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!

Thanks. I realise that I need to get rid of the mats first before washing, otherwise his whole coat will become one matted mess. This is why I am contemplating getting the vet nurse to do the brushing out and clipping first, then I can bathe him and dry him at home, which hopefully wont be as painful for him. Even that sounds daunting though so I probably should start looking at shampoos and a good quality blower instead. My groomers have told me in the past that it takes 2.5 hours to dry and brush him out. My girl dog is also a Samoyed but no where near as much work is required for her coat. Again, they both never fully blow their coats until the end of summer, not sure if this is due to being desexed or not. The vet said last summer several of his clients were saying the same thing about double coated breeds blowing coats late. So, if I purchase good clippers and a blower I am guessing around $500 as a minimum is what I am up for. Sounds like it is worth getting multiple blades based on many of the responses in case they get hot or blunt during a clip.

Wow thanks for all the replies. Not sure if there is a clear winner in the recommended clipper. I am still contemplating sending him to the vets to be brushed out and clipped under sedation and while he is knocked out they can take a fine needle aspiration of the lump that is on his spine, which is the main reason I feel that grooming him is now becoming painful. If I go anywhere near the lump, he quickly drops to a sit or lies down. If I continue to brush near it he tries to grab my mouth with his hand. I don't want to send him to the groomers for a whole day and have them rough handle him to finish the job if I can see it is causing him pain. Even if they try not to be rough, it will still hurt him. Sedation would remove the pain aspect. I actually sat down with a pair of scissors yesterday and clipped off (hacked off) fur near his rear end and around his hocks - it is always too long and just gets too messy. He has been to the groomers once since the vet clipped him. They said it was a lot of work brushing him out as the fur had grown back terribly and unevenly and yes I think it was matting. It looked so much better when they had finished, but it had definitely lost the texture of the original fur. They recommended sending him every fortnight to improve the quality of his fur, which is something we can't afford, nor do I think he could stand that regular bathing/blow drying. That was about 3 months ago. The fur is now longer and while there is some outercoat regrowing, it is mostly the thick undercoat. The undercoat was also clipped back short in the original vet clip, not just the outercoat. He was clipped totally to the skin up his sides and this section of fur is still obviously shorter than the rest. He also had a big bald patch across his shoulders that has only just started to regrow in the past 2 months. The skin underneath became very pigmented during this time. I have considered the idea of investing money in the blower, instead of the clippers, as one person suggested. I did ask about this in a previous topic on Samoyeds. I think I might ask the vet nurse whether I can be there when she does the clip/brush so that she can show me how she does it and also to show me what sort of clippers etc she uses for the different parts. I will also watch those links, although last time I watched links on how to clip a cat, it just reinforced to me to send him to the vet for clipping I have two dogs, so investing in clippers or blowers should pay itself back pretty quickly. Thanks again.

I want to attempt to groom/clip my Samoyeds. Neither of them appear to be blowing much of their coat at this stage. I would initially like to clip their bellies back to the skin, tidy up the fur behind their legs and also shorten the fur near their backside. My male Samoyed has a few health issues and sending him to a groomers for the day is no longer an option as it is just too uncomfortable for him. If I cannot brush him out I am considering clipping his coat shorter all over (not too short though, but perhaps half the length it is now) to hopefully reduce the amount of fur over summer. I understand that the outer coat acts as an insulator against the heat, but he had his whole outer coat removed by a vet earlier this year, and it doesn't appear to have grown back properly, so his coat is now mostly the thick dense undercoat. I have read on here several topics on clippers and sizes of blades and am finding the whole idea of buying clippers a bit confusing. Can anyone recommend a good clipper and also suggest what size blades I would need to achieve this type of clipping? Also what price would I be expecting to pay? My vet nurse can clip/brush out under sedation for $150. I know it would be easier to just pay that, but it is probably a good idea to learn to do it myself. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

I posted a while back about grooming. I have decided to stop sending my boy Samoyed to the groomers as I feel grooming is causing him pain. He has a lump along his spine which is becoming bigger. He has also previously been diagnosed with diabetic neuropathy which was affecting his lower limbs and spine. I have been gently trying to brush out his undercoat but he is very reactive to even gentle pulls. So now I am considering having the vet nurse brush him out under full sedation with a tummy, bottom and leg clip, so she can be quick and even rough and he wont feel it - or I could buy a set of clippers and actually attempt to clip him myself. I am also tempted to clip all over to reduce the length of his coat as he doesn't seem to fully blow his undercoat and spends his whole summer panting. I know diabetics are more prone to heat stroke so his full coat concerns me. After a near death experience earlier late last summer where the vet severely clipped him, his coat has now fully regrown, but is more wirey. How short can I really safely clip a samoyed? I am no longer going for looks, i am going for comfort. I cannot subject him to repeated brushing when it clearly is uncomfortable for him. Any tips would be good. The vet nurse wont be bathing him due to him being sedated, so I will still have to do that after she has brushed/clipped. I am tempted to get her to give him the shortest shave the vet recommends. Has anyone else shaved or clipped samoyeds and been satisfied with the results?

http://issuu.com/cre8ive/docs/rspca_act_an...2010/1?mode=a_p Here is the link to the RSPCA's last annual report. The canine figures are on page 22 for those interested. Take note there is no explanation for the fate of the 255 dogs they transferred to DAS, but a check of the rescue threads here on DOL show what happen to some of them. http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?showforum=47 No oversupply of dogs?? Keep checking the rescue threads and then come back and say that.

Alright Ill bite how will desexing stop this? The demand for puppies is still the same so eliminating oops litters simply means someone else will breed them. Thisis irresponsible breeding problem is an irresponsible owner problem and all this does is ensure we have more sick desexed dogs and more sick desexed dogs coming into pounds. But we can blame the breeder for that too. I think you answered your first sentence with your second sentence. The problem is there are too many people allowing litters to be bred when there are already too many. Somone wouldn't be able to just go the next peron to get a pup, if the next person's dog was also desexed. If we are euthanising animals then clearly we have too many - the supply is greater than the demand - so why do people keep breeding? Puppies do get euthanised, so there clearly isn't a demand that justifies the current rate of breeding. A desexed animal cannot breed or contribute to the future over-supply of animals. Neither can a euthanised animal. All my pets have been desexed before 12 months old, including several on the advice of the breeder, and I haven't even heard of most of the medical conditions you mentioned in the earlier post, let alone had a pet suffer from one. I'm not saying they don't exist, or it doesn't happen, but desexing a dog before 12 months is not necessarily a guarantee they will suffer more sickness. My two pedigree dogs suffer from more medical issues than any other pet I have owned, and these conditions have nothing to do with early desexing. Still, I don't blame the breeders for it, just bad luck. Current laws don't stop people from drink-driving, committing murder, theft etc, so it is unlikely these new laws will be entirely effective in getting people to desex their pets. But if it stops enough people then we might eventually gain some type of control over the numbers of unwanted pets, or at least not have to kill so many which is probably the intent behind this legislation. We are not bumping off dogs because there are too many we are doing that because they are sick or nasty. There is not one single dog listed as being killed by RSPCA ACT because there are too many of them. If you can provide ANY evidence that there is an canine over population problem and dogs are being put down because there are simply not enough homes for them in the ACT then I would be interested to see this. Go into the past rescue threads here on DOL and look under the ACT DAS threads and see how many dogs that are both healthy and nice that have been killed, including some that have been transferred from the RSPCA. It is a myth that only sick or nasty dogs are being put to sleep. That is all I will say on that topic on a public forum

Alright Ill bite how will desexing stop this? The demand for puppies is still the same so eliminating oops litters simply means someone else will breed them. Thisis irresponsible breeding problem is an irresponsible owner problem and all this does is ensure we have more sick desexed dogs and more sick desexed dogs coming into pounds. But we can blame the breeder for that too. I think you answered your first sentence with your second sentence. The problem is there are too many people allowing litters to be bred when there are already too many. Somone wouldn't be able to just go the next peron to get a pup, if the next person's dog was also desexed. If we are euthanising animals then clearly we have too many - the supply is greater than the demand - so why do people keep breeding? Puppies do get euthanised, so there clearly isn't a demand that justifies the current rate of breeding. A desexed animal cannot breed or contribute to the future over-supply of animals. Neither can a euthanised animal. All my pets have been desexed before 12 months old, including several on the advice of the breeder, and I haven't even heard of most of the medical conditions you mentioned in the earlier post, let alone had a pet suffer from one. I'm not saying they don't exist, or it doesn't happen, but desexing a dog before 12 months is not necessarily a guarantee they will suffer more sickness. My two pedigree dogs suffer from more medical issues than any other pet I have owned, and these conditions have nothing to do with early desexing. Still, I don't blame the breeders for it, just bad luck. Current laws don't stop people from drink-driving, committing murder, theft etc, so it is unlikely these new laws will be entirely effective in getting people to desex their pets. But if it stops enough people then we might eventually gain some type of control over the numbers of unwanted pets, or at least not have to kill so many which is probably the intent behind this legislation.

What bothers me the most about domestic pets in Australia is that over 100,000 of them are euthanised every year, not because they are sick, bad, or dangerous - but because they are unwanted. Yet there are so many more being deliberately and accidentally bred to add to this amount. None of it makes sense to me. Desexing really is the only thing that can stop this. I sadly doubt, laws or not, that I will ever see this society getting to the point where we stop euthanising good animals simply because we have over-bred.

I am wondering why don't they just scotchguard or waterproof underlay so it can't soak through in the first place. Perhaps I should scotchguard the carpet so future pee just beads on top, or spray teflon on it so that it actually sprays back up and hits the unsuspecting pooch/kitty where it hurts I am worried the more I wet it, the more it will smell. Will see whether I have success with the Urine Off product and report back (once I work out where is the cheapest place to buy it from). went to pet barn today and they don't have it, but had something else which was actually more expensive then the online shops, so didn't buy it.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. The carpet isn't actually visually stained, as I had already used our Vax to shampoo and do several water only rinses, so the carpet looks clean, but the odour is still there as it 'trapped' in the underlay like the carpet cleaner guy suggested. The cat had managed to go many times before we realised as it was under a table and it wasn't until it started to smell that we discovered the carpet was quite saturated. I like the sound of the Urine off product. I had originally seen one called Urine Free, which makes the same claim that it actually breaks down the uric acid crystals and therefore removes the problem, not just adding perfume over it. The home based recipe sounds worth a try too, especially for any new ones that will inevitably happen in our house! In fact within 24 hours of having our carpets cleaned we had a blood nose, dog wee, kitten wee, baby vomit and then the next day cat vomit, all on our 'clean' carpet, and these new stains haven't come out, so I think I might make up a spray bottle of that for these newer stains. I will go and search for a good price for the Urine-off product and will report back once I have used it to see if it works.