We have adopted.........................

[Angela Woodford]

Yes, we were really broke and the in laws invited us to stay. Mistake!

This dried dog food came from a shop near Alfold, Surrey - Southern Canine Catering, it was called, and the awful pink packages had to be simmered slowly to rehydrate them. The smell was totally nauseating! I'd thought I was over the sick stage too. The in laws had a gigantic American peke called Lucy. You could barely tell which end was which until intake or output of the pink foam + available carcass-pickings took place. I'd be sick again! Lucy was a truly revolting dog.

Yet my mother-in-law would cook the dog food with a sort of gleam in her eyes!

Was I glad when baby Susannah was born and we escaped home!

Munch

[kerrensimmonds]

I was looking forward to an Iams/Eukanuba risotto tonight. Now, which flavour should I have chosen? And should I have used the anti-hairball variety? Oh dear.. have just been reading about the recall of petfoods in USA and Canada.. both wet and dry. They say they are anxious to impress that the recall (of most pet food brands - dry, tinned, pouches, you name it, apparently...) does not apply outside USA/Canada - but it does make you wonder. Not only for one's own delectation, but also for that of one's hairy/furry friends.

Think I will stick with scrambled eggs tonight....

[Angela Woodford]

Just to make it plain that the awful dog food was for Lucy only!

[kerrensimmonds]

Lucky Lucy. Did she survive the diet?

[Angela Woodford]

Lucy got more and more ancient, living on and on and on, becoming more shaggy and whiffy. I had never seen such a large Pekinese, but she was an American variety. She dribbled and snored. She shed her fur everywhere. Her rear end had to be cleaned regularly.

To think of a lovely cat instead - it's not long before JR's kitten goes for The Operation!

Munch

[kerrensimmonds]

Ni....i....i....ce!
JR.... hope your little one copes with the operation. My cats (who came from CH - Wendy Killner - as most of you know....) had the op at 6 months. I hoped that it would quieten them down. Ha Ha Ha! Five years on, after 'emasculation', they still rule the roost. Last night, one of them got under my bedclothes whilst I was asleep, and when I sleepily tried to cuddle him, he bit my elbow. A couple of hours later, when I was still fast asleep but with one foot protruding beyond the duvet, his brother speared my big toe with a sharp claw. Thank You Very Much!
Anyone want two naughty tabby cats?!.................................

[Katharine]

Kerren, does your spare bedroom have a door that closes and is cat proof?

[kerrensimmonds]

Don't worry Katharine. The answer is 'yes'. Visitors.. who sleep in the spare room.. do not need to be subject to the attentions of the other members of this household. Though when Clare (Chisholm as was) was here in December, the dog (Willow) decided that Aunty Clare was much more fun than mum, and firmly ensconced herself first on top of and then underneath the duvet, as the night progressed. But don't worry.. if you keep the door closed you will be pet-free!
Kerren

[cj]

This dried dog food came from a shop near Alfold, Surrey - Southern Canine Catering ...
Munch

I used to work at a pub in Alfold, called The Alfold Barn funnily enough, although we renamed it The Awful Barn. Maybe the same catering idea was used here with 'local produce' from Southern Canine Catering?

[Liz Jay]

Hi

I can't believe the forum has been so lively in the last month while I've been occupied elsewhere (sorry!) - and that "pet food", a topic so dear to my heart, has been under discussion.
I'm absolutely sure a spoonful of Whiskas wouldn't kill me (though some brands might, from what I have been reading) but in the long term I'm sure I would suffer from periodontal disease.
Caroline my dogs also enjoy a diet based on the prey model/raw meaty bones concept as per Dr Tom Lonsdale, the Australian vet who wrote "Raw Meaty Bones (promote health)". Actually I changed to that style of feeding about ten years after long-term use of tins and packets was producing a steady undermining of my dogs' health which even I could see, and met Tom for the first time a couple of years later. It was so refreshing to find a VET who thought the same way as I did about the cynical marketing techniques used by the makers of "pet food".
There is so much emphasis on hygiene and palatability and convenience that it distracts us from the basic truth that dogs and especially cats are carnivores, and raw feeders, so that a grain-based cooked diet is totally unnatural for them and in the long run destroys their health.
Something like 80% of dogs over three years old have periodontal disease (catchphrase: dog breath) so what is Pedigree Petfood's answer? Oh yes more marketing - the Rask - purportedly cleans teeth. Read the small print. Only works if you also BRUSH the dog's teeth twice daily....translation....doesn't work at all but makes owners feel as if they have tried and lines the pockets of the shareholders.
The UKRawMeatyBones group has a brilliant website with all the science you would need to be informed us this subject, so I'll leave it for now, as this probably isn't the place for a detailed discussion.
As for vaccinations, Caroline I have to agree.....don't get me going!!!!

[kerrensimmonds]

My 'adopted' dog, Willow, aged about 9/10 now, and who was (let's face it) dumped on me by my so-called-friend, her former owner, and who is now in this household for the duration, suffers epileptic fits (which I did not know about beforehand). Mostly they are 'on excitement' though I have witnessed one or two episodes where there was nothing exciting going on, at all....
I have had to seal my letterbox, and close off my doorbell. Visitors must think I am barmy (no jibes, please, JR!).
What I was going to say was that a fellow Old Blue, Sarah O'Reilly (nee Visick) works for a homeopathic vet near Lewes. I consulted them a year ago about the epilepsy (being very very very very unhappy with the side effects of the treatment offered by the conventional vet) and Willow really is very much better on homeopathic remedies. Not perfect, but very much better.
I am now considering moving away from the traditional vaccinations (due in two weeks) to covering Willow with 'Nosodes' from the homeopathic vet. Anyone got any advice to offer?
Kerren

[Liz Jay]

Hi Kerren

Advice - yes! - don't do it!!!! Please!!!!!!

Vaccines are licensed for use in healthy animals only and by no stretch of the imagination is an elderly dog with epilepsy (even controlled by medication) a truly healthy dog.

Vets are so brainwashed that they believe vaccines do no harm (oath: "First do no harm")....that's not their fault as they are the products of a corrupt system where money talks and the large pharmaceuticals hold most of the cards. However a little research will uncover a can of worms.

One of my best friends is Catherine O'Driscoll who wrote "What Vets Don't Tell You About Vaccines" and more recently "Shock To The System". Her work has been featured on TV "World In Action" and she travels extensively lecturing and giving seminars. She also has a website http://www.canine-health-concern.org.uk with a great collection of articles and studies on vaccines from well-researched sources. She speaks the truth and has done for years, and gradually the message is getting out there.

I would say, from what little I know about the use of nosodes, that using them in lieu of vaccines is not correct, it doesn't work that way, and there's probably no need. Immunity, once acquired, is there for life and the "memory cells" won't go away. The key is to keep the immune system healthy, that means good food, exercise, clean water, fresh air etc
Good health does not come out of a syringe! And any vet who vaccinates a sick animal is either ignorant or after your cash.

[cj]

We've (parents and myself) always had cats and up to now have never had them vaccinated. My mum wanted her cat to go into a cattery while they went on holiday but they wouldn't take Max as he hadn't had any jabs. Do cats need them?

[kerrensimmonds]

Thanks for that, Liz. Are you saying no standard vaccinations for Willow from a conventional vet (I'd go along with that...) AND not having the Nosodes offered by the homeopath?
Because I am disabled, Willow has only three one-hour walks a week (with dog walkers, which I pay) - apart from which she survives on mad rushes round my garden first thing in the morning and two or three times each evening (as well as chasing the cats round the house goodness knows how many times a day). That's - however - not an awful lot of fresh air.....
In the meantime I have - also (and from CH) - these two perfectly healthy and happy cats - even if they do live most of their lives indoors. They are currently covered by conventional vaccinations - which are required when they go to the cattery, anyway. Do you have any 'alternative' advice to offer there, too....-and which would be OK for the cattery on the occasions when I need to place them in a hotel?
Kerren

[Liz Jay]

Hi Kerren

No vaccs, no nosodes....

Fresh air, what about just "being outside" in the sunshine? Mine laze around on the patio for hours watching the birds and suchlike, have a little frolic now and then, woof at a cat or someone coming to the door. Doesn't have to be "walkies". Will Willow fetch a ball? That can be fun and something you can do without having to walk far.

Cats are no different from dogs/people/horses......i.e. disease resistance is provided by a healthy immune system and repeated re-vaccinations are pointless and potentially harmful. HOWEVER the kennels have to toe the line with their local councils, and they take veterinary advice and stipulate that all pets should be "up to date". The vets of course base this policy in turn on what THEY have been taught by yes our old friends the deeply caring pharmaceutical companies who won't actually give a s--t if our pets get sick from this practice. So it's all down really to false thinking, and greed, and the big fear that we have had instilled into us that our pets' immunity. like the TV licence and the car tax, runs out after 12 months and needs renewing, because if we don't do that. we aren't Good Owners and our pets will DIE.

Once the big lie has been exposed, it gets very hard to voluntarily compromise our pets' health with "boosters" with a clear conscience just for a couple of weeks' holiday. The only answer right now appears to be to use a petsitter/"animal aunt" instead of kennels, unless discreet questioning reveals a like-minded establishment willing to bend the rules!