Legz

Thanks for the replies guys, appreciated. Haha Monah he is the type of kitten who will just literally run circles full pelt around the room leaping and jumping with or without toys with no encouragement from us, we can ignore him completely and he will do it. He will entertain himself if we don't do anything, but we can be sitting quiet and the next thing we know he has latched on to our ankles, or his favorite is to attack when someone is walking past... he hides behind the couch/in doorways and leaps out feral. We have one of those wands with material and a feather on the end... we try to direct his play to toys only not us. We don't play with our hands with him (im going to have to check if the partners parents are doing this though) we try to keep it to toys only. Ill pass on all advise about stimulating him and no shouting when he latches on...he has drawn blood numerous times and its hard not to yelp when hes latched on for the 5th time in 30seconds. In saying that he is gorgeous and has a huge personality and boy does he make us laugh. We never have him and the dog together unsupervised and we keep a close eye on things that hes not pestering the dog to much or the dog isn't getting to excited trying to play back. Its just hard at the moment because im thinking he should run ragged til he falls down exhausted but he gets more and more wound up that after 2 hours of still going mental my partners parents have had enough (cant blame them) and put him back in the crate where he hangs upside down from the top! He also gets to go outside in a secure courtyard with lots of bushes and things to hide/play with for a few hours everyday but still maybe not enough. Do we still use the water bottle or stop that? So far it seems to work when we have it, but if we dont have it near we're not sure what to do. Thanks again!

Hi all, sorry its not a doggy post, its a kitten one as i have no idea where else to ask and lots of people on here seem to have cats and dogs so thought i would give it a crack. We have been given a kitten and we have had him for approx 2 weeks now, we got him when he was 6 or 7 weeks old. Long story short he was found under a hedge one night by my neighbours daughter and taken to the vet who estimated age was 5 weeks. She kept him for just under 2 weeks but her little boy developed a rash and they thought it was cat allergy. Neighbour asked us if we could take him otherwise he was off to the animal welfare league. He was more than likely a stray he somehow separated from his mum. Haha now im thinking maybe it wasn't a rash maybe they just realised this little kitten was very hard work and we got suckered. Now the issue is i haven't had a kitten for years, my last 2 were chinchillas from a breeder and i cant remember much about them as kittens (would have been 7 years old at the time) but they were sweethearts and this little guy seems mental! He is not scared of anything (he was chasing and pouncing on the staffy after 2 days) will purr and smooch and have a cuddle, then like a switch go from purring and snuggling to outright feral, bite your face and claw and attack. It seems like play, he runs feral around the living room (has heaps of toys) but will constantly out of no where attack us, grab arms, legs, pounce at our faces etc. Just sitting down on the couch and playing with toy with him will every time resort to him attacking arms/hands etc. He really bites and wraps himself around whatever body part he has and claws in. It seems like very rough play, hes certainly not scared and you can untangle him and say NO and push him away and he'll fly back at you and grab hold. Even picking him up when he's in a feral mood will result in him latching on and biting. The problem is he seems to be feral most of the time!! What can we do??? We have now resorted to a spray water bottle to spray him when he latches on, is there anything else we should/shouldn't be doing? At night he goes into a crate (extra large is my brothers am staffy cage) and during the day he is either running loose or in the crate (he's at my partners parents house while we renovate ours) so doesn't get to run around all day long which i don't think is helping the issue. How long is he going to be this crazy for?? He certainly doesn't act like a timid stray, more like an in your face tiger. Any suggestions? My partners parents are being great allowing him there but they are getting pretty over being attacked constantly.

CW EW thanks for the offer but i live in SA so just a wee bit far away Lanabanana I guess we thought she was winding herself up to much, she has growled at us of picking her up while she has been playing and doesn't want to stop and has growled when she was lifted onto our laps when she was tired and obviously didnt want to be picked up. They arent usually vocal, my westie doesnt make a noise and we let them go at it pretty hard but when the cairn seems to get really wound up she starts growling and trying to shake the westie. Should we ignore it all? Yeah puppy school she is pretty funny, its when she is off the lead she stalks them. The instructor hasn't said much, just separated them when she started having a serious go at another puppy. And she has growled whilst being held by someone else (they make us handle others puppies) She just kept going, the person thought it was funny and was winding her up so she just kept growling, i was not happy and told her NO and told the person shes not allowed to do that. Now im not sure what to do! Ignore the growling while playing but don't let her growl with us? She really is a sweet, independent, loving puppy and we want the bring her up right lol

Hey all just in need of some advice, we have a 10week old Cairn terrier that is attitude on legs when it comes to taking her to puppy school! She wont really play or run around tail wagging like the other puppies, she either lies at our feet/lap and when she is down she stalks the other puppies! Like stiff legged, tail strait up not wagging and follows them pushing her chin into their necks/faces/backs and she will growl at them. She wont really play at all and she has seriously fired up at growled a lot at the other pups for no reason it seemed. They don't gang up on her at all but she seems either not interested in them at all or trying to be little miss dominant. At home we have an old 15yr maltese x and a 6 month old westie female. She LOVES my dogs and the westie and her play all day, they can be quite rough and if we hear the occasional growl (usually from the cairn) she gets a firm NO and gets lifted for some calm down time. What more socialization can we do? My westie LOVED puppy school and is such a gorgeous little social thing but the cairn seems to hate it! She doesn't seem scared at all, she will sit/lay quietly while the others are around her so we dont know quite what to do. We really dont want her growing to be dog aggressive so any advice please!

Yeah i was in shock myself, i was actually thinking i cant believe im hearing this. What i still cant get over though is after him telling me about 4 times why she shouldn't be on a lead and me nodding and be polite and saying ill take it on board and trying to smile and fob him off a bit he turned so nasty and agro. How is that normal? What normal person does that to someone they don't know? How on earth did he think he had a right to lecture me on his on beliefs then turn so horrible. Very scary, can you imagine if that was a young girl? Im 26, what if that was a 16yr old? Scary.

Wow dont you just love off lead parks I had a run in last night at an SA one where i had to call the police and council after a man decided to call me a c**t about 5 times because i chose to NOT let my 4.5 month old westie who was there for the first time off the leash. She was carried in, put down in a quiet area, walked around, happy to say hello to the smaller dogs etc. There were bigger dogs there going nuts chasing each other and being quite rough and i didnt want her first experience to be a bad one (trying to be responsible). He took it upon himself to have a go, when i politely declined for the 4TH TIME but said i would take what he was saying on board but she wasn't getting off, i explained she was a pup, had no recall, didn't want her getting chased etc. He called her anti-social and it was people like me that cause problems and i will be the first to start screaming if she got hurt - even though its my fault. I wasn't facing him, trying to ignore but he just kept on at me.He started having a real go, very aggressive (nice to pick on the lady by herself with her puppy). After telling him politely to leave it alone, i then got firm and said ive been polite, now your being rude, now its time to mind your own business. He actually kept going kept going, i told him i didn't care what he was saying just leave me alone etc etc. To which he shouted see your not taking it on board your not even listening you don't care about your dog etc. I had enough of taking it so picked up puppy to leave, told him it was dic heads like him that make people not want to come here, he called me a c**t, i said don't call me that, he said why not c**t, told him that i would be reporting it to council and police he said go ahead c**t, i was flabbergasted, and he yelled out seeya c**t ill be waiting here. Completely unprovoked, when someone asks the big hulking man to leave them alone about 4 times and is so polite then finally gets called that in front of others (who said and did nothing) its horrible. Police and council now involved, the council will be going tonight to look for him, and the police went down last night to find him. Thats what they call indecent, so if i see him again im to call, although the thought of going back by myself wont happen. But the police were not happy and taking it seriously. The council were good about it, made a report last night and got a phone call back today so they are being proactive although they did say not much they can do as its not a dog fight etc, which i understand.

This thread is heart wrenching. I have had the horrible loss of 2 dogs, last year my heart dog and then early this year her daughter, they were both 15yrs. WE had 2 very different experiences, jo my heart dog had cancer, dementia and blind (already lost one eye to a tumor) and was slowly fading. She was pampered, coddled and spoilt and preferred to sleep her days away at the end. We Knew her time had come when she stopped eating and we had to carry her out to the garden to toilet (small terrier). We took her to my vet and we stayed with her and held her and spoke to her and she was calm and relaxed and she basically just fell asleep in our arms, very very peaceful. We were all a mess crying and sobbing (whole family) but she was part of the family and used to the crying and cuddles that she got when one of us was having a bad day. My other little dog that went earlier this year had a very sudden rapid decline that involved seizures and sudden loss of vision over 2 days and she was rushed to the emergency vets late at night after a seizure she wasn't coming out of. She was very distressed, panting, hyperventilating and shaking. We were again a mess but knew it was time, she had already been rushed to my vet earlier that day who warned us that we had until he end of the week, if we had known it would be that night we would have had her done at our vets. Anyway we were offered sedation which we agreed to as she was so distressed. She didn't fight it and soon fell asleep in our arms, However when the the euthanasia drug went in she started arching up and screaming/howling, so much so the vet tried to hold her mouth shut (i felt like punching the vet for this) i was so angry. We just kept holding her and talking to her and kissing her and she passed away but it was horrible and very different from the fist time. The vet and vet nurse were cold and uncaring and just didn't seem to give a sh*t. As for souls, well i will just tell about a dream i had with my heart dog. I was devastated at her loss and had a dream about 6 months later that was so vivid that she had come back, and i was running around telling everyone it was just a dream she had died. In the dream i soon realised she was gone and was just visiting and telling me she was ok and it was so peaceful and i awoke with such a sense of relief and peace that she was ok, like she had come to me to reassure me it was gong to be alright. I don't know what others will make of it, and some may think just a dream, but i truly believe she came back to give me some peace.

If her paperwork is for an American bulldog i would say you could safely assume that's what she is, some idiot from the pet shop who doesn't know what they are doing has no doubt just written pitbull o the sign. Chip her as a bulldog, that's what her papers say she is

I agree miss B, i wouldnt/couldnt tell someone to put their dog to sleep because the pet shop told them she was a pitbull. My post before was simply saying they may not actually have a pitbull because we all know pet shops arent exactly reputable places when it comes to making up what they want in order to get pups out the door. She could be anything under the sun, a multitude of crosses. I'm by no means telling them to pass the buck, just to make sure she is in fact a pitbull before they do something as drastic as PTS. If she IS chipped as a pitbull and there is no question/doubt that she is then of course that leaves little that can be done for the poor girl.

Sad situation to be in for your friends and sugar. The one thing i keep thinking is how do they know she is actually a pitbull? She came from a pet shop, they label whatever suits them so for all the owners know she could be an Am Staff, an English Staffy, X bulldog .... you get my drift she could be any number of things under the sun. Unless they have had her micro-chipped as a pitbull Then i would be saying staffy X, as she more than likely is. Poor sugar not a nice situation to be in. Hope things work out, if shes not chipped already i would chip staffy X before they try to find a loving home. If she is chipped pitbull there is not much to be done for the poor girl ;) Good luck, not a nice situation to be in.

Thankyou for all the replies, our lil terror is back home now albeit not 100% but so much better than she was. She came home last night on a drip which they still wanted on her but didn't feel she needed to be hospitilised another night. She was better, hated the collar around her that stopped her chewing the drip line but we after some sooking and crying she settled right down, took her out into the garden for a stretch of the legs and pee and she was good. Back at the vets this morning to remove the iv and we can start her on small amounts of boiled chicken which is good... she most certainly has an appetite. She is on pepinsol (sp) anti-biotics and another thing to line her tummy. She has also been made up a sugar/salt water as well as normal water to drink. She is so much better, her poor little bottom is red raw though from all the diahorrea so we are putting vaseline and making sure it stays as clean as possible. They think it was something she ate (god knows what) that really messed her around, vet said it was one of the worst cases of gastro. But she is home and happy to be here and starting to bounce back, had a little bath today to clean her all up (used no tears baby shampoo) and she ran around the living room chasing my other old boy which was really nice to see. thanks again everyone

Thanks guys, she has tested negative to parvo thank goodness. She hasn't had anymore vomiting but still has uncontrolled watery diahorrea that is just dripping out of her. The vet seems to think that this can be contributing to the fact she is on a drip with glucose infusion and keeps having fluid put into her. She is having more anti-biotics today again. They did an x-ray and it showed nothing obvious but didn't rule out the need for more x-rays. Her tummy is sore and her poor bottom is so sore, they have been using barrier cream but she is just constantly in a mess. She has perked up though overnight, she ate food last night, wandered around her cage and was pulling at her drip which is a big improvement, she is being kept in today and if she continues to improve and eat food they said she can come home tonight. She is much stronger than she was, still very quiet and unhappy but not the flat lethargy that she was yesterday. I will mention those viruses to the vet that you have suggested, we are hoping its just gastro. Thanks everyone its much appreciated.

Oh sorry and i forgot to add shes been given pain relief and started on anti-biotics.

Hi her temp was normal the first time then the second visit it had dropped a bit, but not abnormally cool. She was vaccinated 2 weeks ago and has been the picture of puppy health and energy since we got her. She is from a registered breeder so not a pet shop puppy either ( i know it doesn't make a difference but just the background of her)

Hey people just wondering anyones experiences with gastro in puppies? We have a 9week old westie we have only had less than a week, has had her first vaccination and was a bundle of energy up until yesterday night when she started getting quiet and off her food. She has had increasing diahorrea starting this morning, no blood in it but increasing to uncontrolled like brown water this afternoon. She was perky but still not her usual self this morning. We all had to work but i came home on lunch break and she was covered in it so cleaned her up and called mum to leave work (im a paramedic so cant just leave work in a shift) to take her to the vet at 3pm as i was very worried. She had also lost 300grams since the previous day (this freaked me as she is only a little puppy) Vet checked gums, temp, glucose etc stated not dehydrate and sent her home with the instructions to come back tomorrow if she still hasn't eaten and they will do bloods. Now she was quiet and bit lethargic but went downhill rapidly so back to vets at 7pm to get bloods, and x-ray of her tummy and drip put in. Her x-ray was clear, her bloods were pretty much normal but very flat/lethargic. She has been transferred to the animal hospital for overnight care and parvo test (though the vet thinks its not that and they have had no cases in the area) They think maybe bad gastro? Or worst case her intestine has telescoped on itself? They will do other x-rays through the night if needed. She has been given electrolytes and glucose through the drip and they will monitor her and its a bit of a waiting game. Has anyones puppy had bad gastro and was like this? Im so worried. I know its all different but its so distressing to see, we have only had her a week and she is part of our family already, cant imagine not having her she is such a little character and my other dog loves her.