My weekend, with chainsaw
Oct. 21st, 2007 01:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ksmithIn the 'no good deed ever goes unpunished' category, I had to switch King back to Iams when my attempt to put him on Canidae Platinum, with high quality canned food as a topper, backfired. Canidae apparently doesn't work well with some dogs. I'll spare the goriest details, but GI upset played a big role.
Before anyone comments that dogs need to be switched slowly, understand that I switched him over a period of a couple of weeks, and he was still eating a mix of about 2/3 Canidae and 1/3 Iams, and had been for almost 2 months. The canned foods may have played a role--they were all meat with no fillers, but some contained herbs and others were vitamin-enriched and maybe they were just too rich for him. I am inclined, however, to blame the Canidae since I have heard that some dogs have GI issues when fed it.
So, HRH is back on his old blend of 50% Iams Large Dog/50% Iams Active Maturity, along with rice, a little cooked lean hamburger, and an occasional Pepto-Bismol tablet. Fingers oh so crossed, but the GI issues started easing up as soon as I stopped the other food, and the patient seems to be progressively improving (Read: old, bouncy, obnoxious, PITA self).
His recent gut disquietude has not, however, prevented said patient from trying to irritate the snot out of me ( see old, bouncy, etc...). His latest snack of choice is some ancient bark mulch that has been hidden behind the backyard yew hedge for, oh, 20 years now. It was the mulch that the previous owners had used, and the small patch behind the hedge was apparently well protected enough to survive two decades of Illinois weather. It's actually very crumbly/papery, and breaks into rounded-edge bits when you crack it. So. It may not be hurting him, but I don't want him to eat anything like that until his tum settles, and that thought has apparently traveled through the air and settled into his doggy brain, warping along the way into a command that He Must Eat Old Bark Mulch Whenever Possible. As soon as I let him outside, he'd vanish behind the hedge, then come out crunching.
*sigh* So I broke out Bucky the Chainsaw and spent part of yesterday hacking down the hedge. It was in poor shape anyway, with greenery only on the ends of the branches. It had become a popular way station for visiting birds at some point--inner branches were coated with guano and during the summer I could hear the flies buzzing whenever I passed. After bagging the branches, I raked out as much old mulch as I could. There are still bits remaining, but the stuff doesn't seem to be doing any harm in small amounts, and short of paving over my entire backyard, there's not much more I can do. Dogs Eat Stuff. And he might say that the stuff he eats on his own seem to be doing him less harm than the stuff I was feeding him, and what could I say? You read the labels, talk to folks, and do your best.
I left one yew stump, along with some short branches. Maybe it will come back in a few years. Maybe the cutback with kill the roots and make the stump easier to remove.
Then came indoor chores, vacuuming and laundry. I'll make some dinner, then work on the Neverending Gideon Proposal. One of the bad guys developed some backstory that explains why she's doing what she's doing. At least, it's a good enough reason for her.
It's Sunday afternoon already. Always a letdown time, as the reality of Monday looms.
Before anyone comments that dogs need to be switched slowly, understand that I switched him over a period of a couple of weeks, and he was still eating a mix of about 2/3 Canidae and 1/3 Iams, and had been for almost 2 months. The canned foods may have played a role--they were all meat with no fillers, but some contained herbs and others were vitamin-enriched and maybe they were just too rich for him. I am inclined, however, to blame the Canidae since I have heard that some dogs have GI issues when fed it.
So, HRH is back on his old blend of 50% Iams Large Dog/50% Iams Active Maturity, along with rice, a little cooked lean hamburger, and an occasional Pepto-Bismol tablet. Fingers oh so crossed, but the GI issues started easing up as soon as I stopped the other food, and the patient seems to be progressively improving (Read: old, bouncy, obnoxious, PITA self).
His recent gut disquietude has not, however, prevented said patient from trying to irritate the snot out of me ( see old, bouncy, etc...). His latest snack of choice is some ancient bark mulch that has been hidden behind the backyard yew hedge for, oh, 20 years now. It was the mulch that the previous owners had used, and the small patch behind the hedge was apparently well protected enough to survive two decades of Illinois weather. It's actually very crumbly/papery, and breaks into rounded-edge bits when you crack it. So. It may not be hurting him, but I don't want him to eat anything like that until his tum settles, and that thought has apparently traveled through the air and settled into his doggy brain, warping along the way into a command that He Must Eat Old Bark Mulch Whenever Possible. As soon as I let him outside, he'd vanish behind the hedge, then come out crunching.
*sigh* So I broke out Bucky the Chainsaw and spent part of yesterday hacking down the hedge. It was in poor shape anyway, with greenery only on the ends of the branches. It had become a popular way station for visiting birds at some point--inner branches were coated with guano and during the summer I could hear the flies buzzing whenever I passed. After bagging the branches, I raked out as much old mulch as I could. There are still bits remaining, but the stuff doesn't seem to be doing any harm in small amounts, and short of paving over my entire backyard, there's not much more I can do. Dogs Eat Stuff. And he might say that the stuff he eats on his own seem to be doing him less harm than the stuff I was feeding him, and what could I say? You read the labels, talk to folks, and do your best.
I left one yew stump, along with some short branches. Maybe it will come back in a few years. Maybe the cutback with kill the roots and make the stump easier to remove.
Then came indoor chores, vacuuming and laundry. I'll make some dinner, then work on the Neverending Gideon Proposal. One of the bad guys developed some backstory that explains why she's doing what she's doing. At least, it's a good enough reason for her.
It's Sunday afternoon already. Always a letdown time, as the reality of Monday looms.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-10-21 07:21 pm (UTC)Some dogs just defy you to get them on a wonderful food.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-21 09:35 pm (UTC)Now I have a week and a half's worth of super premium canned dog food sitting in my cupboard. Mickey had no problems with it--the only flavor he turned his nose up at was the whitefish--but if I give him something that I don't give King...the first thing King does when I set down the food bowls is look to see what Mickey has.
I would like to switch King off of Iams. I heard it was higher in fat than other foods, and higher fat's not great for senior dogs. But I won't be getting adventurous for a while. This canidae thing took months to develop, and it was so easy to blame it on other things.
Farewell, Iams, we barely knew Ye --
Date: 2007-10-21 10:39 pm (UTC)If the people who bought Iams hadn't started to cut back the protein and add filler, it wouldn't be such a bad thing. I have gone through more cans of premium cat food than the proverbial Carter has little pills. Max tried the BARF diet (and barfed -- a lot. And I game him about a 1/2 teaspoon of it!) and likes Wellness Chicken & Herring. Period. Otherwise, give him good dried crunchies, and he's eating California Natural Chicken & Rice and staying trim and healthy on it. Merlyn eats the same -- only he gets more meat, because it's a lower-protein version of stuff to keep his kidneys happy. (Wish to avoid fluids under the skin as long as possible.) Max is 15 3/4 and Merlyn 12. Maisie's a young chick of 6 or so -- and heaviest of the gang.
Maisie will eat anything -- except the stuff I used to feed the boys, which has switched to corn protein. I can't eat corn protein, so why feed them it? She's happy with a meat and crunchies mix, too.
Now, if they'd just get along.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-21 09:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-22 02:44 am (UTC)Found out today that Lucifer (the somewhat aptly named house cat here) doesn't like garlic/cheddar sourdough...although it took the destruction of the bread bag and nibbling all the way around the heel for him to figure it out...noone ever accused him of having three brain cells to rub together.