Recent content by Opus

He is feeling great. By treating it aggressively, he was over it in less than a week with no apparent ill effects. He is SO happy to be feeling good again. HGE is a non-specific condition with no known cause, so if your girl had bloody diarrhea and vomit that seems to qualify. Translated...

She had the cranial ligament surgery - canine version of the human acl - a complete tear the first time and a partial the second. It didn't involve screws or repositioning the kneecap but they did reshape the socket to help stabilize the joint and maybe prevent it from happening again. As I...

I won't call it "advice" but I will share my experience on this: #2 daughter has a female who had this procedure about 6 years ago. Bella would go running with daughter & fiancee when they rode their bikes around the neighborhood and pulled up lame one day. The were referred to a team of...

We had our first encounter with this last week. Hemorrhagic gastroenteritis. I had never heard of the affliction until then. Started about Friday with general lethargy and some of the most toxic gas ever. Saturday came and Spike didn't want to eat and was restless. Wanted to go out and...

Well, I guess our Bella isn't so strange after all. We knew she had food issues when we got her because she was seriously underweight. She will eat ANYTHING that strikes her fancy and the other night it was a bar of yummy-smelling cocoa butter soap that my daughter had left on her bed after...

Debbie, I did notice one particular thing in your story - both dogs were leashed. I am told that this can actually make dogs a bit more aggressive under certain circumstances. They feel threatened when they are restrained, even more so when the other dogs are not. Our parks specify that dogs...

I've never known of a dog that DIDN'T like beer. It seems to go back to pre-historic times when beer was one of the first uses of grain and man and dog were just establishing their relationship. Dogs helped man hunt game and man shared the kill and their beer with the dogs. It's been that way...

Both of ours were adopted adults and I wouldn't have it any other way. Spike (our boxer/lab male) came from the local Humane Association shelter. Bella was a 1 y/o girl that some rather unpleasant neighbors weren't caring for properly. #2 daughter (who speaks Spanish) walked over there one...

There are three in Nashville. Shelby Park, Edwin Warner Park, and West End Park, adjacent to Centennial. It's a matter of taste. We like Edwin Warner because it's wide open and plenty of parking. The downside is not much shade and not much grass left. It gets muddy when it rains (what's...

Our Bella recently ate a flyswatter. Actually, not the whole thing - just the plastic part. And then chucked it up the next morning. What could she have been thinking?

Of all our 5 cars, our guys love my daughter's ancient ('87) Volvo wagon the best. They curl up together on its bench back seat or one will get over in the back when they "need their space." They realy think it's their car.

I don't think there's anything short of sedation (lol) that would matter. The tail wagging is a completely involuntary response and I doubt it can be "trained out." Our Spike has his full tail - 13" of pure pain- and my brother-in-law (a cop) says that his tail would make a better self-defense...

I guess the only real distinction I could make is that the males will probably end up bigger. All things being equal - as in same litter - you can expect a few inches and several pounds more bulk in the male of the breed. As a verrrrry broad generalization - the female will often end up a...

That would be a terrible injury but I had a dog as a kid that suffered a similar one. I had a sort of a beagle mix (a hound of some variety) that roamed all over our rural TN. area. He suddenly stopped eating and drinking and would stand over his food bowl and whine and paw at it but...

Spike does this when he is being affectionate. The girls call it "petting Daddy" and I think that's exactly what it is. We "pet" him with our hands and he wants to reciprocate. After several scrapes and a scratched eyeglass lens, I've learned to anticipate these strokes and catch them on my...