donna frankland (uk)

thanks hun, very helpful

i know some of you guys do this, but i cant find the posts. i have a whole packet of the 20kg to 40kg pipettes that i bought for tikki, but am unwilling to use on him now, however if someone could let me have the dosage per kg info (or a linky to such) i figure i can split the pipettes up and not need to waste them also is the frontline for dogs the same as the frontline for cats? if it is, is it the same dosage per kg? if anyone could let me know i would be very greatful;) thankies

tikki has eaten raw chicken at least every week, sometimes every day since he was 7.5 weeks old. he is 11 in june! yes raw chicken could have bacteria etc on it, but a dog has an incredible immune system along side very very strong stomach acid AND a short intestinal tract so food is in, digested and out in a short space of time

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! :D :D

all my thoughts, prayers, and hugs coming your way hun xxx

hi goldencollie! have a llok at landywoods website http://www.landywoods.co.uk/ i'm not sure if they are covering all of scotland yet but if they cover your area, they have a fab range of meaty bones etc and deliver it to your door monthy i just chat up the local butchers for good deals etc, and go to tesco when my charm fails or i forgot to get anything!

i am somerset born and bred i just LOVE looking at all the stunning pics from everyone else but i'll stick with the mendip hills for myself! i love living here! note, i didnt take this shot!!

grr grr and double grrrrrrr!!! i find it frustrating enough, but seriously try taking a rabbit to the vets! 'oh look snookums, go see the pretty bunny!' morons! pillocks! etc! who in their right mind would think it ok to send ANY dog to go and see a rabbit without asking the owner???? 'i'm sure snookums would just love to see the bunny, but please keep him away. my rabbit is sick enough i dont need her to be nearly dead with fright before i even get into the exam room!' the best one though is 'dont put your fingers near the rats, they bite'. 'hey your rat just bit me!' 'no s**t sherlock'. i always huddle in the corner with any of my animals

ooh brighid has that ring on her tail!

hello cavysrock oh er i mean beth!! small world innit? (its colliewoman from ru by the way!) i am very pleased to see you here hun, you will get the most awesome advice here about all things bc!

puking up bits of bone that are hard to digest is the sensible thing for a tummy to do in my opinion!

ok can we all stop gloating about venison now please ***sticks out bottom lip*** its about a million quid a pound over here, and i cant find anyone with a licence to shoot deer. waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

**blushes** obsession can fuel the weirdest of things, in my case finding stuff for my doggies make friends with farmers, stock keepers, hunters etc. find out what they are being paid for cull animals then offer them a little more plus the abattoir's fee to have it slaughtered for you. i get my lamb lights/hearts from a friend cos i help out on the farm and find her customers for her meat. no one else wants the offal so i get it all!! she has also let me have half of her rams when they have reached the end of their days. not worth sending to market so she has them butchered for the dogs. i have someone else who goes rabbiting and gives me them for free (still waiting on the next delivery....) ask butchers, over here they have to pay to have scraps/waste/unwanted offals taken away, if you get there before it goes into the byproduct bins they give it away! woo hoo!

aw hun i am sorry to hear this if you want to try homeopathy, i will gladly pm you the details of the homeopath who has saved tikki's life. sending healing vibes your way xx

i go shopping about once per month for meat for the dogs, i just did it yesterday in fact so i will run through what i bought and how i will divvy it up i bought 10 small chickens 10lb of beef trim a packet of ox liver 6lb of green tripe (thats imaginary at the moment as they didnt have any, but i will include it as it is a biggie in my lots diet) some lamb neck and rib bones a leg of pork i will also include the 3 rabbits that are still in the freezer 3 sets of lambs lights and hearts eggs, i get lots of free range eggs for free this is for 2 bc's a terrier and 5 cats last night was a lamb neck ribby thing which they had for a few hours, then i took up what was left to avoid squabbles. tikki ate all of his but the girls didnt finish. then they each got a pile of beef about a third the size of their own heads. tikki ate all of his, brighid ate about half and the same with squirrel. tikki finished the rest of theirs (piggy wiggy) tonight they will have chicken. i will either give them one each and let them eat what they want, or the bc's will have half a chicky each (they are 2lb birds) and the terrier will have a quarter. if it has defrosted they will also have a blob of liver each too. if they have a whole chicken tonight, tomorrow they will have nothing, or possibly and egg with a little tripe. then they will have probably half a rabbit each the following night cept the terrier who gets less, i will split a rabbit between her and the cats. the leg of pork will get split into 2 main part with the bone in, and i will cut some meat off for squirrel (the terrier) she will then have a piece of neck or summat to knaw on to replace the missing bone in her part. possibly following that they will have some lights and heart and so on etc etc my shop yesterday including the imaginary tripe was around £35, and i will have to grab a few more bits through the month for them, depending on what i get given. frames are too bony on their own, but i often get given big bags of the for free, so i top it up with beef trim i dont turn away freebies i find ian billinghursts book to be a headache, too much preparation to much species inappropriate stuff. tom lonsdales books, though not so easy reading i feel contains far more valuable advice! and is free to download! as for the risks, you get risks whatever you feed. there are risks feeding bones, there are risks feeding ground bones, there are risks feeding kibble. i have fed raw for over a decade and all i can give you is my experience, none of my dogs has ever suffered with eating big food on the bone, except if i go overboard on the bone then tikki has had a little constipation. tikki always gets extra meat along side now. i have no idea if this has helped or confused but if you want to feel free to pick my brains

wow there is a border collie club in wessex? woo hoo! oh its show peeps i thought i might have found somewhere new to play sorry bout that but it was kind of interesting as i live in the wessex area. i dont know if this is of any interest to anyone but....... i have been bc obsessed for well over a decade, indeed i notice that article was written in 05 (the one eileen posted) and yet reading this thread is the very first i have ever heard of TNS. but the only bc people that i know and spend time with are trials people, farmers and shepherds. none of them have ever mentioned it to me either...... i really cant imagine something like this ever getting the chance to spread through working dog lines, farmers over here can be ruthless, i certainly cant see them giving a second chance to a pairing that has produced sickly pups before :s anyway, sorry for the rambling i dont even know if what i have written makes any sense but i thought i would share it anyway!

when you say 'stuff' do you mean her vulva is still swollen, or do you mean she still has discharge? my girls swelling of the vulva seems to take a little while to go down and i am convinced it never goes back to what it was before the first season. i have never known discharge to continue after the 3 weeks, but i have only ever had these 2 bitches who have been entire and had seasons, molly was spayed before her next season after i took her in. my friends irish terrier had her season and then carried on with a little discharge to promptly have a second season within 3 weeks! if it were me with one of mine, and you are talking of discharge i think i would pop along to the vets just to have it checked. i have also known of a bitch who wore 'knickers' with a pad in them to stop her staining furniture when indoors and she got an infection in her urinary tract. i dont know if having her ladies bits all covered up during her season was a coincidence or the cause.

brighid has never been a food head, though she will work her socks off learning tricks to get a treat :s she was on 1 meal before 6 months. i used to get in a right tizz about it as i have always been told to feed 3 meals till x age then 2 meals till x then 1 meal when adult. i figured after a while that thats ok IF you can get the dog to eat it. since that revelation i simply offer her food at night and let her eat what she wants. some days she refuses others she will eat a whole chicken. i let her decide and dont worry anymore. she will eat me out of house and home just after her season though, so i think i will have to re assess after she is spayed cos i reckon she will turn into a blimp within a month of the op lol!

when i had tikki neutered i was told 10 days of rest. 'he will be groggy when he comes home etc etc'. they had to sedate him before i picked him up, called me to come get him hours early. he then took all his stitches out. back in to get stitched up again came home early with a neck brace type collar 'that is phsychically impossible for the dog to remove......' i came down next morning to find tikki on the sofa with no collar. he had gotten it off dragged it out the cat flap and peed and pooed on it! he left his stitches alone though after that i let him be, didnt play fetch and let him limit himself. molly was a little easier, but she could be trusted not to run if she was off leash on the lanes so we went lane walkies. for her it seemed to be the restriction of the leash that made her crazy. she did get a little swelling around the incision but nothing too major and nothing like what she would have done if i hadnt walked her! i am getting my 2 girls spayed on the same day in may.......... a mental terrier and a 2 year old bc........ wish me luck!

in my very limited experience, the goats i knew were ok with a dog driving them but not herding them. make sense?

good luck with the surgery! i havent started the fundraising yet as i have been at the dentist getting teeth pulled. i will start next week

tikki's muzzle does that when he is feeling poorly. dont panic! i'm not saying fennec has what tikki has, but when tikki is in pain, he dribbles alot. and it happens when he has been over grooming. i dont think for most dogs the salivation is a sign of pain its just what tikki does. i think the pinkness is caused by the salivation is what i'm trying (badly) to get across another possibility is the temperature, i have known dogs lips and paws to turn bright pink when they are cold. is it chillier than normal where you are? good luck, i hope it is nothing serious xx

tikki did it to me once hun, i was so shocked! i was sat on the sofa with my dogs and they started getting silly and rowdy. i was a fool for letting it go as i know tikki isnt keen on squirrel in his space (he's getting better though). she went behind me and he lunged at her with his mouth open and caught me. he wasnt even looking at me and i honestly think he thought he was going to get squirrel. he left no marks but he realised at the last moment it was mum he was about to get, and i could see him try and stop the movement. he was so ashamed (people say dogs cant show guilt/shame i beg to differ) he was inconsolable he was whining, shivering, chattering his teeth, averting his gaze etc it broke my heart to see him in such a state. fortunately (i think) i just ignored him, got up let them outside for a wee and then handed out some treats and then gave him some cuddles. hardest thing i ever did was not cuddle him as soon as it happened. poor boy, try my very best to not allow a situation where this could happen again as it stressed him so badly. this is a dog who i would entrust with my life, i KNOW he would never intentionally hurt me. oops sorry for the ramble remove the situation from the dogs, or the dogs from the situation. and dont beat yourself up about it file it away in your head that it happened so you are aware of it, but try not to worry about it cos it can affect your doggie. if you dont think it was a mistake and he went for you not the other dog purposely (answer yourself honestly for this one) then i personally would seek some help from a behaviourist to me though it sounds like an honest misjudgment on his part.

my muck boots are holding up great and i have worn them for several years. my faves thoguh were my bog standard green steel toe cap wellies. i actually nearly cried when they finally broke after nearly a decade of wear i have still got them, cos you never know when you might find a way of repairing them!

i almost see staffie/boxer in that second picture :s the distance between his eyes or something.... personally i dont see spaniel, but i think there may be a big difference between US spaniels and english ones lol! but then again if it wasnt for the little ears, i might also think beagle