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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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!

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?

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:

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!

peekin pup, Kenai 3 1/2 yrs

Kenai’s latest “funk” had me genuinely worried Saturday, since he didn’t want to play much, licked and chewed his lower legs, and stayed mostly on my bed all day. He just really doesn’t feel good.

Possibility 1: Since Bravo discontinued the raw elk, I’ve been carefully trying other meats and the results just aren’t as good. The buffalo makes his coat break out, the turkey makes his breakouts worse and adds shed, he won’t eat the chicken, and the beef traditionally gives him runs-to-the-grass.

I have to call Monday and see if the venison came in yet. He’s never liked it before, but he really needs a red meat.

Possibility 2: he’s gotten into something in the yard, maybe the compost again? He hasn’t had any throwing up, but alot of burps and reflux. The sevin and such are put away in the shed and stay there, and besides, I haven’t used any pesticides in the garden for weeks.

Possibility 3: the steroid he was on? I discontinued it last week (only 5 mg anyway), but he hasn’t seemed to have any die-in-the-rears that he gets from it sometimes. As for its immune suppressing side effects, the breakouts aren’t all that bad and his ears need cleaning but they aren’t full of galloping cooties.

Possibility 4: not active enough. He like me seems to get more sore and stiff if he doesn’t get his wanders outside and general moving about. He still wants outside, so perhaps he just needs more exercise.

Possibility 5: dread this one–could he be having an ehrlichia flare, from chronic to acute? His lymph nodes have been swollen lately, and the skin/coat is not in great shape. But his eyes aren’t bloodshot, and no messy stools.

I don’t know! Grrr

Whatever it is, it’s progressively worsened for about a week now, and I think Monday I’ll also call the vet and get him in. A few tests might show us something? CBC, liver panel, kidney panel and the like.

Anyway, my big K love has been doing alot of this…snooze on my bed. And it doesn’t seem to be a comfie snooze, more like a snooze till I feel better thing.

At least we haven’t had grumpies since I stopped the prednisone!

Why did Bravo have to discontinue the only meat he was healthy on? Dang but that’s frustrating.

Sunday morning…

It was Breaking Dawn, Kenai style! Do ya see him? He loves to watch the sunrise with me, my outdoorsman boy. The best way to start the day, especially on a weekend when there’s no rush to do anythin else!

New box games are over, time to take it apart…BB boy, 3 1/2 yrs

Ha! BB got a new box, BB got a new box…it doesn’t have the same shine unless you can say it with a sing song voice, but you get the idea! Beebs had a grand time with boxes, first looking for what’s inside, then smacking it around, then shredding it to tossable size peices.

He had the grinning wiggles for a good 20 minutes after it went to the trash!

Kenai’s had a sorta tough week–he’s not feeling too spunky for some reason. He seems excessively hungry, and kinda stiff/sore at times. And a little grumpy. He actually snapped at little bro’s food-bowl-intruding nose. Ooo.

Snarky old fart…you thought the title was about me, didn’t ya? grin

So I’m gonna skip his low dose prednisone for awhile and see if he perks up. The trick is to keep him eating and his stools normal without the steroid. He’s kinda not himself, my buddy love.

Big K did get a nice car ride to the Walgreens and Ace Hardware store Friday, while it was nice and cool. What is it about dogs and lowered windows? Kenai, being a priss, does pull his head back in once we get to about 30 mph, but he can’t wait to stick that cinder block head of his out once we stop.

I guess bugs in the nose offends his tidiness?

The weather’s been so lovely I’ve felt guilty not spending more time gardening in the mornings. The boys miss it too, so it’s suck it up time and at least be outside with them whether I’m working on something or not.

Keeping the daily log blog about “Beating Lyme” is taking up too much of my blogging time, which is why I’m falling behind here, so I’m gonna change the format I think. And I’m gonna see if I can find some of K’s blog friends on facebook, so I can keep track of them better–all at once is easier than one at a time.

Like Savage, I haven’t checked in on Savage in forever. He has a new “littermate” named Tula, and they are great good pals. http://savagedane.blogspot.com/.

I’m figuring on a quiet weekend, with any luck, and the high temps in the upper 80′s mean most of the mornings are in the 70′s. That’s awful nice, after the heat wave of last month. I feel so sorry for folks in Tx where the heat’s never let off.

But we’re hanging in okay, and I will be more regular (and interesting) about Kenai’s posts from now on!

gosh the AC gets cold…Kenai 3 1/2 yrs.

Oh my gosh I’ve fallen so behind on posting! The new medicine schedule has also just wrecked my usual routine, and I’m a little under the weather so to speak too. But here’s a good fun rollicking post with lots of pictures!

We’ve got a small heatwave, nothing like July mind you, but the 90′s are pretty hot for these big guys, so they’ve been finding fun inside.

Interrupt the dishes, see me see me pups here, sparked a pretty good play time!

 I get your funny flaps!! That bit of skin between the back leg and side is ticklish…we have funny bones, they got funny flaps. Tickles he, he, he!

Right after these pics big Boy and I ran to the store before it got too hot, and I figured he be sleepy. Not!

 Slipper snitchin time! Tease his toes enough and pretty soon he gets even by stealing your slippers.

 Got it!

They’re fun boys, and have been getting outside much more than last month. Their health is holding, with just some minor hiccups, like a punky day-after the Advantix went on. The one thing that’s bothering me is BB’s suddenly taken up that weird anxious behavior.

He’s just wound up way too tight, won’t listen as well, and is totally harrassing big bro. Kenai loves to play with him, but Beebs won’t lay off for some reason. He’s obsessive about sniffing/licking the floors where his brother’s been, too.

I’ve had to use our baby gate to make BB leave K alone enough to nap when he wants. I thought about just letting them sort it, but Kenai did get outright angry about having his back legs nipped at. That was fixing to be a meeting with Jesus, so I just seperated them.

Don’t know what’s got BB so wired. It’s all of a sudden too, the past week or a little more. Couldn’t be the food, could it? He’s been on the Bravo turkey for many weeks now. The remodel’s all done, so the stress levels gone down. I don’t know!

But it’s like he’s looking to pick a fight.

I’ve managed to catch up on Denise’s blog, http://hearingelmo.wordpress.com/. She’s always a fresh breath of air, that lady, and a wonderful advocate for service dogs and their humans. Glad to have found that site…

One last check out the window before nap time…

surveying the sunrise domain…Kenai 3 yrs

Oh the mornings have been so lovely and cool! Kenai’s had lots more car rides because of it, and outside time too. He’s also had a bit of love from the neighbors, and tried his best to get them to play! But they had yard work to do, boo hoo.

I’m a little worried now: Bravo has discontinued the elk Kenai was doing best on. His skin breaks out on the buffalo, the gets die in the rears from beef, and those were the three options for red meat. I may try venison again, and see if he likes it better now.

BB has suddenly started being a pest late at night: wake ya up, whine, fuss. The first night I thought he maybe had an icky tum, so I put him out to relieve himself. No dice. Last night was night 3 and he woke me up in Kenai and I’s bedroom 4 times before 1:30 am when I got good an mad at him.

He got a good scolding, and I got all of 4 hours of sleep. Nobody was happy with that.

So boy’s breakfast and supper is going to have a Cortisol Control supplement in addition to the Kandidaplex. Maybe he’s just having an anxiety issue? Sometimes these guys are a ‘puzzlement’.

Today someone’s supposed to come fix the living room fan. I haven’t been able to steam the carpet in the mornings because it won’t dry before the guys get on it. It’s in bad need of a disinfecting bleach steam. Wait for it: I really do need to get a shampooer…

Been saying that since May, but now the mower’s in the shop…

http://www.theotherendoftheleash.com/ has an interesting article about blocking boards, which can be used both on dogs that get into it with each other and dogs that get overly excited and anxious around strangers. Appearantly the breaking of eye contact is what calms them.

I’d be interested to see what she says about blocking boards and barrier frustration–BB would only get louder and more frustrated. They’re used to people coming into the garage, but the front door is still an issue and now being treated for borrelia (lyme) again, I sure don’t have the gumption to work on it.

One of Kenai’s rides was to the grocery Sunday morning…

“charcoal?…na, na, that other bag had pork chops and sirloin in it…”

He likes the lady that always seems to take our groceries out for us, and they’ve developed quite the funny relationship.

She’s the only person I know besides Mom that he’ll “talk” to–whar whars, and funny noises.

She teases him some more and he talks some more, then he gets a pat n rub before she closes the hatch.

And he always seems to be in an “expressive” mood after a visit to the store. Some of the funniest faces I see are on grocery store mornings. Like this one after I told him the pork chops weren’t for him:

 ha! He can whip out a face when he’s in the mood, can’t he?

Monday was flea and tick liquid day, so he was a bit blah. BB too for the most part, or at least as blah as BB gets, this side of comatose.

Tuesday though was a gorgeous day, in the 70′s most all morning, and cooled off quickly in the evening.

They both had lots of outside time in the morning, which brought on an afternoon of naps.

But they were ready for outside again when it was fire up the grill supper time. While this was going on

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this was too

 Yeee-Haww!

Some days are just good all over.

wake up time!!

Yet another cool morning run for big Brown, there, and car rides galore. He had to stay home with Mom yesterday when I drove to Columbia Missouri, but he got a nap on the bed with me and a ride to the pharmacy to make up for it.

The mornings have been so nice, almost chilly, down in the 60′s that my golden grizzly can’t resist a sunrise run. Then later in the mornings it’s still comfortable enough for him to go places. Yay, he says!

Now that the remodel is all done, there shouldn’t be any more spooky pooky puppy hiding in corners.

They were slowly getting better about the mad barking at every sound, but Sir BraveAlot was seen only when shooting from one hidey hole to another…

BB was just BB; underfoot n in the way.

It’s a warm kitchen, and a very effecient, functional one now. I guess whoever lived there last never made much, but now a girl could do some serious cooking. The storage space has doubled or better with nothing but new cabinets, the appliances are new too.

There was no way Thanksgiving dinner could have come out of that old kitchen, but boy could it now.

And with that ultra dark blood red paint gone, ya might actually want to eat there! Jonquill and Exciting Orange was all it took to give it zing.

Same square footage, whole lot more room and usefulness…

Now that all that’s over, the hope is to return to the usual summertime schedule: up and out to garden with special K, in for a break and breakfast for all, back out to finish the gardening, then rest before lunch.

The trip to Columbia confirmed it: my bizzarely intractable insomnia and worsened pain is due to a recurrence of tick disease. The borrelia is back, as is the babesia, but this time I’ve managed to add Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and systemic candida overgrowth to the list. Thanks for the tip and motivation to check, Denise.

So I’ve got scripts out the wazoo now. Antibiotics 2 x day, antifungal 4 x day then lessening each week. There’s eye drops, a new thyroid med, and a replacement for that awful expensive Lyrica. And it’s back to the low carb diet.

I go back in 4 months to see if we need to make any changes in the list of 5 antibiotics I’ll be rotating each month. I came home with a huge packet of information, about diet, detoxing from the toxins the cooties give off, adrenal stress etc.

There’s tons to read, and I’m debating about where to place my e-journal–unless it’s written down, it’s lost, ya know? So keeping track of what works, what doesn’t, how the diet changes are going and the like becomes essential for me.

But where? Here on K’s blog? The gardening blog? Do I really want to start a new blog? With 6 mo or more of treatment minimum, it’ll get big.

The battle with the stinky dirty carpet is being lost…There isn’t hair and dander down in it, not with all the vacuming I do and the steaming too. It’s the oils from their coats on the surface. It’s dog stink city in the living room, so yuk, time to do something!

I really must buy a shampoo machine. Those big rug doctors ya rent are just too big and awkward for me, not to mention the results are kinda iffy sometimes.

Grass, grass, glorious grass for a boy to trample. With the rain we’re finally getting, it’s starting once more to grow. Out came the mower and 3 passes into a yard chop, the belt broke. Now why couldn’t it’ve done that the last time I cut? There’d been a month to get it fixed since the heat meant no cutting.

Kenai was heartbroke, all ready for his race to that side of the back yard then back to the other. That’s his game while I cut the front: there I seed you, ha I was waitin! Awww phooey, droopy dog shuffled back inside. He’ll have to wait some more for a cut the grass chase-ems…