General Dog Chat Part II

[BiteyShark]

A place for nattering about our canine friends.

Old or new, feel free to come and chat any time

[Wolfiefan]

Not sure. May be a phantom or she may be sulking because we went out for lunch without her.
I refuse to panic and fly back to the vets. I'm hoping she will come round.

[steppemum]

brilliant news about bitey dog!

[BiteyShark]

Thanks, I am so happy that we can get back to normal again and the look of joy on his face was a picture when we played ball for 10 mins in the garden tonight.

At the moment I can't stop BiteyDog eating. He's at his heaviest he has ever been and actually looks the correct weight although I know as soon as we start exercising again his weight will naturally drop. Hope WolfieDog starts to eat again soon.

[noitsnotteatimeyet]

That’s great news Bitey

Sending Wolfiedog start eating vibes

Teatimetoller is still improving which is such a relief but we’re not back to the vet for ages ...

And in other news .. the puppies have been born - there are four girls in the litter so we can definitely have one (eek). Going to see them when they’re five weeks old

[Wolfiefan]

Oh bless him!
We need puppy pictures soon!!

[BiteyShark]

How long do you have to wait until Teatimetoller goes back? Hope he continues to get better.

We are leaving the steroids until BiteyDog becomes ill again as he seems ok at the moment.

Both BiteyDog and I slept in our normal beds last night and I have to confess I missed our nighttime snuggles

[blueskyinmarch]

Can I come and join you? I may need some company over the next few weeks. I have a 5 yo lab. She had an op on her right elbow yesterday and she is not allowed to be walked for 4 weeks. 4 WEEKS. How am I going to cope? This is the dog who is whining at the back door if we are running 5 minutes late for our walks. And she prefers being in the garden to the house. She will detest being confined. Please tell me it will be fine.

[Wolfiefan]

Eek. 4 weeks? Time to start researching brain games. Do you need to keep her confined when in the house?

[AvocadosBeforeMortgages]

The poor thing @bluesky

I would suggest joining the group called Canine Enrichment on Facebook, and searching that for "crate rest" which will give you ideas. I don't envy you though - PestDog needs his exercise for his sanity (not an exaggeration) so 4 weeks of crate rest sounds like utter hell to me.

[blueskyinmarch]

Yes she needs to be inside. Only out to pee and poo. She isn't really a games sort of dog at all. She likes to sleep a lot but I don't know if she will do that without her two daily walks. I don't know how I will do without my walks either! It is going to be a long 4 weeks.

[thegirlsallgrowedupnow]

A friend of mines choccy Labrador has recently finished 6 weeks of confinement and a further 6 weeks of very brief lead walks. My friend was dreading it, said the first week was ok because he was still recovering from the op, second week very hard but after that he seemed to accept it. He isn’t a games kind either but she didn’t use a bowl for his food at all during those weeks,he got it throughout the day hidden around the house, on a snuffle mat, in a Kong to tire him out mentally and keep him occupied. Good luck.

[BiteyShark]

We have had several enforced no exercise periods but only for around 2-3 weeks at a time. I find the less I did the less BiteyDog wanted to do and just accepted it was sleep time most of the day and night. I did keep a deers antler back for when he looked more active so he was happy to chew that for 30 mins before going back to sleep.

Good luck bluesky it's rubbish when they can't go out.

[punter]

thegirlsallgrowedupnow

thanks for your helpful advice - I will start the training.

[noitsnotteatimeyet]

He’s on antibiotics for another 2 weeks then we have to wait another 2-3 weeks before going back to the neurologist - basically to make sure he’s not going to relapse - so end of April/beginning of May. It’s been a very long road as he first got ill in January...

@blueskyinmarch you may well be surprised at how well your dog copes with restricted exercise - teatimetoller is a working breed, he’s young, extremely fit and athletic and normally has a good two and a half hours of charging about off lead. He’s been on restricted or no exercise since the middle of January and he’s actually been fine. For quite a bit of that time he was feeling awful which meant he didn’t want to run around anyway but he still surprised us by how well he coped

[blueskyinmarch]

Thank you all. I feel a bit more positive now. I go and collect her from the vet at 11.30 and i suspect she will be feeling a bit sorry for herself for a few days. The weather here is terrible so not too sad to be staying in!

[BiteyShark]

noitsnotteatimeyet yes that is a long time

We got wet on a walk today but it was nice to be able to take him for a reasonable length one today.

[Squirrel26]

I’m not at work this week, so SquirrelDog and I are having a lovely cuddle on the sofa...except he keeps jamming his boney little elbow into my groin. Aaargh!

[GooodMythicalMorning]

Absolutely tipping it down here. I'm leaving our walk for a bit in the hope it might stop raining. Indy really hates the rain.

[blueskyinmarch]

Dog is home now and seems fine. I have her penned into the corner of the kitchen so she can't walk around much and so far she seems unfazed by the lack of a walk. Hopefully she will just accept the restrictions and roll with it!

[blueskyinmarch]

Poor me!

[BiteyShark]

Awww poor thing. I found BiteyDog tolerated the inflatable ring round his neck very well and acted like it wasn't actually there (other cones and body suits were definitely not tolerated).

[blueskyinmarch]

Yeah she is the same. It is like the ring isn't there at all.

[YogaDrone]

Hi. May I join? This is my girl - she's a 4 year old yellow lab. She's actually 4 months post cruciate ligament surgery so I understand your worries bluesky. We had 6 weeks crate rest followed by a further 6 weeks of gradually lengthening lead walks. It was difficult as she is very energetic and HATES the lead.

I hope all goes well with your girl bluesky.

It's been raining pretty much non-stop here for [what feels like] weeks I'm so utterly fed up of schlepping around in the mud and then hosing YogaDog down twice a day. The washing machine is on constantly washing her towels and bedding and our dog walking clothes! She's also decided that she is afraid of cars since she got splashed by a car as we walked down the street about a week ago. This is making her lead walking even more difficult than previously as she usually pulls but now she pulls until she sees a car and then she pulls back sharply and cowers

Some dry weather soon please please please

[BiteyShark]

It's just a shame that the ring is only suitable for certain injuries otherwise I think it's great. We had to order another one last week as our first the velcro had frayed from overuse

[YogaDrone]

oops, sorry, photo dropped off somehow....