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Old 10-21-2009, 10:45 AM   #23 (permalink)
Martian
Young Crumudgeon
 
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Location: Canada
Quote:
Originally Posted by james t kirk View Post
The other issue that no-one has mentioned is in-breeding. This is no joke. I was watching a TV show on it recently and it has become an issue with dog breeding today. Simply put, we humans are screwing up dog genetics by "pure" breeding them.
This is true, but not.

Reputable breeders (those registered with the CKC or AKC, or equivalent organizations) typically do keep records of their line's pedigree. A breeder will frequently have the same line for generations, and will ideally obtain stud services from multiple other breeders in order to increase genetic diversity and reduce the risk of inbreeding. Most pure breeds do have some 'typical' health problems, but these are related in a lot of cases to the dog's physiology more than the inbreeding per se (an example of this is large dogs often having heart or lung issues, due to the increased size of the chest cavity).

The problem is that not all breeders are reputable, or registered. It's very important when shopping for a dog to do your homework and learn about your breeder's track record, as well as the pedigree of the dog you're thinking of purchasing.

That said, at this point advice regarding breeders and bloodlines isn't particularly helpful to the OP.

I'm not convinced that raw food diets are all that beneficial. It's something akin to the organic food movement in my mind -- the notion that dogs 'naturally' eat raw meat doesn't necessarily mean that it's any better for them than a formulated kibble diet. Given that salmonella or e coli can be just as harmful for your pet as it can for you, the kibble really seems to be the better choice here.

All of that aside, experimenting with her food is a bit like throwing darts in the dark. You may get lucky, but you're more likely to just put a bunch of holes in the wall.

There's really no practical way to treat this without the input and assistance of a veterinarian. If you decide to keep her, that's going to be your best course of action -- in the long term, it will be cheaper to get this resolved quickly and lead to much better quality of life for your pet (and you, by extension).

Saying this may make me unpopular, but if you decide not to keep her I really think your best option is to have her put down. It's very unlikely that you'll find someone who's got a big enough heart to take on this level of responsibility for a strange dog, so you probably won't be able to adopt her out. And taking her to the humane society really just offsets the responsibility to them and takes away time and resources that could be used to help other pets get into happy homes. The best she could hope for there is to spend the rest of her life in a crate with minimal human contact, which is really no life at all.

I'm not recommending that you put her down -- with proper assistance, you can overcome this. But if you decide that there's no way you can possibly keep her, do give it some thought.
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