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My dog Mocha, is three years old. Recently, I’ve noticed that small patches of her fur were missing. I was hoping she was probably shedding. I was wondering what could I do to prevent it?
My 5 year old basset hound and lab mix has a herniated disc. The vet gave her muscle relaxer and pain meds, but now she can’t move her back legs. We have restricted her to a crate so she can rest, we can’t afford surgery. Is there hope that she will get better with meds and crate rest or should I start preparing for the worst?
Hello,
I don’t know enough about your dog or the time frame to offer much advice. I do have a lot of helpful tips and advice on this disease via my blog. Kmdvm.blogspot.com and YouTube channel. Search IVDD and hank. I think that every piece of any kind of question is all there. In general I tell people to keep in close contact with their vet. Seek an exam with a neurologist and give these dogs at least three weeks to see if they improve. Good luck.
6-month old Golden Retriever/Labrador mix bites me most of the time. She’s usually nice when it’s playtime or feeding time (if she’s overstimulated accidents may or may not happen). But in downtimes she just comes at me. I could be sitting quietly not bothering her and she could be lying down 1 second and the next she’s suddenly biting my arm. It doesn’t often happen to other family members. Is it because she wasn’t taught bite inhibition properly because family members don’t want to leave the room or do it nicely? Is it because they react aggressively when she bites them (i.e. they used to pinch her and step on her paw. now it’s mostly just pinning her down to the floor)?
I’m honestly tired. They think they’re doing it right, but I don’t think it’s working. But since she’s not biting them as much they think of it as working.
I’m literally the only one playing and exercising her and I think that factors in a lot. They just leave her and aside from feeding her in the morning, they really don’t do anything else.
I got a response from another site a few months back and they said I had a people problem, not a puppy problem. Is there anything I can do though? Is it something that’s wrong with me?? I don’t know anymore please help :(((((((((((
You do have a “people problem”, but that “people problem” has now caused a dog problem. It sounds like the pup is bored and wanting to play, but hasn’t been taught the social niceties of the “human world”. Retrievers are very mouthy in general because that’s what they’re bred for; picking up and carrying things. But there are actually several things you can do to help.
First things first: If she comes at you and bites down on your arm, yell out, “Ow!”, in a loud and high pitched voice. As hard as it might be to do, try not to pull your arm back as this may trigger the tugging instinct. Even at six months old, she can be taught bite inhibition. It’s not too late!! Yelling out in a high pitched, loud voice may startle her into letting go. After all, her goal is not to hurt you, but to play and get some attention. Think of puppies when they play. When one yells in pain, the other usually lets go. That’s our goal here. If she does let go, offer her a toy that the two of you can interact with: a rope for tug, a squeaker for catching, a ball for chasing. Make sure, when you are with her, you have a toy that she likes with you at all times. Because once she lets go, you want to say, “Good girl!” and give her the toy immediately and then a bit of affection for doing the right thing. Most retrievers have high drives and love a game of fetch.
If the yelling doesn’t work, you can yell “Aaaanntt” and push your arm firmly into her mouth. This losens her grib by widening her jaws and most dogs don’t like how it feels. As soon as she releases you, say “Good girl” and offer the toy and your time.
If neither of the above works, you may have to try a bit of nose pressure. When she bites down yell “Ow!” and then place your hand (thumb on one side and index finger on the other) over her nose so that the meaty part between your thumb and finger are applying pressure to the top of her nose. You want to place it about a quarter of the way down her nose. Then squeeze your index finger and thumb together as if you’re trying to make them touch through her nose. You’ll have to supply a decent amount of pressure for this to work, but you don’t r ally want to harm her. The top of a dog’s nose is VERY sensitive and a. Other dog will bite a pup here with some force, when the pup has gotten out of hand. You want to mimick a mother’s technique, sans the teeth. Once she releases you,give her the toy and affection. She may yell when you do this, but I promise you are only causing a bit of discomfort and no large amount of pain.
Lastly, if all else fails you’ll have to become a bit more aggressive in your tactics. -sigh- Ehen she bites you, place your thumb behind her upper canine by the same means as applying pressure to the top of the nose, but apply no pressure. Instead, run your thumb down to her upper lip and push it into her mouth a bit. This will cause her to bite down on her own lip (we all nonhow horrible this feels!) and in most cases, she’ll let go of you almost immediately. Give you, “Good girl” and affection immediately. And bonus, she’ll get to experience her own bite strength, which promotes bite inhibition.
I wish you two a lot of luck. If you have any questions about technique, I’d be happy to send you videos. I’m a Canine Behaviorist and have worked with dogs for over 30 years. Just email me at: tishtish1975@yahoo.com
My dog is 3 years old. Dogo Argentino, 44 kg. 2 and a half months ago she had her first seasure and continued having one every three weeks. But now things got complicated and from last morning until now she had 14 seasures (epilepsy), in the distance of 1 and a half hours. Last night we went to the vet and they injected fenobarbital in her muscle but it didn’t make a difference
,she had 4 episodes in the night and continued having all day long. The next day, they injected again fenobarbital under her skin but we didn’t saw any kind of improvement, she continued having seasures in the same amount of time. What should we do? We are desperate and seems like nothing is working.
Have you asked your vet about seeing a neurologist? I would start there. They can help!
My bunny has been recently just sitting there with one eye a little bit squinted. I’ve never seen this before. Her eyes are the same size. What is going on?
Good morning?I’ll be honest, when it comes to eyes I don’t delay. I would watch her and if there is no improvement, I would get to the vet as soon as possible. Hope she is ok!
Thanks, I’ll do that.
Hello, I have a 7 mo old bloodhound, Dewey and a 5 yr old beagle/husky mix. Dewey my bloodhound has discovered my garden. He is always eating vegetables like greenbeans and vegetable foliage like cauliflower leaves, broccoli leaves and brussel sprout leaves. Sometimes it’s the plant itself. My question is can this hurt him? Can he eat too much and get sick? Also, I do not use any pesticides in my garden.
Hello,
I live in a very rural area and lots of my patients have gardens that they help themselves to. I have never seen a problem outside of the rare tomato overdose. The plants to be weary of are onions and garlic. So a little nibble of the plants you mention is unlikely to cause a problem. Talk to your vet if you seen any vomiting or diarrhea. And try not to let them over do the feasting.
Hello pawbly friends- we have found 3 dead crows on our property in the last 10 or so days. I am wondering if I should call “someone” ( who would that even be) or if it is not uncommon. I’ve never found this many in such a short time period before. I should mention we live by many farms, who may or may not have sprayed some sort of pesticides.
ello, I would call animal control and ask. They are part of the sheriffs department and they can direct you. It might need to go to fish and wildlife. But yes I would alert someone. Xox Krista.
My cat ran away for 7 weeks we found her extremely malnourished and dehydrated displaying neurological issues. We rushed her to the vet but we couldn’t afford the hospitalisation so we took jer home with prescriptions and subcutaneous fluid replacement therapy. Jer liver enzymes were elevated they said it should get better as she eat very slowly in small quantities. Its been 5 days since we found her. The neuro issues have disappeared. She has been peeing regularly in increasing quantities and though week she can walk around. She is alerte. But she refuses any food in any form. I have tried wet dry kitten formula replacement. She eat a bite or two the first days and nothing since. What should i do?
I would call the vet back, to be quite honest. 5 days with almost no food is a critical issue.
I agree with Laura- she needs some nourishment. Ask your vet- perhaps syringe feeding us an option? I would also ask my vet about hospitalization costs, and discuss different affordable options as well as payment options. See if there is a way you can put s lump sum down up front and then pay the rest off monthly? Best of luck.
I suggest you check into how easy assisted feeding with oral syringes is once you and your cat get the hang of it. You’d have to go real slow at first – maybe 1ml per quirt and only 5ml every 1/2 hour or so, but it’s pretty darn simple once you get the hang of it. Almost any canned pet food can be turned into a slurry/shake with water and a blender or even with just a spoon and a lot of patience, if it’s pate style. I’d suggest going with food you know your cat loves, so that it’s easier for them to get comfortable with the concept. You must go VERY slow to begin with or you run the very serious risk of getting liquid into their lungs, which can be deadly. There are decent videos on You tube going over all of this in detail and I assume your vet would be more than happy to show you first hand how it’s done.
First and foremost though, please go see the vet.
Hello, a couple months ago my home became a multi-dog household, with the newest addition being a now 10 month old GS/lab mix, and our resident dog, a 3 year old beagle/rottie mix, both males. They are both very well behaved and have never fought. However, they were not socialized properly as puppies—or at least we did not adequately socialize our beagle mix when he was a puppy, and GS mix was already 6 months old when we got him and we don’t know if or how his previous owners socialized him.
The results of their poor socialization: resident dog does not seem to recognize playful behavior from new dog and thus becomes uncomfortable, clearly cares for new dog (acts to protect new dog if anyone is playing rough with him) but won’t play with new dog, and seems to sometimes even avoid new dog.
New dog is a little better with socialization, but his main fault is that it seems he doesn’t know how to recognize resident dog’s “corrections” to him and to back off (even if most of the time he simply wants to play with resident dog), and he also has some bullying tendencies, some intentional and others not (wants to play with whoever resident dog is playing with, sometimes bugs resident dog to move if new dog wants to lay down in that spot, etc; though never has shown any physical aggression).
Resident dog is, personally, my dog, and I love him dearly, though I love new dog too, and would love to see them bond and play together, only I don’t know the best course of action to achieve that.
I would greatly appreciate any help with ideas on how to adjust these behaviors of theirs, as well as weigh in on the idea of setting up a doggie-play-date with a friend (with a stable and model dog, of course) so that maybe visitor dog can teach them how they should behave.
Hello,
Is everyone spayed or neutered? Have you seen your vet about any of this? Can you reach out to a local trainer for help? I would start with these and remember exercise and training are super important for all cases of behavioral problems. I hope this helps. Please keep us posted
my frenchie has what I can describe as a pulsating twitch in her neck ?? she’s had it now again for a while but this week she’s had it three times and just abit concerned ….. as she doesn’t seem herself when she gets this pulsating twitch?? any help or advice would be greatly appreciated
that’s my beautiful girl
Hello,
Frenchies are very commonly affected by back issues and conditions due to their short nose. I recommend that you get a video of it and show your vet. I also think that a good neurological exam will help. X-rays of the cervical spine might also prove beneficial. I hope this helps.
thankyou for replying I have two videos of her so I am going to book her in and show the vet the videos also I just hope it’s nothing to serious
This might be skin mites, thyroid problems, hives from some sort of allergy…start with the vet to nail down the cause.
I agree. Unfortunately hairbloss can have a large number of causes. Things like parasites (fleas, mange), infection or even an internal organ impairment. Please see the vet. I bet that with a visit and a thorough discussion of your dogs history they can help formulate a treatment plan.