XTRAWLD

Oh my goodness. Thoughts and prayers all around.

Haven't noticed weight gain, unless it's in the form of fur!

Kasey DRAGS HIS HEELS when we head for home some days. To be honest when noticed him slowing down a lot last year and couldn't really figure out why and mentioned it to the vet, figure it was old age creeping up. He had actually dropped weight, and a lot of it - not very noticeable to us but it was on when he was on the scale. Because of his allergies, we were feeding him only a single source protein that was raw and after his weigh in we then decided to try a different type of protein and then a mix of three, and upped his feeding amount. It really made a change in him and he had a lot more energy and put on some weight. So he was slow because he lacked the energy initially, although some days like I said, he takes FOREVER to get to the front door when he knows we are turning for home. I tend to take him different routes to keep it different for him, different pee mail, etc, but we can only head home in so many directions. Just thought I'd mention the energy level just in case....have you weighed Rudy recently? Kasey was perfectly normal, so the energy level thing was a stunner.

I determine good weight by look of ribs. I want to see 1 well, and just a hint of the 2nd. We got Kasey at 66, his max I think was 72, his lowest was 62. At 62 he was unhealthy as you could imagine, but you could totally see that he was not at an ideal weight, panting, ribs and spine showing. Now he has the last rib a little visible and I see very little of his spine and hip bones. Years off the track, IMO puts the weight gain in other places, because he just doesn't have the same muscle as he did before. His May weight is 69 lbs and he's absolutely perfect right there. Took a while to get it right and maintained though. He drops it really easily. He's 10 years old. Ryder is pretty much solid. His May weight clocks him in at 72 lbs and it's a little too much for him. I have kept trying to get him to gain weight because I don't like to see his hip bones so much, but he just won't put weight on there! I cannot see his ribs, so i know he's a little too thick for my liking and we have scaled back. He's so food motivated! He will be 6 years old next month. Anyway, I go by the ribs I see. If I don't see any, scale back the feeding, it I see too many it's a sign of worry and increase the food or take to the vet for health eval. I don't see any ribs on your girl, nor any hip bones, so I'd scale it back slowly.

Oh my goodness. How unfortunate that she wasn't around longer to get loved up on.

OH NO. He was certainly a favorite of mine and I'm sure I speak on behalf of others that they think the same. Godspeed Joe.

I pulled up an old archived thread for when Ryder and I went to obedience: The Gentle Leader in medium seemed a little too tight for Ryder and there was very little slack, especially in comparison to the Halti we tested (unfortunately I don't have the size of the Halti we tested). Also have a preference towards the snap together leader and not the buckle version, simply because you can just put it on and get going. Bonus notes: The gentle leader fit much better than the halti and sat lower on his nose, the Halti was right at his eyeballs. To be completely honest, he was unresponsive for me in when wearing it, due to fear and stress. I wish you luck! I've only had success with a harness (and wearing gloves!)

Ours LOVES hubby but incredibly wary of other men, in particular ones that are tall, round and have loud voices.

You'd be surprised how much eating raw could change this allergy perspective. Kasey "was" allergic to many many foods, in addition to environmental allergy. Gradually now that he's on raw, the allergies are non existent. It really was all diet that was the trigger and the contributer. Give it some time, and you can reintroduce "grain" to the diet if you wish. He likely was allergic to the processing of the above in kibble, and not that in the pure raw sense. YAY! Go Riley!

It might not be just an issue of him being sore. If you are walking him a lot on pavement and sidewalk, his paw pads are still getting used to the hard surface. They have very soft paws after coming off the track, and they should be built up to withstand pavement walking. Pads will get harder with time, but he may just be a little hurt from his feet and not just necessarily sore from walking so much.

Kasey did the "hold it for me please mummy" at first as well. He would eventually take it and eat it off the floor and not from his bowl. Sigh. He shouldn't have liquid at the end of his poop but to be fair, this is new to his system. I found that giving them meat solo, and bone solo, they did better, i.e. chicken breast and then a piece of bone in the bowl. He had a thing where he didn't want to crunch down on the leg itself. He is absolutely MINT when working through turkey necks though. As far as adding fish for omegas, I've given sardines from a can before. To be honest, I haven't felt that adding fish oils have done anything for them. Some others feel differently, only you know your dog.

I made a mistake of ordering a case of pork ribs when we were starting out. I still have them over a year later. If you are starting out, I'd recommend not buying by the case until you can isolate how much he eats and what he actually likes before committing to buying a huge amount.

Glad to hear it went well. Ryder went in for his yesterday and other than working his shoulder a lot, he's no worse for wear, and the limping on our walks ceased. It really does do wonders and I'd never believe it if I didn't see it. Go Kili! HAHAHA, wish she left that alone instead? That's awesome!

In my opinion and experience, I would sock away the amount the insurance would typically cost a month (mine was estimated at about $40 a month for one dog), and have an automatic transfer into a bank account that you never look at or touch, only strictly for an unexpected pet EMERGENCY like a broken leg, etc. If you ever need it, it's there, and it's reliable, leave it liquidable so you can get to it at any time. I've heard enough stories about "a pre-disposed condition" that was not covered and ppl had to pay out XX dollars out of pocket even though they had the insurance. You just need to be very diligent with this and have some good willpower not to dip into it because you didn't have enough money one month for a car repair, etc. You meant to save it for your pups, and that's what it should be for.

Umm, I've only ever had one for doggies. 10ppm I believe is the right mix. I use this - and they are close to you too http://rawpaw.ca/products-page-3/main-category/colloidal-silver-2/

UGH! I'd say polysporin, and if you have any, spray some CS on it a couple times a day, (allow the CS to do it's thing and evaporate first before re-applying polysporin).

This thread just reminded me to buy some Healthy Mouth to try. I've heard it works well, and is simply an additive in the water to help keep teeth clean. We'll see. In the past I have had great success with Leba II but it can be quite expensive. Super easy, just 2 squirts in the mouth twice a day, and great results in 30 days. I cannot be bothered with gel, and find that stuff really doesn't work. The problem is to just stay on top of it once you get a lot of the tarter gone. Good luck!

Yup. Ryder is up to 6 weeks between adjustments right now, and we have been seeing a chiro for over a year. The longer he goes without limping the better. It has been yielding better results with time. The one downside, IMO, is once you start going you end up going for treatment for life. I just don't see Ryder ever being able to NEVER go again. She might not react to you examining it, but you aren't necessarily trained in the bone alignment with muscles, etc. We had our first chiro go over Ryder and he found the problem within minutes. He was admittedly stiff all over, but there are a few locations on his spine that are more troublesome than others.

Is she tired out thoroughly before you crate her? A tired dog is a happy dog.

I'd agree with skipping a training session when he's getting fussy. Also try to work him when he's hungry. How about starting with training that he knows how to do well and then working on training that is more difficult? He may be smart enough to know the difference! Have you ever tried exploring training with toy and play as the reward? This might be something new to try.

Welcome! We as well only have our boys as fur kids. Plenty of love to go around. Mommy - have some patience, it takes time for us to come out of our shell!

Kasey has a couple that are not bothering him but I'm trying to work on. I bought this: Corn Cream and Acidic Lotion - http://murrayavenuerx.com/corn-and-callus-cream-hyaluronic-acid-and-thera-paws.html. After a month, I'm seeing very slow results, but however it appears that the corn is coming to the surface but still isn't bothering him. Because I don't seem to be getting anywhere, I plan to dremel it just to see if the meds will take a bit better/deeper if the hard surface stuff is removed. I'd agree with dremeling it flat if you can, since that looks like it's protrouding. The nice thing about these meds, it has a bit of an anti inflammatory and will help an pain that's associated directly on the foot.

To tell you the truth, it took Kasey a year to learn how to play with a stuffie. It took Ryder about 30 seconds. Each is different.

Oh my goodness what a tribute. So honest and heartfelt. God speed Sam.