PETS Thread

[Merciel]

Congrats bluemovers!

And good luck buboclot.

[bluemovers]

thanks! he's ~4 months old and obviously a beagle mix. they aren't sure what he's mixed with, they said he's "small but with slightly longer legs than a purebred beagle." hmm.

[kit fox]

Aw yeah bluemovers, hes got similar markings/face to my little guy
those pics are making the urge to leave work and go play fetch really difficult to control

I ordered a DNA test kit for fun, should be interesting to see what comes of it

[bluemovers]

i'm such a curious person, i feel like i will have to know what mix he is.

i need to go out back today and survey our fence for possible escape routes. i know that they are notorious for wandering off on a scent and getting lost. so happy to have a fenced in backyard for him, though.

[Merciel]

You'll never know for sure what the mix is.

The DNA tests are, as kit fox suggested, just for fun. The results are supposedly getting better year by year, but they're still wildly inconsistent. If you submit multiple samples from the same dog, they'll come back as different things.

If I had to guess, I'd say your little guy is beagle/pit (he's pretty muscular for a 4-month-old) but it's always just a guess with mystery mutts.

[mouse pad]

bit of controversy on the BARF mailing list because the AMVA is set to disapprove of raw diets- http://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/articles/very-bad-news-for-raw-feeders.html

don't think there are any other raw feeders on here but Merciel, have you had it out with your vet over this stuff? I didn't talk to my last vet about it but she was into homeopathy so I feel like she'd be down with raw feeding (oh god I'm allied with kooks)

[bluemovers]

If I had to guess, I'd say your little guy is beagle/pit (he's pretty muscular for a 4-month-old) but it's always just a guess with mystery mutts.

a pit mix, eh? he does look pretty ripped.

[Merciel]

I saw that too; the same link was on my training club's email list this morning. That website is goofy as shit but whatever.

My vet just wants to do fecal screens on the raw-fed dogs every once in a while. I think that's a good precaution anyhow because of the foster parade that's constantly traveling through here (plus my dogs are dog park regulars, and dog parks are repositories of worms and other parasites), so I agree with that being a sensible middle course.

I'm probably going to stop the current raw food trial pretty soon though because the other day Crookytail pooped out a huge chunk of undigested bone, and that could not have been comfortable coming out. It's not the first or last time he's pooped intact bone fragments, but that was by far the biggest piece I've seen. It was probably three and a half inches long. I genuinely don't know how he got it out without tearing something.

Also Pongu still refuses to eat raw anything, so Dog Mob is going back on ground-up home-cooked food as soon as I finish up the current container of chicken pieces.

[buboclot]

my amazing 6 yr old cat is not well

been back and forth to the vet this month. she lost a bunch of weight (although appears to have gained a little back since the first visit), apparently has a heart murmur and is now having asthma-like attacks where she wheezes and gasps for air

vet watched a video i took from last night and was almost certain it was asthma (treatable) and unrelated to the heart murmur/weight loss. then x-rayed today and discovered fluid in her lungs. now thinks its probably something much worse and that all three are related. going back tomorrow for an ecco scan.

carried her home just blubbering uncontrollably on the street. just the worst fucking day. i cant live without this

PHEW. this girl will live to fight another day. it appears it actually is asthma of some sort, which we can at least attempt to treat with some drugs. not full on heart failure, which the vet disclosed she was pretty fearful of.

[mouse pad]

great news

Merciel a 3.5" bone is insane. Was that from a wing or a back? I've never seen bones when feeding backs but I have seen small bones with wings.

[Merciel]

I'm pretty sure it was from a chicken thigh, actually. I guess there's an outside chance it could have been the big bone from a wing.

I've also seen (much smaller) bone fragments from chicken wings, turkey wings, and basically anything else that has a long hard bone. Backs and necks and feet (i.e., knobby bones) don't come out like that, and neither do the beef knuckle bones (but that's not surprising, since the dogs grind those up in chewing before they ingest any of it). The knobby ones are also fine when cooked, so those are the only ones Dog Mob will be getting in the future.

[dcm]

got myself a birthday present from the humane society yesterday:

his name is terry and he's a 2yo harrier mix. he basically looks like a huge beagle. he is FAT right now. once he drops like 15-20 lbs he will be gorgeous.

This guy looks awesome. Are you keeping the name?

i'm not sure yet. i don't really like the name terry, but i'm not sure i wanna change his name. names my friends and i were playing with: barkley, tug, nachos, a couple others.

he is such a well behaved dog, i love it. been such a smooth transition.

[frito pie country]

tug is a good name B)

[kit fox]

Just swabbed Cosmo. i got the Wisdom Panel brand DNA test for mixed breeds, and right off the bat they are making some scammy sounding promises - an ancestry chart that shows me who mated with who back to the great grandparents? some how this seems out of the scope but what do I know

We'll see. It was on sale so I'm not terribly invested here. I'm predicting Brittany/Treeing Coonhound/Lab. some kind of Tennessee hunting mutt

[Merciel]

Snickers and Twix are here!

These two pigs originally came from Connecticut, where they were recovered from a bust on a hoarder house. There were almost a hundred pigs there, so some were transferred to a rescue down in New Jersey, from whence we adopted them. They're almost certainly sisters from the same litter -- they look almost identical.

The guinea pig rescue lady had tons of stories about the terrible things that had befallen the pigs in her care (which all looked happy and healthy, other than the 8-year-old pig who was adopted as a baby and then returned as an extremely geriatric adult because she was riddled with tumors, urinating blood, and the adopter didn't want to be bothered with letting the old pig die peacefully at home). Little animals get abused and neglected much more often and more severely than big ones. No sane person would trust an unsupervised 6-year-old to take care of a cat, but it happens to hamsters and guinea pigs routinely.

Anyway, these two were saved from the hoarder house and now they live here and get sniffed by Crookytail all the time. Pongu is interested in them too but not nearly as much. Crooky tried to jump into the pen with them.







Also, mites and Jeremy will get to play with these guys for a week. Try not to kill my pigs plz, I just got them.

[raskolnikov]

good luck, bubo, and congrats to dcm and merciel.

guinea pigs are always funny to me. they seem like they're being pretty bold?

[pellegrino viking essays]

Our beagle, now about 9 months old, found and ate iburprofen at a friends house a couple of weeks ago. We didn't know how many he had eaten by the time we got to him.

We took him into the emergency vet, they induced vomiting but he had already absorbed the pills. Dr. basically said if it was up to 5 pills or so we'd be ok, if it was 6 or more kidney failure / death was a very real possibility, gave us some medicine, and sent us home with instructions to come back in immediately at signs of vomiting, loss of appetite, etc, etc.

He was acting totally normal, we took him back in after five days for a panel and he's a-ok. That night we took him to some friends who were throwing a birthday party for their pug who was turning 10 so we broke the party hat back out. Like last time, he was fucking bummed about wearing it.

[keith]

I'm currently trying to teach my dog to be 'off leash' and seem to be making some progress. He's a wolf hybrid and was feral, so his "wolfish side" seems to kick in whenever he sees another animal. He will run straight towards it. Otherwise he's extremely well behaved and responds to commands. I was wondering if anyone possibly has some tips for training.

[Dr. Norm Thagard]

Omg that dog is so cute, i wanna kiss its nose!

[Merciel]

Aw I'm glad your guy's okay, pellegrino. <3

I'm currently trying to teach my dog to be 'off leash' and seem to be making some progress. He's a wolf hybrid and was feral, so his "wolfish side" seems to kick in whenever he sees another animal. He will run straight towards it. Otherwise he's extremely well behaved and responds to commands. I was wondering if anyone possibly has some tips for training.

What do you mean by "teaching your dog to be off leash"?

I'm guessing that you mean "improving recall and responsiveness," in which case the answer is way too long to cover in a hpn post. I have this blog post on recalls from a while ago, but it's pretty superficial too. There's a good reason most recall workshops are three weeks long, minimum.

BUT. In the event that you actually have a wolf hybrid and not a dog inaccurately marketed as a wolf hybrid (which, for your sake, is what I very strongly hope you have), please know: a wolf is not a dog. Patricia McConnell covers some of the reasons in a blog post here (comments are worthwhile too). Key quote:

That pretty sums up the two primary differences I’ve seen, and that Ceiridwen experienced, between wolves and dogs: 1) a wolf’s energy level is off the charts; Inyo and Ceiridwen hiked miles and miles to little effect, and 2) Dogs are, at least compared to wolves, motivated to let humans drive the system. Like most wolf-dogs, Inyo came when called, if she felt like it. She sat or lay down when asked, if she felt like it. No amount of training treats or positive reinforcement made any difference if she had another agenda. What was hers was hers, and she was willing to use her teeth to underscore that arrangement.

Again: wolf hybrids are not dogs. Some can be trained like dogs. Most cannot. That tiny tiny difference in genes causes a HUGE difference in behavior. So if you actually do have a wolf hybrid, I don't know that I can really help you, because dogs have had thousands upon thousands of years and generations to control their own chase-hunt-kill instincts in cooperation with the needs and desires of the people they live with. That makes the training process infinitely easier. A wolf does not have that degree of self-control, or willingness to listen to a human, or whatever else you want to call it. If a wolf wants to run free and attack the neighbor's livestock and guard its kill against you, it will. There's no "training" out of that.

[beave]

[Dr. Norm Thagard]

Omgggggggggggggg
I'm shooting rainbows out of my ears

[Dr. Norm Thagard]

If you look up lovable scamp in the dictionary, there are two entries.

1. Beave falling out of a wheelbarrow
2. Tank being Tank

[bluemovers]

this is Buckley. he is awesome. we brought him home from the shelter last night. he's very energetic but once he got tuckered out he walked right into his cage, laid down and passed out. oddly, he has yet to bark, or really even make a noise. his issues right now seem to be peeing indoors and snapping/nipping constantly. he isn't really biting, but he doesn't seem phased by interrupting his behavior yet.

[Durham]

You guys.
Landlady said I could get a cat.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


What's a good website/book on taking care of your first kitty? I'm sure the shelter will give some information, and there's an application and such. I'm not worried about lacking responsibility, but I do want to know what to do beyond litter/food/water/nails/toys. They come home spayed/neutered, 'house trained' (?), and microchipped which I guess is standard procedure.

[Dr. Norm Thagard]

this is Buckley. he is awesome. we brought him home from the shelter last night. he's very energetic but once he got tuckered out he walked right into his cage, laid down and passed out. oddly, he has yet to bark, or really even make a noise. his issues right now seem to be peeing indoors and snapping/nipping constantly. he isn't really biting, but he doesn't seem phased by interrupting his behavior yet.

Awww!

It took both my pups a while to start barking. When Cordelia finally started barking, it was more of a scream or a high pitched howl.

[kit fox]

this is Buckley. he is awesome. we brought him home from the shelter last night. he's very energetic but once he got tuckered out he walked right into his cage, laid down and passed out. oddly, he has yet to bark, or really even make a noise. his issues right now seem to be peeing indoors and snapping/nipping constantly. he isn't really biting, but he doesn't seem phased by interrupting his behavior yet.

Oh my goodness buckley is so cute.

He may be looking for some teething relief when hes nipping? We gave cosmo frozen peanut butter kongs and this toy called a chilly bone that was a cloth bone you soak and freeze.
If its nipping looking for attention we turned our back on him when he did it, though It could also be related to the peeing and hes saying "let me out". We hung a bell by the door for him to ring when he needs to go out, he picked up on that quickly.

[bluemovers]

i will look into both the chilly bone and the bells. We have a kong with frozen peanut butter that we give him, and he seems to like it a lot. He's just a chewing machine, the nipping isn't malicious at all but we want to try and get him to understand its not okay. I'll try turning around and see if that dissuades him. Thanks so much, he is hanging out below me right now going to town on a bone and unphased by the gigantic storm raging outside.

[Dr. Norm Thagard]

Tiger was telling holes how much Dan Uggla sucks.

"Oh my god, dad, have you seen his butt?"



"He looks like one of those rap guy's girlfriends."

[Durham]

You guys.
She's here.