Gog Magog

My old Saluki Meg was diagnosed with LP several years ago. I picked her up as a stray and she ended up coming home She was in very poor condition and had obviously been treated badly. She was also quite old althought we didn't find out until later that she was probably as old as 15 when we got her. After we had her for about 10 months they vet diagnosed LP. She had it quite badly and we decided on the op. She did develop pneumonia twice in the next 2.5 yrs (a possible side-effect of the op) but made a full recovery both times. As said by others - we used raised food bowls, wet food, a harness and watched her exercise. she had a fan and an air-con unit in the summer and in the winter wore a jumper by equafleece Due to her pneumonia bouts she developed mucus in her lungs so we had to do "coupage" on a daily basis which she actually seemed to enjoy. As said before I would see how Coco does but don't be afraid to consider the op if you have to. It sounds as though she is getting on well though. Meg had to be PTS in the end but it wasn't her LP - she was probably at least 17/18 yrs old and everything just failed as you would expect at that age. The op was the right thing for her but I've met many other dogs who are coping well without it. It is a serious condition but can be managed - and you get used to the "roaring", the heavy rasping pant they have, although she did wake me up every night without fail with it

Further message from Celine: "Please can we say a huge, enormous thank you to everyone who has offered to help with our unclaimed stray dogs. We have now homed or secured rescue places for all except the two young male Staffie crosses. If anyone could still help with these it would be lovely but the immediate crisis seems to have passed. THANK YOU!!! Celine and Celia" Please don't forget the boys too! I know everywhere is full of staffy x's but they're only young and have good temperaments etc. I was shocked to hear about Fly too, so thought he was sorted Many thanks again for all the offers of help

Have received an email from South Glos Dogwarden - see below, please help in any way if you can. Call Celine on (01454) 863824, she's a wonderful dogwarden who really cares about her dogs and I know will be devasted if she has to PTS Hello All We are in a worse state than we have ever been in the 8 years I have done this job! We have 10 dogs at this moment needing homes, by Friday we will have more, we only have 12 kennels and if we get any more dogs in WE WILL BE FORCED TO DESTROY SOME of them, I cannot bear to do this as all the dogs that we have have come in a terrible state, we have got them all treated and on the mend and now we may have to make the decision to destroy, it is just not right………we need help. Please everyone look at our website www.southglos.gov.uk go to index, then D, then dog of week. The dogs that have been with us longest are Fly, Arthur, Nellie, Nora, and Zeb. Apart from Fly all of these dogs are friendly with people and other dogs, Zeb and Arthur I know like cats, I haven’t tested the staffis yet though. The staffis are lovely little staffis who have poorly treated and deserve a chance, THEY GET ALONG WELL TOGETHER AND HAVE SHOWN NO AGGRESSION TO ANY OTHER DOGS. By Friday if nothing claimed, and it looks like it won’t be, we will be looking for homes for a blind spaniel, a gorgeous young male rotti, and 3 legged terrier as well. PLEASE IF THERE IS ANYWHERE OUT THERE THAT CAN HELP RING ME, CELINE 01454 863824 OR 07810180750 EVEN IF YOU ARE A LONG WAY AWAY WE WILL TRY TO GET TRANSPORT SORTED South Glos Dogs

apologies for the delay in replying, I picked a wonderful time to be ill! and my internet at home was playing up so wasn't even able to do anything there. here's some pics of the girlie - we had a chat with our vet about the fine needle aspiration but they have quoted us around £140 plus! I asked them why it was so much and they said they would have to put her under to do it? I can't slip that much through when its exploratory and not to prevent suffering unfortunately edited to say: arrghh! can't put the photos on again! it really doesn't seem to like my photo bucket account!

We've just picked up this lovely lass - looks like maybe lab x collie with a dash of something else Her teeth are clean and difficult to approximate age but would say 5-10? On the younger side I'd say though. The house I collected her from had TEN children which she coped with admirably and is one of the sweetest natured dogs I've dealt with That's the good news, the bad is that she has a growth hanging from her belly. The vets have had a prod and won't say anything about it without doing lots of expensive investigations which we can't pay for. She doesn't seem to be in pain or discomfort. She's also on the skinny side. We've been having a talk about is it fair to keep her alive as it could prove to be an expensive task for someone to take on with a possibility that she's got advanced cancer and has to be PTS anyway. She is such a sweetheart though that I thought I'd give it a go and see if anyone is feeling like a gamble! Any ideas/possibilities let me know ali x ps will post pics when I get home as my work comp is playing up again!

I know its not funny when its happening but that's a brilliant description! Yup we've tried using treats/ball (the ball is her highest reward). If there's two of us then one will take cass some distance away until she's relaxed enough to concentrate then play or do some training. If I'm by myself then we'll high tail it in the opposite direction until we've got the distance or put her on a lead but still play. Problem is - sometimes it doesn't work. If the dog is noisy/bouncy she will ignore everything and go roaring across from quite some distance. Its not serious at the moment but I think its getting worse - I also don't want Mishka to get a complex about other dogs (we see one and have to run off in the opposite direction! Or she has her mate yelling her head off at it). If cass is by herself or if the other dog's attention is on her she can cope (if if its unwanted attention -barking etc) its just when the attention turns to Mishka. I think she can't tell the difference between playing and fighting so gets het up when the other dog plays with Mish but her reaction is over the top. She's done so well to overcome her fear of strange dogs (as said, once she gets to know them which only takes a short time, she's fine whatever they do) and has even ignored other dogs trying to attack her. We've got a bit stuck with this I think as its difficult to do a controlled situation. I've wondered about keeping her on lead for a while but worry this might make her feel worse as she is normally better off lead. Equally I can't let her yell and rush other people's dogs! Is Az a terrier type as well btw?!

Hiya - wonder if anyone has had any ideas I can try with Cass. Brief summary (I have a tendency to ramble so will TRY to be brief!!) She's 11, spayed crossbreed bitch - terrier type. I've had her since a pup and we did lots of socialising etc with excellent results but between the ages of 6-9 months she was attacked by 3 different dogs on 3 seperate occasions which left us with problems with unknown dogs. She would "get them before they get me" and although never bit another dog would go into noisy threat displays which a) wouldn't be nice for other dog owners b) might wind the other dog up into attacking her! We spent years rehabilitating her and she is now ok with other dogs with limitations - she is fine walking next to another dog off lead but I can't stand and chat with another owner, you can see her stress levels rise pretty quickly. She also doesn't like bouncy dogs and will tell them off pretty sharpish (again, no teeth just noise). If we see another when out I say "buddy!" and she gets her tennis ball (which she loves more than me), if on the lead then we make sure we're on the opposite pavement and again say "buddy" and she gets a treat so she learns good association. The problem has come now we've taken on Mish (a utonagan). Mish loves other dogs and is great with everything so she's very happy to play. The problem is Cass seems to be getting v protective of mish and if another dog runs up to her then she launches herself at it. Its ok if I'm walking with my partner as he can look after mish and chat whilst I distract cass but its difficult if we're by ourselves. We've had 2 other dogs with cass over the years but they've been old and timid rescues that don't want to mix anyway so its not really come up. We've also had lots of foster dogs come through and cass welcomes all of them into the house with no problems (apart from the GSD, didn't realise how much she hated them!!). Its just outside as that's where the problems happened. She's always been protective of her friends and puts herself in the middle of any scraps but she seems to be especially so of mish (who is 4 times her size!). Mish doesn't turn a hair no matter what the other dog is doing but I hate to see Cass get stressed out and its not nice having her yell at other dogs. She can walk out with several dogs with no problems - its just if they try to play with Mish. She is extremely active btw - we are out for 2 hours a day split over 3 walks any ideas? hope that all makes sense, let me know if I need to clarify anything. and wasn't as brief as I hoped! ali

We received the DT survey and filled it in as we do every year. It's true not every council does (but I would say quite a few do), it doesn't count ex-racing greys (Greyhound action calculate that figure to be more like 20000 a year) nor does it include dogs that may have moved from the pounds to rescues where they are put down - not every rescue is non-destruct. It also is wildly inaccurate I'm sure as it can't include accurate police figures because they don't have any! Bit of a sweeping statement maybe but when the LAs were to take over from the police in april I spoke to nearly 20 different councils to find out if what their police figures were - most hadn't been able to get figures out of them, some had put in FOI and got back bizarre numbers that they were told off the record were totally made up! Perhaps next year's survey may be a litte more accurate now LAs have total responsibility for strays but I think this figure really is the tip of the iceberg. should also mention that at recent seminars, every dog warden i've spoken to has said their stray numbers are very much on the increase and the rescues are rehoming LESS so its more difficult to find places. especially if that stray is a staffie... ali edited to add -apologies for appalling grammer, I'm off work with a bad back and am a bit doped up!! hope it made sense

The clean neighbourhoods and environment act deals with lots of what is called "envirocrime" (don'tcha just hate buzz words?! ) - littering, dogs (!!), noise, light pollution, graffiti etc. the dogs side of it is just one part. I believe the intention is to amalgamate the old laws (some byelaws are decades old), update them if necessary and also make it easier for councils to enforce them if needs be - it will be one department that deals with all the dog issues (i.e. environmental health) so one point of contact for the public and will give us more tools to deal with an offence, namely fixed penalty notices. We're not expecting it to stop all the foulers etc that give the rest of us a bad name etc but it should make the service that bit more efficient and hopefully we can get better results. It will also have knock on effects for other things like more powers to deal with persistant strays that can't be caught (i.e. the ones that leg it when they see the van!) - cos they won't be on lead next to a road and so on. I am aware that some councils have been, well shall we say a little stricter (diplomatic) but I can only speak for my area and we really do want the best for everyone in Swindon. The aim is to target the irresponsible dog owners - the sensible responsible ones shouldn't notice much of a difference. God I hate sounding like a politician but am aware of the fact that although I'm writing this as a private individual I do work for the council and so what I write can reflect on that. Come and chat to us and I promise I am actually normal (a bit normal anyway ) Lydiard is probably going to the be the busiest one but we will make time to speak to everyone - I'm the ditsy looking one with long blonde hair. Plus you can always give me a call during the week if you think of anything that you wanted to ask but forget on the day! ali

Hi All Just a brief note to those in the Swindon area: In case you're not already aware, we have started the consultation process for our new dog control orders under the Clean Neighbourhoods and environment act. there seems to be some confusion in our area as to what these actually are so hopefully I can clear this up - full details at www.swindon.gov.uk/dogcontrolorders (and an online questionnaire) I can send leaflets out to anyone that doesn't have a computer (freepost to return questionnaire), call 01793 466068. Plus you can come speak to us direct at: Lydiard Park on Sunday 10th June 11am to 3pm in the BBQ field, Drove Vets, Croft Road on Friday 15th June 2-5pm RSPCA dog Show, Polo Ground on Sunday 17th June about 10am to 4pm + one at Coate Water that we still need to confirm the date (prob 1st July) In brief the 3 orders we've decided on are Fouling - details same as current fouling of land act ie pick up everywhere except agricultural etc. The only difference is we ask you pick up from defined surfaced paths going across exempt areas as these are starting to spring up in the country parks allowing better access for wheelchairs etc Exclusion of dogs - exactly same as current byelaws so no dogs in children's play areas, bowling greens and cemeteries. This also includes the sports field at Lydiard which has historically been no dogs. There are NO plans to add areas to this order (except for new play areas of course) Dogs on leads - when walking on/beside a public road, Penhill Park (tiny park at very end of Sevenfields), Town Gardens (currently dogs on leads anyway), Queens Park (currently NO dogs), pedestrianised area in Town Centre and area at Lydiard Park comprising of: Main lawn in front of house, BBQ field, walk around the east of the lake and by the visitors centre. Please note that the areas at Lydiard are only applicable from 1st April to 30th Sept from 10am to 6pm. Outside of these times and at all times in the woods and fields to the west of the house, dogs may be off lead Dogs may be off lead in all the other parks and open spaces in Swindon (nearly 200 of them not including open countryside) - as long as they're under control of course. Please let us know what you think. if you are concerned about the orders or have any questions then come speak to us at the roadshows or call me on the number above before you complete your questionnaire. Leaflets are also available at libraries, local vets, pet shops and of course council offices. Many thanks and hope to hear from you Ali

have confirmed her medical condition is Dry Eye

This is Bella: She is a 10 yr old SPAYED bitch lost on 18th Feb 07 in Wroughton (village south of Swindon close to JNC 16 of M4) when she was spooked by a gunshot and ran off. She is mainly white with a liver head, greying muzzle and undocked tail. She has an eye condition for which she needs daily medication otherwise she could go blind (unknown at moment what the condition is but possibly dry-eye??) Owners have contacted all the right people, postered liberally and put her on all the lost dog sites but no joy. Sadly she isn't microchipped. Any news/sightings/anything you can contact our office - 01793 466068 or pm me. Permission is given to cross post as far and wide as possible!!! Thanks, ali (SBC dog warden)