I have been a bit behind with updates and answering email inquiries, so an intense hour yesterday evening and another two hours today. I have nearly got on top of replying emails. So now to catch up on updates. Three updates and all for pups from our first litter of Cavalier cross Brittany pups born back in April. The first update is from Tracey who has Bertie 1 aka Mushroom and arrived with me over a week ago. I do reply updates by email within a reasonable time, but may be a little while before I get them on my blog. ![]() "Hi Jane! I'm so enjoying all the updates and videos of Bertie's siblings. He too is coming along so well. We're pleased with his recall and I've attached a video. Just before I started filming he'd flushed out birds from the field - I think my cocker spaniel has been giving him lessons! At the end of the video he's suddenly very alert - as he's spotted a jogger! What ensued was very comical with Bertie chasing the jogger and my husband chasing them both! Finally he came to heel and got his treat and he's been improving all the time. We're having problems with ticks where we are and so he's having a collar fitted at the vets next week (tick removal + wriggly puppy = chaos!) He really is so lovely natured and loves his cuddles! I've attached a photo of him snoozing with Steve - could those legs be any longer! Love to all the family and speak soon Tracey xx" Thanks Tracey for letting me know how Bertie is doing. He looks very settled in with you, especially Steve. I'm wondering if the collar you are putting on Bertie is a flea and tick collar I was talking to my vet about the other day. There is a flea and tick collar on the market now only available through your vet that lasts eight months called Seresto www.seresto.com from the pharmaceutical company Bayer. My vet told me they cost about £30 and I have worked out against regular pour on flea tick products, I would save about £10 per medium sized dog and around £7 per small dog over an eight months period. Flea collars are not a new thing and I use to use collars that worked around five months. When I had children I stopped using them as I was worried about them touching them, so stopped using them. My children are old enough now that would not be so much of a problem. The other thing I would be concerned about with going back to collars is, they do lose them sometimes and at £30 a time, that's an expensive decoration for a tree up our local woods, but if you have a lot of trouble with ticks with your dogs, these collars giving eight months of cover at a time might be worth a consideration. Another product that has come on the market recently for fleas and ticks as well, giving twelve weeks cover at a time is a tablet called Bravecto us.bravovets.com from the pharmaceutical company Merck. This again is only from your vet or prescription from a vet. Now I do a naughty think with pour on flea treatments. I use Frontline most of the time and some say this product is not so effective as it was, but I have never had a problem using it. I also use Advocate a couple times a year, which I get from my vet as it is a prescriptive medicine. I have been told by a vet who has read up about Frontline, that Frontline can also be used as treatment for ear mites, if you put a drop behind each ear and the rest on the back. Frontline treats for fleas and ticks and because it has been on the market long enough it is now a none prescriptive medicine, so can be bought without seeing a vet or having a prescription. Now I have the majority of our dogs at around 2 to 10Kg, but I don't ever buy 2 to 10Kg vials for our dogs I buy the next size up 10 to 20Kg and I split the liquid in half treating two dogs under 10Kg in weight. If buying six vials at a time, this takes the cost of treating each individual dog from £3.95 a time to £2.10 and with eight of our dogs being under 10Kg that is a saving of £14.80 each time I treat those eight dogs. When I treat the five dogs between 10 to 20Kg by splitting 20-40Kg vials bought six at a time the cost goes from £4.32 a dog to £2.34 a dog making a saving each time for those five dogs of £10, so by splitting vials like this I save around £24.80 each time I treat all my dogs and my dogs are not getting fleas. How I split it is by using a small syringe and remove it all from the vial and then work out half of the amount and apply thus from the syringe on to the dog. If you really want to save and have several dogs under 10Kg to treat at a time. Buy six vials of Frontline for 40 to 60Kg and divide each vial by six and this makes the cost for treating each dog 2 to 10 Kg 98p each. You see a vial for a dog 2 to 10 Kg contains 67 mg of fiprinol. A vial for a dog between 40 to 60 Kg contains 402 mg of fiprinol, six times as much fiprinol as in a vial for a dog between 2 to 10 Kg, so splitting it like this you will give exactly the same dose as buying individual vials for 2 to 10 Kg dogs, but saving £2.97 per dog per treatment. When you start looking at this, you start understanding how much mark up and wrapping you pay for when buying these products. Over several years using Frontline like this, if you have more than one dog, it really adds up to a big saving and also saves on a lot of packaging, especially plastic, so eco friendly to. Any way less of my miserly ways and another update and this is from Bertie's litter sibling Alfie, who must be back in the UK now from France, as I got this email last week. "Hello Jane and all at Poundlane. Well we are coming to the end of our first journey away to France with Alfie and it has been a lot of fun. He has done very well in another environment and has thoroughly enjoyed all the mountain walks with Colin. We are at 1060m alt here so it is a bit cooler than near the lake which reached 30 degrees while we were here. He has encountered lots of cows which he now respects! he has discovered the joy of playing in the mountain streams and chasing the spray from the small waterfalls and digging in the pebbles at the bottom of the river (panning for gold!..) The only sad thing is that he hasn't been able to go of the lead because of the electric fences at this time of the year, but probably just as well as the Vet here has advised us not to over exercise him here due to altitude and his young age. He still manages a good hour walking and comes home full of beans and bounce. If fact he goes completely dilly for about 5 minutes on his return, then falls asleep!! We've had 2 good trips up and down the mountain roads when he hasn't been sick, hooray! The trick is to stop him drooling with anxiety as soon as possible so a little diversion tactic has been put into play. I hold a tasty little morsel in my hand that he can only just lick at and that seems to be taking him mind off the twisty roads.... fingers crossed. Today he had his visit to our French Vet (for Dog Passport) who was VERY interested in his Cavalier/ Brittany mix. He thought he was a lovely cross and that the mix was very good for the Cavaliers as he understood fully your methodology. He also said he would like to follow his progress and development so that he can feed information back to his colleagues in France.. He also gave us some good feedback about a better treatment for ticks/fleas that can be given in tablet form (Bravecto) that lasts 3 months so we will look into that on our return to uk (instead of Advantix). I expect that by now the last of the puppies has departed for her new home. Little Bella is a beauty and I'm sure she'll give her new owners lots of joy. I hope we continue to see how Blottie and Bumble grow and develop... Alfie now weighs in at 11.35 kg..... his growth seems to be slowing at bit now but we'll wait and see. He has very long legs and can jump very high. He is very obedient in some respects, he will sit and stay if he knows there's a payoff, he will sit and wait to get his food, BUT he just can't resist the dishwasher! and no amount of trying to keep him away while we fill it is working, so anyone with tips, please help! When we get back home we will go back to the beginning with letting him off lead while walking using the clicker once again. Well off to bit of packing now. Take care , much love to all both human and canine. Joan and Colin" Thanks for the lovely update Joan and hope you traveled back to the UK without to many delays. Funny you should mention about dishwashers, as the next update is from Karen who has Archie's litter sibling Tilly and they have just managed to stop Tilly climbing in the dishwasher. ![]() "Hello Jane I just thought I should give you an update on our lovely Tilly. It feels like she has been with us longer than 6 weeks and we can't imagine our family without her. The photo is of a very exhausted puppy following a walk on Wimbledon Common. She generally walks off the leash in the park and common and has pretty good recall to a whistle. Training has been going very well and she seems to really enjoy it - I've even managed to train her not to climb in the dishwasher which has been a big achievement ! Tilly has been sleeping well at night and will go through until 7 am without any crying or accidents. We didn't persist with crate training as she seemed happier on the sofa or in her bed. She has lost 2 teeth this week and has been chewing quite a bit. I've found she seems to get some comfort from the raw hide chews. Jane, I've noticed that Tilly seems to be getting some tear stains. I wondered if you had any tips for cleaning them? Tilly as always seems to bring joy to everyone she meets. She loves people and is incredibly calm and good natured. Most people seemed intrigued by the cross breed and we have had so many favourable comments. She is starting day care for 2 days next week, so fingers crossed she will be ok. It's so nice to read how well her brothers and sisters are doing, they all seem to have grown and changed so much! Best wishes Karen" Thanks Karen for the update. Tilly sounds very happy and content with you. I'm afraid I gave Karen what to some might seem gross advice about tear stain. "There are products on the market to reduce tear stain, but I have never used any of them. I just use a bit of cotton wool with some of my spit on. Having observed our dogs cleaning each others eyes by licking and our dogs have very little tear staining. I think that the enzymes we have in our saliva are probably as good as anything to clean around the eyes and lessen tear staining. I know it might sound gross, but I find it works. Treacle especially likes cleaning eyes and most evenings you will find her going around the pack, that are all slumbering, cleaning eyes that need a bit of her attention. It is very interesting watching dogs in a pack interacting."
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
“The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him, and not only will he not scold you,but he will make a fool of himself, too.”
― Samuel Butler Me (Jane) with Puddin' and Teagol, waiting patiently to flush a patch of kale, December 2019
AuthorHello, I am Jane! Archives
March 2022
Categories |