Big Paws Only Dog Forums

Just come to a compromise and put the dogs outside.  It won't kill them and they just might like it.  Be reasonable and respect the concern of others.  Don't make it into such a big deal.

Thanks for all your extremely honest and painful answers.  Berner-mom, I especially pray for all happiness for you!

  I know a lady who does not seem to have any children, but she breeds dogs and I have often wondered if that is the reason why.  The lifespan of a dog is so short that to get that ongoing comfort from her dog maybe she breeds puppies from it so it lives on in the children, grandchildren and so on.  The maternal instinct is very strong and I guess this is a sort of sublimation of it.  Again, thanks for your stories everyone.

Oh brother, I wondered when they'd start to put things like goji berries or green tea or whatever in dog food.  Got my answer!  I'd go back to the old stuff and just introduce the new stuff in a week or two very very very very very very gradually.  Did I say 'very' enough?!

Ughhhhh ... bad memories...!  For now the fences are good:  after a few more hundred bucks raising the height of the wire and creating a tilt-in.  Two naughty, naughty Irish setters.  The breed is part orangutan, did you know that?

We are due to get a kitten this Saturday and I need help !  Being a dog person, I am not overly familiar with the practicalities of small cats in my house.  I'm a bit freaking out.  No one else seems to be worrying about it (because they all go off somewhere during the day!) but I need some tips on kitten-proofing the house.  The biggest thing I need advice on is how do I hygienically (for the rest of the place) contain it when I go out, or at night (so it can go to the toilet and have a place to rest)?  I can't just lock it in the bathroom because it'd jump all over the toothbrushes and surfaces with its icky little kitty-litter feet.  Know what I mean?  Is there some clever and easy thing I can build or re-cycle?  It's not really going to be a house cat, but it's still winter here, and until it gets older I need to probably have it inside all the time. Help BPOers!

I would never use vinegar and water or mineral  oil.  The vinegar mix will leave dampness in the ear (bacteria loves a moist environment and that causes smell) and mineral oil will leave a residue that dust and hair will stick to.  The best thing, in my view and experience (and setters have huge ears) is methylated spirits.  Just get some cottonwool balls, damp them with the metho and clean out as much of the ear wax as possible.  Any left over fluid evaporates and the ear is left clean and dry and fresh as a daisy!

P.S.  This is also way cheaper than commercial ear-cleaner.

I should have been a bit more detailed.  They are not generally uniform and are irregular in shape, but I said coin-size  so no-one thought dots instead of spots.  It's a bit hard to tell if there is hair loss - there is not much hair  in that region anyway!  And it is weird because on one inside leg he has been licking them and they are red around the edges, but on the other leg he hasn't!  He has already been tested for thyroid problems - doesn't have any, and he is on Advocate so that takes care of mites and fleas.  It is mid-winter here, so there is not much about, I would imagine, for him to be allergic to as well and our house situation has not changed at all, or his food.  It's so weird.  Since he was a young dog, he has had an amount of woolly hair dating from some mystery illness that was eventually put down to some autoimmune disorder (he limped, collapsed and got very skeletal).  I don't know if that comes into this or not.  He also has (since summer)a swollen region around his throat which he had a lot antibiotics and anti-inflammatories for and that helped a bit but it is still there.  I suspect he  has some non-malignant growth on his parathyroid gland: it's all I can think of.  He's happy enough with the throat thing, but the spots baffle me.  I never get much satisfaction out of the local vets: they charge a bomb and over-prescribe.  What I need is an old vet who has been around for years and seen everything and has good lateral thinking and deductive abilities.  Actually, that has given me a good idea: ring his breeder and go and see her vet.  Does anyone have any ideas what his underlying problem could be ?

P.S.  Forgot to thank you all for the suggestions already - I am investigating them.  With the claritin, is that prescribed by a vet or is it the same as human antihistamine bought at the chemist?  I used to take a product called Claratyne.  How much do you give your dog?