BasTyra

Thanks for your help guys, she's reading this thread

Thanks, you guys rock! I think she's reading this, but i'll paste it to her just in case. Gods it took me ten years to type that... ive had a few beers. Deary me.

Heyas Quick question. Do young pups, ie 6.5wks of age, need anything special in regards to diet? I'm just wondering because a lady on another forum has just purchased a very young pup that was still feeding from its mother and she has no idea what to feed it. (obviously from a byb). Anyway I wanted to ask you guys because I seriously have no idea if young pups who aren't weaned properly need something special in their diet or if there are good commercial foods she can buy and I wanted to give her some decent advice. Is puppy milk okay? Also is there anything she needs to be aware of in regards to its health? Apparently it hasn't been wormed or vaxxed because the seller 'doesn't believe in it'. She has organised a vet visit for monday iirc and I told her to get the pup fully checked out, but is there anything else? She has to keep her indoors yeh? God it's been so long since I had a pup I have no idea Any help you can give me would be appreciated. I'll just paste it into her thread. I told her to pop on here to ask but I don't know if she will. Cheers!

Yeah I think it has something to do with his back Jules, he never had anal gland issues before he broke his back and they only really started after I stopped giving him chicken necks I think the necks hardened his poos up quite a bit. I assume I need to use non flavoured metamucil?

Thanks for all the replies We took him to the vet again (his bum was bleeding the day I originally posted). The vet said it hadn't fully ruptured yet but probably would. According to my hubby (I couldn't go) she put a scalpel up his bottom and lanced the swelling. she gave us three meds to put him on for the meantime and said hopefully they will stop the swelling and prevent it rupturing but she did say we will probably have to take him to a specialist since it keeps occurring and they have tried to remove the glands 3 or so times already. I don't have a clue what specialist she is talking about. To be honest, I don't know that I could express his glands myself and i'm not even sure if a groomer could do it properly since his glands have been operated on several times... not sure though. I might get him back onto chicken necks, I think the solid poos helped his express cos he can't push properly himself - as you said persephone. How do I go about giving a dog metamucil? I'll have to speak with the vet after christmas about what to do next if the diet thing doesn't work or if his bottom ruptures. Thanks

Heya, can anyone recommend me a diet that is good for dogs who have repeated anal gland problems? Since Griever broke his back he has had issues with his glands. They have ruptured several times. He had one removed (since it was the only one rupturing) but because of scar tissue the vet said he had to leave a tiny bit in. Since then it's ruptured a couple of times. He had another operation and the vet said he was more thorough because we told him not to worry about incontinence issues, and to just try to get as much of the bad gland out (griever is already partially incontinent due to his back injury). If I start feeding him chicken necks again do you think that would help? Are there any other foods I could feed him to help with his glands? Any help would be greatly appreciated. :D

Hey does anyone know of a mobile groomer who services the Beckenham area? Or even someone in beckenham who grooms? I was hoping to get Griever clipped but am having trouble finding anyone. I found one actual place in beckenham but they aren't answering the phone. I also found a mobile groomer but when she returned my call she basically said she didn't want to do full clips because it ruined the equipment and that if I had any doubt about his temperament when being groomed then I should go back to vet west who are crap anyway according to her (I can't it's too hard for me to get there so I'm trying to find a closer groomer). She kept telling me she had plenty of clients and didn't need to take another whose dog probably hadn't been clipped for ages and was aggressive and that people had tried to pull fast ones on her heaps of times. Etc etc etc. I didn't even know what to say to be honest. I just wanted to know if she serviced my area and how much it would cost. I felt like I was being told off by the school headmistress O_o Any help would be greatly appreciated

Nope not cobblers pegs... They are hay coloured shaft-like and if you run your fingers over them along the shaft from the point they are smooth, but if you run your fingers over them backward they are very spikey. That's why it's so hard to get them out of his fur. Thanks for the posts. I might get him clipped anyway just to make it easier to find them. He's too damn fluffy!! Edit: I think it might be a type of speargrass.

I've had issues lately with Griever and those horrid seeds. My husband and I found one deep in his fur that ended up being embedded in his skin so we had to remove it with tweezers and disinfect the area. *shakes a fist at landscapers and their shoddy grass and mulch* Since we found it we did a big search through his fur and have removed approximately 5 from his skin! I'm really worried now that some might already be fully inside him. If I take him to the groomer and get his hair shorn will it stop the blasted things embedding themselves in him? I'm going to mention it to the vet when he goes in for his anal operation early december too.

Yeah constipation is a bit of a worry too. He sometimes gets weirded out when he poops. At times he doesnt even realise he's pooping and a little poo will just plop out. Other times though I think he must be able to feel something cos he will dash outside, or dash around like he doesn't know what to do. He rarely makes it outside in time. He will get to the door and realise he doesn't need to go out anymore and then just go back to whatever it was he was doing before ;) Usually he will leave a trail of little droppings to the door, which is just great I wouldn't have a clue how to express them myself, and to be honest I'm not entirely sure I'd have the stomach for it. I could possibly find a groomer who would do it but I wouldn't have a clue as to how often it would need to be done because I can't really tell by examining his bum. I did notice a day or two before this last eruption that his bum looked slightly bigger than usual. Then my hubbie checked and thought it looked normal so we figured maybe he had just done a poo (it gets all big and odd looking before and after a poop). I didn't think anything of it until they'd ruptured, so by that stage it was probably too late anyway because they were obviously already infected

Do you think Griever would suffer less pain because of his spinal injury? He doesn't have a lot of feeling in his back end as a result. If you weren't careful you could step on his back foot and he wouldn't even realise. Obviously the thought of him being in pain afterward is horrid Grievers gland was infected back in May and again just now (he had it cleaned and fixed yesterday and is on antibiotics). So it's only really happened twice. The thing is because of his spinal injury his bottom looks different. It's not tight and puckered like a normal bottom, it's very pink and sorta sticks out more. Like its prolapsed or something. I think that's the right word. At any rate it's very hard for me to see when the glands are filled and need to be emptied because his bum looks big all the time. Because of his back he is a little clumsy and will occasionally fall over just after doing a poop. Coupled with the recent gland incidents it's just too messy and emotionally distressing for him. He doesn't feel the pain, but he knows somethings going on. It's almost as though he gets embarrassed when he falls in poo or his glands burst and he's got stuff all over his bottom. Poor little bugger. That's why I thought it might be a better option to just remove them to stop it happening again. I'm not sure why it's just come about this year. Could it be something to do with age as well as the lack of muscle control in his bottom? Thanks for the replies. ;)

That'd be great, thanks Blue Fox I just had a read of a couple of the anal gland threads. Sounds like it's an uncomfortable procedure Thing is, since Grievers spinal injury he doesn't have all of his feeling back there and already has a bit of faecal incontinence so that part doesn't matter at least. As for the pain, I'm hoping that he won't feel much of it, but will be on medication anyway. Poor thing. He's had a bad run of things. Oh well, keep me posted on your cat. I hope she recovers quickly

Heya ;) I was just wondering if there are any negative side-effects when it comes to having the anal glands surgically removed? I was told that the dog might not be able to control his bowel movements afterward, but that isn't really an issue for Griever since he doesn't have much control over them anyway since his spinal injury. Is it a straight forward operation? cheers!

You let your dog lick your tongue?

Geez and to think I felt a bad about Grievers rear end fur being slightly matty in sections when I took him for his first grooming visit!! Don't these people feel embarrassed or bad? Are they seriously that ignorant that they don't recognise matting when they see it and know that its not supposed to be like that?

Argh I hate when people use hypotheticals such as these in an argument. It will never happen, so why even use it as an argument. Or how about when the magical genie pops out of the flask and tells me I have to choose between my dog and my child, I tell him to piss off?

Lol skyesong. Anyhoo... my dog Griever is definitely not 'properly' trained. He can be a cheeky little shit at times. If I open the front door, however, he will run out to pee on the lightpole out the front, but then he comes straight back. Nothing to do with training, he's just a mama's boy who still suffers from a little separation anxiety and doesn't want to be far from me for extended periods of time. Another example would be when the cleaning guy came and left the front door wide open while he did the carpets. I came out the front to find griever wandering about the yard, sniffing the guys cleaning equipment and peeing on plants. He was as carefree as can be and had no intention of running away, yet as I said earlier he is most definitely not properly trained to stay at home. He's just a little ole scaredy cat who wouldn't dream of going off adventuring without his mummy. I think the reasons for running off/not running off are different for every dog.

Thanks guys! becks, i'd love to learn how to groom griever but he's a stubborn fart set in his ways by now and doesn't let me do anything apart from brush his hair and trim his bottom hair when it gets too long. He seems to have gotten worse since his back injury, like he's really over protective of his front paws cause they are the ones he can feel better. (he has feeling in his back legs, just not 100% so he's more relaxed when you try to clip those ones. I just tried to trim his front nails again (they are so long I feel like a bad mother - hence the need for a groomer). I managed to clip one then he decided that was enough and started flinging himself around whenever I went to clip another. I should have gotten him more used to it when he was a pup. Thanks again for the responses.

Thanks for replying guys. Noone knows of a groomer around cannington who is good?

Hey guys, I'm thinking about taking Griever in to get groomed and get his claws trimmed, since I can't seem to do it myself I've never actually had him professionally groomed before so I had a few questions... 1. Does anyone know of a really good reputable groomer in WA around the Cannington area? 2. Are groomers good with dogs who have had spinal injuries in the past? Like they don't let the dog jump off the table or anything like that do they? Also would they be ok if a dog was to involuntarily pop out a small poo, or would they have issues with something like that? 3. When a dog doesn't appreciate being groomed I hear they sedate them so they can work without getting bitten or scratched or whatnot... is the stuff they use perfectly safe? Your doggie won't die from being sedated at a groomer will they? 4. Do they have methods in place to stop a stranger walking in and picking up your dog? (yes im paranoid) 5. Can you wait at the grooming place or do they prefer you to just drop the dog off and come back later? 6. Are there groomers who come to your house? How much would a full treatment usually cost? (trimming hair, making him all fluffy and pretty, trimming nails... etc) 7. Do you wash your dog before you take them in or does the groomer wash them? I think that's it. Sorry if some of those questions are really stupid. I'm pretty clueless when it comes to this subject.

Is there anywhere to get Nutro / Eagle pack in Perth?

Im too scared to let griever try one for himself. You should see him when I get them out of the microwave (i defrost em a little so they dont freeze my hands off). He actually dances around the house

I just hand-feed them cause im a worry wart.

To be honest I have no idea. I haven't seen her in years. I hope they learned not to eat their poos, I was really shocked when she told me.