-=> PETER COGGON wrote to ALL <=-

Hello Peter.,

 PC> At 14 now, he was not expected to get thru the winter...he did.
 PC> He has dysplasia, and heres where it got interesting, as with
 PC> massage and diet change and aids he not only survived the
 PC> winter, but perked up, and got up quite a number of times
 PC> on his own without assistance.

 PC> Please note, that monthly he is examined and a decision one
 PC> of these months will be the last, or he'll go coma like the
 PC> other at 19 years.

 PC>  A posting here dexamethasone was mentioned

I should mention I used HALF the dosage prescribed as I found that 
sufficient and I broke that half dosage into two doses per day.

 PC> non-steroid METACAM.  37mg first time, then ease back
 PC> to his level, which is about 20mg on his food.

 PC> As he is now.   I had some skin disease, I think he
 PC> picked up last year swimming in the lake.   No more
 PC> swimming there.   

I'd have tried some bleach say 3 -4 ounces to a tub full of water.
I've cleared several fungal infections on myself as well as other
skin rashes this way dead in their tracks.

Never used it on the dog however as he'd never had a skin rash.

 PC> The only canned stuff I give him now is a mix of chicken
 PC> and rice, which is like burger and rice a bland food to
 PC> help make the stool solid.

I used Iams for less active dogs to acheive the same result, beef 
flavor only. Spanky wouldn't touch the lamb flavor.

You say Rottie Staffordshire mix?

Here's a real health tip for teeth that absolutely eliminated my 
British Staffordshire Bull Terrier's dental cleaning requirements
passed along to me by another owner of large dogs.

I'd purchase at least ten pounds of turkey necks from the meat market
each month for the last 5 - 6 years of my Pit's life feeding them to him raw
after defrosting overnight in the fridge compartment rather than freezer
having been individually frozen in those cheap
fold over sandwich bags.

Oh yeah, I cut them in half as well.

It's important you do not cook them as that embrittles the cartilage
and can cause damage and poses no health threat to large dogs as
all dogs are immune to salmanella 

Spanky's teeth were near pearly white in just about a month and boy did 
he look forward to those as treats.

Prior to this I was looking at an expensive vet dental bill for
a teeth cleaning but this was way cheaper, more effective
due to an enzyme in turkey cleaning off all that brown plaque.

It's not a red meat so it doesn't raise the level of aggression red meat 
might have done with a Pit Bull.

Boy he'd rip through them in under three minutes every time!

And it's obvious he could count as I served them every two days
and he knew that and didn't bother me for one on alternate days.

Some days I teased him just a bit for a short while
and he'd invariably look from me to the refrigerator and back
several times over and at that he knew it was a game because in this case
he didn't give me that hey retard, catch on look I mentioned in a previous
post.

... MultiMail, the new multi-platform, multi-format offline reader!
--- MultiMail/Linux v0.49