Allerzeit

Bacchus, I have no better advice to offer than that which has already been provided. I just wanted to send you my thoughts and prayers. My heart is just breaking for you

;) Sorry - that sentence just struck me as really funny! "Whelping" is the term used for a dog giving birth I sure hope he wasn't doing too much whelping I was going to suggest a crate, but then I got to the last paragraph. I guess you have two choices: 1. Let him sleep in the bedroom, but accept that he could be getting into things and doing things he shouldn't - potentially starting a bad behaviour habit. 2. Continue to sleep him in a secure area such as the Laundry where he can't get into mischief. I know you said you didn't want to crate him, but my strongest advice to you if you wanted to sleep him in your bedroom would be to crate him. That way you can keep him in a secure area, where he can't get into mischief and can't start learning any naughty behaviour (eg chewing on the bed). Personally, if I was absolutely opposed to crating, then I would be containing him in a small area such as the Laundry - his own space, he can't get into trouble in.

Oh no Dru! I'm so sorry to hear of Victoria's passing - I always loved seeing photos of her, she was such a beautiful girl. RIP Victoria, forever loved.

Have you spoken with his breeder?

Not before 8 weeks

moirat, I had a girl with an open Pyo many years ago. She was succesfuly treated and went on to whelp normally. She never had another pyometra

I've not needed to use that particular treatment, but I have used several of Robert McDowell's other herbal treatments and found them to be effective.

Have you spoken with the breeder of your pup? This is something you should be discussing with them - they would know if it is really characteristic for the breed, and if there are any known problems in their lines. Sounds a bit ectropian-like. Have you been back to the vet, or perhaps tried for a second veterinary opinion? BTW - it is against the code of ethics for registered breeders to let puppies go before 8 weeks of age, so are you sure the breeder was registered with the Australian National Kennel Council? If so, then they are apparently unethical.

We have Radar here, who is almost 9 months, and he still doesn't cock his leg He'll do it when he's good and ready, and so will your boy

Don't you believe it! I always have to think twice when asked to do left / right turns or about turns I've been known to lead entire classes astray by turning in the wrong direction (mind you, serves em right for following my lead )

Hi m-j :p Enya says to send you licks You'll have to meet her two kids one day - now THEY are a handful Deb - yes, she is Blue Moon. Deb recommended Molly's breeder to us, so we will spend some time with Deb when Molly is older

m-j - there is no-one much around here, we've looked around for ourselves as well. There is Deb Kelly, who is near Yass - but that's a 3 hour drive away. We are planning to travel to Deb around once a month when Molly is old enough to start having lessons.

Oops - I didn't actually mention gender did I? And Innes is an unusual name. Innes was a girl :D

Ahhh damnit My sweet Old Bag. Anytime we said to you, "How you doing Old Bag" we would get the response "Woo woo woo" complete with frantic tail wagging! I first met you as a minor puppy when I was asked to handle you in a show - you took out reserve challenge that day :D You came to live with us a few months later, and you were always a total joy to have around. The best temperament - so steady, so stable, always so very happy. Huge grin, sparkling eyes and the fastest wagging tail in the world. Anytime I read silly comments about how docked dogs couldn't express happiness by wagging their tail, I would think of you and shake my head in amusement. When we took you to the vet on Saturday morning, I knew it was the end of your journey here. I knew we had to let you go while you were still able to grin and wag that tail. The vet gave us options that might have kept you with us for a short while longer, but it would have been obscene to let you reach the point when you would not want to wag your tail, so we chose to send you on your way instead. I hope you will forgive us for that. You will live on in our hearts and our minds. You will live on in your progeny. You will even continue to live on, on DOL In your daughter, Enya who is still with us. In your son, Eli who lives with Marapana. In your grand-daughter and grand-son, Feonix and Radar, also with us. In your grand-daughter, Foxy who lives with mack_truck. And, in your grand-daughter Neisha who does her best to make showing an "interesting" experience for Rottshowgirl You will always, always be remembered for the biggest grin, the waggiest tail, and the most outspoken voice. Travel safely now love, go and find Stewie, Kansas and Abby - they have made their way to the bridge and are waiting for you to join them. But when you meet her again, can you take it easy on Kansas? I bet she still bears the scars from you boxing her ears All our love to you forever Old Bag :D (I keep trying to tell people you really weren't after the beer..... they don't believe me ;) ) RIP V Rated Glenosci Innes [A] 28/2/97 - 24/3/07

She thinks she's pretty darn funny as well It's so hard to be angry at her when she's got this face dripping with water and this proud look on her face

Thanks guys, appreciate it What sort of ACV do you use TB? Does it have to be the unprocessed stuff, or can you use the stuff you buy in the supermarket. I have a big container of ACV in the cupboard, but it's the processed supermarket stuff. Definitely some ideas for me to try You know, she was just doing it again a minute ago - it's not all the time, just when she's in spaz mode I told her off and distracted her, then watched her go back to the bucket so I could try and tell her off as she started - well, instead of digging she just stuck her whole muzzle in and blew bubbles several times I now have this Border Collie who is as wet as a shag, I've removed the water bucket while she's being a spaz, so she is barking at our old Rotty instead, and jumping around like an idiot. Heaven help us ;)

Ohhhh, my first "puppy problem" question Funny how I can cope with destructive Rottweiler pups, but a little BC Madam has me scratching my head - too many brains Meet Molly - our 11 week old Border Collie. Miss Confident and into everything - butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, would it? I've come across an interesting problem and I think I need some innovative suggestions from the clever people on DOL on how to overcome it We noticed a while ago that Molly was a sucker for the water bucket, as many pups are. She would tip it over and play in the water any chance she got. So - we tied the bucket to the side of one of the crates. "Plan foiled" we crowed to ourselves...... Starting last night, the little darling has worked out that she can half jump into the bucket and madly dig in it - sending water everywhere. She will empty a 10 litre bucket full of water if given the chance. Initially I thought it was the bucket - we had changed to using a large, rectangular coup cup as we could easily attach it to the side of the crate. Well, it seemed to be just the right size, height and depth for her to fit in nicely Water everywhere. This morning we decided to try going back to the larger bucket, tying it to the crate, thinking that it would be harder for her to get into. Wrong ;) It just means more water to play with. When Molly starts digging the water we immediately growl in a deep voice to get her to stop, then distract her away from the bucket with a toy. This works sometimes, and other times she will go straight back to the bucket. Can anyone suggest any other methods of training her to not dig in the bucket? Alternatively - any thoughts on how we can modify the bucket, or provide a different water supply, so that she (and the other dogs) can still access water, but Molly can't get into it and spread it everywhere? I was initially thinking of some sort of lid with a hole cut in the middle, allowing the head access but not the legs - but for the size of the hole I would need to make to allow for a boofy Rotty head, Molly would probably be able to squeeze her way in and then be at risk of drowning so I gave that up as a bad idea. On the plus side - the tiles around the bucket are lovely and shiny, as they are being wetted and mopped upteem times a day

Words fail me :cry: My heart goes out to Page's loving family. May they take some comfort in the knowledge that Page's suffering is over and that she is now in peace. Such a sweet little girl has touched the hearts of so many people. Darling Page, may you rest in peace, sweetie. Give lots of doggies big cuddles when you reach the bridge. Go now, and be the angel that you always seemed to be.

Oh Jo ;) Run free at the bridge Abby, another soul who was on this earth for too short a time. You will have plenty of friends to play with during your next journey. RIP Abby ;)

Thanks Jed (and everyone else, too ) Yes, the vet was pretty certain it would come back positive for 1080, he was confident that it sounded spot on.... except he was bamboozled with the timeframe. She had been inside for at least 1 1/2 hours before the event, with no sign of distress. I'm still not ruling out snake, but it seems strange that a snake could have been in the bedroom and not been seen by anyone - there were three other dogs in the house at the same time, but still not impossible, I know. I'm not certain with the samples taken, I think it was blood tested for snake? One of them had to be heart blood, I remember that, but I think that was for 1080? Actually, no - 1080 was stomach contents, so snake must have been heart blood - does that sound right to anyone? I just remember the vet mentioning having to take heart blood. Abby didn't seem to leave the room with intent to chase something down, rather she left the room already in panic/terror - so whatever happened was already happening when she ran from the room. At the risk of sounding horribly morbid, the body did seem to decompose quickly, the trip to the vet the next morning was unpleasant to say the least. Even the vet commented on how bad it was - would that be consistent with anything that anyone can think of? I'm just assuming it was because of the heat, but I've not had the experience before of losing a dog at home and having to hold the body for a period of time, so not sure what is normal.

We haven't seen any tiger snakes, but that certainly doesn't mean it's not possible. I guess snake seems strange in the way that she was in the bedroom and we couldn't find a snake, again though it's not an impossible scenario given how sneaky the bastards are. Thanks guys, all suggestions are helping the brain matter to tick over.

That's what I thought first too - I was in the room searching it straight after she died. She was in our bedroom, and we couldn't find anything. I questioned that too, Miranda - I think I've asked the vet three times now if the running around in the heat could have caused the haemorraghing, and he seems to think it was too extensive for that - I haven't dismissed it at all. Brown and black were tested for - we have both around the property, mainly black near the house and browns out in the paddocks. Funnily enough we had seen a black snake in the backyard earlier that day, although Abby was inside when we saw it.

We find ourselves faced with a situation where both we, and our vet are totally bamboozled so I thought, where better to ask for thoughts than on DOL? The background story is that we lost Abby a month ago in strange circumstances, we've been waiting for toxicology results to come back from her post mortem, expecting them to confirm suspicions on why she died - we were advised today that the results came back negative, leaving us all at a total loss. Abby was a 2 year old Border Collie x Kelpie (not that we could see any Kelpie anywhere, she looked like a Border Collie). Abby was a working dog and household companion. She was not allowed to roam the property at any time. The only time she was off leash on our property was when she was working the sheep, or playing frisbee with OH, or if she was in our fenced house yard. The rest of the time when she was out with OH, she was either in the front of the ute (no back of the ute for Queen Abby), or in her "throne" at the front of OH's bike. If OH was home, then Abby was normally inside the house. On the 19th of January, everything was totally normal. Abby ate her dinner at 5pm, and was happy and normal. She had shown no recent signs of being off colour, or anything other than normal. OH and Abby went to bed around 9pm, I stayed up (probably on DOL...). At around 10.00pm I heard Abby barking in her guarding bark (you know how you can tell when your dog's bark is serious?). I went to the bedroom and opened the door, to tell Abby to be quiet and not wake up OH. Abby shot through the door like the devil was after her. She ran to the back of the house, into the area we are renovating. At the time, there was no floor in the area just bearers and stumps. Using this access, she got under the house. She spend the next 10 minutes or so running around under the house like a mad thing. Totally unresponsive to us calling her, seemingly in an extreme panic state. It was a hot night and she was becoming increasingly distressed. Eventually she ran into the open, renovation area, still in a panic. She started convulsing and we were able to grab her. We got her into her crate, still convulsing, and I tried to get onto the vet. While I was making the call, OH says she stopped convulsing for about 30 seconds, then suddenly had a massive convulsion and died. We took her body into the vet for a post mortem the next morning. The vet said that there was massive haemorraghing throughout the body - all organs were affected, in the eyes, from the vulva, everywhere. Although there were multiple bleeds and widespread haemorraghing in the brain, there were no obvious signs of an aneurysm. His first suggestion was snakebite, followed by 1080 poisoning, then warfarin and strychnine. He thought, however, that warfarin and strychnine were "grasping at straws" - he felt it was too quick for warfarin, and the symptoms didn't really match strychnine. We also ruled out warfarin and strychnine as neither have been used on the property and I can't see how she could have had access to either poison. Snake bite was a definite possibility as we have had many snake encounters this season. 1080 was also a very strong possibility as it is used regularly in our area for fox baiting, and even though we don't have it on our property, we know it can be transported from neighbouring areas by birds, etc. The symptoms seemed, to me, to closely match 1080, based on the research I've done. Samples were sent to Gribbles to test for snake and then if that came back negative, for 1080. Snake bite came back negative a couple of weeks ago. And we have just had a phone call from our vet telling us that 1080 was negative as well. We are all at a loss. The vet does not have any idea what else to suggest it could possibly have been. I guess we are back to warfarin and strychnine as possibilites, but I was wondering if anyone else could suggest any toxins that might match the symptoms Abby displayed (panic, convulsions, seeming to be in a terror state), along with the massive haemorraghing. Obviously, I'm not after definite answers, I know that's not possible, just looking for brain storming ideas of what else we might look at. Any advice or ideas are really appreciated, I know that you guys, of all people, know how much this has hurt us.

Yes, this is what we do. We follow a normal vaccination routine as babies, then follow up with Parvac at 6 months.

I can't comment on the breeds you've indicated - I'm sure someone more knowlegeable on them will be along shortly - but I did want to ask who this ACA, that you are going to contact when ready, is?