finding homes for goldens in need

What: Volunteer Meeting for MVFA
Date: Saturday, March 13, 2010
Time: 11:00 – 1:00 (Free lunch is included!)
Location: 416 Harbor Drive, Annapolis, MD 21403
RSVP: Please RSVP to Carolyn@VoteAnimals.org so that we’ll know how many people we’ll have for lunch.

Bailey is 6 – 8 years old. His owner died. He is being fostered by Kevin and Beth Daly.

Bubba is 2.5 and was given up when his family moved from a farm to an apt. He’s being fostered by Betty and Lloyd Davis.

Max is 21 months. He and his brother Sam were given up due to divorce.

All

Bailey with Dexter

Max would love a big fenced yard and a canine friend

Please send wishes for quick recovery to the following goldens:

Buck who is undergoing heartworm treatment and is being fostered to adopt by Vince and Anna.

Skip who is also undergoing heartworm treatment and was adopted by Peggy, Craig and Cheyenne.

Bella, who is having surgery to have a tumor removed next week and was adopted by Tony, Shelby and Cesar.

Sam Shelton’s baby.

March 8, 2010
Dear Friends – please read these important food safety announcements regarding our raw frozen chicken diets, and scroll down to receive valuable coupons.

Nature’s Variety Voluntarily Expands Recall to Include All Chicken Formula and Organic Chicken Formula Raw Frozen Diets with “Best If Used By” Dates On or Before 2/5/11
Nature’s Variety is announcing that out of an abundance of caution, we are voluntarily recalling all Chicken Formula and Organic Chicken Formula products with a “Best If Used By” date on or before 02/5/11.
Nature’s Variety has received new test results from an outside facility that indicate that Chicken Formula Raw Frozen Diet with the “Best If Used By” date of 10/29/10 and Chicken Formula Raw Frozen Diet with the “Best If Used By” date of 11/9/10 may be contaminated with Salmonella. Therefore, we are voluntarily recalling these date codes of product from the marketplace. Also, out of an abundance of caution, we are expanding our voluntary recall to include all Chicken Formula and Organic Chicken Formula Raw Frozen Diets for dogs and cats with any “Best If Used By” date on or before 02/5/11. We believe taking this action is an important and responsible step in order to reinforce consumer confidence and trust.
No other Raw Frozen Diets are involved in this expansion other than chicken, and no other Nature’s Variety products are involved.
The products included in this expanded recall are any Chicken Formula or Organic Chicken Formula Raw Frozen Diet with a “Best If Used By” date on or before 2/5/11, including:
* UPC#7 69949 60130 2 – Chicken Formula 3 lb medallions
* UPC#7 69949 60120 3 – Chicken Formula 6 lb patties
* UPC#7 69949 60121 0 – Chicken Formula 2 lb single chubs
* UPC#7 69949 50121 3 – Chicken Formula 12 lb retail display case of chubs
* UPC#7 69949 60137 1 – Organic Chicken Formula 3 lb medallions
* UPC#7 69949 60127 2 – Organic Chicken Formula 6 lb patties
The “Best If Used By” date is located on the back of the package above the safe handling instructions.
If you have purchased one of the affected products, please return the unopened product to your local retail store to receive a complete refund, or to exchange it for another variety. If your package has been opened, please dispose of the raw food in a safe manner by securing it in a covered trash receptacle. Then, bring your receipt (or the empty package in a sealed bag) to your local retailer for a complete refund or replacement.
As you may know, Nature’s Variety now uses High Pressure Pasteurization on our Raw Frozen Diets as a unique process to kill pathogenic bacteria through high-pressure, water-based technology. Having incorporated this state-of-the-art technology on our Freeze Dried Raw products in late 2009, we were able to confidently implement the process universally on all Raw Frozen Diets after the February 11, 2010 recall in order to further enhance food safety. Nature’s Variety also utilizes a test and hold protocol to ensure that all High Pressure Pasteurized Raw Frozen Diets test negative for harmful bacteria before being released for sale.
“Nature’s Variety believes replacing all raw frozen chicken products on the market with new raw frozen chicken products that use High Pressure Pasteurization is an important and responsible step in order to reinforce consumer confidence and trust,” stated Reed Howlett, CEO of Nature’s Variety. “By recalling all raw frozen chicken products with ‘Best If Used By’ dates on or before 2/5/11, we can provide our pet parents with new raw frozen chicken products that have been processed through High Pressure Pasteurization. Adopting High Pressure Pasteurization is an important step to ensure that our products meet the strictest quality and food safety standards.”
Reed offers this promise to you, “Our commitment to consumers in the future is the same as it’s been in the past – to offer Raw Frozen Diets made from the highest quality ingredients, made in our own plant in the Midwest, by people who care deeply about pet nutrition, health, and happiness.”
If you have additional questions, please call our dedicated Customer Care line 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 800-374-3142. For additional information about High Pressure Pasteurization or other Nature’s Variety food safety protocols, please read the Q&A below or visit www.naturesvariety.com.
________________________________________

Why is it important to donate?
Healthy donors are needed to give blood for the many pets who need it. A single donation can be used to save up to 4 lives, because the blood can be separated into two components, red blood cells and plasma. The components are given to patients suffering from anemia, injury or disease.

How long will it take?
The blood collection process, an almost completely painless procedure, will take about 10-20 minutes. Your pet will not be sedated and only a small percentage of his or her blood will be donated.

How often can my pet donate?
Animals could donate blood without any problems as often as every 3 weeks. You will only be asked to come in every 2 months. Immediately after donations, the body starts to replace the blood that was given.

BENEFITS PROVIDED BY THE EVBB TO DONORS IN GOOD STANDING:
Physical examination before each donation
Blood Typing
Blood Chemistry Profile and Complete Blood Count (CBC)
Heartworm test
Ehrlichia, Hemobartonella, and Babesia testing (diseases spread by ticks)
Brucella testing (once for neutered dogs and yearly testing for intact dogs)

For each unit of blood donated, a donor is eligible to receive one unit of blood or plasma should illness or injury ever warrant its use.
EVBB tag which identifies the dog as a blood donor, and can be traced through the EVBB if the owner cannot otherwise be located
EVBB bandanna identifying the donor as a life saver
Various free pet health and nutrition giveaways
And plenty of dog treats before and after each donation. More info at www.evbb.com.

While we await photos of Harry, I thought I’d post some from our day of gardening when we worked on Bumble Puppy’s obedience training.

Drop It :  the tulip bulbs out of your mouth
Leave It :  the pruned rose bush branches you’re dragging around
Come :  out of the neighbor’s yard
Stay :  away from the fertilizer
Down : well, he mastered that just fine, strecthing out in the grass

Guarding the Daffodils

All ready to help

If I stay really still maybe they won't notice that I'm not working.

My vet asked me to pass along a warning to our group about shipping puppies. Earlier in the day she had a puppy brought in with heavy discharge from her little eyes and nose, a horrible cough and very weak. The new owners were noticibly upset as they had paid a lot of $ for their new pup. The baby has pneumonia which is treatable, but it also appears to have an underlining congenital abnormality with its lungs which may not be treatable. The new owners contacted the breeder when the pup arrived so ill, and the breeder said “Send her back and I’ll ship you another one.”

Of course the new owners were not going to ship this sick little pup back, but now, in addition to the cost of the pup, the expenses associated with the immediate medical crisis and unknown future expenses, this little bundle of joy has brought with her much worry and regret.

The vet said this was the third case of a very sick puppy that was shipped that she had seen in the past few days! (None were goldens.)
In addition to not knowing the health of your pup, you also may be unknowingly supporting puppy mills that keep dogs in deplorable conditions. The web site may show a beautiful facility, but that does not mean this is where your puppy was raised.

Also, pups do not have a fully developed immune system until they are 4 months old, so any germs they encounter in route could be deadly.

Reputable breeders are often hesitant to ship puppies as they do not have the opportuniy to meet the pup’s new family to ensure a safe and loving home.

If you are looking for a golden retriever puppy, go to www.grca.org and click on “puppy referral” for a list of reputable breeders who screen for hip, heart, eye and elbow health. Expect to pay $1500 and up and then a few months later, don’t forget the spay/neuter surgery for another $500.

Makes a rescue golden at $250 sound like a sweet deal! Plus they are house trained:)

Member, Richard Holden, asked to pass this along.

Consumer Products

We are conducting focus groups with Dog owners between the ages of 25-64.

These groups take place from March 16th-18th. Groups are being held in the daytime and evening- your responses will determine which days and times you qualify for.
Qualified participants will receive $100 for their time and opinions.

If you are interested please follow the link below. If you pre-qualify someone from our office will contact you.

If you know ANYONE who may be interested please have them follow the link below to our and complete our online pre-screener. If they pre-qualify someone from our office will contact them.

Thank you for your interest.

http://cts.vresp.com/c/?ShugollResearch/2c3ae1b433/5eb2cf0dca/5364ffe30f

In response to Fred’s bad experience with Mometamax and all of the follow-up comments on my post about it, Valerie has suggested that we might want to have a discussion of ear care. Goldens are notorious for their ear problems (and this has certainly held up in my experience with 3 of them!), and the class of drugs now used to treat wax buildup and inflammation appears to be causing deafness in an alarming number of dogs. My description of Fred’s ordeal and the similar ordeals of others are in the earlier post on this blog.

I have no special expertise in ear care, so I’m just going to start this off by noting what we are doing for Fred in hopes of preventing any recurrence of ear problems that might require Mometamax or one of the other deafness-inducing drugs. I hope that others will add helpful comments about good ear-care practices.

Two or three times a week, we swab Fred’s ears with Epi-Otic and then irrigate his ear canal with a quick squirt of the solution. We do this only if he is experiencing no unusual problems. It’s preventive. If Fred shows signs of ear trouble (he also has vestibular disease and a history of wax and yeast buildup), we take him to the vet before putting anything into his ears. You need to be certain that the eardrum is intact before irrigating with anything.

Signs of ear problems include head-shaking, ear-scratching, head-tilting, loss of coordination, eye- twitching, or jittery eye movements. The link Valerie posted in response to my Mometamax post has a good list of symptoms to watch for.