3 questions in one post

ljpinkhorse

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Question 1 : I was playing ball with Poppy earlier and noticed she had blood on her back dew claw
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On closer inspection I noticed the 'fleshy' part of the dew claw wasn't there , it was just a naily claw thing coming out of the skin . If that makes sense ? lol. It wasnt bleeding lots so I cleaned it with slat water and put savlon on it and it seems okay now . Will she need to go to the vets ??

Question 2 : Poppy , even though shes not a retriever , absolutley LOVES tennis balls . She is very good at retrieving things , I throw them and she brings them straight back . I was trying to think of activitys I could do with her to do with retrieving and I thought about flyball but cant seem to find any in my area (hampshire) ?

Question 3 : Is anyone on the BARF diet for their dogs ? Poppy gets on well with her complete food and cooked meat / rice / vegtables but someone told me cooked foods give dogs health problems , which seems to make sense as dogs obviously weren't designed to eat cooked foods .

On a brighter note , now that my health has finally improved , me and Poppy will at last be going to our first agility class sunday
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Sorry I can only answer question one! Nope, she wont need to go to the vets, keep an eye on it obviously but it should heal with no problems, it happens to mine all the time
 
1) I wouldn't think so - maybe just clean a few more times with warm salt water just to make sure nothing bad gets into her! If she keeps catching it - just pop some vet wrao round it.

2) Don't know where you are in Hampshire but there is
http://www.hampshireharriers.co.uk/
There is also a flyball forum I think - someone there would be able to direct you. Liking toys will be great for your agility
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3) It's up to you - if she is happy and healthy, although as you say they are designed to eat raw food. Maybe just swap the cooked stuff for chicken wings? or liver/hearts etc. Try her on fish too, mine love it! I either poach fish in milk for a treat (sainsbury's do a basics fish fillets in the frozen department) or give them tinned sardines/pilchards.
Or you could always try the prepacked raw stuff - I noticed Pets at Home had a really good range teh other day - frozen nuggets of just about everything! Inc. veg and fruit ones!

4) Hope you enjoy your agility lesson!!!
 
Thanks
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We did try and give her cod , but she just stank of fish for weeks afterwards , it all got caught in her beard
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She does like prawns and tuna though
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I shall try her on tinned sardines !

Thanks for the link though The hampshire harriers is a bit far from us - we're more hants/surrey way .
 
Oh Oh Flyball......ummmm hang on, i had a leaflet shoved under my windscreen in the highstreet yesterday, advertising flyball in frimley. that close enough?
 
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Question 3 : Is anyone on the BARF diet for their dogs ? Poppy gets on well with her complete food and cooked meat / rice / vegtables but someone told me cooked foods give dogs health problems , which seems to make sense as dogs obviously weren't designed to eat cooked foods .

On a brighter note , now that my health has finally improved , me and Poppy will at last be going to our first agility class sunday
grin.gif


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Have fed raw for over ten years and would never feed commercial dog food to mine again for peace of mind alone! But then with your health problems, I am sure you can see the problems that modern grains can aggravate in Humans, worse for dogs as they were never designed to eat grains or even plants as a main food source. That is exactly what they do get in off the shelf food as meat is expensive and in order to make it affordable they have to either use dubious quality or bulk it up, it’s all cooked it to death and add all sorts too it!

Basically all you need to feed a natural diet is a freezer to take advantage of bulk buys, and an axe to chop u
 
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Question 3 : Is anyone on the BARF diet for their dogs ? Poppy gets on well with her complete food and cooked meat / rice / vegtables but someone told me cooked foods give dogs health problems , which seems to make sense as dogs obviously weren't designed to eat cooked foods .

On a brighter note , now that my health has finally improved , me and Poppy will at last be going to our first agility class sunday
grin.gif


[/ QUOTE ]


Have fed raw for over ten years and would never feed commercial dog food to mine again for peace of mind alone! But then with your health problems, I am sure you can see the problems that modern grains can aggravate in Humans, worse for dogs as they were never designed to eat grains or even plants as a main food source. That is exactly what they do get in off the shelf food as meat is expensive and in order to make it affordable they have to either use dubious quality or bulk it up, it’s all cooked it to death and they add all sorts too it!

Basically all you need to feed a natural diet is a freezer to take advantage of bulk buys, and an axe to chop up some of the bigger bones. I feed human grade food and make friends with my local butcher, The staple in my dog’s diet are chicken carcasses and wings, plus breast of lamb, pigs trotters, liver, hearts, small amounts of liquidised veg and anything on special offer really. They have raw eggs and any rabbits they catch! Supermarket chicken has softer bones to start a dog off with and some do stock packs of lamb bones for under a quid. The only cooked I feed is the pilchards and sometimes I will sneak raw fish in with it, like whitebait. The only pet food I feed is frozen green tripe. The diet needs no supplementation, you can give kelp tablets and pumpkins seeds added to the liqudised veg helps remove any worms.

The beauty of it is that if you feed a variety your dog gets a varied appetising health diet that balances its nutrients much more naturally over a week or so and not with every meal often using artificial vits and minerals! To gain weight you feed more muscle meat to loose weight more bone, maintenance is 80% bone to meat the ratio you get on chicken wings or carcasses.

Mine had pig legs for tea, it took them 3/4 of an hour to eat and they used virtually all their muscles to do it, so they worked out as they ate, they are now sound asleep!!!
 
I've recently switched my Lab to raw food diet with great results. She absolutely loves it! Will second what Slinky Unicorn says about tinned pilchards - she goes absolutely berserk for the ones in tomato sauce!!
 
Lucy Poppy - have a chat with your butcher and see what they offer. Most of them do a pet mince which is basically all sorts of meat offcuts ground up. Ours does a really good quality one which includes offal. It's cheap and comes in 1kg bags in our case. I feed my Lab some of this in the morning, adding a raw egg about twice a week, and her usual dinner is now either a chicken carcass or three/four chicken wings. Once or twice a week she has the tinned pilchards. She has a kong toy everyday which is stuffed with veg (mashed potato makes an excellent base for this!).
 
Oh I don't know any that way - do you know there is one there is one near Badshot Lea Garden centre which might be quite close to you? and Chobham (where I used to train)who also train in G'ford (there are 2 clubs that train at Merrist Wood.

Def need a freezer for raw feeding!!
 
Yes I heard about the one in Bagshot Lea , that is very close to us but I wouldnt be allowed to be the main handler of Poppy until October ( when I turn 16 ) !
Chobham and Merrist wood are a bit further out compared to Tweasledown but I'll definately consider them if this one dosent work out
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That's a bit odd!

Hope you have a fab time and become as obsessed with agility as I am!
We are just in the process of buying a van to get all the dogs and our tent in for shows!!!!
 
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