trinabean

For the person/situation you descibed Pers, I think an older dog sounds like a better idea than a young one. One who is used to smaller dogs would be ideal. A young dog might be a bit too full-on for her current little dogs too?

Oh a lovely pic there Jellyblush! :)

Agree with LBD and Staffyluv, other dogs can find Boxers a bit over-the-top. Mine loves other dogs and play-bows at everyone (even a dog statue letterbox once). It all goes swimmingly until he gives them a friendly biff with a front paw. Thus, I'm careful about how I allow him to meet other dogs. I agree with the others that a long line is a good idea for the beach. I would try to go the first couple of times when it's quiet, and practice recalls. Have fun. :)

The docked tails suggest these pups are overseas. If they are Australian pups the photos are old, before docking was banned. Hopefully people looking for Boxer pups have done enough homework to know this. :)

Diva and Minimax.... What state is the person in Pers? There are Boxer Rescues in some states (a very good one here in WA). Or are you looking for one that a breeder is looking to re-home? There is a Doler active in the rescue forum who may be able to help match up a rescue if that is of interest? Edited to add: The rescue contacts listed in the rescue forum give details for Nalacleo in NSW and Dagmar Scherer (Boxer rescue network). Not sure if Nalacleo is still active, but Dagmar definitely is. I was in contact with Dagmar recently. :)

Advance is hardly rubbish. If your pup's breeder has raised litters of healthy Danes to adulthood on it, I'd be sticking with that. Between TOTW and Holistict Select, Advance has a lower star rating. http://www.dogfoodad...diets-dog-food/ True, high star rating doesn't mean suitable for your dog and vice versa, but at least we know where they stand from an independent product ingredient table point of view. 'The breeder is fully registered and reputable'. Doesn't mean anything. Perhaps, if the breeder did feed the dogs with a higher quality (if that exists), then the pups may have the next level of health and strength. At least that's just the theory. I don't think that the product review you linked to is for Advance though. It's an American website and the review is for 'Advanced Pet Diets.' The ingredient listing is quite different to the Australian made 'Advance' dog food too. I don't feed Advance, but just thought that might be a bit misleading for those that do. My dog's breeder feeds Advance and her reasoning was that it was a food her dogs did well on, and was never effected by supply issues (as can happen with some imported foods).

Teela I use Revolution and find it very good. You can pick it up cheaper online than through vet surgeries too. It kills adult fleas and prevents their eggs from hatching. It is also a heartworm preventative, and treats and controls ear mites and sarcoptic mange. :)

So Stan can't get into Alcatraz um, the fridge now Mad Stan?

How lovely of that person to donate the crate. :) I admire your dedication and hope that things improve for you and Roo. She's a gorgeous-looking girl.

I agree that many shampoos can be harsh. The washing itself though (even just with water) can be beneficial for rinsing allergens from the coat. That is, if the dog is allergic to things like air-borne pollens, dust etc. This is the case for my dog. :)

I suppose the thing with allergy testing is that it simply gives you some answers as to the cause of the itching. There is further expense then to treat the allergies if you go down the path of immunotherapy to desensitize the dog to the allergens. From what I understand, my dog was a good candidate for immunotherapy as he is young. Even with immunotherapy, we still have to treat the symptoms with antihistamines and other topical treatments. As Jumabaar and others suggested, it would be good to rule out other possible causes such as yeast infection, flea allergy and perhaps ask your vet about doing an elimination diet to rule out food allergy? A specialist visit could still be worthwhile after that, even if you don't do the allergy testing. They may still be able to offer a management plan for the itching if the other possible causes have been ruled out. I agree that Aloveen is not great for all dogs, QV wash may be more suitable. It's a 'people' product, available at Chemists. A spray can be made of water and QV bath oil too. Erny's favourite, Calendula tea is also very soothing as a rinse or spray (the dermatologist spoke highly of it as well when I asked her about it). I'm going to be lazy and cut/ paste from an older thread now. :laugh: So bearing in mind that my dog is allergic to specific things in the outdoor and indoor environment, these are some of the things the dermatologist has us doing: 1. Wipe down dog with a damp cloth after walks 2. Antihistamines given twice daily, 'Hydroxyzine' 3. 'Cortavance' hydrocortisone spray to affected areas every 2nd day. (We have reduced this as my dogs symptoms have eased). 4. Weekly bath using QV wash (human product available at chemists). I do a final rinse of Calendula tea. 5. Once a day spray itchy/dry skin with a solution of water and QV bath oil. 6. Increase fish oil in the diet, if tolerated. Do it gradually and under vet guidance. My 28kg dog has 6 fish oil capsules plus 1 evening primrose oil capsule per day. 7. Apply one pipette of 'Dermoscent essential 6' spot-on once a week. 8. This part relates to my dogs' reaction to dust mites, so may not be relevant to you?: wash dog bedding weekly in hot water and wool mix +eucalptus oil. Mop flooring with hot water and eucalyptus oil. Good luck! :)

What a gorgeous looking boy. Glad he's ok. :)

Hmm, my garden is full of those plants. I also know them as 'Dietes,' I've never seen them in the lists of toxic garden plants. They don't have a bulb though which is good news (you may be thinking of another iris Pers?) It's more of a clumping rhizome. I'll be interested if you find out whether it's toxic.

He's lucky he's such a looker Stans mum. :laugh: I'm not much help. Bruno isn't much of an eater. I can leave things defrosting on the kitchen sink. The only time I ever caught him bench-surfing, he got a lemon. The evil ball with a bitter surprise. The shocked Boxer face was priceless. :laugh:

I'm wondering if it's worth putting a second lock on the fridge up high? It would be a pain to have to open 2 locks every time you want to open the fridge though. Maybe the high 2nd lock could be left undone when you're home, but you lock it when you go out? A bit of added protection against Houdini-Stan.

Oh my. They are just so beautiful!

The dermatology vet treating my dog's allergies prescribed him the anti-histamine 'Hyroxyzine.' It's given twice a day and seems to help a lot. From what I understand it's even more effective when given in conjunction with Omega 3 and 6 oils in the diet.

Ok, for the original poster and for Rascalmyshadow, here's a link that explains the basic testing etc. for allergies: Murdoch Uni vet hospital I know it's in Perth, (which doesn't help either of you) but the info is relevant and I imagine the pricing would be similar to other dermatology vets in your states. For us: the intradermal testing was $285 HESKA blood allergy test was $475 Skin scraping, cytology of skin and ears $150 Initial consult was $175 (revisit consults are $90) On the day of testing there was also sedation, catheterisation, and a hospitalization fee which all added up to another $147 too. All up the total for testing came to roughly $1230. Not cheap, but we now have a good treatment/management plan in place. We decided to go down the immunotherapy path (a vaccine is tailor-made to combat Bruno's worst allergens, particularly the pollens and insects). That costs about $600 per year. We will do that for up to 3 years. Thankfully Petplan have covered most of this for us. Kind of makes up for all the things they've excluded on Bruno's policy.... :) Edited: Link should work now.

I can't help with the Melbourne specialists but I will look up some of the initial testing invoices I have, to give you an idea of pricing. :)

God I wish I could write a succinct post like this. I always use too many words and waffle on! :)

I agree with WreckitWhippet that you may save a lot of stuffing around by going straight to a specialist. We did stuff around going to a regular vet for quite a while before being referred to a canine dermatologist. Yes, the testing is expensive, but at least you can find out exactly what is causing the allergies, and take it from there. In our case the allergies are caused by specific grass pollens, insects and house dust mites and storage mites (which are often in commercial dry food). Without the test results, I would not have known about Bruno's allergy to storage mites, and might have continued fruitlessly to try and find a commercial dry food he could handle. There also seem to be a number of foods that my dog is intolerant to (eg. chicken, beef, lamb). The derm vet has put my dog onto an elimination diet to start working out which foods he can/can't tolerate. Without the specialist advice, I really would have been stumbling in the dark for years I think. So, I guess some of your options are to investigate the causes of the itching (which could be environmental or food-related, or both). Or you can just treat the symptoms as they occur. For me, knowing the causes means that I can adjust those things that I can control, to prevent some of the worst flares. So I do things like washing bedding and floors with hot water and eucalyptus oil to kill/remove dust mites. I wash my dog weekly to remove allergens from his coat. For things outside of my control (eg. air-borne pollens) I can also use medications like anti-histamines to ease his symptoms. The knowlege that I've gained from the dermatologist has really helped my dog. I wish you well with your dog. :) Edited to add: Because my dog is allergic to so many things common in both the indoor and the outdoor environment, we are doing immunotherapy too. I really hope he is one of the dogs that it works for.

Me too. Onwards and upwards Cooper. :)

Just checking in on you and Cooper. The updated pictures look awfully painful. I do hope you can both get some rest tonight. The hip surgery was no doubt a well-considered decision. This is something you could not have predicted though. I can't help but wonder if someone got over-enthusiastic with the clippers before realising Cooper is entire? I hope tomorrow is a better day.

It brings out his eyes Stan's mum. Love him !

He biffed it with a paw on his way to the couch. He then supervised me in comfort. I'm sure it won't stop him sticking his big face into everything, nothing seems to bother him!