bunn: (lurcher)
[personal profile] bunn


Az is still doing fairly well on his frusemide and vetmedin heart medication. He's stopped coughing and is still always keen to come or a walk, and he can keep going for an hour or so even if he does seem a bit tired by the end. Sometimes he will still run and bounce about, particularly if there are rabbits to be seen!

His back legs are still just a bit wobbly, and I've had to put down mats at the bottom of the stairs and in the kitchen so he doesn't slip over there. The slipping seems only to be an issue on hard floors when going round corners. He had a bad spell this week, and had a day when he seemed very tired and didn't want to eat, but has perked up again.

I'm giving him Yumove joint supplements, which seem to be basically ground up mussels in pill form. I was a bit dubious about these, because I'd read that the science of glucosamine and chondroitine supplements was quite dodgy, but figured : what the hell, let's give them a go. And although it is absurdly hard to tell for sure whether a dog is feeling slightly less arthritic, and it's a condition that varies over time anyway, my impression is that he's improved enough that I shall go on giving them to him.   Also he does love his special stinky-fish treats. :-D

I had recently reason to look up Vetmedin dosage instructions for another dog, and was surprised to see that Az seems to be on a half-dose for his weight: my vet had not mentioned this to me.   I might take him in for a checkup soon and just clarify this, though I'm not complaining, since Vetmedin I assume contains gold chips or something from the price of the damn stuff.

Yogi is doing well: she's lost some weight, gained some muscle, and is full of the joys of playtime.  I have to admit that she is my first failure in the cat training department.  She's mostly OK with them, but from time to time she just thinks the day would be more exciting if she yelled at a cat.  Most of the cats have got wise to her and just ignore her (she doesn't take it beyond barking), but poor fat Henning takes her seriously and will run if she barks at him, and then of course she chases him.   I have to tether her out of the way in the morning while I feed the cats, or she sits outside the door yelling at me to come out and bring the cat food.   It's manageable, but I can't rehome her as cat friendly, so am looking for a home for her without cats. 

Sadly there are a hell of a lot of non-cat-friendly lurchers out there, most of them younger than 12, so we have not had any serious interest in her yet.    This is good for Brythen, who loves Yogi (Brythen kind of loves everyone in the entire world, even if they are grumpy granny-lurchers).  Yogi enjoys chasing Brythen in mad circles.  He can run about twice as fast as she can, but seems to have less stamina, so they are quite evenly matched.


Brythen is still a big daft floppety thing who loves everyone in the entire world. I think he may have grown a bit, but I'm not sure.   I think I've finally found a food that suits him - Arden Grange's chicken and  rice, with butcher's tripe as a topping : he seems to tolerate that with not too much runny bum.   Fortunately this also seems to suit the other two, though I need to feed a bit more of it than the lamb and potato food that Az was on before, or he drops weight.

Brythen is still rather thin and bony-looking with rather too many ribs on display -  but he's all muscles, so I'm hoping that's mostly his age.  I am still struggling a bit with his recall - he is SO easily distracted!  And he has a strong tendency to go haring off at incredible speed and come back when he feels like it, in open country, so have to be careful where he goes off the lead.  Oddly, he is much more reliable in woodland - presumably because he can't see things to chase at a great distance there - completely different to Mollydog, who was generally OK in the open but would go charging off after squirrels in a wood and lead me a merry dance.  Anyway, the recall is still a work in progress, but I am lucky to have access to some places where I can let him off without him hurting himself or upsetting livestock.   Must buy more liver paste.

Date: 2012-07-22 10:29 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] alitheapipkin.livejournal.com
Yay doggies :)

The evidence in favour of glucosamine for joint issues is indeed dodgy but cod liver oil has much stronger backing - does the supplement contain that too? Our dog used to get Vitapet oil on his food but that was donkey's years ago, I don't know whether they even make it these days.

Date: 2012-07-22 02:37 pm (UTC)
ext_189645: (Default)
From: [identity profile] bunn.livejournal.com
No cod liver oil, but they claim lots of omega-3 fatty acids for the squashed mussels, so I suppose that might make a difference.

Date: 2012-07-22 12:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] puddleshark.livejournal.com
They all look so well! Lovely pics.

It's a shame about Yogi and the cats - though it sounds like she might be alright homed with a big bruiser of a cat that stood its ground...

Date: 2012-07-22 02:42 pm (UTC)
ext_189645: (Cat)
From: [identity profile] bunn.livejournal.com
The problem with Yogi is that she takes a cat that stands its ground as a challenge, and won't back down. Henning has thwacked her nose a few times, and it just winds her up. She is fine with cats that ignore her, apart from very occasionally when she thinks it would be amusing to chase, but a cat that tried to tell her off could get into trouble, I think. And it's really hard to assess what other people's cats are like at a home visit!

I think Yogi has quite a lot of growly terrier attitude in with the sighthound.

Date: 2012-07-22 05:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] puddleshark.livejournal.com
That's not so good... Growly terrier?!! Whoever bred Yogi must have really wanted to keep people guessing!

I've always been amazed at how quickly most of your Oldies settle down and get used to the cats, but I suppose there will always be one or two dogs that just can't get their heads around the whole cat thing.

Date: 2012-07-22 08:57 pm (UTC)
ext_189645: (Baying)
From: [identity profile] bunn.livejournal.com
My current theory re: Yogi is that she might be something like deerhound/collie/cairn terrier. Or maybe whippet /BIG collie/wirehaired JRT. Though really, it is very hard to tell.

There's definitely something growly with giant eyebrows in there. :-D

Date: 2012-07-22 09:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com
Doggie posts are most definitely the main purpose of the internet! Lovely pics, especially of Yogi. I do hope she finds a good, cat-free home. I've never had cats - in 50 years of keeping Samoyeds not one would tolerate them - so have no experience there.

Date: 2012-07-22 11:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] parrot-knight.livejournal.com
Indeed - for a Samoyed (in my experience) to tolerate another dog is difficult, let alone a cat - though with George (pictured right) it helped a lot if the dog was female...

Date: 2012-07-22 11:18 pm (UTC)
ext_189645: (Cats and Hounds)
From: [identity profile] bunn.livejournal.com
I believe Samoyeds originate from areas where other companion animals are relatively rare, and even other dogs are likely to be of a similar breed, and probably related.

Lurchers, however, are traditionally used to hunt in conjunction with ferrets, and originate from the British Isles where cats have been a routine part of the scenery for a very long time, so I'm always a little surprised by the assumption that they are unlikely to be cat friendly.

Date: 2012-07-22 11:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] parrot-knight.livejournal.com
Those are all very good points. I'm impressed by how cat-friendly so many of your dogs have been, nevertheless.

Date: 2012-07-23 03:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com
We never really trusted them with other dogs though the last two were fairly tolerant of my border collies so long as their visits were quite short and no food was involved!

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