The same people who scream for the outlawing of a dog breed will be the first to scream even louder when somebody tries to outlaw a particular model of “scary gun” they prefer.
If we’re talking the sheer force of “statistics”, guns kill a lot more kids [and adults] than dogs every year...*many* more.
And they will always say, “But guns don’t kill...people do”.
I seriously doubt that that logic comforts those who lost their loved one, much.
I hate nanny staters.
Whether their pet crusade is against guns, dogs, food, global warming or cigarettes...I really hate nanny staters.
There is no reasoning with them.
[and the dogsbite site is the canine version of Snopes]
Not that anyone asked, but of all the causes of death among children, their own parents are more likely culprits than any other.
Ban parents.
I hardly know what to say about “Scrappy”.
Ear infections are agonizingly painful and it astounds me that she let the dog suffer like that.
It’s horrific that her innocent child paid the price for her negligence.
I have discussed Odin’s hypothyroidism at length, here.
His first symptom was sudden, surprising, serious -aggression- just shy of his first birthday.
Since Hypo-T is fairly odd in a Dobe that young, the vet balked at running the tests.
I said take my money and humor me.
His T levels were nearly non-existent.
Hypot-T is the #1 cause of “sudden, uncharacteristic aggression” in dogs.
If I were a dumber owner or less informed, it’s entirely possible that my own beloved 100 pounds of teeth and muscle could have, one day, ripped me apart.
Instead, he will get 2 doses of Soloxine every day, just as he always has, for the last 4 years.
If the dosage needs adjusted, I can tell immediately because he growls at me, even though he shakes and looks ashamed.
He cannot help himself, it’s that powerful a disorder.
He is at the mercy of his own disfunctional endocrine system.
Even so, he would gladly kill or die for me and adores kids to a ridiculous degree.
And it’s up to me to keep him on an even keel by providing the medicine he needs.
[even if I had to starve for a week just to pay for the pills]
Would that I had known *3* of his brothers who were killed soon after their 1st birthdays for “aggression”, they would still be alive and well.
His hypothyroidism is not genetic or immune-related.
It’s “familial”, meaning his dam was low-T during her pregnancy and none of the pups had normal thyroids.
To the best of my knowledge, he is the sole male survivor.
And that, only because I “know my sh*t”, as it were.
The rest of this endless bickering can go merrily on without me.
As if anyone listens, anyway.
False analogy (and you know it) Guns don't have the ability to get up and do something on their own. Dogs do. Of the hundreds of millions of guns in the US not one has ever got up on its own and shot a child. OTO a great number of pit bulls (and other dogs too for that matter) have done exactly that. Peddle your BS elsewhere. It's kind of insulting that you think you can put something as dumb and as blatantly false as this and not get called on it.
I’m listening. :)
I have recently put my sweet, wonderful, soon to be 14-years-old BC, Molly, on Rimadyl (which is actually just ibuprofen in a smaller dose--only 75 mg per pill) for joint and mobility issues (I have to help her up into the cab of the truck these days).
Long ago, my sister, who worked for a vet at the time, showed me how to give a dog a pill: pry their mouth open, drop the pill as far back into the mouth as possible, clamp their mouth shut, and blow on their nose while stroking their throat. This does work, but as you might expect, it works better for some dogs than others.
So I started experimenting with alternative methods. What I ultimately came up with was this: take a Vienna sausage, cut it in half, use a plastic soda straw (just like you get in McDonalds or any other fast food restaurant) and stick it in the end of the sausage (don't go all the way through--about two thirds of the way works perfect), twirl the straw just a little bit, and pull it out (a little "plug" of sausage will come with it), stick the pill in the hole left by the straw, call the dog and say excitedly, "Do you want this?". Both the pill and the sausage are gone in a flash! No muss, no fuss. Happy dog, happy owner. To insure that the pill goes down, I immediately follow this with a couple of puppy sized dog biscuits.
You can squeeze the plastic straw moving toward the end to expel the "plug" of sausage. Reuse the straw if you want, or--if you are concerned about hygiene--just cut off an inch or so of the straw. That way you get multiple uses out of one soda straw.
I buy the Vienna sausages in a six pack of cans, seven sausages to the can. That's enough for 84 pills, provided, of course, that you are not particularly fond of Vienna sausages yourself.
Now, I know you are incredibly knowledgeable about all things canine, and you probably have worked our a technique as good or better than this, and I don't mean to insult you in any way, but I just wanted to share this with you and anyone else on this site who may have to give pills to dogs on a regular basis.
And thanks for sharing the info about hypothyroidism causing aggression in dogs. I did not know that.
B.