Rachel B.

I recently rescued a 3 1/2 month-4 month old Lionhead rabbit on Sat. (10-24-09). When her owners handed her to me, she was very sweet and laid-back. She allowed them to pick her up and hand her over to me so that I could hold her for a long time. However, as each day goes by, she now hates being picked up and held. She always tries to scratch and get away. Last night, I tried picking her up and petting her once she stopped, but she doesn't stop trying to get away for long. After a couple of seconds, and she's trying to get away. So anyways, ever since I had her, I let her out of her big cage into her playpen for about an hour in the morning and a couple of hours at night which she loves (she binkies alot and races around, and loves playing with her toys). Whenever I get the chance, I get in the playpen with her and play and talk to her; and give her one of her favorite treats whenever she sees me. Even after all that, she still scrambles to get away whenever someone tries to hold her. Any advice as to what I can do to get her to like being held by people again would be greatly appreciated, and the time length (hours, days, weeks, months?) required to do each step if listed in steps. Thanks!

Here's what she's living, and playing in----which I bought the very next day after I rescued her.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/zoom/ind%E2%80%A6

She has plenty of toys, and a litter tray in the bottom far left corner which she has been using. And and a hand towel on the bottom of her cage which she loves re-arranging.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.js%E2%80%A6

This is her playpen that is hooked up to her cage; and I bought the little mat to go underneath the playpen. She has plenty of toys in that too---she's a pretty happy bunny. She loves my dog, and people coming up to her; but, just doesn't like to be held any more. :(

Additional Details

She's not pregnant---at her last home she had no contact with any male rabbit.

Also, she hasn't been drinking much either, but has still been eating alot. She drinking from a water bottle. At her last home, she was drinking and eating alot.

How long does it take for a rabbit to get use to a person's scent? Does it take a day, week, or month? I know with rabbits it takes a while to get them to trust you---so, I feel whenever I try to pick her up each day, then I'm ruining her trust in me. So should I try to pick her up each day, or just keep on petting her and giving her treats for a week or month before trying to pick her up again?

I recently rescued a 3 1/2 month-4 month old Lionhead rabbit on Sat. (10-24-09). When her owners handed her to me, she was very sweet and laid-back. She allowed them to pick her up and hand her over to me so that I could hold her for a long time. However, as each day goes by, she now hates being picked up and held. She always tries to scratch and get away. Last night, I tried picking her up and petting her once she stopped, but she doesn't stop trying to get away for long. After a couple of seconds, and she's trying to get away. So anyways, ever since I had her, I let her out of her big cage into her playpen for about an hour in the morning and a couple of hours at night which she loves (she binkies alot and races around, and loves playing with her toys). Whenever I get the chance, I get in the playpen with her and play and talk to her; and give her one of her favorite treats whenever she sees me. Even after all that, she still scrambles to get away whenever someone tries to hold her. Any advice as to what I can do to get her to like being held by people again would be greatly appreciated, and the time length (hours, days, weeks, months?) required to do each step if listed in steps. Thanks!

Here's what she's living, and playing in----which I bought the very next day after I rescued her.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/zoom/index.jsp?pro...

She has plenty of toys, and a litter tray in the bottom far left corner which she has been using.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productI...

This is her playpen that is hooked up to her cage; and I bought the little mat to go underneath the playpen. She has plenty of toys in that too---she's a pretty happy bunny. She loves my dog, and people coming up to her; but, just doesn't like to be held any more. :(

To start off, my 11-year-old Chow/Shih-tzu mix has skin allergies (we think it may be seasonal), so when we saw her itching alot a couple of months ago, we thought that it was because of that. So we switched her food to Nutro Natural Choice dog food along with a half can of wet food at night which we mixed in an all-natural supplment powder, fish oil, and a multi-vitamen pill for senior dog. During the day, we would give her a fish oil pill, and twice a week she would get a bath with a anti-itch shampoo that I got from PetSmart. We tried that for about a month, and didn't really notice any difference.

The next month, we kept her on the all-natural diet with the supplements; but, this time when I gave her a bath, I noticed a couple of fleas on her backend. So I immediately went out and got a flea spray from PetSmart to see if that would work----it only works to kill the fleas that are on her; it doesn't stop them from coming back though. So I then went back to PetSmart, and got another flea product to put on her back---that didn't work. Then I got another flea product that had more good reviews then the last one, along with a all-natural anti-itch spray and anti-chew spray for my dog. The anti-itch spray only works when it's wet so that doesn't last long; and the anti-chew spray didn't really deter her from chewing on herself, and after we sprayed it, everyone in the house was able to taste it.

A couple of weeks ago (after trying everything), I took her to the vet to see if they could finally get rid of the fleas. They gave me a shampoo for irritated skin, predisone, and a steroid pill along with advantage flea treatment for her and my inside/outside cat (which has shown no sign of having fleas on her). They told us that we should Fog the house and outside-----my parents said that we can't fog the house because we have an in-home daycare business so it would just create a big mess for us to clean up in the daycare, ect. And they thought the backyard was pointless, because my dog goes everywhere outside (different neighborhoods, dog park, downtown, woods in the back of my house)---and we doupt that those people fog their own homes, so when my dog comes into contact with that area there will probably be fleas there. So they went out and got this flea spray (recommended to us by a couple different people) for inside the house----we washed everything, moved alot of stuff around, and then vacummed everything. We then vacummed the carpets and everwhere that my dog went for the next week, and sprayed again on Sunday. Whenever I do wash (every coupl of days), I always wash my dog's bedding too. She still has fleas.

Now, my dad thinks that it would be best and easier for us to get my dog shaved down so that we can start from scratch with trying to fight off these fleas; along with buying her and my 12-year-old cat flea collars. I asked the vet about shaving my dog down, and the vet said that it would only irritate my dog's skin more which I told my dad and other family members-----they all seem to agree with my dad now because we did try everything that the vet said (besides fogging the house and yard), and that didn't work. So any ideas would be greatly appreciated because I really don't want to pay someone to shave my dog when that's not really going to work or help make the process of getting rid of fleas easier. Thanks!

11 years ago, I got a 6 week old puppy from the shelter. The shelter told us she was going to be 25 pounds--which they were pretty correct in their estimate. They told us their opinion of what mix she is---just wondering what your opinion is. Here are some pictures.

Puppy Pics:

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...

Senior Dog pics:

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...

When she stands, she comes up to my knee (I'm 5'3"). And she has a Black spot near the back of her tongue.

This is what she looks like when her hair is shaved.

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...

Thanks! :)

There is this website that a fellow user on here just posted about Service dogs. I just went and checked it out, and it almost seems too good to be true. I've never heard of it being that easy to get a vest for your dog that says it's a service dog. I always thought a person had to have months of training with their own pet in order to become a service dog, and to receive the vest. This website just states if your dog passes all the steps that they listed on their website, then make this online payment and they will send the vest to you. Doesn't that sound like spam? What are your thoughts on this?

Here is the website so that you can all check it out.

https://www.estoreserver.net/ssl/servicedogsameric...

I currently have a 25 pound chow/shih-tzu mix (10 years old) which is very affordable because of her small size, but her vet bills are still pretty expensive especially when she gets sick.

I'm thinking about getting a Greyhound, but not sure if I could afford one that big because of how much food they eat and their vet bills. Does anyone know the average monthly cost to feed the Greyhound, and what their vet bills range from?

And do Greyhounds get along with children 3 years old and younger because my sister is thinking about starting a in-home daycare business and wasn't sure if those dogs were safe with babies and small children?

Ok, here is my story. I'm 5'3, and weigh 133 pounds. About 2 years ago, I weighed around 113 pounds. For the longest time, I was able to keep weight off even if I ate alot of food because of how much I exercised at my work. I work at a pet hotel/doggie daycare which has me walking about 2-4 miles a day; but, when it gets really busy on the holidays, then about 5-8 miles a day. So my job kept my metabolism up which was good, until around Thanksgiving time last year---and that's when I noticed the weight starting to come on.

Two months ago, I tried starving myself by eating only dinner. I think I lost a pound or two with that, but then I would get too miserable and eat alot which caused me to gain it back and more. I tried everything---cutting down on the number of carbs, calories, fat intake. On Sat. (April 5), I bought all-natural diet pills which hasn't helped :(. I even cut down on my portion sizes and drank more water. What's wrong with my body? Why can't I lose?

I have a 10 yr. old female Chow/Shih-tzu mix that weighs around 23 lbs. For the past year or two, about every other month her stomach starts to growl alot (usually happens late at night--it lasts for about a couple of hours) and when that happens she usually doesn't eat. Well, about a year ago, I took her to a family friend who was a vet and he said she had tapeworms (which a dog can get from having fleas) which were making that noise. He gave me medicine for it, but it didn't really work. So now I'm with a different vet, and a about a month ago the vet told me that he thought that she might have some fleas so he gave me some flea medicine for her----recently I have found a flea on her which I removed (she is on a flea treatment). So now I don't know if she has tapeworms again or if there is some other reason why a dog's stomach growls?

I have a 9 year old chow/shih-tzu female who is afraid of thunder. Well, yesterday we had thunder and she didn't seem terrified--she normally doesn't throw up or have loose stool if she is terrified or scared. The thunder stopped around 5 pm and about 10:30pm my dog acted like she really needed to go outside. So I took her outside and she had loose stool in two places. Then at 12:30am she needed to go outside again and she again had loose stool in two places. She didn't start throwing up until this morning.

To make a long story short---I have been timing her and it seems like she is throwing up and having loose stool every 3-4 hours. The last stool she had was light yellow, slimy, and had a little blood in it.

About a week ago, we noticed my cat (outside cat) had a accident inside the house and it was loose with a little blood in it too so we thought it might be a flu that is passing from animal to animal.

Do you have any idea as to what could be wrong with my dog? Thanks.

I have a 2003 Mercury Sable which looks like it has a multi-CD player in the car (it has a button that has T/Disc 1-6, and it has a shuffle button that you can use for the 6 CDs). So when I saw that, I thought you can put 6 CDs in.

I looked at the user manual, and all it shows is how to put in 1 CD for a single-cd player. So, I was wondering how I find out if it does have a multi-cd in it, and how to put additional CDs in? Thanks!

p.s. I just recently got this car as a graduation present, so I'm not too familiar with it.

Ok, for the past year, I worked in a pet hotel---usually I know when a fight breaks out between dogs is because its all of a sudden loud growling and more vicious the longer it is lasts. Can dogs fight and not make noise?

I was just wondering because my dog went into some other dog's yard this evening, and they were sniffing each other out when all of a sudden it look like they were starting to fight viciously but barely no noise was happening. My dog was in a fight with a jack russell earlier this week and they made alot of noise.

My dog never really plays with other dogs---so on our walk this evening it looked like she was getting into another fight (where the other dog grabbed my dog's neck and started shaking it), but not quite as serious as the jack russell. So is it based on how serious the fight is, the more noise it makes?

p.s. My dog is kept on leash at all times, but this evening the leash fell off and thats how she got into the other dog's territory.

I have a 9-year-old Chow/Shih-tzu mix. I think she has papillomatosis--its a small little bump on the top of her lip. She has had it for the past 8 months, and there has been no growth to it.

Also, I have noticed 2 black growths (they feel like a piece of skin that latch onto my dog's skin---their hard, and will move back and forth, but stay in the same spot). These have stayed on her skin for about a year or 2 now, and there has been no size growth to them at all.

Also, about a month ago, I noticed a small yellow bump near her shoulder blade on her skin. I work at a pet hotel/doggie daycare, and I noticed a shih-tzu that has all of these bumps on his back, and some even popped---he felt awful to pet. Is this a typical proplem of Shih-tzus or do all dogs get it?

Any suggestions on how I can get rid of these bumps would be greatly appreciated. Thanks :)

I'm looking to buy a dog that has very low-medium energy. If the dog has higher energy then my dog, then my dog (9-yr old chow/shih-tzu mix) isn't going to like it. I was thinking about getting a puppy, and was wondering if it really matter what breed I got or not because aren't puppies normally very energetic?

I have a 25 pound chow/shih-tzu mix who eats one meal per day at around the same time (7:00pm). She is 9 years old, and I can see her backbone, but not her ribs.

Before I started to feed her at a set time, she was a free-feeder (she ate dry food whenever she wanted). So I thought that if I gave food to her at a set time, then she would eat more and therefore gain more weight. Well, that didn't work so I then decided to buy her Science Diet can food to go with her dry food for Senior dogs---she eats it but still doesn't seem to put on any weight.

Any pointers on what I can do to help her gain?

I have tried to get into the chat room, but it takes forever and then a message pops up saying that they can't log me in because it took a while so I need to try again later. Well, I tried to log in later, and the same thing happened. So then, I went and restarted my computer to see if that would work---nope. Then, I uninstalled yahoo messenger and restalled it---and that still didn't work, the message still popped up saying the same thing. Is there something else I can try to get yahoo chat rooms up and running again? Thanks