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Celery Face posted:In 2008, I got a 2 year old guinea pig named Skunk. He died in early 2011 from something I'm not sure of. He didn't move around and stayed in his little plastic house all day. He had crusty goo leaking from his nose and eyes, his breath smelled like rotting corpses, he wasn't eating and his poo was really messy when I started feeding him through a tube after I took him to the vet. All of this happened not long after he had what I'm pretty sure was a seizure. During that seizure his neck was bent to one side, he was twitching violently and his eyes were convulsing. Honestly, without a necropsy it's difficult to tell. The crusting eyes and nose point towards a respiratory infection. The other symptoms (listlessness, diarrhea, etc) accompany all types of illnesses that pigs can get. The seizing was probably death throes moreso than actual seizures. It's tough when they go agonal.
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Mar 11, 2012 09:15
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Stregone posted:Shedding blade (don't use this if your dog has a super short skin-tight type of 'short' coat) Does the dryer make a lot of noise? My dog enjoys being brushed but hates anything that sounds like a vacuum.
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Mar 11, 2012 14:29
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Celery Face posted:In 2008, I got a 2 year old guinea pig named Skunk. He died in early 2011 from something I'm not sure of. He didn't move around and stayed in his little plastic house all day. He had crusty goo leaking from his nose and eyes, his breath smelled like rotting corpses, he wasn't eating and his poo was really messy when I started feeding him through a tube after I took him to the vet. All of this happened not long after he had what I'm pretty sure was a seizure. During that seizure his neck was bent to one side, he was twitching violently and his eyes were convulsing. What were you feeding him? If it was the typical petstore pellets with very little hay and no appropriate C rich veggies, malnutrition was probably on the list as well. At that age I'd also bet his molars were overgrown and cutting into his cheeks, which is what made his breath stink. Pigs can easily live to 8-9 years old with proper care so there was definitely something very wrong with him.
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Mar 11, 2012 16:03
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I was feeding him pellets, hay and I would always give him fresh veggies from the fridge every day. The vet never said anything about his teeth cutting at his cheeks so I'm not quite sure.
Celery Face fucked around with this message at 18:53 on Mar 11, 2012 |
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Mar 11, 2012 18:50
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an expert posted:I could use some advice on a breed and breeder for a psychiatric service dog. I don't want this to get dropped so I'm quoting it, although I don't have much help for you. This is actually something legitimately deserving of a thread, as its an important issue, clearly, and I think your needs would be better served by posting it out where more of the applicable people can see it.  Just fwiw, I don't think a standard would be a bad choice, you'd just need to find the right one, and in this case perhaps an adult of solidly known temperament with some CGC training would actually serve you better than a pup, but ymmv. I don't think any of those breeders are what you want, necessarily, but there are posters that are excellent at decoding breeder sites and finding a good match, so I'll defer to them.
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Mar 11, 2012 19:30
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Enelrahc posted:I know someone with one so my opinion is an n=1 opinion. I would say that the dog I know of is a very primitive breed type dog. I don't think she has been particularly easy to train and I've never seen her off leash (in a place where most people tend to do that), so I'd expect she doesn't really have much of a recall. She is very standoffish to strangers, but she is good with other dogs. I would not call her a dog for a beginner. Her owner does love her immensely and I think she is glad she got her and has been a good dog for her. I know this person too (she's a classmate), and this dog is indeed a primitive breed with all the mental and physical accoutrements. However, a lot of her initial troubles were due to the fact that while the dog was reportedly spayed, there were definitely remnants of ovarian tissue remaining and the dog has been much better since these were removed, it seems. She still isn't really an "off leash" dog but she has improved immensely with the removal of the hormonal bitch impulses.  Her crate is next to Pippa's in homeroom and she always growls at poor Pippa though. 
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Mar 11, 2012 20:58
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Captain Foxy posted:I don't want this to get dropped so I'm quoting it, although I don't have much help for you. This is actually something legitimately deserving of a thread, as its an important issue, clearly, and I think your needs would be better served by posting it out where more of the applicable people can see it. Thanks for the input and encouragement! I completely agree that an adult would be better than a puppy; the time frame I'm looking at for getting a dog is sometime in 3-6months (saving up, gathering supplies, making sure I and my roommates are ready, etc), so even if there was a puppy on the ground now for me somewhere, it would be older before I brought it home. That's actually something I should've mentioned in the pros for the first breeder- apparently retired show dogs can make great service dogs, and they might be a good resource for that. I'd still love opinions in this thread if someone sees it and has any, but I think you're right and I'll go ahead and try to put together a service dog post to have a dedicated spot for it!
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Mar 12, 2012 00:33
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an expert posted:Thanks for the input and encouragement! I completely agree that an adult would be better than a puppy; the time frame I'm looking at for getting a dog is sometime in 3-6months (saving up, gathering supplies, making sure I and my roommates are ready, etc), so even if there was a puppy on the ground now for me somewhere, it would be older before I brought it home. That's actually something I should've mentioned in the pros for the first breeder- apparently retired show dogs can make great service dogs, and they might be a good resource for that. I'd still love opinions in this thread if someone sees it and has any, but I think you're right and I'll go ahead and try to put together a service dog post to have a dedicated spot for it! I don't know if every state/your state does this, but in Colorado there is a program where the inmates train dogs, and they train dogs for adoption and also train privately to your specifications. They have a lot of service dogs in training. (And I think they do adopt out of state, also.) Here is a link to the Colo. program: http://www.coloradoci.com/serviceproviders/puppy/index.html?intro Most of the dogs on the site training for service seem to be labs, but not all of them.
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Mar 12, 2012 03:03
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The dog brush I currently use for brushing out my two Great Pyrenees mixes is a falling apart piece of crap. Any PI recommendations for a good dog brush? Amazon Prime eligible would be awesome but not required.
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Mar 12, 2012 19:44
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HelloSailorSign posted:I really have to disagree here. I completely understand what you're saying here and agree that grades and class rank aren't the end-all, be-all of determining how good of a doc you will be, but that joke just demonstrates that idiots can get through -- even if they are book smart, they can still be total loons and/or completely lacking in common sense.
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Mar 12, 2012 21:24
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"I'm in the top 10%" they spew out non-sense and people will listen to them. On the other side, there are people at the bottom of my class who I would be perfectly fine treating my pets. They know their limitations.
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Bear Rape posted:I haven't tried the first one, but the second one doesn't seem to work well because my dog has a somewhat oily coat. I'm not sure how to describe it, but the individual hairs are probably a half-inch long with no fluffy undercoat (probably because he's part lab, but I'm not completely sure). Thankfully the shed fur itself isn't tangled up with the rest of his fur, and the furminator appears to be working well, but I do want to make sure I don't accidentally hurt him with it. They are rather loud(probably similar to a vacuum), though they have long hoses so the noisy part can be 6+ feet away. Some have different speeds. I rarely had serious issues using it on dogs that I groomed. They make a huge mess though. At the grooming salon we could just hose down the whole room, at home it would probably be best to use it outdoors.
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Mar 12, 2012 23:42
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If I buy a force blower for home use on my husky/chow is there a large enough benefit to the 4hp one as opposed to the 1.5hp unit?
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Mar 12, 2012 23:52
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Hdip posted:If I buy a force blower for home use on my husky/chow is there a large enough benefit to the 4hp one as opposed to the 1.5hp unit? I have no idea what the ratings on the ones I have used, but there was a large difference between the larger 'good one' and the 'small cheap one'. That said, the smaller one did the job, it just took more patience.
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Mar 13, 2012 00:03
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Today I was petting penny and noticed something on the skin on her back. There are about 5 or so bumps in a row the size of insect bites which are open with a bit of dried blood on them. I found more of them tonight on her side along with under her neck and she seems to be itching more than usual. We went on a road trip from LA to Sacramento this weekend otherwise everything is normal. We use frontline plus. I'll call the vet in the morning. Anything I need to be worried about tonight? EDIT: She's a husky/chow dog. Going to the vet at 10:30 today. Double Edit: Some contact allergy. She got a shot and some pills to take. She thinks the vet is a big scary man who always gives her shots. But then he gives her a treat so she's kind of OK with him. Hdip fucked around with this message at 03:43 on Mar 14, 2012 |
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Mar 13, 2012 06:11
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Is Penny a cat? That sounds sort of like miliary dermatitis, which is a non-specific reaction pattern cats get to nearly anything they are sensitive to (fleas, food, maybe pollen if you road-tripped recently, contact allergies to detergent or other chemicals, etc). If Penny is a dog, that sort of reaction pattern is less typical. Either way, I would have a vet take a look at it and make sure there aren't infections that need to be treated.
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Mar 13, 2012 14:21
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I'm not sure if this is worthy of it's own thread, but my dog is absolutely terrified of people. I grabbed her from a pound, she was caught with her mother and she was there since she was two or three months old. I got her when she was about seven or eight months and now she celebrated her first year in February. She's ridiculously sweet, she loves to be petted, she loves to snuggle, she's extremely playful and she loves dogs, be they males or females (i do avoid small dogs because she's a mix of pitbul and boxer, meaning she can be a brute when playing and i don't want her to hurt the little ones.) but she's EXTREMELY scared of people. She loves me, my girlfriend, my parents and her veterinarians because of regular exposure to them, but she hates everyone else. She barks and growls and does these fake forward lunges to scare people away from her even if they don't talk to her, she sometimes does this just by people walking near her. She was badly treated in the pound. She was quite literally jailed in a pathethic little cell, she had scars all over the place aswel as burns. Some parts of her fur took months to grow to full size. She now weights almost 30kgs but she was almost half of that when i got her. It's obvious to say that she's easily scared, it doesn't take much to make her startled. I've read about this and avoid stressful situations at all cost. But even after months of constant exposure to strangers she stills hates and avoids people at all costs. Even worse than that, if she's loose on the park she gets crazilly energetic and gains a massive confidence boost. Which means that instead of scare she gets, i don't know, smugness? so she runs up to people and runs around them in circles yelling at them. This means that she's terrorized of people when leashed but acts like a massive bully when loose. I obviously stopped letting her loose after two of these scares. I honestly don't know how to train the dog to be more disciplined around strangers or even if it's possible to do so. She's a lovable dog, everyone loves her (which doesn't help her at all, people always want to pet her!), she never harmed anyone, she just barks and growls, never bites, even the drunken idiots that almost fall on top of her after ten warnings to back off. But walking in public means zig zagging everyone, old or new, one person or a whole family. It really sucks because she's really obedient and cute. I just want her to realize that the world is not out to get her, only those bastards at the pound 
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Mar 13, 2012 23:35
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Mans, it sounds like you need to check in with a qualified behaviourist and work with them to help your dog. Make sure that they use rewards-based training. I don't think you're doing anything specifically wrong but you need to work out a program with small steps towards a goal, and the behaviourist will teach you how to train your dog. In the meantime I would suggest not taking her to parks or letting her off leash. Maybe try walking in early morning or late evening instead, so you're less likely to encounter other people. While you let her run around and be obnoxious, she is learning that she can get away with behaving that way, so it makes it harder to un-learn. And when you walk her and allow her to lunge and bark (which sounds like fear aggression - aggressing to force the other thing to back off so she feel's safer), she's learning that she can do this in situations that make her uncomfortable. The behaviourist will start to teach different ways that she can handle being uncomfortable. It will be a lot of work for you and she may never be 100% comfortable with strangers, but it would be really worth trying for her after going through so much. Poor thing!
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Mar 13, 2012 23:59
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Mans posted:I honestly don't know how to train the dog to be more disciplined around strangers or even if it's possible to do so. She's a lovable dog, everyone loves her (which doesn't help her at all, people always want to pet her!), she never harmed anyone, she just barks and growls, never bites, even the drunken idiots that almost fall on top of her after ten warnings to back off. But walking in public means zig zagging everyone, old or new, one person or a whole family. It sounds like she is an awesome dog deep down that just is scared of people and has learned she needs to go on the offensive to feel safe, which with enough work should be fixable. If possible I would contact a trainer or behaviorist in your area to help you with this because an outside set of eyes is always helpful. Be sure to ask the trainer a lot of questions before signing up and if anyone suggests any sort of punishment based method of training, run away! There are also a lot of great books on the subject of scared and reactive dogs. Here's a list of books that might be a good place to start. Also look through the dog training thread, it has ton of great advice. Feisty Fido - Help for the leash reactive dog by Patricia McConnell Click to Calm: Healing the Aggressive Dog by Emma Parsons Scaredy Dog by Ali Brown Focus Not Fear by Ali Brown The Cautious Canine by Patricia McConnell fearfuldogs.com
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Mar 14, 2012 00:10
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I'm writing a story and I know shamefully little about horses but I'm trying to figure it out enough to not completely wreck the reader's immersion. If you were introducing your horse to someone, what would you say? Right now I have "this is X, our gelding". Do people use "gelding" like that or would something else be more appropriate? Also, if one had a lot of land that was fenced in, would they let the horse roam freely on it during the day? Hopefully this is the right thread for silly horse questions, I couldn't find a horse thread. 
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Mar 14, 2012 04:15
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Talks To Cats posted:I'm writing a story and I know shamefully little about horses but I'm trying to figure it out enough to not completely wreck the reader's immersion. Yes, if you had fenced in land and it wasn't, for instance, your garden, you might very well let the horse roam freely on it during the day. Better yet if there was something on it the horse could eat. You'd need some source of water. I kept my horses at a place with more land than we had, along with several other horses, and here's how the day went for them: Early morning, frisk around a bit, bite some of the other horses or get bitten, depending on the hierarchy. The frisking would last longer on a cool day than on a hot day. Then, they'd settle down to some serious grazing. Do that for the rest of the day. Interrupted only by when the owner(s) came for extra feeding/riding and by occasional naps (on their feet) or rolls in the dirt.
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Mar 14, 2012 08:31
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Thanks for the advice, that's very useful.
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Mar 14, 2012 14:45
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Not sure if it's been mentioned yet anywhere, but I was at Petco today and noticed that Blue Buffalo is making a new cat litter with Walnut shells as their base. I haven't tried it and probably won't because of a picky cat of mine, but thought some of you guys might be interested. http://www.bluebuffalo.com/healthy-home/blue-naturally-fresh-cat-litter
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Mar 14, 2012 21:50
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Talks To Cats posted:I'm writing a story and I know shamefully little about horses but I'm trying to figure it out enough to not completely wreck the reader's immersion. Haha, I know what story you're writing. *leer* Anyways, a gelding is a neutered horse. An intact male horse is called a stallion. An adult female horse is a mare, a young female horse is a filly. Young male horse is a colt.
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Mar 14, 2012 21:56
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Since I hand-stripped Lola yesterday, I finally got the chance to see how she looked under all that winter fur.   How does she look? Sometimes she looks a little bit chunky to me, other times too skinny, but the only other thing I can compare her to is my barrel-chested dog.
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Mar 15, 2012 16:26
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Talks To Cats posted:I'm writing a story and I know shamefully little about horses but I'm trying to figure it out enough to not completely wreck the reader's immersion. When people meet my horse I don't really say much beyond "This is Roo", like most people introduce their dogs or cats. I usually only offer more information if/when people ask because I hate to come across as a spergy horse person. Usually it's a given that any male horse is a gelding unless otherwise specified since stallions require a lot of special care (segregated everything, basically. And trained handlers. Not just anyone can chill with a stallion). Instead of "This is High on the Roost aka Roo my 16 year old thoroughbred gelding" it usually goes more like: Me: "This is Roo" Person: "He's big! What breed is he?" Me: "Thoroughbred" Person: "Did he race? How old is he?" Me: "Yes, he's 16 this year" For the land question, most people don't let their horse wander around the entire property, they usually have a couple acres fenced in just for the horse to use. The horse wouldn't be wandering around their yard.
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Mar 15, 2012 16:41
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Fraction posted:Since I hand-stripped Lola yesterday, I finally got the chance to see how she looked under all that winter fur. She looks just fine. But I find you really need to go by touch. She needs a teensy bit of padding on her ribs, but not so much as to make her feel soft.
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Mar 15, 2012 18:49
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When can you expect dogs to be "puppy fat" free? Orbit's not fat and you can clearly see his waist and hips but he still feels a bit soft. He's starting to fill out in the chest and you can see some muscle definition in the back legs through his fur but I know with short-legged dogs you have to be especially careful about weight and I worry that he might be a bit too pudgy, but I also want to make sure he's getting the nutrition he needs while he's filling out and growing. And corgis are kind of fuzzy and barrel shaped anyway. He's almost 11 months old so when we're through with the current bag of kibble I'm going to put him on adult food instead of puppy food, which I assume will be lower fat.
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Mar 15, 2012 21:21
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I think once the dog hits roughly its adult height you can begin keeping a closer eye on its condition. It sounds like you could be making the switch to adult food without issue. Eyeballing his condition doesn't do too much. You really need to put your hands on him and feel him out. You should feel ribs by running your hand over his side without applying any pressure.
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Mar 15, 2012 21:30
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I can feel the outline of the ribcage and the last rib but no real definition of other individual ribs if i just lightly run my hand over him. He's probably too pudgy but I didn't know if it was normal puppy pudgy because he still needs to grow outwards a bunch or if I'm feeding too much. He hasn't grown height-wise in forever but he's a corgi so there's no height anyway  . The last couple months everyone's commented on his chest getting bigger though.
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Mar 15, 2012 21:40
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He sounds a teensy bit pudgy. Do you have access to a scale? Some vets allow you to drop in for a quick weigh-in whenever you want. Though, again, I go by touch more than anything. I can tell when Cohen puts on a fraction of a pound just by patting her.
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Mar 15, 2012 21:50
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Thanks for the advice! I was thinking he was pudgy too but my boyfriend says I'm crazy. we haven't weighed him in ages, I'm actually really curious how much he weighs. I'm guessing around 30-35lbs. We just moved and the vet we were going to is an hour away, so I need to look into a more local option. I'm sure he's due for a checkup in the next few months- either when he turns a year old or when it's a year since his first round of shots, so we'll find out then.
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Mar 15, 2012 22:07
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Our second dog, a 2 year old spayed female is having some behavioral issues. Namely, she is peeing in the house a lot. This happened a few months back where for a month she peed once or twice a week in the house for no good reason, sometimes right after having had the opportunity to pee outside. Last time around we took her to the vet to check for bladder problems but she came back clean. She seems to have separation anxiety pretty bad, and if we don't crate her when we are at work she will chew things 100% of the time we are gone. She seems to like her kennel a lot, and even goes in there on her own after our morning walk, but when we get home from work she just wails until we go let her out, and once out she goes crazy jumping on us and our other dog. The accidents have started again this month, but they seem to happen in the middle of the night, like she leaves the bedroom and pees somewhere random in the house. She only ever goes two or three times in a day, and we make sure she goes at 10pm before bed every night but it still happens on occasion. We adopted her about 7 months ago and she is very timid around new people, but at home she is very vocal and extremely high entergy, she is a lab/whippet mix. Could this just be bad general housetraining or her acting out? Our other dog a 4 yr old lab/daschund always goes to the door when he needs to be let out and rings his bell, and all of his few accidents have been at the front door. We have tried repeatedly to teach the female to ring the bell but she won't even go to the door when she needs to go, we have to force her to go out and wait quite awhile for her to pee. whaam fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Mar 16, 2012 |
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Mar 16, 2012 00:14
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whaam posted:We adopted her about 7 months ago and she is very timid around new people, but at home she is very vocal and extremely high entergy, she is a lab/whippet mix. Could this just be bad general housetraining or her acting out? Our other dog a 4 yr old lab/daschund always goes to the door when he needs to be let out and rings his bell, and all of his few accidents have been at the front door. We have tried repeatedly to teach the female to ring the bell but she won't even go to the door when she needs to go, we have to force her to go out and wait quite awhile for her to pee. If it's not a medical issue, it can probably be trained out by going back to remedial housebreaking: tether or crate inside, massive rewards for peeing outside (scale back to high-probability random rewards when she's gone a week without any accidents), crate overnight or limit her to the bedroom.
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Mar 16, 2012 06:39
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One of my goldens, Jack, is starting to get weird fur on his shoulders, rear legs, and neck. It feels finer and shorter than his normal coat, and it's almost white (both he and his brother are pretty red). He and Weston eat the same food and do the same things, but Weston's coat is normal - thick and red. What could be causing this and should I be concerned? We have a vet visit for annual checkup next week.
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Mar 16, 2012 18:45
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Wojtek posted:One of my goldens, Jack, is starting to get weird fur on his shoulders, rear legs, and neck. It feels finer and shorter than his normal coat, and it's almost white (both he and his brother are pretty red). He and Weston eat the same food and do the same things, but Weston's coat is normal - thick and red. is it under his other fur? goldens are double-coated, aren't they? that means a thicker outer coat and a shorter, soft fluffy undercoat.
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Mar 16, 2012 18:57
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It doesn't seem like it. Here, take a look at these terrible pictures I had my wife send me. Click for giant. He usually is as red and thick as he is in the bottom left portion.  Here he is next to Weston. 
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Mar 16, 2012 19:09
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Wojtek posted:It doesn't seem like it. Here, take a look at these terrible pictures I had my wife send me. I've actually heard of this as a normal variant in some golden retrievers, but it could also be an indicator of an endocrine dysfunction or skin disorder, so I would let the vet know when the onset was when you take the dog in next week and see if they want to work it up.
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Mar 16, 2012 20:46
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a life less posted:She looks just fine. But I find you really need to go by touch. She needs a teensy bit of padding on her ribs, but not so much as to make her feel soft. Thanks. I can feel her ribs without exerting any pressure (running fingertips over her), but can only see the overall outline of her chest, not individual ribs. She'll probably get better definition/muscles when she gets more active in the warmer weather, but for now I think she's okay then.
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Mar 17, 2012 11:16
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Does anyone here hire a dog walker for the middle of the day? We hired one for $100/month - $50 on the 15th, and $50 on the last day of the month. It was a budget crunch but we're managing. The girl is 20 years old and we found her on sittercity.com (requires a membership - $35 for one month). She had a little icon that said something like "background check available" so I just assumed she was a good choice. She's been coming on weekdays at lunch since Feb 27th. Every day she sends me a text saying she's with Roger, or she just saw Roger, or twice she has sent a picture of him at the end of the leash sniffing around. But this week, things don't seem right. I left her money in an envelope right under the leash on Thursday. Got home, and it was still there. I figured "Well, maybe she wasn't sure that was for her. When in doubt, I wouldn't take money from my employers house either". So I wrote her name on it yesterday. Got home, and it was still there. There was poop upstairs. She did send me texts that she was with him both days. I'm wondering if she's lying about coming every day - after all, there's no way we'd know. But on the other hand, maybe she just let him out into the back yard these couple days and skipped the walk. (We just told her all we want is for him to potty before she leaves) I don't want to be accusing... but... evidence... How should I address this? Is it normal for dog walkers to have some sort of check-in system? (Was thinking dry-erase board next to the leash, she'd put an X next to each day or something). I don't want to upset the girl whose services I *really* need, don't want to pay for another membership to the website, and she has a key to my house. I didn't expect something like this to happen :/
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Mar 17, 2012 13:53
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drat Bananas posted:Does anyone here hire a dog walker for the middle of the day?
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Mar 17, 2012 14:12
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