~Anne~

I'm not an expert on behaviour but I very much doubt the dog did anything to save the girl. Strange that the bullmastiff was allegedly dragging the girl down the street by her arm but she escaped unhurt? The story sounds like rubbish journalism written by someone who hasn't actually even considered what they've written.

Little gifts - the real crux of the matter is, you simply cannot breed a brachycephalic head and not have some degree of BAOS. Breeding brachy dogs and cats needs to be done by experts and sadly, breeders don't need to be experts, only registered.

Every flat faced dog has some degree of BAOS, RuralPug. I'm yet to ever see a Pug irl or an image that doesn't have slits for nostrils for a start. Stenotic nares are one condition of BAOS. Whilst there seems to me that pedigree pugs have lower incidences of the extremes of BAOS, there is still a lot of them out there. I have a prime example at home.

I was thinking more of the general public who might totally misunderstand the reasons you explained. They could form a poor misconception. oh, sorry I misunderstood you :) And I think I misunderstood the comment as well. I'll edit my post. :laugh:

The AVAs response, in particular this statement is very telling; Breed clubs hold the key to ensuring these breeds are not restricted through education and changing the culture. I've said for years that they need to start now before it's too late.

What????? Load of tosh. Think there is becoming a greater need for people to stand to fight this idiocy Mesocephalic I think, not brachycephalic. The term "cephalic" is actually an index used to measure head/skull measurement (width by length). Brachy is short, meso is medium. A Cav would be mesocephalic I believe although I am far from expert on how the measurements are determined.

Aren't there a lot of puppy farms around the Sale area? It may have been a potential or existing farmer looking to add to their stock. Very frightening whatever the reason though!

I'd be interested in any material you come across, Julie. I agree with sandgrubber's comment re: the AVA's response being realistic. There is a need to look at the issue and education would be a key to resolving some of the problems we see in brachycephalics.

My little one, Olivia, was the same except she had previous surgery to remove stones from her bladder. She had been taken to a vet and then was going to be euthanised at the owners' request when she became so ill with infection and stones and it was left untreated! She was in a dreadful state. The vet rang me asking if I would take her in to rescue if the owner was willing to surrender. She was then operated on again to remove the offending stones and has been with me ever since. It's been I think around 5 years now or close to it and not one infection or stones since.

The poor thing. It must be really hard trying to find a balance that keeps her itch free and crystal free. I wish I could find the raw diet that was sent to me many years ago for dogs with struvites. I didn't use it so I didn't keep the info. Perhaps google? It was an easy put together home made meal and all natural foods, no grains.

Have you tried the prescriptives kibble yet? I know most raw feeders are against kibbles. I feed one dog raw and the other, the girl with the history of struvites, prescriptives kibble cd. No hassle, no mess. She hasn't had a problem in years. Due to her previous history, she only has one functioning kidney. I'd hate for that to happen to your girl. Raw is great but the saying 'the best food fro your dog is the food your dog does best on" really comes to mind. If my dog had been put on it earlier, she wouldn't have had the surgeries she had or destroyed a kidney.

I can't see anything wrong with it. Sure, it's not 100% ideal but dogs adapt.

Amazingly there are people who have lived in the area for many years who don't know about the lake. It's a western Sydney secret. Years ago it was open all the time and humans were allowed to swim there too. They've spent the last 10 years removing the ducks and trying to clean it up again.

I am also battling MCTs with one of my pugs, Boofy. I've now decided I will not operate on any further lumps. They just keep coming and 6 major surgeries to remove tumours that were all low and one mid grade, plus having his spleen removed, we've decided enough is enough. He's now 11. His first came up when he was around 8. We had no more until the last 18 months when they came on thick and fast. I know what you mean by major wounds. His last surgery before his spleen was removed was to remove lump in his neck. He has a thread here in this section which shows some pics. That particularly surgery seemed more painful for him, as did the spleen. His spleen turned out to be a different cancer, not MCT. I've decided no more surgery. He doesn't understand why he is going through the whole process. It causes him stress and pain. All of his tumours have been low grade. My vet and the oncologist also decided against any sort of chemo as it wouldn't stop future tumours. We tried a holistic vet in Sydney, but I was disappointed with the results. There is more info in the thread about Boof and his splenectomy, including loads of advice from Staffyluv and others that may also be of help to you. Of you feel like reading, here it is; http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/244967-boofys-splenectomy/

I agree they shouldn't be made to feel guilty about not taking crosses and I'm sorry if that is the impression I gave. My original comment was with regard to contacts for breed specific rescues, which should be broader than breed clubs because some only take papered dogs or presumably papered dogs. Breed specific to me, and most rescuers, is far more broad than breed club rescues.

4 pugs! Quadruple the fun but also the hair. I hope you've got plenty of savings for veterinary costs and an extra, extra strong suction on your vacuum. :D

I have a little pug who has had surgery twice to remove stones blocking her urethra. She came to me around 4-5 years ago now after the second I operation. We've not had a crystal or stone since. She developed struvites. When she first came in to my rescue she repeatedly had crystals and infections. We put her on long term antibiotics (from memory it was 8 weeks or so worth!) after taking a sample direct from her bladder to ensure we hit the right antibiotic. She has since only need fed Prescriptives cd kibble. I add a little fresh meat or sardines for flavour but nothing else. I encourage her to drink by giving her a warm broth every morning made from the juice from the meat I cook for my other dog, yoghurt mixed with water or pet milk mixed with water. We've not had a crystal or infection since.

I do know of plenty of club rescues that only rescue purebreds but they do not require them to have pedigree papers. I thought this thread wanted contact details for breed specific rescues. I have no idea how people identify an "obvious cross" but if they're taking them on, that's beyond breed specific rescue isn't it? Whippet Club of NSW is one of these and its contact details are on the breed page. If people don't want to get the Club involved, that's their business but the Club will see to whatever dogs are brought to their attention and they do a better job of fostering and rehoming dogs placed with them than some others. The dogs don't end up kennelled for months for a start. If people don't want to visit the breed page for club details, they need merely to advertise the dogs by breed in the rescue thread. We'll see them soon enough. Otherwise this thread will require 5 different contacts to be updated. If there are non-club affiliated other Whippet rescues, I don't know who they are. For the life of me I can't understand why you can't accept there are breed specific rescues outside of breed clubs and that some breed clubs refuse to rescue dogs whose heritage is unknown. Why are we even discussing this to such an extent. It's common knowledge. As you surely must know, I ran a breed specific rescue. I am speaking from first hand experience. You have another knowledgable poster above, who has been involved in breed specific rescue for many, many years, stating the same thing. I was not affiliated with a breed club. I rescued any pug regardless of its background. There were, and possibly still are, pug clubs that would NOT rescue pugs that were believed to be byb. There are MANY breed specific rescues that are not affiliated with breed clubs as I already stated. Going back to my original point, it is therefore sensible that contact details should be broader than breed club details.

If a club is only rescuing purebred dogs, isn't that what a breed specific rescue is? I don't know of any club that insists on papers Just because you don't know of any that only rescue purebreds, it doesn't mean there isn't any. No, a club only rescuing purebred dogs is not the only breed specific rescue. Many breed specific rescues are not affiliated with breed clubs at all. A lot of them will rescue any dog that resembles their specific breed, including obvious crosses.

Here is the Canadian published story. You can see the pic of the damage to the rear of the car and the lane she stopped in. http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/06/20/jury-finds-woman-guilty-for-causing-deaths-of-two-bikers-when-she-stopped-to-save-ducks-on-highway/?__federated=1 Edited to add image.

A definite tragedy for all concerned. I didn't click on the link as I had read the story on FB. It was a motorway and there was no stopping lane. The only room on the side of the lane was about 1m wide so her car was more than halfway across the lane still. The woman stopped so she could save the ducklings. She didn't use hazard lights or anything else to indicate a warning. I think it may have happened at night too. She made a HUGE error of judgement which resulted in the death of two innocent people. Father and daughter. The daughter was only16. I'm feel bad for the baby ducks but human lives should be counted as more valuable than a duck's life.

I've only removed lipomas that may cause problems due to position or size. There is more risk with the anaesthetic than with most lipomas.

When I was rescuing I never had any problems with breeders assisting or doing what they could for dogs in my care. Luckily, I was always in the position that I could take care of them and I never expected the breeder of any pug I took in, to take the dog or doing anything. I had the opposite problem. I had a breeder insisting she be given back the dog. I only contacted breeders to let them know a dog that they had bred was in rescue, as a courtesy. Nothing else. As I said, I was Iucky, I had ample resources to help the dogs. I also had one lovely breeder in particular who picked up dogs from pounds, paid release fees, drove dogs from one of the state to the other and generally did whatever she could when she was aware of a need I had. Not one of the dogs were from her breeding programs either. Do I expect that breeders take back dogs they've bred? No, but I would think that, if asked or of they were made aware, they would help in whatever way they might be able to.

Some breed clubs will only rescue purebred and papered dogs though. A list of breed specific rescues, including breed club rescues, would be better. There is a pinned thread above with breed specific rescues but I'm not sure how current it is?