Mama and puppies, QUESTION

[aggieterpkatie]

Puppies always have a better adoption rate than older dogs.


And I'm so sick of the mother getting labelled an animal killer.

If you were starving you might be willing to seek food elsewhere also.

AND it is OUR responsibility as pet owners to provide ALL our pets (including chickens) safe areas away from predators (including our pets). Simply keeping the dog away from the chickens would do wonders to stop her from killing them. Duh.

And the term "backyard breeder" is used to describe lazy or thoughtless people who just breed willy nilly and for all the wrong reasons. And I'm sorry, but it's so easy to research what to feed your female before/during/and after pregnancy. IMO there's just no excuse to have a female that's skin and bones and not know what to do to fix it. Geesh, call a vet!

Seems to me the mother AND the babies should be taken to the shelter or given to a rescue group. They can spay the mom AND babies because if there's one thing the world doesn't need more of it's more unwanted dogs and cats.

 

[AndreaGS]

Quote:
If you do some searching on the net you will find articles where the dogs imported carried rabies. one of them did adopt out a sick dog to someone. Can't remember where it went, but it did happen.

The stuid spay and neuter laws are so sucessful out west in states like CA, that they are desperate for dogs. Otherwise they close their doors. They want to meet demand, so they get them from mexico and puerto rico. Then adopt them out to the public. Basically they are operating like pet shops. Supply and demand= money. The thing is they do that, yet there are plenty of dogs in the midwest and southern states that are getting killed right away.

I live in CA, and I have never gotten the impression that CA is desperate for dogs. Rather, the shelters are overcrowded. I visited a few when looking to adopt a dog. Their statistics are very sad. The most recent posted stats (for the month of June) for my local shelter are: 424 dogs taken in, 147 adopted, 95 returned to owner, 30 transferred or fostered, and 159 euthanized. That's in one month. Let's be generous and round that down to 140/month. That's still 1,680 dogs euthanized in a year. From ONE shelter. There are several other animal shelters in my area, all within a 15-30 minute driving distance. These are kill-shelters. I am not counting my county's SPCA program or breed-specific rescues.

Cats are worse off. They euthanized 747 cats in June.

From their website:
"Our staff works exceedingly hard to place as many animals as possible in good
homes but often the numbers we face are over whelming. We hope that by
sharing our shelter population statistics with you the true picture of the pet
overpopulation problem in our community will be evident."

Browse a classified ads website such as craigslist. Soooo many dogs free to a good home, or with a small adoption fee. Dogs of all sizes, puppies of all ages.

Visiting animal shelters kills me. It hurts to know how many of them will be put to sleep in the next week, and knowing that it's impossible to save them all. The vast majority are not crazed, behaviorally problematic dogs. They're good animals. I definitely think it's important to spay/neuter. For a person like me, who knows very little about dog breeding and even less about my dog's genetic background, spaying/neutering is the equivalent of having car insurance.

*steps off soapbox*

Sorry...just an issue that really hits me close to my heart.

ETA: 159 dogs in the month of June is an average of 5.3 euthanized a day, in one shelter.

 

[txredneckmedic]

Im not gonna read the entire article but you could try about 1/4# of calfmana for mamma everyday. Im not exactly sure that the dose but it should be on the bag or someone at your local feed store should be able to tell you. I feed it to my horse daily and it keeps weight on him real good.

 

[chickerdoodle]

Quote:
I am a college educated certified veterinary technician and an animal behaviorist. I did mention that dogs can and do well on various diets. If they did not we wouldn't have the amount of choice we do in the stores. Some folks even feed raw diets or homemade. In my previous post I mentioned what to look for on the label. I do not feed Blue Buffalo to my pets--I prefer EVO for my dogs. Corn is OK, but certainly not as easily assimilated by the dog and therefore they do not get all the nutrition they can from it as they would a whole meat, deboned meat or meat meal as the first ingredients (they are listed in the order of percentage of the entire food). Dogs are omniverous and need the benefit of fruit and vegetables in their diets but I recommend the ones that are vitamin filled and easiy assimilated which corn is somewhat lacking. It's basically like us eating a burger and fries at McDonalds--it has protein, carbs, oil and vegetable but not as nutricious and long term can lead to health issues. My very large Irish Wolfhound mix lived to 17 (!) and my terrier is currently 15. Longevity is also genetic so you will hear many differences. The point is to give them the best you can so they will be as healthy and live a long as God allows. Cost is always a factor and folks just have to do the best they can.

 

[tharrell]

Does anyone else find it humorous that this was the one person who thought it was ok for the basset dachshund litter to continue?.... Ignorance should not be acceptable when dealing with living creatures.

 

[Katy]

Quote:
I am a college educated certified veterinary technician and an animal behaviorist. I did mention that dogs can and do well on various diets. If they did not we wouldn't have the amount of choice we do in the stores. Some folks even feed raw diets or homemade. In my previous post I mentioned what to look for on the label. I do not feed Blue Buffalo to my pets--I prefer EVO for my dogs. Corn is OK, but certainly not as easily assimilated by the dog and therefore they do not get all the nutrition they can from it as they would a whole meat, deboned meat or meat meal as the first ingredients (they are listed in the order of percentage of the entire food). Dogs are omniverous and need the benefit of fruit and vegetables in their diets but I recommend the ones that are vitamin filled and easiy assimilated which corn is somewhat lacking. It's basically like us eating a burger and fries at McDonalds--it has protein, carbs, oil and vegetable but not as nutricious and long term can lead to health issues. My very large Irish Wolfhound mix lived to 17 (!) and my terrier is currently 15. Longevity is also genetic so you will hear many differences. The point is to give them the best you can so they will be as healthy and live a long as God allows. Cost is always a factor and folks just have to do the best they can.

So how do the ingrediants in EVO compare to Taste of the Wild? And why do you prefer it? I don't think I've ever seen it around here, course I don't make it in to many pet specialty stores either!

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Quote:
I did notice, but wasn't going to bring it up.

Accidental litters do happen, they are very much avoidable, but what's done is done. The dam needs more and better food, better being the most important. She needs supplements, some great ones have been listed. The puppies will need their vaccinations. Then in the end, everyone will need to be rehomed. I wouldn't keep any of the puppies, they will more than likely end up like their mother, having a high prey drive and finding the chickens irresistable. Better to rehome everyone.

Basset's are hound dogs, bred to hunt, and terriers are vermin dogs, bred to hunt small animals such as vermin. A high prey drive should have been forseen.

 

[tharrell]

Quote:
I did notice, but wasn't going to bring it up.

This is why I get so mad when people try to lump all breeders together as "backyard breeders". These are the kind of people who make good breeders look bad. Lets take a dog with temperment and behavior issues and an unknown parentage and breed her. Sure we can dump the dam after the litter is weaned, but look how cute the puppies are!.......

 

[redhen]

Someone is being kinda rude to the OP...

No need for name calling and such... Just because they dont do things the way that you do. She asked for help with her dog..not to be attacked.
Just saying..

 

[tharrell]

Quote:
What's done is done, and I'm not trying to be rude, it's just frustrating. Any simple google search could have helped mom and babies weeks ago. And even easier is a call to the vet. Any good vet is willing to give info over the phone for free. She did dicuss this with the vet eventually which is admirable, but if I wasn't getting results I wouldn't hesitate to call another one.