Sunday, February 9, 2014
Black & White Sunday: Snow Day!
The PNW got dumped on this past weekend, here are a few pictures of the pups!
Dog Food
I don't think I've ever officially posted about what I feed my dogs, so I thought I would write a small blog post about food.
Let's be honest, the dog food industry makes us all feel guilty if we aren't feeding the "best" food, whether that means feeding raw, or feeding premium kibble like orijen. I myself have fallen into the guilt trap but have finally come to the realization that it doesn't matter what I feed as long as my dogs do well on it.
My first dog Sofie lived to be 14 years old. She did end up with nasal cancer and the last few months of her life she went into kidney failure, but I feel like 14 is a good old age, AND she looked really good for her age too.
Sofie came to me eating kibbles and bits at 6mos of age, we "upgraded" her to pedigree. I don't know the time frame, but she started having allergy issues and she was "upgraded" again to nutromax lamb & rice. I think she ate the nutromax most of her life, until I started buying the dog food. It's been so long now, but I think she mostly ate canidae in her later years, as well as a homemade diet after her cancer diagnoses in 2009.
LiLo and Seth have been on Canidae, Chicken Soup, Nature's Domain, and Nutranuggets.
When Seppel arrived I was feeding Nature's Domain, he was underweight and was hard to keep weight on. I switched to Canidae hoping I could pay a little more, but feed less. Unfortunately Seppel was still eating 3-4 cups a day on the Canidae so it really wasn't saving me any money. From there I went back to Nature's Domain but it was getting hard to purchase [Costco was getting weird], so I jumped over to feeding Nutranuggets Lamb & Rice. Nutranuggets is $25 for 40lbs of dog food. While it isn't a grain free, the ingredients aren't terrible [IMO], and all of my dogs had good normal poop on it. Let's face it, it is really expensive feeding three 50lb dogs!
Fast forward to today:
I am feeding Nature's Domain Salmon & Sweet potato. It is made by diamond, I don't care. My dogs get 4 fish oil caps per day, as well as 1-2tpbs of coconut oil. The Nature's Domain at this point is the most cost effective at $34 for 35lbs.
I have tried to feed raw at various times in the past and the results are always the same: Lilo does fine and Seth gets horrible diarrhea. Seppel also got really ill eating raw. It really doesn't matter how much bone in there is, the boys break with diarrhea every time. It just hasn't been worth it to me. I also tried a "simple" raw recipe that involved ground meat, rice, and egg, and the dogs still broke with bad poo. I think it is wonderful if you can afford it and your dogs do well on it, but feeding my dogs raw just doesn't work for them.
I know we all want to do what is best for our animals, but the truth is food isn't the only issue. I feel many of us are battling genetics as well and if your dog is predisposed to cancer it really probably doesn't matter what you feed. Not to mention, our pets are living longer, which means they are living long enough to have organ failure issues as well as grow cancer. I think for Sofie to get cancer at 13yrs of age has nothing to do with the food she was on. I think if anything she simply lived long enough to get something. I'm also not sure in cases of pets under 5yrs of age getting cancer, that genetics don't play a huge role as well. You have to do whatever makes you feel good at the end of the day, and I am absolutely not knocking people who feed raw or make homemade food, but I don't think I need to be judged because my dogs eat kibble. They like their food, they eat it well every meal, and so far seem to be doing very well health wise - knock on wood.
While we're on the topic of dog food, I thought I would share as well what my cat eats.
My cat has been battling food allergies since he was small. I have fed almost every kibble and canned food you can think up. Last year it was becoming increasingly difficult to find something he had never eaten before. He's allergic to many different meat proteins and allergic to many plants and grains. I finally decided to jump head first into raw feeding for him because it was the one thing we hadn't tried. Cats are obligate carnivores and I feel it's no wonder we have so many that are having issues with IBD or allergies - their bodies are not meant to consume a lot of grain/vegetables. I first started buying Primal Pheasant, however after many months on it he started not eating it well. I switched him over to Columbia River Naturals Ground Pheasant and Ground Quail. He's been on this food since November. I've had to tweak a few things, I mix in canned salmon [by evangers], clam juice, and a 1/4tbs miralax once a day. The ground meat has too much bone in it which makes him constipated, the clam juice is for taurine, and the salmon is to give the raw meat some flavor. In december I was trying really hard to switch him to some whole prey, I bought frozen pinkies - but he really didn't want to eat them. I may revisit that and try again, but my cat has been a kibble fed cat his whole life - he doesn't know that whole prey is food. I will say transitioning to raw has helped his allergies a lot, but he still has flair ups. People on the internet will either tell you, or you will read about how feeding raw fixed EVERYTHING, but that hasn't been true in my case. My cat has done a lot better, but he still has problems.
I guess to wrap things up, I just wanted to share what I am currently feeding my animals and that I feed what works best for me and my dogs.
Let's be honest, the dog food industry makes us all feel guilty if we aren't feeding the "best" food, whether that means feeding raw, or feeding premium kibble like orijen. I myself have fallen into the guilt trap but have finally come to the realization that it doesn't matter what I feed as long as my dogs do well on it.
My first dog Sofie lived to be 14 years old. She did end up with nasal cancer and the last few months of her life she went into kidney failure, but I feel like 14 is a good old age, AND she looked really good for her age too.
 |
| This was Sofie two months before I sent her over the bridge. |
Sofie came to me eating kibbles and bits at 6mos of age, we "upgraded" her to pedigree. I don't know the time frame, but she started having allergy issues and she was "upgraded" again to nutromax lamb & rice. I think she ate the nutromax most of her life, until I started buying the dog food. It's been so long now, but I think she mostly ate canidae in her later years, as well as a homemade diet after her cancer diagnoses in 2009.
LiLo and Seth have been on Canidae, Chicken Soup, Nature's Domain, and Nutranuggets.
When Seppel arrived I was feeding Nature's Domain, he was underweight and was hard to keep weight on. I switched to Canidae hoping I could pay a little more, but feed less. Unfortunately Seppel was still eating 3-4 cups a day on the Canidae so it really wasn't saving me any money. From there I went back to Nature's Domain but it was getting hard to purchase [Costco was getting weird], so I jumped over to feeding Nutranuggets Lamb & Rice. Nutranuggets is $25 for 40lbs of dog food. While it isn't a grain free, the ingredients aren't terrible [IMO], and all of my dogs had good normal poop on it. Let's face it, it is really expensive feeding three 50lb dogs!
Fast forward to today:
I am feeding Nature's Domain Salmon & Sweet potato. It is made by diamond, I don't care. My dogs get 4 fish oil caps per day, as well as 1-2tpbs of coconut oil. The Nature's Domain at this point is the most cost effective at $34 for 35lbs.
I have tried to feed raw at various times in the past and the results are always the same: Lilo does fine and Seth gets horrible diarrhea. Seppel also got really ill eating raw. It really doesn't matter how much bone in there is, the boys break with diarrhea every time. It just hasn't been worth it to me. I also tried a "simple" raw recipe that involved ground meat, rice, and egg, and the dogs still broke with bad poo. I think it is wonderful if you can afford it and your dogs do well on it, but feeding my dogs raw just doesn't work for them.
I know we all want to do what is best for our animals, but the truth is food isn't the only issue. I feel many of us are battling genetics as well and if your dog is predisposed to cancer it really probably doesn't matter what you feed. Not to mention, our pets are living longer, which means they are living long enough to have organ failure issues as well as grow cancer. I think for Sofie to get cancer at 13yrs of age has nothing to do with the food she was on. I think if anything she simply lived long enough to get something. I'm also not sure in cases of pets under 5yrs of age getting cancer, that genetics don't play a huge role as well. You have to do whatever makes you feel good at the end of the day, and I am absolutely not knocking people who feed raw or make homemade food, but I don't think I need to be judged because my dogs eat kibble. They like their food, they eat it well every meal, and so far seem to be doing very well health wise - knock on wood.
While we're on the topic of dog food, I thought I would share as well what my cat eats.
My cat has been battling food allergies since he was small. I have fed almost every kibble and canned food you can think up. Last year it was becoming increasingly difficult to find something he had never eaten before. He's allergic to many different meat proteins and allergic to many plants and grains. I finally decided to jump head first into raw feeding for him because it was the one thing we hadn't tried. Cats are obligate carnivores and I feel it's no wonder we have so many that are having issues with IBD or allergies - their bodies are not meant to consume a lot of grain/vegetables. I first started buying Primal Pheasant, however after many months on it he started not eating it well. I switched him over to Columbia River Naturals Ground Pheasant and Ground Quail. He's been on this food since November. I've had to tweak a few things, I mix in canned salmon [by evangers], clam juice, and a 1/4tbs miralax once a day. The ground meat has too much bone in it which makes him constipated, the clam juice is for taurine, and the salmon is to give the raw meat some flavor. In december I was trying really hard to switch him to some whole prey, I bought frozen pinkies - but he really didn't want to eat them. I may revisit that and try again, but my cat has been a kibble fed cat his whole life - he doesn't know that whole prey is food. I will say transitioning to raw has helped his allergies a lot, but he still has flair ups. People on the internet will either tell you, or you will read about how feeding raw fixed EVERYTHING, but that hasn't been true in my case. My cat has done a lot better, but he still has problems.
I guess to wrap things up, I just wanted to share what I am currently feeding my animals and that I feed what works best for me and my dogs.
Friday, February 7, 2014
IPO Training
Wednesday, as usual we went down to Salem for bitework. My friend Lynna tagged along even though it was super cold and took some pictures!
Ryan informed me he wants Seppel's obedience down by March - that he had been thinking about it all week. I think we can do it, we just need to buckle down and practice, practice, practice. From what I can remember I think this is most of the list:
-Drop on Recall
-Sit, stand, down in motion.
-Send-away
-Heeling
-Retrieve
I think this is most of it but I guess I should probably check. He knows how to do all of these things but we haven't practiced them regularly since our obedience class. We are also going to work the blinds more in training because Seppel really only knows about going to two of them, and I really don't think I am sending him, so much as I send him to the first one and he knows to go to the 2nd one.
He did pretty well on Wednesday. He still gets pretty forgy when we are doing our back transports - I really want to move him back into better position more. I think it's just going to take a lot more practice. Ryan had a lot of good things to say about him and he feels he is more than capable of getting a title, we just have to get there and start fine tuning things. Here are a few pictures!
Ryan informed me he wants Seppel's obedience down by March - that he had been thinking about it all week. I think we can do it, we just need to buckle down and practice, practice, practice. From what I can remember I think this is most of the list:
-Drop on Recall
-Sit, stand, down in motion.
-Send-away
-Heeling
-Retrieve
I think this is most of it but I guess I should probably check. He knows how to do all of these things but we haven't practiced them regularly since our obedience class. We are also going to work the blinds more in training because Seppel really only knows about going to two of them, and I really don't think I am sending him, so much as I send him to the first one and he knows to go to the 2nd one.
He did pretty well on Wednesday. He still gets pretty forgy when we are doing our back transports - I really want to move him back into better position more. I think it's just going to take a lot more practice. Ryan had a lot of good things to say about him and he feels he is more than capable of getting a title, we just have to get there and start fine tuning things. Here are a few pictures!
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Monday, January 27, 2014
Seppel Tattoo
I got a new tattoo yesterday! It's a cartoon of Seppel! A friend from a forum drew this up for me specifically for this purpose and I absolutely love it!
This is her tumblr:
http://katgusarova.tumblr.com/
She's an amazing artist and I am so happy she was willing to draw this up for me as a tattoo!
This is her tumblr:
http://katgusarova.tumblr.com/
She's an amazing artist and I am so happy she was willing to draw this up for me as a tattoo!
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Sunday, January 12, 2014
7.5 Months Post FHO Surgery
I can understand now why it was hard to find a lot of updates on dogs who went through the FHO surgery, after about 6mos, change is subtle and there just isn't much to write about.
We are going to be 7.5mos post FHO surgery on January 15th.
I don't know if I can say the surgery was successful until we reach the 1-year mark. However, he is doing absolutely amazing.
When I chose to do the surgery I had a good feeling about it, but even so, there was a small speck of doubt in the back of my mind. If we went through with the surgery and it wasn't successful, we wouldn't be able to go back. The surgery was a very permanent thing to do. On June 19th, 2013, I accepted a few things:
-It was okay if we could not compete in IPO.
-It was okay if he could not jump as high as he could before.
-It was okay if he walked funny.
7.5mos later, Seppel CAN compete and train in IPO, he CAN jump just as high as he could before, AND he doesn't walk too funny.
I chose to do the surgery because Seppel is a very active dog, regardless of the things we were doing it was important to me that he could exercise without hurting himself. It has only been in the last few months that I have upped his exercise and he hasn't become sore or lame afterwards. I am still a bit on the cautious side sometimes, but he is basically back to a normal exercise routine.
For me, I am very happy with this surgery but it is not something I would recommend that everyone do. If money is no object, a total hip replacement is absolutely the way to go. However, if money is a bit of a problem and you are willing to be committed to the rehab I think an FHO can be a great option. When I considered the surgery for Seppel, I also took into account his personality and his athletic ability. He has always been a very athletic dog and I felt very confident that his body could compensate, I also felt his personality was very stoic and biddable and that he would, and did, allow me to do the rehab that was necessary.
I can't believe 7.5mos have passed, when you're in the middle of rehab time seems to go by so slowly. Below I'd like to share a couple of pictures:
As you can see by the above photo comparisons, not much has changed. He does run a little bit differently, his right leg kind of flails around a bit and looks odd - but it doesn't slow him down. Occasionally he does have moments where he's not fully weight baring, but I think he's still adjusting and learning more and more to trust the leg. He never three-legs it in the yard anymore and is comfortable trotting. I'm sure it feels weird for him and has been a bit of an adjustment, but he hasn't complained too much.
Anyway, there's a decent FHO update, here's to a wonderful 2014!
We are going to be 7.5mos post FHO surgery on January 15th.
I don't know if I can say the surgery was successful until we reach the 1-year mark. However, he is doing absolutely amazing.
When I chose to do the surgery I had a good feeling about it, but even so, there was a small speck of doubt in the back of my mind. If we went through with the surgery and it wasn't successful, we wouldn't be able to go back. The surgery was a very permanent thing to do. On June 19th, 2013, I accepted a few things:
-It was okay if we could not compete in IPO.
-It was okay if he could not jump as high as he could before.
-It was okay if he walked funny.
7.5mos later, Seppel CAN compete and train in IPO, he CAN jump just as high as he could before, AND he doesn't walk too funny.
I chose to do the surgery because Seppel is a very active dog, regardless of the things we were doing it was important to me that he could exercise without hurting himself. It has only been in the last few months that I have upped his exercise and he hasn't become sore or lame afterwards. I am still a bit on the cautious side sometimes, but he is basically back to a normal exercise routine.
For me, I am very happy with this surgery but it is not something I would recommend that everyone do. If money is no object, a total hip replacement is absolutely the way to go. However, if money is a bit of a problem and you are willing to be committed to the rehab I think an FHO can be a great option. When I considered the surgery for Seppel, I also took into account his personality and his athletic ability. He has always been a very athletic dog and I felt very confident that his body could compensate, I also felt his personality was very stoic and biddable and that he would, and did, allow me to do the rehab that was necessary.
I can't believe 7.5mos have passed, when you're in the middle of rehab time seems to go by so slowly. Below I'd like to share a couple of pictures:
 | ||
| Summer of 2013 Pre-sx |
 | |||||
| Post Surgery 1/2014 |
 | ||
| Pre-sx 2013 |
 |
| Post-sx 1/2014 |
 |
| Pre-sx 2013 |
 |
| Post-sx 1/2014 |
As you can see by the above photo comparisons, not much has changed. He does run a little bit differently, his right leg kind of flails around a bit and looks odd - but it doesn't slow him down. Occasionally he does have moments where he's not fully weight baring, but I think he's still adjusting and learning more and more to trust the leg. He never three-legs it in the yard anymore and is comfortable trotting. I'm sure it feels weird for him and has been a bit of an adjustment, but he hasn't complained too much.
Anyway, there's a decent FHO update, here's to a wonderful 2014!
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