sandgrubber

As a Lab breeder, I wouldn't be the least bit bothered if someone wanted a pet Lab's coat trimmed in the thick areas. Ok, it would look odd. But many Labs suffer from the heat. A dog brought from a cool climate is likely to be miserable. They can't get the mane area wet unless you have a really deep pool for them. If you clip too far, sunburn would be a concern, but you don't have to clip that far, and if the dog hasn't blown its undercoat, you have to go right down to the skin to have a problem. I wish mine were clipped at the moment. Every time they run in the grass they come back with horrid little seeds worked into their coats. Hard to get out even with a rake. Irritating to the coat. The problem is worst in the dogs with coarse, rather rough topcoats (ie, to the standard as opposed to soft, silky coats). If someone, so to speak, clipped off the split ends and left a flat, unlayered profile at the top of the coat, I suspect they wouldn't be so prone to picking up seeds. A rake only work for coat thinning when the dog is blowing coat. If newly imported, the dog's metabolism may not understand when to blow coat. OK. It wouldn't look good in a show. (Although if the dog had a wavy coat it might actually improve the look). But most Labs are pets. edited to make points clearer

There's one worse than vaccination not working and that's the vaccination giving them KC. That happened to one of mine, and it passed it on to a whole litter of pups. I know this has happened to others as well. I still vaccinate for KC. But I wish there was some way to lean on the suppliers to provide a better vaccine.

I have never heard of this. Not saying it isn't possible.... but I have never heard of this and I have come across a bit of demodex with rescue and as a veterinary nurse. It can be a horrid, persistent condition. I have / or had, I haven't seen them for many months / a boarding kennel client from Karlgoolie who has spent $15k trying to clear dermo mange. She works part time to support her veterinary habit. Her dog is only two years old. He has a lovely temperament, but looks horrible. Scabby. Lots of hair loss. Has had associated digestive problems. Been to lots of vets. They give conflicting advise.

I get a few blind dogs in the boarding kennel. An older blind dog is usually pretty much ok, particularly in a familiar environment. If I were in your shoes I'd try natural / herbal / whatever remedies, but steer clear of anyone wieding a scalpel.

I had a client in kennels who swears by electrostatic brushes for taking care of blown coat (he has Akitas). He was a spiffy dresser wearing dark, spotless, uncreased taylored clothes, so I was inclined to believe his assessment. I went to find an electrostatic brush using google and got pretty confused. Can anyone shed (no pun intended) any insight? What is an electrostatic brush? Do they work? Where do you get them?

Sheep necks are less fatty, as are roo tails. But I'd bet rotti's scarf them down pretty quickly.

Fleas can be quite hard to see on a black dog, and some are one mm or smaller. If you're seeing little red bite marks, fleas are likely.

What did dogs do before they mass produced tennis balls? They should call them kelpie retrievers. I find the herding dogs have much stronger retrieve drive than retrievers, in general. Be glad yours hasn't learned the "cute" tricks that two of my Labs picked up. Sprocket was adept at dropping a well slobbered tennis ball in a drink glass. G&T and tennis ball or margarita & tennis ball . . . lovely . Middy, on the other hand, likes to put the ball in the toilet.

Poor itchy beasts!!!! Flea treatment hasn't helped. Then, in the daily scratch scratch rub rub routine, I started finding scads of these bloody little seeds from the horrid red-stemmed grass -- Veldt grass or Mission grass (an African native, also a fire hazard, loves it in perth)--- buried deep in their coats. The rubber tipped brushes I use don't touch them . . . an undercoat rake works, though. The dogs now gather around when I bring out the undercoat rake. Those with a proper duo coat, coarse outercoat, are worst affected. This seems to have been a good seed year for veldt grass. Has anyone else had this problem? How do you get rid of the f####ng grass? Is there a solution other than keeping the dogs in? (or cutting all the grass)?

yes

It happens sometimes in kennels. I run dogs in play groups and it's often hard telling whose is whose . . . but the glaze usually goes away. It may be a problem, but it's not a red flag unless it continues for a long time.

Is that a GSD puppy? If so, you may be better off with a heavy meat cleaver than a grinder. Commercial grinders are big bucks . . . the heavy bone grinders start at about $14k (at least that's what I found when I thought about getting one) and most are three phase. Little ones are a pain in the arse to clean and may pack it in on brisket bones. Largish dogs have built in grinders.

If you're looking for a source of good cheap mince . . . If there are any greyhound people in your neighborhood, ask them. Racing greyhounds eat piles of mince, and they cannot have food additives because it causes them to fail blood tests. My greyhound breeder neighbors get red meat mince in 20 kg packs for a bit over $1/kg.

Studies have proven that working and performance dogs do well on a diet of up to 30% fat.. sled dogs being one of the better known examples. Dogs that tired or tyed up on a diet high in carbs performed far better on a diet high in fat. Horses are the same. Carbs give instant, and fat gives longer lasting energy to dogs. There also appear to be benefits for more sedentary dogs including more regular heat cycles and better whelping rates, better skin condition and hair quality. There are also studies showing the benefits of a diet high in fat to dogs suffering from cancer. Fat, not carbohydrate is the primary source of energy for dogs. Is that 30% of calories from fat (in line with recommendations for human diets), or 30% of food weight as fat. If 30% of food weight is fat, around 54% of calories would be fat, which I think is excessive. But then . . . I have Labs, who are notable in their ability to convert fat to fat. In the kennel, I find that a lot of breeds refuse chicken with a lot of fat on it, but happily eat it when it is trimmed. As for "there are also studies . . . " I'd like to see something less vague. Cancers are highly variable. When my mother was dying of pancreatic cancer they told us to encourage her to eat all the fatty food she wanted, in expectation of a day when she would not be able to eat and digest fat, with the hope of building up reserves. That doesn't mean that high fat is good, say, for breast cancer. I try and make sure the protein content is well above the fat content (by weight) . . . and carbs low.

Raw foods vary in fat content depending on what animal they came from and how that animal was fed and butchered. Some necks are lean. Some fatty. Lamb flaps are, in my experience, usually very fatty. Mince is all over the place. Look at it and feel it. Heat it. If you don't get the impression that it's fatty, it probably isn't. If a "red" meat mince is pink it is probably fatty. If it's deep red or maroon, it's probably lean.

I've been told that the inspections for pet grade are pretty good on such nasties as parasites. I think the real question is what you are looking for with respect to balance. Chicken mince is a good example. Pet grade could consist of human grade frames put through a mincer, in which case they are probably better for your dog than human grade chicken mince made from breast meat from the butcher. I don't like minced bone in chicken mince, but I'm happy to feed it to my dogs. Pet grade from another supplier may include far too much fat, or even gut material, which makes it unsafe for pups or dogs with depressed immune function. I disagree that dogs need more fat then humans. A "balanced" dogfood is 13% fat max. The nutritionists are on about getting human diets down below 30% fat. I would rather feed lean pet grade mince than fatty human grade hamburger. If you have a breed that doesn't put on weight, it may be a different matter. If you're feeding roo -- eg to a dog that needs to loose weight or has pancreatitis, I wouldn't even look at human grade.

My understanding is that the pancreas produces the enzymes that break down fats, and diets for pancreatitis are low fat diets. Bones vary. Marrow is quite fatty, and some bone (eg briscuit [sp?]) tend to be sheathed in fat. Roo tail bits are typically lean. Roo is usually the leanest of meats. I'd guess that some combination of roo and a low fat biscuit would do the trick, depending on how badly your dog is affected. There are also some low fat meat rolls. As for treats, fat is the issue. Eg, avoid the gravy and keep the veggies unbuttered. No cheese.

no

You might try beating them to something of a mash. When I feed small dogs I probably chop each frame into at least 50 bits. I try to act like the chef on the cooking show attacking a carrot or cucumber. The frames often don't cut clean through and hang together because some of the meat is intact, but the bones are well chopped. I think this reduces danger of swallowing anything too big as well as allowing little jaws to chew them. The bigger the chook, the harder it is for the dog to chomp through the bones. You can cut chooks with poultry snips, but it tires the hands. I find a heavy meat cleaver the best tool (though smashing them with a tommyhawk also works). It is very hard on cutting boards. Best to find an old stump. I've probably fed a couple hundred small dogs this way in the boarding kennel. Some dogs won't eat anything raw, but most of them love it. I've never had one get sick or choke.

bigger isn't better. I feed frames to dogs in a boarding kennel. The larger the frames and the smaller the dog's jaw, the more work I have to do with the meat clever before the dog will eat them. Also, some dogs are fat sensitive. If there are globs of fat on the frames, try doing a bit of trimming.

Seizures come in various strengths . . . and yes, that could be a mild seizure. Grand mal epileptic seizures get most of the press, but seizures of lesser severity (eg, the dog stays conscious and shows no dramatic symptoms) and less serious consequences for the dog are not uncommon. I read an article about Danish Labradors where the author found that a few percent of dogs get them. As frufru said, it could be a one off, or it could be something that happens periodically throughout Tucker's life. A vet can rule out some possible causes, but may have a hard time making a clear diagnosis. If you have another episode, it may be worth getting a few tests run.

Have I missed something? With people, I thought the work hysterectomy meant both a total (I think there's a latin name too, and ovo-something hysterectomy), in which the ovaries and uterus are removed, and a partial, in which just the uterus is removed. (I, personally, had a total a decade back.) I though a spay was the equivalent of a total hysterectomy. Are people using hysterectomy to mean what I would call a partial hysterectomy?

I took my old girl in to Liz Frank in Perth last week to see if she could do something to help the limping. Liz said she had a mixture of arthritis and muscle tension. The worst arthritis was in the front left paw. She gave me some non-steroidal anti Inflammitories to help with the arthritis, some messages to help with the muscles, and next week we go back for acupuncture. It looks like the paw is going to be the last thing to improve. Curious. How common is arthritis of the paws? My mother's old labbie had it so bad that by nine years she could barely walk and you could see it was painful and it eventually lead to her being PTS. So in my history, this makes two dogs with paw problems, one with elbow problems, and none with hip problems. Is this common? Are we, perhaps, screening the wrong joints? Is there anything you can do when the dog is young to prevent arthritic paws when it gets old.

The doors often leak on mine. I'd avoid dual doors unless there was a reason to want them.

You're lucky. I have one who puts the ball into the toilet and drinks from the water bowl. I flushed before I saw the ball yesterday. Ycccch! Ditto the others. Dogs are pretty casual about puking.