LisaCC

Have always left Sam with his clam pool. He uses it all the time mostly by digging in it. I did catch him one day peeing in it!!

Personal Zombie weapon of choice: Chainsaw, battery operated.

I've seen the videos of those elephants being abused Even if it was set up for the money it is absolutely disgusting.

Sam my lab has been dropping his hair like a husky since the end of november when we had a freak week of high 30s-40s temps. It was coming out in big clumps even with brushing with a slicker and an undercoat rake every day!! It has finally started to slow down because I don't think there is hardly any undercoat left!! We asked the vet about it thinking it could of been from an operation around that time and they said it was the freak heat wave that happened and they had lots of people coming in asking if there was something wrong with their dogs! Seeing as we are in another one state (country?) wide heat wave I would put this to the heat too.

Exciting day! After being on just Wellness (no old food at all mixed in) for a few days Sam just had his first perfect looking poo in about 5 years!!! Thats about as exciting as it can get for a sick dog lover

"This is why we can't have nice things!"

If I remember correctly there has been two horses. Original was a racehorse i think, it got replaced by a cowboy riding a horse in the 50's?. Apparently it got kicked out years ago

Breakfast1cup of Wellness Healthy weight 1/3 a scoop of pernaease powder. Snacks A carrot A good chew on an old cow leg bone. Dinner 1 cup of Wellness for dinner And todays delicacy. A pile of his own poop.

Actually Dogmad I just found this on the petbarn website. So you are right, wheat free guaranteed

For Lord of the Rings fans: "Keep it Secret, Keep it Safe"

Thanks for the well wishes everyone, I'm glad others have had success with it as well. I had heard some bad things about it, but over all I think it is a pretty good food. Dogmad I'm not actually sure if this one is wheat free, It doesn't advertise to be. They do have a grain free range but the product Sam is on is not part of that and does seem to have a large amount of grains. It only has natural preservatives though, that might be making a difference Here is the ingredient list for Wellness Healthy Weight. Some of the ranges are very different. Deboned Chicken, Ground Barley, Rice Bran, Chicken Meal, Ground Brown Rice, Tomato Pomace, Natural Chicken Flavor, Rye Flour, Oatmeal, Oat Fiber, Whitefish, Tomatoes, Canola Oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols, a natural source of Vitamin E), Ground Millet, Carrots, Spinach, Sweet Potatoes, Apples, Blueberries, Calcium Carbonate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Ground Flaxseed, Vitamins [beta-Carotene, Vitamin E Supplement, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Vitamin A Supplement, Niacin, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin, Vitamin D-3 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, Folic Acid, Biotin, Vitamin B-12 Supplement], Minerals [Zinc Sulfate, Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Ferrous Sulfate, Copper Proteinate, Copper Sulfate, Manganese Proteinate, Manganese Sulfate, Sodium Selenite], Choline Chloride, Taurine, Mixed Tocopherols (a natural preservative), Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Chondroitin Sulfate, Chicory Root Extract, Garlic Powder, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Green Tea Extract, Dried Lactobacillus plantarum, Enterococcus faecium, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation products, Rosemary Extract. This is a naturally preserved product.

I've known about this for a long time now just out of my own interests, but now we learn about this experiment at uni. Have seen some of the older documentaries on it. I might take a look at this one tomorrow and see if there is any new info on it :)

So sorry for your loss Cazstaff, I wish you the best at this time and I hope you can get some kind of closure from this. He seems like a wonderful old boy.

I have recently switched Sam over to Wellness Healthy Weight. I am very surprised and happy with this product. As some already know my 11 yr old Lab Sam has stomach issues (very interesting case of inflammatory bowel disease) that almost killed him when he was 8 as he had lost more than a 3rd of his body weight including a lot of his temporalis muscle that he has never regained. We tried every food on the market, prescription diets and special raw diets advised by vets and specialists but he could not digest any of it. Then for some very odd reason he had been able to digest Pedigree Light and Mature! Yes a poor food but literally the only thing that he wouldn't just poo out and it let him put on weight (but a diet food ) and he put on 5kgs the week he was to be put down!!! A damn miracle as the vets call him. And since being on it he has never reverted (although he still gets weighed and monitored very regularly). But for some reason we haven't been able to get this food in town anymore (something to do with the local supplier). So we took a risky chance and switched to Wellness with approval from vets and a very slow introduction and very regular weigh in. So far so good :) He has only dropped 300g since starting and the vets are putting that down to the high heats we have been having and not the food. If it was the food we would be seeing what we did last time (about 2-5kg per week). I am utterly amazed that this has not had any negative effects. Also Im not sure if this is because of the food or his exercises (or both) but we have also noticed a change in his activity levels which has deteriorated recently with his arthritis and diagnosis of Degenerative Myelopathy. He is running around a little more and wanting to speed walk and is lagging less on our afternoon walks, also having more than 3 throws of fetch before laying down . The last few weeks have been so stressful waiting, watching and hoping he doesn't go down hill. But so far so good. A BIG thank you to the lovely man at Petbarn who gave us a free bag of Wellness to test him out on! EDIT: got his weight loss wrong oops.

More Areas have been put into the Catastrophic zone, including Eastern and Northern Riverina http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/dsp_TOBAN_HTML.cfm

Not saying the cats should or should not be put down but I do think Cats should be treated and judged differently to dogs, they are completely different species.

I had a lovely spaniel (not sure what type but it was medium sized and a golden colour) swim up to me in the river last week. Got some big cuddles out of that while it rested from its swim on my arms, waited a few minutes then kept swimming :) If the dog approaches in a friendly manner and the owners are ok with it then I will say hello and give some pats.

Sam has been outside lately even if we are home. If he is inside in this heat he begs to go back outside (probably due to the carpet). He lays either on the cement under the covered veranda or on the grass under trees. He also has a shell pool and multiple bowls of water. We no longer give ice or ice water as it makes him vomit and we are too worried about bloat.

For Labs I only like yellows, but prefer a bolder colour than light cream/whitish (Not counting the aged whiting on my lovely old boy :D) I love every colour of Aussies, but particularly would like a merle of either colour (red or blue). Black spotted dals. Blue ACDs. Generally Sables seem to be beautiful in every breed :) and I am partial to deep Red/Chocolate tri. Not a huge fan of solid blacks (I like my dogs eyes to contrast its face) or brindles.

Good luck with your plans! And Kudos to you bringing in LUA semen. Dalmatians have always been at the top of my 'Dogs I will own' list, but decided to hold off until there are some LUA Dallys in Australia. Very glad it is in the works :)

Hello Waggarians. If you could have a look at this lost and found post please and keep and eye out that would be great. Thank you. http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/244850-lost-red-border-collie/

Such a beautiful boy!

When there are more than 3 tennis balls around the one that was thrown and you can't decide which one you want the most. Then when you attempt to carry them all you get one stuck in your throat and mum has to pull it out.

Oh I can agree with that Aussie3, I overheard a vet nurse trying to tell someone that if they didn't get their already registered puppy desexed by 6 months they would be made to pay a fine (what utter bull). The lady was just enquiring on whether they charge more for an older puppy to be desexed as she wanted to wait till 12 months.

Showdog, I guess I've just been lucky enough to have mostly met good vets. All the vets I've seen with my own animals, worked with, or been lectured by have been against back yard breeding and very much for desexing. Hence the question of me asking in the first place is this widespread outside of students?