GoldenWei

OMG. Poor Beau. That wound looks horrid. Glad the vet is now taking responsibility! Hoping for a swift recovery.

16 tablets thats a lot. Sascha was only ever on 4 at the most in any one day, although she was on cortate as well (which I assume is similiar to your injections). Does your vet have any idea on why she hasn't stabalised?

I had a dog who was diagnosed with Addisons when she was about 6. She died at the age of 12 from cancer. Early on it did take a bit of adjusting the medication with Sascha to stabalize her, although from memory it was only a couple of vet visits. Sascha early on from memory was on 2 Cortate and 2 florinef a day, however as the years progressed this was adjusted, florinef increasing with cortate decreasing. Some dogs don't need the cortate at all. It pays to have a good vet that you can discuss with your concerns, and regular blood tests especially early on are vital. Sascha was going every fortnight until she stabalised, and then 6 monthly. The adrenal gland doesn't stay at the one "functional" (for lack of a better word) level thoughout the course of their life. IE. when they are first diagnosed, it may only be operating at 70%, as the years pass that may drop to 50% etc etc. Hence the need to 6 monthly bloodwork, and medication adjustment IF needed. With Sascha, over the course of about 6 years, her medication was adjusted maybe 3 times. What sort of trouble are you having with her meds, too much or not enough, how often are u taking her for bloodwork? When Sascha first started on her meds, within a couple of days she was like a puppy again, running around like a crazy dog, almost hyperactive, before that she was very lethargic, wouldn't eat to the point of anorexia and occasionally she'd vomit. After her meds kicked in she loved her food.

Thanks dogmad. Will see how the spectrum goes. I'd rather keep it monthly if possible.

Thanks bosko, me too

Thanks for the replies. We'll see how the sentinal spectrum goes. Not sure about the ticks though. I've never seen any ticks at all on my dogs so we may be relatively safe, however I'll be much more diligient now about them on him. We had a major problem with fleas a couple of years ago, so I am concerned about them and do think I need to have him on something, just not at the expense of his skin. He's still scratching at it terribly, only really started this afternoon after he had the antibactial cream applied. I hope it heals quickly.

Yeah, sorry, he's on Interceptor, not Spectrum... slip of the fingers. The vet suggested using Spectrum instead of a spot on. Poor little man, he's had his hair shaved and cream and anti-biotics. Its really bugging him, and he's scratching it likes there's no tomorrow. Hopefully that will settle down soon.

My Golden seems to have bad reactions with spot on flea control. When its put on he runs around like mad and then rubs his back on the ground trying to get it off. We started using frontline when we first got him, and his reaction was severe, in the sense he'd rub his neck for ages trying to get it off. So much so that we ended up wiping most of it off when we put it on. We swapped to Advantix after that, and his reaction doesn't seem as severe, however he has now developed a weeping spot on the back of his neck. He's going to the vet in a couple of hours, but from experience, has anyone had a similiar issue and later found something that relieved it. He has no other skin problems at all, and I have been thinking of stopping flea control altogether over winter and try again in early spring. He's on sentinal Interceptor for heartworm. Thanks for your advice... I feel absolutely terrible that I have caused this sore on his neck. ETA: Was on Interceptor not Spectrum as first written.

we took our dogs there last year, one was an older boy so started at week 1, Phoenix was a puppy so he started there when he was about 12 or 13 weeks. The puppies are up away from the rest of the dogs in an undercover area, its quite good, there's no "puppy madness" like there are at puppy pre-schools... ie, they don't get time off lead to play. We went up there before we started with the boys to have a look and were comfortable with what we saw. We sat in on week 1 of the puppy classes. The majority of instructors are very good, and give encouragement, which I always find helpful.

Lindsay Hay and co up at Baulkham Hills Vet are good as well if you wanted an alternative. Hope he's ok.

Hi Nytewynd. My old girl had addisons for about 6 or so years before she was diagnosed with Cancer, and went to rainbow bridge. Its a manageble disease, but requires daily medication, and you also have to be aware that they can go into a coma like state due to stress (known as an addison crisis). My girl never had one, but she did have bouts of relapses where we had to adjust the medication doses... and we were at the vets every 6 months usually for an electolytes check.

totally recommand Lindsay. I've also been to Winston Hills vet as well.... they were good too, but I prefer Lindsay.

I have two dogs. my 9 year old 30kg golden gets 1 cup in the morning, and 1.5 to 2 cups in the evening. My 18 week old golden puppy, he weighs somewhere between 15 and 18kg I'd say gets 2 and a 1/4 cups in the morning and same at night of puppy food. ETA: the cups are those small ones that come with the food.

probably should keep puppy on the same food as he/she is used to for the first few days, and then slowly introduce something different... What is puppy on now? Did you get him from a breeder? My goldie puppy is on pro plan large breed puppy, as recommanded by his breeder. like spotted devil said, it does depend on what breed puppy is as well.

good post laffi.

hi franklin, for the dining room table incidents, there is an aerosol can thingy that you can buy that s mean't to keep cats away, i think its called SSCAT? Its a cat repelant that lets out a spray... but it also lets a beep out before the spray... its automatic as it has a motion sensor... you would need it on the right angle thou. SSCAT best i can think of... certainly training not to do it is the best solution... but you could use the SSCAT when you aren't there.

back when I didn't know any better I was feeding my goldens meaty bites.... one of them had very bad breath... as soon as I changed even to something slightly better (supercoat) the bad breath went away, well after a few days anyway.

My puppy has been soooo good... up until this morning, he pulled off a jumper this morning .... bloody dogs pmsl... i was remarking the other day how he had been really good and hadn't pulled anything off... guess I jinxed myself!

glad to hear Tango is better.... he's a beautiful boy, and I love the name!!

great to hear she's eating more.... must not like soggy food :-)

Are you able to block them off? I've put a little fence, about 1m tall around the herbs, it was fairly easy though as the herb garden is up at the fence line. Its stopped the terror getting in there. We also did it for my first golden when I was still living at home, had mesh fencing all around the edges of the garden out the back so she couldn't get there, and fenced off completely an area where mum had grown a type of fernary (spelling) thing. It was only a small area, the clothes line was in the area as well so stopped Sascha pulling the clothes off the line as well. She still had ample room to play. As for the Pot plants, mum has given me some of hers to mind while she goes overseas... I moved them out the front as I knew Phoenix would destroy them.

My 9 year old golden male squats too. I don't mind, but there's always the joke with my family on how he still does little boy wees. :p I thought it was quite uncommon, but reading this thread makes me think its not that uncommon.

Hills district Kennel club have a puppy school from 12-20 weeks up at castle hill showground on Monday nights. I'll be taking Phoenix to this next week as he'll be 12 weeks tomorrow and has had his vaccinations. Alternatively Winston Hills Vet clinic, Epping Vet Clinic and I think Kellyville Pets run a puppy pre-school. Phoenix goes to his final lesson tomorrow at Winston Hills.. there's another golden that started when we did, he was 12 weeks at the time... I guess it just depends when they are run and when you can get in...

I'd be interested to know if there was a doggy day-care around north west sydney too... When my older golden passed away I was looking for something for Indy... I couldn't find one, so ended up getting a dog walker to come a couple of times a week... he went for walks to break up the day a bit... mind you, whenever she came to walk him, he was ALWAYS asleep... lol. i'm sure he still enjoyed his walks nonetheless.

ohhhhh congrats on your new baby, can't wait to see pics. I'm getting a new baby golden next week, so I know the excitment! House training, definately start as soon as you can. Looking forward to piccies.