The subtler nuances of animal husbandry
comes easily to some and less so to others. One of the more important
tasks is to watch your animals eating, for a lot can be deduced about general
health simply through those few minutes spent once or twice daily. A
dog that has pain in its mouth or difficulty swallowing may not show this
at any other time. A dog that normally eats heartily and then shows
reduced appetite is alerting the owner to a problem, and a shy feeder may
be put off completely by seemingly trivial matters such as a different bowl,
or maybe noisy building work nearby. Early arthritic changes can cause
a dog difficulty in reaching down to its bowl.
I know of an elderly mongrol, short of sight and hard of hearing, which started
to go downhill suddenly, as old dogs will. He lost a lot of weight,
became weak in his hindlegs to the point of staggering and often falling,
and started barking at his owner for no apparent reason. All of these
are typical degenerative symptoms of old age and encroaching senility; we
dog owners know at such times that a sad decision will need to be made before
long. And yet, thank goodness, one of his owners felt uneasy and offered
the old lad a bowl of food. He ate it, and a second bowlful as well.
She asked her husband if he watched the dogs when they were fed, and
he did not.
Next time the bowls were put down at feeding time, they stayed and watched,
and saw the elderly dog driven away from his food by the younger ones. Far
from being weak and senile, he had been starving to death. Disaster was averted
by luck and a hunch - or maybe a stockman's instincts?
reprinted with kind permission from Alastair Balmain
Deputy Editor:Shooting Times &
Country Magazine
Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street SE1 0SU
Tel: 020 3148 4750
