Our Cosmic Autumn Rebellion (Adolescent Support Group)

[MonCoubousMonTourmalet]

Okay folks, let's head into late summer/autumn.

@Aubrielle a spay plus gastropexy sounds like a sensible thing to do. Only one anaesthetic and the reducing the chance of GDV.

Yeah, It does make a lot of sense to do it that way. My cousins friend who is also a vet, had both done together on her Ridgeback because of that also being a deep chested breed.
Is Midge high risk for GDV? I imagine he has a deep rib cage. It's such a worrying thing.

Pupsy had a lap spay – our vets had no problem doing it and she’s 12kg. She was back up and about as normal in four days, it was astonishing.

@brushingboots - the places I spoke to said they didn't have the right (smaller?) equipment for lap spays on smaller dogs. This was a few years ago now though. Even between getting my two done, lap spays seems to be getting more common.

@tizwozliz @Aubrielle
That makes me feel much better. Thank you both. My girls are 12.5kg and 8.5kg. I felt bad about potentially putting them through a more major surgery with a longer recovery time. I just assumed they'd be able to have key hole surgery. I didn't realise it had criteria.
I had to Google gastropexy, but I can see why that would make sense for Brie.

Darn it. Just read @brushingboots post and now feel bad again. 🙈

Realistically key hole surgery is not feasible for me anyway. It would be a 3 hour round trip to take P to the specialist vets and another to collect her. Which would mean leaving the other two home alone for 6 hours. And P gets totally stressed out by any car journeys over 20 minutes, so it would be added stress for her.

The lap spays were totally for my benefit so I didn't have to manage a long post surgical period. If we couldn't have afforded the extra or there were other reasons, i.e. logistics I wouldn't have felt guilty for not doing a lap spay.

What's right for a dog is individual and it sounds like the least stressful option for everyone in your situation @SpanielsGalore would be a standard spay

Behaviour wise and weight wise spaying has not made a jot of difference to my two.

Hope everyone is ok!

How is Midge @Nella68? And how are you getting on with your boy @cashmerecardigans? Hope he’s still settling in ok!

@Flowerfusion did you manage to start any muzzle training?

Sorry not ignoring everyone else but I’ve spoken to you all on other threads 🤣

Here’s Vinny giving us a nice grin earlier today.

@YorkshireFelix he’s fine thank you. He’s currently fast asleep and I’ve got to wake him up to go to his KC silver class. He likes it when he’s there but it’s such an effort to get going now the evenings are so dark

I’m having a few issues with our neighbours- they keep putting out food for the foxes and then they leave it in our garden. It’s been really stressful as I don’t really want M to eat them (they tend to be rotten when he find them) so I’m having to keep him on lead when he goes outside. The neighbours are refusing to stop feeding the foxes.

What lovely white teeth Vinny has! Such a model.

Oh god what a nightmare @Nella68, I would not be happy about that. I can’t believe they are refusing to stop? Surely it would attract rats too 🤢

@YorkshireFelix look at Vinny! Absolutely loving the new look!

Yes, we are are doing alllllll sorts of things. Muzzle training, cooperative care, getting her more comfortable with the grooming tools.

We are making progress with this - but she’s not any happier in the house so the vet has advised some anti anxiety meds to see if that makes a difference.

It’s not been a great couple of months…. and I’m not sure how sustainable this is, so hoping something works at some point.

@Flowerfusion It sounds quite stressful for you all. I hope the anxiety meds help.
Did you get to the bottom of her hip and/or back problem?

K is on day 9 of her first season. The fact she can jump my garden walls is not helping my stress levels.
I have been taking her for on lead walks around the village. It's actually surprising how much a tiny dog can pull. I've tried stopping every time she pulls, which is every three steps. She'll either sit down and whine. Or she'll stretch as far forward as she can with her head and chest on the ground and her bum in the air. 😂

K has just come into the kitchen eating cardboard. "Where have you got that from?", I asked. Oh. It's the inside tube from the toilet roll you have just shredded half way round the house. 🤦‍♀️

I basically just hand over the recycling. He's not as mad for it as he was as a puppy, but he still likes to shred a box. Toilet rolls he steals just simply for the joy of it, preferably when he wants me to be somewhere else, i.e. playing with him, and not in the shower or on the loo. It is very funny (unless you're down to the last roll...)

Adolescent angst.
It's just exhausting 😩
The "fuck you" attitude is doing my head in.
18 months old, and we've suddenly gone from sporadic recall at home, to nothing. No response, no acknowledgement to calling her name. She used to come for cheese. Not any more. Tried upping the treat value; chunks of meat, pates, sausage, not interested. Waving a tug rope, excited voice, whistling. Nope. It's Rosie all over again, having to traipse down the wet garden in the dark with a show lead to physically tow her in.
Yesterday she was fighting me on our walk because it was raining and she didn't want to go 🙄
She went for 15 hours without a wee because the grass is wet.
And now she's decided she hates fireworks so we've had boundary patrolling and stroppy barking for the first time.
How do I survive the next 3 weeks 😭

@Bupster I wouldn't mind the shredding (although I would rather it not be the toilet rolls) but my muppets all eat the soggy pieces of cardboard. I used to give them the Amazon packaging to rip up, but then I'd have to wrestle pieces out of their mouths. I told them they've spoilt it for themselves now, but they didn't care.

@Aubrielle I just commented on the other thread about how difficult it must be trying to shift a dog of Brie's size if they don't want to move.
The fireworks are a pain. Why are they going off this early? It was much better when they were only sold for a short period before bonfire night.
Mind you, I wouldn't mind a dog that I didn't have to walk in the rain. 😂 Is Brie still calm around the house if she isn't walked or would she be climbing the walls?

Oh god yes, @SpanielsGalore , Brie eats loo roll tubes and kitchen roll ones. Other cardboard just gets shredded but the brown rolls get eaten. It's icky. I've started to bin them.

It was so embarrassing yesterday, trying to tow 50kg of sopping wet hairy dog up the hill, with all the school kids laughing at us 😳 She just literally would not walk.

Fireworks, goodness knows, it seems to go on longer every year here. They sounded like industrial strength bangers last night, so presumably teenagers arsing about trying to be annoying. We're in a farming area with a lot of equestrian businesses, so it is very much not appreciated in these parts that we'll now have 3 weeks of the sodding things randomly going off around us.

Brie is always calm around the house, the others were too. They're very placid and patient, they're never really climbing the walls. Rose was the only one that would willingly walk in the rain, the rest would choose not to. Merlin had the biggest aversion to going near wet grass or puddles; he would literally sleep round the clock rather than venture outside on wet days. We'd have to put him on a lead and walk around the corner on the pavements in the dark, just so he could wee against the hedge.
Do your girls willingly walk in the rain? Landsharks said her lot don't seem to mind...

@SpanielsGalore It was Diwali yesterday so that explains the fireworks this week. I only heard about three faint ones last night and I don't think pupsy heard any – she was passed out on my lap.

@Aubrielle That sounds really hard work, I'm sorry. Not sure I have anything useful to say apart from to send solidarity as I have the opposite – a dog who is too enthusiastic.

@brushingboots Ah that explains it. We aren't very multi cultural up here, so I didn't realise.

My village used to do a big firework display. There were stalls and fairground rides too. The first year we moved here, P was in the garden when they started. She shot inside and I found her trembling in the living room. After that, the little piddly garden fireworks didn't bother her at all.
Sadly for the village and surrounding towns, that was the last year of the display. But the local pets are happier.

@Aubrielle All of my dogs are/were weird. They don't/didn't like going out into the garden for a wee in the rain. But will/would happily go for a walk for hours in it.

We live on the edge of Birmingham and Diwali is celebrated in a big way here. It was dreadful last night, some of the bangs made the windows rattle. Luckily Midge doesn’t seem bothered by them and slept through most of them. A friend’s dog (7 years old) had been the same until last year when the local hoodlums let off fireworks right next to the path in the park. The poor dog is now terrified.

Last year was awful for fireworks here, it's part of the reason nobhead won't use the garden to toilet in, as he was startled by one. He did seem better on walks though - perhaps because the noise was more distant, or he could see the fireworks? I'm not sure; and it might be something completely different that worries him, like the rain dripping from the gutter. I know there's other dogs round here who can't cope at all with fireworks, and it must be awful. We play a lot of brown noise to help him (and me) sleep and cope with outside noises, so I'm hoping I can just turn that up.

He's been really unwell, poor bug - refused a walk last night, woke me at 2am but was too spooked/uncomfortable to actually go outside, woke again at 5:20am but still couldn't poo in the yard, so we ended up going out for a walk at 6:45am. He did poo, but then he kept stopping to graze and lie in the grass, and was circling constantly when we got back, and whining, and backing up, and in the end I got him in to see the vet at 9am. We got painkillers and he seems a bit better now, albeit still whiny and humpy, which isn't at all like him.

No idea whether he's just got a stomach bug, or he's eaten something idiotic - he does have occasional form for eating gross or ridiculous things (panty liners, Colin the Caterpillar cake) but mostly he's pretty trustworthy. Honestly though it was so frightening. I can't believe how much of my soul is carried around in that farty little hooligan.

@Bupster poor Bill, I hope he has a better time tonight.

A couple of weeks ago M had to see the vet - vomiting and not passed a stool. The vet was talking about taking him for a scan. Who knows the foxes have left behind for him to scavenge. He was fine the next day.

He now wants to go outside for a wee but it’s like a war zone out there at the moment!

@Bupster Poor Bill. It's horrible when you don't know what's wrong with them. I hope he is more comfortable now and you both have a better night's sleep.

Awww, poor Bill - I hope you both have a more restful night @Bupster

Sorry that Midge has been poorly recently too @Nella68

Next door had a workman in today, who left both their front and back doors open.
K took full advantage. She jumped the wall, nipped in the house, out the front and ran half way down the street to say hello to a man and his dog. 🤦‍♀️

Oh lord, I really needed the laugh react for that. That's some expert problem-solving right there, in fairness.