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Tim the Enchanter posted:TLDR-Is a rattlesnake bite,vet nightmare. That... sounds as bad as the drunk vet who gave my dog the wrong shot and killed him. I hope things turn out well.
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Jun 12, 2012 20:40
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loving e-vets, man. Glad everything worked out
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Jun 12, 2012 22:18
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I adopted a 6- or 7-month old corgi mix mutt. When I met her, both of her ears were straight and they stayed that way on her first day with me, but one of them then flopped down so that it's folded over most of the time. I've been taping that ear up, and when I take the tape off after a day or two when it starts to fall off, the ear will be straight for a few minutes then flop back down. Of course I love my asymmetrical doggy, but she's sooooo cute with the straight bat ears so if there's something non-invasive I can do to encourage the ear to straighten, I'd like to... - Is 6 months too old to do anything about this? - I saw something on a GSD site about gluing a piece of toilet paper roll to the inside of a cleaned ear; is this terrible?
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Jun 12, 2012 22:57
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Etheldreda posted:Of course I love my asymmetrical doggy, but she's sooooo cute with the straight bat ears so if there's something non-invasive I can do to encourage the ear to straighten, I'd like to... One of my GSDs has an ear that flops kind of sideways. It stands up in the winter after he's been running hard  I would prefer symmetry too but now it really suits him and his quirky, lovey personality.Unfortunately, everything I've heard and been told about taping ears says you have until the dog is 6 months (or once adult teeth are in) to get the ears up. If ears are still soft at 6 months, then taping won't help much. You can still try if it doesn't bug your dog too much. There is the odd anecdote about taping working at 8 months, and I've heard of dogs ears standing up on their own at 2 years. I don't know if I can believe you that your dog is cute  I need photo evidence.
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Jun 13, 2012 06:30
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adventure in the sandbox posted:I don't know if I can believe you that your dog is cute Well, I don't want my puppy to explode, so here she is taking a short break from harassing a cat:  (she loves that hide-a-squirrel toy, I just got it today!)
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Jun 13, 2012 07:20
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In about a year's time we will probably be moving from Sydney, Australia to Rome, Italy, with a 2.5 year old (at that time) cat in tow. The flights will probably be around 12 hours, then a few hours' stop off, then another 8-9 hours. We're looking into animal transportation options now and what the quarantine etc situation in Rome will be like. Has anybody done something similar, taken pets on long flights? What was it like, what sort of carrier did you get, do you have any warnings or tips? This cat means a lot to us so we want to make this as stress-free as possible for him. Thanks.
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Jun 13, 2012 11:24
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Etheldreda posted:Well, I don't want my puppy to explode, so here she is taking a short break from harassing a cat: Ok you were right that is a pretty darn cute puppy  She looks corgi/heeler? Gotta love the freckles.
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Jun 14, 2012 00:32
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Etheldreda posted:Well, I don't want my puppy to explode, so here she is taking a short break from harassing a cat: My heeler had the same toy until he decided that destroying all the squirrels and ripping up the hut was more fun than doing anything else. Just wait and see the ways she decides to get the squirrels out. I hope she's doing well!
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Jun 14, 2012 01:02
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She's doing much better since I stopped being quite so super-duper stressed about every problem being a potential disaster. Reassurance from other people who went through some rough beginnings helped. She seems really small to be a heeler mix but maybe she's a corgi-heeler-small terrier! (and she gets the squirrels out really quickly)
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Jun 14, 2012 04:05
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Etheldreda posted:She's doing much better since I stopped being quite so super-duper stressed about every problem being a potential disaster. Reassurance from other people who went through some rough beginnings helped. Yeah I was the same way with my dog when I first got him. Dogs, like horses, can pick up on your emotional state. I'm glad she's fitting in at your house now! The SPCA where I got my heeler from also had a heeler corgi mix recently, so reading about yours has been interesting.
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Jun 14, 2012 19:15
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OK, I am living in a large house with 8 other people. I have a cat that lives in my room with me and my fiance. Now, three of the people are losing their loving minds convinced their rooms are infested with bed bugs so they are moving to bug bomb the house. My problem is my room is full of nooks and crannies I cannot reasonably get to, but the cat can and almost all my surfaces are covered with carpet. Also I do not have a reliable vacuum that can reach my weird crannies. I don't really know how bug fogger works, but I assumed it would get in the carpet and couches. How long would I need to relocate my cat to ensure he doesn't have any complications due to the fogger? It seems pretty inevitable that my paranoid housemates will bomb this house.
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Jun 14, 2012 19:29
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alpha_destroy posted:OK, I am living in a large house with 8 other people. I have a cat that lives in my room with me and my fiance. Give your housemates this to read: http://www.nchh.org/Portals/0/Contents/NCHH_Bed_Bug_Control_2-12-10.pdf page 18 posted:Total release foggers are detrimental to bed bug control. If they go with a real pest-control agency, then you just need to check with the company about which chemicals they're using. Pyrethroids are the ones that are dangerous to cats, but there are alternatives.
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Jun 14, 2012 19:58
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My aunt has an indoor/outdoor cat (safe area, no risk to him being outside) who has just discovered the joys of eviscerating any living thing that crosses his path. In an effort to keep him from entirely destroying the local wildlife (and her carpets), my aunt tried putting a collar with a bell on it on him (she wasn't planning on doing it all the time, just enough to sometimes give a warning), but this cat has a thing for bells and went crazy trying to catch it when she put it on him. Does anyone know of an alternative way of giving the birds a headstart without driving the cat crazy?
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Jun 14, 2012 21:00
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My girlfriend and I are trying to adopt our first dog (aside from dogs owned by our families that were adopted while we lived at our respective homes). Does anyone have advice on adoptions and applications? We've filled out several applications so far, going to some meet and greets this weekend.
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Jun 14, 2012 22:04
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jgrrr posted:My girlfriend and I are trying to adopt our first dog (aside from dogs owned by our families that were adopted while we lived at our respective homes). Does anyone have advice on adoptions and applications? Be friendly and ask smart questions. Describe your lifestyle honestly and ask if they have one that will work with your needs. Ask about the dog's complete known history, if he/she is fixed, what vaccinations he/she has had, ask about any behavior issues like often getting into the trash or separation anxiety. Don't mention (or use, for that matter) choke chains, shock collars, dominance training, or breeding. Ask if you can take the dog outside on a leash for a brief walk around the building. Shelters and busy pet stores have a lot going on that makes a lot of dogs turn shy, and going outside away from it all will help gauge his/her true personality. Bring a milkbone or hot dog pieces and ask if you can give him/her a treat to get shy dogs' attention, too. Good luck!
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Jun 15, 2012 06:05
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jgrrr posted:My girlfriend and I are trying to adopt our first dog (aside from dogs owned by our families that were adopted while we lived at our respective homes). Does anyone have advice on adoptions and applications? Everything drat Bananas says is very true, but I would like to add that, if you can, try and visit the dog(s) more than once to get a better feel for personality.
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Jun 15, 2012 06:11
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drat Bananas posted:Be friendly and ask smart questions. Describe your lifestyle honestly and ask if they have one that will work with your needs. Ask about the dog's complete known history, if he/she is fixed, what vaccinations he/she has had, ask about any behavior issues like often getting into the trash or separation anxiety. Don't mention (or use, for that matter) choke chains, shock collars, dominance training, or breeding. Thanks so much (and Invalid Octopus too). We've been describing our personalities as best we can, and are hoping to go visit shelters to see multiple dogs to see which seems to like us best. We've got two visits planned for this weekend (Saturday and Sunday). Didn't even think to ask about the complete known history, or behavior issues. We're happy to deal with whatever training we need to. We've talked about training extensively, it would be with rewards (dog food treated like treats), while being stern and scolding if they do something bad, but never physical abuse. I'll definitely load up on some small treats to bring with! We're in Brooklyn, New York if anyone has advice specific to the New York area. Thanks again! I'll be sure to post pictures somewhere in PI when an adoption goes through!
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Jun 15, 2012 15:10
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jgrrr posted:Didn't even think to ask about the complete known history, or behavior issues. We're happy to deal with whatever training we need to. We've talked about training extensively, it would be with rewards (dog food treated like treats), while being stern and scolding if they do something bad, but never physical abuse. Dogs don't get scolding as much as you'd think from their expressions - they're not wired to connect things temporally very well, and hard-wired to offer appeasement signals. http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/thoughtful-animal/2012/05/31/do-dogs-feel-guilty/ So a 'nope' or 'uh-uh' when you catch them in the act or a no reward marker when they need to try again to do something for you will work. Once they've stopped the behavior, though, they have no idea if you're scolding them for the mess they made of the kitchen or just because you're mean. You run the risk with punishments (even verbal corrections) of selectively training "don't do this while I can see you", which is particularly bad with housebreaking. The Dog Training Megathread is a good resource, and finding a good trainer to work with (even with a 'trained' adopted dog) is worthwhile.
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Jun 15, 2012 15:45
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More good to know! By scolding I meant more along the lines of saying "no" or "leave it" etc... not necessarily "hey you, i don't want you doing that, it's bad"
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Jun 15, 2012 18:46
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clarabelle posted:My aunt has an indoor/outdoor cat (safe area, no risk to him being outside) who has just discovered the joys of eviscerating any living thing that crosses his path. In an effort to keep him from entirely destroying the local wildlife (and her carpets), my aunt tried putting a collar with a bell on it on him (she wasn't planning on doing it all the time, just enough to sometimes give a warning), but this cat has a thing for bells and went crazy trying to catch it when she put it on him. The bell doesn't even really work for the protecting wildlife thing anyway so there's really no point. The only way to keep the cat from killing poo poo is to keep the cat indoors or confined to an area where the wildlife can't get in (chicken wire over the top, whatever..) Also there is no such thing a "no risk" to the cat being outside. I'm not a KEEP YOUR CATS INDOORS OR YOU ARE A BAD PERSON type in the least bit, but I do think that people who let their cats out unsupervised need to be aware of what the risks are of that and need to be ready to treat any problems that may arise due to the decision to do so.
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Jun 16, 2012 19:17
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Topoisomerase posted:The bell doesn't even really work for the protecting wildlife thing anyway so there's really no point. The only way to keep the cat from killing poo poo is to keep the cat indoors or confined to an area where the wildlife can't get in (chicken wire over the top, whatever..) It can be a hard thing to figure out sometimes. My parents' cats have always been indoor/outdoor with some pretty exceptional cat-property (lots of land and mice, but mostly open space so not many birds and close enough in that there's no real predators) but my parents moved to a place further out and now there are big owls right next to the house, and a 15 year old kitty who's only 6 lbs. on the other hand, she almost passed away a few months back and is in CRF, and lounging on the back deck and being in the summer sun seems to be doing incredible things to her quality of life. I wouldn't want to deny her one last summer, and she never ventures far, but it terrifies me anyway.
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Jun 16, 2012 22:19
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Well it's just one thing after another with Stella! We have her up at my girlfriend's parents' cottage and she's been running around like crazy, jumping all over the place, and swimming in the lake. Somewhere in all of this craziness she seems to have hurt her tail. When she sits she does it in a slow methodical way to avoid putting pressure on it, and where she normally walks around with her tail pointed straight out and then curling up at the end she's now walking around with a tail that looks like it needs some Cialis. When I run my hand along her tail she flinches at a certain spot every time about two inches from her butt), and she's also chewing at it a lot. All of us were being attacked by black flies, deer flies, mosquitos, etc. over the past few days so I'm almost wondering if she just has a bad bite on her tails. Besides this she's acting totally normal. Should I just wait and see what happens? Should I stop her from chewing at it?
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Jun 17, 2012 00:41
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prom candy posted:Well it's just one thing after another with Stella! We have her up at my girlfriend's parents' cottage and she's been running around like crazy, jumping all over the place, and swimming in the lake. Somewhere in all of this craziness she seems to have hurt her tail. When she sits she does it in a slow methodical way to avoid putting pressure on it, and where she normally walks around with her tail pointed straight out and then curling up at the end she's now walking around with a tail that looks like it needs some Cialis. Sounds like cold tail. You should call your vet to see what they think you should do about it and whether they have other ideas about what it could be though. Definitely don't let her chew at it. It won't make anything better and could easily give her an infection. And it can be painful enough that she may need meds (which you will need to get from a vet) to keep her comfortable. I would also check her very well for ticks.
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Jun 17, 2012 00:55
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Thanks, that sounds likely. She spent a TON of time in the water this weekend (hovering around 70F) and as far I know she's never done a lot of swimming before this. We're at a cottage and basically in the middle of nowhere right now (we have satellite Internet but no cell phone signal). Is this something that we should take her to the e-vet for tomorrow when we get back to town or should we just keep an eye on it? We'll also check her thoroughly for ticks when we get home, and I also told my vet when we got her to give her whatever vaccines she'd need as a cottage dog.
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Jun 17, 2012 01:29
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Would anyone trust getting a puppy from a site like this? http://www.donedeal.ie/for-sale/dogs/3356953
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Jun 17, 2012 02:47
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TwoDogs1Cup posted:Would anyone trust getting a puppy from a site like this? Don't buy a puppy from any website ever. All mill puppies.
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Jun 17, 2012 03:38
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So, how do you keep your houses cool (without AC) while nobody's home but your pets? I ask because when I got home not two hours after my boyfriend left, it was 90 degrees inside and my cats were flopped all pathetic like on the tile where it's coolest. We have tons of water around the house, and we put ice cubes in them to cool them down while we were gone but, I need some suggestions.
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Jun 17, 2012 04:28
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Aelia posted:So, how do you keep your houses cool (without AC) while nobody's home but your pets? Cooling pet beds exist, though I've never personally tried them.
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Jun 17, 2012 04:37
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TwoDogs1Cup posted:Would anyone trust getting a puppy from a site like this? Just go to a pet store, same idea.
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Jun 17, 2012 05:53
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Invalid Octopus posted:Cooling pet beds exist, though I've never personally tried them. You could also get a cooling collar for each pet, but I don't know if cats would wear them. The small would probably fit, but they'd most likely scrape it off before you were even out the door.  They work great, though.
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Jun 17, 2012 15:11
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Invalid Octopus posted:Cooling pet beds exist, though I've never personally tried them. RazorBunny posted:You could also get a cooling collar for each pet, but I don't know if cats would wear them. The small would probably fit, but they'd most likely scrape it off before you were even out the door. A lot of the stuff I've been reading talks about letting them seek out the coolest place in the house etc. which is fine and dandy, but when the house gets that hot (and we're not even at the peak of the summer heat) I'm sort of worried that the kitchen tile won't be cool enough. And by sort of, I mean really. Especially because we are supposed to go out of town over the 4th of July, and while I've got a friend planning on stopping by 2x day for those three days and feeding/playing with/watering the cats, if it's that hot in just two hours, a full day is going to be obscene. This is at least partially exacerbated by the fact that our screens are a bit loose, and I'm too worried about my cats falling out the window to leave it open while we're not sitting right here. -- Suggestions for how to fix screens to make them cat-safe in a rental would be more hot-weather help. And, yeah. Maybe once I sort this stuff out, it'd be worth a post explaining all the ridiculous stuff I've done in my house for my cats, and how they like it.
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Jun 17, 2012 18:51
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Aelia posted:Those look great. I'm just wondering if they'd stand up to cat claws. How much hotter is it likely to get where you are? Is 90 pretty near the peak or do you have a long way to go? Because at ~90 I wouldn't be too worried, so long as they have plenty of water and shade. My cats get all dramatic about the heat and I know they don't like it but I don't think they're anywhere near an actual point of danger. Some basic cooling stuff, probably you've already tried it: open windows at night, shut them during the day (though with your screen issues that might be iffy, especially if your cats get excited about moths at night), leave shades down or partway down. You're already putting ice cubes in the water dishes; you can maybe put a big bowl of ice out in the morning to make a coolish area. No A/C here either. You and your cats have my sympathy.
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Jun 17, 2012 20:05
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Aelia posted:So, how do you keep your houses cool (without AC) while nobody's home but your pets? You might also consider making your own cooling bed by getting some ice packs meant for coolers and placing them underneath a layer of cloth in a bed suitable for cats. Of course these may have to be changed often, but at least it will give a cooler option for the cats to chill while you are away. You might also consider freezing a water bowl over night and putting that as another option for the cats to drink from during the day. (edit: Seems like I was a bit late with some of my suggestions, but here they are anyways.)
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Jun 17, 2012 20:12
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Andrias Scheuchzeri posted:How much hotter is it likely to get where you are? Is 90 pretty near the peak or do you have a long way to go? Because at ~90 I wouldn't be too worried, so long as they have plenty of water and shade. My cats get all dramatic about the heat and I know they don't like it but I don't think they're anywhere near an actual point of danger. Riiseli posted:You might also consider making your own cooling bed by getting some ice packs meant for coolers and placing them underneath a layer of cloth in a bed suitable for cats. Of course these may have to be changed often, but at least it will give a cooler option for the cats to chill while you are away.
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Jun 18, 2012 06:28
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Aelia posted:I live in the California Bay Area, so the 90s are about as bad as it typically gets (with one or two small spikes to the low 100s) but on some days, they're alone for ~6 hours and we wouldn't be around to see signs of heatstroke if it did get super hot inside. My totally unscientific guess, just based on living with cats in similar climates, is that unless they have pre-existing health issues heatstroke is unlikely. But absolutely get them some good bowls of ice and leave the shades down if you have shades.
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Jun 18, 2012 16:12
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Aelia posted:So, how do you keep your houses cool (without AC) while nobody's home but your pets? I came here to post this same question—on Thursday it's going to be 99° "Feels Like 109" in New York. I was thinking ice in the water, windows closed, and a floor fan on all day that they can sit in front of. Is leaving a tray of ice out worth it? Wouldn't that just melt in like 7 minutes?
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Jun 18, 2012 18:27
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Coming from a climate in which we don't turn off the A/C except maybe in the winter, do you guys not have A/C? Or do you just turn it off when not at home?
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Jun 18, 2012 18:44
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What do I do to get rid of ticks on dogs? The internet says so many different things, and I don't want to do the wrong thing.
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Jun 18, 2012 19:17
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Adopted a pit mix over the weekend!Polo-Rican posted:I came here to post this same question—on Thursday it's going to be 99° "Feels Like 109" in New York. I was thinking ice in the water, windows closed, and a floor fan on all day that they can sit in front of. Is leaving a tray of ice out worth it? Wouldn't that just melt in like 7 minutes? Try an energy saver option on your AC (if it has one). I'm in Brooklyn, we left ours at 74. It kicks on every 15 minutes or so for about 5 minutes. The room is still warm, but much cooler than the rest of our apartment. We tried ice in the water, but the pup just took the ice out and tried to eat it, resulting in a few little puddles on our carpet.
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Jun 18, 2012 20:02
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Dogen posted:Coming from a climate in which we don't turn off the A/C except maybe in the winter, do you guys not have A/C? Or do you just turn it off when not at home? I'd prefer not to leave the A/C on while nobody's home... but if Thursday is really 108°, I might set a timer and have it go on intermittently.
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Jun 18, 2012 20:03
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