dogaholic

Try looking at this item: http://www.stormdefender.com/index.htm I have a friend who personally knows the man who developed this cape. She vouches for its effectiveness with many fearful dogs.

.... I found this site and saw she had three litters due to hit the ground in November, of 2004. This is not including the DJ and Mistee breeding that produced your pup. This is more than one litter a year....The link I found. http://www.williamshomesteadranch.com/Puppies%202004.htm Good luck Samantha Yep that is my dogs breeder. She breeds her females once a year only. Edit: edited my posts out - should not have to explain why I purchased my puppy. Thanks I guess we misunderstood what you meant by the statement "She only breeds once a year anyway, if that". Apparently this breeder actually breeds EACH of her females "only" once a year. What a considerate breeder

Just a thought that I forgot yesterday... I am lucky to have a local vet specialist to do the skin testing. I know that many of you might not have a vet who does this kind of testing, but consider it. It is unhealthy for an animal to be on constant antibiotics, Benedryl and pred. Those meds suppress the body's natural response to allergens. Fighting against the body's natural defenses on a long term basis is terribly damaging. Of course, short term or seasonal use of pred & Benedryl to resolve a specific, short term issue is NOT the same situation!

Labs are notorious for having allergy problems. Our Lab developed something called atopy. In him, it manifested as a huge blood blister between 2 toes. He never licked his feet, though. He also had nasty, smelly ears with a brown discharge that would then get infected. After fighting the battle with pred (which I HATE to use) daily doses of Benedryl and antibiotics for nearly a solid year, I said ENOUGH! We took Bailey to a phenomenal veterinary dermatologist that is here in the Dallas area. We did skin prick allergy testing, exactly what they do for people. It is much more accurate than blood testing for allergies that is usually done on pets... more expensive, too. We found out that our poor pooch was allergic to all types of grass, weeds, trees, dust mites, and pollen His yuchy ears were also a symptom of allergies. The infections were only secondary. He now gets allergy serum injections every 10 days. I can give them myself. The serum has resolved nearly ALL of his ear infections, as well as the bloody blister. No more antibiotics, no more pred. Benedryl is only needed for a couple of weeks in the fall, when his allergies are the worst. If you can afford it, this kind of testing sure as hell beats trying to figure out on your own whether it is an environmental or food allergy. Bailey was allergic to SO many things that we would never have figured it out ourselves. I am so happy that he doesn't have to have all those antibiotics & prednisone!

Be very careful with the Otomax. Long term AND intermitant use can cause deafness! Unfortunately that happened with my first BC 7 or 8 years ago. I did not know better at the time PetEducation has some good info on Otomax: http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cl...&articleid=1402 As for the ear wash, it must get further down into the ear canal to work properly. I am afraid swabbing the external ear area with a cotton ball won't do the job properly. Good luck with your Boy!

Please do those in rescue a favor that is very important to us. Please be careful to use the correct terminology. Breeders breed their dogs and SELL the puppies. They do NOT offer their puppies for adoption. Not even good breeders, and there are some of those out there, place dogs in adoptive homes. They sell them. You do not adopt a dog from a breeder. Rescue groups and individuals place dogs and puppies into well screened, qualified ADOPTIVE homes. We do not, in any meaning of the word, SELL them. When people ask us "How much is that dog?" every hackle goes up! I realize that it may seem like an insignificant distinction to some, but words mean things. To a dedicated rescuer, it is a critical distinction. And yes, approximately 25% of the dogs that end up in animal shelters are pure bred. Some breeds are more common in shelters than others. There are not a large number of AKC registered BCs around simply because BCs were only accepted/ dragged into the AKC in 1995. Thank you.

My first BC was a street urchin. My current BC, Gillian, is from a local shelter. I am dedicated to rescue. I also enjoy and appreciate pure bred dogs. Although my head can understand the desire to have a PB dog from a breeder, my passion for rescue would never permit me to do so myself. I would feel hypocritical.

First, a dog does NOT need one bit of physical contact with an infected dog to catch kennel cough. It is an airborne disease. They don't even have to be in the same room to pass the disease from one dog to another. You will have to ensure that your dog cannot breathe air that could have been contaminated by a sick dog. Breathing through the fence at another dog is more than enough contact to pass the disease. Yes, there are many strains of KC and the vaccine is not 100% effective. No vaccination is. You choose whether or not you are willing to accept that risk for your dog. Second, very, very few diseases are transmissable from people to dogs, or vice versa. Kennel cough, colds, and upper respiratory diseases are absolutely not in this category.

The cornea is actually thin, transparent layers of cells that covers the front of the eye. The "colored part" that you mention is called the iris and it is actually underneath the clear cornea. GET TO THE VET!!!! Eye injuries are nothing to mess around with trying to treat yourself. They are extremely painful and can ulcerate easily. I have a client now whose dog is actually wearing a very large contact lens in one eye, designed to keep medicine in contact with the eye after a scratch. They had to use that after 6 weeks of treatment that did not resolve the injury. Want to guess how much $$$$$ THAT cost?