alicat613

A friend used this on her dog for pain relief with great success. Her dog had a lot of fear of vets and had no problem with the treatment. What is the longterm plan with the bone spur? Good luck with the treatments and I hope your dog feels better soon.

I don't do heartworm treatments as I believe in holistic care and I'm lucky to live where we do not have a heartworm problem. The major problem is that these companies push these drugs in places that have no heartworm problem. I see the ads in vet offices here, and when I lived in the Phoenix area. Dogs with little to no risk of heartworm were being put on these pills, which are not just a chemical, they're an insecticide.

Felidae is great but my cats didn't like it. I feed Natural Balance and Wellness (Salmon formula and Chicken formula). My cats like variety, and since they won't do raw, this is the best I can do!

raised feeders do not increase the likelihood of bloat ------ bloat incidents are higher with dogs using raised feeders. This is not to say that raised feeders cause bloat, but that bloat happens more often in dogs who are fed this way...why? Not because of the feeder, but because more bloat prone dogs are fed this way. Does that make sense? I don't really feel that raised feeders are a great factor in whether or not a dog bloats, but I will always use them simply for the comfort factor. Would you like to have to practically kneel to eat your food? You don't have to buy them....the ones in the stores are mostly overpriced and often flimsy, from what I've seen. My dog just eats off of a big Rubbermaid bin that I bought for $5 at Target. I know others that have made their own, use plant stands, crates, or even kitchen drawers.

Are you sure she doesn't have worms? Most pups do and generally need to be wormed several times. I'd take a fecal sample in for a test. ($10-$15) For bouts of diarrhea you can give a little canned pumpkin (plain not the pie filling) to firm up the stool, but that's really only for a little GI upset, you need to find out why she's having recurrent loose stools.

Meat: This should be the first (often even first few in some foods with several kinds) ingredient. You want specific - turkey, chicken, beef, etc, NO animal or poultry Grains: Watch for ingredient splitting (ie after the meat, there are 4 or 5 grain parts that make up more of the food than the meat). Look for whole nutritious grains like barley, whole oats, brown rice, etc, avoid wheat middlings, mill sweepings, gluten meals, brewers rice Avoid: Animal fat, animal protein, rendered anything, BHA/BHT, lots of colors, sugar, tallow When reading a label, you'll find a fat listed after the first ingredients, often in good foods this is vitamin E with mixed tocopherols. May also be beef or chicken fat. Everything after this is a negligible ingredient as far as what the food is really made of. Hope that helps! Ali

Nutro (including their Natural Choice) is still high in grain, pet grade meat and high in ash (not good) as well as really overpriced. I fed it for a while before I knew much about it to my cats, and man, they went through bag after bag like crazy, also threw up a lot and looked ok. They've gone through many other brands (long story short older cat can only eat a kibble for so long before it makes her sick) and all of the "expensive" brands (Wellness, Innova, California Natural) SAVE us money. Petco sells Natural Balance, the only good food there. Petsmart is now selling something called Blue something that looks pretty nice. Other good foods are Canidae, Innova, California Natural, Wellness. Ok now I'm going way back in this convo... IAMS and Eukanuba are the same company FYI. Disregarding their testing policies, these (IAMS, Euk, Science Diet etc) are NOT good foods. They are laden with cheap grains, some gross "meats" (depending on which you buy), pet grade meat (which means it has been "denatured" by pouring gasoline, kerosene or similar chemicals on it -- by law, pet food meat must have this done, so unless you are feeding human grade....), nutritionally lacking ingredients, and many chemicals. All for a ridiculous price.

I always walk my dog on a leash. 1. It's the law 2. It's safer for him

No real nasties in the ingredient list, but you will more than likely have to feed more of this food than some of the better foods, and will probably have to pick up more poop too. :D

:o You really worm your dogs that often?? Wow. I prefer to run a fecal first, to see if they actually have worms!! My pup was wormed twice as a baby, and then we only do it if he were to get worms (as evidenced by symptoms then fecal). I'm strongly against using chemicals as a preventative.

:) No worries. He's small, so he can't hold it long! So you will have to use the paper. As often as possible though, try to get him to go outside. I'd really praise him for outside, not so much for inside. Little puppies have tiny little bladders, so he'll have to go often. My pup was 100% trained by 10 weeks, but he's a Great Dane lol so big bladder. Take him out after eating, sleeping, playing, and I'd recommend doing it on a leash. Use a phrase like "outside potty?" for going out, then "go potty" or something similar for when he does his business. Only give him about 5 minutes out on the leash to go. If he goes, he gets praise and playtime, but if he doesn't try to just sit with him and try again in a little bit. Is he going to be alone during the day? Crate training or a puppy proofed room? If you're home with him, you can use the umbilical cord method to train him, which is keeping him on a leash with you at all times. He gets off leash playtime as a reward. This helps with potty training as well as household behavior, like what is ok to chew and what is not.

Ooooh a new little fluffball! Standards are such cute pups!! Good luck!

Umm, I know her, she's a very experienced and reputable Dane breeder. I haven't seen the episode yet but have it recorded. I can assure you that Rachel knows what she's doing and yes, it may be yucky, but breeding is, and you can't be squeamish when it comes to the lives of the pups or the bitch. I am quite certain she has never so much as slightly hurt one of her dogs, and that she was quite aware of what she was doing and how far to reach. Before you slam people, maybe at least have some clue about what you are talking about? Obviously you are not a breeder, not a Dane person, not a vet, so how do you know what is right in whelp or not?Rachel has devoted a lot of time and energy to the breed in so many ways. Too bad that all got edited out along with all the info on health testing, showing, etc, or so I hear. [url]http://www.6stardanes.com/[/url]

If she has a flea allergy, just the bite of one could cause it. Halo is Anitra Frazier's company I believe, she writes books on holistic cat care. I use their ear wash although I add raw apple cider vinegar. Vinegar kills yeast so it is good for yeast ear problems. You can get a discount on Halo products through [url]www.petfooddirect.com[/url] and sign up for their email list or discount club or whatever they call it. I'm not familiar with their food, but there are many fabulous well priced foods like Natural Balance and Canidae that aren't expensive. Did you recently change foods? Shampoos? Laundry detergent? Anything you can think of that may be causing her itching? I assume it just started recently?

When you get pups from someone like that, you support them. I'm not being hostile, and sorry you took it that way. Dogs come first to me over people who can speak up for themselves however. I did try to help you but you refuse to answer my question. Different breeds take to different potty training methods. Personally I never use in house methods because they often cause accidents later on, however they are pretty much necessary for small breeds that must spend any amount of time alone.