aliwake

Our vet put a message on fb saying they'd contacted the reps and it wasn't true...

I didn't know the excess had gone up?! Will have to check! Maybe see if you could drop down a level twinkle? That's what I'm considering. I may hate them at the moment, but hey still offer the best cover by a long way.

LOVE the bed! I want one!

Definitely worth having a chat to your trainer - sounds like she knows him pretty well! He's a teenager now, and will try to push boundaries in a variety of ways - this could be one of them? Don't completely dismiss hormones as the cause though - it is possible that it's related.

Nixon has only humped other dogs twice - both were the two visits to the park immediately after I got him desexed :) If you were getting close to desexing anyway, it wouldn't hurt to do it soon. He will still have some testosterone for another 2months (I think), so if that is fueling his behaviour, it won't be an immediate improvement. All you can do is be consistent with your corrections in the meantime, until the testosterone reduces. I don't know what it is about labs though - every dog in our park that is inclined towards humping will hump nixon!! It's so weird! Both boys and girls. He's very popular :) ETA I guess it can also be a dominance thing. The (desexed) girl that is the most determined humper at our park is a similar age to Ronin and she's only really started doing it in the last month or so.

We were away on holidays for the first few weeks on his new food, so we're still playing around with amounts. We're actually trying to drop a little weight, but he certainly isn't putting weight on feeding the amount mentioned. We're still on the road to finding the perfect amount, but obviously that's going to change on a different food. dotdashdot - advance was the other main one I was considering when switching to adult food - you're obviously pretty happy with it? Last night at the park he did the big pile, then little pile 2mins later scenario... Have given him a probiotic this morning, so hopefully that will help.

That's why I didn't want to use the adult lab food - 6 cups is ridiculous! He currently gets about 3 2/3 cups a day and weighs about 34kgs.

She is so gorgeous! Looks like the coat fits well now too :) It's amazing the difference a month can make! I don't think I'd seen your 8 month photos - that blue skin suit is hilarious!!

Yes, he did have Giardia when he was a pup - that was probably about a year ago now. After he recovered from that it took ages for his poo to firm up, and I found yoghurt made a huge difference. Having said that, he seems to be more bullet proof now, and eats all sorts of horrible things including other dogs' poo, and possum poo, along with chewing on random sticks etc. I don't get to watch him poo all the time, but both days on the weekend I noticed it. I don't think he got any meat on those days though. I will keep it in mind though and see if I can make a correlation. I wouldn't think so though, because he's been having bones regularly most of his life, and this poo problem has only started recently. The only other thing that's different is he did have a course of steroids towards the end of May for a cough that wasn't clearing up.

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure he's constipated - he gets most of the poo out fairly quickly, but for some reason he seems to feel like he needs to keep straining after that for a while. The last part of the poo tends to be small and runny, but the first part is nice and solid. I don't really know... all I know is it's different, and I'm not sure if I need to worry or not?!

Thanks Panto, he gets yoghurt every day already. I might give him some extra probiotics for the next couple of days though, and see if that helps!

I finally got my money back this morning. They did take the excess out which I didn't think they were going to (ongoing condition, but very close the the end of my premium year), but I can't be bothered chasing them any more at the moment. over it!

Thanks for the food suggestions! I find the whole food topic very overwhelming to be honest. We originally tried RC after he refused to eat Eukanuba as a pup - I read quite a few comments on here about RC palatability, and thought I'd try it, and he was instantly a lot happier with the taste, and his condition was good, so we stuck with it. I do feel like there would definitely be better options out there though, so thanks for suggesting the holistic select. Will try some when we finish the current bag (unless the poo situation becomes more dire before then!)

Nixon always used to poo quite easily - everything would come out pretty quickly and he'd move on. A couple of times recently I've noticed that he will do the majority of his business quite easily, but then he'll stay in 'the position' straining for quite a while, and he may have a couple of runny drops come out eventually. The other scenario is he'll do a big pile, then 5 mins later a small runnier pile. Do I need to be concerned? I'm assuming it's food related at the moment, but are there any other issues I should be concerned about? He used to be fed RC lab junior, and about 6 weeks ago transitioned onto the RC maxi adult food (I decided not to go with the adult lab food because they recommended feeding about 6 cups a day for his size, where as the maxi adult only suggests 4 cups). I assume that means there's a heap of filler in the lab food. He gets a lamb neck every couple of days, and gets carrots most days as treats too. He also gets yoghurt daily because it helped him so much after lots of tummy upsets when he was a pup. I'm happy to try another food if people think it will help?

Love that pic Yonjuro - two very gorgeous babies right there!

She is so so so cute! More pics anytime please :)

I'm so sorry - he was clearly a gorgeous boy who will be missed so so much. Thanks for sharing so many of his lovely last adventures.

Just got off the phone from them again. Apparently they're behind on all their bank transfers (no sh*t!), but apparently the claims manager personally promised to make my transfer today. Not holding my breath, but we'll see.

If her premium went up, then it means it was a new policy year, and the payments should have stopped if the dog was deceased! What a farce - making something way more difficult than it needs to be just adds to the trauma for your poor friend kirty

Awwww, she is so cute! She clearly adores her dad already too :)

While my boy is generally more of a drooler - there aren't enough bubble pics in this thread! :)

They have been really good with every other claim I've had - I just feel like there is internal chaos there due their 'restructuring' and they aren't coping AT ALL. Just pay me please

good idea. it doesn't take 2.5 weeks to write a cheque!! And the huffy attitude I got last time I called them was incredibly rude. Not looking forward to going through that again

I still haven't received my money... doesn't take that long to do a bank transfer! Just sick of being lied to and falsely placated. I also got a text message from them last night saying they received my claim on the 9th may and would process it in turn etc etc (it was the claim before my current one, which they have already processed and finalised). They're clearly on top of things - NOT!

Central qld generally means mackay or Rocky - if not further. Would be a 10+ hour drive to Brisbane potentially. Not really feasible, or comfortable for the dog having to travel so far when so unwell.