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I disagree with your vet about the puppy food thing. My vet would disagree with your vet too, but that's just the way things go, we all have our own opinions. You have to be confident that YOU are doing the right thing for your growing boy, that's what matters the most. The same thing goes for the early neutering. There are many pros and cons each way, but something to keep in mind is that a full grown 65lb dog is going to reach a much higher level of physical maturity at 5 or 6 months than a potentially full grown 150lb+ dog at the same age. This is why it is so important to have a vet who really understands the differences between a large breed dog and a giant breed. I know that these are some tough choices to make. Good luck!

We have to give our dogs bottled water too. When we moved to our new house I noticed that the water tasted awful, and that the dogs had really cut their water intake back aswell. So I put spring water in their dishes and it was back to normal. By the way, your Turkey looks so much like my Abbey, what a pretty girl!

I think that she is a pittie, she looks like a dane with those ears back, but look at those skinny legs, they don't look like the bulky legs of a fast growing dane pup.

I hope Molly's okay, give an update when you find out. It is always so scary when they hurt themselves.

Hutch weighs in at 194.8lbs, but I know that he doesn't take the cake, Buddy the Load weighs in more than he does! We keep Hutch trim too, but he is really tall for a Saint at 34 inches at the shoulder.

Dehydrated fish sounds like a great treat to give to her! Pancreatitis is not something that you really want to fool around with...take it from me, I'm still recovering from major surgery to  have almost half of my own pancreas removed nearly 4 months ago. The orange colored stool can indicate a flare up of the pancreas and the orange color is bile, nothing to worry about, it will clear itself up. However it is important to keep inflamation of the pancreas down, and when you stray outside of her regular diet the pancreas can become inflamed causing an attack of pancreatitis. The immediate problem with this is the extreme pain that accompanies an attack, but the really serious problem is that with every attck of pancreatitis  the risk of scar tissue on the pancreas gets higher, and this can lead to problems such as diabetes and insufficient production of digestive enzymes, which requires daily medication. The pancreas is a vital organ, and works the same in both dogs and humans. So take it from me, that treat you want to give her is not worth the problems that can occur. I even had to give up chinese food which is my all time favorite because it truely was not worth the damage that it created or the potential trip to the ER with full blown pancreatitis which can be deadly if severe enough. I'm one of the very lucky ones, the cause of my pancreatitis was a tumor that was successfully removed, but your pupper probably will have to live the rest of her life protected from the foods that can harm her.

Ask your vet about raw bones, but because you have her on a fish based diet I suspect that beef bones would be too rich for her (red meat is especially tough for pancreatitis and IBS). You could always do the whole teething trick and take a towel maybe wet down with chicken broth if she is able to have that and freeze it, it would help clean her teeth. Another delicious treat would be to make FAT FREE frozen cubes of yogurt and give them to her as a special treat, again if she can handle dairy, but it is usually the dairy fat that causes a problem. Goodluck! I know that it is not an easy problem to deal with, and I hope you come up with some good solutions.

Bluskygirl, how exciting!! I just wanted to say that you should definatley make sure that the parents have all of the health clearances and OFA testings etc. An unhealthy Saint is an expensive Saint, we rescued Hutch when he was 10 months old and payed nearly $1000 in the first couple months to get him on the road to health again. Dysplasia is a serious concern with our big babies too, and in the end can cause a ton of heartbreak, just ask some members here. With that being said, I can't wait to see pictures!