soothie

I'm very sorry to hear about your lovely girl I lost my girl to cancer last year. Worse thing I did was listen to vet (no longer my vet now) and operate as she was miserable in her last weeks as well as I. I should have let her be and enjoy the daily walks and kisses as long as we could as she probably would have lasted longer and had better quality of life. My best wishes to you! Make the most of the hugs and kisses you will share with your sweet girl.

No-one in my family or my friends are dedicated dog lovers as I am so my plan is to make a sizeable donation in my will to Victorian Animal Aid Trust and ask them to look after my dogs and find a good home for them. My dogs all came to me through sad circumstances where they lost their previous owners and are happy, healthy and much loved so I trust that the next person(s) will do the same :)

Gem - Collie (family dog) - 16 yo. pts due to old age when his back legs gave up on him. Speedy - Fox Terrier (found in the street as a 6 mo puppy), suspected Liver failer on Christmas day - 15 yo pts Harry - Shih Tzu (found in the street, approx age 5. No one claimed the charmer!)- Severe heart issues after I had him 1 year. Vet gave Harry 6 months but with meds and extra care, Harry (my heart dog) was with me until 12 yo - Suspected Brain Tumour - pts Molly - Jack Russell (dumped by the family of previously deceased owner at 9 yo), approx 13 yo - Cancer - pts a few months ago. Sweet, sweet girl.

This may have already been suggested but with my dogs escaping when I was at work, I too was ripping my hair out with worry and invested in an electric fence. It cost around $230.00 and I have one dog wearing the collar. The others are fine and were only following the lead dog. No trouble at all since then. It was fairly easy to install as well. Some people may not agree with it but when you are desperate and unable to train fast enough this is a great solution. I know my boys are safe and the one wearing the collar knows his bounderies. It's a great relief for me being at work every day. Electric Fence

Hi Mumscats, Very sorry to hear about your girl. I understand how distressing it can be to be placed in this situation. I lost my 12 yo girl last year to cancer too I spent about $2500 on a small operation on her leg and some aftercare and then had to let her go as she didn't really recover from the operation. That prompted me to do some research about pet insurance and would have probably gone with Medibank if I wasn't more determined to try for the 100% cover which only petplan offers. I wish they had a sticky thread or forum here for pet insurance so everyone could over their experiences. Good Luck with your research. I have my youngest dog covered now but if there was a choice, I would have done this from a pup. cheers Soothie

I hope you are correct about Petplan. I signed up for Petplan today. I've been researching on and off for 6 months now but I'm over it. :) Petplan is the only one offering 100% vet bills cover if the condition is approved and not pre-existing. Loads to read on the PDF download but the feedback I've read on this forum has been positive about this one when dealing with it.

I am very sorry for your loss

I've ordered from Pookinuk many times and orders have always arrived within a week. I placed another order last week and it was processed and delivered within 4 working days which is well within my expectations. I have always found them to be reliable. They may be understaffed at the moment with the holidays so things may take longer to process.

I stayed home with the dogs last night. Last year was quiet but this year wasn't. Fireworks started about 9.30 and where on/off until 1.00am with fire crackers and pipe bombs. Feels so sad for the terrified dogs and especially the ones that have lost their way now or are injured or dead I didn't think to go out last night and see if there were any strays in need of help. Walking my boys this morning, I came across a lady walking with her kids desperately looking for their red dog that got out over night. It's so hot here today too. The kids were not to happy about being dragged around.

I am so very sorry to hear the sad news about Willow

I am grateful for all your opinions. :D Thankyou for the replies. It's all food for thought I am forever grabbing things from the back/bottom for myself and my boys as the dates are important when you spend so much money. If I grab a (12.6kg) bag of dog food and it doesn't have 6 months, I won't take it as it can take 4+ months to get through the big bags. Smaller bags don't have the value with so many dogs to feed. Eagle Pack/Holistic has been hard to source at times so I've had a habit of buying another bag 2 months before needed if I come across it. Yes, the out of date was my fault. I had bought the duck back in April and stored it in a plastic container in the shed until I opened it this past week. The duck seems fine and if it had been in the shed over the summer, I wouldn't have used past the Best before date but being in Melbourne we haven't had much in the way of warm weather until recently. So I'll use the duck for probably only another month at the most. All the bags once opened are stored in seperate sealed containers in the shed until finished. I don't have room in the house to store the bags so I can't get around the heat in the shed during summer. Cheers

Hi, the link didn't work for me either and I don't really want to read 73 pages I've read enough to see this may be worth a try for my boy that is on Holistic Select. Can anyone tell me where I can find a supplier in the Melbourne/ Outer Eastern Suburbs or where I can order for a delivery and how much it would cost all up? I'd be interested in approx a 10kg bag.

I didn't think dry food could smell I can't sense any funny smells but I'm not familiar with the duck. I noticed it looked every so slightly shiny when I opened the pack but I couldn't sense any dampness. I'll give it a go for a few weeks but I won't stetch it out for too long as I've heard its not good to store food in the shed/garage where the heat can get to it. The pack was in a container (unopened) in the shed since March. Thanks for your help

Hi I've just opened a 13.6kg Holistic Select (duck) for my 3.5 years old Jack Russell/Staffi X who has a history of allergies. Problem is, the Best before date is Oct 2011. I've had the bag sitting in a container in the shed for the past few months as I had been able to source a bag of the Salmon/Anchovy back in July which I finished today. I hate to throw away $130 worth of dry food but I don't want to hurt my boy so I'm looking for any expert opinions on whether it would be safe to feed the expired dog food for atleast a couple of months, say into Jan 2012 before I switch to a fresh pack? I have 3 loving dogs and they all have a different diet so I'm reluctant to throw out a good and expensive product. The big boy is on a diet so I can't feed him the duck. Safe or not safe? Please let me know what you think Cheers S.

I've used the 'Pedipaws nail trimmers' with great sucess with my dogs. It can't harm them and I just take it slow and try not to do too much in the one session. Here is a link to how they work. The only problem that I had was with one of the dogs that has one funny little claw (dew claw?) I don't know if there are better brands around. http://www.globalshop.com.au/Product/68/22/PediPaws-Ultimate-Kit Cheers

Hello, I hope that you can help me with my dilemma. I have 3 dogs so it's abit expensive for me to leave them at kennels particurally for a weekend away. They range from a tiny dog to a medium to large (border collie x). I have recently used Homestead Kennels but they are extremely pricey if you want your dog to have a basic daily walk. The most annoying thing is to have to pay an extra night (x 3 dogs) if I can't get back from a weekend trip by 10am to pick them up. Reviews with a google search are mixed. I guess I am looking to see if there are cheaper options in my area that people have had positive experiences with. I will probably stick with Homestead for when I am away for 2 weeks and scrape the pennies for the gold treatment so the boys get their daily walks. $46 per day per dog seems abit outrageous in my opinion. The other local kennel that I used once years ago was Allendale Kennels. It seems to have less facilities to offer so I'm not sure they will give them enough attention and exercise. Does anyone have recent experience with these or other kennels in the Warrandyte/Wonga Park/Ringwood area, good or bad? A place can change alot over the years so any stories from the past couple of years would be useful. Any recommendations and comments would be appreciated. I don't like to penny pinch for the boys but Homestead just seems abit to pricy for me to use on a regular basis. Thanks in advance.

Thankyou for the replies. I had followed a link that I found on the forum to a page which no longer existed. I completely missed the banner on the front page after trying all the links.. doh! I have 4 dogs requring different types of food but one really does need to stick to the salmon pack although I am tempted to give him a change and try the holistic duck pack for a change. cheers

Hi, does anyone know for certain whether Canidae is irradiated when imported into Australia? I know sometime ago they had a disclaimer on their website but it seems to have disappeared. I have emailed them but have had no response. I have been using Holistic Select with great success on the dog with allergy issues but like everyone else, there are times when this is impossible to get. Cheers