the site and click on the big banner on the front page. They have a bit to register there when you give your details but you don't have to. I might do a bit of searching on the net to find out more as I really want to get the best I can for Tango's needs. Their All Life Stages is not too high in protein (for a stone-former), and the ingredients look good. Unfortunately they're not sending out samples of the chicken and rice.

OH GOD! That's just hideous. Oh no.... god.... i think I'm going to hurl. LOL Seriously that story has made me go all squirmy and stuff.

That dogs home of Tas site is DANGEROUS I tells ya! I can see why you fell in love, she is bewdiful! Theres at least three at Devonport I'm in love with - including a dally who just might get picked up in the next week or two - if my two get along with her......

Hi Mel, My dogs eat raw based on the Franken-prey diet. So, I "make up" large quantities of meat/bones/offal into portions to feed 6 dogs once or twice a month. Freeze, defrost & serve. No cooking... Sonia You only feed your dogs once or twice a month? Maybe it means she makes up that much once or twice a month.... I sure hope so!!! I've never heard of the "frankenprey" diet so I just looked it up. SOunds like it's all meat, meat and nothing but the meat. No veggies and fruit or eggs or dairy or anything else. Is that right? My poor dallys would starve to death if they couldn't eat all those other things - especially Tango who isn't allowed to eat a lot of meat due to his stone-forming.

Pepper will sit in front of me with her front legs waving in the air and looking all cute - like a meerkat. If that fails she'll start with the irritating piercing whine LOL Tango, like FHRP's dog has no subtlety - he climbs on my lap, rubs his head into me then starts darting around barking madly, darting at and scaring Pepper and generally making it impossible to ignore him.