Lucy is here

Hi everyone,

I collected Lucy yesterday at 4.30pm, she is such a sweetie. She has settled in fine so far, I think Prince is a bit afraid of her, I think that she might be the boss around the house, I really dont want Prince to be put out though, I am paying him extra attention, I think he is hoping its just short term.
I am a bit worried about Lucy, she does this thing like she cant catch her breath (it sounds like a snort, or she is trying to clear something from her throat) Prince has done it once or twice but never as bad as Lucy done it this morning, I was really worried, I thought she was going to choke or something. She also seems to be scratching her ear alot, she done it last night and then this morning she was on her back and with both paws she was rubbing her ears and face vigorously. Maybe I am being a bit over cautious with her because she looks so old, she is only 6ish. She is very very overweight, she will need to be put on the same food as Prince is on to help loose a bit of weight. One other thing, I was told that she is spayed but I had a quick look last night and I couldnt see a scar, would it be a big scar and where exactly on her belly should it be????. Prince is following her around alot sniffing her back side, is this normal for a male to do this alot?
I took some photos last night, I will post them ASAP, I am not very technical, I will have to get the other half to copy them to a disc for me.

Hi Sue, I am pleased you've got Lucy home safe & sound. I hope all those symptoms you speak of are incidental. I think it can be really worrying when you first get a dog, especially an older one because it takes a while to figure out what is normal for them & not.

Re the scar from the spaying.... You may not be able to see it if the suturing was well done & done a long time ago. If the vet does the cut vertical & right in that centre fold on the tummy & he stiches up nicely like he is doing plastic surgery on a beauty queen's face, you won't see any scar. My Boxer girls were like that (god bless their vet).

On the scar: these can be notoriously hard to find -- my vets tried to spay Lily and found she'd been spayed for example but she had no visible scar! One thing -- you should get the name of her vet so you can transfer the records to your vet; that should have info on her spay and vaccinations. All that is important history for you to have.

I'd have her in for a once over by your vet as well -- have ears checked for ear mites for example and her eyes checked. The snorting can be very common in cavaliers and some will be more snorty than others -- only rarely is it actually a problem. Her weight will add considerably to her problems breathing so I'g get her on to at most 1/2 cup of food a day or so and only health low cal treats like carrot sticks. I'd get her weighed at your vet so you know her starting point for weight loss. Lily made terible breathing noises when she was grossly obese and this almost entirely disappeared except for the occasional snore when she lost 1/3rd her body weight!

Prince will quickly be fine I am sure.

Basically in summary, you want a baseline health check by your own vet and also to mention what you are seeing so this can be checked out. I never actually trust what a previous owner has said about a dog -- much better to get vet records. Even the best intentioned can get info mixed up.

She goes to the same vet that I bring Prince to, I just rang and was talking to the vets assistant, I asked her to check out her records for me and she said she doesnt think she can but she will check it with the vet, I am going to ring back this afternoon and talk to the vet. I also texted the woman I got her from and she said that she is spayed. Is it normal that Prince is sniffing her so much even though they are both desexed? I am just worried that she might snap at him, (I am a little too over protective of Prince) I know he wont snap at her, I think he is a little afraid of her, she sneezed last night and he nearly jumped out of his skin I also noticed she is not totally deaf, when I clap she can hear it and my partner clicked at her and she responded. I will keep you all updated and post pics asap.

Congrats on your new family member!

It may take Prince a few weeks to get totally used to her, and he may seem depressed or sleepy at first. That's how my first two cavs responded when we brought home our third cav. That will resolve itself when he gets used to her.

If she is rubbing her face, maybe wetting a paper towel with warm water, then wringing it out and wiping her face daily will help.

My one girl, India, needs one eye drop in each eye when she rubs her face. I just use Allergan Refresh Tears eye drops that are over-the-counter at the human drug store.

That's great that she isn't deaf or as deaf as had have been thought. If she can hear a clicker then she probably isn't very deaf at all; maybe just 'selectively deaf'...

Ask the owner to transfer her records to you if you need to; that shouldn't be an issue. At any rate it is hardly a privacy violation for the vet to check records on an existing patient that now belongs to someone else for his own information to recommend when she needs her next vax or whatever. Even if s/he doesn;t tell you the full contents, they canconfirm if she is spayed. I am sure she likely is. She also may not have een in for a while and it wuld be worth having her checked over.

Dogs do sniff a lot :lol: -- that is their equivalent of having an introductory chat. She will be full of interesting smells. If she gets annoyed she may just snap but that is fine, ignore them both if this happens as you neither want to discourage her from being polite (in dog language, by warning him before she gets really annoyed) nor encourage such behaviour from him by comforting him for eliciting a snap; that teaches Prince boundaries that he may not really know, not having lived all the time with another dog. It sounds like they are doing fine so far. Give me a call with any questions.

Megan (with Tara) for example was annoying Jaspar and on a later day, Leo by sniffing around at them a bit too much and both male dogs eventully turned and snapped at her -- and she learned to leave them alone and not be so rude, constantly snifing their boy bits. A guy needs some dignity after all! Tara specifically said to leave them to sort things politely in this way as it was a valuable lesson in being politely sociable for Megan.

Oh, just thought of one more thing. If Prince is overly interested in Lucy's back side, she could possibly have a vaginal yeast infection. That happened to our India once, and Geordie would not leave her alone. The vet treated her and she's been fine since.

Thank you so much for all the advice, its great to have so much help I am going to try to post some pictures in the gallery section now, hope I do it right

Congrats on you new addition!!!!! She sounds lovely!!

Im just going over to the picture gallery now to see your pics!!!

Congratulations on the new fmaily member! It sounds like things are working out well. Going to look a the pics now. :rah:

Glad you have Lucy safely!

Re her deafness, it may be the frequency and the type of sound that's the issue. I am severely/ profoundly deaf and cannot hear ordinary speech unless the other person is literally yelling right into my ear, and even then I'll only hear bits... but I can hear 'sharp' sounds like the 'click' of something being dropped on a wooden table, or sometimes someone clapping, or the dogs barking, if I'm in the same room (this is without my hearing aids- with my hearing aids I'm fine, mostly).

It wouldn't surprise me to find that dogs are similar- in which case you may find that she will not necessarily respond to your voice, but she will respond to certain other sounds. You just need to work out what they are! If she's not already trained to hand signals, then do so, and perhaps use other methods of alerting her such as turning a light on and off until she looks at you, or thumping something to create a vibration.