spottychick

Hi Winterpaws. I havent really switched to tinned food as a preferred option or anything I just try to feed my dogs what is good for them and what is within my budget and circumstances at any given time - usually thats raw etc but now and then I will add some good quality commercial. I know that raw and VAN are best for them but I can't always feed them the most ideal diet. For all sorts of reasons occassionally I include something pre-made - specifically Eagle Pack dry and NG tinned chicken - in their diet. I don't have a hard and fast rule about it - I just know what's "optimal" for their health and try to get as close to that as I can. I always have NG canned chicken and rice on stand-by for emergencies - eg run out of raw food ingredients, can't get to the city for supplies, dog is unwell so needs something easily digestible, or I just feel lazy and reckon one night of "junk food" wont kill em LOL etc. BUT because of his health issues it's impossible to feed my new guy Tango the way I would normally feed my dogs. I can't give him much meat and certainly not beef or lamb and he can't have nice big fat RMBs (poor love). I also cant feed him VAN as it has yeast in it, amongst other things that are high in purines. So here I am trying to improve his health and put weight on him as he is skinny as a rake and under-nourished. THis is not easy with a stone-forming dally as all the best foods are verboten!!! The vet recommended a little bit of tinned chicken dog food (without offal) so I'm trying to do the right thing for his health by following the vets recommendations while we monitor his progress. He is also getting dairy proteins and a tiny bit of steamed chicken to build up his ability to digest protein other than egg. I did give him some raw chicken but it was a bit too much for him to cope with at this stage. PLUS I figure the poor little bloke deserves some different taste sensations given he has been eating nothing but rice/carrot/egg for 5 years. Pepper continues to get raw meat/fish, VAN and bones tho and they both get MASSES of raw and cooked veggies and fruit (altho Tango is also restricted a bit in the veggie dept!!!).

:thumbsup: :D

I couldn't get that video to work (often the way with news sites) but I did find it on Youtube - no problems watching it there. If anyone else is having the same problems this is the Youtube link Dog rescued from ice floe Wonderful stuff!

Good grief I hope they find these people. They are not safe to be let out in public. They should have a "dangerous people" notice stuck on them. I fear for the poor dogs they own.

Well done Jan Jaochim and the crew! What a great little story If they can't find the owner I bet one of the crew keeps him LOL

Just thought I should add that I did indeed get a friendly email on Monday from Nature's Gift distribution staff and they confirmed their chicken varieties have no liver or kidney etc in them. Nice of them to respond so fast

Huh??? Why did he have so many dogs? This is a shocking story! Those poor terrified animals.... Both of these blokes should be locked up.

Well! Looks like Vet shed is the go Thanks drumbeat and gayle luvsdogs - Yes, I agree. I discovered by accident that you can actually fit the Easy Walk harness so that the clip is at the back (not that I'd want to) - just because I put it on the wrong way round LOL I suspect that happened because the current one is too big for my boy

I've been feeding my dogs raw food since around 2000 when I did a little research into canine nutrition. At the time I was told by a vet that my 8 year old dally, who was limping in three legs and could barely reach down to her food bowl, was just "old" and would die soon so just make her "comfortable" for her final days. I ignored the vet and instead ended up changing both dogs to raw food and some supplements. Within 3 months the "old" dally was leaping over park benches and healthier than ever. She lived to the age of 19. Raw food's not a "new invention" LOL it's been around since Adam was a boy! But it's become more popular recently in today's society. I have also switched them to commercial food at times - for a variety of reasons. But I would never feed any dog cheap commercial junk. They get EP or something similar. They've never had a problem with the switch but they would always get RMBs with it anyway. If a dog is used to eating proper food (eg a raw food diet) then of course if you switch them to barely sufficient cheap commercial rubbish their systems will react adversely to it.

Nice site jazzy - and very cute harnesses. But I really like the martingale effect at the front of the Easy Walker which it sounds like the Jellybean ones have at the back instead. Very cute tho.

I must admit I have a fat dally atm. But nowhere near this fat. And she's on a diet. I just lost track of her a bit when I was trying to keep some weight on my cancer dog - she sort of got the same kind of food and because he was so sick we didn't exercise enough.... and before I knew it - people were calling her a "coffee table"!! But I promise I never gave her potato chips....

Thanks Gayle - I'll check those places out!! SnT - Great idea but I wish I had a reliable vet to call my own. Sadly my experience with them here in Tas has been fairly awful so I'm still searching for a decent one. In any case, I live a long way from any vet so it's quicker and easier for me to order stuff online. - BTW I like your siggie line LOL

Thanks mooper! I thought it might be with some of the thickening in his skin I can see. But he looks healthy now!

Not sure jaxx. Couldn't see a photo for a good comparison. I sure hope there's only one - Barney is pretty famous if you do a search on "fat dally" or "obese dally" etc. Oh and thanks for "spotting" me I've been doing a few invisiposts today LMAO

Its not photoshopped. The owner was charged with animal cruelty. I saw the article posted in the news section awhile ago erm LOL yes, i linked to that article in my post above but no-one seems to have noticed LOL. I'm feeling invisible

Roflmao I KNOW what you mean. There are dozens of blokes like that around here. Why doesn't it work the other way with women and female dogs???? Are they that insecure about their own "blokehood"???

He sure looks happy Can anyone give me a brief history??? WOuld love to know his story - I'm just a happy-ending story junkie

LOL Thanks Gayle! Nice to get a response but I did look on google etc so I have a few places where I know they are sold. I was just hoping someone could recommend somewhere in particular, from personal experience, as I'm wary of dealing with online shops. I've had some bad experiences in the past so I find it hard to move out of the comfort zone of online retailers I already know are reliable Cheers for that tho

Come on! Surely someone knows where to get em

If that's the dog I think it is I read a few articles about that. The owner was charged but it seems he genuinely didn't know what he was doing (he might have had a mental illness) and clearly loved the dog. The dog is called Barney and has been put on a diet and is being looked after and is much less fat now. LOL Ah here it is Barney's story

You buy it online! :p Someone will know where - I've forgotten the best place to buy it You can also visit their website - www.artemispetfood.com.au

Eagle pack is a good commercial product - I dont know if it's wheat free or if they have wheat-free varieties. I'm pretty sure Artemis do tho and they are a good product also

I bought an ezy walk harness from a DOler recently and it's proven to be worth it's weight in gold not just for my dog but for several others in the neighbourhood who have tried it out. I should be hitting the manufacturers for a commission coz a few locals are now wanting to buy one. The problem is it's too big for my fella so I've given it to a neighbours dog who needs walking (Buddy for those who followed that thread). My guy has so little muscle, especially in the chest area, that it just bunches up at the front and has only minimal effect (tho it certainly helps with training him to walk well on the lead regardless!!). Anyway - I want to but a smaller one for him and recommend to other people where to get one and just wondered if anyone has recommendations for somewhere reliable to buy it online at a good price. My fave online shop doesnt sell it Cheers

Two weeks later and I'm happy to report I've learnt to say the right words LOL but more importantly, I was stunned at the progress Tango made. Remember this is a slightly lunatic dog who was diagnosed with OCD, half-starved and almost skeletal, never walked or trained before I got him a month ago - and with a phenomonal food drive. He is now waiting in a sit position WITHOUT a lead attached (after I've un-clipped it) for me to say OKAY before he goes for his food. He looks either at me or just slightly away from me waiting for the OKAY to go, he tries really hard not to look at the food (is this good?). He is also following the word "OKAY" in other training exercises. Thanks so much for this - I really feel this training is giving him a great deal of confidence and calming him down.

Just a warning on ACV in ears - I see people recommending it all the time so clearly this isn't common but if it happened to my guy it's possible it could happen to others. I tried diluted ACV on one of my dogs once and it sent him into a screaming (literally screaming) frenzy of rubbing his ears on the ground and rolling around in pain and running away from me etc. I felt absolutely terrible that I'd done this to him. His ears went extremely red and he was clearly in a great deal of pain and distress from the ACV so I never used it again for any of my dogs. It took a few hours for the redness to subside and for him to calm down. Poor little guy was exhausted - yet still trusted me to shove stuff in his ear after that horrific experience. Amazing! I was able to help him a little by using some colloidal silver on his ear flap to try and calm the reaction to the ACV there, but inside his ear was beyond my immediate help. He got a similar (tho not quite as intense) reaction to the ear drops from VAN. It's possible there was some sort of allergic reaction to the ACV that caused this - he had a rough start in life which resulted in him being highly allergic to things - but just in case, I think if you try this maybe just first try a tiny bit on the ear flap or somewhere safer than the ear canal, to make sure there's no reaction.