Hudson’s rash looks sore; I hope it clears up soon. Brodie had quite a few tics on him shortly after we brought him home. He doesn’t react badly to them though. He does still get the occasional one, even though he has been treated with Frontline. Our vet said Frontline often isn’t fully reliable but was the best one to use for pups and households with cats. We have hedgehogs in our garden that having been nesting in our compost pile. We try our best to keep Brodie away from that area. I got 3 flea bites on my ankle at the start of the weekend because I was clambering over the compost. Fortunately Brodie doesn’t appear to have got any fleas so maybe the frontline is more reliable with fleas than it is with tics. I’m allergic to flea bites so I would know if Brodie had them and had brought them into the house!
We use a pet disinfectant to clean Brodie’s things with. It also eliminates pet smells and can be used on carpets so we use it after mopping up any little accidents. I bought it mainly for neutralising any accidents. I have no idea if these are more suitable for animal skin from an allergy point of view than normal disinfectants but maybe the more experienced dog owners will know.
It sounds like you are trying all the right things to help clear it up so I hope you manage to work out what is causing out.
Karen, what file type are your pictures? We use jpg and they appear to work. I don’t do anything special when I upload the file. I noticed the video we loaded on the blog yesterday was of a much poorer resolution than the original so advice would also be appreciated.
We start training classes on Thursday (as well as having another 2 puppy parties still to go) so hopefully we’ll get more help in calming Brodie down a bit! Although he’s not biting people nearly as much he’s still awful for biting at and ripping clothes. I’m advising all friends to wear old clothes when the visit at the moment. One friend’s t-shirt she wore at the weekend was being converted to a duster when she got home! When we let him of the lead on Sunday I was so happy the weather was miserable and not many people were around, although one woman passing by ended up with muddy paw prints on her white top. She was out walking her dogs and was fortunately very understanding. Maybe James could come up to Scotland and help us out – looks like he’s a natural trainer!
Elspeth, would 2pm on Saturday work for you guys? We’re just planning on doing more work on our fence at the bottom of the garden at the weekend so we’re fairly flexible about the time. Brodie gets fed about 12.30pm and I’d read that dogs shouldn’t be walked until an hour after feeding so that’s what we’ve been doing with his walks this weekend. Do others follow this eating/walking time advice?
