Staranais

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/04/25/...s-michael-vick/ http://stubbydog.org/2011/04/google-abando...80%99t-be-evil/

Yes, that's what dogs do, sorry. He's not a bad dog, he's just a dog.

Was the dog OK with the last cat? If so, then why would the new cat be any different?

We can't take pets on trains here in NZ either, and I think that's wrong - if you have a dog, you're pretty much forced to purchase a car if you want to access dog parks, veterinary services, etc. You can sometimes take small dogs & cats in a taxi, but not usually medium or large dogs. I can see that the train would require pets to be either in a box, or muzzled and leashed, and to charge them a ticket fee, and I think that's all fair enough. But I don't agree with denying people carriage of pets entirely.

I'm sorry that happened.

I only have the one reference here: The efficacy of selamectin in the treatment of naturally acquired infestations of sarcoptes scabiei on dogs. Vet Parasitol. 2000 Aug 23;91(3-4):269-81. Shanks DJ It's not free to access, but have copied & pasted the abstract here (don't think that breaches copyright): Selamectin, a novel avermectin, was evaluated for its effect on naturally occurring infestations of Sarcoptes scabiei in 42 dogs. In two controlled and masked laboratory studies conducted in the USA and Italy, infested dogs received treatment with either selamectin (6 mg kg−1; range: 6–12 mg kg−1) or the vehicle only (negative control). Treatments were administered topically to the skin on each animal’s back at the base of the neck in front of the scapulae. Study day 0 was dened as the rst day of treatment administration. Dogs were treated on days 0 and 30, and efcacy was assessed by counting viable mites recovered from skin scrapings performed on each dog on days 14, 29 or 30, 44, and 60, and by categorising the clinical signs of canine scabies on the same days. Percentage reductions in geometric mean mite counts for selamectin, compared with vehicle, on days 14, 29 or 30, 44, and 60 were 98.1, 93.5, 100, and 100%, respectively. Analysis of variance, conrmed by Savage Scores, showed that ln(mite countsC1) values for selamectin-treated dogs were signicantly lower (P0.0391) than those for vehicle-treated dogs on all post-treatment assessment days. Clinical signs of scabies were markedly reduced in selamectin-treated dogs, compared with vehicle-treated dogs. Topical administration to the skin in a single spot of a single unit dose of selamectin, or of , was highly effective against naturally acquired infestations of S. scabiei in dogs, reducing mite counts by >93% (single dose) and 100% (two doses). © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved What a mystery. Ringworm can be contagious, between cats & dogs, as far as I know, and does causing itching, although you usually see signs of hair loss/coat issues as well as just itching. Also malasezzia yeast could be transferred between the animals (but would have thought that would come up on a skin scraping). Wonder if it's something in the environment causing everyone to itch? Anything different you've planted in the garden, or any different cleaning products or garden products or pet shampoos etc, that you started using before the itching started?

Nah, as far as I know that should be fine. ;)

Interesting. They published studies when Revolution became commercially available, which showed that those 3 treatments with the revolution was 100% effective in getting sarcoptes off dogs. I guess it's possible that selamectin resistance has developed in some mites since then, but it you've given selamectin 5 times, and all animals are still affected, I'd be worried it's not sarcoptes, especially if they haven't actually found a mite off the animals. There's another test you can do for sarcoptes - a blood serum ELISA - which is pretty good, not sure if it's commercially available in Aussie though? Haven't heard of scratching occurring after the revolution in Sarcoptes, but haven't had a huge experience with it either. Not sure what Detamax is, sorry. Having all the cats & all the dogs affected does suggest something environmental or infectious. I can only think of a few things that affects both dogs & cats and causes pruritis. Has the vet ruled out fleas, & Cheyletiella? Has the vet done any skin scrapings or fungal cultures to look for bacterial or fungal infections of the skin?

How did the vet diagnose sarcoptes? Did they find a mite in a skin scraping? Humans can catch sarcoptes relatively easy (my flatmate bought them home last year! Don't ask. ) but they won't always, so the fact you don't have it doesn't mean that it's not sarcoptes. With selamectin (revolution) & sarcoptes, they tell us to treat the animal every 2 weeks, for 3 doses total. Just one dose doesn't always kill all of the mites. It's possible also that the mites have been cleared up but there's a secondary infection still there that's causing ongoing itching, or perhaps the mites have been cleared up but now there is just a cycle of self trauma causing itching & more self trauma?

You can add joint foods like glucosamine, fish oil & E, etc, to BARF/raw diet if you want. However, a BARF diet isn't going to be low purine, unless you make it up of low purine ingredients. I'm not sure that the kibbles you've listed are low purine either? We're told to feed purine-restricted, alkalinising, no-added-sodium food to Dallies that are purine stone formers. Hopefully some Dally owners can join the thread & suggest good foods that fit those guidelines.

I don't mind the barking usually, although I see your point about not letting dogs bark at unreasonable hours. I don't think any of the other behaviors are OK, which is why we go to very few dog parks & select the ones we go to very carefully, since there will always be people out there that think all those things are OK.

We have two crates. The one in the house is for eating dinner in, or sticking her in during the day if she can't go outside for some reason (e.g., the lawn mowing guy is coming, or the neighbours next door are having a party and she's barking at them non stop), or very occasionally for sleeping in if for some reason she can't be on my bed. We also have one in the car, which I find very useful.

Garmin do a dog GPS collar called the Astro that gives a readout to your handheld GPS to show you where your dogs are, but it's very $. Also illegal in NZ since it uses one of the government radio channels - not sure if it's legal in Aussie.

I very much doubt this is a happy kangaroo. And if it's not, then it's not kind to keep it alive. Either way, I think the woman needs help.

The results of the test are, as other posters have said, questionable. There's no need to go to your vet for a buccal (cheek cell) swab, which is how most of these tests operate, they're very, very simple to take. Blood test, yes. Cheek swab, no.

Does anyone know how these dogs are kept? Are these "free range" dogs or kept in little enclosures? Do they get sufficient environmental enrichment to keep them sane before they're killed? How are they killed? I don't disagree with eating meat, per se. But I really have an issue with animals that aren't raised or killed humanely. I've worked on farms & toured slaughterhouses. The vast majority of the free-range cattle and sheep I've seen look pretty happy most of the time (until they get loaded on the truck or prodded up the race to the stun box, anyway!) It just doesn't seem to take much to keep a sheep happy. But I find it hard to see how you could raise dogs humanely for meat. All the carnivores I've ever seen farmed (granted, not in person, only in documentaries or films) seem very understimulated, stressed and unhappy.

I had this situation a year back - try a teenage malinois on crate rest. We tried the chewy things (cannon bones, fish heads, pigs ears) and food dispensing toys, but she got sick of those pretty quick. I think the only things that kept her sane were firstly clicker training different tricks, and secondly taking her in the car with me (in a crate) so she could see the world going by. Driving them to a park where they can watch people & dogs for half an hour while you drink your takeaway coffee stimulates them mentally at least.

It annoys me when people use the phrase "begs the question" to mean, raises the question. My inner logician goes, eeek.

I've only had one entire male dog. He was never allowed to mark inside. That's training, not hormones. However, when I desexed him at about 7 or 8 years old, he did marked noticeably less often when he was outside. It was definitely the desexing causing the change, since the marking decreased when I gave him a Suprelorin (contraceptive) implant, increased when the implant wore off, then decreased again when I got him desexed surgically! I don't think desexing would be the whole solution in your case. You want dogs that don't mark at all inside, not dogs that don't mark as often. But judging from my experiences it might help a bit, along with a crate & house training.

I too like this idea, so long as they don't go overboard with it and are careful with what they register. But then again, I'm a geneticist and not a breeder. I imagine some breeders will not like this at all. But at least the asterix annotation will cater to those people who do not want the new dogs contributing to their lines. Seems like a reasonable compromise.

Wow, that's high from what I've seen! Unless it also included allergen desensitisation injections?

How does this rule get enforced, and what are the penalties for breaking it? Just interested.

I'm sorry you lost your dog.

Thought you'd enjoy it!

Not economically better than sheep breeding, as one can usually grow grass to feed sheep far more cheaply than you can feed a dog, even if you do feed it mostly grain. That's one of the reasons that humans tend to farm herbivores rather than carnivores - all other things being equal, it's more efficient to farm something on a lower trophic level. And, I'd guess, that's why dog is a delicacy. I have read that there are specific meat breeds of dog in Asia, which could account why these dogs all look the same.