Toohey

I have a 12 weeker who I thought was cooking one up just now. Put him outside for a while, thougt he musta done it by now, brought him back in and then found he had already done it in the passageway :rolleyes: He beat me. He is a smart cookie

No worries By the way, I have an eleven week old cocker here who is hell to try and toilet train. Would you like to take him and train him up for me too

If the pup is healthy and has not been exposed to public places yet, and your bitch is healthy and up to date with her vaccinations, there should be no problem. Good on you for helping your Mum out. Baby puppies are pretty hard work.

Lip fold dermatitis, though it sounds more severe than usual if that is what it is. The drooling does not sound typical, nor the redness. Ask the owner to get some natural apple cider vinegar and use neat on a cotton wool swab to clean all around the mouth and in the lip folds Mita.

Hi Tigajess, I also have a ten week cocker pup at the moment and can sympathise fully with the toilet training issues. It's up to you to be vigilant and take her outside every hour and WAIT till she goes, then praise her heaps. You must be consistent and you must realise it is HARD work, but if you put in the work now, it WILL pay off when she finally twigs what she is supposed to do. She MUST be fed a puppy variety dry food and can I suggest you add some chopped chicken necks and wings and I doubt she will knock them back. If you want a copy of my diet sheet, feel free to PM me

That's dried blood.

Dermabond would be useless if catgut sutures can't hold a wound together, and anyway it is not something people would have handy.

That should have healed better than that by now. He will need to have that restitched. Have you any surgical tape or even a bandaid? If you can stick the tape on one side and try to draw the wound edges together, then bandage the area till you can get to a vet. If you have some superglue, dab a little on the skin on either side of the wound and hold the tape/bandaid on until it dries enough to hold.

Should be fine till morning - how many days post op is he, and how big is the gaping bit? Pics would help.

Sorry spelt it wrong - Isopropyl Alcohol .. otherwise known as rubbing alcohol, from the chemist. However, if his ears are that painful dont use alcohol yet, as he may have raw open wounds. Wait until they have been properly checked and diagnosed by the vet, and once the condition is under control I'd use the alcohol cleaner for maintenance.

What sort of earwash is it? if it is not alcohol based, using it in conjunction with the otomax will produce a claggy ear that will never dry out, and moisture breeds bugs. If the Otomax is not working, i'd give it up. It should produce results within a few days if it is the right treatment. I find the best way to avoid ear peoblems is to keep the fur clipped right back firstly to allow as much air as possible to circulate, and to use an alcohol based cleaner every couple of weeks (preventative). Pour it in, give the base of the ear a good massage and allow the dog to shake it out. Make your own with half isopryl alcohol, half water, and few drops of betadine. You could try using that method with some diluted ACV, or another remedy that UK cocker people swear by is Thornit powder, available from http://www.groomersproducts.com.au/groomersproducts.htm I have some, but have not tried it out yet, as my cockers never have ear problems

He needs to learn to be on his own, so as long as he is in a safe puppy proof place, and someone is checking him and feeding him lunch, he will learn in that time to be on his own. He will mostly sleep then anyway, though certainly there will be moments of heart wrenching yowling , but they tire easily and need heaps of sleep as babies. Make sure in your time off, you continue with his time alone and don't spend all your time with him. You sound as if you are on the track to me If you are buying a well raised, well bred pup, from a good breeder, you are also on the right track. Good luck.

He needs to be seen by a vet. Also suggest you use a flea and worm preventative on a regular basis. Is he fully vaccinated?

How do you secure it, and how do you stop the dog chewing it off?

I would highly recommend Andy http://www.dogs.net.au/carlandy/ in Ringwood North.

My two year old cocker has thrashed all the feathering off the tip of her tail, and now has a bald patch that is increasing in size quite quickly. She has not split it yet - but I think it is only a matter of time, as the area is now unprotected. Might be too late for you, but I have been advised to keep the area well moisturised with lanolin or heel balm to stop it cracking. My vet suggested the hair roller too, but I doubt it would work - it would just become a missile. Taping the tip of the tail might work for a while - with something like hypofix, that's if the dog does not chew it off. It's a real worry, as it so difficult to heal once it is damaged.

My apologies then. BTW, he fixed my girls chronic problem with a $6 natural therapy, after I had spent a fortune at other vets for various unhelpful drugs.

I have heard lots of good things about Petark and know several breeders who use it and swear by it. It's only fairly new on the market. If you want to know more, why not go straight to the source and ask Andrew Byrne. He's an excellent vet who is at Monbulk Vet clinic. He is very much into holistic treatment, and helped fix a chronic problem one of my dogs had, when several other vets could not.

Yes, agreed. Find a good kennel rather than trust a stranger. What area are you in?

I would not wet the coat or use conditioner. That will make them stick more and be harder to remove.

You need to use a slicker brush, and brush backwards against the growth. Let the dogs have a shake and then brush again. Backwards, and forwards. For the ones in the skin I am afraid you will have to carefully pick them out by hand. I check my dogs every day for grass seeds, and the places I usually find the most are their armpits, groins and between the toes. Also be sure to check their genitals as if they escape into their nether regions you will have big problems. Also their ears will need careful checking and flush them out at least once a week with an alcohol based cleaner and let the dog have a good shake afterwards. And the best tip, which may not help tonight, but think about investing in a forced air dryer as this is a great way to both examine the skin and blow away the seeds.

Polyps are not cancerous, but they can be PRE cancerous. However, this is a 13 year old dog, it is a big operation, there are many risks attached, and it will no doubt be expensive. The other thing to consider is how experienced in aural surgery is the vet who will be doing it? If it is not causing any problems, I really think it best to leave it alone, as even though the surgery may remove the polyp, it may create problems that did not exist intially. Let us know what Mum decides?

I'd be leaving it there in that case, and just pay strict attention to ear hygiene in the future JMO. it would have been the grass seeds worrying him, most likely not the polyp.

What problems does it cause him?

I had her to see several vets who just kept giving antibiotics and not seeking the cause. By then it was too late to do any tests as the antis would affect the result. In the end I took her to an holistic vet who recommended soaking her feet for one minute each day in dissolved Epsom salts to draw out the infection. I then dry them and soak them again in warm water with a splash of Alpha keri oil. The idea being to harden them up and encourage new growth. This has been going on for 18 months now. Her nails are still splitting, but not as badly and they no longer get infected or sore. Previously she had exposed bleeding quicks, but now she has new nails growing beneath the splitting ones. So, I just continue with the cleaning regime twice a week, and we are doing OK.