Mana

Wow! Thanks for such detailed responses! Maxspots - not useless info - this is exactly what I was thinking of I just got it the wrong way round! Thanks for mentioning this Booboo - I certainly agree with your sentiments, and if I was concerned with the quality of something I had bought I would not continue to use it. Buying anything these days is a bit of an ethical minefield, but keep in mind many of the generic products on our shelves are produced and packed in Australia, and often from the same (local) sources as the premium Australian stuff! I've found some generic products to be of better quality than their pricey counterparts. Some very good quality, expensive products are still environmentally and ethically dubious, and if I do not feel comfortable about those aspects of a product I will not buy it, whether cheap or expensive. That is actually more important to me than a slight variation in quality. Collie Angel - These are the sardines I've been using up till now - the 49c ones. The cat tinned fish wasn't actually like cat food though - it was sort of whole fish and bits of fish in a jelly - so didn't have that vile tinned-dog-food smell. One other thing - I learnt in another thread today to avoid tomato - so no more tinned sardines or mackerel in tomato sauce for my lot.

Oh right... Does that mean no eggplant either? I had a slightly mouldy one I was going to use last week but something in the back of my head said no... don't do it...

And on a slight tangent - how much should be in their water bowls? Someone (ellz I think?) has mentioned it a couple of times re hotspots and grass-burning but I'm not sure how much to put in... and I got the dirtiest look from Grace this morning when she tasted it... Maybe I've put too much in?

Cabbage and endive greens and asian greens etc (some of which I think are also crucifera) produce the most appalling farts in my lot. When they got into the rotten cabbages that had been pulled out of the garden after a late frost... pheeeewwww... A little bit at a time seems to be ok though. And green beans seem to be great, if you can get them cheap enough. Poodlefan - are you absolute with your avoidance of tomato? I've been using leftovers of our salad in their dog-pulp, and that often has bits of tom in it, and also their tinned fish is often in tom sauce. Is it just the acidity of the tom which I think is problematic if there's arthritis or is there a further reason?

I usually buy a number of tins of Home Brand tinned mackeral and sardines (human grade) when I go shopping, for the dogs' fishy additions. Yesterday I noticed that the tinned Home Brand Cat food is just fish, not much else, and is a fraction the cost of the other dark oily (human grade) tinned fish I've been buying. Other than less stringent quality control in the animal food, is there any reason that I can't give these to my dogs in place of their sardine and mackeral supplements? Tuna: Ingredients: Tuna, Vitamins (E, D3), Water. Chunky Sardines in Jelly: Ingredients: Sardines, Gelling agent, Vitamins. Chunky Pilchards in Jelly: Ingredients: Pilchards, Gelling agent , Vitamins. I have heard you can't feed cat food to dogs, but I think that was in the context of using a "balanced and complete" commercial food, whereas this is just a supplement. Also, what is the difference between a "guaranteed" and "typical" analysis on foods (pet or human)? Is there such a thing as an "actual analysis"?

I haven't had the same condition, but I hope some people with similar experiences might be able to shed some light. I know all too well how it feels to get that stomach-turning news though. Wait for the biopsy and take it day at a time. With all the best wishes for you and Bess.

I'm a comparative novice in the "teaching stay" stakes - but just to add to what Tess32 and Hazz have said, our socialisation class teacher differentiates between "wait" and "stay" in a way that makes sense to me. For a "stay", the dog is never released, marked and treated, until you are back with the dog. They must learn never to leave the stay until you are back at their side. In training it was suggested that rather than letting them break from the stay towards where you have been standing, we should return to them and release them in the opposite direction to where you've been coming from - i.e. they have to turn around to follow you... Does that make sense? Such that in training at least, they are never released from the stay to walk forwards towards you. The "wait" involves a stop or pause - i.e. before eating their dinner, before crossing a road, but when marked, treated and released, they can continue towards you / with you - i.e. towards you to their dinner, with you over the road etc. I don't think I've explained that very clearly, have I?

I also bought from eBay, but got hand engraved ones. You can put on as much info as will fit and it was $13 for three coloured tags. The seller was "zirphx" and they were called "Aussie pet tags"... ETA: just went to check and it says the seller has no items for sale currently... maybe they've stopped?

Caesar - there have been some threads in the past about buying in larger quantities and dividing the doses your self... however I think it's usually been in multiple dog situations... I'm not sure how well the solution "keeps" once opened. But the basic principle is - treatment is per kilo, so buy the most economical source of the treatment, and with a syringe measure out the appropriate per kilo amount and apply it... I haven't done this myself but if you have more than one dog it might be the way to go, as the larger doses and multiple dose packs are cheaper per ml than the smaller / fewer dose packs. ETA this is the thread I was thinking of: Cheap preventatives on a per kilo basis

Thankyou - I am going to use Pricelesspets for the next batch of topical stuff, but didn't think to look online for the gut wormers... duh!

Thankyou :D And I thought $66 yesterday to buy Endogard x 4 dogs was steep... I dread to imagine how much it will be when the pups are 35 kg each!

Are Drontal more expensive than Endogard? The latter are what my vet has been recommending to me. Re: tapeworm and carcasses - you can get tapeworm-specific tablets to keep on hand if you think your pup may have had a gnaw on something unsavoury. I keep some on hand as my pups live in the bush most of the time and if I think they have found something revolting in the undergrowth I can dose them as a safeguard for both tapeworm and hydatids.

thankyou for the response re Blackdog, dear peoples. Will re-browse my dog-alogue!

I was going to get BlackDog collars for my lot, but I think they have plastic clips from memory... For med-large / strong dogs, would those of you who have seen and used the BlackDog collars put them in the same "ID-carrying-device-only" category? As the dogs are in and out of the water constantly I had hoped to find a good nylon collar, and the clips are just so much easier to get on and off on those ones than with the belt buckle type. ETA - the pups have had Bull collars with plastic clips up till now, they seem pretty sturdy... but is the general consensus that no plastic clip is to be trusted? K9 - On that martingale you posted the picture of K9, there looks to be a point to the right of the slip chain where the the collar relies on a plastic buckle/slider... am I just misreading the picture? Is there a part of the strap that continues through there?

Not that I've come across yet, however it seems some others have had problems: Gluc. and Chond. tablet side effects thread

Same here - Sasha's for the older dogs and glucosamine powder for the little tacker (who had septic arthritis). Also I've got a tub of "Vital Greens" which I'm going to start adding - it's a whole lot of trace elements and vits/bits and pieces - not specifically for arthritis but I figure it might help with cartiledge regeneration. Ended up buying the really big tubs cause I'll use them within the 'use-by' and it was far cheaper.

Agree with all the above, but would say don't go and pay triple fees to see an emergency vet this weekend. She either is or isn't up the duff, and a couple of days won't hugely alter that situtation... I don't think there's a morning after pill for dogs, is there? (Could you see that the black dog was entire?)

It's a human chook shop, a franchise, there's a store locator on the website HERE. (Okay, I'm feeling like a goody-two-shoes... :D) Just went to look in the freezer but I only have the chicken mince left. It certainly said chicken and kangaroo on the label cause that's the only way that I knew that that is what it was... if that makes sense! ie I wasn't relying on the lean/premium/semi-lean description. It was from the PetBarn near Chatswood. I made up a huge pulp mix (filled the entire kitchen sink ---- bluuurrrk) with the kangaroo /chicken mince and all the veges and additives and offal etc - so I'm still feeding it but it's not in the original wrapping. :D I'll have a look next week when I'm in Sydney knobbles.

Oh, well. I guess it's time to sit back and develop an appreciation for Minx's special talents then, kitty!

Is charcoal a possibility? I don't know for certain - just wondering... either in tablet form or by having a bit of a chew on a burnt log as my pups tend to do... (???) Someone please correct me if I'm wrong!

knobbles - petbarn does a roo and chicken mince mix. Check the "packed on" dates cause it varies a lot but it is apparently preservative free, but lasts quite a while because vacuum packed. AUSSKY - my pups get frames, and have since they were about 10 weeks old. I think they're actually safer than the wings and drumsticks cause they are softer, and the pups have to gnaw off bit by bit. With the smaller bones they would crunch once then swallow, and poo out huge lengths of bone a day later. n topaz - sounds like you might have got a bad batch - I've always been able to keep chicken for at least three or four days before freezing it. I also tend to still give them chicken that might be a tad ripe - they're dogs and have scavenger's intestines after all! ;) I have started giving mince as well as the frames and wings and red meat bones etc, to even up the bone/meat ratio - Billinghurst's diet includes mince mix as well as meat on the bone. I guess it depends how meaty your bones are though - the last box of chook frames I got from the markets had heeeeeeaaaps of meat on them, so I've been giving much less of my mince / pulp mix.

One thing I'm sure you'll have come across in your trawling through millions of dog training sites - but make sure what you're cleaning the carpet with does not have ammonia in it - the smell draws them back. I've also heard that bleach can draw them back too... It's disheartening sometimes when you think they've finally got it - but she'll get there in the end! Today was a bit of a disaster for us as the adult male lab who's meant to be the really good example to the pups got freaked out by the thunderstorm and left diarreah everywhere... groan, and YUK!!

Both pups have had low grade vaginitis with occasional flare-ups - both went on antibiotics a fortnight ago and though it didn't completely remove the discharge immediately it seems to have largely dried up now. They will be desexed in a couple of weeks' time and hopefully the vet will give them a good going over then - one needs xrays etc at the same time, so I think she'll take the opportunity to check everything out. They are getting better - I've probably only mopped or collected mistakes oh, 4 times this week? Better than it was at the house with pavers outside, anyway. ;) We'll get there... Just never had pups before - always rescues who came largely housetrained!

He sounds gorgeos O-ren... So young... But I have to go and try to make up for bad piddle-conditioning now... ;)

Oh dear. Two weeks? ;) I didn't think we'd been that inconsistent... Going for a piddle outing right now.