aussielover

Are you in a high parvo area? I took Mindy out about around 4-5 days after her 12 week vax (she was on the 2 vax only schedule) but we are in a very low parvo area so the risk was not great. It is generally up to 2 weeks, depending on the individiual dog until they have full immunity. If the puppy class is held on club grounds where only vacicnated dogs are allowed, I would think that it would be fine

Maybe the mini foxie lady hasn't ever homed dogs to special needs families. Perhaps you could call some mini foxie breeders individually if you have your heart set on that breed. Also might be a good idea not to make it sound like the dog is for your son- after all i assume it will be a family pet that you hope will form a special bond with your son. I know that a lot of breeders get freaked out when parents say they are getting/want a dog for their kid. I know you like your terrier breeds but have you thought about contacting assistance dogs or pets as therapy (guide dogs)? They have some pretty bombproof dogs that I have seen successfully placed in situations like yours And they provide ongoing support.

I hope Lucy is found! She is gorgeous! She looks a lot like my lab. What is she crosssed with?

Most of the dogs that I have seen with PRA are lab/poodle crosses. It is much rarer these days in pure labs and poodles because most breeders are doing the right thing and testing the parents.

+1 Totally agree with everything said.

Yes but you have to pay to view it!

Yes I think it is worth it. Can you afford up to $10 000 if your dog requires emergency treatment and a few days in ICU? Scenarios I have seen that have cost in the 5000-10000 range include: hit by car, severe tick paralysis requiring ventilation, foreign body ingestion, orthopedic surgery etc I've just been looking into insurance, after just having had a large bill from my dog nearly dying from a bone perforating her intestine, her having to have emergency surgey and 3 days in ICU. Most plans for us are around 30-50 dollars a month and I wouold recommend getting the accident and illness cover which covers up to $8000-12000 a year depending on policy. I haven't decided which compnay to go with yet- Can anyone tell me whether Petplan is actually good or not? I've heard soem very bad review about them, but their plan seems the most reasonable. My othe rchoices are PIA or Bow Wow or Medibank Recommendations appreciated

What kind of work are you looking at? I'd love to puppy raise again for guide dogs or assistance dogs and train a SAR dog. Realistically, I don't have time and these are jobs that require a lot of commitment from the handlers and puppy raisers.

When to take your dog to the vet: -rapid resting heart rate (normal is around 60-80 for large dogs, 80-120 for small dogs) -rapid respiratory rate or difficulty breathing - Significant hyperthermia or hypothermia. Rectal temp should be 37.8-39.2 degrees celcius. You can use a human thermometer, but use caution with mercury thermometers. Generally a temperature over 40 or under 37 can be serious. - Pale mucous membranes or blue tinged mucous membranes. You can check this by looking at the colour of your dogs gums, or tongue if they have pigmented gums. Capillary refill time should be less than 2 seconds- when you press on their gum- it turns white but should turn pink within 2 seocnds. - dry gums and increased skin tent indicates dehydration. You can check skin tent by pinching a fold of skin over the neck area. If it remains tented, this indicates dehydration - abdominal pain and/or bloating, swollen abdomen - dog looks very flat: is minimally responsive and lethargic - tremors or convulsions These conditions require veterinary attention asap. A few hours can make a difference in your dogs condition and prognosis. How to make a dog vomit: If your dog has ingested a toxic substance or foreign body: You can use washing soda crystals to make them vomit. Salty water may also work. Please seek vet advice before doing this; some toxic substances and foreign bodies may cause more damage when they are vomited up, especially if they are sharp or acidic. If you feel "something is not right" do not hesitate to take your dog to the vet. No-one knows your dog like you do!

Maybe aak your puppy school teacher. Perhaps because he already lives with another dog he is not so desperate for other puppies company, and is therefore less tolerant of them.

for a good result.

Interesting thoughts. If I want fast work- like weaves or a jump series, I generally find the ball is the best reward. I use food as an overall reward- if there is a comp or trial (i've only been to informal club trials so far though)then I will reward at the end of a run with food as it is impractical to reward with a ball (disrupt other dogs).

SHE IS HOME!!! Nice and comfy: big incision: HUGE, HUGE Thankyou to all the wonderful vets and vet nurses at North Shore Veterinary Specialist Centre who saved Mindy's life. Special thanks to Dr Yasmine Bowen who did the surgery and got her few the first few days Thankyou to all you wonderful DOLers who offered words of support and good thoughts for Mindy. I am sure it helped her- it certainly helped me feel a bit better!

sadly, she is still on small feeds of a special diet- i/d or a/d i think? But you know labradors- any food is good food

Interesting. I took that into consideration as well, however, in my area none of the vet clinics have seen parvo in years, so it is likely to also be at fairly low levels in the environment, yet her parvo titre was absoluely fine. My dog's distemper titre was <1:5 which could mean NO immunity at all, so for safety I decided to re vaccinate. If it was =1:5 or =1:10 then I would consider not revaccinating as it would show there were at least some antibodies. I will be interested to see my dog's titres next year when I get her retested. Our clinic is very good about sticking to the 3 year AVA vaccination protocol. We've had a few clients wanting titre testing, but I also think it isn't as popular with the general public as it appears to be here on DOL. I also think some people get confused about which vaccines the 3 yearly protocol applies for. We generally send out yearly reminders for KC vaccinations and proheart (for the clients that choose this option). We've had people confused and complaining about being sent reminders as they thought vaccinations were now every 3 years. This is only for C3. Kennel Cough vaccinations still need to be done yearly.

Good news! Mindy is looking great- will likely be home THIS ARVO

A lot of dogs go rabbit hunting at our local off leash. They have a baiting program which makes it quite unsafe imo. I don't think it is illegal though. TBH I let my dog chase rabbits when i'm on a rural property, she rarely gets them though and if she does, it is because they are already sick. She doens't ever eat them, just brings them to me.

Are separate vaccs available for parvo and distemper though? My understanding (and I could well be wrong) is that only the combined vacc (C3?) is available (at least in this country), so if one of my dogs is ok for coverage of say parvo, but not distemper, I can't just vacc for distemper. Is that correct or not? It is correct. I had this dilemma, my dog was fine for parvo, but low for distemper. I ended up giving another C3 just to be sure. She was retested 6 weeks later and both parvo and distemper were fine. * It may be possible, but very difficult to get a distemper only vaccine??? Generally titre testing ends up being the same cost as vax. However, you may need to revax and then retest which makes it much more expensive. I agree that best practice is to offer "gold standard" to the client and let them decide. It is a shame more practices aren't telling people about this option.

Well she looks much better today. She is fairly happpy and wagging her tail, also going on some short walks outside for toilet breaks and seems pretty keen to get out of her cage. Thankfully she is crate trained and hasn't made too much of a fuss trying to get out of her cage. The vet thinks that her "dip" yesterday was due to overzealous feeding (she had 3 a/d cans in one night!)in order to get her protein levels up and it was too much, too soon. The surgical specialist thinks she should be over the worst of it, but tonight and tomorrow night are pretty important. If she remains stable over these nights she should make it. Glad to hear Cowan is ok, he is very lucky. There is only a 50% survival rate with a FB perforation and septic peritonitis

Have you thought about getting help from a behaviourist? Maybe if you let us know your approximate area someone might be able to recommend one. I know it seems like a cop out to just recommend a behvaiourist every time, but with a reactive or aggressive dog I think it is really the safest thing we can do. I definitely know of people who have resolved this problem with the help of a behaviourist. Doing it yourself or out of a book, may or may not be ok, it depends on your experience, ability, and the seriousness and cause of the dog's problem- these are things we can't really assess online.

That's news. Do you happen to know the reason for it being discontinued? Apparently its too hard to get the ingredients... Eukanuba Fish and Potato (response FP) may be suitable. ALthough I dont like it as much as the sensitivity control.

Mindy is a little worse today. She is still stable and the surgical specialist isn't worried about leakage just yet. She is not eating as well and is not as alert as she was yesterday. She has been taken off many of her meds, so this might be the reason she seems a bit flatter today (hopefully). Hopefully she will continue to remain stable over the rest of the weekend and then the main danger period will be over

It sounds like Elbie has high pack drive or values praise or "approval" from KTB and works towards pleasing her. If he found the actual agility equipment itself rewarding, he'd probably just run off and do his own course. I've seen a number of dogs just take off and do whatever course they felt like- they looked like they were having fun DO you really need a tug though to rev your dog up? I can achieve basically the same result with a bit of "rough play" and chasey with my dog before a run- I don't see why tug would necessarily be the only way to increase drive or excitement. You can also do this with food, if you teach the dog to chase the food and capture it on the run.

At the risk of Sandgrubber raining fire on me because "I hate the breed".. the current craze for chocolates. Don't get me wrong... love the colour but do a casual browse for litters avaliable and conclude for yourself how many dogs are being bred for that characteristic first and foremost by folk who don't seem to do anything with their dogs. Ok thanks Wasn't sure if you were referring to the "silver" colour- they don't seem to be big here in aus yet thank goodness!

PF- In what way are labradors affected?