scrappimonty

I currently have a 7 year old dog who needs a friend to wrestle and run around with, and a 13yo arthritic dog who is incontinent of faeces. The 13yo is still very silly and playful, and tries his best to keep up with the excitement, and still does love to play, but he is a wobbly legged old gentleman. I am semi considering starting to think about getting a puppy or 1-7 year old dog to play with the younger one, and also so he still has a buddy when the 13yo inevitably passes away. However, I thought I would ask if anyone had advice or experience regarding toilet training a puppy/dog while they have an incontinent dog... I am concerned that Scrappi pooping inside could be confusing for a younger dog, who might think that it is okay. (Obviously we do not reprimand Scrappi, we just try to prevent accidents by taking him outside and encouraging toileting every few hours). Thanks in advance :)

If we put anything extra with the kibble we significantly minimise the amount of kibble accordingly, (e.g. if he has a special treat sardine with his kibble he'll get a bit less than 1/4 cup kibble.) Usually we therefore feed either 1/3 cup of kibble OR some mince/meat or a drumstick or whatever. He doesn't get treats particularly often, about once a week. But then mostly only a carrot or a sardine. Occasionally they have a chew like a small bully stick or shark cartilage. He gets a little piece of crust from my toast of a morning. If we do training games I use his dinner. I think the only thing that has changed lately is he has been on the Gabapentin for about 6 weeks so perhaps that could mess with his metabolism. Will look into it.

Hi all, he currently only gets a level 1/3 cup of kibble for breakfast (used to be 1/2 cup of a higher fat food, then switched to 1/2 cup lite food, then 1/3 cup now). And then he'll either get 1/3 cup again for dinner or probably 100-150g meat/raw food (to be honest I just eyeball it) (e.g. 1/2 Big Dog patty OR a chicken drumstick OR about the equivalent amount of chicken giblets and a little liver) But if we fed him any less than 1/3 cup he would be begging all day and hungry. I only thought maybe rice as that seems to be the main ingredient for some of these weight loss diets, just fibre to keep them full. I'll have to try some more veggies and cut down the kibble then perhaps. He doesn't get much exercise besides cardio zooming around the backyard for a few hours a day. He drags/knuckles his back feet on the concrete and can't walk very far so he doesn't get walks very often these days.

Oh that's interesting, I will ask my vet about it as an option! :)) If it is just as effective as meloxicam yet not an NSAID then that's good!

I'm thinking of perhaps just cutting down on the MfM and giving him some rice and carrot etc with it so he doesn't get hungry. Opinions?

We had a different vet at Scrappi's appointment this week. Scrap had somehow put on nearly a kilo in the past month and of course needs to keep the weight low to ease workload on his joints. He fluctuates between 14-15kg but should probably be more like 13-14kg like he was as a youngin. The vet recommended Hills Prescription r/d Weight Loss... which I usually DESPISE Hills/Royal Canin/Advance etc etc. as they're full of cheap ingredients and corn etc. for a ridiculously steep price. However, he does need to lose weight and if we cut down his current food any further he will be hungry and cranky. Currently he gets about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of MfM Lite turkey and lamb kibble twice a day. (or raw meat or veggies or fish etc, but an appropriate amount for his size). So Meals for Mutts is 9% fat and they say to give about 110g a day (2/3 cup) Hills Prescription r/d Weight Loss is 8.2% fat however they say to give 165g (2 cups) a day!!! Royal Canin Satiety is 9.5% fat and they say to give 163-190g a day !! (2- 2 1/3 cups) I'm also considering Advance Weight Control This makes no sense at all to me, besides just being very heavy on the fibre to fill up bellies. However the higher fat content of Satiety seems counterproductive. So if anyone has any idea please let me know ahaha

Hi all, thanks for the replies! We went to the vet for his Synovan today and our vet was sick so had a different one. He highly recommended a referral for CT scan, however it would be $1500 spent purely on diagnostics. He also agreed that we should try acupuncture and physio/rehab and hydrotherapy. So we're going to try those first before considering CT because it's probable those would be the treatments regardless of the actual diagnosis. So the plan is: - river swimming when it's hot - acupuncture - a physio/rehab appointment (such as primal paws maybe!) - daily meloxicam for pain - monthly synovan - twice daily gabapentin (need to do some reading on this one) - Rosehip Vital or Pernease/Sashas

Aww yay I didn't think anyone would remember me hehe. Had to make a new account too because it's been so long I couldn't get into the old one! Thanks for the advice too, will check that all out

Hi all, Scrappi (corgi x terrier) is 12, and has gone down hill quite a bit in the past year. He has had arthritis for years and once or twice partially slipped a disc in his lower spine. The vet says that arthritis/back problems compressing nerves is causing him to have the really declining rear end awareness and increasing faecal incontinence. He can poop deliberately, however sometimes he doesn't realise he is finished and will trail it. And increasingly he is entirely accidentally leaving nuggets on his bed/inside (very uncharacteristic.) So far his poos are well formed and solid and don't cause much mess, but obviously it's something that we'd like to do something about for him. He trialled 2 months of Propalin that the vet thought could help but it did nothing. He's currently on meloxicam daily and now gabapentin twice daily, as well as coconut oil and pernease powder (or rosehip vital sometimes). Those who use meloxicam - do you get blood tests for kidney/liver function? a vet nurse friend was shocked that my vet wasn't. Also any ideas on gently building back leg muscle would be appreciated, he's so wobbly and looks like he's tightrope walking these days He still acts like such a pup and runs around and wrestles his staffy brother (try to keep it gentle), but just needing to learn how to look after this old boy grandpa. Thanks!