Loving my Oldies

Tinkerbell2009a, your little dog is obviously very much loved and she sure has you wrapped around her little paws :D . Shih Tzus have lots of personality and she certainly seems to follow that. It certainly seems that your get at great deal of enjoyment from her and it is great that you are concerned to do the right thing by her. What breed is your other dog? Don't stress too much over the food, but it is important you get her onto good quality food and there is lots of information in those other threads to help you. If you are interested to get her onto raw food, just try mixing the raw with the cooked in an ever increasing ratio, eg start off with approx 1/3rd raw and 2/3rd cooked and just keep on adjusting once she seems happy with that mixture. Does your vet stock BARF or Tucker Time? These are prepared foods and very good quality, difference being that BARK is raw and Tucker Time is cooked. You could get Tucker Time to use as treats. It is not necessary to leave food down for the dogs. Dogs aren't grazers, they eat meals very quickly and are looking around for more. Give them their food, twice a day and that's it. Use good quality foods (eg chicken, cheese) in tiny little bits as rewards.

Others have given you diet and allergy advise, but I would like to add that you should stop bathing her so often. Dogs' skins and coats are not made to be bathed so often. Brush her daily by all means, but you are bathing her much too often. If she gets a bit muddy, just wipe her feet or around her mouth, but the bathing is just not good for her.

If someone showed me to my room, pointed at me and said: go to you bed, I'd probably growl too. Just because this man breeds and has boarding kennels doesn't mean he knows anything about dogs. Probably knows less than I do - LOL. At least I know not to start ordering a dog around within 2 seconds of meeting him. If he'd crouched down, talked sweetly and calmly to the dog and showed him his bed with little treat in hand, none of this would have happened. Poor dog - thank god he has you on his side. And, yes, I have a dog (admittedly a small dog) who growls all the time too. We go to bed and Danny spends the first 1/2hour growling at every movement and the smallest twitch that I or one of the other dogs might make. Drives me mad, and nothing stops him. Sometime he is so bad that I take his muzzle in my hand to shut him up .

Oink used to have something along those lines in her signature. I will have to see if it is still there. The photo of Dusty with his lovely blue blanket from Santa is very precious :p ;) . I am sure that one is in your book.

Oh, Pandii. Such a sad sad day for you all.

Oh Wow! My old joints are a bit on the creaky side and all the dogs and Gussy Cat are getting on in years. I should start on it for all of us.

Oh, I so want to see a photo of him, Trish - pretty please.

I reckon Mundy would be quite happy with a carrot, but as for the others

Fantastic - thank you Sas. I've just come back from the vet (check up for Mundy and Rover) and guess what was sitting on the counter . . . . veggie ears. So, 5 little dogs happily chewing. However, I am going to put in some orders from that site, Sas.

Is wheat generally not good for dogs, or just some of you have discovered that your dogs have an intolerance? I don't have too many problems with mine diet wise, so I certainly don't want to start anything if wheat is considered a "no no".

By sheer coincidence, I saw that at DOLer has Artemis products in her signature. Check out 4 Paws, Pawzazz Petz, she may be able to source smaller packs for you.

I can't help with the medication, because Rover doesn't really have an incontinence problem, but he was starting to wet the bed because he is so old (19+). I put belly bands on him at night and 99% of the time, if he needs to go out at night, he will wake me up (he is too old to get off the bed). The thing with the belly bands is that I can relax knowing that if he does leak through the night, or not wake up, I won't have extra washing. He doesn't need them through the day. There is an advertiser on this forum (click on View all Advertisers) who makes the panties for female dogs as well; I bought my b/bands from her, but I also just use strips of soft cloth and a sanitary napkin. ETA: The advertiser is Love my Fur Babies

I've also heard of sweet potatoe thingies made to look like ears. Anyone heard of these?

Surely they wouldn't last long at your house ..... going by the photos . I'll definitely give them a go.

This article sure is worrying. My dogs love rawhide chews, but the processes the hide is subjected to just makes me wonder if I am doing more harm than good by giving it to them. As a disclaimer: I cannot give them raw bones as much as I would love to as they are too dangerous for Jeune's health - pancreatitis. And this naturally rules out pigs' ears. I am wondering whether anyone has tried these: http://www.vcaworld.com/default.aspx?depar...Vegetarian+Ears

I had a feeling about this yesterday. I hope the end was peaceful; we all wanted her stay to be longer, but the main thing is that May went knowing she was loved and cared for.

I nearly died when I read this, because I read it as "this is May's last night". Quite gave the old heart a bad flip

OMG ! Look at the size of Boss. How wonderful, Merna. Boss is looking happy that she is happy. Good luck for tomorrow.

Yes, it would be good to know her prognosis.

Fabulous news. I hope she continues to stay pain free so she can remember only from the past week when she has been loved and well looked after.

If you have difficulty giving her her pills, try the lowest fat cheese. I had to go on low fat everything because of high cholesterol so don't feel guilty now about using cheese as a medication wrapper It's the salt that is the issue, where fluid retention is the problem with the heart condition, low fat cheese is still salty. Maybe try low fat salt-free margarine. In very small quantities the effect should be negligible, especially if the dog is on diuretics for the fluid retention. Oh, I see There is always fresh chicken breast.

If you have difficulty giving her her pills, try the lowest fat cheese. I had to go on low fat everything because of high cholesterol so don't feel guilty now about using cheese as a medication wrapper

It's Merna posting, Cordelia, not Norma. I think Merna mentioned that Norma has allowed her to post under Chinaplate.

Stick with natural, Merna, and you should be safe. Processed foods are usually very high in salt and preservatives. I make chicken stock by boiling a whole chicken in a large stock pot, I take the chicken out and let the stock sit in the refrigerator overnight, skim the fat off the top and then strain it through material to get all of the fat out. Most important. I then cook my rice in the stock by the absorbtion method (one cup rice to four cups stock, bring to the boil slowly and simmer until stock is absorbed) so the rice has all the goodness of the stock in it.

I hope it is a lovely sunny weekend for May's homecoming so she can enjoy more blankets and bones in the sunshine.