All posts for the month September, 2011
Good morning beautiful sunshine! Kenai 3 yrs
The Big K and Little Bro BB are in boy heaven these days; in and out as they please, not too hot, not too cold (is it ever too cold when you have a fur coat?). I’ve gotten Mom to dine, achem, al fresco on the back deck a couple times, and have the windows et all opened up most of the day.
Fresh air!
There is a bit of trouble in paradise though, with Kenai in particular. Three weeks of doxycycline for the tick diseases has resulted in the absolute worst, most distressing side effect of all: anorexia.
Big guy won’t eat. He won’t touch the raw food at all, and will only eat small amounts of kibble if I gussy it up some. Since he cannot digest kibble at all, he has to have enzymes with it, and his coat invariably goes to pot. But it’s that or…
So I’ve bit down on the bullet and ordered some elk, venison, and goat meat from an online company. It doesn’t contain bone, so I’ll have to scavange about for ground bone, but if they eat it and do well, I hope it’ll be worth it. www.elkusa.com
If I even get Kenai to eat half raw/half kibble, that would be a major improvement. He does need off the kibble though. He can’t digest it, it gives him tummy troubles, the works. It took months for the anorexia to wear off last time. Hope it’s shorter this time.
Being the big time outdoorsman that he is, Kenai is mentally pretty darn perky with the whole lotta extra fresh air and sunshine!
Morning or evening, he just loves to stretch those legs. And cold doesn’t bother him until it gets blistering frigid.
Thankfully our winters aren’t usually so chronically bad that the golden grizzly has to “hibernate”. You northern folks know what I mean: out to pee, in for the day.
My health hasn’t improved much, so the outside time doesn’t involve gardening, but such is life…I’m managing to keep the guys fed, exercised, and dinner for us. Sometimes the sweeper or carpet cleaner, but really, not much by way of activity for moi.
Mom made the mistake of letting both guys out together (Kenai! You dont’ run doors), so I had to go collar and fetch. Beebs was looking for rescue too. He’d made the mistake of thinkin that was gonna be fun, free together at last.
Kenai’s play is fairly vigorous, so Beebs got the thunk and wunk treatment, knocked down once before I got there. Droopy ears was happy to see me! Kenai collared up fine and walked very politely with me, and booby butt tagged along behind best as his sore spots could go…poor guy!
No harm done though, other than being a bit more sore and slow than usual. Some traumeel did the trick and he’s back to bouncy butt now. He still wants outside, just not with big bro. Alone isn’t fun either. Crazy auntie and a ball is his idea of the best!
last light, time to go in…BB 3 yrs old
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Posted by greatdaneservicedog on September 28, 2011
http://greatdaneservicedog.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/ahhh-fall-is-good-by-lisa-harmon/
8″ of comfort…plus the bone!
To help big K with his soreness, I broke down and ordered a orthopedic dog bed for him. BB will use the crib mattress, but Kenai won’t and I felt bad for him laying on a hard floor there in the living room.
It wasn’t too bad a budget buster, considering what some ortho beds cost, only $150 so I decided we could skimp on other stuff. He was in obvious discomfort, ya know? He’s back on doxy for the tick disease symptoms, and that helps some, too.
He liked his new bed right away, and had considerable entertainment sniffing the shearling cover. It holds scents pretty well, and I imagine he know every human that touched it by now!
He and BB are loose together most all the time again, and the only “challenge” is keeping BB off Kenai’s new bed. I put a new blanket over BB’s crib mattress, and they both flopped down, let out the “that’s better” sigh, and had naps. Awww, such good boys.
Naturally, a fella needs his outside time, and here he is checking the perimeter as usual. He’s not wanting to run as hard or as much, poor guy.
But he still has his jog, his fence check, and just out of doors fresh air time. He’s gotten cool about going in the kennel so BB can be outside with him.
He waits his turn pretty well. Getting BB in the kennel is a pipe dream though. He tries to dig his way out! Leave him unattended and BB will turn up somewhere in outer Mongolia…
I’m really looking around for a different raw food for the guys. The Bravo distributor is so unreliable…it doesn’t seem to matter how much extra I buy, I keep running out of their food since the distributor shorts orders, doesn’t show up with orders etc.
It’s not good business for customers to spend that much money and still have the endless worry of running out of the dogfood. So frustrating. The 5 cases of beef I ordered is going to be only 3 cases today and is 4th order in a row that was late or only partially filled.
That has the boys down to the leftover chicken that makes them shed and itch. I’m gonna have to talk seriously to the pet store owner. At least they’ll have the beef today, but still.
The weather has be absolutely wonderful, cool, and finally, raining every few days. The yards are greening up, though I doubt we’ll have much if any fall color thanks to the drought. It’s nice enough to leave the AC off, and even have a touch of heat in the mornings.
So much better than summer!
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Posted by greatdaneservicedog on September 23, 2011
http://greatdaneservicedog.wordpress.com/2011/09/23/new-season-new-bed/
lovely weather for a fella to be outside in! Kenai 3 yrs.
I think fall is here (unless saying so jinxed it)! Monday we were 1 degree shy of triple digits, and the next day we barely made it out of the 50′s F! The Brothers feel PERKY! The drastic change isn’t playing well with my fibromyalgia, but it is with the boys for sure.
I’ve been worryin a bit about BB–his abdomen seemed too full last weekend, and I could feel the segments of colon, so I’ve been giving him small amounts of mineral oil as a stool softener. It’s seemed to do the job, and he’s not as restless and uncomfie.
Kenai’s been in a hidey hole or outside while I deep clean the carpets. I only do small areas at a time, like one bedroom which took 4 hours, but I wouldn’t quit until the rinse water was clear. It’s hard work so I hope I make myself keep up with it rather than let it all get so grungy again.
With the boy’s and my skin being so sensitive, rather than use the chemical-laden solutions for the machine I soak the carpet with All Free n Clear sensitive skin laundry detergent solution and sprinkle Borax on it. Then I use the shampooer like a shop vac to get all the dirty water out, and rinse, rinse, rinse.
No body’s had any rashes or itches, so the idea worked.
Kenai’s been showing more pain, being in his second week of treatment for Rocky Mountain Spotted fever. And when BB starting spiking fevers too, he got slapped on doxycycline too.
Poor guys, the extra pain means the antibiotics are working but I hate to see them nibble their legs. I know they’re hurting, so I’ve added a homeopathic pain reliever called Traumeel to their medicine “cabinet”. It helps at least.
One thing they are both enjoying is the cooking frenzy all this cold weather’s set off: beef stew, lasagna, homemade mac n cheese, roast beef…oh the smells of winter comfort food! The noses are in the air, and I think they seem to understand a little about seasons.
At least as much as what gets cooked when will stick as an association for them. Cool = yummy stuff.
Just you wait little boys, till I cook my first corned beef and cabbage of fall! They love that stuff, would willingly take their scoldings for mooching it too!
A funny (sorta) trivia about corned beef is the preservative, potassium nitrate, is also used in fertilizers, stump killers, and gun powder…Still love corned beef, even if I’m eating stump killler.
Come tomorrow, I’ll have 5 cases of Bravo Raw Beef Blend for the fellas. It’s essentially the ingredients for a beef stew plus bone and liver, all ground up. It’s got the carrots, and the veggies all in there, just like mine only raw.
It does tend to give them loose stools, so I occasionally add a tiny bit of digestive enzymes too take care of that. Their coats and muscle tone just plain do best on red meats. I still miss that discontinued elk they did so well on, though.
BB’s harrasment of Kenai had stopped for a long time, but now he’s at it again. I wonder if his feeling poorly has made him more insecure so he’s gone hyper again? They do need more exercise, which means I need to spend time outside with them. Maybe that’d do the trick?
Here’s the back view of a BB gallopol…what a funny butt.
I got my lovely wool blend sweaters out, so I don’t have an excuse outside of lazy I guess. I’m being treated for tick diseases too, and mine’s brutal.
I have this tendency to malaise when I really feel rotten. Still, it’d be fun to play get your tush and see the zoomies.
Maybe that’s going up in the to-do list?
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autumn,
Beef,
bravo raw dog food,
carpet cleaning,
Cooking,
Corned beef,
digestive enzymes,
dog smell in carpet,
fall,
fibromyalgia,
Food,
great dane exercise,
Great Danes,
laundry detergent,
littermates,
seasons,
sensitive skin,
Stew,
tick diseases,
veterinary care
Posted by greatdaneservicedog on September 15, 2011
http://greatdaneservicedog.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/looking-forward-to-stump-killer-soon-by-lisa-harmon/
things’ll be getting clean now…
I finally have a carpet shampooer! I spent a day last week getting all the carpets in the house clean-er, rested a couple days, then spent a whole day in the 2 bedrooms getting the carpets clean clean. 4 hours for each, after 5 mo of grunge accumulation.
The carpet formulas don’t work very well, I found. So I soaked/scrubbed with a bucket and rag the bedroom carpets with laundry detergent and borax. Then I sucked that all up with the machine and used plain water to rinse until it came all clean. Wow do the bedrooms look better!
Next will be the living room, which means staying up until I can run Mom off to bed. I’m hoping for 11 pm. It will take most of the night to do and dry the rest of the way so the boys can be on it the next day.
Kenai reacts to the machine as expected: hunts a hidey hole! Silly boy.
The weather has definitely turned fall like, so boys o boys are outside alot. Kenai invariably barks, so I’m making him wait until a decent hour to go out, ie not before 6:30 am. Who wants that noise first thing in the morning?
But the 40′s at night and 70′s in the afternoon are prime doggie car ride weather! Kenai went just last night to gas up the car and stop at Braums for a burger and milkshake. One thing he hasn’t done is the lawn mower games, since we haven’t had rain in forever.
Ahhh, a lovely afternoon to be outside for a boy! We’ve not done any garden work, but with the nice weather, the air is off and doors are open.
So its in and out as he wishes! He like that. That’s cool for a golden boy.
A trip to the store is in our future, just for groceries, but he’ll like seeing our bag loading lady. They like each other quite a bit.
Kenai’s been okay without his elk meat, though I wouldn’t call it great. The doxy has at least stopped the break outs of his skin, but the buffalo and the chicken Bravo formulas just aren’t as good. He did better on the beef blend but I’m out until next Friday.
Not to neglect the other half of the Brothers Grin, BB also has his happy weather time! He’s such a goofy gus, and wants nothing more than attention.
Since starting him on the doxy, he too has been better and worse. His fevers are fewer, but at the same time I can tell the RMS tick fever is aggravated by the medicine; he chews at his hock joints like big bro.
Two weeks isn’t going to resolve the infections, that’s for sure. So I’ll be switching my antibiotic to another one and keep refilling my own doxycycline script for him and Kenai.
I’ll leave them on it until the symptoms resolve and give another couple weeks after that. I’ll like to come as close to eradicating the tick bacteria as possible. It’s almost impossible to get rid of it totally, but I’m gonna try.
Don’t want to do this again in a couple months, ya know?
Also since starting the antibiotics, the boys have calmed down about each other! They are rarely seperated by the baby gate anymore, just chillin in the living room, or following me around. The butt sniffing, ding dong smelling gross stuff is dramatically reduced. Whew. I was ready to duct tape their noses!!
I suppose they are just aware of infections in each other before symptoms show up? The nose knows…
Here is a fine good laugh to end with:
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Posted by greatdaneservicedog on September 9, 2011
http://greatdaneservicedog.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/happy-weather-and-clean-carpets-by-lisa-harmon/
daybreak boy…Kenai 3 yrs
The tick titer’s back, and Kenai’s positive for Rocky Mountain spotted fever. That’s the bad news. But no ehrlichia! That’s the good news. So he’s back on doxycycline like me for as long as his tum can take it. We’re shooting for 14 days, or longer–a couple weeks after symptoms disappear if he can make it.
Hopefully he’ll bounce right back if we caught it early enough, huh?
We’re having what might be the last blast of high heat, so he and little bro both are bored indoor boys. But this weekend and beyond is supposed to be normal weather, and that will mean more outings for them.
Having switched to the beef blend slowly (Bravo raw), BB’s coat has improved alot, and Kenai’s has some. It was a surprise, since they’d had trouble with it in the past. I’ve looked into buying bulk elk meat and it’s pricey, but at least now I know I can if we come to need it again.
So…semi-stable once more, finally.
Being on Facebook so much, naturally I’ve found Dane places. http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/190601924310411/ is the Dane yard, and it’s lots of fun. Some Dane sites can get really combative about things, but not this one. Lots of good laughs and some funny but questionable Dane antics!
I’ve slowly started removing the baby gate between the guys again, now that BB seems to have calmed down again. He was harrassing Kenai like crazy–wonder if he could tell his brother was sick again before the symptoms became obvious to me. His own kind of alerting?
Laurie is somebody I’ve followed for awhile now, http://smartdog.typepad.com/smart_dog/ and she’s an amazing trainer. She was Talos’ puppy raiser, a now placed Great Dane service dog. If I had half her energy…there’s almost aways something good on her blog or facebook page.
Today will be a big exercise day for my two boys, with the Orkin guy coming between 3 and 5 pm. One will go outside, to reduce the goofy and noisy underfoot action. I’m usually feeling pretty rotten about that time of day, so out with ya boy, whichever is the most unruly (usually BB).
They prefer a good romp outside anyway!
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Posted by greatdaneservicedog on September 2, 2011
http://greatdaneservicedog.wordpress.com/2011/09/02/good-news-bad-news-by-lisa-harmon/
