Picked Piper up from daycare this evening (unfortunately right as they were closing) and she hasn't been herself at all. Shes tried to jump kn the couch and let out an awful squeal. I tried to pick her up, some thing. I've looked all over and tried to put pressure everywhere I could, and nothing. Tried to pick her up again, and squealed again. I can't tell if it's the front or back half. Going to watch her the rest of the night and call the daycare in the morning to see if they noticed anything. Then taking her into the vet
Hellova one year annual checkup Roundworms, ear infections in both ears, which I feel horrible about since I was putting off taking her in for the allergies trying different dog foods Allergy meds and a special dog food for the food allergy trial Anybody wanna guess the total of this visit?
Apoquel alone is like 250 I’d guess. What’s the significance of the 3.6 mg tabs? Edit may be wrong since it’s been a while since I picked some up but that shits expensive.
Wow didn’t see that. How prevalent are rattlers down there? Like say you live in city proper limits, do most of those pets get the vaccine?
Def live in the country I've taken care of two rattlesnakes myself in the past couple of years neighbor just found a baby rattler in his kennel last week
Combined with rattlesnake training gives the dog a good shot at not being killed by a rattlesnake bite
It's amazing About 10 years ago I was in my uncles barn with my then lab and his, both of them had been to one rattlesnake class years earlier, when out of nowhere they are both acting 'funny', both running up to me sitting with no prompt from me at all (I was working on building a cabinet I was like "what is yalls deal?" And I went towards the back roll up door where they had both come running from And sure enough I hear it, a 4 foot long rattler just outside the door coiled up and ready to strike
Yep, they both are. Chloe is a rescue, but she is so awesome that we had to double down with Moose. Big fan of Berners too, but I couldn’t justify one in this heat year round.
Wow it's like the other one isn't even there. This is like the time my aunt posted on Facebook that she was having lunch with her favorite nephew, who was incidentally not me
So awesome. Ours are the other way around, the kitten looooooves the doggos but terrorizes them non-stop. Our 50lb hound is scared shitless and runs out of the room whenever he pounces on her tail, but our little collie is a pretty good sport and lets him gnaw on her ears/tail and groom her:
And yes he still looks like he's always in a wind tunnel. Can't remember which poster said that originally.
I’d still say 70-75 lbs they typically stop actually growing at around 7 or so months and just fill out
I hope so. Not confident though since he hasn't grown into his legs and paws yet lol. He still has some height to gain to hit his standard (26" at the shoulder). I talked to the people we got him from and they said his mom was 70 to 75 and his dad 75 to 80. His granddad apparently was up near 85 though lol. I've heard Belgians can keep growing to a year to a year as well. Well be interesting to see where he ends up. Our trainer said it's hard to guess because they are breed for function so much now. With his granddad being a K9 I'm guessing his line is on the larger end.
Most working dogs like that are there because of their disposition more so than their size. If the dog works they’ll take a Belgian between 65-100 pounds. Always possible your dude could end up bigger than his grand father too. I personally own two “midgets” and they’re 100 and 110 respectively but still are a solid 20-30 pounds lighter than all their litter mates. I did pick out the runts though.
Good points all the way around. Only thing I know for sure is I won't be picking his ass up like that for much longer lol.
You can get some foam hair curlers and stand those ears up if you want. That’ll help support them. I’d think any Belgian or GS breeder would help you if you care.
Background on this deal from someone who has been in the pet industry forever and been on dry food formulation teams. Basically in the mid 2000s natura pet products launched the first "grain free" kibble dog food EVO and it was a massive success. EVO was considered the most premium kibble on the market, other companies saw the massive potential grain free dog food had and everyone started making them including notorious price cutting brands like diamond who decided to make their own grain free called taste of the wild. The primary carb source(you have to have a significant carb source in a kibble to bind it) in the original grain free diets was white potato. After a while newer brands started bashing white potato because it was high glycemic and brands starting using legumes(peas chickpeas lentil pea protein etc) instead in grain free diets as the carb source. At the same time companies started to realize oh shit we can use legumes and get a couple of benefits: 1. Get rid of the high glycemic white potatoes 2. Legumes are super high in protein so we can substitute meat content for legumes and maintain the same protein levels. Legumes are absurdly cheap, so this allowed companies to cut price even more or just make more margin. However, taurine naturally comes from meat so as companies continued to reduce meat content the taurine levels got to low. In the last 8 years or so, the legume usage by companies just got worse and worse(all those brands in the fda list did it). Zignature which started in 2011 was the most notorious brand for it. Champions (origen & acana) original diets were actually white potato diets but around 2012 they switched to a bunch of legumes and spun it as improving their diets, when in fact the major benefit for them was it made their diets cheaper to make. I do still think champion is among the best kibble diets, farmina from Italy is a fairly new food to the us that is also a great kibble diet. With all thats going on your going start seeing companies do a few things: 1. Add a taurine supplement (zignature started doing this) 2. In the next year you'll see some grain legume and potato free kibbles launched but they will be very pricey If you want to feed the best for your dog then you better feed a high end canned, freeze dried or raw diet. I always tell people, you get what you pay for in dog food. All of the companies are taking similar margins and the two main cost drivers in dog food are: 1. meat content 2. the quality of the meat (rendered, by product, fresh, frozen, free range, human grade etc. )
HEED MY WARNING! When your bitch is in heat and you get all worked up but she's not in the mood... DO NOT LICK YOUR DICK UNTIL IT'S RAW JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN! The Cone of Shame and creams that taste like shit is the punishment due.
First off, thanks for this. Really insightful. In your opinion, is there any kibble out worth feeding your dog? (Assuming Champion would be your pick.)
There’s plenty of kibbles worth feeding once you get past the classic grocery store stuff(kibbles and bites, Purina, science diet etc.) and into the more natural specialty brands(Blue Buffalo, Taste of the Wild, Origen, Natures Variety, merrick, Fromm etc.). No doubt the higher caliber kibble you feed the better your dog will do, but is your dog going do $30-60/ per bag better on a farmina or a origen than on a value grain free like a chewy grain free private label, Kirkland or a taste of the wild I dont know. I think it really comes down to if you have the money spend it on the higher caliber foods but if you dont your dog is still going do well on the lower end natural options. The increase in the well being of a dog from going from a shit grocery store food to an entry level natural option is much greater than the one going from an entry level natural option to an ultra high end kibble(natures variety ultimates, origen, farmina). I'd just top a lower end natural option with a high meat canned diet or some raw, that way they do get enough taurine and it also adds meat content and moisture to their diet.
I stopped reading when you listed Purina and Science Diet as classic grocery store diets and then listed fucking marketing specials like Blue Buffalo and TotW as specialty brands