I feel exposed

No more shirts? Why? LOL!

Went to the vet today to get my stitches off – so there’s no more need to wear shirts. Not sure what to think. It made me feel more hooman when I did. Now I am back to being just another little black dog.

I also got my kennel cough vaccine – ready for our holidays at House of Mutt next week!!!! Yay!

May’s comment: Stitches out, lab results of wart said it was just a superficial growth, blood tests showed he’s absolutely fine. After his dental cleaning and removal of two rotted baby teeth that he had never lost – there’s no more bad breath! The antibiotics he was taking kept the bile sickness at bay. Once that wore off, we were back to incidents on early Saturday morning. Oh Lordy!

Someone suggested taking him off the raw feed as little dogs may not do well with raw. But it had not been an issue for the first three years – except for the occasional sick – and only when I was too late getting up to give him his breakfast. It was just the week after we came home from our travels and before his dental procedure where he was sick every night. Desperate to try to figure out what could be wrong, I remembered I had a piece of turkey steak in the fridge. Since I couldn’t sleep anyway, I got out of bed at 4am, thinking I must boil that piece of turkey so he could have it for breakfast. And I had some Tilda basmati rice left over in the package. Sorted.

The rest of the night was unsettled sleep, waiting for his next sick which never came.  Later that morning while I was preparing their food, sure enough he was sick again.  But with no loss of appetite, George gobbled up the diced up turkey and rice while Darcy continued with her raw meat, carrots and banana – and the same for supper.

That night, I waited to see what would happen.  Unfortunately, I woke up to the sound of him licking his lips.  I took him to the bathroom and sat with him – nada.  I decided to close the door to the study and rolled up the hallway rug ion the event that when he did get sick, we could practice him running to the bathroom – and the hallway rug was not an option either. I even changed the side of the bed I was sleeping so I could dash him off the bathroom if he started to retch. But nothing happened though I could tell he was not comfortable.  He licked his lips all night till the morning – kept me awake.  But he didn’t get sick.

Again he had boiled chicken and rice – and we all slept through the night. Well, at least I think nothing happened because I had no idea if he was licking his lips or not because after two nights of disturbed sleep, I was zonked. I woke up this morning and both doggies were sound asleep next to me. OK, maybe there’s some merit to the boiled chicken and rice.  But when I went on a Facebook page today, lo and behold, I came across this article – “Why ‘Chicken & Rice’ is one of the worst things to feed a sick dog.”

“Rice is a grain. It is inherently inflammatory. Dogs do no not digest rice too well. It takes a lot of work for the body to break down. Rice is a carbohydrate and we know dogs have little nutritional requirement for carbohydrates in their diet. White rice has a high glycemic index, meaning it will cause a rapid spike in blood glucose levels. White rice is far too starchy to be part of any dogs daily diet, let alone when it is suffering GI tract inflammation. … Rice is a bland source of fiber, but in my opinion, it isn’t the most species-appropriate choice for a recovery diet for carnivores. First, it’s an unnecessary food. Dogs and cats don’t have a nutritional requirement for grain, so feeding pets a pro-inflammatory food when they’re already having GI upset seems counter-intuitive to me.”

“Chicken is one of the two most common protein intolerances or sensitivities to many dogs. Now there’s two main theories for this. The first that most people are feeding factory farmed rather than organic chicken. Intensively farmed chicken is fed grains (often GMO grains), pumped full of growth hormones and antibiotics and vaccinated 3 times in its 30 day lifespan. No wonder our dogs have a problem with chicken. I have known some dogs to be fine with organic chicken.” – True. Have heard this so often and Darcy does not tolerate chicken. But she’s ok with the Honey’s organic raw chicken.

Now what? Well, because he seems ok the last two nights, I think I am going to stick with chicken and rice, and when I get a chance to get canned pumpkin – “Canned pumpkin (100%) provides about 80 calories and 7 grams of soluble fiber per cup, compared to 1.2 grams of fiber in a cup of cooked white rice. Pumpkin is especially rich in soluble fiber (the type that dissolves in water to form a viscous gel, which also coats and soothes irritated bowels). Soluble fiber delays gastric emptying, slowing down GI transit times (and the number of episodes of diarrhoea.”

He’s not having diarrhoea and his sick bile indicates there’s a lot of acid. So not sure how this will help. I will swap the rice and make sure I buy organic chicken in the meantime.

How can this once-upon-a-time street dog turn out to be a such princely mutt?!?!?! How could he have survived the streets if he was so sensitive to any food?  It’s all a bit of mystery why this is happening.