Love at First.......Bark!

What's Shorty doing? He's peeking around the corner, looking at his new love......miss Nini, formerly known as "Juanita"........oh, such wonder, oh such bliss, who is this miss? One thing for sure, he was bewildered, excited and ready to find out more about her. This sweet lil chi is not quite sure that she's ready for having a boyfriend just yet but he sure thinks she's his. They ran back and forth after each other, then after a little while, Nini put him in his place and went to lay down on the other side of the room....needless to say, poor Shorty was shaken up a bit, with his little tail between his legs. Awe, aren't dogs silly?

Is Your Dog The Alpha Dog In The House?

There are alot of households out there that have more than one dog....yes, it's true, some people just love having more than one. And I guess you could say, that's me too. I have 2 chihuahuas and 1 chi/terrier. One chi is a male, the other a female, but the chi/terrier is a female as well, and not only that, she's the oldest of the bunch, been around the longest and I thought that she would be the one to be the alpha dog ( the head hauncho) in our group, but she isn't. Prissy, the youngest female seems to be the head of our group here. I have trained my dogs to listen to my commands and some people say that I am actually the alpha dog here, which is so funny, because although they mind pretty well, they have a mind of their own and do mostly as they please. Do you find that having an alpha dog in the house means that the head dog leads the pack of them all, or just because they think they do?

No More Fleas!

That's right, no more fleas to worry about over here. After spending countless dollars on so many products we finally found what works here for us. Treating the yard is extremely important. The lady at the vet clinic told me that they reccommend a product called "over and out" which is supposed to be good for ants but great for fleas too. I also treated my carpet with food grade DE and some of that 20 mule teem borax that I got off the laundry isle at the grocery store. DE is found at many feed stores, just make sure IF you use it, it's food grade, and put your puppies up while putting it into the carpet. And I think that since Abbey went to the vet and they said she was elible for the confortis pill, that has worked wonderfully....and no side effects for her, but there are some in many dogs so always check things out before doing it. Today is hot and my dogs are all lazying around taking it easy.

Abbey's Vet Visit

After much work and worry over all this flea treatments and stuff, I had to find an answer.....so I took Abbey to the vet. Abbey is the one dog that gets tons of fleas where Shorty and Prissy only get a small amount. I thought that maybe the vet could give me an idea of what's going on, not to mention that Abbey was scratching and had a raw spot from it all as well. Vet check went great, Abbey's in good shape, no intestinal parasites to worry about but it came down to the "flea" talk. I told her that I had used just about everything to get rid of the fleas and they get right back on her. She gave me 2 options that would work. One was comfortis and the other one was frontline. It was a toss up, but I wanted to try the comfortis. It has to be bought in a 5-month supply and at $85.00, it was alot of money for me to cough up along with the vet bill too, but I went ahead. Comfortis cannot be used on a small dog nor can it be used with dogs prone to seizures so my other 2 chis cannot use it. Comfortis also has to be taken with food so it doesn't upset their stomache too much. Within 30 minutes the fleas started dying and Abbey isn't itching anymore. Now, I still have to deal with Shorty and Prissy and the fleas but it seems that since I treated my yard and the house, they are not having any at this time. Wow, that's such a relief! But I think that I will keep a good eye on things just to be sure! Has anyone else out there used the comfortis with good luck? Remember, comfortis cannot be used on small dogs that are prone to seizures!

Chihuahua Seizures, Flea Treatments

Let me just begin this post by saying that chihuahuas are prone to having seizures at times, especially if they are on the small side, however, I have to tell you what I have discovered, at least about my own chis. My Shorty is about 2 pounds and as in some of my past postings, I have reported him having seizures. Well, I used to use that spot on treatment for fleas, and found that it only worked a few weeks, which was very expensive for me.. I also noticed that since I stopped the spot on treatment, he has NOT had any more seizures so now I am wondering if that was the cause of his. Yes, I do have to battle fleas and I think I have found that food grade Diamitous Earth works, just as a combo of salt/baking soda on the carpets swept in. That also includes treating the yard for fleas off of other animals who pass through. Do I dare wonder if the spot on treatments ( I have used several of them) could have contributed to the seizures? I have done some reading on the internet and I hear alot of nasty things. What do you think? Do you have an opinion on this subject? If so, I would love to hear it.