Stitch

Why don't you phone the vet that did the job and ask them? After all you paid them to do the job, so they should be willing to give some advice over the phone. I think that is only fair!

Hmmm, good to know. I have one bitch that wouldn't eat dry dogfood ever so I will continue to feed the BARF as I know they are doing well on it.

Thank you for that link Becks. I wonder if they are available in Australia? Do you know if they have a long shelf life?

OK next question Gundoglover is where do I get the paper and what is it called. Is it Litmus paper or something different? And how do you get the sample to test?

Yes Staranias that would be my take on it too. What does everyone think of the calcium to phosphorous ratio of the BARF which is 1.0:0.8??? Do you think this is optimum?

Yes, it is difficult to sort out the 'it would have happened anyways no matter what I had fed' from the 'if I had fed differently maybe I could have avoided the difficulties'. I just want to make sure about the calcium to phosphorous ratios as the calcium uptake during pregnancy seems to be vitally important.

Can anyone tell me the calcium to phosphorous ratio for premium commercial canned or dry dogfoods please? and what is the optimum for pregnant bitches. I have tried a variety of feeding regimes over the years then about 3 years ago I switched over to Raw all natural foods initially feeding VAN + minced chicken frames, etc. I experienced a run of whelping problems on VAN during that time which may be co-incidental or may be diet related and when Dr. Billinghurst BARF diet was available in my area I decided to move on to this even though it is a more expensive alternative and I have been feeding BARF for about 9 months now. My dogs are looking great and are in excellent health however I am hoping to breed a litter of pups soon and this will be the first one since changing over to BARF. I notice that the calcium to phosphorous ratio on the BARF is 1:0.8. A vet I know is of the opinion that it is preferable to change a bitch over to a commercial diet, canned or dry, until after the pregnancy because they have seen incidence of whelping difficulties which they think may be connected to feeding raw all natural food. Does anyone have any experience with this??

To a lot of dogs toys are not exciting until you play with the toy with the dog on a regular and continuous basis. You have to continue to play with the toy and the dog every day. You can make the kong your toy which you bring out to play with the dog and take away when you are finished. Dogs don't initially always know what is a toy and what isn't - you have to get their interest by playing with it with them and doing this once or twice sometimes just doesn't get the message across. If you initiated play with the dog and the toy twice a day for 7 days I am sure you would see a result at the end of this time.

I would think that all you would need would be some diagrams of the cells at their various stages in order to know what you were looking at under the microscope. At least it would save me the cost of the early progesterone tests even if I had to do one just prior to mating. I must say though I was never very good at looking through a microscope when I did science at school - I hope I have improved since then!!! Mating isn't a problem if you have the dog in your own backyard but it gets very uncertain if you have to send your bitch to a stud dog. The timing really has to be exactly right so that you don't make the trip needlessly. I just had a bitch start to come into season and then stop and go completely out of season - I could have saved myself the cost of 3 progesterone tests. And of course the vet involved didn't help - they are always happy to take the money. The paper tests I really haven't heard of before. Does that mean they are not that reliable?? It seems so simple to take the paper tests I am surprised I haven't heard of them.

Thanks for your replies. For the microscope method - can you tell me what kind of microscope is required? For the other method - that sounds like a litmus test or similar - can anyone elaborate?

Has anyone tried an alternative to progesterone testing (other than using a dog)? Like using the Draminski Ovulation detector or a vaginal swab?? If you have, how reliable are these forms of testing? I guess with vaginal swabs you would have to monitor it almost daily to see when the cells cornify? Would like to hear your experiences.

This is a problem that I encounter reasonably often as I have to train all my puppies to walk properly on a lead. One of the best methods I have found is to just 'stop' when the dog pulls on a walk. This takes a bit of patience on your part initially but what you are waiting for is for the penny to drop ie. if I pull then all forward momentum stops. You are looking for the dog to look up at you at this point, asking the question' why aren't we moving forward ?'' so when they do this and there is even a small amount of slack on the lead, you start walking again. It might take you half an hour to move 50 metres and a weeks worth of this to get it through their heads but the penny does drop after a while. They learn that when they pull, you stop and they don't get anywhere. When they look up and stop pulling you move forward until the pulling starts again whereupon you repeat, and repeat. In my experiences harnesses and the like only make the problem worse.

Yep, we've tried quite a few including that one. From memory it was much cheaper but have gone back to the Heartguard as it is more readily accepted by my dogs and I don't have to poke them down their throats.

I want to get some ID bands like the ones they used to put on people in hospital. I want to be able to identify puppies and put the ID bands around their necks. Does anyone know where I can get them? I think they are available in different colours.

If you are looking for a high value reward then try using the 100% beef patties, dry fried and then cut up into small pieces. They are not fatty and the dogs love them. You have to buy the good ones though, ie ones that are very low in fat.

Are all the different brands of I/D diets a vet only line??

Thanks for your reply. I will try it that way. Pity about the whickies - I was hoping I could make them look clean again.

Does anyone know a recipe for feeding a natural diet to a dog with Irritable Bowel Disease? I currently feed Hills I/D and my girl is doing well on it except for the fact that she absolutely hates it and only eats it because I won't give her anything else. Also, the salt in it makes her very thirsty a few hours after consuming it. That can't be good for her but I am reluctant to change her diet too much because of the diahorrea etc. that may be stirred up again if I do.

I have taken my older girl to the vet - I thought I would have to get her teeth cleaned under general anaesthetic however he didn't think they were bad enough, bearing in mind that she is 6 years old and the risks the anaesthetic might pose. He suggested that I clean her teeth every day - I now have two different types of doggy toothpaste - however I am not sure on the right technique to use as she is the first dog I have ever had any problems with teeth. I wet the toothbrush and apply about 5cm paste but it only seems to do half or maybe a quarter of her teeth. I guess she is sucking the paste away. What does everyone else do??? Also she has staining around her whicky chops - anyone know what to use to clean them remove the staining? Ordinary shampoo doesn't do anything. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Vitamin E was recommended by the natural therapy guys in Bathurst as a basic vitamin to help with skin and general well being. The dose for a 7kg dog was a 100iu capsule daily. I have been giving it for 3 months now and the skin has definitely improved. I also give 1000mg capsule of fish oil daily. The dog is in excellent condition now and has a lovely coat. The skin used to be dry and flakey but is now squeeky clean. I would say that Vitamin E would not hurt your dog as long as the dose is correct and you should see benefits from it.

I have been using the Innotek Pro Scout as the other collars were ignored by my Dobe. It is a training collar not a barking collar. The after sales service by Innotek is very good. The unit itself is also very good in all areas except perhaps for the feature that if it is not used for 6 hours it automatically turns itself off which doesn't suit my situations all the time but obviously can be overcome if you remember to operate it every now and then. The unit has a large range of stimulations and it can be positive as well as negative. It has a very decent range of operation (distance) for field work. It is rechargable - no batteries required.

I guess so! I knew that they lay dormant in the mother and then spread to the pups - it is just the bitches that I have raised from a pup don't have a problem with roundworm and the ones I buy in as mature bitches usually do have a problem. So I presume what happens is that when I breed or buy in a pup and worm it then the round worms don't get a chance to progress to the stage where they migrate to the other internal organs (outside of the gut) and when I buy in a mature bitch that may not have had regular worming as a pup then the roundworms have migrated outside the gut area and are then passed on to the pups. Is there no way of eliminating the encysted larvae?

OK here's the thing - I routinely use Drontal All Wormer on my dogs and also monthly Heartguard Plus which has the added benefit of elimating roundworm however........... I bought in a mature bitch and routinely wormed her as above, when she had her litter of pups they had roundworm. ;) I have been over this with the manufacturers of Heartguard but I still can't understand why it is that when I breed a bitch that I have had since birth or puppyhood they do not pass roundworm on to their puppies but a mature bitch that I buy in will have puppies with roundworm even though she has been wormed routinely by me and also had monthly heartworm. Luckily we don't have fleas or tapeworms but roundworm in puppies is something that I don't want also! Can anyone satisfactorily explain why I can't eliminate roundworms in some bitches, or if there is a way of eliminating them completely???

All my dogs get their ears plucked from when they are very young and they have no trouble with me doing it, in fact they actually enjoy the procedure, it is just a matter of training. Think of it as your opportunity to exert your leadership status and become assertive. ;)

You could always try taking the script for the Metacam (or the Metacam itself) along to a compounding chemist and see if they are able to dispense or replicate it. One of my dogs was prescribed an ointment from the specialist vet who charged $150 for it. I got him to write a script for it and took it along to our local compounding chemist who made it up for me. I got double the amount of cream for half the price. Might be worth a try!