Pets
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Wish I was a dog. My dog to be exact
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Paco.
Coolest animal I've ever had or lived with.
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No joke my previous boss looked like a hairless cat.
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This French Bulldog is going to the be death of me.
Housebreaking him has been a challenge. Doesn't help that has chronic UTIs.
Last week he was peeing on the floor again. Great, my first thought is another goddamn UTI.
He rolled over for a belly rub and I notice two masses on either side of his penis just posterior to the base.
Wait, that's weird, he's fixed. and it's too high…?!?
Crap, he must have a lymph node blockage or he's backed up because of a urethral blockage. Probably not cancer because it's bilaterally symmetrical. Also, came out of nowhere, he didn't have those yesterday.
Wife rushes him to the vet, who proceeds to laugh at her uncontrollably.
Apparently they're glands that swell up to keep him locked in place when he meets "a special friend."
I miss my Rottweiler.
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I miss my Rottweiler.
I feel you. Losing a pet is terrible… it like losing a family member.
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@shego we have been feeding our older dog, Berkeley, who’s now 10 with raw and a handful of kibble that is made locally. Berkeley was allergic to most things, but not with raw. We’re using the same approach with our little pup.
If you decide on kibble make sure you try to avoid ones with pea protein or ones that use very little…it effects the animals taurine uptake and can lead to heart issues.
This is my golden rule: food is not like medicine it is medicine. In other words, buy the best possible food you can and avoid the vet.
What kind of puppers are you getting?
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I'd love to go raw eventually, but at the beginning looking at stuff like: https://www.frescodog.co.uk/dry-raw-food?p=1
He's a mutt, rescuing from a family friend who runs a shelter/neutering program in Bulgaria. So just trying to consider things in advance!
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Thanks both!
He's 18-24months. Abandoned in a village near to the rescue.. they don't know why he was abandoned but it's pretty common over there. Mostly 'we were bored of the dog', or 'we can't afford it'. They reckon he was treated pretty well as he's good with doggos/humans, used to house life, chilled and confident.
@DougNg - in the current situation yup, given most borders are closed. But usually fairly easy within Europe.. pet passport, list of vaccines and checks - they can then travel easily. The shelter usually does a road trip with 15-20 dogs at a time every 6-8 weeks. The usually do it over 3-4d, but the last trip (2 weeks ago) back from UK to Bulgaria took 7-8 as every time they hit a border it was in the process of closing down due to COVID19. So yeh.. could be a few months before he makes his way over!
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Poor little guy. That sucks.
A lifetime ago I was dating a Turkish girl with dual citizenship with England. She was stateside because she was a Fulbright scholar. We were entertaining the idea of moving to the UK together with our cats, and the procedure was a monstrous pain. Obviously none of this actually happened.
I get the feeling you’re going to have to feel this one out. At two they might be past the puppy stage. With that being said, I hear nothing but good things about raw diets. We dont, but probably should since my princess is 110lbs and should be about 95
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I feel you. Losing a pet is terrible… it like losing a family member.
My former sister in-law used to be a veterinarian and she euthanized our dog when the time came. Must’ve been just as hard for her as it was for us. She’s now an epidemiologist working for the department of health.
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A number of our vets have asked us if there were any open positions within the FDA. They couldn't take euthanizing dogs anymore.
The owner of the veterinary hospital we go to and his wife came to our house to send Hex off. It was a very comforting service.
When I told Hex "We love you, you don't need to worry about us, we're going to be ok" they both completely lost it.
We keep his ashes in the living room, I still leave french fries in his bowl once a week. Jody cleans them up after a couple days, she never says anything to me. -
@Chap I'm sorry to hear about your loss.
I've been considering getting a dog, and it seems like a good time at the moment. I'm not working, and if or when I pick up another job, it's likely to be at home for the foreseeable future.
The first thing that I've found is that breeders seem to make life difficult! It's not always a case that you can just buy a dog, but rather there are things like co-ownership (I've heard of dogs being taken back), restrictions on what you can or cannot do (such as taking a pup overseas), and then the whole full and partial registration of a puppy.
Then I'm realising the limitations of my knowledge. I've not been holding a leash correctly, have no idea about socialisation of pups, and have never trained one before!
The breeds that I'm looking at are both rare: The Xoloitzcuintli (about 10,000 worldwide) and the Peruvian Inca Orchid Dog (about 1,000 worldwide). Surprisingly in Australia there are two Xolo litters that were born a month ago, and there was a Peruvian mating a couple of weeks back, which will hopefully lead to puppies.
However, both of these are primitive dogs, which means that they came about due to natural selection, rather than being the product of a breeding programme. These breeds are more independent, harder to train, and less sociable as a result.
One of the breeders said that it's important for these breeds to be heavily socialised during puppyhood, so they don't grow up to be fearful of, and possibly aggressive to, strangers. This got me worried, as I'm autistic, and being social can sometimes be difficult for me.
But I did a bit of digging, and the characteristics of primitive dogs sound more like someone who's on the spectrum. In fact, I found an article about an autistic girl who got a Basenji from a shelter, and the partnership really worked for them. (Basenjis are an ancient Congolese breed of sighthounds.) So maybe I've got this.
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they both look good @Graeme , the Peruvian especially.
