spottychick

My god - I cant give you any advice on this - other than that I'd find an emergency vet and take her to see them ASAP.

Sort of on-topic but really just one of my usual silly anecdotes that I imagine is funny or interesting or sommat LOL I once moved into a rented house in perth with my dalmatian girl Lotta. Dallies rarely get flea infestations in my experience, something to do with their thin short coats I guess. Or maybe I'm just a brilliant dog manager ANYway. The first night I was there I ran a lovely hot bath with tons of that green Radox in it. I was soaking happily away when I realised Lotta was whining and running around the house a lot which wasn't like her. I called her into the bathroom and as I was patting her I saw HUNDREDS of fleas all over her. She was wriggling and scratching like mad. SO I leapt out of the bath and put Lotta in it instead. Fortunately she LOVED baths and this one had Radox in it and had cooled to nicely warm. She just slowly sank down further into the water moaning with relief and refused to get out so I left her there for a while. Then I ran naked into the hall and got my face down level with the carpet - as I suspected it was CRAWLING with fleas. I have never seen anything like it before or since. The whole house was the same. She and I left and stayed at someone elses house that night and then I bought MANY flea bombs and nuked the house to death. AND sprayed the garden with something nasty. Vaccumed after a couple of days. Then did it all over again. We moved back in a week later. Hideous!!! So now I always check houses before I move in.

Hi PF. Absolutely no offence meant to Poodles, Maltese or Maltese/poodle crosses in general. Just making funnies at the way KL expressed it LMAO I love poodles and I'm quite fond of Maltesers and I'm sure they could make lovely dogs when crossed.

Oh goodness, that made me laugh out loud spottychick!!! My water almost spouted out my nose We'll have to publish that one... a moodle is a white fluffy turd... or WFT to those in the know LMAO @ WFT

Ah okay - so Moodles are little turds! Gotcha! Looks like someone just let a whole bunch of dogs randomly bonk each other and ended up with a range of mutts. I wouldn't trust that any of the "pure" breeds are what they claim them to be anyway. What a shocker

What kind of idiotic response is that - all big dogs should be muzzled!!! Actually this dog was not a "big" dog if it was a kelpie cross anyway. And all size dogs can injure you if they try. What a silly thing to say. Still - I guess he was upset. I feel very sorry for the dogs owner. Sounds like she did most of the right things and she has lost her dog as a result of all this. I wonder if the kid was on one of those motorised scooter things? THey are incredibly noisy and most dogs find them threatening. I would keep my dogs well out of the way of them. For their safety as much as anything. And kids should be taught not to ride them right at dogs.

Also, don't forget fleas thrive in your garden too. Mow any lawns and clean up any rubble, piles of leaves etc in the garden. Composting the soil, even a little bit, will help because that encourages beneficial nematodes that kill fleas. You can get chemicals to treat the lawn but personally I wouldn't recommend using chemicals on the garden.

Idiotic. Well that's one place I can cross of my "where shall I move to next" list. It's so nice of their council to help narrow my options for me! I can see neighbourhood disputers loving this little bit of legislation. What a great way to strike at your neighbour - who's to say the dog didn't run at the fence barking????

Its used in Tas to kill foxes BUT also to kill wildlife who eat young trees planted by Forestry. They scatter it all around their new plantations. This is why there is such a groundswell in Tassie desperately trying to get it stopped. There are signs up telling us it's there but that's no help when it can be transported by animals, in various ways, into the towns nearby. It IS still targetted at native wildlife and kills thousands of them. I also have to wonder if there's a link to the Devil's tumors.......

Sadly, that's not the case. In fact, these animals ARE targetted by the poison and I've seen the horrific results far too often. In the same year, the Tasmanian Government also released statistics stating that 97,000 wallabies and brushtail possums had been poisoned by 1080, primarily through baiting programs aimed at targeting browsing and grazing native animals as part of forestry management. From The Veterinarian

Yes it is extremely cruel I see absolutely no reason for it's continued use anywhere!!!

What happened at the first vet??

Oh I am so sorry to hear that GR. I've been really careful with my guys around the issue of 1080 as we live in forestry territory here in Tas. I would be devastated if they ate any.

Oh dear. I sure hope it's not 1080, that stuff is nasty and fatal. Apparently dogs can be saved from it but it really depends how much and how they consumed it, how fast they get treatment and what damage it does while racing to the vet. It's fairly fast acting. Also even if saved, some dogs develop complications later from damage done prior to treatment. But from what I've heard around my area, if the dog is treated quickly and they didn't consume a lot, they do have a good (not brilliant but good) success rate. Here's some info The Vet I am keeping my fingers, toes etc crossed that it's not 1080. I thought this only happened in Tassie these days. It makes me so angry that its still used.

LMAO Lorraine - that's what worries me about Tango. That's what he did weeks ago when I accidentally dropped his lead. I was lucky to catch him. But a lot has changed in a few weeks.....

LOL Yes, small children always have something yummy smeared all over their hands and faces

My new medium sized Easy Walk harness arrived today (it's still a bit too big for Tango LOL He really is a skinny fella) along with a jazzy new 8 m lunge lead (with extra hand grips!). Tango has been quite stressful to walk lately, without the harness, and also has always tended to cry and leap about a lot because my other dog is off lead and he wants to join her (not that she goes very far - but she clearly has more freedom and he's not stupid). So we put on the new harness and wandered off to the local park. As soon as we got there I put him on the lunge lead - a big test to see what he'd do. He was fantastic!!! He ran ahead and then ran back to me and ran off again. But kept coming back to see what I was doing. When the lead was loose but he was still a long way from me I'd change direction (without pulling the lead) and he'd FOLLOW!!! He had a wonderful time and mostly just trotted a few metres ahead with Pepper, stopped to sniff at whatever she was sniffing at and so on. Pepper also seemed thrilled to have him running with her. The best thing for me was that he did not try to bolt or run at a great speed away from us, he seemed to want to be nearby. At times I was just jogging along with them and able to keep the lead loose the whole way. The only issue was that a couple of times I accidentally stepped on the lead and this resulted in him being jerked sideways! Once it actually caused him to be jerked right off his feet Poor little dude! He's not very heavy so it's easy to pull him off his feet. I will try not to be so damn clumsy next time. We stopped for a coffee at someones house and he had the full 8 metres of lead to play with but just sat nearby. I left the lunge lead on for the walk home and he simply trotted along the footpath with Pepper about a metre or two ahead of me, occassionally going a little further away, but not far. He passed people's gates and glanced in but didn't attempt to enter anyone's yards. When we got to the people across the road's house, where his friend the greyhound lives, he stopped at their gate and waited to be let in to play. But when I caught up and headed across the road towards our house he followed and then raced ahead to our gate. I couldn't be happier - these are all very good signs that he is NOT going to run away if he gets off lead (tho not conclusive by any means LOL) and I didn't get my arm pulled off etc. And Tango clearly had the BEST time too

I use their name to get their attention. So I might use it more than once in training but not too much or it's over-saturation. With Pepper I hardly ever need to use her name because she's like the world's best behaved dog and if I tell Tango to sit, wait or whatever, she will too. I do use it "conversationally" with her tho while we're walking along with her off-lead - eg "hey pep, this way!" or "Pep! Come here/slow down mate" etc. Even if she finds something unbelievably disgustingly yummy to eat I just call "Pep leave it!" and she will.

Just want to point out that this wasn't me!!! Anyway, I usually call mine "Pep" unless she's in trouble -then she gets the full syllabic PEPPER!!!!

If I am at an offlead park, I would not want strange dogs approaching mine without the owner asking my permission first. Just because I'm there letting my dog have offlead exercise isn't an open invitation for every dog to come and 'say hello' and invade our space. I think it was an error on your part to assume that the dog and owner wanted to be disturbed. The kicking might have been extreme, but perhaps the owner thought it was his only option to protect his dog in the heat of the moment - I might have even done the same thing. I wouldn't want someone to kick Sasha, however, it would be a learning experience to me to either have better control over her - or don't take her to an offlead park to upset the other users. But, that's just my opinion. ETA - SNAP poodlefan While I agree with poodlefan and KL, I also think screaming and carrying on and then kicking in that situation, as the other person did, is a HUGE mistake. It tends to up the aggression in the dogs and both dogs learn that other dogs are "scarey" and you have to get aggressive. Both owners calmly grabbing their dogs and using voice control to calm them down would have been a far more positive and constructive response. On the other hand, if the aggression was too dangerous and out of control I have no problem with kicking if nothing else works. I had to deal with 2 ferocious kelpies who were staying up the road with an idiot owner who thought it was funny for them to attack other dogs. It caused me to start carrying a large stick for the first time in my life - and I was prepared to use it. My only fear was that the kelpies would respond by attacking ME but I couldn't think what else to do - especially as their owner was trying to encourage them to jump MY fence and go for my dogs. Thank god he moved away just as I was about to call the council!!!

What is it with rural people?? I have the same problem here in Tas in my little country town. Dogs are either chained up on tiny bits of chain/rope and never taken for walks or they're allowed to roam free in yards with no fences and do whatever the hell they like. Taking the dogs for a walk round town is like walking through a mine field. I know some of my neighbours never walk their dogs in town and I also tend to drive the dogs to the river a lot of the time. But even then you have to keep a sharp eye out for the other idiots who arrive with a truck load of aggro dogs and let them jump of the back with cries of "don't worry! Just let them sort it out" as their dogs race towards mine. Fortunately I'm quick enough to get mine in my car before they reach us. And then the other person looks at me like I'm the idiot!!! I believe they think my dogs are being treated too softly and are therefore "whimps" - which is true of Pepper but wasn't true of my other two when they were around. I just don't want a dog fight!!!

THanks poochmad - It's something I'm still struggling to come to terms with. Sorry about your puppy bluefairy. Cancer's a terrible thing isnt it! Poor little thing In my dogs case tho, part of the problem with the vets is that they didn't do any testing (until I got to the 4th vet who did a barrage of blood and tissue tests). I had to find out for myself what they should have done. All they did was x-rays and in the case of the first vet I saw she only did that because I insisted. SHe told me it was "just arthritis - what do you expect in an old dog" but when I said "So are you sure it's not cancer causing this?" she sort of smirked and said well you cant be SURE of that. I had to ask her how we could be sure and she said "You'd need to take x-rays" in this "who would bother" tone of voice. I told her to take some x-rays. She took 2, in the wrong area as it turned out and charged me $400. Apart from the x-ray bit she initially spent all of about 5 minutes looking at my dog. And when I went back to pick him up she was more concerned with telling me off for parking in the wrong spot than she was with talking to me about my dog. She sat behind the counter and said "There's no cancer, it just shows arthritis. Here's some NSAIDS and you should buy some joint powder" but wouldn't show me the x-rays and had no other suggestions about what to do if he didn't stop limping. It took her 2 months to release the x-rays to another vet (after I paid another $30!!!) by which time they were useless. THe other vet said the x-rays didn't even show any arthritis, just a healthy wrist bone. Anyway - like I said. I'm still recovering from all this.

I cant tell much from that article - and my pc connection is too slow to wait for the video to download - but things are not always as simple as you think Esky. For example, I spent over a thousand dollars (all of my emergency money) on vets when my dog developed a limp. I consulted THREE different vets all of whom got the diagnosis wrong after charging me $100s of dollars a visit for x-rays etc. So by the time he started to really detiorate I had NO MONEY left to spend on vets. I desperately rang several vets all of whom basically told me to get back in touch when I had the money because they don't accept any sort of payment after the event. They only take money up front. WHich I did not have. The one vet who did accept payments I had already seen and they diagnosed bone cancer (which later turned out to be completely wrong) and merely sent me home with some painkillers and Vitamins. And I was still paying them off for the last consult making it even more difficult to raise the money to see any other vet (I needed to get a second opinion and find someone who knew how to treat cancer). I eventually scraped together another chunk of money to see a new vet for yet another attempt to diagnose him and have an operation done (if needed). As it turned out he did need an operation (for an aggresssively spreading tumor in his muscles) but half way through the operation they realised it was all TOO LATE and he was PTS. Is all that my fault??? I tried everything I could. Over a 2 - 3 month period I spent nearly $3,000 on vets, treatments and drugs and drove all round Tassie to see vets in an effort to save him - and I would have been happy to spend whatever it took but no vet would treat him until I had the money first. I wouldn't do what that guy did but i certainly sympathise with the idea that you have a dog you love dearly in need of help and you can't afford to pay the vets up front. And I'm sorry, but I don't have a great regard for vets after this experience - barring the one vet practice who eventually AT LEAST got the diagnosis right and treated my beautiful boy (and me) with a bit of respect and compassion.

I saw some nice padded ones if that's the kind of thing you mean. Not cloth exactly but very soft on the inside. Can't remember where tho :D They were by someone like Lupine or Black Dog I think). I was actually vaguely interested in them myself. A bit like those Sighthound collars from Blackdog. If you're interested I could try and find the link again.

Does she have a car window open near her?? She might have breathed a floating grass seed in or something. But like someone said - it could be a number of things.