Fozzie

I use this on my 9 year old labrador, as well as Joint Guard and fish oil tablets (under vet supervision). Within days of starting the rosehip, we noticed a marked improvement in both his disposition and movement. He is much happier and livelier than previously.

Apologies if there is another thread elsewhere on this but I couldn't find anything recent. I am looking for recommendations on dog doors - specifically ones that go into glass doors. We are moving into a new home soon and would like to put a dog door in for our two labradors. It is not a rental so would prefer to put in something permanent (opposed to an insert). We are looking for something lockable as well. There seem to be some amazing doors available in the US, with special collars to active opening them, but I haven't seen anything like that here. If you have any experiences, good or bad, recommendations or comments, please let me know :)

My boy is his own worst enemy, his pain threshold is very high, so am comfortable if his endurance doesn't improve as he would only run himself into the ground. I am so pleased his movement has improved, mainly from the perspective that he is in less pain so a happier boy. Ray has been great, I highly recommend him. Thanks for the referral Inevitablue! I'm glad I took the time to investigate this for my boy - it's been so worthwhile :)

It's been 4 weeks since my boy had his injections and I thought it is timely to check in and let you know how he is going. I am super happy with the results so far. My boy, who is nearly 8, has arthritis and very cranky knees and elbows. Over the past few weeks he has become much more agile, more comfortable in moving around, in getting up from a laying down position and just happier in general. His endurance hasn't improved but that's not really a bad thing. Ray, his vet, is also very pleased with how he is going. We are back at the vet in 8 weeks time - hopefully there will be some more improvement over that time, but if not, I'll still be happy with the outcome overall.

My boy had his operation on Tuesday. 5 separate injections, both elbows, knees and one hip. Everything is going well so far. He seems quite comfortable and is bouncing around. My partner works from home and so sees him all day and thinks he is moving more freely. We'll see over the next few weeks how it goes. Interestingly, my boy was also having muscular issues and spasms arising from his joint problems. He has had two cortisone injections in his back (prior to his stem cell therapy) and the benefit was immediate. Glad to read it's going well for you HonBun :)

Great to hear HonBun! My boy won't have the operation until early Feb, so i'll provide some updates then.

Just a quick update - my boy is considered a good candidate and will have the procedure done at the beginning of February. He will be having both knees and elbows done (hips are okay and back is good). Very excited by it all and can't wait to get it done!

That's great to hear all is well so far. Looking forward to hearing more updates

He is most likely going to be suitable. Just need to rule out neurological issues and other problems such as spondylitis etc. Statistically he falls into the osteoarthritis category. Would be fantastic if you could get some before and after footage What a good idea! I will do

Hi Kahnazhu The operation is on the 13th? Good luck and please post and let us know how it goes! My boy is being assessed on the 22nd, so fingers crossed they think he is suitable.

He's booked in to see Ray Ferguson just before Christmas - I'll let you know how the appointment goes

Thanks Inevitablue, I'll give them a call. Glad to read things are going well HonBun!

I did post this question in another thread - interesting in knowing experiences of anyone in Melbourne? Any vet recommendations? I have a 7.5 year old Labrador who has severe arthritis, so would love to do this for him so he doesn't need constant pain relief.

I'm interested in getting this done for my 7 year old Labrador - anyone in Melbourne had it done? Recommendations on Melbourne vets?

Thanks for your responses. I have ordered some of the Tuffie Toys and will see how my pup goes with those. Unfortunately I also have an older Lab who is very food possessive so using bones or Kongs as a chewing alternative is not an option. What are Buddy Bones? I haven't heard of them - are they treats or similar to Nylabones?

I have an eight month old labrador who is going through his teenage phase and chewing like crazy. I was wondering if fellow DOLers could suggest some heavy duty toys I can buy for him to play with that won't be destroyed within 24 hours. I bought a Kong frisbee for him to play with and that was chewed into tiny pieces within 24 hours. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Sheenygirl, I really feel for you as I know what it's like. My 4 1/2 year old labrador retriever has been through the wars. At 7 months he was diagnosed with OCD in both elbows. We opted for surgery which put the poor fellow out of action for a while. I think that created problems with his hind legs. He ended up have reconstructions on both hind legs over the course of the next 12-18 months, two on his right and one on hs left. We also found out that he has mild hip displaysia too. His muscles in his back legs atrophied because he spent so much time out of action. Yet through it all he was still such a happy and gorgeous labrador. We took him to hydrotherapy and physio which really improved his muscle and helped get him back on his feet. I took him to Dogs in Motion down here in Melbourne - if you aren't aware of any hydrotherapy and physio facilities in Sydney, it might be worth contacting them to see if they can recommend one to you. My boy is on Catrophen shots six monthly, Sasha's blend and a raw diet. Now it's warmer, I will start to take him swimming. He is doing lots of walking and the vet is pleased with how he is going. So have faith! I know it's a lot of heart ache (and expensive) but I'm sure you will be able to find some specialists who can help you and your gorgeous puppy dog

My baby is growing quickly! He is 14 weeks old now and weighs around 14 kgs! In the end, pup spent the first 4 weeks inside and I would come home at lunch to feed him and let him have a little run about. In the 5th week, he started spending the day outside and I would come home at lunch to feed and see how things are going. Now pup and his big brother are outside all day together. I know they have a little rumble about during the day but they spend a lot of it snoozing so there isn't too much trouble. I was comfortable they were getting along well and had monitored their time together both outside and inside before I decided to leave him out during the day. Photo of pup and big brother attached

I have a 14 week old labrador retriever puppy who loves to rumble with his big brother. He is often the instigator of the play fighting and will get so hyped up I need to break it up. To settle him down at the moment I am picking him up and holding him facing the wall, so he is removed from the excitement, so to speak. I will do this for a couple of minutes until he calms down. However, as he already weighs about 14 kgs, I can't do this for much longer as he is getting too heavy! I will probably start 'time out' with him but was wondering if any one had any suggestions or even training commands they have been able to use to settle their dogs down. Thanks in advance

This has happened to me before. One of my labradors chewed through the electrical connection on the hot water service twice! Lucky he didn't manage to electrocute himself. For some reason he just lost interest in it thank the lord. But what I would suggest you do, a little over the top maybe, but you don't want to risk your pup hurting himself by chewing again is: - try and cover it in some sort of tubing; and - ask your vet to provide you with some anti-chew liquid and coat onto the tubing. My vet gave me some in a little bottle. It is similar to the stuff that you put on your nails to stop chewing on them. I gave a toy to my other labrador which unknown to me had managed to get a little of this stuff on it. He was not a happy camper! We tried chilli paste on the connection but that wasn't a deterrent! I have heard that Vicks Vapor rub could do the trick or you may be able to spray the cord with citronella to keep the pup away.... Good luck!

I have a 12 week old labrador who has managed to get through the night without needing to toilet for the last week or so - I am super impressed. I originally had him in the laundry in a pen, with a crate in the pen for him to sleep. A fortnight ago he would wake up in the middle of the night, go to the toilet, and then bark to let me know! So I moved the crate into my bedroom and he sleeps in there with the door shut so I can get him outside quickly if he needs to go. It's been a great success for me. But from my reading, puppies generally seem to be able to hold based upon hour to month (eg. two months - two hours)

I have two labrador retrievers, a new puppy that arrived a week ago who is 9 weeks old and a 4 1/2 year old adult. I took the first week off from work to try and get the puppy settled in to his new home and to monitor the interaction between puppy and adult dog. I have been crate training the puppy. The crate is in a pen which I have in the laundry. So whenever I am away from the house, the adult dog and puppy are separate. I am going home at lunchtime to feed puppy, let him out and have a little play currently and will probably do so for the next month at least. Poor puppy hates the pen, but he is too small to run around with my adult dog during the day. I was thinking I could create a small puppy run outside so he has a bit more space than in the pen to move around outside during the day. This way I can keep the adult and puppy separate while puppy is growing but hopefully he will be less anxious if he can see the adult dog. What are people's thoughts and experiences in this regard? Should I keep puppy inside during the day when I am at work? Will puppy get more upset if he is outside and can see the adult dog running around or will he be less anxious? Ultimately they are/will be outside dogs during the day but inside at night when I am home (and for sleeping)

Hi Cosmolo, it sounds like you have been doing your research. I'm not sure I can add any further information, but your path is certainly one I have travelled with my 4 1/2 year old labrador. Fozzie was diagnosed with OCD around 6 months old in both front legs and he was operated on when he was 7 months old. Peter Laverty (if I recall correctly) did the operation and he had only recently come back from working in the US for a couple of years where some of the surgery practices are more advanced than in Australia. He was great to deal with and Fozzie seemed to recover well. When he was about 2 years old, he did his left back cruciate, then followed by his right about 6 months later. He needed to be sedated mildly for a couple of weeks after each operation, not because of the pain but just to make him rest up. The right op wasn't as successful and needed to be redone a few months afterwards. His recovery was very slow and he got a lot of muscle wastage around his back right leg. We started water therapy (with Dogs in Motion but at the Southern clinic in Cheltenham/Highett) in September last year. That really aided in his recovery and he did about half a dozen sessions there. He loved it and is well known at that clinic for other reasons! It got his exercise back on track and up until last week, I was walking him 5 - 7 kms a day, broken into a morning and night walk, with no problems. He has currently tweaked his right back leg again from too much jumping about! A bit of bed rest and maybe some anti-inflammatories to get him started again, but my vet is comfortable with his exercise and says it's important to keep the muscles in good condition. Poor Fozzie - he already has arthritis. Fozzie is on Sasha's blend and has cartrophen shots every six months, and if I manage his exercise well, there is no reason he can't live until 10 - 11 years old. Fozzie's pain threshold is quite high, due to all the operations he has had. Although it has certainly been an expensive exercise, I wouldn't change it for the world as he is a happy fellow who loves life and appears to be pain free most of the time.

Botheration, seeing as you are in Melbourne, it is worth subscribing to the Snooza website. They have warehouse sales every 3/6 months and you can get great discounts on Snooza beds. It's a bit like a Myer stocktake sale when the doors open, and they don't always have every item on sale, but the standard futons and raised beds are usually there and if you buy a few things you get a larger discount.