pboae

Sully is way overdue his regular vaccinations, and his rabies has to be done by the end of Feb. We've been trying to wait till he had a clear 2 weeks healthy before getting him vax'd, but he has had one thing after another for months and months now. He was due to have them done on Monday if he stayed well till then. And now he's hurt his paw, I think he has probably sprained it this time (rather than being an abscess again). So we are off the to the vets (again!) tomorrow. I guess I'll find out tomorrow off the vet anyway, but if it is just a sprain, will he still be able to have his vaccinations? Obviously if it's an abscess he won't, but I thought maybe he could with a sprain, because that shouldn't be affecting his immune system. I'm not too bothered if we have to start his regular vax programme again, but if I can't get his rabies done soon, we won't be able to take him on holiday in May. What's the main risks of vaccinating a dog that is poorly? Is it that they are more likely to have a bad reaction, or that the vaccine is less likely to 'take', or that it could make them more sick? Maybe a combination of all 3?

Does anyone have any experience of working with Kaye Scott? Someone on another (non-dog) forum is looking for training classes and this is her nearest on APDT. I have a vague feeling she might be someone I've 'met' online somewhere along the line, but I can't quite put my finger on it. The website link is http://www.sddts.org/ (Sevenoaks).

Thank you all he seems a bit perkier today, so hopefully all these thoughts are doing him some good. Lisa, I was well and truly checked out yesterday, he ended up making a nest out of my jumper.

Sully is 5 today, it's his 3rd gotcha day with us. I can't believe he's been here 3 years, in some ways it feels like no time at all, and in others it feels like a lifetime. I wanted to take some new pictures of him, but he's quite poorly at the moment (been battling a tummy upset for a while) so he's rather grumpy and not very photogenic right now So I'll settle for a couple of my favourites instead. Cuddling in the sun Cuddling on the sofa and giving my mate a biiiiig kiss as part of an art project she was doing. He's had a really rough year this year, health wise, and this one hasn't got off to a great start, so if there are any get-well-soon-birthday-thoughts going, they'd be appreciated.

Can I crosspost this on another site? If so, is there someone I should credit it to?

Except that in this case it wasn't 'just' a taboo that was broken, it was the law. Ignorance and naivety does not exempt people from prosecution in most societies, including ours. Although it may be considered a mitigating factor when it comes to the actual punishment. I don't think anyone is saying that. I agree their punishments are completely barbaric, I'd like to see more done by our government to try and pressure the Sudanese government to change that. I will support public condemnation of their laws, and I support the people campaigning against it. Some choose to put themselves as risk by deliberately flouting laws as a protest, I think they are incredibly brave for doing so. But none of that changes the fact that this is their current law, it's not a complicated or even an unreasonable law, many socities including our own have laws against blasphemy. And while it is their law I do not think people have the right to go there by choice, break it and be exempt from prosecution just because they were ignorant of it and we dissaprove of it. As the adult she was responsible for the class, the children may have made an innocent mistake, but it was her job to correct it. By failing to do so she broke the law. I agree, there would have been much better ways to handle this, but it is primarily our press that has made this an international incident. Personally I think it makes the UK look arrogant and idiotic. Our citizens should be allowed to travel all over the world breaking laws and causing offence without fear of punishment because those other cultures are primitive and ignorant, and we are modern and powerful, and we know best. In the meantime our press continues to whip up a frenzy of outrage and makes it increasingly difficult for the Sudanese government to offer a more diplomatic solution, i.e. an apology and education, without looking like they have been forced into it by Western governments. As a general rule weak governance is despised by the populace. Look at the anger here when people feel like they are being told what to do by Europe. It makes people dig their heels in instead of encouraging dialogue. Indeed, there is no accepted right or wrong answer to it. Even within one religion there are huge variances in opinion about it. But in Sudan, there is an official interpretation and it has been enshrined in law. So although you can argue about it at a theological level, on a practical level in Sudan there is an absolute definition. Again it depends on who interprets it, but I find it fascinating that the different religions can take basically the same instruction and adapt it into such wildly different viewpoints.

Using the name Jesus or Mohammed for a person is different, the issue is with idolatry and making images, (as it is in all the Abrahamic religions). For some reason it has gained huge importance in Islam, but is dealt with very liberally in most Christian religions, despite being one of the 10 commandments. The theological arguments (grossly simplified) come down to whether it is acceptable to make an image of God or whether idolatry only applies to other gods. It is still something that is disputed between Catholics and Protestants, because a crucifix depicting Christ is a common icon in Catholicism, but is believed to be idolatry by fundamentalist Protestants. However, there is little argument about interpretation in Islam, and it is clear that with that interpretation naming an object after Mohammed is insulting to Islam. It is also illegal in Sudan. Whether it is 'truly' insulting, or whether it should be illegal, are different issues again, and at this point largely irrelevant. She chose to live in that country, so she should live by their laws, or accept the consequences if she does not. Every society has it's taboos, and many people within that society will feel genuinely hurt and distressed if they are broken. I am not religious personally, but I recognise and respect that it is something that some people do feel strongly about. England is a fairly secular country these days, and blasphemy rarely provokes much public outrage, but we still have our taboos. If school children here named their teddy Ian no-one would think anything of it. If it became known that it was named after Ian Huntley, the teacher would get lynched. Many people would feel disgusted and outraged by it. Not because there is any similarity, between Mohammed and Huntley, but because a taboo has been broken and it has resulted in something that would seem completely and utterly inappropriate under those circumstances. Maybe most other cultures would understand our reaction to that, but maybe not. But even if they didn't understand, it wouldn't make our reaction any less valid.

What measurements are needed for a comfort trail harness (for a staffie girl, if it makes any difference)? Thanks :-)

We would be looking at a single hip replacement, that's the only option he has really. He was 2 when he came to us, 2 1/2 when he saw the specialist, and already too far gone for TPO. The specialist considered a double replacement, they would have been done 6-12 months apart, but in the end he felt the recuperation period would be too much for Sully.

The other posts have reminded me, we also tried hydrotherapy, but Sully hated it (I mean really really hated) and we had to give up in the end because he was going to do himself more damage in the weekly struggle to get him in there. He does have problems with his feet now too. He drags his back paws which are kind of turned out and to the side, so he has callouses on the sides of them. He gets ingrowing hairs inside the callouses which turn into abscesses and it all gets very nasty. We have the option of having them operated on as well, but there are problems with that too, so for now we just keep a close eye on him and get him on anti biotics at the first sign of a problem.

Sully has arthritis and also HD on a similar sort of scale, his left hip joint is almost flat and his right is in a bad way. We saw a specialist a couple of years ago to see what the options were, and none of them sounded great :-( He has the added problem that they don't actually make the joints big enough for him, so he will need a lot of extra bone cement to pad it out, which greatly increases the chance of the joint failing. We dithered a lot, and I won't bore you with all my to-ing and fro-ing about but the upshot was we settled for management for now. We started him on Cartrophen injections, which were great at first, and gave him a year without Rimadyl, then another year of needing it sometimes, and he's now back on Rimadyl daily. He also has Nutradyl daily, and he still has the Cartrophen though it doesn't seem to be helping much now. The specialist said that it wouldn't matter (in terms of the op) whether it was done now or further down the line, so he recommended that we wait until we can no longer manage the pain and decide then. The downside of that is that if we do eventually go ahead with the op and it goes well, he'll have had several years of uneccessary discomfort. But the risks are so great, with the higher chance of the op failing, the logistics of managing his recuperation because of his size (he may have to remain at the vets for several weeks after the op, if we couldn't manage him) and his tendency to become aggressive if he is in a lot of pain. There is so much that could go wrong, I'm not willing to risk it yet. When the time comes to make that decision I just hope I have the emotional strength to do what's right for him. He'll be 5 soon, and we've always said that if he makes it to 6, he'll have had a good innings with all his other health problems. It would be overly optimistic to hope he reaches 8, but I can wish, can't I? So if he is over 6 when the op starts to look like the only option, it might not be in his best interests, with the long recovery period and everything. Sorry, I'm rambling now. It's not an easy decision to make, and all I've managed to do is defer it for a while. I don't think it is ever going to be a clear cut yes or no.

Gone now Could a mod lock this please?

May also be able to get them to Manchester :-)

Not sure whether this is better here or swap shop. Can any rescues or anyone who makes stuff for rescues use a big sack of blankets, duvets (and a few of Sully's scruffy old towels)? They were given to me to pass on, and although they look clean, they are musty so could probably do with a wash. I planned to wash them and then pass them on, but they've been sitting here for months now, and they have to go! Preferably somewhere fairly local (South Yorkshire), though I might be able to take them to Liverpool instead.

There isn't a PDSA in her area, but thank you for the suggestion.

On another (non doggy) forum, someone has recently rehomed a pup from a pound, and within days she was seriously ill. The vet has confirmed Parvo, and the pup is still fighting, but is very ill. She was innoculated the day after she came home, but presumably she was already infected then as she became symptomatic the next day. The dog warden and the pound have been pretty unpleasant about it (the dog warden told her that Pavovirus doesn't really exist anymore!). I said I would ask around and see if anyone knew anything about the pounds in the area, She is also very worried about the vet costs, does anyone know of any agencies or charities who might help with that? I just feel so sorry for her. She is beside herself with worry about the pup, and is concerned that other dogs are going to catch it too, but if the pound won't listen, what else can she do?

At work today I came across this page http://www.mylearning.org/jpage.asp?jpagei...mp;journeyid=73 which talks about a news article from 1851. The last paragraph covers dangerous dogs (and relates to the news article which is the 3rd picture down). I thought you guys might find it interesting.

Ah Mal, he looks like he was having such a great time Billy.

I used to take my old dog on Virgin Trains all the time. The staff were always fine about it. I used to look for the wheelchair seats, because there was plenty of space for him to lie down (obviously I would have moved if someone in a wheelchair needed it!) I also used to watch out for the cheap first class upgrades, it was often only £10 or so more on the London/Liverpool route, and then we had loads of space. The only problem I had was that my dog discovered that if he stood up under the table he was at just the right height to thieve things out of the food bags as people came back from the buffet carriage. First I knew about it was when I caught him scoffing a bacon roll he'd snaffled. I thought someone must have dropped it until the next person past caught him in the act. Thankfully they saw the funny side, but I was mortified.

I was starting to think we'd never get any pics!

I dogsat for a friend who had used them. Her dog pulled on the lead. If he pulled I was supposed to throw chains at his feet, shout BAAAHH and jerk his collar. They also threw water balloons at his feet, and a couple of other things that I don't recall. I couldn't control him, and wasn't willing to jerk him around, so it was all a bit difficult. They gave up that regime in the end and now he walks well on a head halter.

Our old dog was on Rimadyl from when he was about 5, until he died (of bone cancer) in his teens. The vet warned us when he went on it that it could shorten his life, but he had been allowed to wander before he came to us and had been involved in several road traffic accidents, and he needed the pain relief. Having said that, I don't think it did shortern his life particularly, and it did make a huge difference to his quality of life. Now Sully, our current dog, is on Rimadyl as well. A combination of supplements and Cartophen injections have kept him off the Rimadyl for nearly 2 years, but now he needs them again. (It is definitely worth asking your vet about Cartrophen, it truly was a wonder drug for Sully.) At the moment he is on maximum dose of Rimadyl (300mg a day) and although it's keeping him comfortable, he still has bad days. We have pretty much run out of options other than surgery though, so we'll carry on like this a while longer and see how he goes. It would be optimistic to the point of foolishness to hope he will still be with us 5 years from now, I'd like to 3 more years is possible though. If a dog does well on Rimadyl (and not all do) then the likely life-shortening side effects happen over many years of use. As that isn't a huge concern in his circumstances, I go for quality of life over quantity and give him the tablets. Good luck, whatever you decide (but do ask about Cartrophen).

Kissing gates are fine, it's just stiles he struggles with. I think we might have to have a trip up there next time we get a nice day. Thanks for the info!

Ooh that looks lovely! Are they any stiles or things like that there?

I'm sorry it wasn't the news we were all hoping for, but I know you'll do everything to give him the best possible chance.