nikkiandkuma

Advocate is registered for the treatment of both demodectic and sarcoptic mange. Revolution however is only registered for the treatment of sarcoptic mange. Oh ok, I use Advocate on my pets and it only lists sarcoptic mange on the packaging but hey, I have been wrong before and surely will be again Thanks for the info. When our girl had demodectic mange there was no such thing as advocate and she was treated with Ivermectin orally for a LONG time, poor girl never did get better :D She was so sweet but went quite insane with the pain and itch and who knows what the Ivermectin did to her but she went MAD.

I discovered this social group too late. I would have loved to have brought my puppy along. I see you are in Penrith, I work in Emu Plains and live in Springwood. Are there many other locals who might like to organise a get together locally? My puppy needs socialising with well mannered adult dogs.

Oh 3 weeks, you lucky thing, Molly is going to love it... I too am one of the lucky ones having 3 weeks off. 2 weeks I will be spending with Ty our 14 eek old bullmastiff puppy and one week I am flying up to Darwin to see my parents, DH is staying home with our pets and will get some quality time with Ty. So far Ty is a real Mummys boy because I am with him all the time. I work fulltime but am lucky enough that I can take Ty to work with me. I think DH needs that week to let Ty fall in love with him too. ;)

Judging by the use of the icon in Akitaowners post, I think you can rest assured she was being sarcastic because your little guy looks so spoiled in that picture.

Unfortunately not. We had Ty flown to Sydney from his breeder in Melbourne, so that is definitely not an option, the only breeder she can refer me to is 4 hours drive away, so not ideal thats for sure. I found some very helpful websites which demonstrate different taping techniques that I think I can follow. They just don't give good info about how long they need taping etc. I wonder if I should post my question on the general dog part of the forum because other bullmastiff owners who have adults may not visit this area?? I think I will try that.

Advocate doesn't treat demodectic mange but only treats sarcoptic mange. So I think you have chosen the correct option. I would look at adding some supplements to boost the dogs own natural immunity aswell. I hope it clears up quickly. Sorry I should read the entire post before replying, I see you are supplementing her.

Yes, we woke up a few days ago to say "oh. my God what happened to tys ears??" They were suddenly standing up but because of the size and weight of them they were flopped forward, almost covering his eyes. He look sterrible dorky. I asked the breeder what to do and she tols me they need to be taped down. Anyone done this before? and did it work. If his ears get much bigger he won't be able to see where he is going? ;) EDITED to say that Ty is 14 weeks old.

Don't eat the food, eat something of your own first, or run your finger through Chelsea's food while having her sit there and watch you :D We put a smaller bowl inside our puppies bowl and put broken up cookies in it, then holding it above her ehight we eat the cookies from the bowl in front of him. He thinks we are eating his dog food. he doesn't like it but is starting to accept it less noisily.

I haven't read the whole thread yet, so you may have had an adequate reply already, or made a decision but I have to add my two cents worth. Our last dog was a staffy, we too were torn between socialising or waiting for full vaccinations first. We chose to wait and regretted that decision for as long as she lived (the next 8 years). We lost her in May and just recently got a new puppy, this time our puppy is getting socialised regardless. He has done puppy preschool already (call your vet to find out about these classes) these are a good option because the other pups are in the same boat and it is in a controlled and cleaned enviroment. I think with an Amstaff, socialisation is key and I would let nothing stop me from socialising with other vaccinated well socialised adult dogs that you know. Do not allow your pup to be around poorly socialised dogs who may snap at him or her (these are the makings of fear aggression) and allow him to socialise with as many PHD socialised dogs as you can find. Our staffy was very dog aggressive and severly limited the places we could take her, she could NEVER be around other dogs and when she was 2 she attacked our other dog who she had always loved and took her eye out. Be sure to get your pup desexed as early as the vet will allow. The other thing is that most people would not walk there dog who is dying of parvo, so walking is generally fine. In certain breeds (and amstaff is one) socialisation is worth the risk of contracting illness. Our new pup is a bullmastiff and has been very very well socialised so far (he is 14 weeks old). I would never ever make the mistake of missing that socialisation window again. Enjoy your new puppy.

My story about demodectic mange and ivermectin is a bit of a horror story and definitely not the norm but I thought I should add it to the list of otherwise positive stories. We had a lovely young dobe puppy who developed a few spots of demodex on her face. Initially the vet recommended only washing her with pyohex as she was quite young and he felt she would grow out of the mange as she got older and her immune system picked up. After 2 weeks of this we took her back to the vet looking much worse. This is when he decided we should start treating orally with ivermectin. I can't remember the dosage as it was years ago. She got worse and worse, to the point where she had little hair left on her cody and secondary infections all over, she was sore to touch and went quite insane. By the time she was 8 months old the only humane thing we could do was to have her PTS as she was in unbearable pain. I have never heard of any similar story and neither had my vet, so I really think she had some auto immune issues. I hope your new rescue does well, whatever you choose to do.

Oh, she is only vomiting once in a while. She does have normal bowel motions and normally keeps her food down just fine but she goes through flare ups??? and seems to spend a few days being sick and then is fine for say a week and then flares up. She is with me all day at work and sleeps with me and DH at night, I am sure she isn't getting into anything yucky. Nope chicken is definitely not the problem and the pal wet food is fine with her. My boss is right now hunting around to find me Eagle pack which I think I will try out. Also, she hasn't been sick since Saturday when I first posted and seems fine right now.

Thankyou for that bit of info, I would like to avoid buying anything from PP and now also PFD, why won't these pet food companies think about their marketing strategy, I would like to try Kuma on the food but would not spend money in a PP store.

Bloss, Thankyou for your very detailed response, I started to write a response to you before but my power went out and it doesn't seem to have updated, so: I have started over the last few days feeding raw chicken mince in the morning and pal (cringe, please don't hit me) wet food at night. SHe has not vomited since I started this on Sunday, but sometimes she goes a good stretch without being sick. She has had a full blood panel done, just less than a fortnight ago, I took her to the vet because she seems to yoyo in weight a lot. It was the vet who suggested that Kuma has a sensitive tummy and told me to try a diet low in fillers esp. corn. So the hunt is on for just such a food. She is full of energy and doesn't not seem unwell, she has never been a picky eater (as maltese can often be) and will eat anything I put out for her, the problem is keeping it there. Nikki

Do you only feed Kuma once a day? Small dogs often do better on several small meals. A lot of people feed twice a day. Kuma may digest her food better in small batches. Did you change to RC dry food because of her vomiting? What were you feeding before? Food usually is in the stomach for 4 - 8 hours and continues through and out the rear end in 24 - 48 hours, so obviously there is something going on if there was undigested food after 15 hours. Has your vet run blood tests for liver or kidney disease? Sometimes the first indication of a problem is vomiting. BlackLab's suggestion of raw chicken mince is good, with the bone in it Kuma will get calcium and phosphorus. Of course it will only help if it's not chicken that she is sensitive to, or if she can tolerate the fat. As chicken is in most dog foods it's now become a common allergen. If you think it is food allergy and want to do an elimination diet what you need to do is feed something that she has never had before. Most people use one novel protein and one novel carb source, say something like rabbit and sweet potato, nothing else. Don't worry about balancing the diet for several weeks, dog's can exist just fine up to 8 weeks without a balanced diet, they have a lot of reserves to fall back on. These sensitive dogs are quite a challenge. It took me a while to get Bob's very sensitive tummy under control. Evo is available at Pets Paradise and Pet Food Direct. Another thought if you don't want to do a home prepared elimination diet on her, there are prescription diets from your vet that are as close to an elimination diet you will get in a bag, they still have quite a few ingredients but are designed to be used for sensitive dogs, and don't have nearly as many ingredients as the regular diets, to confuse the issue when you are trying to figure out what is causing the problem. I switched her to RC because she was on Supercoat before and was having trouble keeping weight on, so I thought I would give it a try. She has always had vomiting issues but not constantly, she tends to go through stages. She has been vet checked and had a full blood panel done, the only thing they said was she needs a dental, she has some tartar which needs removing. She is no better or worse (vomiting) on RC than what she was on Supercoat. This week I started feeding her raw chicked mince for breakfast and Pal tinned (I know, it is y\terrible but doesn't make her sick, it wil only be short term).

Kuma gets fed at night and can vomit at any time really. When I changed her to RC her vomiting stopped for about a month only to start up recently. But the thing that strikes me as strange is that she was fed last night at around 7pm and vomited her prtly digested (mostly undigested) last nights dinner at 10am this morning. Why would it be sitting in her stomach like that? I have heard good things about EVO, do you happen to know who stocks it? I currently shop at petbarn for dog food and I am sure I haven't seen it there.

I am in Western Sydney, my nearest large shopping area is Penrith. I have been recommended California natural, nutro, chicken soup for the dog lovers soul (which gets superb reviews in the US), eagle pack among others which don't come to mind. My vet suggests that Corn can be a high allergy food and best avoided, everything I have looked at contains corn!!

I have a 7 year old Maltese, who is the sweetest little girl ever. Over the past few years she has developed the odd digestive upset, vomiting occassionaly (like this morning on my work carpet). She has been to the vet and everything gets the all clear. The vet has suggested she may have a food allergy and that I should try to feed her premium food with little fillers. She is currently on Royal Cannin but is still vomiting. I have visited US forums and gotten heaps of reccomendations but have been unable to find these US brands in Oz. Kuma has no weight issues, so does not need a lite diet, if anything she is prone to losing weight quickly with exercise. Any suggestions on food brands and where they are available would be terrific. Thanks