Dogs

[filthyfox]

On 07/09/2025 at 23:15, FoyleFox said:

I complained a few weeks ago about the cost of a 15 minute visit to the vet and one set of antibiotics. It turns out compared to a late night visit to the emergency vet and 2 prescriptions, the first visit was a bargain! 

 

The pooch had a very funny turn late Friday night. Disorientated, unsteady, rapid abnormal eye movements. Diagnosed as vestibular disease. To do with the nerves in the ear. Apparently very common in mature spaniels. He's 13. And, no actual treatment. It's wait and hope for recovery, which isn't guaranteed. Fortunately, we've seen quite a bit so far. 

£300?  Thats probably how much my vet would charge for out of hours.

[FoyleFox]

10 minutes ago, filthyfox said:

£300?  Thats probably how much my vet would charge for out of hours.

Just under that. I don't know how they justify the prices. 

 

The good news is that my wee boy is much, much better 

[filthyfox]

19 hours ago, FoyleFox said:

Just under that. I don't know how they justify the prices. 

 

The good news is that my wee boy is much, much better 

...that is how they justify it-  they be magicians

[Parafox]

On the subject of vets bills, we had to have our elderly cat euthanised a few months ago'

 

It was a Saturday night. The nearest out of hours emergency vet was in Leamington. 

 

Frantic dash with a cat howling and gasping his last..

 

The cost? £350 for examining, diagnosing and then the meds to end his life. I could have told the vet the cat needed no diagnosing, he was 17 years old and dying before my eyes.

 

That's Medivet for you.

Edited 12 September 2025 by Parafox

[Grebfromgrebland]

5 minutes ago, Parafox said:

On the subject of vets bills, we had to have our elderly cat euthanised a few months ago'

 

It was a Saturday night. The nearest out of hours emergency vet was in Leamington. 

 

Frantic dash with a cat howling and gasping his last..

 

The cost? £300 for examining, diagnosing and then the meds to end his life. I could have told the vet the cat needed no diagnosing, he was 17 years old and dying before my eyes.

 

That's Medivet for you.

Private equity ruins our lives in ways that we can't begin to imagine. 

 

All UK governments parties apart from green and Corbyn are completely in bed with them.

 

Look up Freeport's and you'll be glad you're towards the end of your life rather than the beginning.

[Scotch]

Does anyone use Bella and Duke? Never done raw food before and getting the new puppy in 2 weeks. He's already on it so we are gonna give it a go. Any advice? 

Edited 12 September 2025 by Scotch

[Countryfox]

On 12/09/2025 at 20:53, Scotch said:

Does anyone use Bella and Duke? Never done raw food before and getting the new puppy in 2 weeks. He's already on it so we are gonna give it a go. Any advice? 

 

We use Benyfit natural complete which looks almost the same but is a tad more expensive.  Had a real problem with his food but this sorted him out and he loves it.

Raw is almost certainly the best food you can give a dog.  The other one is on kibble and always has been, so easy and no faffing about, she's getting old now but is in rude health and has so much energy it's untrue ..  

 

[JonnyBoy]

5 hours ago, Countryfox said:

 

We use Benyfit natural complete which looks almost the same but is a tad more expensive.  Had a real problem with his food but this sorted him out and he loves it.

Raw is almost certainly the best food you can give a dog.  The other one is on kibble and always has been, so easy and no faffing about, she's getting old now but is in rude health and has so much energy it's untrue ..  

 

Our dog had IBD so has to we have to cook sweet potato, rice and pork loin every day as well we have to give him Nordic naturals oil and some powder which has about 30 vitamins in it that we have to get shipped from America, shipping alone for that costs £60 every 3 months! 
 

anyway, my point is natural food has helped massively and very rarely has a flare up, only ever so often if we turn our back and eats something off the floor. We had to get the plan from the nutritionist at willows in Solihull 

[Greg2607]

our puppy is on a raw food diet.... there's a real benefit to raw that people potentially don't talk about much.... swapping between brands doesn't really have an impact on your dog, as raw meat is raw meat.  So we pretty much interchange between what we can find when we happen to be in a shop.  Just For Pets has probably got the best range of options that we've found. 

 

What we have found though, is that Murphy only really likes raw food that is a bit "chunky"... we did buy one particular product that was almost smooth like pate and he just wouldn't touch it at all. 

 

make sure you get an 80/10/10 mix as that has the right balance of nutrients.

 

We've gone back to something chunkier and he absolutely nails it down from a licki mat. 

 

we've also gone mainly raw / natural with treats which are in a mason jar on the kitchen side..... or "the jar of death" as my son refers to it as. 

Edited 16 September 2025 by Greg2607

[Tommy G]

On 12/09/2025 at 19:46, Grebfromgrebland said:

Private equity ruins our lives in ways that we can't begin to imagine. 

 

All UK governments parties apart from green and Corbyn are completely in bed with them.

 

Look up Freeport's and you'll be glad you're towards the end of your life rather than the beginning.

Go on

 

I work for a PE firm.

[Greg2607]

14 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

Go on

 

I work for a PE firm.

and I can't believe you are ruining all our lives. 

[Tommy G]

6 minutes ago, Greg2607 said:

and I can't believe you are ruining all our lives. 

I'd hope not! 

[izzymuzzet]

On 12/09/2025 at 19:46, Grebfromgrebland said:

Private equity ruins our lives in ways that we can't begin to imagine. 

 

All UK governments parties apart from green and Corbyn are completely in bed with them.

 

Look up Freeport's and you'll be glad you're towards the end of your life rather than the beginning.

This isn't the politics thread so I don't want to ruin it but the freeports conspiracy theory that's done on the rounds on leftish social media is some of the dumbest stuff I've ever heard. They're just Enterprise Zones with small tax breaks and even smaller customs benefits. Anyone telling you they're part of some sovereign individual plot to sell off Britain doesn't know anything about them. 

Edited 16 September 2025 by izzymuzzet

[SpacedX]

[Tommy G]

Anyone successfully trained their dog to not go upstairs? We've got a kids stairgate at the bottom, if its open 50% of the time he'll take his chance and leg it up there. Any success stories send it my way, mainly because the stairgate is doing my head in. The offender is a 3yr old black lab, don't want him upstairs. 

[NAKC20]

1 hour ago, Tommy G said:

Anyone successfully trained their dog to not go upstairs? We've got a kids stairgate at the bottom, if its open 50% of the time he'll take his chance and leg it up there. Any success stories send it my way, mainly because the stairgate is doing my head in. The offender is a 3yr old black lab, don't want him upstairs. 

Probably be easier to buy a bungalow

[FoxesTez]

Hope everyone’s pets are coping with the fireworks, I dread the next couple of weeks as it’s so distressing for them. 

[Libertine]

18 minutes ago, FoxesTez said:

Hope everyone’s pets are coping with the fireworks, I dread the next couple of weeks as it’s so distressing for them. 

Mine seems alright so far as not too many that close to our house yet. Not looking forward to tomorrow or around Bonfire Night though. It just goes on for weeks, it's ridiculous.

[Parafox]

On 02/10/2025 at 16:16, Tommy G said:

Anyone successfully trained their dog to not go upstairs? We've got a kids stairgate at the bottom, if its open 50% of the time he'll take his chance and leg it up there. Any success stories send it my way, mainly because the stairgate is doing my head in. The offender is a 3yr old black lab, don't want him upstairs. 

 

Not a success story I'm afraid.

 

We have a 5 month old cockerpoo and he was making it upstairs frequently which we didn't want so we got an extendable fabric barrier which we set up at the foot of the stairs.

 

 

At first he wasn't big or strong enough to get over it. Now, as he has grown, he has worked out that he can claw the top edge and haul himself over.

 

We cant find any effective defence other than shut all the upstairs doors to prevent access to bedrooms. He then gets bored and comes back down and gets a treat,  but he sees that as a treat for going upstairs and coming back down again.

 

He's annoyingly (but lovably), nuts.

Edited 19 October 2025 by Parafox

[Parafox]

3 hours ago, FoxesTez said:

Hope everyone’s pets are coping with the fireworks, I dread the next couple of weeks as it’s so distressing for them. 

This will our pup's first firework season. He is startled by loud cars and motorbikes already.

 

I expect lots of anxious barking. (from the dog, not from me).

[Tommy G]

14 hours ago, FoxesTez said:

Hope everyone’s pets are coping with the fireworks, I dread the next couple of weeks as it’s so distressing for them. 

I took mine out for a walk when he was a puppy in the lead up to fireworks and he’s never bothered about them, also put some on the tv quietly then turned volume up etc. seemed to do the trick but I’m no expert 

[Saxondale]

15 hours ago, FoxesTez said:

Hope everyone’s pets are coping with the fireworks, I dread the next couple of weeks as it’s so distressing for them. 

My dog doesn't give a monkey's about fireworks for whatever reason. I think it's because we got her used to lots of loud noises as a puppy.

[FoyleFox]

18 hours ago, FoxesTez said:

Hope everyone’s pets are coping with the fireworks, I dread the next couple of weeks as it’s so distressing for them. 

Bizzarly our spaniel was rejected as a working gun dog due to being gun shy, he jumped at text message type notifications when we got him but has never reacted to fireworks. 

[SpacedX]

On 02/10/2025 at 16:16, Tommy G said:

Anyone successfully trained their dog to not go upstairs? We've got a kids stairgate at the bottom, if its open 50% of the time he'll take his chance and leg it up there. Any success stories send it my way, mainly because the stairgate is doing my head in. The offender is a 3yr old black lab, don't want him upstairs. 

Yes. None of my labs have ever been allowed to go upstairs, simply because they can be prone to elbow and hip dysplasia and there is evidence that repeated use of a staircase can aggravate or even hasten this in older age. I'm always horrified to see novice and even experienced owners using these ridiculous flingers on the park whatever the breed, which encourages them to get up to full speed then wheel around at a dead stop which places enormous strain on their joints. I toss an occasional ball, but short throws so she can catch it or grab it on the run. My current dog is an American field lab, so a water dog. Although she loves, streams, rivers and lakes, bizarrely, she doesn't like the shower or bath time though. Since she equates this with upstairs I have zero problems and have to coax her up there. The other day I carried her upstairs to my office and her little heart was pounding bless her. Like you, I have a stair gate at the bottom, but quite frankly, I don't need it anymore. 

[filthyfox]

On 19/10/2025 at 19:57, FoxesTez said:

Hope everyone’s pets are coping with the fireworks, I dread the next couple of weeks as it’s so distressing for them. 

Our 2 bunnies are quite happy as the fireworks go off in our 99.9% white part of the country (Dorset)...

Seriously- I didn't know there were Hindu's living here!