AK_Blue

I'm going to take our dog for a walk this afternoon when my son wakes up. I might knock on the other neighbour's door and have a chat with her.

It's like the people next door have even thought about us videoing the dog. After the last council visit, while the dog was being kept in the garage 24/7, the woman who owns it was draping sheets and floor rugs over all of the balcony railings, so you literally can't see the dog and conditions it lives in. My husband climbed onto the railing a while back and stuck his head over the balcony, he said the balcony was covered in what looked like a week's worth of poop and urine, and it stunk like nothing he's ever smelt before. I wonder if sending a video of that alone to the rspca would be enough to get the dog rehomed?

Thanks for the good replies. It looks like something that I'm going to have to persist at with the rangers. I like the idea of going there at all hours of the night and knocking on the door. I'm not sure if I'm brave enough though. These are some big scary people next door. The police have been to their house to break up their domestics in the past, so the other next door neighbour tells me. My husband gets so annoyed, I think if given the chance, he'd more than hose the dog! At the end of the day it's the dog we feel sorry for. It has no chance of having any kind of happy life.

We have a belligerent neighbour next door who have a king charles cav which sleeps all day and is awake barking all night. The owners keep it on an outside balcony, it is never walked, and it never sees grass. Totally neglected and bored and it's not easy to see why it barks non stop, and the owners never tell it to be quiet. History is: My husband went next door and told them the dog keeps our young kids awake (1 and 5yrs old) and asked if they can let it indoors to sleep. It was a good talk which left us hopeful. They put their dog in the garage for approx 2 weeks. Then they went back to putting it on the balcony again. My husband asked why, and they told him it was crapping everywhere, so it's back on the balcony. We rang the council (clarence valey council) after being kept up until 4 am one morning when it started barking non stop at 10pm. After the council visit, they went back to putting the dog in the garage for another 2-3 weeks, then it's back on the balcony. Rang the council Ranger again, and they asked us to keep a diary, and then they will corroborate our diary with our neighbours and issue fines/ barking collar or confiscate the dog. Problem is, the older lady on the other side wears hearing aids, and takes them out to sleep, so she's not kept up and the next neighbours are nearly 100 mtrs away. So the council then says they can do nothing, that's their protocol, and say we should take court proceedings against the neighbours. Or suggested to send my husband over there to deal with them the old fashion way. WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!?! Last night the dog barked from 1am to 5am off and on. My husband lost it and was shouting at their house to shut the dog up, but they didn't even stir. What can we do next?

Cheers Elsha. It looks like you're right. Nothing much turned up at the vet, and it looks like a few months of trial and error finding what he can tolerate and what he can't. First up is science diet sensitive tummy and nothing else.

Or it could be something as simple as Coccidia or a stomach irritation. Don't panic. Thanks for your advice! That's what I'm hoping for. And I think given he's a ball of energy when awake, it can't be too serious. It just doesn't seem to matter what he' eating and it appears. So probably an infection or scrape of some sort. *crossing fingers*

Yeah, Cop rice was the breeder food. Rice based, not wheat as the dogs have a tendency for dry itchy skin. He hasn't eaten garlic in over 2 weeks now, yet all the sporadic symptoms remain. That's the rally strange part. His symptoms come and go, and there seems to be zero physical side effects. He is bouncing off walls and has a permanent smile tattooed to his face. He does look uncomfortable when pooing. He is booked in for Monday 8:30 and the vet is dropping around a stool sample jar this afternoon for me. I guess I wanted to make the thread to gather up all and any info and experience others may have had. As you know, anytime you're taking samples to a vet it can be a long, time consuming process to find out a cause and cure.

Hey. We've got an ACD pup from a registered breeder, and he's had mostly runny poos ever since we got him, and from time to time there will be a red smear of blood around the poo. On one occasion, he did a 3 runny poops in succession inside the house, and by the last one it was mostly red blood. I contacted the breeder, (freaking out a little) and she was really calm about it all. Suggested there was no immediate need to get him to the vet, as he probably chewed some bone and nicked his bum on the way out. Boiled chicken and rice for 4-5 days as his diet and see if he improves, which he did. Then after being on his Cop Rice & chicken mince mixed with fresh garlic diet for a week, he started having small blood smears on top of his poo, it's literally the last thing that's coming out. We changed his diet back to the boiled chicken and rice, and slowly mixed in some human mince meat into the mix as well. I talked to the vet at the beach and she said eliminate garlic, as its related to onion, and it could be poisoning him with toxins. We did that, and he was fine for another 2-3 days. He's been on this diet for a week now, and on Thursday he did a late arvo poo, and there was another small smear of blood on top, and this morning he did a firm poo, followed by a runny clump and this one had a good amount of blood on it. Yesterday he pooped out a good amount of clear mucus after a poo as well and wiped his bum along the ground after wards, which he does after a really watery poo (approx twice a week). There seems to be no rhythm or rhyme to his pooing. Firm, water and everything in between, even though his diet is the same. He might go 2 or 3 days of having firm healthy poops, then bang. He'll have diarrhea for a day and at the end of it all blood will appear. He is up to date with drontal all wormer, which I'm told is the best, so parasite infection is slim. We have a cat that is up to date with his worms as well. The registered breeder has been fantastic with advice, but at this last lot of problems, she advised me I'm worrying too much and I need to relax as the pup is happy and full of beans with bright pink gums. Her opinion is that he has a nick inside his bum which flares up from time to time. My gut tells me there's something more up, and that it's time for the vet. Also a thousand dollar dog which we had problems with 2 weeks after purchasing. Should it come a health guarantee, or is this up to the breeder's discretion as to whether they do it or not? Cheers for any advice you might be able to lend me.

Our neighbours are real pieces of work, we only just moved here 6 months ago. They really neglect their dog and 4 cats. She openly admits that she opens her front gate and lets him out a night or two a month, because she reckons he gets 'toey' ... She said he returns home the next morning looking pleased with himself. The old neighbours on the other side of us which have lived there 40 odd years told us the rangers regularly attend their house due to complaints and their last two dogs were both hit and killed by cars right outside her house. And yet she still lets her dog out once- twice a month. We had to ring the rangers and make a barking complaint as the dog barks for 3 or 4 hours on end all during the night to the point it wakes our young kids up. Our neighbour's reply was, now every morning she takes her dog out on a leash to poo & pee on our front lawn, then she takes the dog back in after it's done its business. Of course she doesn't pick up after it.

I remember when my wife was buying a border collie, and a old breeder from the South Coast who didn't have any upcoming litters told her, steer clear of any breeder charging more for a border due to colour or markings. He reckoned the breeders concentrating on creating the pretty chocolates or merles was too busy worried about looks, than temperaments. Might be just borders, but the more we saw the more his words rang true. There was one lady who had the biggest bunch of neurotic dogs, and all the litters we saw were the same, just wheels off, only wanted to herd, wouldn't come near you to be patted, didn't seem to care for human touch. But they were all pretty blue merles, and lilacs and chocolates.

Not that I should need to explain, as I know of no one who would put a 12 week old puppy to sleep unless totally necessary. I could write a short novel on the experience and go into a lot further detail about the vet/s we took her to. We saw 3 of them all up, not just one's opinion was taken. Her vulva was so badly inverted, she would spray like she was peeing onto an umbrella. 2 vets and a specialist all concurred the chances of this correcting itself after a season was definitely small. In the 4 weeks we had her she would come off the 10 day antibiotic course and immediately slip back into another uti. We spent $250.00 on medication in 4 weeks, she had a culture test done, and the correct antibiotic was a;ready being administered with no varying success. The specialist - which we drove for 14 hours to see - big concern was what her situation will be like when she finally became immune to the antibiotics, as she needed them daily to keep the uti at bay. But then the side effects from such a strong medication became apparent, and our decision was pretty clear. Watching a red & tan working kelpie sleep for 18 hours a day and barely have the energy to go outside and pee, and then struggle mightily to do so when she did was in itself heartbreaking ...

I got a cattle dog from a reputable breeder on the North NSW Coast recently, and I have been more than impressed with the service, after sales care, and treatment of myself and the little pup I bought. After having a horror run from a BYB where we bought a red & tan kelpie who had to be put down due to kidney disease after a month of owning him, he came to us with 3 juvenile paralysis ticks on him (the vet suspected he was denied water as a young pup which sent his kidneys into failure, but how do you prove that?) and then the BYB instead of giving me a refund, offered me a pup from the next litter. We got her 3 months later, she had the same sire but a different dam, and she a fifth toe on each back leg, and inverted vulva and we picked her up with a UTI. The vet said she would have UIT's her whole life due to her vulva condition, her 5th toes suggest shes positively inbred, so we made the unbearable decision (after seeking help/ advice from the BYB, who basically said you're on your own this time) to put her down as well. So here we were down $300.00 and have had to put 2 pups who we loved dearly down. And it seems all the phone calls to the trading post - where they advertised their dogs - meant nothing, as this lady is still on the trading post advertising her litters, and calls to the rspca have done little to nothing to stop her from breeding. Temperament is everything in ACD's which is why I went with a registered breeder. I was very nervous before buying him. Paying top dollar for a dog that could technically get just as sick as a BY bred dog. Reading the pedigree papers and learning the sire and dam had the same grandfather to me seemed strange. So off I went and researched line breeding ... And found out it can in some cases exasperate problems in the line, but conversely if done properly can exasperate all strengths and assets like temperament and the absence of hereditary problems/ illness. And after having my pup for only a month, I can honestly say I will only ever buy a dog from a registered breeder again. I can't even imagine getting my future dogs off anyone else other than this breeder. I had a minor problem with the pup after he ate something wrong and had blood in his poo. I contacted the breeder as to what I should do, and not only did she sum up the problem and give me a solution, she saved me an expensive vet bill. Turns out the advice she gave me, is exactly what I would have paid over a $100.00 for a vet to do. It's a shame there are breeders out there who don't treat people the way they would want to be treated, they drag the breeders who are out there working their butts off and doing the right thing by their breed, and the people, down.