A bird feeder suet cake? Hmmm I bet he enjoyed that!

Suet itself is fat -usually beef-. Pure suet (or suet with peanut butter variety) I would think he may get a sour belly, but I would doubt it is a trip to the emergency room issue -unless he has a food allergy. He may not even get an upset belly.

My grandpa's english setter would routinely steal the butter out of the fridge (she'd opened the door until we installed a child-proof lock). She ate it paper -sometimes even the entire box- and all never so much as burped. Course can't say what her cholesterol was like! :P

If he ate the type that contains a massive amounts of seeds and nuts, that's another story. The seeds may pass, but be painful, cause irritation or blockage.

Hopefully one of vets or vet techs that frequent the forum will chime in.

Hope your mischievous one is alright. :)

I'd watch closely for a couple days. With that much fat he may get the runs or pancreatitis is a possibility. Odds are tho he'll be fine.

Lisa

He'll be fine. You may want to give him some pumpkin to help clear out the seeds.

I agree - he'll be fine. Our dogs lay underneath the suet feeders in summer and eat all the melted drippings. One of our dogs (who belonged to the neighbor at the time) ripped open a UPS delivery and took several suet cakes, presumably ate them, no problem as best I could tell given that he was not technically living with us so I couldn't observe him as closely as I would have one of my own.

Thank you. I stayed up with him half the night just to make sure he was ok. He is just fine. I will make sure he won't get ahold of another one. It was my fault that he even got at that one. I always hang them high but I had recently lost my golden retriever, Lady, (miss her every day) and just put a suet cake on top of the frozen bird bath because there was no dog to get at it. It was lonely without a dog so got one from our local shelter. I totally forgot about the suet cake out there. He ate it even though it was frozen solid. I was worried sick about him but thank goodness he is fine. Angie

Aww angie honey, bless you for adopting. They are like kids sometimes, and see a treat and go for it. Its like a kid eating all their halloween candy in one sitting. At worst he'll likely have the runs.

I only use suet in the winter for the peckers and then seed the rest of the time.

You should post a pick of your new baby for us!

Cindy, I would love to post a picture of him but don't know how. He had lost a lot of weight at the shelter, just wouldn't eat much, but is slowly gaining it back. He wanted to eat the corn I threw out for the birds but one No stopped him and he hasn't done it since. Chip is being spoiled now, has his own bed next to my bed but during the day he likes to nap on the couch. He went from a cold cement floor to a comfortable life. The previous owners had left him tied to a vet's fence saying they didn't want him anymore, his age, his name and that he wasn't housetrained. They were wrong about that one. He is doing great going potty outside not inside. I really don't like the name but don't know if he would respond to a new one since he is 4 years old and might have had that name all of his life. Angie

Angie, if you want to change his name, go for it. I truly beleive in a new name if you feel it. New name, new life. Sometimes its better if they have NO reminders of their old life and a new name can be a blessing in disguise :).

I've changed names and not changed them. My Rusty still has his old name, though I was sorely tempted to name him Chino (chee-no). Heh, then I'd have had a Mocha-ginger-chino (Mocha and Ginger are named after the starbucks drinks I was sipping at the times I found them at the shelter. lol).

(Rusty, Mocha, and Ginger below)

You might have trouble with some runny poo...I dont think the seeds will hurt much

Ginger, you have very beautiful dogs. How did you get their picture onto your message? I think I might call Chip Champ. That might be close enough that he would think it was close enough to his name.

I cleaned up his poo today out in the yard and it looks like it had a few pieces of corn in it but otherwise it was pretty normal. No more suet for him. ;-)) Now if he would just not eat the rabbit poo but the vet said that's ok for him to eat. My dogs before Chip/Champ did it, too.Angie

Angie

Chip/Champ sure is beautiful. On renaming, if you choose a name that rhymes with Chip, he may not notice the difference. We did that with a rescue dog whose owners named her Mosey (for just mosey along, I guess) -- she became Rosie, and she had no adjustment time with the new name. Everybody loved her as Rosie, too.

Cindy, I see that the furkids have a leather sofa. Do you like the way the leather holds up for them? I am thinking that leather will not hold dog hair, so might be a better choice for the humans the next time around. What has your experience been with it? Of course your dogs are all beautiful. Thanks for the pictures.

With my dogs, Megan had pancreatitis once when I let her lick out the roasting pan on Thanksgiving. I only made that mistake once! It is good to hear that the suet cake did not make the new Chipper sick. I agree that changing his name is just fine. I changed Casey's name when I got him at 11 months. Since he is so spotted, Spot was one of the very first names I tried on him when I found him as a stray. He didn't blink an eye when he heard that name or any other name I tried on him. When I found his owner and learned that his name was Spots, I was surprised. I had started calling him Casey for several hours, since he would not tell us his name. When the owner took him to the pound, I rescued him out of there a week after I spent the day with him as a stray. When I was sitting in the adoption room and he had settled down and was looking out the window, I called him to me by calling, "Spots, come!" He didn't move a muscle. When I called out "Casey, come!" he twirled around, ran up to me and sat at my feet with a perfect "atten-hut!!!" precision. Casey was his name now.

Bina was names Sabrina. She lived in a rural kennel where a hoarder had 150 dogs that barely got any attention. She was afraid of everything for months when we got her last year. We went to a behaviorist to learn how best to train her and help her gain confidence and she suggested a name change. Sabrina was a caged kennel dog. As a freed dog who lived in the house, she needed a new identity. So we made her nickname, Bina, her full name. Now she is my Bina-Bina Baby, or Missy. Never Sabrina.

Hi Nancy,

That is exactly why I got leather -- furrrrrrr. When we began remodeling several years ago, we purchased a set of leather (sofa, loveseat, and chair) in a tobacco color because of the dogs. It's a close match between the 3 of them, as well as being "distressed". The distressed finish doesn't show nail marks at all, and if it does, then it looks like the rest of it -- it's suppose to look that way. We've had it for at least 3 years if not more, and it's still just as good as day one. I'll never go back to fabric again.

In addition, we replaced all the carpet with tile and used in-floor heat mats beneath them. These mutts are spoiled rotten. And the tiles are ten times easier to keep clean. I also put some tile around the dog door to make cleaning easier when they come inside (they're in and out all day long and it keeps mud off the walls which are also the same color as them.. lol).

"We went to a behaviorist to learn how best to train her and help her gain confidence and she suggested a name change."

By the way, I totally agree with that mentality. If the dog didn't have a great life before, then a name change can erase any reminders that may spring up when they hear the old name. However, Rusty doesn't seem to have suffered any ill effects from keeping his old one.

dog door

ginger's "spot"

I have been thinking of getting a leather couch and loveseat but have been reluctant to do that. I like the idea of getting destressed leather.

I would still love it if someone would tell me how to add a picture, please.. angie

Here he is. Someone explained how to do it on a different thread. {{!gwi}}

Leather it is - after we pay off the furnace, the credit card, and the other house. If all goes well, that may be in two years. Cindy, I love how everything is decorated to provide the most convenience for caring for the dogs. I can't have hard tile floors (bad joints), but love your other solutions. Ginger looks so nice under the picture, in her leather chair. Does she share it with you if you ask?

Good job with imbedding photos, Angie! I am too lazy, I just use the URL link and take folks to my pbase album.

LOL, sometimes she shares with me. I often have a lapful of dogs. Now and then we have to make someone move so we can sit. I honestly did plan the decorating to make it easier for keeping clean with such large dogs. It has made a huge difference in the effort needed.

Angie, he's a doll! I definitely see some border collie in there. That means you have an energetic smarty on your hands.

He is part border collie and not very energetic yet but seems to be very smart. He learns very quickly. When I got him he had a tooth abscess so he's on antibiotics and found out today he has hook worm. Not happy with the shelter from where I got him because they said he was wormed. Never ever had a dog with hookworm or any kind of worm before. He is on medication for that now, too. No wonder he is not energetic. I am sure once he gets well he will be running around. I called the shelter today and told him of his hookworm and they wanted to know if I was bringing him back. No way, he is my dog for better or worse. He is in his forever home.

Wow, they actually thought you would return him because he has worms?? They must have had some horrible experiences with clients returning animals for the most ridiculous reasons.

As for the suet, I'm glad the pooch is ok.

I am no expert on this, but I think that suet is straight fat, and too much fat can provoke an attack of pancreatitis. Once my DH gave the dog a bone with a huge slab of fat on it, the dog got so sick from all that fat that he nearly died.

Hi Angie,

He will likely pep up after his antibiotics. BC's are notoriously smart.

Don't fault the shelter too much for the hookworm. The shelter I worked at also always dewormed all the dogs. However, you never know what a dog is bringing INTO the shelter when it's turned in, which is every day all day. In addition, it is impossible for a dewormer to catch everything. The turnover rate is just too high. They would likely offer you a second deworming if you brought him in. And yes, people often to return dogs and cats for something as simple as worms or even less.

Congrats on the new dog!

Thanks. He is doing fine, eating well, and gaining some weight on that skinny body of his. I decided to keep his name as Chip. Kept saying it anyway so Chip it stays. I am dogsitting a springer spaniel, Clover, this weekend and Chip is having a lot of fun playing with her in the snow. I asked my friends's son if I could keep her but he said no. Not surprised. ;-))

Hey Angie, go figure -- yesterday afternoon I heard my Ginger yap at Rusty pretty heartily. She seemed to really be chastising him over something. I checked the back yard, and sure enough -- she was trying to keep something from him (He's 100 lbs she's 60). I went to see what the fuss was over, and she was "guarding" her new-found treasure -- A SUET CAKE!

It was still in the wrapper, but she'd taken it out of the bag and out of the BOX inside the bag (I buy them by the case). That little devil! Luckily she hadn't gotten the wrapper off, but she was none to happy that I took away her treat. LOL