Archive for the ‘canine’ Category

This was supposed to be published on our dog’s blog, but I didn’t change the blog on Live Writer and published it here. I decided to leave it here as well. Just cuz.

http://topazseizures.blogspot.com/

I really hope this isn’t going to be a long year with the seizures.

Topaz had another 2 Grand Mals tonight. I believe they started at 11:30pm ish. it was kind of hectic and I wasn’t able to see a clock right away. It was 11:35 when I looked at the clock…

I was making my lunch for tomorrow (Salmon, if that has anything to do with anything…the possible fish connection I made a few months ago) and Topaz went running down the hall to see my husband, which was kind of odd. Not that he’s never done so before, but it was just odd. Then he came my way and kind of staggered near the dining room table and then I knew, this wasn’t normal…so I was prepared and called my husband down to help.

He definitely foamed a heck of a lot more than usual this time. The first was fairly short, he kind of came around and then went right into the second one. It was a little nosier than the first and he was really contorted into a horrible position. Seeing a dog seize is not a pretty picture!

A few other things:

• he didn’t urinate on himself during either seizure
• more foaming than normal
• loud crying noises
• post ictal has been long, he’s still not ok (this was written over an hour later)

We called the e-vet and they suggested we bring him in. As you may or may not know, e-vets are super expensive and we only have xx amount of dollars available to use and well, it was definitely going to be more than that. They suggested we maybe bring him in and they could treat him outpatient.

We decided to keep and eye on him and call his vet first thing in the morning. If he has another one tonight, we will take him in for sure though.

I don’t know what else they can do at this point but up his medication. He may just need to be a bit ataxic in order to function with minimal seizures. Lots of epileptic dogs are like that.

I think we may have his thyroid tested again too, just to rule that completely out. Oh and we need to review the ice pack position. I am going to print that out now!

After the seizure we took him outside and I gave him some Bryer’s all natural vanilla which he loved, and also some Rescue Remedy. I also gave him 2 gr of PB tonight and we upped his KBr back to 1.5ml. I am gonna have the hubbs ask the vet about upping that back up anyways.

Hopefully this doesn’t continue. I hate to have to write these blogs…especially back to back.

*sigh* going to reset the ticker. My poor puppa!

I have been reading on my dog forum and on other sites around the net that not only did Canidae change their dry formulas, but they also are now being manufactured or partially manufactured by Diamond.

We don’t feed this to our dogs any longer, but my mom feeds Mickey their canned food (that’s really all he’ll eat) and so I still try to keep up with the recalls and what’s going on in the pet food world.

This really concerns me because we lost two cats to the Diamond recall of 2006 and frankly, I just will never trust any brand made by Diamond again.

So I emailed Canidae…and here was my response from them.

http://www.canidae.com/new-formulas.html
Dear Heidi,

Please click on the above link, we have updated our site to insure all your questions are answered about our newly improved formulas. Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom of that page.

Due to overwhelming customer support and increased demand on our products, we have been faced with unique production capacity challenges. Our growing customer support and demand has pushed for increased capacity, therefore we have outsourced additional production from Diamond Pet Foods. Our customers demand and deserve no less than the highest quality safe ingredients, as well as state of the art consistent manufacturing. Outsourcing additional production from Diamond comes not without first carefully instating and accepting only the strictest testing protocols, as well as mandating stringent operating procedures to ensure the highest quality products possible at every level of production. We are very happy with this relationship and the high quality formulations we are able to bring to you. Expect Excellence!

Our quality of raw material as well as quality control has actually increased not decreased. Yes we have diversified our complex carbohydrates as rice continues to climb and high quality availability decreases. Our products are better than ever and more consistent. Yes we have cut costs on shipping rates as fuel continues to go through the roof. To ship pet food from one location is no longer cost effective. Our economy is facing some challenging times and we are being proactive in offering you the highest quality products, yet affordable enough for our consumers to purchase. We are not sure about other companies and their plans for change or their reasons in the past, however we feel we are being open and honest about our changes. We are getting alot of positive feedback from our customers that are actually feeding their pets our improved formulas.

We thank thank you for your comments, and hope your pets are able to receive the benefits of our products.

Personally, I still wouldn’t trust them. But that’s me and it’s really a personal preference.

Added 8/11/08.…many people have come to my blog to read this post so I thought I’d also include a list of foods that are made by Diamond. I copied this list from a dog forum I participate at and so I cannot account for it’s accuracy. But thought it was worth adding.

• Kirkland is made by Schell and Kampeter who also is dba for Diamond. (imo pretty sneeky way of not coming right out and saying what foods Diamond does make)
• TOTW
• Solid Golid
• Country Value
• Diamond
• Professional
• Natural Balance
• Artemis
• Chicken Soup for the Soul
• Canidae
• Nutra
• Premium Edge
• Menu foods makes canned Nutro

Like I said, I cannot account for the accuracy of this list. I hope that a food like Artemis is not made by Diamond, but I have no clue and cannot say. I’ll have to look into it.

Here’s a site that has a good list of many foods and their ingredients: The Best Dry Dog Foods

Here’s a link to get a buy one get one free coupon for Nature’s Variety raw food.

http://www.naturesvariety.com/tryit

Just sign up and you’ll immediately receive a coupon for buy one package of raw, get one free (medallions).

We can’t feed it to Topaz because it has rosemary in it, but Onyx will enjoy it!

Also, watch the Honest Kitchen blog because they have coupons all the time and do giveaways and stuff. I just won 5 of the travel size packages for free and before that they sent me 6 samples (one for each animal)!!

Well the title says it all.

Funny how this is going…the little lab girl is loving the raw…loved the bones. Knew to chew them, what was I worried about?? And the Topaz…still having a hard time.

I’m worried about the seizure/blood sugar thing since he’s not eating much. We still have a few kibble samples that I’ve been giving him because I am nervous about the amount of food he’s eating. The last thing I want is for him to have another seizure.

I still feel really clumsy and I’m worried about the raw food all over the kitchen.

I need to get into a routine. I’m working on it.

So far though, not that bad. Tripe is the nastiest thing on earth…that’s all I have to say.

Till next time…H

I should rename this blog…Our adventures with RAW! LOL

Ok…so we got the food tonight. A little pricier than I had thought it was going to be, but we’ll see how long it lasts and how everything goes. I was paying this much a month for a month’s worth of dog food and canned cat food, so I think we can work it out for just the dogs. And yes…the animals are NOW eating better than the humans in the house…haha

I have a few tips for myself…The inexperienced RAW feeder.

A little tip…don’t attempt to feed this way on a day that you are really clumsy and inexperienced and NEED to feed the dogs something!! We ran out of kibble…totally. I needed to feed them something today…it was either cat food or this mix.

Tip two…also plan out to thaw the tripe…just in case the red beast doesn’t like the mixture. Which for some reason, he doesn’t!!! Well…I think it’s the consistency that he doesn’t like. Now the little black dog…she ate the shit out of that mix!! Tomorrow is the turkey necks…this will be interesting.

Tip three…remember that you have 3 VERY curious male cats who would also LOVE to sample a bit of that raw mix food. It’s very hard to measure and scrape off the thawed meat mix from the block when you have 3 nosy kitties all in your face.

Tip four…put the box of turkey necks just in the tub…no water, no nothing. Necks in a tub in water made for a huge mess. I was able to pull a few off for the next couple days and thank GOD for Freezer zipper bags…I will be splitting them up and refreezing some of them tomorrow.

Tip five…dig the other aluminum pan out of the garage tomorrow and buy another one. kitchen bowls will not cut it.

Tip six…remember to breath and know you’re learning as you go. It will all be ok. You bought enough food for a month.

******************

Tips are over for now. lol

Anyway…yeah, the cats would LOVE to eat a bowl of the mix. All of the boys were all over the counter and licking the spoon and bowls and everything!!

And tell me why the little black dog gobbled it all down and Topaz kind of picked up a mouthful and then spit it out everywhere. I added a little tripe and he picked that all out. He’s a fruitcake!

I am so tired. I will write more tomorrow.

The adventure continues…H

So much for posting to this blog, eh? LOL

Ok, so I’m no good at this everyday stuff. I feel like I’m talking to myself. Maybe one day someone will stumble across this pile and think…oh there’s an intelligent mind at work…heh, yeah right.

Ok…so I decided to revisit this blog because although I do have other dog issues to write about today, I’d like to keep the other blog strictly about the seizures and although related, not quite seizure topic.

So…raw foods. Yeah, I believe will will be going that route. Who woulda thunk it?? Not I said the fly!!

I got the information on both sides…good and bad. I read info till my eyes glazed over. Shit, I even dreamed of raw foods last night!! Totally bizarre! But I feel like I have been well educated and ready to give it the ole college try.

I think it’s the control over the food. I will know EXACTLY what’s going into those dogs. No additives, nothing not natural, no preservatives. None of those bad things the seizure dog shouldn’t have and then let’s see how he does. Shoot, how they both do because the little girl dog has her own issues…hair loss, alopecia. So maybe it will help her as well. It should!!!

So people…the adventures with RAW start on Thursday…well, Friday we’ll start feeding it. Won’t that be fun? lol

Till next time…H

This is brought over from my other blog about the seizure dog….

My husband and I volunteer on a regular basis at a local animal shelter. This weekend was the grand opening of the pet store that’s located inside the shelter building. The pet store is called “The Pet Beastro” and they sell holistic, natural and raw pet foods and treats as well as some quality toys, collars, and beds. On Sunday I sat in on a talk about pet food nutrition. Now I know that since all of the pet food recalls last year and earlier this year, I for one, have been paying more attention to what is in the food I’m feeding our animals.

The dogs have been getting Canidae and the cats, unfortunately, are still getting a mixture of the crap that you buy at the grocery store. I have one cat, the little female, here that will NOT eat premium foods…however, we may just buy a bag of it…replace the junk in the feeder and not give her a choice BUT to eat the premium food. I think we’re going to do that this week and see how it goes. I want to feed them all the best we can.

Ok, so this brings me to the little seminar/talk I sat through and the whole RAW diet thing.

It was really interesting…i mean what she was saying made sense and I really have to wonder if it would help Topaz. We’re just about out of dry food, so we’re due to buy some more. The 40lb bag of Canidae lasted us just about a month…a few days shy is how it will come out. But we free feed, so I don’t know who’s been eating what and if we fed at certain times, certain amounts I am sure that it probably would have lasted a little bit longer.

Anyway…so now we have to buy food this week. I am seriously considering giving raw a try. I never ever in my life thought I’d say that, but it doesn’t seem as awful as it all sounds. I mean it’s gross sounding to me and it will probably take me some time to get used to the whole fact that I am feeding my dogs raw meat, but I think we’re going to give it a month and see how it goes.

I am worried about Topaz with his meds and the seizures and everything and unfortunately the internet is not the best place to get information about all of that because you do get such differing opinions and everything. I almost need to just stop reading the net, think about it, get my questions answered and go from there. I’d be better off.

And I do have a TON of questions: How to get a dog that gulps and doesn’t chew to chew the bones? What about vitamin supplements? Do we need to go cold turkey and just jump into it? Will there be side effects to look for? What about Topaz and his medication, what effect will the food change have on him? How do I know how much 8 ounces is? Do I need a scale? What about veggies and fruits? Will this make them sick in the beginning?…and well, the list goes on and on!!

So… I will need to chat a bit with the Pet Beastro lady and see what she says. And well, we may be venturing into the scary world of RAW food. I don’t know yet…I have a few days to figure it out.

Here are some links:
http://www.barfworld.com/html/barf_diet/barfdiet_specific.shtml
http://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm

Here’s a site that talks about what is in pet food:
http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04/Perhach/PetFood/Processing.htm

The jury is still out on this one. I don’t know what to think about it all.

Later…H