phoenix21

Hi Phoenix was diagnosed with spondylosis a few years ago. She is fine so long as she isnt walked for more than an hour at a time otherwise she goes a bit wonky ;-) if i do take her a long walk i tend to give her a bit of metacam that night to reduce any inflamation that may occur. Our old dog molly also had it and towards the end I used to give her metacam and supplements including green lipped mussel and cortaflex plus a bioflow collar. I made the mistake this summer of thinking phoenix was fine again and started taking her out running with me but it soon started affecting her back and back legs (stupid me) so I just take her 2 walks a day. 1 in the morning for 20 min and in the evening between 30 and 45 mins and that suits her fine and she shows no symptoms. She is worse if she walks for long periods on tarmac, but can walk much further soley on grass. Hope Cassie is ok xxx

Hi Dont know if any one on here volunteers or works for Great Ayton in Middlesbrough? I was just looking for some info. Basically, the kennels near my mum and dad in cumbria took in 12 dogs that the RSPCA had taken into their care. Around 3 weeks ago one of the ladies that works at the kennels contacted my parents about one of these dogs. She knew my mum and dad had lost their black lab, molly, 14 months previously so was wondering if they were interested in a male yellow lab they had in. We went down to see him and my mum decided that she would like to have him although they were going on holiday at the end of the week so couldnt do anything until after then. It then emerged that the yellow lab was one of 6 dogs that the owner had not signed over to the RSPCA and so they would need to follow court procedures to get them signed over. THe kennels gave the RSPCA my parents number to ring when there was any news and i think my parents were under the assumption that the dog would remain at the kennels near them until then. I went to pick our cats up from the same kennels today prior to my parents returning home on Monday and they said that the dog had now been moved to Great Ayton. I just want to make sure that the dog hasnt been rehomed or anything yet as he was ideal for my parents. I think he was registered by the RSPCA as being called Sandy and is around 2 years old, unneutered male. I will try and ring the centre tomorrow but wanted to see if on the off chance anyone worked there on here and could let me know so i can tell my parents what is happening. Thanks very much Vicky xxx

aw he looks gorgeous -lovely pics

ooo lovely to catch up on news - hope loki is settling in well.. ive just come back from a fab jumping lesson - not jumped for ages to was really good! myself and a work collegue found a lovely large school to ride at about 40 min away but horses are really good and not usual 'school' horses but its just gone into administration so not sure how long it will stay open for :-( such a shame. am going to go back and proberly read peoples news now!

on the what?

ooo lots of lovely lovely cats!! havent been on here for ages!!! am missing out! I have one cat at the moment - Murphy - my flat mate is a vet nurse and he was brought into the vets to be PTS. his owner had altzymers and kept forgetting to feed him so he was pretty skinny when we got him. Hes around 11 and has chronic renal failure although has put on almost 3kg since he came to live with us about 6mths ago!!!

wow he looks great! haha that was a humungous spook he put in there!! just back from a ride at stables where used to work - took one of the horses out who has been gradually coming back into work after problems with nerves in his back.....now he is normally hard to stop.... he was fine behind the other horse but then (silly me) decided i wanted to go in front for the canter - i moved along side the other horse and was trying to get in front when the both just went....my friend was on sunny who tanks but runs out of energy quickly.....my friend was shouting 'vicky can you stop?' i was like er does it look like it lol was using all strength to at least steady up a bit! wouldnt be so bad but he puts his head right down as well and so was just praying he didnt put a buck in as well! was fun thou :-0

last time i got phoenix a bone from the butchers she actually ate bits of the bone she had managed to bite off and was sick, then when she went for a poo she was yelping in pain as the fragments had just gone straight through whole.....needless to say she doesnt get them any more except for the bones you get from pets at home.

ooo excellent....need pics of new place when you move! good luck with everything

run free sweetheart

thank you for all comments....strangely not as sad as i thought i would be - more relived shes not suffering any more and is finally at peace. Apparantly she was sleeping when the vet came and so wont have known anything about it, i think it was the right time x

phoenix gets mistaken for a puppy all the time (even labrador puppy ) then when i say shes 7 shes suddenly not so cute...its like oh shes just misbehaved hee hee....(shes not really just very excitable) one guy wouldnt believe she was a staffie as well - he was like so whats she crossed with, i replyed no shes just a staffie....no but what else does she have in her....err shes just a friggin staffie!!!

My mum has been worrying about molly past few weeks. she had got increasingly incontinent and her legs were getting worse. She didnt recognise use when we came home and we decided the best thing for her was to let her go....she was nearly 14....The vet came on thursday and confirmed it was the best thing for her. shes buried in our garden......sweet dreams molly dog.

Duke and Squeek look bloomin good for their age!! Was jumping ziggy this week although i think need to take him back to basics. when he approaches the jump he snatches the reins and rushes. tried putting pole in front but he just took off before it am i right in thinking need to go back to trotting poles and very small jump making him trot over them and the jump to teach him not to rush so much? he wears a running martingale and happy mouth and flash. when trotting he carries his head high in the air until he has cantered then he is much more collected. Owner is away all this week so going to try and go up more and work on him weather permitting!! getting a little fed up that there is no hacking...(well there is but need trailer to get to hours of hacking in forests) i think if he was hacked out regularly it would burn some energy. apparantly he is unstoppable if he canters on hack but i think this is because he isnt hacked out and so when he is its all really exciting. Angel - throw a sickie....its the only way ;-) x

wow how did this thread get to 200 pages!!! some catching up! still riding ziggy (just off up there now infact) just moved yards to a new livery yard with a huge school and an indoor one too :-) am armed with some schooling exercises from your horse to do today ;-) although they never quite work how you want them too - ziggy normally goes round with his head high in the air until hes worked for a while...really need to get some more lessons to improve i think! will catch up on everyones news later

aw adorable!! that whoo is me look is such a staffie thing - phoenix has it down to a tee it would be hard to resist such a cutie

Aw hope hes ok

Shes fine now thankfully! must have just been one of those things. just taken her out with me running and was very bouncy and lively - back to her old self thanks for support

oo lovely pic jacky! good luck with riding lesson - am sure you will have lots of fun but be prepared to be slightly sore for the few days after ;-) I saw grey throughbred last sun and took him in the school for a little while...he seemed very nice - jogged a bit but felt safe. Owner is lovely and said could ride him whenever as she doesnt have time and any time she does have is taken up with her youngster. She also has a mare in foal who she has said i can ride once back in work as well.... its a bit of a trek to get there but with no set days i have to go etc i dont mind. She sent me a pic to my phone which i will attempt to put on here!! his name is ziggy and i think about 11 or 12.

Phoenix was poorly last weekend and until about weds with bad diahorrea (sp). The vets said a bug was going round and gave her an antibiotic injection, some doggy yakult stuff in tablet form ;-) and antibiotic tablets to take. Since the vets on the monday i gave her little meals of mashed potato and chicken with tablets which she ate well. She was been fine since tues diahorrea wise and has in the last few days been her normal self. When i came home from work today she had raided the bin (not much in it) since lunch. - she hasnt done this since she was a puppy!!!! She had pulled out package of empty dog food packet (think had a little bit left in) and empty ham packet and licked clean. Tonight she has eaten her tea, done normal toilet but she is EXTREMELY quiet and has taken herself off to bed without a walk which is really not like her.... I gave her her tea anyway as normal with antibiotic tablet as she hasnt finished them yet and she ate that fine.....do you think she maybe just has a bit of belly ache from bin raid? Today is also the first day i have given her totally her normal food (have been gradually changing it back to normal)....there is nothing wrong with her as such just really really quiet..... advice? thank you!!!

hi everyone - been trying to catch up with the news but almost impossible!! have been liking all the piccies esp donkey foal soo cute!! I am off to try out a 16hh grey throughbred tomorrow. The lady has 3 horses and is concentrating her time on her youngster hence no time for this one. She says i can come and ride him whenever i want (for free as well which is great as cant afford to share). at the moment he is just schooled by a nice trainer guy once a week (who i am going to watch in action tomorrow!). Slightly apprehensive as havent ridden for a month or so and in the past probably 3 months the only thing i have ridden is a 13.2 pony so could be interesting!! She says he is a typical throughbred, dances about etc but she has never come off him so we shall see how it goes!! I will try to keep up todate more!

am in glasgow - will keep eye open....know some people in kirkintilloch so will ask them to keep a look out x

aw i love hairy ponies! RSPCA inspector phoned me yesterday to let me know that the pony had been taken into the vets by its owners for treatment so thats good

i think i will. Went back to check on the pony just now and still in same place lying down but then got up when I went over then managed to graze a bit.

RSPCA inspector rang me back. The horse is known to them and apparantly the owner is working with the vet to try and keep the pony going. Surely it should be stabled though - its feet look slightly overgrown certainly doesnt look like pony has seen farrier recently. The inspector is going to contact the owner again and go out to the field but thinks the pony will need to be pts