Stitch

Most monthly heartwormers also do round worm etc. but they do not do tapeworm so if your dog has fleas then you need to treat for tapeworm every three months. Some heartwormer can upset the gut on dogs that are more sensitive. I found that Interceptor was a very good Heartwormer, better than Heartguard Plus. You should also remember that if your dog doesn't tolerate fat, the marrow of bones is also fat so that can upset dogs that do not tolerate fat well.

There is a new flea & tick (including paralysis tick) spot on available called Exetick. Made by Coopers who have been around for ages.

I recommend vaccination protocols at the ages you have mentioned. I leave the C5 till 16 weeks. I also prefer monthly heartworm prevention and found that Interceptor was excellent....never had a problem with that. Now trialling Guardian which is new to the market. Prices of heartworm medication seem to be coming down. Ring around and go for the vet that recognises that the Parvo/Distemper/Hepatitis immunisation ie. C3 injection only needs to be administered every 3 years not yearly. Kennel Cough (nasal) has to be done yearly and is necessary if you intend to put your dog into boarding kennels at any stage or if it is going to come into contact with other dogs.

Totally agree Eyeopener. Not all dogs are the same and in order to rehabilitate some dogs the correct use of pronged collars is entirely appropriate....and it's not only the large breeds. Unfortunately it seems some trainers have had limited experience with problem behaviours (sometimes breed associated) and think that all problems can be solved with reward based training. They can't..... and that is where judicious use of a pronged collar comes in. As a result the dog will often then be able to progress to the reward based training and rehabilitation of a dog that had previously had a very poor prognosis will be achieved.

All the suggestions you have received are great....but the calendula tea is IMO the real gem. I am a total convert since using it on an itchy dog. It brought great relief in a very short time. Calendula tea is bought at the health food shop in a packet like normal tea. You brew it up like normal tea, instructions are on the packet, and when it cools you apply it on the dogs skin/coat. All credit to Ernie who suggested it to me some time back.

Yes Tassie I keep a dog book and note any health issues with my lot. I can then refer back to it if necessary. Invaluable when you have multiple dogs and for mating/whelping data. Noisymina, I didn't notice her eyes as the room was fairly dark but the vet didn't notice anything wrong when she looked. I suppose though it could have normalised by then approx. 20minutes later.

It was very scarey to see her in such distress yesterday but today its just like yesterday never happened...she never went off her food or anything.

I wondered about that Persephone but she doesn't exhibit any back or neck problems any other time and she is not a dog that generally leaps around.

Today, my old girl (10 years young) small to medium sized breed suddenly arched her back, turned her head and poked her nose out whilst lying down and shaking. She couldn't walk or even hold herself upright. I immediately grabbed her and held her. After a while she gradually seemed to relax...I immediately phoned our vet then whisked her straight up there. Vet went over her carefully, tested her reflexes amongst other things but heart, reflexes, eyes, etc were perfect. Also went over her for ticks, found none. She was still a bit shakey at the vets especially in the back legs but other than that she appeared normal and the shaking had stopped by the time we got home again. No further problems....the vet didn't know what it was other than to say it could be a mild epilepic seizure. Anyone seen anything like this before...it is very worrying!!

The BEST dogfood is the one your dog does BEST on!!! Many puppies and dogs have passed through my doors over the years.....some can't/couldn't tolerate a raw diet, some have/had an intolerance to some dry dogfoods, some do great on whatever they are fed....some even prefer the cooked dog rolls and so it goes!!! Even for humans now, everything we eat generally has something about it eg.fat, sugar, hormones, pesticide etc. that isn't good for us or we may have allergies to. We just have to work through it and find out what suits us best and so it is with dogfood. The fact remains that the BEST dogfood is the one your dog does BEST on....and that is our job as dog owners, to work that out!

Yes the breeder can definitely help by structuring the pups environment and starting toilet training HOWEVER with smaller dogs toilet training can still be very difficult. I have had clean litters and I have had dirty ones and all of the variations in between. Some bitches are wonderful with their pups, cleaning them up and showing to pups where to do wees and poos away from their bed and other bitches not so good. Sometimes despite my best efforts as a breeder certain pups are just slow at toilet training and will train but only in their own sweet time. Nothing beats vigilance by the new owner in speeding up toilet training but some pups will only be trained at their own pace! When this happens the new owner has to be consistant in his/her vigilance and also ensure the pups environment is kept clean. Dirty/soiled environments eg. bedding only reinforce that it is OK to soil anywhere the pups choose. What has to be reinforced with the pup is that soiling is not allowed in certain places.

Smaller dogs tend to do this more than larger dogs in my experience. Every now and then I will get a puppy that does this....so then it is a case of waiting until the pup gets older and grows out of it. In the meantime if the pup is crated or confined at night you have the option of putting a towel in with it instead of its normal bedding so you can wash it after it gets peed on or replacing the bedding altogether with newspaper....or some tough love of no bedding at all. Once you get to the stage of taking the bedding away the dog usually learns quickly to hold on but very young pups just don't physically have the control you may be wanting. You don't want it to learn that it is OK to pee on the bedding so the easiest thing is to take the good bedding away and replace it with newspapers until it is older.

Both Big Dog and Dr.B's BARF patties do have crushed bone in them BUT the bone is ground so small you can't even see it. I get Big Dog and it just looks like meat & tiny bits of green or orange in it from the veg. but you certainly can't see any bone.

My girl had exactly the same issues including 5 days in hospital. After trying Hills Z/d which was OK but she still had pain and soft poos, I changed her to Royal Canin Hypoallergenic and 'problem sorted'. My other half gave her 2 Grain Waves a few days ago and the next day she was vomiting bile and her stomach was rumbling loudly. I didn't feed her and then I took her off to the local vet for some Buscopan and Metrozine tabs. The Buscopan seems to have settled her stomach this time because I got it so quick so I am hoping that the Metrozine won't be needed. She is back on the Royal Canin Hypo. with strict instructions to everyone NOT to feed her ANYTHING else. Obviously she is a dog that can't tolerate certain kinds of protein. I would never give her any chews of any kind as they would be the death of her!! BTW: White rawhide chews are just the normal brown chews but they have been through a bleaching process....and most if not all of the rawhide chews come from China or overseas.

That's a thought Rusty, I have some Protexin I will add that to her BARF for a while. It can't hurt and may help.....good thinking! I was also wondering if Big Dog Rabbit BARF had any liver in it. Liver is something that can cause diahorrea in dogs.

Yes, Magpie, sourcing raw diets can be difficult. We went through that years ago so I switched over to Big Dog BARF which comes prepared and frozen. This is what I feed all my lot of an evening and no one else has a diahorrea problem whatsoever. As far as the birds are concerned....they have to be pretty brave to go near any of the dog water dishes. My lot all hate birds and protect their area especially this young girl, so no birds don't go anywhere near my dogs unless they have a death wish!! :laugh: ETA: Just to clarify, all my guys get fed the same type of food ie. dry in the morning and the main meal of BARF of an evening, just the quantities will vary a little dependant on the dog. I use the dry just to fine tune their diet/condition so they don't get a huge quantity of it.

Yes, I agree with all you have said...thing is that she was on Eagle Pack dry as all my other dogs eat that so I changed her to Royal Canin and it is still happening. I can't see that she is under any more stress from one day to the next. I had one girl once that used to love to eat the palm nuts but I haven't seen this girl eat anything from the ground. I have taken to watching her when she is outside and I don't see her foraging....although she is a dog that is very fond of food. I do have to limit the amount of dryfood she eats as she really puts on weight easily. The reason I give her any dry food at all is because my other dogs get fed at the same time and she can't bear to go without, so she only gets a little bit to keep her happy.

One of my lot, a female 15 months old is really puzzling me. She is in general good health, active and happy but every few weeks, overnight, she poos in her crate and it can be quite sloppy. This dog has the exact same things to eat every day at the same time....it never varies. She is usually very clean overnight, no accidents at all except for these occasional poos. She can go 3-4 weeks without any problems, and then there it is in the morning!! She is a dog that does very well on her food and her poos are usually small and dry. She gets 1/8th cup Royal Canin of a morning and BARF of an evening. It has me beat why she has this pooing problem....anyone got any ideas??

I wonder if we are able to buy bully sticks from an overseas supplier and get them into Australia??

What they eat can definitely have a bearing on how they smell. A more natural diet = less smell. Smell usually = bacteria so you can also try washing the dog in something like Pyoderm shampoo which is for bacterial infections. Pyoderm shampoo is not a harsh shampoo like some of them.

Update - got some Beef Bully sticks from the Australian company and they look fine. Downside - every one of my lot got through a 20cm stick in about 1/2 hour. I was hoping that they would last longer....is that normal??

Try dabbing on calendula tea. I have seen it take the redness and the itchiness out of dogs skin in about 30 minutes. It really is very good.....I totally recommend it for itchy skin both on dogs and humans.

I was going to buy sheeps ears once and I asked the seller where they came from and they said Argentina!! You would think that as we have soooo many sheep in Australia that we would have our own sheeps ears, but no, they import them!! So I don't take anything for granted now! :laugh: I've got to say I don't 'like' giving my guys piggy ears but they have been the best of a bad bunch since having the tendons, which were Australia made, go fuzzy in a matter of days. I think these things should really be kept in the fridge but then if they are properly 'cured' then they shouldn't need refrigeration.

Thanks Minimax, I have ordered some from them however I noted that they don't actually say it is made in Australia.

Minimax where do you get yours? I only want to buy Australian ones. I bought a small trial pack of plaited ones from a local shop however they only lasted about 15 minutes and one of mine nearly choked on a small piece. They seem very brittle and I will be tossing the remaining few as I don't want that happening again. I expected they would last longer than that???