Life Stages

I hate to ask...

CarmysMom — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:47:06 GMT

I have an elderly dog who probably won't be around much longer. Each day I check for breathing. She eats well, is vocal and goes outside. She is on joint supplement for her weak hips but can do a lope around the yard on a good day. Deaf as a doornail but can still see. (it might be selective hearing)

Here's the problem. Poop just falls out of her with no real control. It comes out when she sleeps. I can keep her schedule to get her outside for the most part but occasionally we find "Sugar poops" around the place. Thank goodness they are firm! I bet most people would put her to sleep but I can't seem to do that. Other than that and rotten breath, she's ticking along pretty well.

Any words of wisdom? What would you guys do?

The last call

La Lupe — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:28:36 GMT

My older dog Inca about 19 years with us now is at an age that my vet has made the call because I was not able to. Inca has been waisting and been having diahrrea for many months now. Inca was diagnosed first with Gastroenteritis back on 7/16/08 and on 1/27/09 diagnosed with Pancreatitis. Is been a long road of trying many things and Inca continues to loose weight and the constant diahrrea.

I know she is old also blind, moody and the vet's. call might be appropriate but How do I go in the vet's office with my Inca and knowing that she wont come home with me alive?

With a heavy heart and tears on my face the rational part of me says is time, but the emotional me is torn. She is not my first and I know wont be my last, but hurts just as if it was the first time.

Is there a good bone/joint health vitamin for arthritis prevention?

mydog4ever — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:12:40 GMT

My dog is about 2 yrs old, 55lbs, and i was wondering if it is good to give them a daily vitamin for bone/ joint health so stay strong and keep bones and joints from becoming brittle, thus preventing arthritis?

iIf so, do you have any suggestions of safe healthy brands that do the trick and have no side effects?

Car Sickness

goatman68 — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:27:31 GMT

Abby my little mixed breed is 4 yrs old and from day one she always gets car sick when I take her for a trip, short or long period of time.

Even if I don't feed her for hours before leaving she still gets sick. Mostly drowls and then witll throw up foam, like acid. If I put her in a kennel in the car she is worse, she seems to make it for a longer period of time riding if she is just left to sit on the sit. But she will still get sick. I have taking her on short trips over the years but nothing ever worked.

Just wondering if this is a life long thing for her, she likes to go for rides all I have to d is ask and she runs to the car (so she is not scared), I don't think she can help what always happens. It is like I need to give her something to calm her tummy.

Thanks Marilynn

Puppy food

Jennyfurwhen — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 17:47:20 GMT

Hi there, I have a puppy who is a mixed breed that's 4 months old, she looks like she's going to be around 40 lbs when she's older, right now she's 17.4 pounds, and I've recently had her on Wellness Large Breed and I'd like to switch around the food to another brand so she can get different sources of protein. I bought Nature's Variety Prairie and was wondering if the calcium and phosphorus levels would be good for her, I tried researching for the correct levels and could only find one site that gave specific info on that, could anyone help me with nutrition for either large breed dogs or larger end medium breed dogs?

Thanks

mast cell tumor stage 3

paulamarie — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:32:41 GMT

Hello, I'm new here. I need some help on what to do about my dog, she is a english cocker spaniel, age 10, her name is Matilda. I brought her to the vet 2 weeks ago because she had what looked to be a boil on her belly. when the vet saw her he said it was a tumor that had to be removed. so we scheduled surgury to have it removed, once it was removed it was going to the patholoist to see if it was cancer. the surgery went well, she was back to her old self again within 2 days, until i get the dreaded phone call from the doctor himself,saying that is was a mast cell tumor stage 3. my heart sunk! he referred me to an ongolist, but i can not afford chemo or radiation at this time.he said she would only live up to 6 months without treatment. so i did some research on this type of cancer. alot of websites say to switch to a no grain diet and fish oil, or flax seed oil. they all state that there better for dogs with cancer. I was wondering if anyone here has tried these on there dogs and if it was succesful in keeping your dog healthy.I would be grateful for any information that you have on this type of cancer. I'm totally clueless. Thanks...Paula

Older dog waking up earlier

beth82 — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:04:12 GMT

My 9 year old Lab mix, Beauty, has been waking me up around 5-6 am lately, wanting to go out to potty. Is this normal as dogs get older? I'm just a little worried as she used to sleep until I got up. Beauty is my first dog, so I'm not really sure what to expect as she ages. She seems normal otherwise.

Ms. Kee Shu -- good thots & prayers pretty please?

calliecritturs — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 02:49:05 GMT

We have no true idea how old she is -- it's likely she's *very* old -- like 17 - 19 (and 19 is likely). She's had a GOOD 3 1/2 years with us -- but she's gotten extremely "senior" over the past year. Pretty well no sight at all (light/dark, some motion she sees), very very little hearing. Very arthritic & stiff, but she is not what you'd call a 'stoic' dog.

That's the interesting thing about her -- it took her almost 2 years to trust us -- she'd been abused and disliked being picked up (particularly by me -- my theory is that some big lady *threw her* - probably from a standing position or from a piece of furniture). Humans were NOT to be trusted -- they were ok for food giving but comfort? nope. trust? nope.

But gradually it has happened. she now actually likes being *held* (major huge RAH!!) and will lean into a cuddle willingly -- she takes **comfort** from us. For me, this has been huge. To bring back her sense of "dog-ness" -- to love humans and take comfort from them is usually a dog's biggest joy. *Particularly* for a companion breed like a peke.

She has loved going to Give Kids the World -- children have **suprisingly** been a joy to her since she came. Whoever her abusers were, they were not children -- children, particularly BABIES, were JOY to her.

But with her "trust" came something unusual. Kee has obviously been a survivor -- you keep quiet, you go along and you don't make waves. That's how you survive.

BUT ... once you begin to trust -- one of her first big "steps" was ... to register **disapproval** of something. Particulalry when food wasn't served up fast enough. There has been hunger in her past ... and food can nearly panic her. She wants it ... NOW. FAST ... and this "preparation" thing that happens here (me dishing up cooked food to FOUR dogs, adding meds, etc. and everbuddy eating at the same time) ... well it ... its HARD you know? It should be FASTER. NOW ... HERE. Never have I had a dog so vociferous and the more senior she's grown the worse thta has gotten (*grin* -- and so how do you 'splain to a deaf/nearly blind dog that it's gonna take as long as it takes and the more fuss she stirs the slower *I* am??? LOL It's never quite seemed to kick in for her *chuckle*)

About 6 months ago she decided that 'breakfast' should be served .... oh ... about 4:30 a.m. Now my husband gets up at 5 -- and his "last half hour" is his most prized sleep time. ohhhh my ... that was a challenging couple of months.

There's only so much "training" possible here -- she is **very** senior. never the brightest light in the box, anyway, the challenge has been coping with her, making sure 3 other dogs don't get snarky with her (she will grab at anything moving close to her face in hopes it is FOOD -- including tails, ears, or noses or fingers!!)

But mostly she's been happy -- but she DOES let her wants and wishes known -- and honestly therein lies my difficulty here. Often her 'communication' --rather than barks, can be a series of moans, or other vocalizations. She's quite unique -- I've never had a dog this ... er ... vocal. But it's as tho she's kept her peace for many years, and FINALLY she's in a place where she can voice her opinion and not get hurt for it so, by golly, she's gonna tell EVERBUDDY exactly how she feels!!!

But ... I get concerned -- sometimes the moans and groans ARE pain ... she goes to Dr. D monthly for acupuncture, chiro and she sees the dog massage therapist (and he's actually given David instructions and worked out a program so David can massage her daily).

There's a LOT of cognitive dysfunction -- dementia. She'll forget where she is. ("I know I was on my way to ..... well, I KNOW I was gonna do something when I got there, but ... I can't quite remember what."). She'll even lose her bowl while she's eating (she'll come up for air, get a bit turned around and can't find her bowl).

she's not continent -- I have linoleum and wood. it's no huge problem to clean up. My biggest problem is she can't tolerate the heat to be outside long enough for her body to decide to function.

Ok -- none of this is terrible or awful ... we're patient people.

However -- along with the blindness has come two injured eyes -- and the one is not healing well. The other injury is the result of a tiny tumor growing on the inside of her eyelid which is irritating.

I know there is some pain -- both joints and eyes -- how much we're truly not sure, but she will stand nose-in-to-a-corner far far too often for my liking. Getting up and down is painful -- and we alleviate that as much as possible. She's on herbs and has been seizure free for a long long time.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to take her up to Dr. Bailey again ("regular" vet) specifically in hopes that he can do something different for her eyes. Maybe a stronger antibiotic ointment for the eye. Hoping her can remove that tiny tumor without huge trauma to her.

I know she's winding down. But we're hoping she has some good time left. But it is VERY difficult to tell with her.

She eats like a starving piglet (but is it enjoyment or panic? it's truly difficult to tell)

She sleeps the vast majority of the time (is that just desserts of the aged? or a refuge from pain? difficult to tell)

There is enjoyment from the cuddle when we're settling her down. to me that is very precious given how many years she was without comfort from humans.

Lots of vet input here (and they can't tell us for sure either) -- but just prayers and good thots for David and I that we judge this rightly ... we've no wish to rush her at all. But given her history we do *not* want her to suffer. I'm hoping to get not only some 'help' tomorrow, but good input. And I'm really *hoping* I don't have to make the judgment call (I'm really concerned that the eye isn't healing.)

If you've seen the movie "Up" I would give anything for one of those dog translator collars in this case. She's never bonded with me closely enough for me to feel comfortable reading her ... *sigh* But I can promise you one thing ... if somebuddy yelled "Squirrel!!" she'd say .... "Oh ... that's nice... zzzzzzzzzzz"

Lady...

georgie4682 — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 01:15:48 GMT

Lady is about 15 1/2 now. She has been doing pretty well for her age. She can't do steps anymore, so we have to carry her up and down, but other than that she is good.

Today DH let her in from outside and she came into the livingroom, walked across the room, and squatted down and peed right there in front of us! I'm not sure what was the cause of this. I don't think it was intentional, but I don't know what would cause it either. Afterward she just walked around and whimpered (like she does when it's a bit past dinner time and she hasn't been fed yet). I can't figure out what she wants and she doesn't seem to be in pain, maybe confused??

Any ideas on this behavior? Thanks.

Teeth coming in, but only one out?

griffinej5 — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:52:04 GMT

So far, Luke has only lost one tooth that I know of. Maybe he's lost more, and I haven't seen them, but I have only actually found one tooth, a big one from the back. He's five months old as of yesterday. He has at least two teeth that I can tell that have come almost completely, and a few that are partially in, and the teeth they are replacing have not come out. Two have come forward pretty far. Any chance of these teeth falling out on their own, or are these just going to get pulled when he gets neutered? I guess now I can schedule that since the vet said once teeth start falling out.

VetFlex - Heard of It?

CoBuHe — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:07:12 GMT

Have any of you heard of this product called VetFlex. www.vetflex.com

Its a liquid Glucosomine forumla. Buddy isn't liking the PhyCox that the vet gave him AT ALL. He spits it out and gives me "the look" more times than not.

I'm considering this one...I like the fact that its liquid too.

Thanks in advance.

What is the right thing?

threedogjeep — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:02:40 GMT

Caity had 5 beds around the house so that she could keep an eye on me comfortably wherever I was. Do I remove those beds quickly? I mean, as far as how Leela and Godzilla might need or not need them there? I can't remember what I used to know about this topic. Please help.

wings are ready to fly

threedogjeep — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:11:36 GMT

Today around 3 p.m. Caitlyn Marie Farmer Blair will join her beloved Rufus Blair, et. al, at the Rainbow Bridge. She has been and will continue to be a good and faithful friend...the best friend I ever had or will have in this life. I won't ask her to suffer any more. I have ensured her that Rufus will show her the ropes ... first of all the peep hole where she can continue to watch over me...second, where the squirrels and rabbits hide out. I have been one very fortunate human being to be the recipient of her love and devotion. She was my velcro dog...where ever in the house I was..there she was also. My little flop-eared dog. The black beauty with the speckled paws that hinted at the spaniel in her heritage.

She is the lucky one. I am left here on earth without her. Life will never be the same.

Growing wings

threedogjeep — Sun, 17 May 2009 16:18:57 GMT

Well, 16 yo lab/springer mix Caity has a healed nose, finally. She's eating my home-prepared meals well. Firm stool. But rarely is she making it outside to pee if she is in the living room on her bed. Days when I am at work all the pack stay in the tiled sunporch/mudroom where they have a dog door to go out. She usually gets out from there. But her "bed" is by my chair or by my bed and she doesn't allway get out. So, there are many mistakes to clean. The carpet is already trashed so we're not concerned about it right now. She can't really hear but can see pretty well and her nose is still great. Her arthritis, she moves really slow and her back end is quite weak. She doesn't have a lot of quality of life, but seems to just enjoy sitting beside me. She wanders a little, paces a little, but we tease her that she is trying to get in her "mile" of exercise before bedtime.

I know that I have known before .... my animals have told me...when they were ready. She hasn't really told me yet. I guess I need to talk to her. The family is kind of held at bay here at home because I can't really ask anyone to care for her like I do. So here we are not able to plan a vaca. I need to go see my brother in Kentucky (I am in PA). I want so badly to see my friends there as well. But I know they will be there when I am able to leave. I keep telling my husband that I'm going to care for her just like I would any member of the family. That he should feel good knowing that I will stick with someone I love through the tough times. But it is hard. hard to watch and hard to live.

I pray that when her wings are developed she files without pain, peacefully, and gently into that good night.

Tiny steps but HUGE cheers!! (Callie about Tink)

calliecritturs — Fri, 29 May 2009 23:59:55 GMT

I'll be honest -- I'm almost nervous to post this. But I've GOT to. This is a typical "me" long post, but I want to memorialize what's going on with her BECAUSE someone's going to find this who is battling demodectic mange in their pup with little results so if you've found this for that email me and I'll help you. BUT

Just to catch some of you up, Tinkerbell (the pug in my signature) is just over a year old (somewhere around Valentine's Day) and she's the one David and I went to Texas to adopt last year (a friend of mine does pug rescue in Austin and they got this **really** sick, neglected pug in with an unbelievably severe case of demodectic mange, a/k/a "demodex"). We brought her home over the July 4th weekend (flew to Tx, and drove back to Orlando, FL), but immediately commenced working on the demodex the way we do it. The protocol I follow is pretty simple -- spay *early* (5 months for Tink) to avoid sexual maturation, frequent warm bathing with benzoyl peroxide shampoo and copious warm rinses with some tea tree oil to wash mites down the drain and help keep the skin as staph free as possible, and with various herbs and supplements to help jump-start the immune system and help it grow and mature to a "better place" than it would otherwise aspire to because of the genetic flaw that is demodex.

In Tink's case, we also used a lot of homeopathic help from Dr. Joe Demers (do a net search for "homotoxicology" or "auto-sanguis treatments") simply because it was quickly apparent that Tink's demodex was incredibly fierce. If you go to my photos on here you'll see all the really nasty horrible pictures of how she looked when we got her.

The recent strides aren't as easy to see, but wow -- I'm thrilled.

Now first, the 'big' news (and I'm almost scared to post this *grin*) -- Tink hasn't had to have a bath in A MONTH!!!!!!! That's a big fat ENORMOUS deal.

That means the body is gaining control over the mites -- the **body** is keeping the mites under control. She's nearly weaned off herbs - she IS on a number of supplements and likely may be on them long term.

In February I was getting really concerned that the body wasn't kicking in *yet*. She was a year old and even tho she's a pug (bracheocephalic/bully breeds tend to mature immune-wise far slower than other breeds) the body shoulda been getting with the program. and wasn't. *sigh* We were pretty successfully keeping it controlled with the bathing -- but even there I was being really cautious because you can't use the big guns harsh shampoos like benzoyl peroxide LONG term without serious skin problems also resulting. It's harsh.

About as good as I was getting was her able to go maybe a week between baths. IF there was no other "stressor" present. Ack.

I had a big blood panel done on her on her birthday and hmmmm, it came back with a worryingly high ALT and a somewhat high AST but the other liver values were okey dokey. No nausea, nothing truly heinous ... but "worrying". WEIRD. Billy was running the same odd combination -- and one of the holistic vets thot the high ALT might be bile duct issues so we put both of them on dandelion AND she started getting more milk thistle (she'd been getting that for some time) but I also put her on SamE (milk thistle is mostly a liver *protectant* -- it does some detoxing but SamE is a bigger "detox" for the liver). In fact both of them were getting it. Incidentally -- at that time we also had a bile acids test done on her to rule out actual liver genetic abnormality. T'was fine.

Trying to speculate where she picked up the liver problems? Still not sure -- we had a new roof put on last fall after a storm literally laid my roof completely back during a rainstorm (typical Floor-daaa felt roof) so of course there was mold and some toxicity there, and then at Christmas she got into some chocolate -- refer to my "Christmas of the Sparkle Poop" posts -- the little stinker stole some Hershey's kisses -- enough to send her into a mega pug zoom BUT it also did a major toxic number on the liver apparently. She should have snapped back from that and didn't. I was back to bathing *very* frequently again, this time modifying that with far less harsh shampoos (which don't work as well but I was beginning to see some major skin pore damage in the works.)

At Easter she had a rather major backstep -- all of a sudden she blew out with demodex, major staph infection, had to be on antibiotics for a full 2 weeks. And then **typically** with demodex, because cephalexyn tends to "boost" the immune sytem, often when you take them off it they can crash **again**. At this point I sent away for a thyroid test (yes, she's a pup but thyroid problems aren't unheard of and we know she's SO badly bred).

Many of us realize that hypo (low) thyroid can have an extremely negative effect on skin problems. It doesn't *cause* them ... but rather it simply impairs the body's ability to RECOVER from them or deal with them. So if you've got a whacked out thyroid you can try as you might and beat your head against the wall and you aren't going to get anywhere.

*sigh* But Tink's thyroid test (to Hemopet with Dr. Dodd's input, bless her heart) had come back FINE.

HOWEVER ... and this is the head-scratcher -- a screwed-up liver will do the same exact thing. Now it doesn't necessarily present the same way BUT the fact that her liver values were all whacked was enough to indicate that was likely what was holding this all back. The bloodwork that came back with the thyroid results showed "better" but not good enough.

Dr. Demers and I went to work HARD on the liver. Rather than just trying to boost the immune system we worked harder (homeopathically) to detox the liver and I also put her on way higher doses of milk thistle powder and SamE.

The last bloodwork we had done two Saturdays ago (deep breath) was FINE. WE've finally gotten the liver detoxed and the numbers are all down into range.

[small note about Billy -- his numbers are better -- remember BOTH these dogs are immune-compromised, so my best conclusion is that the toxins caused by the roof, hit both of them harder. We've had all four dogs blood tested "just in case" and Luna and Kee's are fine -- so my guess has to be the immune-commonality. Billy's the IMHA survivor, and his immune system will likely always be a bit damaged, and he's older so his recovery is slower. He's 9 now.]

Ok, if you're still with me I want to show you a couple of pictures. The first is a picture taking in January (and both of these were shot at Dr. D's office - I tried to contrast two pictures taken in the same lighting altho neither are tremendous pics, both just taken on my cell)

Look at her muzzle -- now the bridge of the nose is still "grey" BUT for the first time you can see in the bottom picture her muzzle area is BLACK - it's silky, soft and **black**. You can see in January it's still quite weathered ... and even in March, you can see it's far from inky black. BUT that bottom picture was last week (and ALL of these are taken literally in the same room at the vet's so same light)

This was in January, 2009

This one was in March, 2009

And now this one -- it's a blow-up of a pic taken 052009 but I wanted you to see how black the muzzle looks -- the bridge of the nose is still a bit grey but this IS approaching normal skin finally.

The hair on the top of the head is thicker, and the hair is coming in thicker on her neck. She has "feathers" on her butt now but this black muzzle is HUGE in my estimation. It's NORMAL skin. It's soft.

But the thing that has held her back HAS been the liver. This is NOT a typical demodex thing ... BUT I want to make the point that if you have a dog with generalized demodex that is NOT responding to treatment and the dog seems to trigger again and again without success, GET BLOODWORK DONE. Get a thyroid test done (NOT just a T3/T4 -- go to Hemopet or at least Michigan State and get a breed specific in-depth blood test done and they'll talk WITH your vet about the results -- it leaves the normal thyroid panel in the dust!!

But explore WHY ... now if you are just using ivermectin forever and ever be aware it WILL fail eventually. It is VERY hard on the liver. But this isn't something most vets will suggest simply because most people don't go to great lengths to resolve demodex. It's an easy thing for someone to suggest putting the dog to sleep ... but it doesn't HAVE to be un-resolvable. But it's not a quick fix thing ... but it CAN be done.

I can't resist -- I gotta put this one in as well. This was July 8, 2008 -- this was the day I got home with her from Texas on some laundry. But it shows how FAR we've come. Just in a few day's worth of baths we had hair growing but you can see on the muzzle how "pink" it was -- almost like it was 'worn off' -- it was, it was all new skin but not healthy skin yet.

What is the right dosage for adminstering cranberry pills for a dog?

fiamartin — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 18:47:07 GMT

I have a 35 lb dog what is the right dosage?

Spots of blood

oranges81 — Fri, 15 May 2009 18:20:06 GMT

Sandy is 10 months and this morning I woke up to find spots of blood where she was laying. I'm assuming she started her heat but I'm wondering at what time during her cycle does the bitch start to bleed?

The males that visit haven't shown her any attention the past week but she just moved off my lap and there's more blood on my pants. Again it's only a minute amount. Should I keep a better eye on her when Wolf is upstairs now?

Sorry if the questions seem dumb, it's just I've never dealt with a female in heat before.

shaky puppy syndrome

jenny1 — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:40:42 GMT

Hi. does anyone have any info or point me in the right direction re shaky puppy syndrome? I never heard of it before.and neither has my vet.

Pup concerned is a border terrier little girl, aged now about 9 weeks. The shaking was quite bad from the head and went down her body but as she became mobile, the shake seems to travel down her body towards her tail but the head is no longer affected.

Someone told me about shaky puppy syndrome and said it may now be in the border terrier breed....but I never heard of it to start with. Any help here at all? thanx.

Managing older dogs

corvus — Fri, 15 May 2009 06:48:06 GMT

Penny's eyesight and hearing has deteriorated quite a bit in the last year and I suspect she is living in a ball of cotton wool, now. It's hard to tell how well she can see because she acts like she can see pretty well. She doesn't run into things, but you can wave your hands at her and she will look right through you. She reminds me of this old dog I met once that was almost entirely blind, but would sit at your feet and gaze into your face. His eyes were so milky it's almost certain he couldn't see you, but he just knew where you were and where your face was anyway. Sometimes I think they have a sixth sense for it, or maybe they can smell your breath. I think Penny can see a bit better than that, but misjudges a lot.

Her hearing has all but gone and it went really quickly. Most of the time she acts like she doesn't hear much. She doesn't hear thunderstorms anymore, which is nice for her as she used to be scared of them. She tries really hard to read my mind and is pretty successful, so I tend to forget that she can't hear me.

I suspect she is incontinent sometimes, and I've doubled her arthritis meds as I have a suspicion she's hurting more lately. I'm taking her to the vet tomorrow to get the incontinence checked in case it's a UTI, and for a general checkup. Her behaviour has changed a lot lately. She seems to swing wildly between grumping at everyone all the time and acting like a puppy. She's doing things now that she hasn't done since she was a puppy, like grabbing my hand in her mouth and chewing on things.

So I'm just looking for guidance, really. I worry about her. I've never had an old dog before and she's a stoic little thing. I don't really know what I'm looking for, what is normal, and what needs to be checked out. It's sad trying to communicate with her because she struggles to gather what I'm trying to say. If I touch her sometimes she doesn't know it's me and jumps. She seems to be cold a lot, and I give her lots of blankets, but then, sometimes she just stands there and shakes for no reason I can work out. She is intolerant of other dogs and I've seen her fly at Kivi when he was lying on the ground in abject submission. I doubt she can see his submissive signals all that well, but she knew he was on the ground and she went for his throat. Poor little man cried. She still plays with him, but spends more time randomly snapping at him. Sometimes he's nowhere near her and she turns around and runs over to him and snaps at him. I'm lucky he's such a sweet boy and will just put up with it.

So any advice or guidance would be welcome. What do I do with her??

Putting an older dog to sleep for surgury

kevinsmak — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:02:24 GMT

As some may have seen in another post I have an older golden lab, he's 12 in our years. The dog is in awesome physical shape and can out run me any day and always has energy. He basically has some bumps on his eye and they are hitting his eye and causing it to get red and irriate him, he keeps his eye about half open and tears usually poor out. Last time at the vet they said there is a risk of his heart beating irregular or him passing away when doing the surgury mainly because they have to put him under to do it. The surgury itself appears to be very low risk other then that from what I understand. Any vets out there give me more information about putting them to sleep for surgury, is it really that risk or are the vets just kinda C.Y.A. kinda thing. Any information would be helpful, I really care about my dog as do most and don't want to watch him suffer with his eye when everything else is fine.

Human foods

GB8 — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 04:41:03 GMT

Hello all, Just looking for general opinions from owners of older dogs. My dog is 11 years old. Pekingese. Of good health. Has recently had xray and blood test. The local vet found nothing. Was very surprised. So it looks like I have a very healthy 11 year old dog. What I'd like to know is...do you all think feeding him bread (or an egg daily) is a bad thing? Harmful even? I mean when my dog was sick and had to be given antibiotics the vet recommended using cheese or bread. As my dog wasn't swallowing the pill as is. So obviously Bread and cheese couldn't be a bad thing could it. Though, maybe in small quantities and not regularly. Sometimes my dog gets hungry. So i've given him a small piece of cheese or bread. What do you all think? Do you all totally refrain from feeding your old dogs any "human food"? Today he was shaking before he ate his dinner. As he ate he stopped. Especially after. Maybe he was just hungry. Before dinner he went on a long walk. Hasn't been on such a long walk for weeks (street here is too dirty...made him sick). I had another Pek which lived a very long life. Fed her pieces of plain pizza crust from time to time. Lived several years beyond the average 12-13. I will consult a licenced vet tomorrow. I know better obviously than to take internet based medical advice as gospel. Just wondered what you all thought. Owners ONLY. Thanks.

Have eye bump removed?

dogmama217 — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 18:34:23 GMT

I see some other people here have had dogs with eye bumps or styes. My dog is a wheaten terrier who is almost 10 years old and this bump has gradually developed over the past couple months. I haven't taken him to the vet yet - but I wanted to get some opinions about having it removed. It sounds like it might continue to grow and interfere with his eye and sight. It seems like he just had a dental - so he's not due for anything right now. So, have it removed?

Hypothyroidism

Laurelin_429 — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:29:46 GMT

Anyone have any experience with it? My old sheltie was just diagnosed with it, which was a major relief because we thought his tumor had come back. I'm taking him tomorrow for another blood test (I'm not sure why they need to run another one exactly) and I can ask the vet then a few questions.

I had a couple though. I hear if a dog has allergies, then hypothyroidism can really aggravate them. Trey's allergic to fleas and seems to be having a really rough time trying to get over this last batch of fleas he's had. He got a Capstar but even though I had given him Frontline, his fleas aren't going away. The vet says that a lot of people are having problems with frontline this year.

Also, I keep reading about it affecting the dog mentally. Well, Trey is a really weird dog. Is it possible all his mental issues are from having hypothyroidism and we didn't know it? What I read is it causes dogs to be 'mentally dull' and Trey's definitely mentally dull, lol! We honestly thought there was something developmentally wrong with him. I'll feel kind of bad if it was this the whole time.

Nervous, wish us luck! [Liesje] update

Liesje — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 12:53:02 GMT

Nikon's prelims are being done tomorrow morning. Eeek! I'm so nervous. I don't have any reason to suspect there's a problem, but you never know, hence doing prelims. We have club training tonight so I'm sleeping at the breeder's house and her husband is doing the films in the morning. Breeder's husband is the world expert in veterinary radiology. He is more qualified to read films than anyone on the OFA panel so I probably won't even pay for an OFA prelim rating, but having such an expert do the x-rays makes me more nervous, lol!

Show people - weight loss?

Liesje — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 02:17:21 GMT

I'm not sure which forum this belongs in, but I guess it's mostly related to age. Nikon is about 6.5 months. I think he's 21" and he weighed 60lbs last week (took him to the vet just to get a weight). So, he's not big or small for a GSD. This past weekend we went to Kentucky for a Schutzhund workshop and then on the second day we did ring training for the upcoming Sieger show in April (he's entered in the 6-9mo class). Several people agreed he's overweight, from a working/show standpoint. They want to see a really defined tuck, hips, and the last two ribs on a young working dog. They recommended he lose 3-4lbs. The show is April 23. I'm not too concerned b/c I've seen how fast dogs can go up and down. They recommended we cut back 1/2 cup a day and also gait him 1/2 mile a few times a week (the latter is more for his form than weight loss, but obviously it will come into play there as well). My problem is that I didn't really keep track of how much he was eating before. My adults eat 2 cups total, obviously not nearly enough for a growing pup. The back of the bag says 3 cups for a 60lb dog to maintain. Does that seem too little? He eats California Natural Lamb (LID formula, all dogs eat it b/c Coke has a sensitive tummy). He had 3 cups total today, plus some Natural Balance food roll cut into treats during conformation class. He's my first puppy so I've never had to sort out the food amounts, Coke and Kenya eat the same amounts they did when I got them. Also if any show people have advice on last minute conditioning/trimming, let me know! Since he's so young he can't do roadwork besides the 1/2 mile gait. We're doing hip and elbow prelims soon (Dr. Mostosky who is THE field of veterinary radiology will do them).

Here's a pic I took of him today. Honestly I think losing 4lb might be on the extreme side. We shared a room with two 8 week old puppies and he was constantly getting into their food bowl, plus it was raining and humid in Kentucky so his hair was majorly poofed out. My friend who was with us saw him tonight and said she thought he already looked slimmer b/c he's stopped gorging himself and the air here is so dry his coat is flat.

As opposed to yesterday