Gun Dog Forum

Taylor_B

Hi All I'll preface this post with a note that we do have a vet appointment scheduled, so this will all be reviewed by our veterinarian. I'm just curious if anyone has any insight. Over the past week or two, our one dog (9YO) has just been seeming down and out. Lethargic, moping around, decreased ap...

Taylor_B

Hi all! I had posted a few months back about how our family was presented with the opportunity to adopt a young Slovakian Rough Haired Pointer. Before adding him to our crew, we did our research on the breed, contacted the breeder who bred him, as well as the breeder/trainer for his mother (who pers...

Taylor_B

Thank you guys for the insight. I do appreciate it. We're gonna go meet with him on Sunday for introductions to the dogs and the kids. If he seems like a pretty friendly pup, we are considering adding him to the family. A little stressful for sure, but could be a great opportunity at what I'm readin...

Taylor_B

Hi all - My husband and I were recently presented with an opportunity to add another dog to our family. We presently have two family/hunting dogs: a 9-year-old Labrador/Weimaraner mix and an 8-year-old English Setter. Both are still in good health (Thank God!) and actively hunt with us come the West...

Taylor_B

Hi All My brother took his lab to the vet recently for some lameness in her hip. His vet said she was overweight (she's 78lbs) and that he needs to put her on a prescription weight control food. Now ... that being said, his pup is stout and thick. But she's active. She gets out daily for walks and r...

Taylor_B

Thanks for the insight! So we went ahead and made the drive to consult with our prior vet that we had been seeing before we moved. They took x-rays and confirmed the following: -She has early degenerative changes consistent with a partial tear to her ACL. -Her hips are not perfect, but not bad at al...

Taylor_B

Hi All - Figured this gang would have some good insight/advice. Our Lab/Weim mix is 6 years old (7 in March). During her past 3 hunts here in western PA, she's been limping pretty good on her back left leg for about 3 to 4 days afterwards. During the hunt, she's all business. Couldn't slow her up if...

Taylor_B

Be careful with those raw soup bones. Slab fractures. $$$. Specialty vet practice for extracting otherwise big giant healthy molars. On two dogs. Bad! If you try non-weight bearing bones like ribs you can limit time and place to eliminate the kiddos getting into them and the dog getting impacted. H...

Taylor_B

So cooked/boiled and smoked bones can become brittle from the cooking process. Raw bones, on the other hand, do not become brittle (they retain some flexibility) and are more easily digested (that said, dogs can still take hunks off of a raw bone as well...so anytime we feed those, we opt for the lo...

Taylor_B

Hi all Looking for recommendations for safe, long lasting chews? Our Lab/weim can chew through practically anything in a very short period of time. I've used antlers in the past, but I worry about her breaking teeth on them. She gnaws through a bully stick in a matter of minutes, and we don't feed a...

Taylor_B

Thanks guys. much appreciated. I will look into the horse spray. And yea, unfortunately, here in PA, they are awful at the start of pheasant season and hang around until we get some consistent frigid temps. On average, as soon as we bring the dogs in from a hunt, we're plucking a crapload of ticks o...

Taylor_B

Hi All Well it's early fall, which in our part of Pennsylvania means that the ticks are in full swing. The nasty things are everywhere. And when the dogs get out for a hunt, we find them crawling ALL OVER THEM when they get home. After being out in the field, we go over them with flea combs and pick...

Taylor_B

Thank you for the note - I had never heard of that until now.
I will certainly keep it in mind.

Taylor_B

Alrighty - thanks guys.
Yes - both of our dogs are current on their vaccines and regularly receive flea and tick meds.
I appreciate the replies - gives me peace of mind!

Taylor_B

Hi all Opinions needed here: This evening when we took the dogs out in the yard, i could hear a critter crying right as we opened the gate. I assumed it was a young groundhog as we have many out this way this time of year. Needless to say, as we got down in the yard, both dogs headed for the creek.....

Taylor_B

Hi gang Looking for ideas to heal some hotspots between toes of our setter. In both cases, it seems like his nail is rubbing on the pad (nails are maintained regularly). Hes been dealing with allergies this summer so his pads are inflamed, possibly a little swelling could have initiated the rubbing....

Taylor_B

Hi gang We have a 4yo setter who has to be the pickiest eater. We've tried numerous kibble types...he will eat one for a while, then get sick of it and refuse to eat. We've tried waiting him out...he will eventually eat, but the problem is keeping weight on him in the mean time. He certainly isnt re...

Taylor_B

Hi there! Usually her nail cracks/splits up the toe, so we can grind off the sharp edges, but we can't actually grind out the crack since it goes the length of her toenail. The vet warned against gluing it for fear of gluing in anything that could cause infection. That said, at this point, I've cons...

Taylor_B

Hi All So this whole situation started about a year ago. Our one dog came inside and we noticed that her one toenail had a vertical crack. It had split from the bottom the entire way up beyond the hairline. We went to the vet and they said that all they could do was cut the nail as short as possible...

Taylor_B

Thank you - Exactly what you describe is what she seems to be going through. She allows us to touch it, but indicates some discomfort when we manipulate it at all (no yelps or growls, just turns her head back and nibbles at it). I don't seem to notice any swelling. Gonna give it a few days and see i...

Taylor_B

Hi All Question about Limber Tail: We live in Western PA for the past few days, we've been hammered with rain (3 days straight of constant rain) and cooler, fall-like temps (Which is actually a nice reprieve from the 90+ degree heat wave we were dealing with last week). Needless to say the dogs were...

Taylor_B

Thanks all - I'm going to being comparing a Wysong Anergen product and the Purina Pro Plan product to see which one we like better. Thanks again for the suggestions

Taylor_B

Hi there!
Thank you - unfortunately, there is poultry by-product meal in that food

total bummer because I've looked at them before and considered a switch, but it's not worth the risk of her being as sick as she was when she was last on a kibble with poultry in it.
Thanks again, though!

Taylor_B

Hi folks after reviewing quite a few studies on the whole grain-free situation, I'm hoping to switch one of our dogs off of a grain free food (she wasn't on it because of the grain free factor - just more because she had been dealing with digestive issues for sometime, and it was one she enjoyed tha...

Taylor_B

Posting on behalf of my brother who doesn't have an account: He has a one-year-old female lab who is otherwise healthy; typical lab pup: endless energy; bouncing off the walls with excitement. He's noticed though that after bouts of exercise (especially playing fetch with her tennis ball): After jus...

Taylor_B

Thanks again all.
We've tried a "Glandex" supplement in her food and her bum licking has greatly decreased.
It's not a permanent solution, but it's working for now. That said, if she continues to have issue going forward, a further consult with the vet may be in our future!

Taylor_B

Hi All
Thanks for the insight.
We will try to regularly express them on a bi-weekly basis if we notice licking her backside more often.
I purchased a powder that we'll add to her food once a day to try and firm up her poops a little bit, so we'll see if that works.
Thanks again!

Taylor_B

Hi Folks - Figured I'd put this out there to see if anyone had insight on this particularly smelly issue. Our one dog has had some recurring anal gland issues: We'll have them expressed, and then within a month or two, she's back to licking her bum and stinking all the time. Her poop is solid, but i...

Taylor_B

Hi All - Sorry for the slow update on this! We recently had a baby, in addition to our furbabies! So I've been a bit busy! Needless to say: The split nail did eventually correct itself. It has remained relatively short since the "bit trim" at the vet. It does not seem to cause her any additional pai...

Taylor_B

Hi All - Question about a cracked toe nail: We recently found a cracked toenail on our one dog. The crack goes the entire length of her one toe nail - even up beyond the hairline where her nail goes into her toe. We took her to the vet and they said that since the crack originates at the tip of her ...

Taylor_B

Hi All My Aunt and Uncle have a 2 year old Beagle. In the past year, she's had 3 UTI's, and repeated urine testing shows crystals in her urine despite repeated bouts of antibiotics. The vet recently recommended changing her diet to the prescription C/D food. Not only is the food exceptionally pricey...

Taylor_B

We went through this with our male setter as well. We'd go months without an accident, and then all of a sudden - he was peeing in the house again! Drove my husband and I NUTS. We got ours at 7 months old though (He was dumped at 6 months old at a shelter after his original owners thought he had "to...

Taylor_B

Hi Brady We live in Western PA, and yes, we do have foxtail nearby. Luckily, after starting antibiotics, our guy recovered from his pneumonia. He was cleared just before the start of pheasant season to be back in the field (however, we've only taken him intermittently as the vet suggested just allow...

Taylor_B

I have an 11mo old GSP. He had kennel cough around 8mo old from some of the dogs in the park. The kennel cough sounded uncongested to my ears. It was very dry/hacking with no phlegm. He's got a cough right now (that's going away) that's a little more congested/phlemgy. When he had kennel cough the ...

Taylor_B

Any more news Taylor B. ? Hi All! Yes - we have an update. I called a second vet and they were able to take him this evening. He has pneumonia, which both we, and the vet, were all very surprised by, considering his energy levels and personality appear to be totally normal, aside from his cough (wh...

Taylor_B

I'm surprised that your vet isn't more urgent about the situation. Best of luck. Hi there! Do you think there might be reason to be considerably more concerned? If so, I can call a second vet and see if we're able to get him in there before Thursday? I certainly don't want him to develop pneumonia ...

Taylor_B

ezzy333 wrote:If your birds have been in a flight pen together for a while, they will tend to recall and probably tend to stick around.

I wasn't sure if they would have that tendency or not! If so, that's a good thing! Might get a use or two out of them just because of that!
thank you!

Taylor_B

About 2 or 3 weeks ago, we started to notice our 1.5 year old setter developing an intermittent cough. Nothing serious and didn't affect his energy/mood at all. At the time, it was prime allergy season in Western PA, so we figured that, since his energy levels appeared to be OK and he wasn't produci...

Taylor_B

Hmm, did the OP perhaps grow fond of the chicks she raised? Hi there! We think they're BEAUTIFUL! But we'd still be OK with letting them go! We were just hoping there might be some shred of hope that we could use them a few times, just because we don't have a bird farm right nearby, and so once the...

Taylor_B

Well, I see you have no replies so I'll say : I know of no way to use pheasants a second time unless they survive in the field / area you are using. Even in dog trials the hawks have almost all before day 5.The dog needs to see the bird either shot or fly away. I can't imagine how a harness would b...

Taylor_B

Hi All Quick question: My husband and I purchased 10 pheasant chicks from a local farm this past spring and raised them for the purpose of getting in some bird time, particularly with our younger dog, before the upcoming season. this will be his first season pheasant hunting - we've introduced him t...

Taylor_B

Looks like he truly is just a rather thin set pup, who has a crazy metabolism that burns through the calories we're feeding him. .... resulting in episodes of low blood sugar. He may continue to have some issues until he gets a little more "meat on his bones", and his body gets used to mobilizing h...

Taylor_B

Hi All! Finally got to the bottom of this whole problem. Several hundred dollars worth of bloodwork later...all is well. So the lethargic, strange shaking behavior end up resolving itself after a course of antibiotics. The vet is assuming he had ingested something bad (Whether or it was stagnant pon...

Taylor_B

low blood sugar Hi Dog Dr - is there a specific blood test we should have to have the evaluated? While at the vet, he had the following blood work: CBC CHEM 15 W/ Lites CHEM 15 Catalyst Catalyst Lyte 4 Clip (not sure what all of that means, but she said she was gonna do a full blood workup) None of...

Taylor_B

I had much the same experience as cj, only in the opposite direction, having noticed changes from feeding a Purina product and correcting them by going to Diamond EA. Some dogs just do better on different formulas. And to make this not an indictment of Purina, two of my older dogs are on Purina Bri...

Taylor_B

Since I changed my older dogs to Purina Pro Plan Performance there stools have changed dramatically in amount and consistency. I can feed the amount I need to put weight on the dogs. Some eat eight cups a day. It took about six weeks to see the weight gain but it has been amazing. Now I have to cut ...

Taylor_B

I've looked into the seizures - and noticed that the grand mal seizures are the severe, dramatic ones. I was feeling more concerned about the less obvious ones, but I honestly might just be a worrier when it comes to my dogs! That said, I'll have his anal glands checked out at our followup with the ...

Taylor_B

Hi All Looking for some insight here! We have a 1.5 year old English Setter who is an absolute bundle of energy. The past few days, we've noticed some very strange behavior. On Sunday, we were outside in the evening, doing our normal evening time outside (usually out for about 1 or 2 hours). the dog...

Taylor_B

Both of the Earthborn foods mentioned in the orignal post, the 26/15 and the 38% higher protein option are both grain free and are in the "natural holistic" line of foods. But there was mention that the higher protein food caused digestive upset so that wasn't really an option. Hi All - Thank you f...

Taylor_B

Thank you - I get worried when the vet looks at him like he's malnourished, and tells me he should be getting an unrealistic amount of calories. She suggested anywhere between 3500 to 6400....that just seems extreme unless we're running/hunting him hard...all day. We'll give him a little extra and s...

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