Thursday, July 15, 2010

My Dog Ate What ?

 Wondering what kind of stuff can your dog be eating? Catch "My Dog Ate What?" on National Geographic Wild , StarHub Cable Vision

Dogs get into all sorts of trouble and when it comes to eating, nothing is off-limits. From eating fish hooks to spoons, My Dog Ate What? retells the stories of dogs that have swallowed astonishing things and what it took to save their lives. Through interviews with the owners and veterinarians plus dramatic recreations, My Dog Ate What? brings each story to life.


Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Virgin Taste of Peanut Butter

It marks a milestone in Coby's life as he had his virgin taste of Peanut Butter !!!! and Boy does he luv it !!!! Look at the boy going at the Kong toy filled with Peanut Butter.





Enhanced by Zemanta

Puppy Sleep time

Do you know how long does a puppy sleep?
Ans: 8 to 20 hours a day, As your puppy ages, he will sleep less. Adult dogs sleep about fourteen hours a day.

I guess puppies like babies sleeps most of the times, and Coby really sleep most of his time especially when he is in the air-con room. It amuses us at the way and the numerous position that he sleeps.

He bring sleeping to a whole new level and he really luv his water bowl.





Enhanced by Zemanta

Monday, July 12, 2010

Cone of Shame!

To prevent Coby from scratching and also to prevent him from self inflict the wound. The vet has put on 'the cone' for him. If you have watch Up the cartoon by Walt Disney, 'the cone' is been referred to The Cone of Shame !!!!


















Dug from UP



















Coby from reality

Its quite a site seeing him in the Cone of Shame and its hilarious to see him striking such a resemblance like Dug


Tragic Experience!

On the 4th of July, a Tragic experiences has dawn upon Coby. He was been bitten ferociously by another dog when we were at the school for obedience training. Such irony that its happen at a school for obedience training however it's not the school's fault.

Coby had just finish his obedience training and we were about to sent him for grooming. when we were waiting, the owners of another dog just arrive to pick their dog up form grooming session. As the owner (wife) was attracted to Coby she came over and pat him and ask her dog (Australian Husky) to play with Coby, instantly the dog snap and begin to bite coby by it neck and shake him vigorously like a ragged toy. Coby was screaming at the top of his lungs and the owner (wife) decide to be a heroine and tried to separate the dogs and in the event she was bitten/scratched. This was the most traumatizing event  we have ever experience witness and our poor Coby was injured at the side of left jaw. its was bleeding profusely from the wound. we were freak out and immediately sent him to the vet for check up. Before we left, the owners approach the shop keepers that they will make a compensation and we exchange number before we left.

The vet saw Coby and told us that he would need to shave off some of his fur to see the extend of his injury. After the vet shaved Coby's fur off, we nearly screech in horro when we saw the extend of his wound. The skin tissue was teared so badly that it expose the muscle tissue, but luckily it did not damage any of the muscle tissue.

Coby was brave, when the vet was cleaning his wound, he did not make any noise as he endure the pain and we could see tears falling out of his eyes. The nurses and the vet were surprise at his temperament and after the cleaning of the wound, Coby even attempted to lick the vet. His action prompted the vet to make a statement "This is really a affectionate and brave dog". We felt bad for him as he did not need to go through this pain and he lick us as if to tell us not worry about him as he is fine. He is well loved by the nursed and vet at the clinic and they look forward seeing him for the next review in 1 weeks time. 


However the other owners did not even call up and check on Coby's situation and in turn we need to ask the shop keepers of the obedient school on how our compensation will be settled. To our horror, i had called the owener (wife) and she told me arrogantly that she did not want to pursue the matter as my puppy had bitten her. i tried to reason with her that her dog started the whole fiasco else this would not have happened. she told me that my puppy had bitten her and her dog protected her by biting my puppy and she arrogantly ask me to lodge a police report if i want to. this is totally ridiculous and its clear that they are trying to shake off the responsibility.

This incident has shown the inhumane side of human where there is totally no compassion and responsibility. there is no choice but for Coby to bite the bullet this time round as the higher authorities would not interfere.  We can only be more vigilant on our part to prevent this from repeating itself.

We can only pray for Coby to have a speedy recovery and nurse him back to health. He is an affectionate dog by nature which gives his loves whole heartedly to you with no condition, however its us human who do not give our love whole heartedly to him and our love comes with condition. Does it make us human smaller than a dog?

Ruptured skin


Enhanced by Zemanta

Friday, July 2, 2010

The Deadly Bloat !



Every dog owner would have heard about the Deadly Bloat for dogs. Bloat is a very serious health risk for many dogs, yet many dog owners know very little about it.
It is the second leading killer of dogs, after cancer !

The technical name for bloat is "Gastric Dilatation-Volvulus" ("GDV"). Bloating of the stomach is often related to swallowed air (although food and fluid can also be present). It usually happens when there's an abnormal accumulation of air, fluid, and/or foam in the stomach ("gastric dilatation"). Stress can be a significant contributing factor also. Bloat can occur with or without "volvulus" (twisting). As the stomach swells, it may rotate 90° to 360°, twisting between its fixed attachments at the esophagus (food tube) and at the duodenum (the upper intestine). The twisting stomach traps air, food, and water in the stomach. The bloated stomach obstructs veins in the abdomen, leading to low blood pressure, shock, and damage to internal organs. The combined effect can quickly kill a dog.

This usually happens when owners let their dogs eat or drink immediately after a run or exercise. Or the dog itself eat and drink too fast.

Symptoms
The most noticeable symptoms are:

  • Swollen abdomen
  • Extreme restlessness often with pacing
  • Excessive salivation and drooling
  • Attempts to vomit or defecate without results
  • Whining and cries of pain
  • Pale or off-colour gums
    (Dark red in early stages, white or blue in later stages)
  • Foamy mucous around the lips, or vomiting foamy mucous
  • May refuse to lie down or even sit down
  • Heavy or rapid panting

Prevention

It seems there is a high risk of GDV if the dog is given one meal a day, if the dog is allowed to drink excessively and indulge in vigorous exercise after eating. All these factors should be avoided.

  • Do not feed your dog one meal a day, spilt this into two. One in the morning one in the evening
  • Do not exercise or excite your dog straight before/after feeding time. Allow at least 1 hours for him to digest his food.
  • Do not put your dog in a stressful situation straight after feeding time. Again as above allow plenty of time for him to digest his food.
  • Excessive drinking should also be avoided, especially right before and straight after feeding time.
  • Avoid feeding food that are known to cause flatulence (gas), e.g. soy, beans, peas, onions, beet pulp, etc.
  • Never allow you dog to eat bread dough or anything that contains un-cooked yeast.
  • When switching dog food, do so gradually (allow several weeks).



Breeds At Greatest Risk


  • Akita
  • Alaskan Malamute
  • Basset Hound
  • Bernese Mountain Dog
  • Borzoi
  • Bouvier des Flandres
  • Boxer
  • Bullmastiff
  • Chesapeake Bay Retriever
  • Collie
  • Dachshund
  • Doberman Pinscher
  • English Springer Spaniel
  • Fila Brasileiro
  • Golden Retriever
  • Gordon Setter
  • Great Dane
  • German Shepherd
  • German Shorthaired Pointer
  • Great Pyrenees
  • Irish Setter
  • Irish Wolfhound
  • King Shepherd
  • Labrador Retriever
  • Miniature Poodle
  • Newfoundland
  • Old English Sheepdog
  • Pekinese
  • Rottweiler
  • Samoyed
  • St. Bernard
  • Standard Poodle
  • Weimaraner
  • Wolfhound
  • Sighthouds
  • Bloodhounds
  • Siberian Husky


Thursday, July 1, 2010

ALPHA PAW PRODUCT : Drink Better™ Bowl


As Husky are fast drinkers and to prevent them from getting Bloat, we would need Coby to drink slowly. During our search for a drinking bowl, we chance upon the Drink Better™ Bowl by Alpha Paw.

Before we go into details of the Drink Better™ Bowl, a little history of Alpha Paw which has surprise me. The company is founded by a Singaporean name Victor Lee, dog trainer with more than 6 years of experience, with special interest in behavioral problems such as aggression, resource guarding, separation anxiety, etc. It has distributors worldwide, which as a Singaporean am quite proud of my fellow countryman

Enough of history lesson and back to the Drink Better™ Bowl, below are the extract from Alpha Paw site of the product:

The Drink Better Brand

The Drink Better Bowl is specifically designed to slow down drastically, the time dogs take to drink.

Each wet bowl is ergonomically designed with rounded edges so that it does not cause any discomfort during drinking. The floater in the middle features a small wishbone opening to allow water to flow out at a moderate rate.

  • Cool Design and Colours – Each bowl is ergonomically designed in bright vibrant hues with rounded edges so that it does not cause any discomfort during drinking.
  • Non-slip – Spare your dog the indignity of having his bowl move from end to end when he drinks. With its weight and three-point non-slip pad, your dog can drink comfortably.
  • Extremely Durable / Unbreakable – Made from high grade K-Resin, the bowls can survive all manner of drops and knocks.
  • K-Resin is tough enough to manage some degree of abuse by a teething pooch, resulting in reduced unsightly chew marks.
  • K-Resin is also a high quality food grade plastic.

The Drink Better™ Bowl is serving us well as Coby has been jumping and pouncing at us like a possessed dog when he sees us filling his bowl with water. However an advice to puppy owners to supervise their puppies while they are drinking off the bowl as they would sneakily put their paws into it like what Coby has been thinking everytime he drinks from it.




Moments after landed...



As Coby is still 2 month old, he just knock out once he reach our house. Did not even bother to explore like any normal dogs do. Its seems like puppies have short span of sleep as he would wake up at the slightest noise, however would knock out instantly if nothing interest him.





Coby playing with his designated drinking bowl. As he has been drinking milk from his mother, i guess the drinking bowl is abit foreign to him as he can't seem to find anything to suck on.




An Angle has Landed!




On the 28th March 2010, a cutie has been born. Grateful to the breeder for allowing us to have him and his registered name with SKC is "CH.Throne of Grace". We have nicknamed him Coby and is now with us since 16th May 2010.

This is him at 2 months plus with 1 droppy ears.