kitty

yeah a skin scraping under the microscope was done, and the vet said it was all clear.

i'm not sure, i'll just check with the OH. wouldn't ringworm be visible to the naked eye though, like in humans? also, she's fully up to date with her worming.

well it's been there for almost 2 weeks, with no change at all. Definately no scratch - the vet had a very thorough look at it, and 2 weeks ago when she was last at the vets for her vaccs he checked if her eye was scratched - and it was fine. Not sure what it could be, since she has no other symptoms apart from that.

Molly is now 14 weeks old, and she has a small bald spot directly above her eye, also her eyes are weeping while she’s sleeping more than normal, but it is just clear fluid (and normal crustiness) We took her to the vet yesterday, and he had a good look at her eyes. He said that the weeping can just be due to her immune system not being 100% yet because of her age, and he did a scraping of the bald patch to check for mites and it was all clear. There is no scratches, it doesn’t seem to affect her, or cause any itching, and the skin doesn’t seem dry. The vet isn’t sure what could be the cause, and told us to bath her eyes in warm salty water for a while which should clear up the weeping. He also said that if we notice any other bald patches to take her in for further testing etc. Anyone had experience in bald spots in pups, or any idea of what the cause could be? I’m pretty stressed at the moment, not knowing what it could be, and whether it’s a symptom of an underlying problem. Any opinions or advice would be greatly appreciated!

prob not much help, but i've distinguished the difference between our pups needing to wee cries, and her give me attention ones. Also the timing does help, but i find sometimes my Molly doesn't totally empty her bladder if something distracts her mid way through, so a half hour she needs to go again. Personally, i don't feed Molly any meals in her Kong, as she's not that into them yet, but maybe later i would give her breakfast in the Kong or treat ball to keep her entertained through the day, and maybe a RMB etc for lunch?

hey angelsophie... gorgeous pup!!! i'm a new puppy owner myself (well second pup in my adult life - but one only lived to 4 months ) it's all so over-whelming. No matter how much research you do beforehand, it's still scary!!! i'll try and answer a couple of your questions. We also bought a soft crate for our pup, and what we've done is make it smaller by putting boxes in there so there is only enough room for Molly to lay out and sleep. when she needs to go to the bathroom during the night (which is rare) she whines and scratches on the crate. She holds on until we get her outside. Puppies will hold on as long as they can so they wont soil their bedding. Definately ignore her while he is whining, if you go to him, it will only encourage him to continue because it gets your attention. With the biting - i'm going through this at the moment as well, and there are a lot of different ideas on how to get it to stop, and some pups wont react to all the options. You can turn your back to pup and ignore him... which teaches him that biting you means play time is over. Or another option is to yelp like another puppy would.... but that doesnt work for our pup. In regards to the feeding.. put the bowl down for 15 minutes, whatever pup doesnt eat after that gets taken away. In my experience with Molly, her appetite took a week to really settle in, the stress of a new family, away from mum and brothers etc changed her eating habits a little bit. I use a mix of different treats. One of the lovely DOLers make 'happy paws treats' which i have found SO successful in our training. Our pup loves them, and i also use them to scatter around her long term confinement to keep her occupied for a little while when we're at work. I think (from my research) it is important to have a range of treats depending on what you're training and how much concentration it requires. Use Kibble for basic requests, use a highly regarded treat (something your dog ADORES) for harder tricks, or things that require a lot more mental power. i'm not an expert, but hope i've helped a little bit!

Husky - i forgot about that... she's close to 11 weeks .. not sure when to expect her adult coat? i keep forgetting to buy sardines, but might crack an egg over her BARF dinner tonight, and see if she eats it. Will definately need her snood for that meal!!!

Hi all, Molly's fur is really shiny, but apart from her head (which is silky silky soft) but the rest of her is really quite dry. She is on RC, she gets kibble for breakfast and lunch (or every couple of days she gets lamb flaps substituted for her lunch) and she gets a mix of BARF patties and a teeny bit of RC for dinner. We've only washed her once since we got her (a week after we got her -2 weeks ago) and we used special shampoo for puppies, and she was really soft up until about 4-5 days ago. Just wondering whether it could be diet, or maybe when we bathed her she lost some of her oils that she hasn't got back yet? She has also been scratching a bit lately (seems to have settle down last day or two though) - but she's mainly scratching her neck (maybe due to collar irritation?) Wondering if you have any ideas of how i can get my silky soft puppy back.... want to make sure that her coat being dry isn't a symptom of something i'm doing wrong.

i third the snood.... I doubt that the special 'spaniel' bowls would really do much in terms of slowing down the eating process. or the rock in the bowl very well may work.

well, i bought some RC yesterday and mixed it in with her existing..... and SHE GOBBLED IT ALL UP!!! (and actually went back to see if there was more!) think it was time to try and new food, and she loved it. I also bought some BARF patties, and when she's proved she is a good little girl, and provided she eats her breakfast and her lunch today, she can have some of the BARF for dinner

thanks settrlvr - i had always intended on feeding RC and raw - so i guess now is as good a time as ever to change her, but i don't know if i can do it gradually because she wont eat the Advance Puppy that she has.... so i might have to deal with an upset tummy for a couple of days (not that she eats the dry food anyway) I use the happy paws treats for her training, and sometimes a tiny bit of roast chook if i'm attemping something a bit harder (but at the moment it's still only sit, drop, down and come)

i do about 5 minutes of training she will literally get maybe 3 pieces of treat (which are about .5 cm long) before her dinner. Definately not enough to fill her up. At night when we do half and half she will eat whatever else is in the bowl, but if a piece of kibble gets stuck to the wet food, she exhibits the same behaviour. Definately not getting scraps from the OH either... we're both piglets at dinner time and never have scraps

all good advice. Trying to convince the OH is a different story. So should i only offer her kibble for training as well until she starts eating it? What baffles me is the behavious she exhibits when she has a piece of kibble in her mouth. Drops it, jumps a mile backward, comes up to me, then pounces on it, picks it up, drops it again, and walks away. I'm going to start her on a chicken neck soon as well. Just for some variety, but i'm hesitant to give that to her until she starts eating her kibble. I can't give her any of the RC because it's the special Rotty RC, so i don't want her eating that. She loves the dog roll though, and keeps stealing it.

Well, as per the title, our 9 week old Cocker pup REFUSES to eat her dry food, and has done so since the day we brought her home. I've emailed the breeder, she's given me some advice, but none has worked, so i've emailed her again today, just waiting to hear back, but thought i'd ask the lovely DOLers for some opinions. I'm getting a little frustrated at pup, because meal time is turning into a bit of an argument between the OH and i. He thinks i should just feed her wet food so she'll have something in her belly, and i think i should offer her the dry food and if she doesn't eat it, then try again next meal time. This is what we have tried so far... Regardless of the combination I try, she will not eat it. I have tried. Ø Soaked kibble (and also tried mixed with wet food) Ø Kibble soaked in gravy (and also tried mixed with wet food) Ø Soaked kibble with a teensy tiny bit of vegemite to change the flavour Ø Kibble with gravy & a tiny bit of shredded roast chicken. (which is the ONLY thing I’ve had minor success with) I have noticed that when she is eating her dinner, if the kibble is mixed in with the wet food, if a piece of kibble gets in her mouth she jumps back, spits it out and does a weird funny dance around it. I have tried using the kibble as part of her training treats (5 minutes twice a day before her breakfast/dinner) and she will accept the kibble, but about a minute later she will spit it out. Her breeder originally thought it was to do with the dry food being to hard for her (thus the soaking) but she eats her treats (which are rock hard) without a worry at all. I don’t know if it is unappetizing to her, or whether she is just testing me, and trying to get nice food. I only give her a very very small amount of the wet food (depending on what it is that night) and still leave the majority of her food kibble, and she gets kibble only for breakfast and lunch, but obviously she’s not eating it. Eventually i want to ease her onto a combo of Royal Canin and raw (as this is what our Rotty eats), and i know she likes the smell of it because she tries to pinch some of Eva's food. For the last 3 days, i have not let her so much as SNIFF Eva's food, and she still refuses to eat her dry food. Any advice would be so greatly appreciated!!!

thanks so much!!!!! it's fantastic! i wish i could do all those cool backgrounds and stuff... thanks again

anyone been using Nutro since the change? They have it at my local petwise (bought a bag today to maybe try) and it looks good (but i'm not expert) and i'm tossing up between that and the Royal Canine, but they don't always have the stock of Medium Junior.

Tilly - something i found with our pup is that she doesn't have much interest in treat balls yet... their attention spans are pretty small when they are that young. What i did, was scatter some kibble and treats in her crate, and around the room, she especially loves the ones in her crate. Not sure if it's the 'right' thing to do, but i know that i couldn't rely on treat balls for Molly to feed herself during the day, and she associates her room with treats and food. I feed her in the laundry, and do all the good things, so she sees it as a place where good things happen, not a place where she is left all alone. All good advice so far. I can't help much, but i'm going through it all right now, so i can offer what we have done. Something else we did today was build her puppy pen outside. It has a half roof with a shadecloth over it, some flooring down under the roof part, and some sun for her to lie in, plus her crate, toys etc. (We live in QLD though, so it's still pretty warm right now.) I come home around 11.45, and the OH's brother gets home between 2 and 3, and he'll put her in her pen for 2 hours in the afternoon so she's not cooped up in the laundry all day, plus it gives her socialisation with our other dog so they can get used to each other, but safely. if i was the OP, i would set up the puppy pen inside, and go from there. Personally, we had a long weekend, but i wouldn't take 2 or 3 weeks off work, because i would imagine when you go back it would be harder on your pup. Cockers like routine though, so spending a couple of days bonding, and then into her routine is what i think is best for our pup, but all dogs are different. Gorgeous pup by the way - so so cute!!!! Puppies are definately hard work, but they steal your heart so quickly you can't imagine how you ever lived without them!

i also work about 5 minutes away from work and we got our new puppy last week. Do you have a small-ish room you can give the pup during the day with her crate (left open) and water and toys and pee pads? Molly has the laundry every day, with all of those things, and she's fine. Puppies usually sleep for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours (get my drift? ) I pop home during my lunch hour, give Molly her lunch, let her outside to have a supervised run around the yard, play with her toys, give her cuddles, then back in the Laundry and i'm off to work. If you don't have a room you can give her, what about a puppy pen outside that has shelter and all of the things she would have in her room? Obviously you'd need to choose where you put the pen and pick a good spot that will give her shade and sun and shelter from the elements. Having a puppy and working full time is totally do-able. Beware though, it will break your heart when you have to go to work and leave puppy at home, you spend all day thinking about whether they're ok :rolleyes: One thing you should do before you go back to work is start leaving puppy at for a little bit at a time to get pup used to being alone, and if you are on good terms with your neighbours let them know so that they are aware you have a puppy and wont worry to much about the inevitable whining. What kind of dog are you getting? and photos are a MUST!!!!

wow these signatures are amaazzzing!!! i wish i was as talented at photoshop as everyone else - i can't even find where to download it, and Picasa is pretty dodgy. could someone pretty please make me a signature?? just names to accompany would be great (sorry if the pics aren't big enough, i can't figure out how to make them big enough, but not too big lol) Molly first, then Puddy (my kitty)

BMP - yep it is..... so that's obviously what's happening. I have given her my old school jersey that needs a wash on her first night, that's in her crate just to keep her happy. I came home at lunch time, and she was happily (and quietly) dozing in her crate..... I let the other dog inside first, patted our cat (so she still feels loved after our new addition) and let Molly out, she got a pat, walked out the back, did a wee, came back inside, walked outside again and did her other business then had some supervised yard play with our other dog while i was sitting out the back. All in all a good day, and it put me in a FANTASTIC mood to see that she was doing better. We shut the internal door and left the external one open.... a lot louder for the neighbours for her crazy crying, but much better for her. Now the OH and i have both taken tomorrow off (not for the puppy, it was organised ages ago). So far so good (i hope) We'll get the run set up tomorrow, the OH's brother suggested we get some star pickets and fencing and make a more solid more permanent bigger run for her, so that's another option. We're going to put a half-roof on it and secure some shadecloth so it's half shaded, and half open.

we're crate training (at night only) and we don't have a real divider, but we've kind of made something up for it. I don't know if it's necessary or not, but it works..... so i'm not about to fix something that's not broken!

we do have a backyard - but we also have another dog, and they're not totally trusted together yet. Pup spends quite a bit of time outside, and has several hours a day having access to both, and i spend time with her outside when i get home. I think i used sep anxiety as a bit of an exaggeration... i didn't mean it in those terms.... Molly doesn't actually spend THAT much time in the laundry... maybe 6 hours max. Then she is out with us, or outside, and she sleeps in her crate next to our bed. We will get the outdoor run this weekend. We WOULD have a perfect set up if the side of the house wasn't all stones and no grass.... when you go out the external door off the laundry, the side of our house is separately fenced and gated, and would be great for her to have inside and outside access, but those stones are not nice!!!

definately can't be squeezing through the bars..... we have the plastic fencing over top of it so the biggest hole would be maybe 3cm wide..... definately not big enough for her... i guess tomorrow we'll just close the internal laundry door and open the external one for air flow. definately not my idea situation. Someone at work suggested we use a piece of ply wood instead of the baby gate...... i'm not sure i like that idea though.

i haven't tested it to be honest - we only got the screens put in about 6 weeks ago, because we've only just moved in. It's not the old flimsy style - it's quite solid and doesn't move around too much.

the only place she sleeps when she's not in the laundry is on her blanket - which goes in the laundry with her, and in her crate, which is also in the laundry. When you say shut the door PF, do you mean shut both doors, or just the internal one and leave the screen door open?