cowanbree

Great news Yarrowfell. Look forward to pics

So glad to hear Scarlet is home and doing well. Yarrowfell, when is your girl due? Normally the drop of 1 degree means puppies withing 12-24hrs and I have found it very reliable. the temp does vary from morning to night but with some of your temps I would have expected puppies on the 7th. Having said that she may be naturally low which some of them are in the last week

Chilli and Sterling are please to announce the pending arrival (confirmed by x-ray) of 5 puppies with a very slight possibility of a small shadow being a 6th. She is due Thursday next week

Erny I have also been meaning to post and thank you for your suggestion of using Calendula tea. My boy was just about having a melt down with his skin and 2 days of applying this tea had worked where nothing else has and believe me I have tried everything. It has been nearly a week, he is all but completely stopped scratching and his sores are healing well.

Sure have. I leased a bitch and she wasn't in pup so was going back to her owner. I wasn't convinced so decided at the last minute to keep her for another couple of weeks and she had 6 puppies which is a huge litter in shelties

I would have thought that would only be with long term use. I have had a couple of oldies on pred and yes it does affect the muscle but not straight away. My youngster who has had a couple of short term course hasn't been affected.

I use Metamucil

It is not that easy to have dogs of different sizes together. When I introduced my very full on aussie puppy Quest to my shelties I didn’t think it was going to work but with consistent training it has. Even now I wouldn’t dream of playing high drive games such as fetch together as when they are over excited they don’t watch where they are going and a bump from the bigger dog breaks bones in the little dog. Sarge is just being a puppy but it is up to you to correct his behavior every single time, don’t leave it to Nate and personally I would never leave them alone unsupervised

I have a liberty stand dryer and hate it. Too noisy and takes too long to dry the dogs so I have now gone back to my old barell force dryer. Don't get quite the finish but does them in 1/2 the time

Mine have previously been buried at my parents home of 25plus years but the house is now on the market and I am finding it rather sad. Cremation for me from now on

I hopefully have a litter of shelties due on the 16th December

Sadly on that subject my vet and I don’t agree. I am happy to pay cost but don’t want to pay more than that esp given it has cost quite a lot of money in tests over the last 18mths to properly diagnose this. He has said in 20plus years of spaying bitchs he has never left any behind before and thinks Quest has some abnormality rather than it being an error on his behalf. Given her history of UTI, thrush etc I can’t rule it out either but personally think I paid for her to be spayed and she isn’t. In the end it isn’t the cost that is important.

We have been advised that within 4 weeks of her season is the prime time to do it as it is still enlarged. Yes it is the same vet. He has done many spays and other more complex operations for me before with no issues and is a really good vet. He hasn't however done this before and is acting on advice from the specialist. He doesn't really want to do it but the specialist has advised him it is reasonably simple surgery

Thanks for the infor. At this stage he only intends to strip the stump as that is what the specialist has advised due to the results of the tests we have run so hopefully this won't be as bad. My other option is to keep her on the injection but I don't really want to pump her full of chemicals if I can safely avoid it.

Thanks Rappie. Putting recovery period aside would you say this surgery is any riskier than a spay? I realise every anaesthetic has its risks but is this more so that usual. I would really like this fixed as it does cause me a lot of issues but if it is a serious risk to my bitch I would live with it. I have asked my vet but he is non committal and it has me a bit concerned.

Nobody had this?

One of my dogs has finally been confirmed to have ovarian remnants which is causing her to still come in to season. Not a huge issue in most cases but I have a number of entire males and it is an issue I could do without. My vet is going to operate next week and remove the remnants which he tells me is most likely to be on the stump but he has told me several times that this is a major operation and I need to be aware of this. I was wondering if anyone else has had this done and just how uncomfortable the dog was and were there any issues? I have had numerous dogs spayed over the years but must admit the vet has made me a bit wary as he has stressed over and over that this is a major operation and I am having second thoughts.

My vet has always said sedation is more dangerous than a full general as it has no reversing agent. I would do bloods and decide based on that

I have had this with Kayla. You can either just add some water which really slows them down or use the bowl as described above. I have used both. I do wonder if the flat face of a pug might find the bowl too difficult to eat from

How do you give tissue salts to a dog? You're meant to suck on the pills or disolve in water...which method works best for you? I just drop a couple in with his food twice a day. I have told a few people about them and they seem to work in about 50% of cases. Not straight away though so give them twice a day for at least 2-3 weeks.

I have 2 aussies after a lifetime of owning shelties and I have to say my first aussie was a real shock and has been a handful in everyway. I love her dearly but she has a number of health and temperament issues that make her a real challenge. Because of this it took me a very long time to decide to get another but my next one is now 9mths and he is like a different breed. He came from a breeder who socialized and trained her puppies and he has honestly been a joy to own. He is still quite reserved with strangers but I don’t have any issues with that. In short if you do get an aussie spend some time researching the breeder and the temperaments of past litters

I have had great results with Combination D Tissue Salts. It takes around 10days of treatment twice a day before you see any results but has worked wonders for my itchy boys. It obviously won't work if there is an underlying cause but for around $15 from any health shop I always try this first

Loyal K9 can I ask how long you have had this dog? Have you talked to the breeder about the issues? It sounds to me as if the dog is not a fit to your house and personally if it was a dog I bred I would be wanting it back. Shelties are a reserved herding breed and they are not for everyone.

I think they adapt to the type of home they are in. At my house my shelties are always with me, follow me everywhere and sit on my knee at night but it has been interesting to watch visitors. I regularly have sheltie visitors, normally of my own breeding and in 2 cases in particular they have commented on how independent their dogs are yet at my house those same dogs were on my knee and following me everywhere.

I bath him as infrequently as possible as he has done some serious damage to himself after a bath. I think this is his 4th bath in his life but being a show dog he really does have to be bathed and I can’t use conditioner as it affects his coat. Other than when I bath him he is fine but it takes me about 6 weeks to get him to stop itching. I diluted the vinegar about 1/20 and I haven’t tried the likes of Malaseb on him as I have found it quite a harsh shampoo. My theory is that the shampoo has changed the ph of his skin and I need to find something with a neutral ph that won’t affect him. Obviously it is more important that he be comfortable but I would be very disappointed if I couldn’t show him so I am hoping for a solution