Sunnyflower

I am really struggling to hold back the tears! Everything you write of your Darcy is Oscar. He has spinal, neck and brain pain (Constant migraines they described it)! I have lost my little cheeky boy to a boy who is completely withdrawn and it's the odd occassion I am seeing him be Oscar. My crazy little deviat who loved to wrestle with the cat and play with me is no longer there, the rare occassion he will pop up and it shocks the socks off me but it only lasts for about 3 - 5 minutes and the flop on the ground again. I understand the concept of it being the kindest thing I can do, I am just really struggling to see it that way.

Thank you Missymoo xx Thank you CW EW xx agree with both. I too would opt for sooner rather then later. Hugs, it's not an easy time anytime but when they are still young, it's even harder Thank you Rebanne. I know in my heart what the right thing is to do but I just wish he could talk and say it's really bad or it's not that bad Mum. I agree completely with this. It's a decision that only you can make and although everyone always has an opinion on these kinds of things, you know your dog better than anyone. I'm very sorry to hear this SF. Thank you MB. I hate having to be the one to make this decision and I don't want to and as we all know it is easier sad than done. I feel so cruel even thinking about it let alone considering the fact I am actually being cruel keeping him in this pain!

Thank you OS. I was thinking he was only becoming timid because of him knowing it's going to hurt but again, tried to believe otherwise. Gosh - That must have been so hard to say good bye right before bub. I know I will survive but I really don't want my heart ripped out! I think I know what I have to do but I am in denial. When I am around him I do not think about it or let it bother me, it was right before we started the meds because I knew without them it was being cruel keeping him here. I think I need to call my vet and have an honest chat with him. It's easy to say it and sound strong but I have been looking at the phone all day but haven't managed to pick it up yet. hmmm Thank you MEH. These answers are making me ask myself the tough questions which is what I wanted because I need them. I can't hear it from my fiancee because he doesn't love animals the way I do so I feel like he doesn't understand. As he says though - "He's saying it as he see's it". He LOVES his walks however can't enjoy them too much whilst being in pain, so we don't go on them. He can toilet on his own but due to diuretics he is having to be kept outside a lot more because he cann't hold his bladder. The first night he wet himself 3 times. He is getting better but still a risk. I was hoping the drugs would work but they aren't working enough.

He is showing signs of pain and we tried fixing it with the meds but the initial shock stopped it but after a few days it's all coming back. Marcus I think sometimes is a bit firm with him and he whimpers but I patted him last night and he gave a yelp so I realised Marcus actually hasn't been too firm, it's just him. He is eating very well, since being desexed at the beginning of the year he has been a gutso and he LOVES going for walks however I can't walk him anymore as he cannot wear a collar or harness as it causes him pain. We walk and a usual 10 min walk takes 40 because he is flopping to the ground scratching at his side which is what they do to try and stop the pain. As much as he would love to go it's easier and kinder not to. I've noticed he is becoming timid of Marcus and a bit of me. He has never had a bad finger put on him but it's like he has become a real sook and is constantly looking sad. I really have to work to get him all happy and I am shocked when I see him having a little play but it only lasts for so long before he is back flopped on the ground looking like he is sad. Breaks my heart because I just wish he could tell me. I'm not sure if he is just being a sook looking for attention or if it is something more. I'm so so sorry to hear this casowner. I know you only lost Jake not that long ago and now your other little Princess. My fiancee keeps telling me I can't ignore it and I don't FEEL I am ignoring it but maybe I am without knowing. I don't want to lose him and I depend on him quite heavily and I always looked forward to having him as my kids dog because he is so wonderful with children and I just wanted to see my boy with my bub. I keep saying I can't bear the thought of giving him his wings whilst I am pregnant but that really is selfish isn't it? I'm definitely seeing what I want to see and I think that's only because it's being pointed out now.

I was hoping you would come in PF. Your answers are always very logical and straight to the point. I know it's my decision at the end of the day but it does help to hear that I am not thinking irrationally. He is on the 3 most recommended medications and they cost a truck load but I had to try - I can only hope the other one works better but they really did say it was a fourth option, however it may just work for him. I'll speak with the vet and see what he thinks but I really do feel prescribe the same thing for another month after this is a waste of time as it's not doing a lot.

My Cavalier Oscar has Syringomyelia and it was thanks to DOL and a thread about it back in October that I first learnt of it and wondered if he had it. With the help of the lovely Jed & NSW Cavalier Club we got to work only to discover that Oscar has this horrible disease and Georgina Child has been working with my vet and for the past near 2 weeks Oscar has been on medication to hopefully stop the pain. My vet made it pretty clear to me that if it didn't work than there was one other course of medication and if that failed I would have to seriously consider saying good bye. Oscar is only 3 on the 5th July so this is hard. He is on 3 different medications 3 times a day - A Diruetic, Anti Inflem & a Neurological one. They were kicked of as injections so for the first few days EVERYTHING disappeared, now he is having his scratching episodes which means he is in pain, he is panting heavily all the time again, whimpers or yelps not everytime but a lot of the time we pat him and the collar, harness & rug can't be worn again because it causes pain/irritates so sets it of. It's not as often or as frequent as it was before the meds but it is certainly there still and noticeable and I would hope with 3 different types of meds so frequently there wouldn't be any. My question is when do YOU feel it is time to give them their wings when there is pain involved? I understand this is a personal decision and I feel I am needing to ask myself if I need to make the hard decision as he is clearly in pain but it is not every second of the day. I am confused if I am jumping the gun or I am being ignorant. I would like to hear some other peoples experiences and or thoughts. Thank you in advanced.

MEH you have a very good way with words! So heartbreaking but when I think about it, I wouldn't want a trainee working on Oscar.

I've only just seen this also - After losing my last rescue to parvo I couldn't bring myself to jump on DOL for a few months as I was always drawn to the rescue section. HUGE thumbs up to all the wonderful people who contributed and built this beautiful masterpiece. Amazing work! I hope you are well Jed & smiling!

Cino rules our roost despite being the last to enter the house hold. Oscar is outside during the day if we aren't home and Cino always greets him at the door. They really do love each other.

That's just so lovely that your two have developed such an amazing bond. What sort of dog and how old are they both? You should post a photo I'm more than happy to post photos. Oscar is a Cavalier and he is 3 at the beginning of July & Cino is a Devon Rex and he just turned 8 months.

How come you keep the cats and dogs separate? Oscar (Dog) & Cino (Cat) do everything together and have a bond that is amazingly close. The literally do everything together from eat together, wrestle, sleep and are constantly side by side. I appreciate not all cats and dogs have this kind of special dog but I'd like to think these two species could live in harmony together. Oscar & Cino have their own room together (The study) and their beds are side by side which they sleep in every night.

I'm terribly sorry to read this Dobesrock.. RIP Odie & Jazz Don't feel like you have to answer to anyone. You made the right decision for YOUR family no one else. You have clearly made decisions in the past to give her chances and she made it too close to home. If you hadn't of made this decision people would have questioned why you hadn't put her to sleep. It's no bodies business other than your own. xx

I doubt anyone will want to defend those dogs.. but not all PBs are like that. I'd be interested to know more about the background, socialisation and training history and environment those dogs were raised in. I doubt we'll learn anything about that though. What a horrific attack. RIP to the poor lady! I was bitten for the first time by a dog last year and that one bite on the hand was scary enough.. I have to agree with you PF. I used to own a pitbull and she WAS the sweetest dog I have ever owned. I however knowing she was a pitbull and this was prior to the BSL laws coming in made a point of socialising her every single day twice a day at the dog park and she had lots of training. All dogs are pack animals and all dogs are capable of just this and especially if they have owners that don't care!

Nightgrace, I thank you for your help but you are essentially repeating everything I have already stated! As said - We have erected a fence that divides our yard and Oscar cannot run the same fenceline as these dogs. Oscar is kept inside all the time when we are home and if it is stormy, raining or exceptionally cold! However, We are away all day working and he loves being outside when we aren't there and I am not going to deny him that. In terms of taking care of our own backyard we have done exactly that. However we have a bloody massive yard that we are being denied to being able to use! We aren't going to speak on behalf of the landlord or broach the topic just yet until my mother-in-law gets her affairs sorted as they are wanted to develop the front. We have family friends who owns a local real estate who are currently establishing who manages this property and that will be our first point of call. These people have their yard sectioned in many places and they can tell we are pretty annoyed about their male dog. The little girl is an absolutely little sweetheart and has eyes to melt your heart. To boy needs a good muzzle! Anyways, we are in the process of working the logistical side of things out and as it has been raining a lot lately Oscar has primarily been inside and it has been no concern. Dancinbcs - We are aware they can run through the fence as my last neighbour had a doofus muscle dog that always seemed to crash through it when trying to catch his balls ! Tooheys was quite the nugget though. I don't feel as though this dog will push through the fence or dig under and the choice of fence isn't up to me the height I have a say in! Timber fences rot and don't last anywhere near as long as colourbond and they are actually more expensive than colourbond these days. We live on the lake, it is literally only 5 metres from our back deck so there is always a lot of moisture in the air which isn't doing the current timber fence any favors. The sooner we get the front part developed the better. All brand new fencing everywhere and we won't see these staffies anymore. Noted - It's not the staffies fault. We have been there a month now and not once have I seen these little guys taken out of their yard or them out there playing with them. They simply walk past them to get to and from the car.

Welcome Crash. My boy got his first hotspot in January and he was getting desexed the same day so they just shaved the paw and gave me cream which cleared up within a matter of days. I can understand why people don't like vets as some of them are out to cash grab but I have found a wonderful vet that looks after our Cavalier and our Devon Rex cat wonderful and only has the interest of our boys at mind. They aren't going to do anything for free and that's something we need to remember. Glad to hear the hotspot is clearing though.

So so sorry Poppydog!! I went through almost exactly the same thing last year but lost my little foster girl to the parvo. I received the same response from the rescue group that I was fostering the girl for. Same stresses as you in regards to my own dog and as soon as it was confirmed it was parvo I raced out of work and rushed my Cavy straight to the vets for a booster vac, killed the house in bleach and threw truck loads of things out. Unfortunately the poor girl didn't make it but thankfully my guy is still kickin it! It turned me right off rescue as I was so upset about it and I wouldn't bring another rescue into my affected yard. but we have now moved house and have a HUGE yard that is divided into three with a concret area that just needs runs for my own quarantine area it's all starting to pull at my heart strings again. Hugs to you and I hope you are ok. I hope Huey is ok too! It's not his fault unfortunately and I think if we were wanting to adopt the little girl we lost we would have allowed her to come back into our home after going back into quarantine, but we weren't looking for another dog.

Thanks nightgrace - not sure if you actually read all my posts but our landlord is my Mother & Father in-laws. As far as they are concerned it is our home, it's the people with the two staffies that are renters not us. In terms of having cheap colorbond fencing put up we have already sorted out all the logistics. My Mother in-law is a property developer and all our friends have building trades under their belt. Having the fence errected is the least of our worries! As alreay stated, I have already gone over and talked with the wife and got a very short blunt response. From here on in we need to keep our guy safe until we can get in touch with the owner of the actual house to have the new fence put in. However being a 50m long yard for both of us, regardless of us being able to get materials quite cheap and doing it ourselves it is still going to be a $4-5k venture and not everyone has this kind of money lying around for a fence.

Thanks nightgrace. We are well aware that they can disagree and we can only hope that they won't! The place is a rental and as they are allowing pets I am sure we can get the Real Estate involved. We have family friends who owns and runs a real estate so I am sure they would be able to help us in regards to the laws associated with allowing a rental property to have dogs. We can have an inspector to come out but if you saw the fence you would see clearly that the fence doesn't need an inspector to tell us that it is in poor shape! when there is obviously holes in the fence due to rot that has wire blocking it and our big piece of timber and there are timber poles on an angle holding the fence up.

Someone said to me that Comfortis doesn't kill the entire cycle but I had SERIOUS flea problems at my old house and I bought comfortis for the dog & Revolution for the kitten and BAM absolutely no fleas. Not one!! We were getting bitten in the house as they were throught he house. I believe as this product is only so new they know they have created a bloody good thing but they don't want to advertise it kills everything until they are 100% sure. All I know is I washed the boys bedding, sprayed outside, bathed them both, comfortis the dog, revolution the cat, vacuumed the house to get any eggs out of the floor boards and since 3 days after giving the boys this I haven't had a single flea since mid Jan and I am yet to give them any more flea stuff. I have struggled with fleas for 3 seasons now using everything and anything on the market.

if you ask Marcus he will take the pirhana option!! Pretty is not something we are fussed about. We have moved into a run down shack that is a beautiful green colour on the outside and we HAD to paint prior to moving in otherwise there was no way I was living there with the beautiful dark green skirting and light green walls internal and the lovely old smell that sticks to old paint! On the upside the house is about 5mtrs off the water and an absolutely beautiful view! I'll do a walk along the fence line this afternoon and see how it's looking in terms of working with what we've got. I'm sure there is no reason why we can't and hey seen it's their dogs that are a threat maybe her hubby might be willing to get out and give us a hand and we might be able to be friends! Right now, Marcus isn't liking them.

You poor thing!! That makes me so angry .. Pregnancy hormones or not that has royally peeved me off!! You lose your dog due to their dogs savage mauling and they get angry at you because they got to KEEP their dog and they had to reinforce there fence! I reckon they got the good end of the stick! I might try and establish who actually manages this rental property and speak with them in regards to the state of the fence! It will cost roughly $4k to do just that one side! If the landlord isn't willing to pay half then he is going to have to attend to the fence also if he is going to allow his rental property to have pets.

Yes they do have to pay half the costs. It is a rental so we need to get in touch with the owners and see how it pans out. It is 50m long so to foot the bill ourselves is too much. I am so sorry to hear this!! I will be a mess if this happens to Oscar. I know my Fiance will probably try and ring the dogs neck responsible too and I don't want the dramas associated with that! I didn't think of that MEH. Adding starpickets for extra support is a great idea! We also have loads of wire left too so will have to add that for extra height. We will have to attend to the fence this weekend and keep Oscar in the house for the mean time. They have two gates to get through. The front ones are quite low but the gat into his yard his 1.6m timber fence so they can't get through that. I do like staffies but these two are a very good example of what they can potentially be in the bad hands. In the 3 weeks we have been going over to the house for painting and moving and now living we haven't seen them been taken for a walk once! Our little Devon Rex kitten is only ever contained. He doesn't free roam! He is in the house 23 hours of the day and the little yard we have done up just outside the front is high enough for where he cannot get out and until we finish the lean over at the top he is only allowed out there whilst we are sitting out there with him. He isn't a normal cat that runs off. Oscar and him play and he comes when called. He just likes to feel the grass under his feet and chomp on the grass, if we don't let him out he is a nightmare! However, Cino is safe and we would never ever in a million years let our cats free roam.

We have our name on a waiting listing for a Hungarian Vizsla puppy and the breeder we are going with we will wait for however long it takes because we know full well they take the best care of their dogs and do every health test and only use their male & female dogs for breeding from 2.5 - 3 years of age so they can get true hip scores. I at first wanted a female because we already have a male but now I really don't care as long as it is a happy healthy dog that suits us. I would love to get into obedience and agility so a sound puppy is the priority not sex.

Thanks Perse. Marcus's parents are looking into having the entire fenceline re done with Colorbond, it's just for the short term! We'll have to make the current fence line stronger! Our kitten doesn't leave our yard and never did at our other house as it was all 1.8m colorbond. We haven't finished the fence and at the very top we are going to build out a little bit so he cannot jump up so essentially it is just a cat run that contains them both. Marcus's parents have had this around their yard for 8 years with the high fences and their 2 Burmese and a Ragdoll have never got out. However he is only allowed out when we are home definitely not whilst we aren't there.

My fiance and I moved house the weekend of the 19th/20th and we have moved into his parents second house that has a wonderful HUGE yard, 50m long and 15m wide so a cavaliers delight. As the fences are only 90cm high and we like to let our kitten out to play also we built a 1.6m high wire fence around the front part of the house and this is where we section Oscar off when we go out. However the entire yard is his and he should be able to freely roam but as the neigbours to the left of us have two quite vicious staffies we have to sit out there with him so he can stretch his legs and have a play as these two dogs try scaling the fence to get to him and are trying to push the fence down. It's and old timber fence about 1.5m high and any normal dog it would be perfectly fine with but these guys are pushing on it to get at him and it makes me quite nervous. I tried chatting with the lady who owns these dogs and basically her response was - "Well Charlie hates other dogs and I'm not sure if this fence will hold him in" and then she walked off. Who has the duty of care here? Us or them? I know a barking dog that is just having a yak at the fence but this dog literally has that vicious bark where you can hear the saliva curdling in his throat. Oscar will remain in his little yard or in the house with us but it is just chicken wire as this is all our little guy needs. If these dogs manage to get over this fence they will definitely get through the chicken wire and to him. I understand they will totally be at fault if they enter our yard but my boy does not stand a chance! What do we do? Is there anything we can actually do? Apologies for the long winded story, I am needing advice as I am stumped!