Maddy

Did you end up taking her to the vet Greylvr? No real need to see a vet for ear mites. A drop of Advocate on the outside of either ear, give it two days and then give the ears a thorough clean. If the ears smell or the dog still looks uncomfortable, it's probably a fungal infection (which can be caused by the ear mites). I did have one question, if you don't mind me asking this, Greylvr- what do you intent to do with dogs that are not safe around small dogs? Well actually we didnt see a problem placing them not around small dogs but you guys do have a point in that if these dogs are going to go out in public placing a greyhound that would like to eat small dogs may not be the best idea because I know there are plenty of idiots who let their dogs run loose wouldnt want an accident to happen and have it effect negatively on the breed. I will be talking with the rescues I have networked with and other rescues to get some guidance on this issue from people that have been doing it a long time and I have formed a trust with. Oh and yes we got advocate for all the dogs which seems to have done the trick. I think you'll find most greyhound rescues will say the same thing- dogs that aren't safe around small dogs are not suitable for rehoming. Even with the best intentions, accidents can happen and they reflect badly on the breed. I'll give you a few examples here, based on my own experiences- Back before I took over GAP Tas, the co-ordinator at the time literally knew nothing about greyhounds, she'd never even owned one. I was fostering a lovely boy for her and while on walks, he seemed disinterested in cats. Now, bear in mind these observations were not the result of structured testing and I made that clear to her- "Shows no interest in chasing cats while on walks, still needs to be prey drive tested though as that's not my job" (which it wasn't, I was just a foster carer). Instead of testing him, the co-ordinator just rehomed him to a rural area- after all, not much trouble a greyhound can get into there, given everyone contains their dogs anyway. Except they don't. Two smaller dogs came in under the stock fencing and the dog in question chased them down. The owners of this greyhound were utterly horrified and the fallout was considerable- Panterka and I had go drive down there (across the other side of the state) and pick him up because by that time, the previous co-ordinator had buggered off, leaving behind a trail of shockingly bad management. Now, in theory, it probably did seem like a safe environment- the owners had good fences (for stock and big dogs), they lived in an area where lots of people owned horses (so wandering dogs were usually dealt with swiftly) and they didn't really need to exercise the dog off their own property. But look at the outcome.. I had to have to owner fill in a return form and it was horrible; handed it over to her, she read it, burst into tears and ran from the room, leaving me, Panterka and the owner's husband standing there. Horrible, horrible situation and it should NEVER happen. Point is, even in the most ideal situation, you can never be 100% sure that the dog won't get a chance to hurt another dog. Inevitably, the owners will decide to walk the dog in public and then.. well, the possible outcomes are not good.

Did you end up taking her to the vet Greylvr? No real need to see a vet for ear mites. A drop of Advocate on the outside of either ear, give it two days and then give the ears a thorough clean. If the ears smell or the dog still looks uncomfortable, it's probably a fungal infection (which can be caused by the ear mites). I did have one question, if you don't mind me asking this, Greylvr- what do you intend to do with dogs that are not safe around small dogs? EFS and lack of caffeine

Makes sense, don't worry :p I just don't see how they'd go on though as mine looks somehow sewn into place, if you get what I mean. I got a reply from HH but it was worded so badly, I'm actually more confused than before- . I think I might see if the old one does come apart somehow before I order a new hood. I get what you mean about putting it up (thredding the legs through and all that) but it's the frame bit I'm talking about. The mesh base is stitched around that and I couldn't see any obvious way of taking it to pieces to put on a new base/hood. If the replacement is literally just the hood, it's not of any use to me as the hood on mine is fine, it's the floor (the mesh base) that needs replacing.

Might be worse with greyhounds because there isn't much hair to soak it up so the excess moisture causes things to stick to it. Even with Advocate, they have large wet patches on their backs for a few days afterwards. Interestingly, the old dog has the least problems and I suspect this is because his coat is very thick for a greyhound and his skin is fairly oily (which I suppose would help move the product over the rest of the skin). Yes the Advantix is so oily it leaves big oily patches on my two for ages. Never had a problem on my old boy who had a thick coat, it just disappeared. :laugh: at Sally doing the "crumbed cutlet" in the sand pit. I should probably get a photo next time, it looks pretty grotty. I made the mistake of putting Advantix on Doug the day before he was supposed to go to his new home.. enjoy those greasy, sandy patches on your furniture, new owners!

It might do, but I imagine it'd be a tight fit to get it on. I actually emailed them but haven't heard back :/

Might also be worth using QuickBayt, especially if you have cats and can't use permoxin/Advantix. I use this in the dog room and it's incredibly effective. If they don't like red though (our flies seem to love it), you'll need to find the white formula rather than the red one. I got the red version the second time around and it actually seemed to attract a lot more flies of different sorts so..

Our oldest Hound House is finally starting to wear through on the mesh of the bed itself and I was looking at the replacement hoods but can't see how they actually work I had a look at the HHs we have and it seems like the hood is attached to the frame in production somehow and couldn't see any way to easily take it apart to replace the hood. Are the replacement hoods somehow different to the hoods they come fitted with or can the frame actually be taken apart to fit a new one? I had a look on the HH website but there was no information there at all :/ (and I don't want to spend $90ish if it's not going to be as sturdy as the original hood)

Might be worse with greyhounds because there isn't much hair to soak it up so the excess moisture causes things to stick to it. Even with Advocate, they have large wet patches on their backs for a few days afterwards. Interestingly, the old dog has the least problems and I suspect this is because his coat is very thick for a greyhound and his skin is fairly oily (which I suppose would help move the product over the rest of the skin).

I couldn't see it mentioned so just thought I'd ask.. Have the stitches been removed by a vet? Did they tell you which sort of stitching was used? If the sitches were non-soluble and haven't actually been removed by a vet, that is likely going to be your problem. I called the vet they said they use soluble ones internally and non soluble outside.. they have removed the ones outside.. and saying the ones inside maybe causing an irritation. I believe we have just seen a stitch coming through now, so we will go to the vet Thanks Chris Sutures can be tricky to remove properly, depending on how the vet does the stitching, yeah. I had to take the sutures out of our puppy's scrotum today (ah, the joys of dog ownership) and even though our vet does them individually and knots, I almost lost a bit of one because I nicked through both strands under the knot instead of just the one. If I hadn't been checking what I was removing, that would have just slipped back in and sat under the skin, potentially causing all kinds of fun. At four weeks after desexing, a missed bit of suture material seems like the most likely cause (based on my experience with sutures and dangly bits :p )

We use either permoxin or Advantix (depending on which one I find first in the dog junk) and although it does seem to work, it needs to be re-applied a fair bit and I've noticed that both permoxin and Advantix are oily so.. everything sticks to it. Our old bitch doesn't like having things put on her so she goes straight to her favourite hidey spot after they've been applied- the dogs' sand pit Advantix plastered down with sand on a mostly white dog.. *head-desk* Edited to add.. In the past I've used Advocate on the back of the old bitch's ears and that seemed to work quite well. Not as oily as Advantix or Permoxin, either. I'd stay away from most of the other sprays as I've yet to find one that works longer than a few minutes.

I couldn't see it mentioned so just thought I'd ask.. Have the stitches been removed by a vet? Did they tell you which sort of stitching was used? If the sitches were non-soluble and haven't actually been removed by a vet, that is likely going to be your problem.

What do you call 'ridiculous hours?' some nights the house dogs get fed at 8;30 ..sometimes 2 in the morning . ..they get fed whenever we go to bed ..whether that's early or late. The working dogs get fed anytime from 5 pm to midnight ..depending on what we're doing ..and sometimes they are fed early in the morning instead :) Perse with all due respect(as always) who walks out at two in the morning and goes...dinner everyone? It takes just a couple of minutes to feed the dogs. Mine eat hours before I do. I understand working dogs are fed late but are they still working at 2am? :) We do keep odd hours here the workers get fed VERY late some nights if it's hot , and we're still up . They often won't eat when it's really hot anyway ..so I like to wait until the temp drops .....then it's a feed & fresh water . If it is still way too warm, then I feed at 6 or so in the morning . They enjoy it much more then. .:) House dogs ..as I said when we go to bed ..they go to bed , and that's when they get their dinner . Yes ok thanks for explaining. As I said not sure on what the deal is with working dogs as I have no experience. Thank dog there are no greyhounds living at your place...........no change that, thank dog MY greyhounds are not living at your house :laugh: I'm a bit the same as Pers, I have to admit. The dogs don't get fed until very late at night for a few reasons. One is the ability to provide routine- I know I'm always going to be home at midnight so there's no worry about breaking routine. Another is hygiene- I rabidly hate flies and late at night, no flies around to bother the dogs while they're eating. Also much cooler and the dogs feel more inclined to actually get out of bed. Late feeding also seems to keep them very quiet during the night. As for how long it takes.. feeding mine can take up to two hours so it needs to be at a time of day when I can supervise them without having anything else to worry about. I feed raw so I supervise meals and there are also the foster dogs so not everyone can eat in the same area. Both are factors others here also probably have to deal with so I wouldn't assume dinner is a quick affair for everyone. I do remember though when I used to feed kibble and only had one dog.. the good old days when it was just shovel some kibble into his bowl and walk away (admittedly a lot more time was spent poop scooping and struggling to breathe through hellish dog farts though).

Hit a nerve or something?? Didn't realize you had to resort to name calling. You missed the point - as I don't tolerate such demanding behaviors, I don't feed at the same time every day - some days I don't even feed dinner at all. And no - mine don't time my going and coming from work - I mix up my morning routine and generally come home at different times every night. Routine is not always a good thing as it can lead to anxiety behaviors if that routine is not adhered too. While I'd mostly agree with you, in some cases, routine can be very important. Greyhounds generally live by a routine- even down to when they can toilet. They find comfort in routine and when being moved from trainer to rescue to foster carer to new home, routine can be the one consistant in their lives which actually makes them less stressed and helps them to cope with other disruptions. I feed all of my dogs on a schedule and I've yet to see any anxiety result from it. A worst, they get whiney (because they're hungry) if dinner is too much later than usual.

That's what I was wondering. By four weeks, it should be all closed up and clean.

Curiously, our hellhound grey puppy actually doesn't seem interested in it He spends a good portion of his day looking for things to steal/shred/hide but the tree, even with the tasty tinsel hanging just within reach.. nope. Having said that.. I wouldn't push my luck by putting presents under it. Bosley -loves- to rip up paper and boxes so a pile of paper and boxes, all laid out for him to get into.. probably not a great idea. Kiff has never shown any interest. He's a bit odd/nervy at times and I think the new tree that appeared in the corner with all the evil sparkly shit on it scares him.

No council (that I know of) in Tasmania requires dogs to wear anything besides their council registration tag so it's not going to be an issue in council areas that don't have that rule. Having said that.. not something I'd bother with. All our dogs are microchipped and their name tags mention this. Anyone with internet access can then look up the details (assuming they can't get the dog to a vet or the pound) and contact us.

We have some of these and the apollo strapping gets very slippery if it's hot or if they get wet. Good idea for horsey gear but for leads.. bad.

Work out weight percentage needed for your dog's breed/age/activity levels. Our greyhounds get close to 4% per day (depends on the weight of the individual) but we're usually trying to put weight on. 2-3% for most breeds, from memory. Then you need to see how much of your patty is water. Weigh out 1kg, dry it out in the oven (take about 24 hours, have the oven on 50ish). Re-weigh the dried patty and then you'll have dry weight. The weight of the water will fill the dog up a little more but you won't get much actual weight gain from it so it's useful to know how much they're getting in from raw meat/veg. Anyways.. from looking at your numbers, 300g total seems like a small amount if you're putting lots of vegetables through it. Like Pers said, cut the vegetables (or at least a decent amount of them) and focus more on protein. I'm not convinced vegetables are an appropriate food for a carnivore- grass (partially digested by someone else first), yes; vegetables (especially raw).. no.

We don't have heartworm where we are but they get treated for it anyway as we use Advocate monthly. On top of that, they get a broadspectrum wormer every 6-8 weeks and whenever a new dog comes in as we have dogs coming and going and can't afford to have it spread or contaminate the soil. I'll admit though that I'm parasite paranoid- once an area is infested, it's expensive and difficult to get clean again, especially with several large dogs to consider.

That's what all our greys are like, too. We do get the odd one who enjoys eating possum/wallaby poo but god forbid they step in it, oh noez. The most disgusting thing I've had to deal with was a dog who liked to eat grass- sounds innocuous but he liked to eat long grass, grass that would pass through intact. And then dangle from his bum when he went to the toilet. Which involved pulling on the rubber gloves and.. yeah.. getting the rest out so the poor thing wasn't waddling around with grassy klingons

He'd at least have an excuse then :p

I've had several dogs choke on rawhide (and it seemed to happen almost every time for some dogs) so I'd feed dry bones over rawhide, every time. Seriously though.. dry bone =/= cooked bone. Buy them from somewhere that dries their own- our pet meat shop dries their own and they're only a very small shop so I'd imagine larger meat suppliers would do the same- and ask what temps the bones are dried at if it worries you. A couple of reports of choking should be taken for what they are- ask how many people have had a dog choke on a fresh bone (in fact, you don't even need to ask, someone did a poll in the health section a while back, results are still there) and you'll see what I mean.

Just thought I'd post a copy of the email I received today, no doubt others here would have gotten the same one.. And my reply.. Identifying details of dodgy product have been removed to save Troy any potential headaches. A good article about a similar* product.. http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Shoo!Tag Homeopathic credit cards.. :laugh: *Same homeopathic credit card, different name, really.

An air-dried bone is not much different to a bone left out in the yard that dries out naturally in the sun/wind- and these are perfectly safe. The only difference between a dried bone and a fresh bone is the water content, same as with most dehydrated foods. Drying something does not cook it. Sorry I disagree. Bones that are left out in the sun actually are liked cooked bones, they are too brittle & dangerous. I only feed either chicken frames, wings or lamb flaps. I have a great butcher, today I got half a kg of wings & 6 chicken frames for $3.25, Cougar is a very happy girl. :laugh: You're welcome to your own opinion but that doesn't make it fact

An air-dried bone is not much different to a bone left out in the yard that dries out naturally in the sun/wind- and these are perfectly safe. The only difference between a dried bone and a fresh bone is the water content, same as with most dehydrated foods. Drying something does not cook it.