Ticks and hot spots

We HATE ticks and hot spots...
Viggo had another one. It's the fourth this year. He was on antibiotics for weeks and now he has a new one. Another 'hole' in his fur... Luckily we found this one in an early stage so normally this one should be easy to treat. The hot spots appear where we removed a tick. Why do those animals exist? They do nothing but damage to everyone and everything they meet! Really I've had enough of those animals ruining my dogs' fur.
Mona seems to be the most resistant to ticks, she doesn't have them as much as those other two. Viggo seems to attract them the most. It's sooo annoying. Every time I cuddle my dogs I find a tick! :(
Viggo wears two Scalibor collars, one collar isn't enough because of his size and weight and because he has to be fully protected seen that he gets a lot of tick-bites (vet recommended). Grace and Mona wear a Scalibor collar too and for them that seems to be enough. But our Viggo keeps on suffering from tick-bites. I'm really worried someday he might get really sick from one of those tick-bites.
Does someone of you know another remedy to treat tick-bites? If we remove a tick on Viggo's body, it always becomes a real big bump...

Grace trying to stop me from working in the front garden.

Happy birthday to Viggo's kids!

Happy birthday to I-litter van Tiroca!
Viggo's their daddy and Reina-Unique of the Weeping Willow is their mommy. Below you find two of the daughters. Happy birthday Emma and Kiara!

Emma - Ipanema van Tiroca

Kiara - Irish van Tiroca

A lot to tell...

First of all: all rabbits survived the parasite!! Hemi will stay paralyzed from the waist down, but that's not really an issue as she perfectly live with it. The only thing we should stay attentive for is that she doesn't get diarrhoea, because that may indicate the parasite has come back and then we should immediately start treating her again. So far she does a very good job. It's weird though that although she's paralyzed, she can still manage to walk around a bit.
Bentley can walk again. She lost a lot of coat due to the medicines, but she's alright again. And because of the hot weather in Belgium she didn't care about losing a bit of hair... :)

Viggo strained his thigh during a much too rough game with the girls... He can walk, run, do everything you'd want him to do, but when he has to step inside, it hurts.

Mona got bitten by Grace today. Grace ain't no little sweetheart!!! Mona came too close to her when Grace was licking a plate. Grace growled and then bit her. Mona's nose is hurt, but fortunately we managed to stop the bleeding pretty fast. Grace has detention for the rest of the day and will not be taken for a walk tonight, that's for sure!

Shaggy is just good little Shaggy-boy! He's doing fine, nothing to tell there.

Well now, did I miss somebody? Guess not...

Talk to you later! :)

Grace

Viggo

Mona

Shaggy

Happy birthday, Gracie!!!

One year ago our Mona gave birth to 8 little Newfies! We want to wish them all a very happy birthday! 

This obviously also means our little Grace turns one! After her problems with her kidney and knee, we're very happy to celebrate her first birthday! On to her second birthday! The vets told us we should be happy with every day she's with us and although she's a real pig, we love her with whole our heart! It's still special to have a mother and daughter Newfy! :) 

She got a new horse stuffy for her birthday! Unfortunately the horse lost an ear about 3 minutes after we gave it to her... :s

Grace, one day old

Grace, 1y old with her new stuffy 

"What should I do with it?"

Here the horse lost it's ear... 

"Whatcha doin' Viggo?"

Demolition derby: whose stuffy will die first?
Viggo stole Mona's duck and demolished it...
He won the demolition derby. 

Mona, sad about her duck... 

Auguri, Viggo!!!!

Today's Viggo's 6th birthday!!!!
We'll treat him with a very long walk, lots of cookies and lots of hugs & kisses! This evening he'll have some 'doggy lasagna'! Once an Italian boy, always an Italian boy, so Italian food it is! :)
We want to say Happy Birthday to Viggo's brother and sisters: Happy birthday, Noè, Noelle & Iris!!!

Viggo at 12 weeks old when he joined our family! 

Viggo 12 weeks old

Viggo, 12w old, in search for COOKIES!!!

Beautiful Viggo, 12w

Viggo & Aaron
Viggo, 1y old
"Can we get something to drink, please?"

Viggo yesterday at 6y old minus 1 day ;) 

Grooming and Crazy Gracie

It's been a while since I've updated this blog. I apologize! From now on I'll post more often, I promise!

This weekend the weather was wonderful in Belgium, so we decided to groom our three doggies.
These are the results:

Mona after grooming

Mona

Grace after bath, blow dried but not yet groomed

Grace

Viggo
He didn't want me to take some
other pictures so this is the only good one... :s

Sunday, Grace got into the Rabbits' residence...

Grace saying 'Hi' to Viper

Grace in the Rabbithouse 

And today our beloved Grace decided she wanted to look more like Viggo and turn into a black & white Newfoundland... She bumped her head into the freshly painted mailbox and now she looks like this: 

Of course I couldn't end this message without a picture of our Shaggy...

Can you guys find him anywhere? 

Ooohhh, there you are!!! :) 

Grace takes Viggo for a walk!

This movie shows you how our Gracie takes her 'dad' for a walk! :)
We wanted to take Viggo for a walk ourselves, but Grace thought she should do that...!
Viggo is being very easy as you can see! :) His little jumps are sooooo adorable! :) And Mona doesn't really know what to do! :)

Grace is growing... growing fast!

Hi!

It's been a while since we've updated this page, so here we are...
First of all some bad news: most of our puppies suffer from kneeproblems; some of them have already had surgery, others are already put down...
Grace also has that same kneeproblem, but at only one of her knees, not both. Most likely she will undergo surgery when she's over 18 months old, that way she will be fully recovered from her kidneysurgery and bladderproblems. The most important thing is get her through that first and than we'll start thinking about the other surgery, because she isn't really in pain with that knee. After she gets of antibiotics for her kidney and bladder, we'll start giving her some meloxicam tablets. Thanks for this tip to our dear friend and breeder of Viggo, Iwonna!

Okay, enough with the bad news!
As I hear from my brother and mum, Grace is still the little pig she's always been. She wrecks everything she finds and teases her mum and stepdad. She's also copying everything Viggo does. Viggo's still the overprotective stepdad and Mona... Mona looks great, she's finally gotten over her pregnancy and motherhood. For a while she really suffered hormone swings with becoming incredibly thin and without any joy for life, she really looked horrible for some time and when she stopped eating, we were afraid to lose her. But now she's all over that stuff and found back how to be a great Newfoundland! She's not being the 'teaching' mum, because she allows everything little Gracie does, but she sure as hell is a very loving mum!

So to sum up, I really don't have to be afraid to come home to totally different dogs (I'm living in Italy for 6 months to go to school there):
Viggo is still the great, big dog he always was. Loving and carrying for Grace and Mona.
Mona is back her joyous self she always was. Playing and being completely crazy.
Grace is a playful, curious and 'love-to-learn-something-new' puppy.
Shaggy became a beautiful cat, he'll be celebrating his 2nd birthday soon. Also still loving and carrying for Grace and playing with her.

Some pics my mum sent me:

Sleepy Shaggy

Runnnnn!!!! Viggo - Grace - Mona

Like mother like daughter
Viggo - Mona - Grace

"Runnnnn, Mummyyyy!!! Dad's right behind you!!!" 

Beautiful Grace

Picturetime!

Natte neuzen-show:

Mona's nose

Grace's nose

Viggo's nose

L-O-V-E