menacebear

The size of the bag is only a consideration as he will go through a 4kg bag in no time and as i am getting it through my work I dont want to piss the vet clinic off by getting it every week for him. Plus I have heard that some dogs refuse to eat the K/D diet. He had one other level that was slightly higher than normal, I'm not sure which it was. It had to do with his kidneys though. The full blood and urine analysis showed the only thing wrong with him at all is the kidenys. His back legs are also starting to fail on him (He's an approx 11 year old rescue GSD X Rotty) He has no muscle on his hind legs and I wonder if that has something to do with his body not processing the protein properly. All the dogs including him were on Bonnie working dog food before the RAW and it has a level of 22% protein. Thanks for the link to the website. I'll go check it out now

I would be considering using the Royal Canin diet as it comes in a 14kg bag and being a large dog he will go through it quite quickly. It was Urea that the vet was talking about. He said that Menace's kidneys aren't filtering waste product as effectivly as they should be. It's currently at a level of 9.8 so higher than it should be. The vet said that 8.9 was as high as you would want it to go. What did you use to help with your dog? Did it increase the life span or have any effects that were noticable to you? They have only been on the RAW diet for a couple of weeks but Menace weighed 36.4 on the day he had the test done and weighed in at 37.7 6 days later. The vet was no help at all in regards to a natural vs commercial diet. He simply advised low protein but even said that i could look around at different diets, including senior or normal food, as long as the protein level was below 18% Something like Bonnie lite and white is much lower protein that 18% but surely food like that wouldnt be good for him? This matter confuses me utterly and thoroughly. I just want to do what is best for him. If a commercial diet is not going to increase his lifespan (as the science diet claims to do) then I'd prefer him to just stay on food he at least enjoys.

My OH and I have recently switched all 8 of the dogs to RAW food and they are loving it! However my old guy, Menace, has recently had a total blood analysis and the results have come back that his kidney function is deteriating(sp). His level of something that starts with a U(sorry, i've forgotten) is 9.8 and it should be 8.9. So the condition isnt serious yet but obviously these levels may continue to rise. The vet advised me that the near death level is around 27. He has advised me to put Menace on a low protein diet like hills K/D or royal canin renal. How ever he also said i can look around and see if i can find another diet that is low in protein. From the way he was talking the most important thing seemed to be the low protein and not anything else that these foods contained. So my question is does anyone have any advise on what i can feed him? The protein level needs to be below about 17%. Bonnie has an old dog food that is very low protein but i'm wondering is there any raw food he can still eat? Someone advised me that chicken legs and thighs are around 13% protein. Is this correct? Does any one know? If so would i be able to keep him on the raw food? I don't mind buying him the expensive food if it is the only thing that will increase his lifespan, however if it's not really going to do anything i would prefer to keep him on raw. I'll feel bad feeding him dry while everyone else is tucking into their bones!! Opinions please

In that case hopefully they just drop it and don't refer it on to the council that you live in to deal with. It's great that you are getting him back though. It could have easily dragged on for a long time. I have a red nosed x who i got from an animal shelter, he is chipped as a ridgeback x mastiff which is clearly false and i'm thinking of changing his m/c details to pitty x mastiff as this is what he looks like. Pures are the only ones restricted so if a dog has pitbull in it i can't se why the vets don't just chip it as such. BTW i love his name!

Do you actually live in frankston council? I know you stated he was found wandering at large by frankston council but do you actually fall under their multiplicity? I live within frankston and i know how very very strict they are in regards to restricted breeds. They don't just look at the dog and "think" it is restricted, they measure the animal up and get second opinions before they go as far as saying the animal can't be released. Don't get me wrong, i'm not "for" the council, they annoy the shit out of me but they are ridiculously thorough

Thanks for the advice. I should have been more specific with the chicken mince. It is entire minced chicken carcasses. Everything except the feathers. I got if from porky's pet supplys in Cranbourne if that helps at all. Would i be better of swapping some dry food for chicken necks and frames? If i swap say 100g of dry food for 100g of chicken necks will they still get a balanced diet? I tried the uncle alders dry food but i found that even though 1 cup weighs around 200g i had to feed them the same amount in cups which ment they were getting double the food to maintain their current condition. If I can find a way to balance dry and raw we will swap to a super preimum dog food instead of the cheaper one. I like them to have plenty of energy, epsecially our flyball dogs. And my Am Staff x something big who is not yet 12 months old. Between all 8 dogs we are currently feeding out approx 2.4kg of dry food daily so i'm looking for a way to keep it cheap but make sure they are healthy. Even the bonnie has gone up to nearly $44 per bag and it is getting to expensive.

Hi guys, between my partner and I we have 8 medium to large dogs and feeding dry is starting to get too expensive. We are feeding either bonnie or cobber working dogs food but i'm hoping to switch to half raw and half dry. I just bought the dogs 10kg of raw chicken mince and am wondering how much dry to swap for how much raw (i'm a little anal about feeding) Currently we have 3 dogs on 4 cups of food per day, 3 on 2 cups per day and 2 on 3 cups per day. The dry food weighs around 100g per cup. Can i do a clean swap? 100g dry for 100 raw or is the raw higher in fat? We have 3 flyball dogs who we don't want to gain or lose any weight and I'd prefer that the others didn't either. I'm thinking of mixing the chicken mince with some frozen vegies also, is it worth doing this? Any help or advise would be very much appreiciated.

Thats ok, I'm bringing you a border and a big red for the weekend. The big red is getting even bigger. He's nearly as tall as cliffy now. Shoey, looking forward to seeing you guys again. Will Inca be ready by the 2 day dandy comp?

We'll be at frankston as well and then euroa after that. So looking forward to it. We raced at albury so it hasn't been as long for us as some of the other vic teams but still feels like ages. How are Molly and Eddie going? Are they racing now? I'll have my newest addition at yarram, think i'll have to bring him to frankston to meet people too.

This time next week we'll be relaxing in yarram getting ready for saturdays competition so who else is coming? I think we are taking 4 teams this week. Can't wait, it's been ages since our last races and yarram is such a gorgeous place.....leprachauns and all

Hey Dave Flip and I were just talking about doing some more herding the other day so good timing. There are no flyball comps for all of september so maybe that will be a goer for us. We'll be in touch to get something organised. LMAO we went to the park earlier to, Belle ran straight down the hill and jumped off a rock and into her fav puddle. Guess who was standing beside the aforementioned puddle??? Give you a hint, it wasn't me. My gimpy ankle ment i was much further back along the track. :rolleyes:

I'm with the flyball section of croydon and i find the trainers to be helpful, however it is a massive club with alot of members and dogs so naturally some people don't understand about keeping away from the yellow bandanna dogs. The instructers enforce that but some of the other members may not be so great with it. I thought croydon has a no tethering rule? I didn't think you could leave them tied up unsupervised at all. Maybe go down on a sunday morning and have a look at things. Only you can decide what is best for your dog.

I think i would go with a vet trip as well, better to be safe then sorry. My rottweiler x german shep slept alot when he was young but never for stretches as long as those. Has he had a recent vaccination or anything that could be making him feel unwell?

Spring herding sure does sound good. Herding in weather like todays sounds great to me as well, gorgeous day. Although the first hint of the sun and belle INSISTS on jumping into puddles and laying down. Shame the puddles have dried up a little and she'd just bathing herself in mud!!! ;) Bloody border collies

It's going to be really busy. I hope that our two top teams fall into seperate divisions but knowing our luck they won't. And no clover to help us out this time :D Does anyone know when the running order is going to be out? I'm SO looking forward to this comp, it's been such a long time since us victorians have had a run. Flip if jammi keeps running as well as he did for me at training you won't have to worry about running him coz i will be

Lol Flite might eat the goats and that would be bad! No eating goats flitey Although goats suck hard core, with their odd evil little eyes. Much prefer sheepers i think. I'm gonna call about herding again as soon as I can. I'll try calling him tomorrow and see what i can organise.

81 races? And most of ours will be back to back for the div 1 teams What a day thats gonna be.

Hmmmm well i suppose it's still an easy enough way to move them. She keeps them together well but they have to face her at all times. Damn stupid goats. I thought she might eat the one that heat butted her, that might be bad. Lol Belle loves the cats, she trys herding them but likes playing with them more. She lays on her side trying to bat jasmine and jazzie bats her back. So cute

Nah i haven't seen that one. Wonder if he has a way to stop cliffy jumping up the side of the house. Rain and Clifford=big muddy footprints everywhere Belle however spent the day fixated on a single bird that dared to sit on her fence. Weird dog. Do other people borders obsess like this or do i have a broken one?n My large breed dogs don't do anything like this. Is it a working dog thing? I have to take her into work tomorrow. One of the girls has asked me to bring her in so that she can play with the puppy that she is dog sitting. Lucky Belle. Maybe she can have another herd of the nasty goats. She doesn't like em. They headbutt her. They are easier to move with me walking behind them and her herding back n forth in front of them, keeping them all together. Is that normal for goats? Anyone got any experience?

Hmmmm thats a bummer. Southern is within 15 minutes from here. Haven't been in contact with warragul yet. Think that will have to be on my to do list. Girl borders are fools. After Belle had her go of herding the goats at work yesterday she jumped into their water trough and flipped herself back and forth and up and down. Came out soaked. The temperature hit a lovely top of 7 bloody degrees in melbourne yesterday. Insane i tell you. Pleased to see she has taught Romi the tricks of the trade though

We'll be there with bells on. Looking forward to a comp that we can't get rained out of!!!! Although last year was ever so cold. We are taking 3 teams along but i believe people are staying at all different places. I can't for the life of me think of the name of the place we are staying at but we were there last year too.

Eastlink is awesome to get to training, it gets me from my place to lilydale in next to no time. It's gonna suck when the free period is over though. You'll love it clover. Belle had a go of herding the goats at work. Goats aren't as easy as sheep. They wanna head butt her and stuff. Bad goats. Edited cos my random though post made no sense.

How is the first saturday of august looking for people? Weather permitting of course. I have to work alot of other weekends through out August and we have the anglesea flyball comp halfway through as well. Flip-Lol i'll tell sonny it's his shout, although you know what he's like......the words blood and stone spring to mind.

I'm back at work on tuesday so i'll check out my roster and see what we can do. Clover don't forget you have to get the 22nd and 23rd of august off! We have that party down my way and you HAVE to come.

http://www.warraguldogclub.org.au/ click on the herding link and scroll down for the map. According to http://www.whereis.com it is 93km and 1 hr 3 mins from Frankston. You go via the freeway, and now there is a Pakenham bypass which makes it quicker. http://www.whereis.com/#session=NjE= Oh awesome thanks so much for that!!!!