SilverHaze

Thanks everyone for your great advice. Once we have hopefully got his heart murmur under control, i'll start investigating possible additions to his diet. I don't want to add anything too complicated - with other dogs in the house, protracted food time preparation could cause complete chaos! He always gets to go on outing with me - camping all winter, drives through the summer, even if he can't do the longer walks and runs the younger dogs do. I'll look up Ann Neville as well, as she is only about 5 minutes from me :)

Thanks Erny - he is on Fourflax Flaxseed Oil which has done amazing things for his joints. Currently on a grain free Salmon and Sweet Potato dry food, plus a variety of fresh meats (beef/chicken/fish) and all the tasty leftovers available - because why would you waste them :) Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we can sort out what long term meds he will be on for his heart, and then i just wanted to hopefully add some regular things to his diet to help boost his system and give him a fighting chance.

Can anyone provide me with a list of foods, or suggestions for feeding for a dog who has had his second cancerous lump removed. This dog is now 11, and also has developed a heart murmer. We have done our best to remove it surgically - there was 2 years between the lump first being removed and growing back, so hoping the for similar success - but i'd like to give him these best chance by giving him foods which help boost his system. Any suggestions are welcome.

Both times I brought in frozen Semen, the agreement with the breeder has been to pay upfront for a breeding. If that breeding is successful and later down the track we want to use the remainder on another suitable bitch, then pay another stud fee. At the end of the day its down to the honesty between people as when you bring in the semen, it is signed over to you and registered in this country as being owned by you. The stud dog owner has to relinquish all control. All collections I have had done have been two collections a couple of days to a week apart. Frozen pellets in vials.

As others have said - have a good think about how high the footplate is off the ground. Depending on how willing your dog is to pull you may have to do a hell of alot of scooting to help out. Having to lower your leg a far distance for each scoot is not going to be fun. And the higher you are off the ground the more trouble you may run into if something goes wrong as well. I have two Pettifer 26 inch scooters, plus my trusty old red which is a 20 inch scooter made from an old bmx frame. Old red rocks, with its chopping board footplate rocks :laugh:

I just checked out the codes of practice for the VCA/DogsVic (Part 20.1) - they list minimum breeding ages, no more than 2 litters in 18 months, no more than 6 times in life without vet cert & permission from vca. But no where there does it list a maximum breeding age. Am i correct i thinking that if its not listed there then they dont have any enforceable rules for maximum ages in victoria?

Our flexi leads are a must have for our Siberians. Only the best quality of course - would never trust a cheapie, and only the strongest. I use them for all pee breaks when travelling and camping, and for general exercise to let them stretch their legs when an enclosed leash free area is not available. I will also use them in the park - and I'm always aware of other people and dogs around us. Dogs are brought in and kept on a short leash when others approach. It's fantastic for people to say they hate them, they shouldn't be used, teaches a dog to pull etc. But when you have a breed which can't be trusted off leash but needs the ability to stretch their legs, good quality tools such as a flexi lead are a godsend. Oh and I don't need anything to teach my dog to pull - hardwired into their genes, and then cemented with training :laugh:

what breed is he? in my breed you bloody well better hope they are somewhat east west as puppies - if they are straight as pups they will tend to toe in as adults. As they get older the feet will come around.

Maybe it got stamped wrong, and you have the 3 numbers for 1 dog, and the numbers for the other are missing. I think mine may have been sorted by dog in the envelope - i can't remember now :laugh:

I got my numbers back - 4 dogs entered all 3 days. The numbers were completly jumbled up. It was like they had some sort of order, but i couldn't figure it out :) Sounds like they may have just missed putting a couple of your numbers in.

No numbers, and my cheque hasn't been cashed.

When i ran our speciality shows, and this was before even the neuter register, I would have let a desexed dog enter in properties (and probably did). They arent competiting for a challenge certificate, the properties arent regular classes, so I don't see what the harm is. Hell, in NSW property classes are a bit of fun and are an enter on the day type of class. Much better in my opinion. It is ridiculous that we dont have standard rules across the country.

You will not know until you have puppies on the ground in Australia :) Very true. Frozen Semen is always a cross your fingers and pray for the best kinda thing. Our last litter was from frozen semen collected in the US about 3 years ago. From a post thaw of 70% we got 5 puppies.

We are currently doing this - importing semen from an 11 year old and a 9 year old. They have just been collected and the 11 year old had 99% motility upon collection and post thaw it was around 80% Super swimmers for a super dog I say. He has sired a litter of 7 naturally in march. Fingers crossed all goes well. You wont know till you have the dogs semen assessed.

I have had some success with Eqyss Mega-Tek Coat Rebuilder You can order it from Pets on the Park. Has worked sometimes, sometimes not. But i keep it handy.

I have had two after hours c-sections at the same emergency vet clinic - both cost approx $1900. Both times we were there to help with the pups - in the middle of the night clinics should be ready to use all available hands, including your own! The first time the vet on call met us at the clinic by the time we arrived. The second time they already had an emergency occuring (horse with colic i believe) but even so were very prompt at monitoring our bitch and then performing the c-section. So cost wise the vet sounds on par - action and attention wise, i wouldn't be using them again.

Don't ever skimp on this surgery! Get a specialist!

Is there any hope in the near future of Black Hawk making a performance level food? Or food with bigger sized kibble pieces? I've placed my older dogs onto the adult (they were on eagle pack natural) and they are doing well which is great - they will stay on this. Our younger racing dogs have also been on BH for the last couple of months and done well, but its now time to switch them over to a performance food. They are normally on Eagle Pack Power - but this has been hard to source lately. If BH were to develop a similar level food - we would be more than happy to try it.

In these breeds of dogs 9 and 10 year old dogs can still be in peak working condition and you will find the experience these dogs bring to a team are invaluable. Karen Ramstead has 10 year old Crunchie (who has successfully also been shown) on her team, and he is still in the mix and working hard.

I have a very active siberian who has had both legs done with TPLO by Mark Foley at Monash - i couldn't ask for better treatment, and his recovery has been fantastic. I do think with surgery like this it comes down to the dog itself and how they respond to the surgery, and also the follow up care by the owner. Good luck with your girl!

Since this only applies to animals available for sale and my puppies aren't available for sale until they are 8 weeks old, i should be able to advertise a litter younger than 8 weeks old without microchip numbers - as they fall under the "future availability" rule. Until the animal is available for the purchaser to pay money for and take home with them, they should not require a microchip number to be made available. Or else, get a letter from my vet saying they are too young to be microchipped until they 6-8 weeks old. This should cover you as well.

Sorry to go a little off topic but can someone point me in the direction of more info re antibiotics causing damage to puppies teeth? We had a bitch who was placed on AB's about 2 weeks prior to her due date - two pups were dead before the due date, and of the 4 surviving pups, 3 have discoloured teeth. One also has a ring of the top layer of the tooth missing on one of her canines - but we thought this could be caused by a snake bite she suffered at 13 weeks of age. I had never heard about the AB''s causing teeth damage before.

I've had one of my boys do this before, actually a number of the sibes. Apart from a huge belly - and these sad eyes telling you how very sorry they feel for themselves, they should be fine. I wouldn't feed your girl for at least a day - let the belly go down and the food digest, and you should be right. Just keep an eye on her in case of bloat.

The fact is, some dogs are just such escape artists, that a roofed pen on a concrete (or paved) base is the only solution. I would much rather this than worry about where my dog is if he's gotten out again. Another option is a hotwire on the fence - for a real escape artist I would run at a minimum two rows, one at the top and one at the bottom just off the fence to prevent them accessing the bottom of the fence line. For real terrors you can run a third line half way up the fence to stop them even thinking of climbing up that fence.

My older dogs, and dogs who are maintaining their weight easily, get fed once a day (they may get a treat or bickie bone during the day or at bed time as well). I have a dog who has a hard time maintaining weight - he gets fed twice a day. He also gets fed twice the amount the other dogs do, so it makes sense to split his meals. Of course if he misses breakfast, then he gets a huge meal at night, and he's just fine with that too. But boy does he dance around till he gets breakfast in the morning I do find that splitting the meals helps maintain the weight better than one large feed.