Springers getting sick often?

ace86

I am just wondering does a lot of hunting Springers get sick through the year like picking up viral infections and things kidney infections etc? I have a dog that gets them every so often from what i don't know, my vet says if humans are picking up viral infections its only natural so will animals. Do other people encounter this during the year or have any solutions to keeping the dogs immune system up?

Mauser 308

Just my experience, and completely up to you to decide, but I find the Raw diet is by far the best. In my experience there is no better diet.

TriggerPL

odd , try getting tripe of local butcher , it helps with the imune system most of the problems i get is with sore paws and hunting related problem like cuts on nose and stuff .

what do you feed them, do you clean and wash down the bowl before putting fresh food in , i know might be dumb questions but we'd need to know a bit more if we can help at all

ace86

I normally feed him brown bread and pedigree chum nuts just read one of the bags there and it says it has 28% protein so thats good i suppose and I also give him pedigree chum dog food from time to time or if there is anything left after a roast or things i give that to him too. I always wash his bowl before puting in new food and he also gets this twice a day. I use Dog Vital as well its a multi vitamin and use it especially during the hunting season for him too.

kermitpwee

ace86 wrote: »

I normally feed him brown bread and pedigree chum nuts just read one of the bags there and it says it has 28% protein so thats good i suppose and I also give him pedigree chum dog food from time to time or if there is anything left after a roast or things i give that to him too. I always wash his bowl before puting in new food and he also gets this twice a day. I use Dog Vital as well its a multi vitamin and use it especially during the hunting season for him too.

If you only have one dog in a pen own his own then they will get sick a lot,I have found this mainly with springers. If they have a buddy I will have any money with you they wont be sick. Maybe I am wrong and you have a few dogs?

pejay

Mauser 308 wrote: »

Just my experience, and completely up to you to decide, but I find the Raw diet is by far the best. In my experience there is no better diet.

A while back a friend of mine who gets all his dog feed from the butchers was going away for two weeks. He asked me to take the stuff in his place he didnt want to mess the butcher around and not collect the food.

It is all the waste from the butchers trimmings, chicken legs/wings/carcasus,
fat trimmings, bones, unsold meats and loads more.

I have four springers and a jack russel is the house pet, I always fed them good quality nuts,

I got the stuff in the middle of the shooting season and my dogs do a LOT of work and I find it hard to keep the condition on them, But they were bursting with the butchers stuf it is the best thing i ever did.

I then went to my local butchers and asked him for the to do the same he was only to happy to do it for me. I go to him to collect twice a week.

As long is i have that stuff i will never buy nuts again.

ace86

kermitpwee wrote: »

If you only have one dog in a pen own his own then they will get sick a lot,I have found this mainly with springers. If they have a buddy I will have any money with you they wont be sick. Maybe I am wrong and you have a few dogs?

Yes he is a lone ranger alright and as you mention it his brother is by my mate and has a big golden labrador with him and is never sick so maybe you are on to something. i hope to be getting another one next year just don't have time on my hands this year to be honest.

Ronnie Beck

As your vet said all dogs will have to deal with virus and illness like we do. Most of the time, if your dog is generally healthy, you just wont notice. They might sleep a few more hours than usual or something like this. If your dogs symptoms are obvious there could be a problem. I would look into things like there diet first, as mentioned above, or maybe there kennel or run is cold damp or dirty( fleas, mites can cause illness). Does she swim in a dirty river?

Instead of giving him brown bread and scraps i'd start throwing in raw meat, organs bones and tripe and cooked veg with the nuts instead. Try changing the nuts too if you can they mightn't agree with him or better still do away with them altogether if you can source enough meat.

brianfrancis45

ace86 wrote: »

I normally feed him brown bread and pedigree chum nuts just read one of the bags there and it says it has 28% protein so thats good i suppose and I also give him pedigree chum dog food from time to time or if there is anything left after a roast or things i give that to him too. I always wash his bowl before puting in new food and he also gets this twice a day. I use Dog Vital as well its a multi vitamin and use it especially during the hunting season for him too.

I''d cut right back on the bread if I were you - it's not good grub for dogs so would definitely avoid giving it regularly or in bigger quantities.
And ,as far as Pedigree Chum (especially the tinned variety) is concerned personally I'd give that a complete miss - been told it's the equivalent of feeding your kid hamburger + chips ....... not good !.

Can't beat scraps/raw bones from the butcher's and if you can possibly get a regular supply of beef tripe all the better as no doubt he dog will come on leaps and bounds health wise - it's top notch for working dogs.

ace86

just as a matter of interest what are people feeding there dogs on a daily basis and how many times a day are they feeding them?

E. Fudd

My lab bitch gets 200 grams of "real nature" dried food in the morning and 100 grams in the evening mixed with raw minced beef or venison, or mackerel.
She also gets a duck egg twice a week mixed in with her evening feed.

I also drizzle some cod liver oil onto her morning feed a couple of times a week.

I really cannot recommend the real nature nuts highly enough. She initially was only getting nuts with no beef, venison, mackerel, eggs or oil and her condition was just as good as it is now - top notch. I only decided to start giving her the other things as a bit of variety.

The real nature works out at 70 for a 15kg bag, but because you have to feed so little of it, it doesn't work out overly expensive.

Maxizoo is the only place that stocks it.

This is what it contains:

Black Angus dried beef, min. 17%, whole grain brown rice, Barbary duck dried meat, min 10%, Herring, min 6.5%, Millet, Amaranth, fresh green herbs, wild salmon oil, cold-pressed vegetable oil, raw molasses, Yucca extract, Fennel Seed, Blueberries, egg yokes, Terra Natura, honey, silica, mussel concentrate, trace elements, vitamins.

Protein 25%, fat 10%, calcium 1.3%

A mate of mine is feeding his German Shepard this:


http://www.ducknatuurvoeding.com/default.cfm

Bets it from a guy in Claregalway. He absolutely swears by it, but you'd need a big freezer to keep it.

Ronnie Beck

1/2 kg of meaty bones, muscle meat, fat, organs (lamb, chicken, beef, fish)
tablespoon of rice/potatoes
tablespoon of cooked veg
teaspoon of codliver oil

Fed the pup twice a day, but now that she's nearly 12 months I give her all the food in the morning. Get most of my meat of the butcher for 1.20 a kg. Mostly offcuts and meat gone past it's sell by date.