4paws4me

I hope they also mentioned the increased risk of spey incontinence but I doubt it. oh ..... can they suffer from incontinence once being speyed if before first season? Sorry, just wanting to understand :-)

Hmmm ... I'm wondering if the vet said to let her have a season before desexing and she misunderstood ..... ? But how does that benefit the dog anyways ???

Thanks for the replies :-) I called my vet and they said that always best to desex before first season to help prevent cancer

I'm hoping to get the opinions and advice from registered Chihuahua breeders or vets if at all possible, but happy to hear from anyone regarding this issue. Firstly, no, I am not breeding a Chihuahua, nor anything! But a friend of mine told me that her friend was told by her vet that it was advisable that she bred her 1.5kg Chihuahua before she was de-sexed to minimise the risk of breast cancer which apparently Chihuahua's are known to be very prone to..... I have never heard of such absurd advice..... Can anyone comment on this regarding whether this is actually correct? I have always been under the impression that de-sexing male and female dogs actually prevents them getting breast or prostate cancer... ??? I am pretty annoyed to hear that this person is even considering doing such a thing .... this poor dog is sooo tiny Can she even give birth without complications? On top of this ... this just adds to the never ending list of backyard breeders Any advice would be great ... or maybe some good words that I can pass on to my friend for her to pass on? TIA

Thanks everyone for the feedback :-)

Awesome Sandra777, thanks for the tip :-) I am going to give it a go and see how she goes with it :-)

Oh, that's a good idea DiscoDobe, I could just give it to her for a limited time, and then put the rest away. How often could you keep refreezing it?

Hi Sandra777. Thanks for your reply. She has had pork trotters before, but not many, maybe 3 in the whole year that I have had her. So, is there any chance that I could actually cut the head down in smaller pieces maybe to just give a smaller portion (1/4) so that it doesn't effect her in one big hit? And then I can wait a fortnight, see how it affects her and then if all good, give her another smaller portion? I would just hate to throw this out now, even if it was only $6 lol

Hi :) I came across a full pigs head cut in half at my local butcher today. Thought, what a great treat for my dog (mastiff x) as it would be very much like eating the way her wild family do. However, I've been told by a follow raw feeder that these are way too fatty and can cause problems with the dogs pancreas (sp?) Is this right? Has anyone else heard of this? I did do a search in the forum and found that other raw feeders have fed pig heads, and even found some photos of dogs really enjoying it, but I now have this concern. My girl is approx. 2 1/2 yrs old, and my guess is a mastiff x, but she is only 28kgs. She is a foster dog, thru my local shelter, and she has had such a rough trot with Hip Dysplasia, that I really don't want to risk putting her thru anymore problems. All opinions welcome, but if the majority say best not to feed it to her, then I will have a pigs head to find something else to do with!!! (would most likely bin it, and it seems a waste!) Thanks in advance :)

Hi :) I'm currently feeding my foster dog, Nala, Vets All Natural complete mix with raw meat and she does well on it. However, I have to say that I do truly believe that dogs would do best on raw feeding without the grains. I'm currently fostering Nala (approx. 2yrs old) from a local shelter due to her having congenital hip dysplasia. She has been down to Wagga Wagga and had a hip replacement using the new Kyon hip implant and all is good there. I was having to keep her lean during her healing time, and due to her having hip dysplasia in both hips (they operated on the worse, the other one is minimally affected) I will never allow her to be pudgy :-) I try to walk her daily, but she gets walked atleast every second day, and she currently does hydrotherapy (full swimming, no underwater treadmill!) once a week for a half hour session to help build up her muscles. So, with all this exercising, I'm finding her to be too lean. My guess would be that she should be sitting around the 28kg mark, and she currently weighs 26kgs. Breed I hear you asking ....... well, who knows !!! :-) But my guess would be either American Staffy x mastiff of some sort, maybe Dogue de Bordeaux? Then sometimes she reminds me of a bull arab x, which is what the shelter had her listed as. She is very well built in the front end (prob due to her having to use the strength in her front end since being a pup)but is only the size of an American Staffy. If I can work it out, I will add a few photos at the end of her. So, that is her history and where she is at the moment (sorry, I rambled on didn't I :-/ ) From what I have read by googling, I should be feeding her 2-3% of her ideal bodyweight of raw food, but the part that gets confusing for me is, how much offal and muscle meat can I feed her a week? I think muscle meat is anytime (but all I know of muscle meat is like heart ...can anyone elaborate on this?) and offal being like liver and ...... ???? So, doing the calculations, I should be feeding anywhere from 560gr to 840gr of raw meaty bones and meat. Can anyone give me an idea of what they feed their dog, and would be even more helpful if you have a dog similar in weight :-) Do I just feed her once a day? Is that what you do? I currently feed her twice a day. She gets 400gr of complete mix/meat a day with what ever raw meaty bone I throw her ( I don't weigh this ). Usually a chicken carcass, a roo tail, a lambs neck or a turkey neck. My niece is also wanting to move her dog to raw feeding for better health and hopefully cheaper than buying the Vets all Natural complete mix for her puppy. Dexter is a Lab x Collie and is very active. He is only 6 months at the moment, and LOVES his raw meaty bones!!! How do we work out what Dexter's ideal ADULT body weight would be? My guess was approx. 30kg. So, if your willing to share with me how you raw feed your dog, it would be greatly appreciated :-) Now, to try and add some photos ......

Well, I decided after all to just get the surgery done. So he is booked in for surgery tomorrow. Thank you to everyone who told their stories and offered their advice

So, I had to unwrap the bandage on Winston's head late this arvo to see if there is any improvment at all. Certainly hasn't filled up as much as what it has any other time within 24 hours after draining!!! Strapping it seems to have helped. They used some strapping tape to tape ear flat to head, and then used a sticky bandage to wrap over the top of it. It took me half an hour to just try and get all the bandaging off by using cooking oil !!! So that he doesn't have a chance to flap his ear again,I decided to do my own wrapping here at home with a normal bandage, just until we arrive at the vet tonight at 7.00pm. Vet will check out the improvement, and we will go from there. To be honest, I would much prefer them to drain it again, and then wrap it up again and to leave it over the weekend (if this is possible) and then look at it again on Monday, to see if it has improved. However, I will need to make sure it isn't filling up over the weekend too. Gee ... Am i even making sense lol. ARGH ... will just wait and see what the vet says, but I will be mentioning what you guys have mentioned that has worked for your dogs. Will let you know how we go

Ari.g .... was the hematoma on the flap part of your dogs ears too ??? Im wondering if 1 day of taping will be long enough to give it a chance, but I will see what it looks like tomorrow. They have done Winston's differently. As I mentioned before, they have basically bandaged his one ear flat to his head. Hope this would give the same effect as it did for your dog. I have my fingers crossed, but ain't holding my breath lol.

Thanks guys After leaving it the night and noticing this morning that it was slowly filling again, I made the decision to book Winston in to get the surgery. He is booked in for Friday morning. Due to the wait, the vet told me to bring him in this afternoon to have his ear drained again. When I took him in, we saw a different vet, and I was explaining how I was trying to avoid the surgery. She asked if we had tried draining it but then bandaging (taping) his ear to his head? So, we arrived home with a drained ear that is now taped to poor Winston's head. Im trying my best not to laugh hehe. Vet said, leave it taped until late Thursday afternoon, and then unwrap it to see if it has made a difference. Vet said we can make a final decision then. If no improvement, he will definately be going in on friday for the surgery !!! Thanks once again for all the replies

Thanks the replies are very helpful Ari.g ... maybe I should speak to my vet about taping my dogs ears up ??? I was thoroughly showed today how to and where to prick my dogs ear, so I know I am not going to hit any main vessels, but I just hate the thought of having to put my dog thru that every day :-(

Yes, the vet was VERY surprised to see that my dog had very clean ears, and we still are unsure how this even happened. The only thing we can think of is that he bit on the ear by something to make him shake his head violently to cause the hematoma. I am also aware of precautions I have to take to make sure I dont infect the ear doing it myself :-) The vet did put him on anitibiotics too. Im thinking Im going to have to the surgery path, but with my dog being 11 years old, was just trying to avoid putting him under aswell :-(

Just wondering if anyone can give me any personal advice here. My dog has a hematoma on his ear (on the actual flappy part) which i had drained by the vet yesterday, and drained again today. I am trying to avoid surgery which will cost approx $350, so I decided i wanted to try to just keep draining it (which involves me having to keep pricking it with a needle each day :-( ) to see if the blood vessel clots and it heals up. It would be greatly appreciated to hear from anyone that has had to deal with this personally or knows of a friend/family member who have. Thank you

Thanks Neats Its greatly appreciated

Do you happen to have a contact number for Jenny ??? I'm interested :-) Thanks

I'm very interested in this workshop. I second everything that others have said they want to see. I have a dog that will aggress until he earns top dog position with another dog. If the other dog doesn't submit, I'm afraid what would happen. I will definately be keeping myself updated on this topic