sandgrubber

I have a dual tank fiberglass system from Fido's. The dual tank is great. You recirculate the soapy water, then draw fresh water for the rinse. I don't think the mechanical design of Fidos is very good. Mine blew a heater element the first week I had it and the electrician who fixed it was not at all impressed by how hard it was to take apart and put together. Something went out on the pump in the third year and I got to disassemble it to take the pump to the shop. Things are packed in in a clunky manner. Don't get wheels unless you want it to move. Do plumb it in with quick coupling fittings (I think that's what they're called . . . slip joint thingies) so you can pull it out to clean behind it.

I explain KC and kennels to clients as being like colds or flu in a nursery school. We have been very lucky, knock on wood, only two light episodes in four years. I don't think it has anything to do with good management. More to do with being relatively isolated . . . and perhaps having good clients who vaccinate properly and haven't brought the disease in. The difference between kennels with KC is not in whether they get it, but how they manage it. As I understand duty of care, it requires only that sick dogs requiring treatment get it . . . and the burden of cost of treatment can legitimately be shifted to the customer. I believe in accepting responsibility, even if I am not to blame . . . thus I'll have the mobile vet in and send dogs home with a course of antibiotics if required . . . or the confidence of a veterinary opinion that treatment is not required, though cough medicine could be used to ease symptoms. Owners of dogs not affected need to be told to watch out for symptoms. If the epidemic is really bad, the owners of incoming dogs need to be called . . . especially if the dogs are elderly. Note, Show Cough would be an equally good name for the disease. edited to include immediate afterthough.

I have a girl who does this every spring. She looks AWFUL at the moment because she's rubbed a lot of coat out. Flea treatment does nothing. But it doesn't last more than a couple months.

ANYTHING that dries it out and kills the bacteria. I use a general antiseptic in a spray bottle. The important part is cutting the hair around the spot and making sure it doesn't get yucky.

Diet is not about one thing or another. It's about proportions and balance. Many people eat diets that are 30%+ fat [and many get fat doing it]. Dog diets tend to be under 15% fat. Healthy adult dogs have guts that will take care of bacteria that would give most any human serious food poisoning, and can safely be fed "off" meat and dairy products. [Do you know any humans who bury their dinner and then dig it up and eat it a week later?] As for bacon fat . . . if you feed a generally lean diet, a bit of bacon fat poured over moderate-fat (say 10% or less) biscuits shouldn't do any harm. But if you feed the "working dog" variety of biscuits and give other fatty treats, then I'd say bacon fat is a bad thing. Avoid situations where the fat is a major component of the dog's diet (and remember that fat has more than twice the energy component of carbo, protein, and sugar, kilo per kilo).

Smell it. If it is the least bit off, don't give it to a young pup. In fact, I'd be cautious of giving chicken mince to a young pup even if it passed the smell test. The worry is that chicken guts are big on Salmonella, and Salmonella can kill a young pup. Older dogs, with fully developed immune systems, are not so vulnerable. With frames you can see just what you're feeding. With mince, you've got to trust the butcher. Also . . . some chicken mince is very fatty . . .

Watch out. Three easily leads to four. and four to five. . . . . eventually you'll need to find a dog friendly location. ;)

How bad is it? I have nine dogs. Some of them get itchy, particularly in the spring. But it doesn't seem to be a major issue. Maybe I'm heartless, but until I see some more serious problem, like skin problems or hair loss or obsessive itching, I just let it be. There are so many things that cause itchiness . . . you can go nuts trying to get the correct diagnosis. Many dogs get over-dry from frequent washings or washing with strong substances . . . so the 'cure' can become the 'problem'.

In defense of vets who do a cursory checkup . . . mine doesn't spend very long going over mine when doing the annual vaccination / quick checkup (she listens to heart/chest, but doesn't bother taking temps . . . knows my dogs clean eachother's ears and always have clean teeth because they get BARF so she breezes through that part of the checkup). She doesn't charge a lot either ($30/dog incl C5). In part that's because she counts on me to take responsibility for watching to see if things are normal . . . if I have questions or concern she is happy to look in more detail.

This is more a secondary question than an answer . . . but I find GSD's are all over the place re diet in my boarding kennel. Some eat huge quantities and stay thin. Others eat much less than I would expect and are on the chunky side. I'd be interested to hear if GSD breeders observe the same.

Thanks, everyone. I decided to start with Liz Frank because I understand she uses various techniques and was once recommended to me by a vet I respect . . . I wish it were efficient to try everything/everyone at once, but that generally creates a confused -- and expensive -- muddle.

I'm pretty sure Billinghurst (in Give Your Dog a Bone) says to feed once a day, and recommends that you skip feeding one day a week. But I ignore him. My crew all get brekky and tea. A meat cleaver quickly resolves the problem of a full chichen frame being too much and lets you give the fattier end to the skinnier dog when you cut the frames up.

Your question about leads is a good one. I began with a single adjustable strap anchored to the wall in my hydrobath (boarding kennel . . . so owners are almost never present). I eventually added a strap from another angle so that the dog is triangulated to the wall, so to speak. I haven't had a real struggle since I added the second strap. I don't think dogs like to struggle against something that gives them few degrees of freedom and doesn't yield at all to their jerking around. Anything that allows them to get feet above the rim of the bath is asking for trouble. I am not a proper groomer, and for most dogs, I consider it good enough to wash them with their ordinary collar on . . . but never a choker.

My foundation bitch is a bit over 10 and is limping from the shoulder on one side. I've tried glucosamine and anti-inflammatories with no noticable effect, and will get some Sasha's blend next time I'm at Better Pets and Gardens . . . but I suspect it may be something other than arthritis. . . perhaps something pinching or out of alignment. I normally go to either Applecross or have the local mobile vet out . . . but I haven't been that impressed with either on muscular-skeletal-nervous system problems. I'd like to try alternative approaches before diving into the whole X-ray scene. Can anyone suggest someone in Perth Metro (prefer SOR) who is good at feeling a dog over to figure out what is going on . . . and, hopefully, correcting it or lessening the pain.

Yes, vaccinations can make a pups sick. I have a couple dogs that come to my kennel accompanied by letters from a reputable vet saying they get only the parvo vaccination because the distemper vaccination almost killed them. And I've had pups GET kennel cough from the C5 vaccine (with bordatella done via nasal puff). But there are LOADS of other things that can make a pup sick. See a vet.

I have a similar situation. It was one pup, in particular, who made "getting out" into a game and she taught everyone else to play Houdini. They didn't run away. They'd all be waiting at the gate for me to let them back in. An electric fence stopped the game in its tracks, though I now have a mob of Labbies who will chase a rabbit UNDER a normal, poorly hung fence without batting an eye, which calls for caution when it comes to off-line exercise.

With pups ribs, I generally figure "now you see them now you don't". Overweight tends to be worse than under (ok, I've got Labs, but I think it fits with most breeds). But if a pup gets a bit of fat on, come a growth spurt, you'll see the ribs again and maybe even be able to count them. It's ok to bounce between two and four when aiming for three. Just try to avoid one or five.

Scrapings are cheap. I had a client who took her dog into Murdoch Vet School for a biopsy and ended out with a $1500 bill, and a dog with lots of stitches here and there. They didn't find anything.

My hydrobath sits in a corner. I've drilled eye bolts into the brick wall on front and side of the wall. It's a boarding kennel, not a grooming parlour, and many of the dogs I bath have never been in a hydrobath before. If I think there may be a problem, particularly with a strong dog, I clip a line from the eye bolt to the collar (fixed collar reasonably tight, never a choker) from each side. The arrangement makes it almost impossible for the dog to jump out . . . though I can't do a 100% job in the area around the dog's collar. Once the dog finds it can't move more than a few inches and is pulling against a brick wall, it generally gives up struggling. Most of them are fine once they discover the water feels good, and can be unclipped.

If it's bad, I would be inclined to clean and disinfect it and wrap the paw fairly loosely with elastic bandage. If you have one of those webbed pads that become flexible when you heat them, that would be a good base for under the wrapping. Obviously, this won't work if your dog doesn't tolerate bandages and you may have to take additional measures to prevent him from chewing it off.

Everybody talks about chicken frames as a commodity, but having been through four suppliers (I get 100 to 200 kg/week, some for my dogs, some for the boarding kennel, and some for other breeders), I conclude that each source varies, and the sources that leave a lot of meat on also tend to leave a lot of fat, and sometimes fat and skin on. My breed, and a few of my dogs, are prone to obesity. Accordingly, I trim off the main fatty bits and toss them (sometimes to the magpies). Often this reduces the mass by 10%. And I can still see all my dogs' waistlines Do others do the same?

I think they do taste tests with dogs. Smelling bad to humans probably helps get a good K9 reaction. After all, cat pooh and rotting fish seem to be dog attractants.

Chloromide sounds like the active ingredient is chlorohexadine. Chlorohex is a very toxic to microorganisms but not particularly harmful to mammals. I had a dentist perscribe it as a mouthwash. IT TASTES worse than anything I have ever put in my mouth . . . so bad that I changed dentists. Bottom line, could be worth a try. It's also good for cleaning thermometers. (I like to understand what the active ingredient is and go for that rather than buying some commercial spray. It's usually MUCH cheaper, and you end up knowing exactly what it was that worked or didn't work.)

In kennels I find that dogs who won't eat raw foods are often happy to eat them when they pinch them from someone else (little buggers). Once they get over the initial prejudice, they usually take to it big time. Could you convince the dog that the cat is getting the stuff and allow her to pinch it from the cat bowl?

In my kennel I find that many 'little fluffies' go mad over chicken carcass IF you first smash it to bits with a meat cleaver. I prefer to start with carcasses because it's much clearer what you're feeding. I think some places, perhaps some Lennarts branches as well, throw the skin and fat into the mincer, which could end out with a pretty fatty mess. Not to mention guts. As for cooking Lennarts mince, I beg to differ. The problem with cooked bones is that they splinter. If they are previously ground reasonably fine, I think that takes care of the splintering problem. (Happy to be corrected if someone has evidence to the contrary.) I am more comfortable with cooked chicken mince than raw -- particularly for pups -- because chicken is notorious for carrying Salmonella.