alicat613

Interesting, so is the liver considered basically a dilute gene? Just wondering, I love all this dog genetics stuff! Yellow, did you ask her (the breeder) why she acquired Seana if the mom wasn't OFA'd? She seems like a good breeder so far, so I'd be interested to know why she chose to get a pup as breeding stock without knowing the moms' results.

You should be able to get diatomaceous earth at a drugstore. Boric acid works on the same principle. Make sure you get diatomaceous earth that doesn't say anything about using it in your pool. I wish I could be more specific, but something I read said there is a kind for use in swimming pools that is not okay to use around pets? If I find the info I'll post it.

Please please do not use the products you are speaking of. They can have devastating effects. Some people use them just fine, but is it worth the risk? We used drugstore products which ended up with a dead kitty, a husband with gigantic hives that lasted for months, and us having to leave our house while it was aired out. Frontline is a great product that can be purchased online. I have used [url]http://www.petpharmacopia.com[/url] to order, great prices and great service. You will also need to vacuum and wash beddings frequently until you rid your house of the fleas. You can sprinkle salt in your carpet and furniture, it dries up any hatching fleas. Vacuum crevices and baseboards as well. Make sure you change the bag right after or else the fleas will just hatch there.

A good diet and overall health help repel fleas. My dog has yet to need any flea control. I had a kitten who came home with fleas (ooh lucky me). He was too young for any flea treatments, even the frontline, etc. So we looked for herbal remedies. There is one method we found where you boil down citrus fruits into a sludge, strain it, and soak your pet in the liquid, then roll the pet in brewer's yeast. DO NOT DO THIS!! It is such a waste of time and messy and you'll have a very sticky and messy pet!! LOL Garlic and brewer's yeast in the diet are supposed to be helpful, but honestly I have not seen the results myself. If your pet already has fleas, bathing drowns a good part of the flea population. Just make sure you really suds him up and get him to sit in there for a bit to drown them, and use a flea comb in the bath. I have also heard that steeping some lemon (with rind) and rosemary in some water makes a nice anti-flea rinse. Of course, fleas are a whole house problem. Boric acid, diatomaceous earth and salt are all things you can sprinkle in your carpets and vaccuum up to kill fleas. It helps to put a flea collar in your vaccuum bag or else that becomes a flea motel too. Good luck! If you do need to go with a more chemical product, stay away from the drugstore stuff it is very toxic. I prefer the topical monthly products like Frontline or Advantage over the internal products like the pill mentioned above, but that's a personal choice. You can discuss the pros and cons with your vet and see what works best for your dog.

Guess I could have noted that they deliver all over the NW and parts of the west. :D I just don't usually recommend the food as it's only available in the lower mainland (Canada) and a small part of the US. I was totally against getting my food delivered at first, but then the shipping was like $5 and heck I think I'd pay a lot more to have it all brought to me!! I hate lugging stuff up all those stairs. Never buy a house on a hill!! I bet my UPS guy is sooo thrilled that I'm homefeeding because I was getting 50 lbs at a time. Anyways, don't you have Petco over there? I love the Natural Balance they sell.

You can use a mix of olive (or almond) oil (1/2 oz) to 400 IU Vitamin E in their ears. This drowns the mites. You put about half a dropper full in the ear and massage. Let your pets shake it out...it is messy...then you can wipe with a cotton ball. Do this every other day for 6 days, then 3 days of "ear rest". Then if you want to get really involved you can use Yellow Dock tincture (herbal). 9 drops to 1 TBLSPN water, and put a half dropper in each ear, every 3 days for 6 weeks. You might also need to bathe them all as the mites sometimes leave the ears for short little vacations, so you might miss a few and then they would just recolonize and you'd be back at the start! Adding garlic and brewer's yeast to the diet is supposed to help with all parasites from fleas to mites, but honestly I've not been impressed. It took us at least a year to quash our flea problem and I didn't see the garlic/yeast helping much. As for your other pets, you'll have to check them all out. The mites may just be opportunistic on your pup (CONGRATS on the new puppy!) and may not be on your other pets. Sorry I don't have an easier method, but the oil does work to help quash them and soothe the ears, so you could do that until you can get to the vet. There are OTC remedies at pet stores that use pyrethins which are safe for most people and pets (they are made from Chrysanthemums) but we did have serious reactions to it in our house. But they are pretty effective on mites.

Hello! I'm near Seattle, WA, USA. My dog is totally my baby, he's almost 5 months and is a Great Dane. He sleeps indoors, usually on the couch, except at night he sleeps in bed with us humans. We try to take two walks. One early afternoon through the woods, about 2.5 miles, then one later before dusk to the park to play with his doggy friends. If we go to the dog park, no walks at all because that tires him out so much! Right now we are only training basics - house and leash manners, strangers, etc. Eventually we would like to have him learn some fun tricks and get therapy certified. My dog is very easy to train with positive methods, praise, treats, love, etc.

Okay, please please forgive me...but I admit I am super tired and just skimmed this. I think the person looking for a food is in the Portland, OR area? Just wanted to add that Pets1st will deliver to your area, and I was really happy with them. I still get supplements and stuff from them now that I home feed. I think total I was paying just under $70 for 50 lbs of food, and they bring it right to your door which is a plus, especially for me, living on a hill! I fed their holistic chicken and rice. [url]http://www.pets1st.com[/url] Other ideas for having food shipped (which is super easy and convenient), check out the stores like petco, petsmart, etc online sites. They have some good prices. Then go to [url]www.google.com[/url] and do searches "petco coupon" and "petco coupons" and you can find coupons good for 15% off or free shipping, etc. It's worth a few minutes effort to get these discounts! Good luck!

Royal Canin has quite a few different lines that vary greatly. We tried their Holistic Blend which looks good, but it seemed very rich. Do you have Petco where you are?

:-? Wasn't meant to be a rude answer! I just said that part about the other page because it helps explain why I was talking about my cats and not my dog. I wish all my pets would eat real food but my cats came from shelters and refuse to eat anything but kibble.

What do you mean? I don't really get the question, sorry!

I think the site doesn't allow you to remote link. I checked him out, very nice looking...for a Dal... :lol: Just teasing ya! So Seana, the future mom, is not a CH yet? Do they expect her to finish before she is bred? I'm not sure about Dal showing but I know many dogs finish when much younger, so I'd want to know why she hadn't finished yet and why they want to breed her before she is finished. You also mention that her parents are CH, what about the rest of the line? Have you been able to see the pedigree? You mention dad to be is a liver, is it common to breed the two colors across? I did see his pedigree for a couple gens on their site. A good idea might be to find a Dal discussion group and inquire on the lines, what people know about them etc. I do have to say that Seana is about the prettiest Dal I've ever seen!

Yes. I already explained on the previous page of this thread that I home feed my dog. My cats prefer kibble, unfortunately. My dog is Parker, you can see him in the thread "Parker Puppy" in the pictures forum. I guess I could/should explain why I felt the kitty statement was relevant. I have two cats, one who has serious allergies to just about everything (food ingredients, air pollutants, fleas, you name it). It's an overall problem that really develops in her skin that we have dealt with for going on two years now. Going through different kibbles, I have seen an amazing difference in her on the Natural Balance. They ate Nutro Naturals kitten for about a year before that, and were okay. Poppy tends to develop bald spots and hot spots and scabs, etc. They were about middle of the road in severity on the Nutro, since she has been on Natural Balance, she has not only cleared up, but her fur is really filling in very plush.

I think any breed can do it, so long as the individual dog has the right traits. My dog's mom (Great Dane) does French Ring very well (which is similar to Schutz) and I know of a few other Danes in FR or Schutzhund. Are you looking to get a dog to begin doing Schutzhund with? I'd try to find a breed that otherwise fits in with the home and other family members, then seek out lines within the breed that have done a lot of sporting.

That's great! I'm not talking about stuff like that when I say OTC remedies. If you can find what the vet uses and you know it works and has been okay with your dogs, then what a find! I just have concern over picking an OTC remedy without knowing a lot about the specific chemicals in it.

Well I know you can put cotton balls in the ears to help keep water out. I've seen this advised for when giving a bath, but I don't know how cooperative Winnie would be about that on a regular basis! I use witch hazel. It's a natural astringent you can buy at the drugstore to clean Parker's ears. I only do it once a week and with a cotton ball, no q-tips. I just gently clean the areas I can reach easily. Then every few weeks I get a little extra withc hazel further down in the ear, and massage the ear base. This cleans out the inner ear, and helps dry it out. Then he shakes his head and gets witch hazel all over! LOL I think once a week is normal for ear cleaning...not sure though. If you smell Winnie's ears and they are stinky, then they definately need a cleaning. Stinky ears are bad! There are all sorts of ear cleaners you can buy at the pet shop, but many have different chemicals in them so check them out before you buy. Many I've seen have pyrethins in them to kill ear mites, which is great if no one is sensitive to the chemical (we can't use pyrethins). There are also some nice all natural ear cleaners on the market. I've also heard of using peroxide (but dogs hate that because it bubbles) or vinegar.

I suppose that someone was me? I was simply trying to answer the question: "I was wondering if there was a natural, home remedy I could give her to kill or slow down the worms until she sees her vet Thursday night." The answers I gave were and are tried and true natural methods of diminishing the worm population in the animal and can help the chemical wormers do the trick. If you do not believe me, check out some books on homeopathic remedies for dogs. Hobbit, I'm glad the red was not meant as I took it. The blue is fine too, although I think I'd like purple best. :D I simply think you are misunderstanding my post. My comment about OTC wormers not killing all types of worms was to inform this person so if they did choose that method to make sure she knew what kind of worms she had and got the right wormer. There are no OTC wormers yet that I know of except through the Jeffers Pet company (catalogue) that are effective with tapeworms. As for fasting, I think you are reading it that a short fast will kill some species of worms, that is not what I meant. A short fast on a healthy animal who is not being overwhelmed by worms can weaken some of the worms (of any species) that are in the animal and can help remove some of them. Coupled with the other methods I listed, garlic, the addition of grated vegetables and pumkin seeds, after a short fast, and adding these things in to the animals food before and after the fast, these ingredients irritate the worms further and help eliminate some more of the worms. This helps the wormer at the vet be more effective. I personally would never recommend an OTC remedy from Walmart (or any such type store). I have had terrible experiences with OTC chemicals, which while rare, do happen. The loss of my kitty and the health issues that lasted months in my (human) family and other cat will never again be worth the risks of using such harsh chemicals in my home. I know many people have great results with some of these treatments, but they do carry risks. And if someone can't afford to go to the vet for a worming, there are low cost clinics all over, including in Petsmart themselves. I can't tell you how expensive that little bottle of Hartz flea control was, both financially and emotionally.

Well I did leave out a lot of negatives! Yes, they can be stubborn. Parker always sits for me, but I could cook a roast while he does it LOL. He takes his sweet time about it! Most Danes are easy to train, but when you get one who isn't, look out! It's tough to make a dog that big do what you want!! Oh yeah, another negative...big dogs = big poops and lots of big poops!

It's funny you ask...as I was reading what you liked about Dals, I noticed many I didn't and was thinking how much I prefer my Dane! :) I like Great Danes a lot because of trainability. They don't have the drive and instinct that many breeds do. I admit that while I am fairly capable, I don't want training to be difficult! Danes are good learners, and very motivated - food, and praise. They are great in obedience, except they can be a little sassy - mine talks back to me sometimes, but it's hard not to laugh! That's the real clincher with Danes - their personality. Danes are just so funny. Everyone of them I've met or heard about has many funny quirks and habits that make them so much more lovable. They sit funny, they lean, they roo roo very cutely, they get scared of silly things. In general, they're pretty goofy dogs. Danes are also at the middle in activity levels. Of course, it ranges from dog to dog, but Danes are generally nowhere as active as a lab. They pretty much have spurts of activity. That's great for me. I like to do a few walks a day, but no running! They love you TONS (literally haha) but they don't always have to be right by you. I like my dogs to love me, but it's nice that they can go entertain themselves. I think it's good that Parker is not entirely dependent on me for entertainment. They're also very clean. I swear, Parker gets mud on him and it wipes right off. They shed very little, only once or twice a year. Good with small animals is also important. No cat eaters LOL. Most Danes don't have much of a prey drive, which is good because I do like my kitties! And of course, their looks! I adore their size and floppy ears and big beautiful eyes and hound faces. They're the prettiest dogs to me!

Great questions Yellow! The dogs on that site look very nice. Don't know a lot about Dals though! So, what exactly attracts you so much to this breed?

It should not be expensive. With fecal exam, vet exam, and two Dane size doses of Strongid, when Parker went to be wormed as a pup is came to $40 I think? Maybe $60? Get your money's worth - before you go, make sure you write down any questions at all you have had about his health, anything you are concerned about etc.

I didn't hear that about PH either. Hmm. Poofy, I now understand you were saying that just because a dog is 2 doesn't mean it should be bred either. Gotcha and agree!

[quote name='Hobbit'][quote name='alicat613']The over-the-counter remedies do not work for all kinds of worms. Also it's good to get the puppy checked out at the vet. [color=red][b]OTC dewormers; Pyrantel Pamoate is the same chemical that you can obtain from a vet. It will kill round and hook worms. [/b][/color] A short fast (not a full day for a puppy) on liquids (chicken broth, water) will kill some worms. They get food from the pup, and if the pup has no food...neither do they. [b][color=darkred]I have never heard of this. Please tell me which species of worms this will kill. If this is true, then Coyotes and Wolves would be worm free. Not being sarcastic, but since this is a public forum...I would hate for someone to read this and then instead of deworming their dogs/puppies, they just withheld their food. Worms are parasites, most live off blood (not food the animal eats). [/color][/b] [/quote] [color=red]Personally, I would rather see someone go to Wal-mart (the evil place) and purchase "Old Lassie" dewormer (which is Pyrantel Pamoate), before they withheld food, waited any length of time, or didn't deworm at all. An infestation of Hook worms can be fatal to the puppy.[/color][/quote] WOW. You people need to learn to read, as in each word, rather than skipping half and seeing what you want. If you had read what I said thoroughly there would be no need for all this tacky red font. As I said, "The over-the-counter remedies do not work for all kinds of worms." The do not kill tapeworms. "Also it's good to get the puppy checked out at the vet." I don't feel that novice owners should try to treat all their own problems with OTC. Going to the vet is good. Your statement about wild canines is ridiculous. I never said a short fast kills all worms. Again, if you had read correctly - "A short fast (not a full day for a puppy) on liquids (chicken broth, water) will kill [b]some[/b] worms. They get food from the pup, and if the pup has no food...neither do they. Again, no danger of people simply withholding food, for if again, you had read correctly, you'd note I said short (not a full day) and that it will kill SOME worms. I do not believe in simply loading a dog with chemicals. I personally choose herbal remedies which have far less toxic effects and work just as well. The advice I gave are supplemental things you can do to help a wormer be most effective as many times a pup must be wormed twice to get all the worms. These SAFE and effective methods can help reduce and weeaken the worms to make whatever method you use more effective at eliminating them completely.

Did you check out the bullmastiff national club? Usually the national clubs have a list of things to check for, health testing pertinent to the breed etc. What part of the country are you in? Sometimes it just takes time! I waited a long time to find the perfect breeder and get my puppy, and although the wait almost drove me batty (seriously LOL I dreamed puppy constantly!), it was soo worth it in the end. When she finally whelped and when we waited those last 8 weeks, and we finally got to bring our baby home, it was sooo exciting! So what have these breeders said to you? No pups, or have they told you when their next breeding is and how to get on a list for one of the pups? Are you willing to wait for a pup, or were you trying to find a good breeder who has one available now? (kinda hard)

Oh Koolie, I'm so sorry you had to go through that. It's so hard to lose a pet after a good long life, I can't imagine dealing with it so early. But I know he had a wonderful and happy life, and passed on knowing he was loved.