Sebaceous Cysts

Sebaceous Cysts

What are they? They are ‘lumps’ – yes, lumps! They occur when a hair follicle gets gummed up and sebum gets too thick to be excreted through the pore’s opening.

So, the lump grows – and, usually, the lump bursts, the ‘goo’ comes out, the lump goes away – end of… BUT, what if it doesn’t?

Go to your vet and have it checked. If it is too big and is irritating your dog, the vet will surgically remove it. Remember that a sebaceous cyst can get infected. Also, it is worth getting checked out as there might be something more sinister at play e.g. cancer

So, you get back from the vet and it is a plain ol’ cyst. Is there anything we can do to help? That is the $64m question!!

Our Cairid (below – gorgeous boy eh!!) has been prone to these for a number of years. Recently, one on his back became pretty large.

We monitored it – it got bigger!

It burst (the puss forms a crust and then falls off) – it never really reduced in size.

It grew a bit more and burst again.

Enough! – off to the vets (another story entirely but that is for another time!!!!!). Fortunately, she deduced that it WAS a cyst and not something more sinister and told us to monitor it but she was not ruling out having it surgically removed.

We searched the internet for anything that would help and the consensus of opinion seemed to be – adding cider vinegar and turmeric to his food. Now we all know that turmeric is an Indian Superfood,  renowned for its anti-carcinogenic qualities (and if you didn’t know, well you jolly well do now!). That was over a month ago.

Guess what?! – the cyst burst again BUT this time the swelling started to recede. What was a lump of around an inch (no – I don’t do metric – convert it yourself!!), or say the size of a large grape, in diameter is now around a third of that size and it is almost flat.

It may be too optimistic to say that this ‘wee’ change has made the difference, but hey! – the swelling is down, and this is the ONLY thing that we have changed with regards to his diet (or anything else for that matter). Way to go Cairid…………..

Snippets from PDTE Meeting, September 2012

SO MUCH thought-provoking stuff here ….. altogether a very interesting weekend!  The great thing was that it was attended by people from all over Europe, giving a slightly different cultural slant from each speaker.  Here’s some of what we came away with – very briefly.

Dogs’ pulse rates go up when you throw a ball for them;  pulse rates go down when you scatter some treats on the ground for them to find.  So far, quite a small study, but really interesting.

When you CURVE towards a dog you don’t cause him stress.  When you walk straight towards him, you do.  Another fairly small study.

A vet agreed that they don’t learn much about nutrition at vet school.  We applaud her.

There’s a scheme in Germany where people open their gardens to other dogs while their own dog isn’t there.  It’s a safe place to sniff and allow freedom.

A Labrador rescue centre in England allows its residents to mingle, not stay in separate cages.  Nice.  Good for exchanging social info.

A Lab breeder in Spain keeps several generations of dogs who have freedom to wander and explore a large outdoor area and pups get shown by example of the older dogs how to behave.  No human interference.

There are no dog shelters in Norway.

Control yourself, not your dog, and NEVER shout at your dog. 

Agility and other fast games may not be good for dogs in terms of stress levels.  Take it gently and slowly, allow exploration of different surfaces and heights when on walks.

Focus on what the dog NEEDS - they need to fulfil their instincts to get happiness e.g. smell/dig/swim/run - even roll in smelly stuff!

The more your dog stays in a prolonged alert state, the more stressed he becomes

When youare assisting in a dog's behavioural problem, don't think about the end 'perfect' product - deal with the situation as it is NOW!

There is a centre for animals in Italy (FISIOPET) that provided top class physiotherapy for a whole range of disabilities - and it is TOP QUALITY

AND... we got to listen to Turid Rugaas IN PERSON! How good is THAT?!

Check out the PDTE website : http://www.pdte.org/

Turid Rugaas

Turid is an amazing lady from Norway, who has been right at the forefront of canine behaviour for a number of years.
She has three books out that are compelling reading, not just because what is written in them makes so much sense, but also because they are written in such an empathetic manner. Every dog owner should buy these (they are only small so there is no daunting prospect of ploughing through hundreds of pages of statistical information etc etc!), so - what are you waiting for?

On Talking Terms with Dogs : Calming Signals (i.e. how our dogs communicate with us) - problem is that most of the time WE just don't listen. (Thats OUR opinion, not hers!!!)

Barking : TheSound of a Language (there are lots of reasons why dogs bark, and they use lots of different tones and pitches too). Everyone should be able to interpret their dogs' different barks.

My Dog Pulls : What Do I Do? (as it says on the back of the book - 'at last, a simple way to teach your dog to walk on a leash without pulling your arm off!)

Now - as if that is not enough to be going on with - Turid has a fabulous website with a few articles on it to help us all understand our furry friends. YOU can find it at http://www.canis.no/rugaas/

Last BUT BY NO MEANS LEAST, are you able to get to Edinburgh on the 29th and 30th of September? If so, you can book a place at the Pet Dog Trainers of Europe annual meeting, where there a right good few speakers giving talks on all things canine. From the speaker list and subject matter it would appear that this will be right at the cutting edge of training. And, GUESS WHAT, Turid Rugaas is one of those very speakers. Interested? Well check it out at http://www.pdte2012.co.uk/.

Whey hey - we just can't wait for this....................................

If you have an extra day, then the 1st of October sees Catherine O'Driscoll from Canine Health Concern running a workshop, covering :

In Search of the Truth About Dogs - an award-winning DVD about natural canine healthcare
How canine diet affects physical health and behaviour

Biologically appropriate food … the foundation of health and wellbeing; the functions of nutrients and their therapeutic uses

The vaccine issue: latest science on vaccine frequency

Vaccine-associated disease – the science

The human-animal bond

Human dysfunctionality: stress

How dogs mirror their owners and act-out their owners’ emotions

Emotional Freedom Technique – an introduction

You can book this too at : http://www.pdte2012.co.uk/workshop.php

Update on Survey

We are getting a great response to our survey, thanks to Dogs Naturally and Catherine O'Driscoll from Canine Health Concern (and of course, you guys who have actually completed it!!!!).

Keep 'em coming. EVERY SINGLE COMPLETED SURVEY COUNTS.

Once again, the link is :

http://www.esurveyspro.com/Survey.aspx?id=025b7d43-f8b4-40ad-a490-8b77dc0819c0

ABBY UP-DATE 110!

Here we are again.  We’ve come a long way since the days when Abby never fully relaxed, ate everything in sight including her poo, had regular diarrhoea, was sick in the car every journey, toileted in the house and was always bothered with her ears, and was seriously underweight.  A lot of that would have been to do with stress, and stress has an effect on digestive systems.  It seems to be the case that diet has an effect on stress levels as well.  It was also clear that her learning capacity was impaired, and that hasn’t changed much!  Although very motivated by food, there’s little sign of her remembering what she got it for!  It takes some dogs longer than others to settle in a new situation – it can take up to two years according to some experts.  When Abby came to us she had had two major surgical procedures:  one to remove mammary tumours and one to spay her.  She’d also had teeth removed.  Grey about the muzzle, she looked older than her estimated 6 or 7 years.  It was pretty hard going for her, and for us.  Regular clean-ups of runny poo on the kitchen floor, clean-ups of sick, muzzled when she was outside so she couldn’t eat anything, regular visits to the vets for vitamin injections and weigh-ins.    Well, all that’s behind us now.  Even the muzzle has come off on the beach, and the seaweed is safe!  She’s a fine traveller now and she’s clean in the house.  Best of all, she seems happy and reasonably healthy, and now weighs 29 kilos.  A major change in the way we feed her has definitely contributed to her improvement, and it’s apparent in her weight, her eyes (previously cloudy) and her coat which is now free of dandruff.  If you’ve been following this you’ll know that she is now on raw food with cooked vegetables, and completely grain free.  Given the extremely poor circumstances she was presumably living in while on a puppy farm, we think this is as good as it gets.  She even has little plays on the beach with Cairid, and has become very attached to him. 

  

Good news for dogs and toddlers!

Research performed at the Kuopio University Hospital in Finland has suggested that babies (up to one year of age) can boost their immune system by being in the company of dogs. Apparently this is because the dogs will bring dirt and allergens in from the big bad world outside and the wee ones will be exposed to germs early on in life which will boost their immune systems.

397 children were tracked for this purpose.

There are a number of articles that have been published with regard to this research, and you can read them here :

http://health.wealthwire.com/news/health/3480

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/09/dogs-may-protect-babies-from-some-infections-study/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

and

http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/dogs-help-babies-ward-infections-125022369.html

Here's to healthy babies and happy dogs!!!!!!!!!!

NEW SURVEY LINK

IMPORTANT CHANGES

We had a real disaster yesterday in that the website that hosted the survey was hacked into and completely trashed

(Kwiksurvey have reported this to the relevant authorities but they cannot guarantee that everything will be recovered)

However, the GOOD news is that we downloaded ALL of the completed surveys just hours before it crashed, thereby saving all the data to our own pc’s (almost 600 surveys!!)

We have also put a mirror of the survey onto ‘esurveypro.com’ where it can be completed, just as before.

The new link is :

http://www.esurveyspro.com/Survey.aspx?id=025b7d43-f8b4-40ad-a490-8b77dc0819c0

Away days!

We've been elsewhere for a couple of weeks but are now back and will be posting again. Stay tuned and keep coming back.
The survey is still ongoing, with over 600 responses now - keep 'em coming folks. Thanks to everyone who has completed one so far.

Here is the link again :

http://www.esurveyspro.com/Survey.aspx?id=025b7d43-f8b4-40ad-a490-8b77dc0819c0

NATURAL AND UNNATURAL CRUELTY

In the middle of a busy small city, a seagull was trying to make a meal of a still-living pigeon.  We couldn’t stand to watch it, and, rightly or wrongly, we shooed off the seagull and stood watch to make sure it didn’t come back to finish off the pigeon.  After an initial stagger around, the pigeon steadied and walked over to a shop doorway, seemingly not too badly injured.  Perhaps a spell of rest would see it recover.  Along comes a young woman pushing a pram, with a boy of around 7 trailing along beside her.  He kicked the injured pigeon.  Maybe the horror on our faces made the mother even more vociferous in her chastisements.  The boy quickly became tearful, and hopefully he will remember the incident and will never repeat it.  What makes a child want to do something like that?  The seagull was at least only trying to get a meal.

Most recently with Abby

Abby is in much better condition than she was just a few months ago, both physically and mentally.  After three months of raw food, in the beginning mostly minced raw green tripe but now including minced raw chicken, turkey, rabbit, lamb with the addition of an occasional egg, we are now introducing small amounts of cottage cheese, cooked offal such as hearts, and marrow bones.  These all caused extremely loose bowels in the past, but don’t do so now.  Even a hastily snatched piece of seaweed recently – a runny poo certainty in the past – had no ill effects.  She is now allowed on clear parts of the beach without a muzzle!  We are still giving fish oil capsules as well as cooked vegetables.  If we have rice left over from a meal we give her a small amount of that. Gradually we will introduce more variations to her diet.

Mentally Abby is now aware of her surroundings, more alert and more willing to engage in interaction with us.  We notice her doing a lot more sniffing out on walks than she used to – she used to just plod along behind us, only stopping if she found something edible.  Her coat is much better after a recent heavy moult.  The greasiness has gone.    Our main concern with her now is that her back legs remain quite stiff and this is something we are going to look at more carefully now that she’s stable.

We think that Abby’s turnaround is the result of two things:  one is her diet, and the other is that it has just taken this long – a year and a half – for her to feel confident and stress-free.  One thing probably has an effect on the other;  if she is stressed then this affects her digestion, and if her diet is not easily digested, this prolongs the stress.

She still looks a bit sad!  She is grey around her muzzle – much more so than Cairid who is supposed to be about the same age, and she is very much less active than Cairid.  But she shows affection now, and interest in her surroundings.  That’s a big step forward in our book.