Dogs and things

Monday 17th March.

I returned from my trip and although we can never be sure, It does look as if both girls are in whelp. They are both looking rather rotund and their teats are very enlarged, they are also very hungry all of the time. While I was at Crufts I was able to buy some panacur 10% which is a worming medicine that is safe to use for bitches in whelp. (For some reason It is not available in the US ) so I will begin a daily worming regime from day 40 which for Ruby is Wednesday and Kasidi Saturday. We always assume our dogs are infected with worms and I feel much more comfortable being able to start worming asap. This will greatly reduce the likelyhood of the puppies being infected.

Crufts was very exciting, spread over a 20 acre site in 4 halls and with visitor numbers in excess of 50 thousand over the 4 days, stamina was definitely needed. The Ridgeback entry was diverse in that we had a number of dogs from all over Europe and a couple from the USA. The judging was inconsistent but the best dog went to the American Kimani dog and best bitch went to Veltkammer Lady done a Bunk who also took BOB and went through to the final cut in the group. She happens to hold the British record for the amount of CC's awarded.

I have received the OFA results for Lela and they are elbows normal and hips good so that is a relief. All of that free running from an early age and the fact she was in season when she was X rayed have had no bearing on the result.

All of the dogs are sunbathing on the deck at the moment, a little taste of warmer weather to come , although It is sunny today It is still very cold.

My plan with Ruby and kasidi is to wait a couple of weeks and then have them X Rayed to see how many puppies can be seen. According to my dates, Ruby will be due on the 12th April and Kasidi the 15th. In the past Ruby has been early and Kasidi late so I am keeping my fingers crossed this will not be the case this time round.