Staffy-Lover

That's great news - Yeah Ollie

thank goodness you got this in time... best wishes to puppy.. keep us updated

hi, i was at the vets thurs night and they told me that doggies normal temp range is 37-39 degrees c..... if it is 39 then it is on the higher end so id be watching closely. of course if she has excercised or been excited or stressed this will go up. so best to get the range at resting. dogs can get depression, but i doubt this is your problem... with all the parvo scares around lately i'd be watching puppy closely and even perhaps go in for an early diagnosis.... but might just be a tummy upset or something let us know how you go.

mould or algae is natures way of telling you to clean the bowl out. You should be cleaning the bowl out regularly anyhow as stagnant water breeds germs.

well i must say that i just read this today and started with sad tears and ended with tears of joy THANK GOODNESS - yeah to Ollie what a champion fighter and a gorgeous puppy. Lots of staffy smooches coming Ollies way from my house.

if u want him to eat more of this dry food... try adding egg... or plain yoghurt (no sugary flavours), or adding a little water or puppy milk which u can get in the supermarket, or fish oil (which u can buy from a pet supply store in a skirt bottle or buy in capsules from a healthfood store and then squeeze from capsule or you can add the oil from sardine can etc. but like many others here i support a diet that includes meaty bones and vegetables (although unlike others i steam my veges). i hope this works for you - You have many years of HYPO moments ahead with a staffy hehehe especially when your attention is elsewhere - AND many years of joy. all my best wishes

how do u identify bloat..... i am guessing obviously the dog gets bloated but is it extremely recognisable???? any other symptoms.. i've not heard of this before and always like to be informed ps - i hope your doggy is much better now

yes my fingers are crossed that it is something very easily treatable ... but if it is epilepsy then the old guy has obviously shown great resilience to live so long so far without the care of a good mum and dad until your great foster work recently... so i have great faith that he would definately be able to tackle it now that he has this love and care. my best best wishes go out to your puppy.. let us know the results

puggles i know what you mean i think i must sleep with one eye open and one foot on the ground. i sleep with the hall light on so i can get up in a hurry and run for the "supplies"... i make maxi sit next to me all the time when he is sleeping so that i can keep my hand on him and notice any twitches.. i dont' know how many times i have sat BOLT upright in bed at the sound of a falling leaf... thinking it might just be ...... but maxi has his seizures in the middle of the night so i am not awake usually to get a heads up that anything is going to happen,,,, but as he is a clusterer i can always tell when the second, third etc is about to happen and i try to get him up and walking as much as possible even if he is sooo tired.

puggles early AM is the time maxi usually has them aswell. only twice has he had one in the day and this was on a particularly hot day... not sure if that affects it. I am definately going to try this and i will report back with the outcome. thanks

the packet should give you a rough estimat of what to feed... but when you give other food to supplement u have to reduce the dry.... my staffy is not good with fish products... so it could well be the sardines... try not giving for a week and see if it helps.. pet mince is not the greatest full of fatty yickky stuff... better to give a better grade of less fatty meat. good luck :rolleyes:

yeh.. well i next time it happens (although i am being rather optimistic and hoping this might be years from now :rolleyes: ) i will try it and let you know of the outcome. also.. i thought i might let u know of a bowl that you can buy on ebay that you leave in the freezer and add water to make very cold. i bought one for a few dollars and leave it in the freezer for if/when maxi has a seizure and i put his water in it. cools him down rather quick........ might be of interest to you?

regarding the veges: you need to subsitute some of those carbs for green leafy veges in the long run. but that is off topic. it sounds like puppy has an allergy.. the way to find out what it is allergic to is to slowly one by one delete certain food groups from the diet. ie. give her a week without the fish and see if that works... if not.. put the fish back and take away the .... then... then.... if it is an allergy you will find it this way, it sounds like one given that the supercoat made her particularly itchy.. sounds like a food intolerance maybe. if u have only just changed the biscuits it could be that you did it a little quickly.. some dogs get used to a certain biscuit if you take it away quickly they can get the upsets..... really you should slowly substitute half half etc then slowly to the point of complete change. don't forget to rule out illness or wormies :rolleyes: regarding the rice... u can give every day just not in huge amounts.. remember it is like people.... everything in moderation... hope u find the problem soon

hmmmm - well maxi is very food orientated and one day after a seizure he was really excessively tired and had a sleep, he was so zonked that when i was calling his name and shaking him and he wouldn't wake up... i started to panic and called my OH who was making a sandwich, he ran in with CHEESE in his hand - MAX woke up in a second :rolleyes: so maybe next time i will try cheese? geez i will try anything - but do u think waking them early can be harmful?

many people believe that you can call their name and break the seizure... i have tried this and not sure if it worked, but in minutes he had another one... i still call his name "like playing ball" just in case could have been the PB dose that helped??

oh meg sorry to hear that... I will certainly take note of your warning. maxi is ready for a blood test this week and i am going to have a liver value done at the same time. Our love and wishes are with you and we hope that you have WONDERFUL happy memories of your time with Eddie. all our best wishes to you

Oh Sheena, that is so sad. i am sorry to hear of your news. some dogs do live to a ripe old age with epilepsy and others unfortunately do not make it. clusterers are particular in danger of fatality during a seizure. my dog is a clusterer and i keep cold towels. ice, ice cream the works in the freezer to keep him cool during his seizures..... my greatest fear is just what you have experienced so i really really am so sorry to hear of your loss. puppy is just lucky that he had a great family to love him sooo much during his short stay with us my best wishes to you and your family

Oh Meg sorry to hear that pup isn't better yet but lets hope that the surgery fixes it all up and you have pup back safe, sound and healthy soon our thoughts are with you... keep us updated

What is a hot spot? What is it caused by?

oh so sorry to hear that he is still not well Meg. Poor little thing. perhaps you can talk to the vet about other epi drugs. there are others out now that are only partially broken down in the liver..i think from memory Gabapentin is one of them. all my best wishes and let us know how he is going.

I think you should get the vet to do a skin scraping and check out what it might be. It can be mites or mange or eczma or or or hehehhehe It is usually good to get in early with these things because they are easier to treat on a smaller scale . Good luck, i hope it is nothing to worry about. all my best

Hi Megs, there are lots of gastro things going around at the moment, so lets hope that it is something that works itself out or that is found soon. Glad to hear that you have good vets, the suggestion was only if you weren't happy with them. is he still at the vets or is he home? still on the drip? Hope you have good news for us soon

yeh i am with the vet, the only way i think the pb could be the cause is if it went toxic but you said the blood levels were fine. i'm also with puggles on the thought that maybe the seizures are linked to the vomitting and maybe not epilepsy - have you seen a neurologist? if not i would suggest this, just incase there is something more sinister... re the vet bills - i know how you feel i had to go to a 24 hr vet once when my pup split her eye open and it cost $150.00 just to walk through the door then the medicince and treatment on top of that,,,, can be expensive !! i wouldn't recommend diagnosing yourself or giving anything to pup without vets advice... the sydney university has a great vet dept with latest technology etc... if your vet can't find the problem i would recommend a trip to them asap. if i can be of help please let me know FINGERS AND TOES CROSSED FOR PUPPY , Hopefully you have good news for us soon

puggles, if u r in sydney, there is a neuro specialist at sydney university that spec in epilepsy called richard malik who u might be interested in seeing gosh, i hope you find the key to being seizure free v soon all my best

hi sheena, i am still in the progress of trying to get the seizures under control so can't help unfortunately. But many on the k9epilepsy site have had varying degrees of control depending on the individual dog. Sidoney - that is great news and gives us lots of hope that pup lived to 16 thankyou. Puggles - geeezzeee 6 seizures in an hour !!!! God you must be a nervous wreck. My pup currently has clusters about 5 but spaced about an hour apart. thankgod and that nearly sends me into panic. God i hope your pup finds better control really soon. Sheltielover - I can't wait to hear how successful the operations have been