Pets

[Kylie1969]

Awww he is adorable Fi

 

[Claire]

My latest is that we've had Rosebud for almost 2 years. We bought her from a humane society for our birthdays. At the time I think she was 8 mos.

We had some problems training her, and almost returned her (it was a no-kill shelter, and we'd paid up front to have her taken back).

Now that we love her, and have her trained, we find out she is sick.



Now that we've had her for almost two years, she has some sort of seizure disorder. We're working with a good vet. So far her seizures happen every 4 months or so. Our vet and we agree that we'll wait for one more before deciding how to medicate her.

 

[Dawgluver]

My latest is that we've had Rosebud for almost 2 years. We bought her from a humane society for our birthdays. At the time I think she was 8 mos.

We had some problems training her, and almost returned her (it was a no-kill shelter, and we'd paid up front to have her taken back).

Now that we love her, and have her trained, we find out she is sick.

Now that we've had her for almost two years, she has some sort of seizure disorder. We're working with a good vet. So far her seizures happen every 4 months or so. Our vet and we agree that we'll wait for one more before deciding how to medicate her.

Claire, both my previous rescue cockers had seizures. We didn't medicate, and they got along fine and both lived to a ripe old age. The seizures probably scared us more than they did the dogs. Apparently seizures are very common with certain breeds. Thankfully, Beagle has no such issues.

Hugs to Rosebud!

 

[buckytom]

this is one of the two guys that greet me every morning when i get home, waiting to share breakfast.

beethoven (aka beetho, birdthoven, or butthead). he'll be 20 on april 3rd of this year.

yesterday, he ate almost a half of a hot dog, and the day before we shared an egg, cheese, and sausage wrap. if i don't share my food with hime, he makes so much noise that i can't sleep.

i'll have to get a picture of my african grey, louie. he'll be 26 in october. i'm kind of worried about him as he's developed arthritis in his right foot. if you try to touch it, he'll curse up a storm at you, then tell beetho to shut the f up. lol.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

My latest is that we've had Rosebud for almost 2 years. We bought her from a humane society for our birthdays. At the time I think she was 8 mos.

We had some problems training her, and almost returned her (it was a no-kill shelter, and we'd paid up front to have her taken back).

Now that we love her, and have her trained, we find out she is sick.



Now that we've had her for almost two years, she has some sort of seizure disorder. We're working with a good vet. So far her seizures happen every 4 months or so. Our vet and we agree that we'll wait for one more before deciding how to medicate her.

Claire, I'm so sorry about Rosebud, but at least she has a good vet and people who love her. You may find that she does just fine, like Dawg said. Even my baby brother had seizures when he was little...we kept him around anyway...

 

[buckytom]

claire, i'm sorry that i didn't read of rosebud's troubles before i posted my picture. i just saw the thread title and happened to see my old pic when looking for pictures of favourite burgers yesterday.

my first gf had a cocker spaniel that lived to a ripe old age, 18 i think, that had periodic seizures. she was their dad's hunting dog when she was young, but eventually ended up just being the family baby. the medication they gave her worked to a degree, but like dawg said, i think it was worse for the family. good luck with rosebud.

 

[Dawgluver]

this is one of the two guys that greet me every morning when i get home, waiting to share breakfast.

beethoven (aka beetho, birdthoven, or butthead). he'll be 20 on april 3rd of this year.

yesterday, he ate almost a half of a hot dog, and the day before we shared an egg, cheese, and sausage wrap. if i don't share my food with hime, he makes so much noise that i can't sleep.

i'll have to get a picture of my african grey, louie. he'll be 26 in october. i'm kind of worried about him as he's developed arthritis in his right foot. if you try to touch it, he'll curse up a storm at you, then tell beetho to shut the f up. lol.

Pretty bird, BT! Yes, we would love to see Louie too!

Lots of patience needed in keeping parrots and such as I understand. I have a friend who runs a parrot rescue, he has some interesting stories.

 

[Barbara L]

We just found out today that our sweet Cubbie (6-year-old German Shepherd/Rottweiler) has heartworms. He also has a Lick Granuloma on his right leg (Lick Granulomas in Dogs | Acral Lick Dermatitis) and a bad flea allergy. So, for the allergy he is on Benadryl three times a day. For the heartworms and the infection he is on Doxycycline. He has to take four 100 MG tablets twice a day for 30 days, then three months without, then repeat the cycle. After a year the vet will check how he is doing. He also wants us to bring Cubbie in for an x-ray and some blood tests soon.

Cubbie feels fine, and the vet said his heart is strong and he seems very healthy (other than what I have mentioned). We had taken him in for routine shots and a routine exam, not because he was acting sick. The only thing we were concerned about when we took him in was his leg.

For his first round of antibiotics and Benadryl I shoved each pill/capsule into a Fish McBite from McDonald's. Worked like a charm. One pill came out and I had to put it into another one, but Cubbie got them all down.

 

[Kylie1969]

He is lovely Tom, does he talk much?

 

[PrincessFiona60]

We just found out today that our sweet Cubbie (6-year-old German Shepherd/Rottweiler) has heartworms. He also has a Lick Granuloma on his right leg (Lick Granulomas in Dogs | Acral Lick Dermatitis) and a bad flea allergy. So, for the allergy he is on Benadryl three times a day. For the heartworms and the infection he is on Doxycycline. He has to take four 100 MG tablets twice a day for 30 days, then three months without, then repeat the cycle. After a year the vet will check how he is doing. He also wants us to bring Cubbie in for an x-ray and some blood tests soon.

Cubbie feels fine, and the vet said his heart is strong and he seems very healthy (other than what I have mentioned). We had taken him in for routine shots and a routine exam, not because he was acting sick. The only thing we were concerned about when we took him in was his leg.

For his first round of antibiotics and Benadryl I shoved each pill/capsule into a Fish McBite from McDonald's. Worked like a charm. One pill came out and I had to put it into another one, but Cubbie got them all down.

Sorry to hear about this Barbara, but at least he's easy to get the pills down.

 

[GotGarlic]

We have a couple of elderly animal companions, as well. DH jokes that we're running a pet nursing home The black Lab, Pippen, 13, has arthritis and cataracts. And we have a 17-year-old orange calico who groans a lot (I think it's just an "old lady" voice, not pain). We also have a 2-year-old tortoise-shell cat who likes to keep them young

I found this app, Cat Toys, for Android the other day. DH recorded the cats watching the laser pointer. There's also a squeaky mouse and a bird that react if a cat touches them on the screen. It was hilarious watching them.

Tablet Entertainment with Cats - YouTube

 

[Claire]

I've had two dogs (JR mixes) who lived to very ripe old ages. It is amazing what you'll put up with when it comes to beloved pets. One became totally deaf for about 3 years before she went, and had kidney disease. Luckily diet was able to make her continent until the end. Her daughter became hard-of-hearing, but it didn't much matter because she didn't always respond to her name anyway (like many things with those two, we didn't really notice that we never trained her, because she just did what her mommy did, that is her real mommy. We simply didn't know that she wasn't respond to anything we said or did, just following Mommy. So when Mommy died, she wasn't very responsive to any commands or her name. Maybe we should have started calling her by her mother's name after her mom died? Anyway, baby dog was already geriatric when her mother died, and lost all of her training. Both lived very long lives and were great companions, but those latter years had their moments, especially when Keiki lost her house training when her mother died!

Thanks for the encouragement about Rosebud's seizures.

I do remember from my days working for a vet, and my sister's decades, that Cockers in particular can be prone to problems because of over-breeding many years ago when they were the fad pet and pet farms would just crank them out. The largest complaint was incontinence. If they got excited for any reason at all, they'd pee all over the place.

Rosebud lost a couple of small turds with her last seizure and puked (luckily we keep her on a fairly strict dry food diet, it is a heck of a lot easier to pick up after accidents that way), but then, when she recovered, she asked to go out and do her business. Her house-training is impeccable. Not anything I did, just from living, more or less, in a crate until we got her.

Anyone thinking that crate-training is mean needs a lesson. Of course we all know that most dog training is owner training!

So I won't worry so much about her seizures. I did call my vet, and she has all incidents in her records. I agree, probably more alarming to us that her.

 

[LPBeier]

Claire, you brought up a good point about crate training not being mean and I agree with you 100% - except when it is to the degree Joie's previous owners used it.

He was put in his crate for the following reasons:
- he did something bad
- bedtime
- they were out
- they were eating
- they were cleaning the house
- they had company over
- they were taking him in the car
- they just didn't want to be bothered with him (their words)
- and many more I can't think of

When we got this poor little two year old he didn't know which way was up. I actually didn't like him because he was what I thought was untrainable, but he was just starved for attention and love. He did not know right from wrong, up from down or how to act. It has taken 6 long years to get him to a point where he trusts people (he has trusted us for awhile now, but it takes him awhile to warm up to other people and dogs because he was never around them. Violet has been so good for him.

His crate has now become his safe haven. We have it in the bedroom and the door has been removed. He goes there himself to sleep, when he is bad (seriously), when he is trying to hide from things like getting medication and when he just wants to tune out the world. We never ever pull him out forcefully. If we need to get him out he always falls for the "Joie want a treat" line, even when it is for medicine .

My sister's dogs have all been crate trained from puppies and it makes a difference.

Violet on the other hand has never been in a crate. That was our bad, but she is fully trained and so I guess we lucked out. Well, okay, maybe she has us trained as well....

 

[Barbara L]

Sorry to hear about this Barbara, but at least he's easy to get the pills down.

Yes, I am glad he is taking them so easily. He has been taking fish oil capsules (same ones we take) for awhile now, but those are easy because he loves the fishy flavor when he bites them open.

 

[LPBeier]

We just found out today that our sweet Cubbie (6-year-old German Shepherd/Rottweiler) has heartworms. He also has a Lick Granuloma on his right leg (Lick Granulomas in Dogs | Acral Lick Dermatitis) and a bad flea allergy. So, for the allergy he is on Benadryl three times a day. For the heartworms and the infection he is on Doxycycline. He has to take four 100 MG tablets twice a day for 30 days, then three months without, then repeat the cycle. After a year the vet will check how he is doing. He also wants us to bring Cubbie in for an x-ray and some blood tests soon.

Cubbie feels fine, and the vet said his heart is strong and he seems very healthy (other than what I have mentioned). We had taken him in for routine shots and a routine exam, not because he was acting sick. The only thing we were concerned about when we took him in was his leg.

For his first round of antibiotics and Benadryl I shoved each pill/capsule into a Fish McBite from McDonald's. Worked like a charm. One pill came out and I had to put it into another one, but Cubbie got them all down.

Barbara, I just saw this now. Oh, poor Cubbie. I remember Joie when he had all his infections a few months ago. I am glad he is taking his medicines (our too have a hard time with that). Please give him a huge hug from TB, Violet, Joie and I and keep us posted!

 

[Whiskadoodle]

DxW's first dog was a puppy mill mother. She wasn't old, but all done in. She could not walk. We think she had never been outside her cage. DxW would drag her laying on her side with her leash until she was taught how to walk. Dog didn't mind getting pullled around the yard. The sad, for us, we lived in a split- entry house at the time. You came in the door and either had to go up steps to the main part of the house, or downstairs to more bedrooms / family room. Dog was content to stay put by the door. Well, we carried that dog up or down for weeks to give it attention and to be with us in whatever part of the house we were in. The dog lived a good 5 years with us/ her.

 

[Claire]

Claire, you brought up a good point about crate training not being mean and I agree with you 100% - except when it is to the degree Joie's previous owners used it.

He was put in his crate for the following reasons:
- he did something bad
- bedtime
- they were out
- they were eating
- they were cleaning the house
- they had company over
- they were taking him in the car
- they just didn't want to be bothered with him (their words)
- and many more I can't think of

When we got this poor little two year old he didn't know which way was up. I actually didn't like him because he was what I thought was untrainable, but he was just starved for attention and love. He did not know right from wrong, up from down or how to act. It has taken 6 long years to get him to a point where he trusts people (he has trusted us for awhile now, but it takes him awhile to warm up to other people and dogs because he was never around them. Violet has been so good for him.

His crate has now become his safe haven. We have it in the bedroom and the door has been removed. He goes there himself to sleep, when he is bad (seriously), when he is trying to hide from things like getting medication and when he just wants to tune out the world. We never ever pull him out forcefully. If we need to get him out he always falls for the "Joie want a treat" line, even when it is for medicine .

My sister's dogs have all been crate trained from puppies and it makes a difference.

Violet on the other hand has never been in a crate. That was our bad, but she is fully trained and so I guess we lucked out. Well, okay, maybe she has us trained as well....

Our first dog had to be crate trained from the get-go. I bought her from her litter, and one of my friends was a breeder of papillions and boxers. She took me in hand. We knew, at that point, that we wouldn't be living in Hawaii forever, so also knew that WF would have to fly one day. So she taught me how to crate train the dog to make the experience somewhat less traumatic. I was so impressed when she'd take a house full of Papillons and (I think there were four of them), and say, "Crate up" and they'd run to their crates and get a treat. You are so right that crating should not be a punishment. Everytime a pet gets in their crate, there should be a treat attached. But, anyway, when you KNOW an animal is going to have to fly, this makes it so much easier. At the time, the airlines required that any animal they flew had to be able to stand up, sit, turn around, and lie down, within its crate. Can you do that in your seat on a plane? Heck NO.

Well, WF went in a plane from Honolulu to National (now Reagan), with a stopover at O'Hare. At O'Hare, we actually were sitting, waiting for our connecting flight, and watching them load the animals on the plane. Every one of these guys were drawn to her (a JR/Ch mix) and were soothing her.

We went to pick her up at what was then called National. We were going to grab our luggage, and I said, White Fang is here, I can hear her, you guys (a long time friend was picking us up) get the luggage, I'll get WF. Our friend said, I don't hear anything. Well, I went to the office nearby and said I could hear my dog crying. She pointed and said, is that her? Yup.

What I love is that we sent her out, obviously with a Honolulu paper in the bottom, and received her with a Chicago Tribune. Someone must really love animals to do that for us!

 

[Dawgluver]

Yes, I am glad he is taking them so easily. He has been taking fish oil capsules (same ones we take) for awhile now, but those are easy because he loves the fishy flavor when he bites them open.

Glad Cubby is cooperating, Barbara. Sounds like he's well on his way to recovery.

We had a third-hand rescue Dalmation who came to us with heartworms, unknown by us. Poor thing, her hips swelled up something huge, they gave her shots in the hips and pills. She was so sick. She also developed an enormous lipoma (nonmalignant tumor) on her belly, we had it removed, but it was hard to stitch up as the skin was so thin. She was a sweet girl who was very, um, vocal.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

My heading towards geriatric cats are enough for me. Latté has lately had to get used to rearranging her sleeping position because I have to use a pillow to keep my hips even. Now if I could just move in my sleep, but if I hit resistance I stop, so I end up in one position unless I wake up and move purposefully.

 

[Claire]

I do not understand people who get dogs and are not home for them. When I say Rosebud is crated, that means she is in her crate for a few hours here and there. Every Friday we go out for drinks and dinner, and maybe twice a month for lunch. Not even once a month we leave for the day. People who are only home for a few hours a day, here it is: Don't get a dog. Get a fish. Maybe a cat (but two is better, they'll play together). Dogs just need more attention than you can do in 4 hours a day.

OK, my soap box. One friend told me that it was cruel to crate a dog. Huh? No, cruel is coming home and finding that your doggie has chewed through not only your couch, but an electrical cord or two. Luckily they were for appliances that were not plugged in!

When the world isn't right for her, Rosebud retreats to her own bedroom (that is to say, her crate). A friend knew all my dogs have loved hand-crochetted afghans sent me a small one, which lines her crate. After she had her last fit, I had to wash it (I wash it regularly) and wipe out the crate. She only gets to stay locked into her crate is when no one is home, or for a minute when someone elderly or incapacitated (in other words, someone who would suffer grevious damage should she jump on them) comes to the house, and that's only until I get them seated.