Rua

if you vaccinate at home..take the labels off the bottles and stick them to a card with date vaccinated. Copy those for your travel kits. If kennels won't take them ask that they be boarded at local vet office perhaps.

I'm so sorry for your sadness...Their passing leaves such large holes in our hearts..Dogs are such special creatures. *huggers*

I too have noticed that weight was dropping off on our active girls. While our trainer wants to keep our girls slim to minimize injury, we noticed that their speed and stamina has decreased as well as their weight on the grain free diet. Our local co-op has started selling Victor so I have gotten a bag of the performance plus to see how that works. Price was shockingly cheaper as well. Guess we shall see what's what. Hopefully it will help us get them back to being the bouncy bc's. Bell and our old gall will stay on grain free tho..our vet thinks old lass might have food allergies and Bell has to stay slim to help with her joints.:-)

Nice one..Mucho Gratsies! :-)

Bell has a head halter but tbh..didn't do much. It helped her learn not to pull while walking but with jumping up was just a matter of preempting and either avert or hand on head. Consistency and keeping commands simple yet different ie off means off people/objects, down means lie down. OES will always be the baby type no matter how old they get. As for the counter surfing, Bell did outgrow that habit although she will take things left on coffee table if unattended. Just have to keep counter clear till she figures it out. A BC will learn something within a hour to a day but an OES will take a lot longer. Pick 1 habit to focus on at a time and just keep at till they get it. Then work on next habit while occasionally reinforcing learned ones. My Bell is coming up on 7 and she still acts like a puppy..they never grow up. :-)

OES's aren't overly thick, but they are a "baby in a bulldozer". I currently own an OES..before her mobility issues she would just steam plow and jump up. I took her to pack play ONCE...she plowed through all the dogs and sent 1 owner flying through the air. Needless to say she won't be going back :-P. OES were bred to keep herds of cattle n sheep moving which meant muscling them down county lanes. So that's their main skill. I have noticed with Bell and the other OES I have helped rescue that they are "head sensitive". I can move Bell about by using my hand on her head with gentle pressure. Training wise owners HAVE to be consistent and specific with commands. If you tell her down does it mean lie down or get down? While a BC might be able be able to figure out which one we mean an OES isn't that smart (bless em). Pick 1 command for jumping up..I use off as ours and just keep at it. Gently use you hand to head to pre-empt jumps and issue command. Reward when there is no resistantace ..ie doesn't attempt. No they aren't the Einstein's of the dog world but they do have the biggest hearts. Owners have to understand OES's take a lot more time to train than other herding breeds..they were the muscle behind the brains.

Mojo for Jo and Tex..hope all is ok... *puppy prayers*

Thought I would let everyone know the good news....NO MORE BANDAGES! Wooot!!! Took her to the vet this morning and she said she has healed fabulously, and the wound that is still present is small enough to leave as is without any more bandages. The vet tech who has been with Kaida from initial er surgery till now was amazed at how well she has healed up. So now its just a matter of finishing off healing and growing back all her shaved stripes.. Thanks to all who sent her some healing mojo...you guys n gals are FABU! :-)

We can never tell how long we will ever have with any of our pups. Some hang on well into old age and others we lose way too soon. So judging wether or not to get a new pup based on how old it is currently really shouldn't count. What should count is wether or not you are ready to add another friend to your life. If it was me, and I was ready, I would at least visit the dog to see if we clicked. If it feels right n ready you will know. Sounds like your interested in em but looking for reasons NOT to do it. Are you just afraid of losing another and just trying to find reasons not to look? Reasons to not let another into your heart? Its not how old..how long we have them...its how much we love them while we have them that matters. Like I said..figure out if your ready...if so at least meet him..he does look really adorable..you never know.

We just got a couple small battery operated camping ones from Wal-Mart. They can either stand up on their own or you can use some mini bungee cords to hold them onto crates. I might at some point invest in a larger one but for now those work.

Yesterday she finally got "semi" closed up..finally. Doc said skin was healing so well that she felt good enough to staple wound up. We have been using medihoney and wow is it working a treat. She doing so well that she doesn't require a belly/chest wrap now. All she has is a few large stickey bandages with bit of smeared honey and she's good to go. Although I make her wear t-shirt at night cause she can't resist licking that honey :-P Doc doesn't want to see her again till next week barring any issues that pop up (hoping they won't). So guess now need to think about rehab work..she's had to be immobile for these past few weeks but I know we will have to start off slow. Just being able to see light at end of tunnel feels great..(knock on wood)... I want to thank you all for your Mojo and support...means a lot to me..helped tons! Thanks you lot!!! :-)

Julie I think they want the bandages on partly because of the necrotic holes and because of all the skin trauma around the incision line. They have applied a penicillin paste to it all the help healing. I know they want to keep it moist to promote skin growth. I do have med-honey paste coming for them to apply on her "holes" it does treat MRSA as well as accelerates healing and skin growth. As for bandage placement..its all about keeping it from rolling down to her back legs..imagine a spay line..the holes are on the north side of that where her chest wall is..so bandages inclined to roll south..bandage is full wrap around type. I do use the t-shirt at night tho keep her from bothering it if it does roll down and keeps it clean. Took her back again and they added extra tape on the top of her back to try and "anchor" it better...I swear if this doesn't work I'm getting out the duct tape :-P

Well I got a call from her original vet this morning. I let it go to voice mail as I am in no mood to talk to him right now. The er clinic had faxed him her paperwork and he stated he was sorry I couldn't get a hold of him as he had been called out of town on an emergency right after he talked to me on Friday,and he would have seen me but he didn't realise how bad she was. What part of "black hard bruise, red and really swollen...somethings wrong" isn't bad? O.O. Said to bring her in for drain removal and he'd take a look at her. I don't think so. Anyway, have a question. The current vets have been wrapping up her belly but the belly side of it keeps bunching up like a full wet diaper..so going to take her down AGAIN today so they can fix it. They have shaved her sides and have been using tape to try hold it in place but its not working..any suggestions on holding belly wraps in place or are we fighting loosing battle? Also..looked up the honey wound treatments...wow..order 2 tubes of medical honey paste..won't be in till tomorrow and I'm going to let vets know about it as well so we are all on same page. She's defiantly better than last week..just have to figure out this bandage situation and we MIGHT be able to get on top of it all.. thanks for all the Mojo..really glad to have this place to talk about all this..I know I'm normally the quiet lurker..but you guys n gals are fabu therapy for this worried lass :-)

Back from vets... Looks like a chunk of the necrotic tissue pulled away all at once so they cleaned it all out and put penicillin directly on the hole. The main tech is also the ER tech and was telling the vet that while they were fixing her, bruises were just appearing on her near main dead section. Said we will more than likely have more holes appear till skin can sort itself out. Shaved her sides some more and put a bigger bandage on her this time. They are going to try to see if the skin will "granulate" heal before they decide on whether or not she will need skin grafts. So back in 3 days to do bandage swap outs and see how its looking. This time last week was thinking in a few weeks be able to get back to agility training...now just praying my dog survives all this in one piece..This is nuts. :'(

That's what they vet I am taking her to now said to do as well. Although she said to put all the invoices in as well to show him how much it costs when you don't listen to your patients. She said he probably won't repay it but he should still it. Right now my main concern is getting her sorted out, and then I will write up letter. Too mad, tried, upset to put words on paper to him right now. =\