dancinbcs

The vet said at this stage the pups can still drink from it so I am sticking the 2 big boofas back there so that it gets well drained. I have just tried a cabbage leaf compress but how the heck do you keep it on and how long for? Just keep massaging the lumps until they are all gone and make sure all the teats are being used equally. At this stage, massage works better than anything. Keep getting Jazz to lie on alternate sides so all the teats get emptied.

Great Documentary that explains it all very well. They have known for a few years that Vietnam veterans that were exposed to agent orange and had their dna affected, have passedon the problems to their children and grandchildren. Fascinatiing though to hear that diet and stress can also cause ongoign issues. I haven't heard of any studies in dogs but they would be great species for someone to study.

Your dogs are not registered with the local council if you live in NSW. You may have submitted the papers at the council but they are all registered with the state, not the council as no council has a register anymore. Check their registration papers and you will find that they are on the NSW Govt Companion Animals Register and this is where you need to do the change of address. The councils can set a number limit that they can enforce only if they receive complaints, otherwise you are free to have as many as you want so long as they are state registered, correctly cared for and the neighbours don't complain. You still change the microchip address with the local Council. Local Councils administer the database in NSW and are the only ones who can access the databse to edit and change detail. The Department of Local Government (a State Government Department) develops and implements the policies and laws. Local Councils then enforce them. Any council can access and change the details. You can go to your current council and change the address to the one you are moving to or go to any agent like Renbury Farm that have the contract to run the pounds for three different councils. They are not a council office but can process the registrations and do changes of details. If you don't want to go to your own council you don't have to.

Your dogs are not registered with the local council if you live in NSW. You may have submitted the papers at the council but they are all registered with the state, not the council as no council has a register anymore. Check their registration papers and you will find that they are on the NSW Govt Companion Animals Register and this is where you need to do the change of address. The councils can set a number limit that they can enforce only if they receive complaints, otherwise you are free to have as many as you want so long as they are state registered, correctly cared for and the neighbours don't complain.

That is correct. All of NSW is covered by the NSW Companion Animals Act, so no council can restrict numbers unless they receive complaints. Also, you can register your dogs at any agent or council in NSW, it doesn't have to be with your own council, because it is a state lifetime register. The councils do not actually have individual registers any more. I assume you are coming from another state, so your dogs all need to microchipped to be lifetime registered in NSW. Breeders rates apply for entire dogs if you have a prefix. Just noticed that your profile says you are already in NSW. If that is the case you don't need to deal with the council at all. Just do a change of address on the state register for each dog.

Vet check first to make sure she doesn't have a UTI because it is really abnormal behaviour for a hosuetrained dog to not make a noise to get out of the crate to toilet. Make sure she is actually toileting when you let her out before bed. A lot of my bitches have needed to be reminded that is what they are out for, otherwise they look for cats, sniff around and forget to go, then wake me a couple of hours later. It never happens with the males, just the girls. Same if you let her out during the night. She has to go if you say so. Use a command word for toileting on command and praise just like with a baby, when they comply. Mine know they have to go but if they really don't need to, they will squat and do nothing. That is the only time I believe them that they don't need to go because I know they have really thought about it.

At least it is food. Expensive but food. Try Aldi for the salmon at a better price.

What a dreadful run of bad luck you are having. Can I ask where Astrid came from ? Really bad form for the shelter to sell you a dog that obviously hadn't been quarantined to make sure she wasn't infected. They should be footing the vet bill.

That's really interesting! Why is that?? Is it because long hair is easier to catch ina brush/vacuum whereas short hair isd harder?? The long hair comes out in soft clumps and whispy bits that sit on top of fabric and is pretty easy to brush off furniture and bedding, unlike short hair that sheds one hair at a time, works it's way into any sort of fabric and is pretty much impossible to remove. I have owned a Labrador, so know the difference. The disadvantage with the long hair is it getting wound around the brush of the vacuum cleaner, but it is still easier to remove from carpet than all those little short bits. Most people don't realise that spending half an hour a week, grooming a long coat, to make sure it isn't tangled and sweeping up hair tumbleweeds, is a lot less work than coping with a shorter coat that sheds all over the house 365 days a year. There are some breeds that need more time to groom but most long coats do fine with half an hour a week.

If it is demodex the other dog can't catch it. The only time it is spread from one dog to another is from mother to puppies in the first few weeks due to the very close constant contact. Definitely don't use Advocate on a dog that has had the heartworm injection. Actually this is a further reason to not use heartworm injections. If you do need to treat mites it severely limits your options. With demodex their are other treatments but if you are unlucky enough to have a dog get sarcoptic mange (scabies/fox mange) then the only really effective treatment is Advocate or Revolution. Prior to their invention, some dogs had such chronic cases of sarcoptic mange that they had to be pts. Thankfully sarcoptic is rare in city dogs but unlike demodex,it is highly contagious between dogs humans and other animals, so is much more serious.

No drugs or chemicals at all if possible for the first 6 weeks. Worm after that and if you do need to treat for fleas, make sure the manufacturer guarantees that it is safe for pregnant bitches. I don't think Capstar or Comfortis have been tested for pregnant bitches so check before you use anything.

This is why I love long haired dogs. Just brush the long hair off their mats, vetbed, etc first, then wash in the top loader. Long hair is much easier to brush off than short hair ;)

You didn't change where she sits in the car, did you ? The only one I have ever had that got carsick, only did it if she was in a harness. In a crate or loose in the back of the wagon, she was fine.

In that case it is highly unlikely that she will whelp before Thursday at the earliest. Of course anything is possible so keep an eye on her but closer to next weekend would be better. Don't let her go over Sunday next week though.

Everyone I know that just treated the affected spots with the wash, always had further outbreaks during the dog's life. Treating them all over seems to get rid of the problem permanently. I opted for this because the most likely time for a further outbreak is during pregnancy and the wash cannot be used then at all or when they are feeding/raising a litter. If a bitch has an outbreak when raising a litter, some of the puppies will also get it and then have to wait until 12 weeks to be treated. Not an issue for a desexed bitch but a real problem if you intend to breed. Not sure what the success rate for Advocate is these days or if it can be used on pregnant/feedign bitches, but it may be a better option than the old wash solution. I have just had Stella desexed 2 weeks ago now. I did notice a slight hair loss previous to that & when she was at the vets getting desexed he did her first skin scraping then. Didn't find anything. Then when I took her back to get her stitches out in 10 days the problem had not improved so he did another scraping & again found nothing. I think I might swap her over to Advocate maybe it may get rid of it, rather than washing her in Dermadox as it seems very toxic. If it is demodex, the desexing surgery would be enough stress to have increased it. Advocate recommend 2-4 treatments so this is probably the best option for a desexed dog.

Yes, the temperature fluctuates in that last week, just enough to drive you nuts but the true drop is very distinct. Also be aware that occasionally it only drops for a few hours and goes back up again, so it is possible to miss it. Temp drop is still the best indicator of labour, but not foolproof. Remember to count her due date from ovulation, not mating. Borders tend to mate after ovulation so a lot do whelp anywhere from day 58-63 after mating. What day did she ovulate?

Everyone I know that just treated the affected spots with the wash, always had further outbreaks during the dog's life. Treating them all over seems to get rid of the problem permanently. I opted for this because the most likely time for a further outbreak is during pregnancy and the wash cannot be used then at all or when they are feeding/raising a litter. If a bitch has an outbreak when raising a litter, some of the puppies will also get it and then have to wait until 12 weeks to be treated. Not an issue for a desexed bitch but a real problem if you intend to breed. Not sure what the success rate for Advocate is these days or if it can be used on pregnant/feedign bitches, but it may be a better option than the old wash solution.

When you used the demodex wash at 14 months, did you rinse her all over or just use it on the face ?

I am using Advantix on her once every 3 weeks as we live in an area which is very bad for tick's pretty much all year round. My bet would be demodex with the Advantage keeping the mite numbers low enought that the scrapings are not detecting them, but not low enough to get rid of them completely. Demodex, just locallised just around the eyes is very common in young BCs. Sometimes it disappears on it's own but if it does they sometimes get another outbreak later in life. A change of diet could possibly boost the immune system up enough for the hair loss to cease. The demodex mites live on the skin of lots of healthy dogs without causing a problem but any stress to the immune system can cause them to increase, resulting in hair loss. Times it is most likely to show up are after vaccination, during rapid growth stages or during pregnancy. I haven't had a case for years but the few I did have were all treated, all over, weekly for 4 weeks with Ectodex and it never re-occured in any of them. Ectodex These were all pre spot on treatment days so I'm not sure how it works if you are using a product like Advantage as well. BTW Border Collies can be sensitive to Ivermectin and there is a simple DNA test to find out but to my knowledge, no Australian BCs have ever tested positive to Ivermectin sensitivity, so it is very rare.

Some very large congenital heart defects cannot be detected as a murmur. Small holes in the heart cause the blood to be squeezed through, giving the typical murmur sound. Apparently if the hole is really large the sound isn't there. I know of one dog that had a very minor murmur at 6 weeks that later went away and the dog seemed healthy. The breeder suspected a health problem at about 12 months and specialist investigations have revealed a very large, inoperable defect that does not give off any murmur at present. It is equally possible that a murmur is not detected in a puppy but as it grows the defect becomes worse and the murmur is heard.

Do you mean that the mother of your puppy was bred to her own father to produce a son, that was bred back to her, and is the father of your puppy ? If that is the case it is extreme inbreeding and I would be asking the breeder for an explanation. The only time I have ever seen a mating like that in my breed, was a registered puppy farmer who produced a puppy with no hip sockets and this is in a breed with only rare hip problems. Some breeders up to now have done mother/son or father/daughter matings but it is something that should only be done on one generation then you need to breed out, not back into the same dogs.

The breed pages here on DOL have the clubs listed for each breed. Otherwise the state controlling body in each state should have them listed somewhere.

Sometimes Papaya Enzyme from a health food supplier works just fine and is much cheaper than the specific dog ones.

Many coated breeds would hate a heated bed. They don't even like kennels much because they just get too hot. Smooth coats however feel the cold and either need an enclosed bed like a kennel/soft crate or a very warm bed to snuggle into. The only time I have used a heating panel with a Border Collie was with an old arthritic girl who had arthritis in her legs but not her back. I put the heating panel on bricks under one side of her frame bed so she could keep her body off the heat but drape her legs over it. Worked a treat and she was much more mobile in the mornings because she could keep her legs warm without having to tuck them under her. I have had other oldies that would go and lie on the concrete laundry floor if the heating was on in the house and wouldn't have anything to do with a warm bed. Most of my dogs have rarely even slept curled up, prefering to stretch out even in cold weather.

To expand on that, I think being a good teacher is just as important. You can have ObCh dogs but if you can't impart the information to adult learners so they can grasp it and use it, and can't keep people enthused, then your dog's achievements become of little consequence to owners having problems with their own dog/s. Good point. It doesn't matter how much knowledge you have you also need to be able to teach but I still think you need to be able to prove that you can actually do what you are teaching. A good trainer is a combination of knowledge, proven ability and has the gift of being able to teach others.