calliecritturs
Posted : 7/29/2013 3:48:17 PM
That all sounds good --
Any time you get two females together you get the potential for disharmony -- but at the same time, my Luna and Tinkerbell are always thicker than thieves and twice as happy. Luna is actually the "boss" (and is the older by 5 or 6 years) and lets the pug drag her thru the house by the ear .. but at the same time it literally takes a whisper and the pug immediately backs off. My biggest concern over the years has been that because Luna's ear has been SO constantly in the pug's mouth that it is WET and I've always feared for a yeast infection (yea, I actually AM serious LOL)
The only thing I can say (and others will say this way better) is you'll have your hands full not inadvertently contributing to favoring one dog over the other just with your own position and "who's on first" and "who's last on the sofa", etc.
With regard to vaccination ... I'm going to encourage you the opposite way. Be **extremely** careful of vaccination and .. in particular ... over-vaccination. The vaccines for tick disease are a huge huge thing for the immune system, as are vaccines for things like Leptoo. I'm not saying "don't" particular if your vet says there are a prevalence of these diseases where you are.
But please take even a few minutes to research things like lMHA (immune-mediated hemolytic anemia) and IMT (immune-mediated thrombocytopenia). It can be a very fine line between v accines and "vaccinosis" (i.e., illness resulting from too many vaccines) and often a combination of such stuff as a lot of vaccines, and fertilizers, herbicides and various lawn treatments.
I'm not saying your dog is going to get sick -- but in total honesty most people don't even have a clue what IMHA is until their dog gets sick. There is a 568 page thread on here "AIHA or IMHA", there is a huge section on FB, there is a huge group on VteNet regarding IMHA. But making yourself a bit aware make change your mind a bit.
your statement " but still don't like the fact that I have them vaccinated and they can still get sick." in honesty doesn't even begin to cover it. We've always been told to vaccinate so they don't "get sick" except not only can they still get sick with other diseases, they can wind up with problems related to the vaccines. And there honestly isn't all that much you can do to "prevent" any of it. Like I said -- I'm NOT saying your dog is going to get sick -- but it honestly helps to not get blind-sided if you are at least aware that some of these things carry risks that may not be evident.
In my dim and distant past it was "easy" to own a dog ... except even back in 1977-78 my dog wound up with pancreatitis and I paid the unheard of amount of $386 to get her back after a 2 week stay at the vets, and THAT is where *I* learned to home cook. At that time it had nothing to do with not trusting a food manufacturer, it was simply my vet's contention that "if you love her you'll COOK for her so YOU know how much fat is in her food". So ... I did.
Cooking is NOT cheap. It doesn't have to be hugely time consuming, but it's not quite as easy as stopping at PetSmart or whever for food. (and trust me -- when I'm sick, or when we're too busy for me to be home there ARE weeks they get commercial food just because life happens!!)
But it seems to me you're doing a darned good job. Sounds like you've figured out some common sense answers to some of your own stuff. Good for you!!
however -- we need pictures .. pretty please?? *grin*