Thank you rosrae, that might be it. He did splash into a little puddle but I didnt think much of it. Did your dog scratch?

I am bringing him back to our regular vet in the next hour. Will be sure to speak to him about it.

His belly is still red - albeit not as bad. The rashes are not going down as fast as I like.

Been thinking of Oskar, any news?

Give the little guy a cuddle from all the Bellties here...

MC - thanks

We went back to the vet on Friday and Dr Johr wanted to give him another jab. But I noticed that the jab his colleague gave on Wed did no help at all - in fact, the metacam that I gave the next morning was much more effective. The redness subsided even more on Friday morning when I administered another dosage - so Dr Johr agreed with my gut suggestion that since the metacam is working, there really isnt a need for another jab.

Administered another dosage this morning and the redness is almost all gone!!! No more running a temperature too!

What a relief. Will continue to monitor and update Dr Johr on Monday. I am optimistic, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Still dont know what caused it and sometimes wish that our dogs could speak and tell us whats wrong.

Thanks for your concern and support everyone who have replied with suggestions or PMed me. Its been tense these few days constantly monitoring his temperature and toilet breaks due to the medication, but the little rascal is definitely on the mend - just before his third birthday!

So glad that Oskar is on he mend. I quite understood your concern, if my dog is not well, then I'm not well! Please give Oskar a gentle hug from me.

So pleased to hear that Oskar is doing better; thumbs pressed for a full recovery.

Isn't this the truth!

Thats because to some of us, they are just not dogs

Actually I have observed that the other dogs know if one dog is ill and they act differently, sometimes lie near the ill dog. Or bark at us as if to say something is not right, but what. That is the challenge.

But what was very interesting for us was quite a number of years ago, our eldest Basset seemed not to be herself. The parrot kept asking her, "Hana, you okay"? The parrot talks to the dogs all the time, and she has a very unusual relationship with Hana. The picture says it all.

We thought something wasn't quite right with Hana but she didn't have any specific symptoms. So we took her to the vet and explained that she was not herself, and the parrot knows it too. The vet told me that animals communicate with one another, if you have more than one pet you will observe this often. He maintained that animals talk to us as well but you have to learn how to understand them. He said he could look into the dog's eyes and see if they were sick. When our kids were small I could tell if they looked ill, and most often when I thought they had a fever they did. Dogs don't look ill in the same way.

So the vet examined Hana, he was not into tests, at least not until he did a good physical exam. Then he did an xray and indeed there was something not right. From when she was spayed, she had developed scar tissue. It is a rare condition, a reaction to sutures, and a slow process, with few symptoms until very advanced. We were lucky that it was caught early. We have the parrot to thank in particular.

Hana needed surgery to remove the scar tissue, and they let us observe. It was a teaching hospital and there was a room above the operating room with a monitor. That was an experience I will never forget.

Summerrain, I think you did right to trust your instincts, afterall you know your dog best.

Glad Oskar is on the mend and will make a full recovery.

Thanks Mrs D. I will make sure that I keep working on our housing agency for an approval on a second dog too (twice rejected now!).

Awwww... Hana and her feathered friend - that's incredible!

I wonder - are birds used in therapy, assistance, or as illness /seizure alerters, similar to the way dogs are?

Not as far as I know. There was an elderly woman who could no longer manage on her own but the facility she was going to would not let her 35 year old African grey come with.
They were so attached to one another that separation affected them both badly.

The home said no pets. Not even caged ones.

Does your lease specifically say that only 1 dog is allowed? I have seen leases like that, very specific.
Or is the issue that when you applied you said you had one dog, and the lease is not specific? It does make a difference.

Unfortunately many landlords believe that 2 dogs are much noisier than one. Having a canine companion is good for a dog. While they will play together, assuming they get along, eventually they will get tired. So the noise does not go on forever. The main advantage is that when the dog owner is not home, the dogs have each other.

My advice is to locate a dog in need of a home, and send a picture to the landlord, explaining the dog's situation. We used that approach once and it worked.

Lately I have the feeling that dog owners in apartments are lucky to have permission to keep a dog at all.

Erm actually, my lease states that no animals are allowed unless with the written permission of the landlord.

It was brand new, we are the first tenants as the entire building just underwent a refurbishment. I was not as enthusiastic as the husband about it (there are two offices downstairs and it would be challenging for me to practice my music) - but my husband was so in love with it that I went along and had to persuade the agency to allow us to keep a dog. The size of the dog seems to be the problem for the agency - when we first sought permission, the first question was already: how big is the dog?

They only relented when I said he was a small-ish one and I work from home.They drew up a specific contract for my dog stating that if there are any complaints, the dog and us goes.

Thankfully, my neighbours love him and always have a friendly pat for him whenever we see each other. One of the workers in the office downstairs brings her German Shepherd to work sometimes and he is a barker. The boss of the other office loves dogs and became great friends with Oskar. With the exception of that one incident with regards to my music which got resolved, we've been living here peacefully and happily. One of the neighbours even commented a couple of months after we moved in saying: "oh, I didnt know you have a dog! I never hear him!"

With regards to Oskar, he is much better. The redness has subsided but not fully. His skin goes back to normal when I administer the metacam but it always seem to flare up again towards the evening once the medication wears off. Ugh.

Lucky you. My apartment was specifically advertised as pets allowed, I'm not the only dog owner in the building, but my neighbours opposite are terrified of dogs and she is a right cow to me, permanent expression as if she's licking piss off a nettle. If either of them see my dogs they swear at me, the kid has stood in the lift cage screaming at the sight of them, and the woman even shoved her laundry basket in the face of one of mine last week. If I see her in the Coop or outside she actually cuts me even if I smile and say hello. She had a go at me later last week for my dogs "barking" when it was one of the other dogs in the building barking at them - who thankfully started up again while she was moaning at me about it at "nearly midnight" (= 22.10) and she was forced to concede it was not my dogs. I now have to check before I even go out of my front door that the corridor is clear and the lift is not in use, and coming up I just have to chance it. It's a bit wearing, tbh, expecting to be sworn at every time you go out - even if everyone else in the building loves them. Why live in what is advertised as a pet-friendly building if you are terrified of dogs?

I had a run in with a neighbor on my floor (4 flats per floor) very similar. (sorry we're so OT from Oskar at this point). Very similar, and a familiar song. The old goat was terrified of my Schnauzer. He was standing in front of the lift as the door opened and we got off, he jumped back and started cussing about me and my dogs using the lift and we should use the stairs and how he's afraid of dogs and it's my fault blah blah something in Italian blah blah blah. I've really gotten burned out on this type of behavior so I told the old goat, I'm not responsible for his fear, I'm not using the steps, have a nice day. Oh and then I went and dinged his car. (j/k... I didn't really ding his car)

Of course he lives in a building with 20 units, about 2/3 of which have dogs in them. I say if he's afraid of dogs, well.... ad nauseum.

Thats just sad. It must be exhausting having to deal with such people. It just takes one a-hole to spoil it for the rest of them.

How can anyone be afraid of a schnauzer?

What like this one?



And you're right, it's very tiring. The only consolation (which has just occurred to me) is that she must have to do the same thing to avoid them

eng_ch - that is one gorgeous doggy, he (I think he) is beautiful. One word of warning re dogs & skin infections...My dog (Maxwell - a staffie) used to get so dirty on his walk he'd very often get dumped in the bath afterwards. Usually I'd just wash the muck off with the shower hose and plain water. Once in a while I'd give him a good bath with doggy shampoo - when he was really stinky and had roled in something that had died!. On one occassion I didn't have the doggy shampoo to hand so used normal "people" shampoo - something I regretted immensely. After about 3-4 hours Maxwell was seriously ill, he had such a high temperature he wouldn't even stand up - he had zero energy. I took him immediately to the vet who kept him in overnight and I really was preparing for him not to be there the next day. I'm happy to say he did recover but it took some days. The vet said he had a skin reaction likely cause by the shampoo. Never did that again!!

Hiya, Just wanted to let you know that our dog (jack russell - so very low to the ground!!) got the exact same thing only a few weeks after we moved here from the UK! We thought it maybe the diff grass! or the bugs etc that are here.. He has been vacinated against everything and is a very well dog. Like your dog, it didnt bother him at all and after a few days it went on its own.. The rash was up his legs, and on his belly but not his ears! Let me know how you get on at the vet. Fingers crossed for you. Sarah

So, how is Oskar doing? One of our dogs once had this horrible skin eruption on her nose, no fever, but it was just awful, finally the vet took a skin scraping and sent it off to the lab for analysis. Not sure this would work for a rash.

Hope he is doing better.

All the redness have subsided except for 2 strategic spots that are just not going away. That might be the cause, I just need the vet to determine how he got those.

Been told to continue with the metacam till Monday