I’ve been crate training my new dog, she’s a year old, and she’s been doing well. I took the crate apart to clean it and as soon as her blanket was put in it she got in and went to sleep. I had to put it together around her. My question is a matter of consistency. My schedule is pretty consistent as a student, but I have a lab once a week right in the middle of the day. Should I only crate her when I’m gone for those two hours or should I do it every day at that time?

My husband and I adopted a 2 year old lab mix (we think possibly mixed with Newfoundland) in November 2015. He’s 94lbs and we are his 3rd owners (first two owners were within the same family).

Shortly after adopting him, he started developing sores on his belly near his penis. They didn’t seem to ooze, but were bright red, dry, and scabbing over. He also was scratching at his lips and frequently shaking his head.

We took him into the vet who suspected allergies and suggested we change his food, removing any sources of chicken and beef from his diet. She prescribed 3 weeks of cephalexin, and we switched him to a salmon and sweet potato, grain free food. This was in January 2016.

The sores did resolve with the antibiotics, but the shaking his head and scratching at his lips did not. Two weeks ago I noticed a small sore on his belly again, in the same spot as before, and today I noticed there are now two of them. I also noticed that the inside of his lips seem to be very red (unsure as to whether this is new, or I just didn’t notice beforehand).

We can’t afford to keep throwing hundreds of dollars every few months towards vet care, so I’m wondering if anyone has ideas as to what this could be. I have doubts about allergies since the lip scratching and shaking of his head never went away.

Any help or ideas greatly appreciated

This is a serious question, I’m curious. I feel that pet food these days isn’t that nutritious, and dogs and cats should be hunting for their own food instead of being given this crappy foul tasting “wet food”. In the future, I wanted to buy rabbits, mice, and rats and put them in an enclosure with my dogs to teach them to hunt. Would this be legal? Because I don’t see anything wrong or inhumane about this seeing as people buy live mice for their snakes to eat. So why don’t we do this with dogs and cats? Surely wet food isn’t as good for them?

I have a one year old chocolate lab. He chews all my clothes while I’m sleeping or not watching him. He gets into my garbage and tears things apart. This morning be knocked my side table over by my bay window and broke a flower pot.

i have a puppy 4 month old lab, yesterday the vet he did a surgery for the stomach,because is not well for the last 4 days ,he has diarrheas and vomiting ,is in the vet on in the fluids and medication the vet said to me he has gastroenteritis .someone tell me is chance to survived?i miss him so much i really want him to come back home

hi i need hell please.
my mane is alexandra and i have a puppy lab mix golden retrieved 4 months old and for the last 3 days is not eating,not drinking is vomiting and had diarrhoea,i was bring last night in to a vet clinic and i left him in to the drops and antibiotics,and i did a scan for the stomach and check is blood and is fine.is possible to tell me what is wrong with him or if is change to die?i don’t want to lost him thanks so much

Hi,

We have an almost 13 year old chocolate lab named Koko. About 5 weeks ago, she had a seizure. We took her into the vet and they prescribed Phenobarbital to help control the seizures. Since then, she has been incontinent in the house, and has to go outside very frequently (which is a side effect to this medication). This is a problem when my husband and i both work Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm. She has accidents in the house almost every day. Thankfully we put her in our laundry room which has wood floors so clean up is a little easier, but it still is stressful being that she usually pees, and then walks through it all day long tracking it everywhere in that room and gets urine all over herself. Especially when she has seizures, she paces for hours afterwards until finally calming down. We have tried NUMEROUS different types of diapers, doggy diapers (vets best from Petco, womens depends, XXL childrens diapers) and even tried buying suspenders and attaching those onto the diapers and around her to try to keep it on, but NOTHING stays on throughout the whole day. I just bought the “Dog Diaper Keeper” off Amazon today so I am crossing my fingers that it’ll work, if not i dont know what to do.

Besides that, my husband and I also have noticed that she has become increasingly anxious during the day and night time. She has always been on the more anxious side but lately it’s been getting worse, fast.

Since starting the Phenobarbital, she has had 3 more bigger seizures that we are aware of and since then have been to the vet and they have also prescribed Potassium Bromide which she is taking alongside the Phenobarb. We also noticed she started having facial seizures which the vet said could either mean the Phenobarb/Potassium Bromide are working and controlling the bigger seizures, or if the facial seizures continue along with big seizures it could be time for a CT scan.

In the last couple weeks, she has begun to wake up very early in the morning (3am) barking. We thought that maybe she was scared to be alone since having seizures, or is starting to get Alzheimer’s. Her kennel is in our living room so we thought that moving her into our room would help knowing that we were there, but it hasn’t. We also take her outside to go to the bathroom and that doesn’t seen to solve anything either. We are afraid to feed her too early because we don’t want her to get in the habit of eating that early in the morning. We have tried everything we can think of and she still continues to bark at all hours in the morning. The vet also prescribed her Diazapam to calm her down after seizures, but we are reluctant to use that to calm her down just because she is barking at night and hasn’t had a seizure.

We fully understand that it’s not her fault, and that she is getting old and is needing some extra TLC. But we feel so bad because we can’t figure out what she needs/wants. We desperately want to help her and keep her comfortable throughout the night.

Do you or anyone else have any advice for us? For the early morning barking or the diaper issue? Anything is greatly appreciated!

-Ashley

-history, my ex husband and I got her at 7 weeks old. He already had a lab (approx 8 months old). We separated and I was able to keep my girl, he kept the boy. She has had 2 litters. The first, 11 puppies all healthy- the second, all passed away. (The litters were in no way planned) Not directly after the second litter but within a year she started getting severe ear infections. She was fixed and treated for yeast infections for the ears- she never full relief. After a couple rounds of antibiotics my vet recommended getting blood work done as well as allergy testing. Turns out she is allergic to 21 different things and is in the early stages of kidney failure.

I am taking complete care if her medical issues and spend a good amount of time with her. We go on morning walks, I come home at lunch and take her out, we go on evening walks, and she sleeps in my bed with me.

She is the sweetest pup I’ve ever known, but she is overly clingy. At first it was cute but now anytime I move, she moves. I walk into a different room, she follows. I go to use the bathroom and she sits at my feet. Literally, if she could, she would crawl inside me. Again, I love my pup, I’m just concerned this is not healthy.

Any advice??

My lab is 10 and I’m pretty sure it’s arthritis but I don’t get paid till wed

He weighs 5 lbs, 7 oz, also had a dental with 3 removals, is taking antibiotics as a precaution, has had no problems at all and is eating and drinking as normal.