I Love Lucy

Thanks Lillysmum, It's nice to know I'm not the only one. I'm sorry to hear about your beautiful Aussie.

For supermarket treats, my dog really likes the Natures Gift rewards (they are little soft balls the size of big peas) but she likes the chicken flavour a lot more than the other flavours (I think the others are beef & Liver) but the chicken ones are a lot harder to buy. I can only find them at Bi-Lo, so I stock up when I happen to be there. I have also tried Devon which worked pretty well, but a bit greasy and yucky to handle. A 1kg roll costs about $2.50 and I chopped it all up to little bits, it made hundreds. Wouldn't be good for long periods in warm weather though.

I've just switched my dog over from Hills Science Diet to EP Holistic Chicken & Rice in the last few months, after hearing about EP on DOL. I enquired with my vet who was more than happy to look into it for me. They contacted EP and came back and said it sounded good and was worth trying. They now order it in for me, which isn't really inconvenient, I just call them when I'm getting low. I know I can get it at a few retailers in Melbourne who have it in stock, but it's more convenient to get it from the vet. I normally call the retailer to check if they are offering any specials and if not, I just get the vet to order it in for me. Anyway, within weeks of putting my Lab on EP I saw a difference. She looks amazing, so shiny and healthy. And her temperament has also been more even. At first I put this down to co-incidence in her maturing at the same time, but the vet seems to think it is quite likely to be the removal of preservatives from her diet. Since finding out about it a few of the staff at the vet clinic and a few of their other clients have moved their pets to EP and they are all very happy with the results. A 15kg bag will last me 2 months and works out to less than $2 a day. This is based on 2 big cups a day. A friend has put her dog on the EP Natural formula, which is a LOT cheaper than the holistic range, and she is just as impressed at the results in her dog. From my own research I think a BARF diet would be worth trying too, but all that mucking around with fresh meat etc is not going to work for me, but that's a personal choice. I would reconsider it if there weren't super premium foods on the market that she did so well on. As an aside, I always fed my last dog on Bonnie Complete. When she was a pup and came off puppy food, I did my research and ended up choosing Bonnie as it had no artificial colours etc and was cheap too. At the time (1995) I dont even recall what other brands were on the market, but money was very tight and being cheap was a big part of my decision. I didn't ask any more questions or do any more research for about 9 years. She was on Bonnie the whole time as her main diet, with raw bones a few times a week and the occasional table scraps. I could have easily afforded to spend more on dog food, especially towards the end of her life, but it never occurred to me to change her diet. When she started to have digestive issues at 9 and a half years old I did some more research. I was told then that "Bonnie complete' is not actually a complete food, and dogs need some other nutrients not provided in Bonnie. I switched her to a super premium food immediately and was devastated that I may not have been providing her with all the nutrients she needed for all those years. The digestive issues turned out to be several cancerous tumors through her whole body including her bowels, and she died very soon after these symptoms began. I know I may be very hard on myself, but I still feel some guilt over this, and I wonder if my choices led to her illness. It may not be the case, but I will never know. I know she had the happiest 9 years a dog could have, but a year later I am still getting over losing her and I still wonder if I could have done better by her. My personal choice is now to feed the best food available and make other sacrificies in my budget if necessary. But I don't have kids etc and I have this luxury, I know it's not always possible to families. I contemplated whether to share these thoughts or not, as I didn't want to make it sound like anybody who can't afford a super prem food is not doing the best thing for their dog. Of course, these foods don't suit all dogs either. I just wanted to make the point that I wish I had kept abreast of the facts and the available products and I had been aware earlier that I wasn't feeding her a complete food and I might have at least tried some others. I would always prefer to make my decisions based on knowing all the facts, even if I still chose a cheaper food, I would do so with the power of knowledge. Sorry if this story has diverted from the topic or brought anybody down. But I wish somebody had told me that story several years ago, so on that basis I decided to go ahead and share it.

I've always used advantage and never had a flea problem. Recently the staff at my vet suggested frontline was better so I switched, but my dog started scratching within days. I haven't analysed it too much, but I thinkI'll go back to advatnage once the frontline runs out as i have more faith in it.