westiemum

Try letting her look on whilst you eat from the white plate, a little bit like a dog would, although it won't hurt if you want to pick the food up with your fingers, but have the plate on the floor or close to the floor. Ignore your dog. Just eat the food. ETA: Oh *cough* .... you don't have to eat dog food - it can be human food, but make it something yummy that she will like as well :). ..... And I presume the white plate is just that ... a plate that you eat from, not a dog bowl. Thanks Erny - no not dog bowls - just my white kitchen crockery! :laugh: going to be an interesting few days around here! :)

Just recently my 10 year old girl westie has developed a phobia of any white plates. A couple have clattered to the floor recently making a real racket and now she won't go anywhere near them and actively recoils fom them, even if they have food on them. So I tried an experiment this afternoon - put some food on a white plate and she wouldn't have a bar of it - transferred exactly the same food to a brown bowl and she wolfed it down. Mystery solved. Now to do something about her fear of white crockery. Thoughts?

No! :) not when it prolongs pointless discussions like this with posters who dont get 'subtle' and need professional help not our help!

These are wonderful pics - reminds me of what a wonderful example of the terrier breeds lakelands are - and with such fantastic lakelands why someone would want an oodle is beyond me... Some friends of mine have a beautiful Lakeland as well as a westie... The Lakeland becomes an honorary westie at our clan gatherings - she is a really lovely girl... But sadly the Lakeland has cancer... So I've probably seen her for the last time Definitely a breed id love to have one day. :)

Didn't a Sealyham win Crufts a few years back? Was a spectacular dog from memory. :)

As usual Snook has summed it up beautifully - and it's the same here. I'm under no illusion that the westies are dogs even though as a sign of affection I talk about them as my 'babies' and have funny names for them too ( Sarah was 'stinky butt' last night too! Today she's just the 'grubby girl'!) But I never forget that they are dogs and deserve the respect that comes with that uniqueness. It's precisely because of their 'dogginess' that I love them so much. Not because I think they are substitute humans on four legs.

It's a good bet that Percynality and Dream Structure are the same person. The irrational thoughts and the volatile style are far too similar for it to be anyone else - and a new poster to a forum or thread does not shout in upper case in the first couple of posts, if ever. And yes I feel for her/ his distress. But this again tells us this person really needs professional counseling and support - sadly they just don't get it and do not seem capable of listening to the centuries of wise advice and experience on here - and as thats not going to change anytime soon, we're now not helping by continuing this discussion IMO. So time to stop folks, and to turn our joint attention to the learners amongst us. Or we'll end up with brain injuries hitting our heads against brick walls. OP/ Dream Structure/ Percynality - please go and get professional help. The support you need is not available from a forum like this. I wish you well.

OK people - iMO its time to stop feeding it. I doubt anything anyone says from here on in will make one iota of difference. OP - time to get help before its too late - you need it. ' Nite all.

He sounds like a gem Mita!

Dollar soft toys without any 'bits' on them from the op shop are the favourites around here with my youngest westie - particularly those that modern mothers are unlikely to buy for their 21st century babies :D Andy's recent past favourite is a furry monkey with long gangley limbs - he carried that around for over two years until it finally died! A hand-made humpty dumpty from the op shop is the current fave - he likes toys with gangley bits on them that he can hang onto and sleep with his head on it. Too cute! :) Oh and ETA that my old boy likes ripping up cardboard - so toilet rolls are popular here too! :) All of mine have turned their noses up at most bought toys so i don't bother anymore!

and sometimes vets are totally incompetent and misdiagnose an illness that other vets diagnose immediately, but by then it's too late for the dog ( and owner ) And RL1 you would be horrified to learn how often this happens in human medicine too - I think the audit figure is 18,000 people die unnecessarily in hospitals across Australia each year... so mistakes will be made with animals too - human medicine and veterinary medicine are sciences but they are not exact and involve clinical judgement which can be fallible and differences in training and experience... and that's not a criticism - just a fact of the nature of the practice of veterinary medicine that we all have to deal with. Good vets like good human doctors will get it right most of the time - but not all the time - its the nature of it. My vet was devastated when Mac's right ACL repair failed and moved heaven and earth to right the situation - we worked together and I still would never go anywhere else. The key was the trusting and mature nature of our client/vet relationship. Percyalnity this is the nature of the game. Having animals for owners and for treating them for vets has enormous highs and terrible lows. Rarely do any of us escape that. The most important thing is find a vet you can work with and give them the opportunity to get to know you and your dog. In emergencies use the best available - and thats probably your local 24 hour emergency hospital. I'm really lucky - I go to a practice where I work with a couple of the vets - in Mac's case I joke that she does his front end and he does the back! And this is the key to my westies and my cats health and happiness - a good dose of sheer common sense doesn't go astray either. Sorry for the long post - but i wish you and your new dog a long and happy life together.

This is so true with Smooch, my vet takes him in and I have to stay out other wise the vet can't do a thing with him. If I am not there no problems. Yep same with my Sarah - quite a performance if I'm in sight when they are taking her off for her blood tests - yet the moment I duck into an office and out of sight off she trots off quite happily - the truth is, me staying in her view as she goes off is the problem, not the vet or nurse or their handling of her...

Yep needed the tissues - Edie looks like she has some westie in her...

What does the drug do ? What's it called? It's a clinical drug trial where you have a 50/50 chance of the control drug or the experimental drug if your dog is eligible (ie itchy enough). Because of the nature of the trial I shouldnt discuss online except to say I suggest you discuss with you vet if youre interested - most of them know about it I think. :)

Umn... the Pfizer drug trial is free - even the initial assessment and my initial assessment wqas with a dermatologist - I haven't paid a cent - and after almost three months of free supply of an expensive drug and regular dermatology follow-ups her skin is as close to normal as its ever going to get. And her itching has essentially gone. So why wouldn't you consider it?

How horrible for you Im happy to shout you a foster carers course if you want one. Kizzyneo I'm so sorry this has happened to you and your little dog. Do take Steve up on her offer - although I haven't done it myself, I'm sure it will restore your faith in good, well organised, supported and ethical fostering. It does exist and you and your family can recover from here. :) I foster westies. I have westies. Its a breed I know about. I stick to what I know. I've often thought about fostering other breeds and crossbreeds but the truth is I'm not experienced enough and have hesitated and decided against it every time that it has come up - to be fair to the non-westie foster and to my westies. I'm not being discriminatory or superior - I just stick to what I know, can manage and am comfortable with and stay within my limits. Only had one foster go pear-shaped - and that was because my cat finally decided to leave home for three days after this westie harrassed him - so I sent him onto another foster carer without cats. So I think a foster carers course to help you learn skills and define your fostering limits would be a really good thing. :) And I agree with other posters. Sadly this foster dog should be euth'ed and not be rehomed. And the 'rescue group' should be severely sanctioned. They will be very lucky to escape legal action if they rehome this dog without full disclosure of its history. End of story. Good luck Kizzyneo. I will be really interested to hear how you get on. :)

This - but I'm no vet or expert either. If you've changed her diet that can be enough to cause some runny poo. If there is any blood in the poo then thats when I'd be straight off to the vet - especially if accompanied by any sort of dehydration, vomitting and her obviously being unwell - and don't delay! With my westies I don't get too panicked about the occasional runny poo (who knows what they've been eating while I've been at work - persimmons? apricots?,nectarines? grass?) - but blood or persistent runny poo is a different matter.

I have taken the form in the next day with all my parts filled in and left it with a stamped adressed envelope which the clinic was happy to send off when the vet was able to fill in the form. When going to the emergency vet the form isn't really in my thoughts of things to take... I have never had a vet seem at all cranky at filling in the forms, but I haven't had many claims either :) Same here. I fill in my part of the form carefully, sign and date and then give it to the vet to complete with a stamped address envelope. They have always been happy to send it straight off for me. I've never had a form come back but then again I'm careful to give them EVERYTHING they want. Pet plan have always paid me in reasonable time - no complaints here :)

There is a Pfizer drug trial for itchy dogs with atopic dermatitis going on at the moment. Either your vet or a specialist vet practice/vet dermatologist should know about it. The selection criteria are quite tight (not all itchy dogs qualify for the trial) and you need to be very disciplined in terms of medication compliance and follow-up visits but I think its very worthwhile. The trial has worked well for my very itchy westie. Hope that helps and good luck. :)

Thanks Snook - thats a really well though out plan. Difficult topic though it is, I think its really important - and might save some poor decision-making around the future of dogs who suddenly find themselves homeless and possibly put less pressure on rescue services if people put good plans in place (and that includes euth where that's the preferred option). After all most rescues have enough lives to save without those that could be avoided with some solid planning. I always feel so sad to see the animals of elderly people who have died or gone into care suddenly homeless and impounded. If only plans and provision had been made for them, I think it often could have been avoided. Yes my westies God-Parents were willing to take them on without financial support too but I insisted. I feel its unreasonable to ask them to do this without it. :) ETA You know its funny... I really couldnt care less about the house or my car on my demise - but the westies... they must must must be provided for. :)

Good post Steve - and yes it's easy to assume relatives or friends will make good decisions for your dogs if you can't. Im absolutely confident that the westies god parents will be fine as we've discussed it in detail and I've made financial provision for their care. But I'm sure there are people who are not fortunate enough to have such reliable back-up. I know only a little about Pacers having only been a little involved once (I still have a clean but leaky old empty garage BTW!) - but I wondered if this was a service Pacers could formally offer, say through a small monthly subscription service or something similar... No idea how or if it would work so just a thought. :)

Snook this is another good idea - to make your dogs carer a beneficiary of your super. I think I'll investigate this further as another option. Thanks for the idea :)

Thanks everyone for your replies - hard though it is, I think it's a topic we all should think about and regardless of what and how we do it our wishes need to be very clear. My mother is very clear, that should anything happen to me the westies are to go to their god- parents - who Mac came from originally - they were his foster parents when he first came out of the puppy farm . And I have made financial provision for their care through my will. If I was ill long term the same arrangements apply if my mother isn't around to help out. And hopefully none of us never need to activate such plans.

A great thread - thanks Steve. I'm a DOL lover - I live alone with my westies so DOlL is my friend, my support, my educator and my infuriator!. My Mac is the aging gracefully beautiful westie he is because of DOL... There's nothing DOL doesn't know or care about... It's the best online community bar none... Thanks Troy. :)

Oh congratulations - she is just beautiful. Her patchy coat reminds me of a westie we rehomed a couple of years ago - he had completely lost his coat on his badly infected rump - it was red raw. He went to the most brilliant home and is now unrecognisable as the underweight, scrawny, see-through coat waif he was when we first got him. So I wish a home for Pearl like we found for Eddie! :)