Showing posts with label Newman's Own Organic dog food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Newman's Own Organic dog food. Show all posts

April 13, 2011

A Dog's Breakfast

I never really understood that phrase until recently. (If you are not familiar with the phrase, since it's mainly a UK thing and we heard it a lot in Bermuda, it basically means whatever you are describing is an unappealing mess.) I've always lived with dogs that ate dry kibble, maybe enhanced with a wee bit of water, so the "dog's breakfast" just looked somewhat like a bowl of, say, bran cereal without the milk. But now that we have an odd dog who is not at all food motivated, and whom we have to entice to eat (since her pills are to be taken with food) with all manner of added goodies in with her kibble, well... now I understand the phrase pretty well. 

Some of that canned food is way nasty looking. And it seems like the more expensive, more organic, more high-end doggy chow it is, the grosser it looks! (Especially the Newman's Own Organic Beef & Liver canned food she gets...) There is also the added fact that we nuke it for a few seconds (the smell comes out more, which is supposed to entice the dog to eat...) so you've got the "dog's breakfast" look plus the smell. Bleh. 

I talked to Dr. V. about her not really wanting to eat her breakfast and what I should do about it, because of the whole pills with food thing. He said it doesn't have to be a lot of food - just a little something. He suggested hiding each pill in a chunk of hot dog. Here's how that went:
Here she is, readily accepting her hot dog chunk! Yum!

And here she is munching the hot dog after spitting out the pill (yes, that little pink spot on the rug is the pill)
Anyway, he said not to worry about her not wanting to eat breakfast. He said some dogs just want to get up and get going and see what's happening and they don't really care about food until much later in the day when all the excitement has died down. (Lest you worry that her appetite is failing because of the cancer, she's been like this ever since we got her. Just not really interested in breakfast -- although she does usually eat it by dinner time. Then wolfs her dinner down shortly thereafter.)

She was keen on the hot dogs for a while, and I could at least get her interested in her breakfast if I threw some chunks in (then I'd give her her pills in the standard scoop of peanut butter) but now she's even bored with the dogs! Oy. I mean, what kinda crazy dog doesn't want to eat a hot dog??? Our special girl - that's who. Right now, at 6 p.m. there is still a bowl full of Blue Buffalo kibble, mixed with hot dog chunks and water, sitting in my kitchen and it looks like a total dog's breakfast. 

P.S. I found out there's a feature where I can designate a short list of people to get each blog post via email, so you don't need to check the blog - you'd just get an email instead when there's a new post. If you want me to put you on the list for that, let me know.  

February 18, 2011

OK, It's Only Been 2 Pills, But So Far...

...So good! 

Today, Abby took her second dose of Palladia. Like I said, we have to keep a close eye on her, so here's the checklist:
1. Appetite? Excellent! I just bought her a new flavor of dry kibble yesterday (same grain free brand - Blue Buffalo Wilderness formula - but they were out of her usual salmon flavor, so I bought the duck instead). Normally, she's not super excited about her dry kibble, so we mix some really high quality wet stuff in too (like Newman's Own Organic dog food, which she loves). But today, when I poured the new food into her bin, she stuck her head in and started smacking out. Definitely no loss of appetite with this girl so far. (She is her mother's daughter. If I ever go off my feed, you know something is terribly wrong...)

2. Poop? Solid! Sorry - TMI? But it's the reality of my world - gotta monitor the poops now. I'm actually keeping a little diary about her poop.

3. Energy level? Ridiculous! She is Full. Of. It. She was making me nutty yesterday. Took her for 2 good walk/runs in our hilly neighborhood, plus played some more at home with her toys. Then she was still bugging me while I was trying to do yoga. I'm on the ground, eyes shut, hands on tummy - supposed to be concentrating on my breathing - and she comes over and starts corn-cobbing my hands. (Corn-cobbing is this weird little nibbling thing she does where she runs her tiny front teeth back and forth along your arm/leg/nose, just like she's eating corn on the cob. She's so odd.) Hard to relax when you are being corn-cobbed. 

As for the process, here are some pics.
I have to wear these oh-so-sexy gloves. Powerful stuff.

As you can see, she is not adverse to this process.

"Mmmmmmm. Chemo-meds..."
Thanks for reading. Post at y'all soon. (Oh, my sis and her dog, Lou, and Abby & I signed up for this Canine Cancer Walk that's supposed to happen tomorrow. But the weather forecast is pretty dire. Don't really want to drive the 50 min to get there if it's really going to be pouring down rain, so we will probably skip it - but at least the money will still go to a good cause. If we do manage to make it, I'll bring my camera and post some pics!)