bernym

I only just caught up on this news. How sad. I met Roger & spoke to him many times as he did transport to Yass. He rescued & temp cared several cats for me, even driving them around to vets out his way for cheaper desexing/vaccinations than I could get here in Canberra. I remember him telling me how many adult cats he had as he knew he would have trouble rehoming adults, but couldn't bear not to rescue them. Our family recently decided to keep one of our foster cats & it was Roger's offer to collect him & his brother & temp care them for weeks until I had the space that enabled us to rescue him. Roger was a man with a big heart. RIP.

There are 8 known causes of kennel cough, of which only 2 are covered by current vaccines. My two dogs got kennel cough from a foster and my dog who had received the C5 vaccine had it worse. So vaccines wont necessarily protect your dogs if it is a different strain than they are vaccinated against, so good idea to keep them separated as you are doing. PS Both my dogs were given Rilexine 300 tabs for 10 days for their kennel cough. It got worse, before it got better, but had cleared by day 10.

Perhaps this is an unexpected consequence of BSL. We ban big dogs, we have more small yappy dogs. :laugh:

Aww, reading all these posts makes me think I have lucked out in the supportive husband stakes. Mine never liked cats, now he absolutely hates them. Isn't so fond of dogs now either. Constantly complains that the house smells like pee or poo and how he can't have anyone over as there are too many animals. Over reacts every time an animal goes to the toilet like he is being gassed. Tells me everyone thinks I am mad. Refuses to help with anything cat or dog related, then complains that I am spending too much time cleaning up after them and not spending enough time wih my family. He just fixed all the outdoor lights our last foster dog ate and I have had to agree to never having another foster dog. He now has the audacity to ask me to take a whole 3 months break when the last foster cat is rehomed. Is there a shelter where I can return my husband and get another one?

Just read this thread from beginning to end and can't stop crying for the lovely Mack and for you Cathy for having cared enough to rescue him and to have given him probably the best moments of his life. RIP Mack and take care Cathy - you are amazing!

I have a 7 month old Kelpie foster dog in my back yard at the moment that the RSPCA transferred to DAS and he was going to be euthanised. I rescued him and sadly the only inquiry I have had for him in the first 2 months was from the Army. Initially I thought it didn't sound like a great idea, but then I did some more research, including searching DOL for an old forum on the life of Army Detection dogs, and it seems it is a great life for providing physical and mental stimulation to a working dog such as a kelpie. I think of all the poor kelpies that have died, either accidentally or deliberately, as working dogs on my relative's sheep farm, and I think the stats of dying as an Army dog are actually looking quite good in comparison. If my foster dog does end up in the Army, then I guess it would be quite ironic that he started out as an ACT RSPCA dog. I still think it would be better than having been killed in the pound which is what his destiny was

Kennel cough mutates.. immunity to one strain doesn't guarantee immunity to others Kennel cough is transmitted directly from one dog to the other by air. I've never heard of it having a residual chance of transmission but a person who's touched a dog with the illness might pose a risk. Parvovirus is a whole different ballgame. It can be transmitted on shoes, clothes etc. There is no way I'd have a partially vaccinated dog in a workplace unless people disinfected their hands before touching her. This is what I have been told by my Vet. He says there is little point vaccinating your "average" pet againt KC as there are so many mutations. He recommends it for Dogs that frequent areas where large amounts of dogs attend such as at Shows or Obediance Clubs, trials, or Boarding Kennels etc. My two adult dogs have just come down with kennel cough after exposure to two rescue pups who arrived with it. The pups were on antibiotics immediately and their coughing was quite minimal. However, my two adult dogs seem to have it worse then the pups had it, and strangely enough the dog who has been getting the C5 vax for several years has it worse then the dog who has only received the C4. The vet nurse said that it is just like the human flu vax - it doesn't cover all the strains so vaccinating for kennel cough is still no guarantee they wont get it as it is transmitted by various viruses and also bacteria.

I have a pup at my house at the moment, about 4 months old, very playful and friendly but determined to pull out mouthfuls of fur from my girl Samoyed and swallow them. It is the second pup I have had here of similar age that has liked to eat Samoyed fur. The current pup then later coughs up furballs (sounds and looks disgusting!). Apart from telling off pup when we see him do it and then physically removing him, I am not sure how to stop it. Has anyone else encountered this sort of fondness for Sammy fur? The pup is a mixed breed with no real obvious breed so not sure if there are wool eating dogs out there that normally do this sort of thing, but my dogs have never deliberately pulled out and eaten each other's fur.!

I originally wanted a girl and the breeder asked me why, saying that often people think girls are better in temperament and more obedient, whereas he had always found the boys were often the more obedient and willing to please and girls were more likely to be independent and wanting to do their own thing. He also said he had found his boys were definitely more sooky and cuddly then his girls. In the end we got a boy, then later added a girl. Our boy is definitely more obedient and calmer than our girl, but I can't really attribute this to their sex as I have only ever had these two. Both are super friendly and affectionate, never have shown aggression to people or other dogs. I recently realised that they are also alright with cats, now that I have a cat that isn't scared of them. They weren't good with rabbits though I sometimes forget that some people accept certain levels of aggression with dogs and prey instincts, but this hasn't ever been a problem with ours (except the poor bunny incident). They are great with children too, although funnily enough, many parents come over asking if their kids can pat the dogs, meanwhile the kids look absolutely terrified of them because they are big and fluffy! I doubt you would regret owning one - unless you like to wear black and hate fur over yourself ;)

We feed our Samoyeds Supercoat dry food. Both breeders recommended it in the beginning and each time I query whether I should change to a premium brand the vets always say not to worry, it is good enough. I recently tried to swap brands to cure some 'wind' issues, but have gone back to it as the other sensitive stomach ones didn't cure the issue. One 8kg bag usually lasts over a week (maybe 2) to feed our two and we tend to bulk buy when it is on sale. I think I worked out once that it costs on average about $1 each dog per day (although the boy eats more than the girl), so not very expensive. My girl is about 18kg and the boy is 35kg. Because my boy has diabetes I can't really add other stuff to his diet, or give him treats, nor can I experiement too much with changing his food. Despite the vet advising that dog foods should list their energy compositions on the packet, I have found that alot of them still don't so it is very hard to compare them.

This product looks good, but we have trees and shrubs all the way around our fenceline so any cat can just enter and leave by running up a tree and leaping over the fence. I imagine you would need a clear fenceline with no large trees for this to be 100% effective.

It sounds like you have done all you can. The cat is only young, so unless he becomes injured he should probably be agile enough to escape the yard if your dogs decided to chase him. If he is a smart cat he will only do this a few times and not come back again. I recently discovered a cat in our backyard, sunning itself in an area of the yard that our dogs can't get into unless we open the gate. I thought it must be a pretty smart cat to have worked out it could go in there and be safe from the dogs. It is the first time I have seen another cat in our yard since we got our dogs 7.5 years ago. I think you can safely stop worrying, I am sure it will be fine and as you have spoken to the owners about, and they seem friendly, if the worse case scenario did happen, they don't sound like they would hold you responsible anyway (and you wouldn't be responsible either).

"Such acts of aggression" are sadly what all dogs are capable of even nice family pets, when people understand that every one will be safer. A very sad situation. I disagree. I do not believe that ALL dogs are capable of this sort of aggression. There is always going to be the likelihood that a dog will escape and end up roaming. People and their dogs should be able to safely walk the streets without fear of being attacked by a dog, regardless of where the dog is from, or how it got there. Our dogs have escaped many times and haven't attacked any dogs or people. We have always accepted responsibility for their escape and apologised to the people who have 'caught' them, but as they are nice dogs who are friendly to people and dogs, we have yet to meet anyone who was upset at us. Some would say we are irresponsible for having them escape more than once. I would rather the irresponsibility of forgetting to shut a gate occasionally and a friendly dog get out then the trying to avoid responsibility when a third party accidentally lets out dogs that go and kill another. If the dogs are that unpredictable then they probably should be dead. Human murderers don't get a 'first time free' escape from jail - why should a dog?

I always thought screaming and making lots of noise was one of the recommended reactions during a dog attack - in the hope the noise might frighten them and stop the attack. A bit hard when there are two attackers though. I would absolutely scream the loudest I could if roaming dogs ever attempted to do this to myself or my dogs. I would have no sympathy at all for the attackers and would ask for them to be destroyed. Nice, lovely dogs are destroyed every day in this country in pounds that have never commited such acts of aggression. Why on earth keep dogs that pose a threat to other people's safety? Dogs do escape from yards but most don't ever behave like this. Poor woman and poor jack russell.

I also posted under grooming asking about clipping etc. I think I will send him to the vets to be brushed out and clipped around tummy/bottom/legs under sedation, and then attempt to bathe him myself. I bought some whitening shampoo today, but still don't have a blower or clippers yet. I thought I would ask the vet nurse what brands she uses and clipper blade numbers before buying anything. The other thread had quite a few different recommendations about brands, clipper numbers etc, but I still don't know what to select. Kelza, he is 7 years old. They are good tips re: wet towels and ice in the water. I have already filled the clam pool with water, but they usually only stand in it and until I get a blower, it probably isn't a good thing for them to get too wet. At the moment both my dogs are being mauled by flies. I bought some new fly repellant today for dogs/horses, but they still keep biting their noses and ears. Short of keeping them completely inside, which they don't really like, come to their noses. I know as soon as we clip their bellies that the flies and ants will start biting. They are definitely happier in the thick of winter when it is freezing!