coogie

Well said! Happy New Year everyone.

He looks so at home already. Lovely spot for them Crickets.Do you ever get a chair? :laugh:

I'm really sorry to hear about Grumpy, Sheridan. I loved your stories about him. RIP Grumpy.

Our boy was also itchy on Black Hawk, interestingly our girl did well on it. Alfie is currently on the grain free,fish based Holistic Select. Up until the last few days when it has been very hot and humid he has been itch free. We supplement it with fresh oily fish , the odd egg and natural yoghurt ( not all at once). They also get manuka honey once a week. He was good on the Canidae as well but I found it hard to get delivered at a time when we were home. The local pet cafe orders the Holistic Select in for us. I have also found sponging him with Erny's calendula tea recipe really helps when he does get break through itchies. He was on the Royal Canin Skin Support from the vet - but got itchy again when they changed the formula. Hope it settles quickly for her, it is awful watching them scratch.

My two eat this, I just did exactly what you are doing and transitioned slowly, we changed them over because of the itchies rather than tummy issues but I did not notice any difference in their poos, if anything it was slightly firmer.

I've sent you a pm with the details bianca.a and Minimax.

Let me know if you want her details bianca.a - wasn't sure if it was ok to post them here,I can always pm them, she makes really great metal doggy sculptures too.

We call our two a variety of silly nicknames, collectively they are known as the Goons, for my hubby's last Birthday I had a calligram made of the two of them - he is really hard to buy gifts for and I thought it would make a nice pressie. The lady making it asked for thirty words for each dog comprising of their nicknames, descriptive words about them, their habits and any other quirks I could think of. My initial thoughts were no way, I'll never come up with that many. Ended up having to cull the list, this was the result - soooo many silly names. :laugh:

Can you contact your vet to get advice? We are in Qld the state guidelines are on the Dfat website - try googling for a local one? Qld one is here: Bats and domestic animals Our local vet did not suggest anything beyond observation unless the dog had been bitten by a bat, they did suggest if that happened we should try and get the bat /bat's body tested before deciding what to do. Hopefully if the bat was already dead it won't cause any problems and your girl will be fine.

Maybe she is afraid and maybe she has been told all this rubbish about disease over a long period of time and genuinely believes it. I wouldn't let them dictate what happens in my home with my dogs. I would try and speak to her if they visit and get to the bottom of it, my sister inlaw did not like dogs,bad childhood experiences and having it drummed into her as a child that they were dirty caused the problem. I politely refused to put the dogs out when she was over but made sure they were not in her face - e.g. jumping up at the door,sitting on the couch near her. Gradually through talking to her she relaxed, she will now pat the dogs,doesn't get hysterical if my niece and nephew cuddle them (they both LOVE dogs) and guess who bought Christmas presents for the dogs last year. It has been quite a transformation. She didn't want the kids to be too comfortable near dogs because they were going to live in an area with a high incidence of rabies and she was terrified. I was willing to give it a go because I loved my brother, admittedly he did not share her opinions but felt he had to side with her - she is his wife after all. I don't think her ignorance was her fault. My brother and SIL are currently living in South Africa, the latest addition to their family is a dog - who will be returning to Australia with them in 18 months time at great expense. I'm not suggesting this is the same as your situation, maybe she will never like dogs,maybe she is just weird, :laugh: but after my initial knee jerk reaction of "get stuffed, my house, my dogs, my rules". I thought about the impact of the relationship with my brother and niece and nephew and decided on a more gentle approach. It worked for us, I do have to say if it had not worked whilst I would have been willing to gate or crate the dogs if they wished to come over for a meal I would probably not have done it for extended stays. Our home is just not set up that way as the dogs are very much free to come and go as they wish. I hope you can work something out so you have a good Christmas without too much stress.

Yeah like you need more collars. Busted LOL, actually they did need new martingales, swimming has taken its toll on the old ones! They have plenty of flat collars I have to admit. These were inexpensive, sturdy and dry very fast - they were tested today and so far so good :D

In Brisbane Chris Porter Foundations Physiotherapy 0451 135 175 Foundations Physiotherapy We have been very happy with Chris, he is very knowledgeable, good with nervous dogs and does house visits if getting to him is a problem. Would definitely use him again. We have also used Lesley Harrison at UQ, she was also wonderful but difficult for us to get to because of times. UQ Small Animal Clinic University of Queensland, Therapies Road St Lucia Qld 4072 Phone 07 3365 2110 Edited because I used Chris' Gf's surname - oops!

Collars arrived today, ordered on the 16th November so pretty quick.

Wow look at those decorations. Bo looks very well behaved, I wonder if the Pres does poo pick ups LOL.

The Clean Run comfort flex martingale collars have arrived - they appear very well made and strong. Stitching appears to be reinforced everywhere and the hardware is very solid. They won't be able to back out of them if the are fitted properly. They are very well padded which I like, but the fabric covering on the padding is a bit like nylon ripstop so I am unsure how they will be in the Qld heat for longer periods of time - for example beach trips etc. I would still prefer a buckle/clip on version on balance but these definitely appear more secure than the buckle/clip varieties I have found here "off the shelf" so far. They do look like they will dry quickly so will be put to the test this weekend. I am more interested in the functional aspects than the appearance but the colours look good and are true to the pictures on the website. At $15.00 US with free shipping I think they are good value on first checks. I'll update again once they have had a good workout, some walks and swims.

Sounds as if he is getting good care then. Just seems such a shame when he looked so well leaving your place, post surgery infection was always my greatest fear with Issy.I guess if they have to cut bone or near bone there is always a risk no matter how careful the vet. Hopefully you'll get a positive update soon.

Oh no, really sorry to see this, I hope he is going to be ok. Will his owner let you know if she is struggling? Poor Zeus.

Me neither - the snap is solid brass, very strong and the spring is really tight - one of the reasons I chose them. I saw one in use ( on a large breed that was pulling like a freight train) and asked where it was from specifically because it looked so strong. My two don't pull like that but I like the security of knowing the leads can stand up to a lot. Have you contacted them Snoopy21 ? I'm sure they would want to know if you had an issue. I ordered two limited slip collars from Clean Run yesterday Esky the Husky, I'll let you know what they are like when they arrive. The Ruthless ones look stunning,hmm maybe I am going to have to stay out of this thread if there are lots of suggestion it will cost me a fortune! Edited to say ignore,just saw the response - too slow typing this morning!

Another vote for K9 Pro, I have leather slip leads, collars and 6 ft leather leads from them. They are very well made,soft from the minute you get them and the quality of the hardware is excellent. They are bringing out leather martingales as well. Is your worry about the hardware failing or Esky pulling out of the collar?

I've just ordered two limited slip collars, so excited they are on free shipping. Hopefully they will arrive before it runs out, if they fit I will be ordering a few, they are so cheap compared to similar ones I can find here.

Alf doesn't want to be left out......

Issy - not looking her best Her village idiot look

All the best to you and Cooper bianca.a, really hope it goes well. It is such a stressful time for you, I'll try and list some of the post op stuff we did with Issy to try and stop her going stir crazy just in case it helps. Some of it was to help us as well! Ams gave me a really good book with some trick training for immobile dogs, we did them with Issy whilst she was crated to take the edge off the boredom and occupy her mind a bit more. I will ask her if she remembers the title. We got her to earn all her food with simple target touching etc. It stretched out her meal times as she was on a reduced amount due to inactivity. We put frozen water bottles in the crate so she could lick off the condensation to cool her down ( as well as her water bowl). We found a very soft human wrist sling with two loops for handles to help with the first few walks, it was more secure than a towel and softer on her stomach,it helped steady her a little and gave us peace of mind that she wouldn't stumble. We don't use a harness to walk her but found it great for assisting with lifting - she flatly refused to toilet in the kitty litter end of her crate so we were constantly taking her out to the toilet - we used one with a lot of "coverage" so no straps were digging in to her. We covered the areas of the polished floors she frequently walked on with rubber matting to give her traction for the first few weeks. We found she was more settled during the day if she could be out of the crate if we were home - but kept her on leash so she couldn't make any sudden moves - despite the surgery she seemed to have no sense of self preservation and would try to do too much. We got her in a pool with one of us in the water with her as soon as the wound was healed over, she barely used the leg for the first two weeks but I really think it helped prevent muscle wastage any where else and so stood her in good stead when she could/did use the injured leg We did a lot of massage (physio showed us how) to help the muscles in the opposing leg and her spine whilst they took more of the strain. Don't know if any of this will be of any use and I'm sure the specialists will give you detailed instructions for your specific circumstances but these were things we came across. The other thing I found really helped was if a friend you trust will come over for an hour or so in the first week to give you a break. It's amazing how tiring sitting doing nothing but watching a dog can be!

Our dogs can be contained in the back yard by side gates we have put in, and don't go out the front if we are not home. They might make a nuisance of themselves as although the fence is very safe they can see between the gaps in the timber and would most likely bark if another dog went past and we were not there to correct them. We have a number of serial complainers in our street who complain about everything from the "younguns" up the road having the occasional Saturday night party to the kids playing in the street early in the morning/late in the evening. They wouldn't hesitate to report a barking dog however safe the fence might be - not worth the risk IMHO. If I am home but not in the front yard I open the door but put up a baby gate so the dogs can see what is going on but can't go to the fence. The other reason they are contained is for their own safety as in spite of the fact we have a buzzer that is well lit at night and highly visible during the day plus a sign stating there may be dogs loose in the yard, idiots STILL seem compelled to open the gate and walk in, last weekend it was some Jehovah's Witnesses and before that a delivery person who kindly left the gate open when they left. We can't padlock the front gate due to the location of the meter and I would terrified someone would let them out if they were out the front. After Issy's surgery last Christmas she had to do short leash walks only and quite frankly it was awful walking an injured dog past other dogs hurling themselves at their fences, the only dog that was actually loose was a Jack Russell that rushed us, it was small so easily dealt with with a kick, the owner was watching from the verandah and started to abuse me for kicking her dog. I pointed out Issy's leg and gave her an earful about the risk to her dog as well as mine. She has been reported by a few people but it doesn't seem to make any difference, the dog is still loose. We now drive to the park to walk both the dogs but I can empathise with those who have to walk their dogs in the local streets and have no choice but to run the gauntlet, it's not always as easy as crossing the street - we have dogs on both sides of our street that are as bad as each other and it is very intimidating to have to pass them.

RIP Orange. I hope they catch the people who took her and they are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.