:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

Wiley is so lucky to have you as his mommy!! You can be my mommy anytime! :p
How old is Wiley now?

One cough episode and gaining weight - yay Wiley!!! :D:thumbup:

Happy for mommy and Wiley.

My little piggy Wiley is 16wks today and weighs in at 2# 5.2oz... I can't believe how fast he is gaining weight. I hope I am not feeding him too much. He get 1/2 cup (57grams according to Acana bag) Acana Grasslands grain free each day and I split it up into three meals a day. I am looking for a good wet puppy food as well that is grain free and lamb or fish. Wiley is doing super and I am sooooooo happpppppyyyy!!!!! I also noticed black new growth of fur/hair on his belly. I am so excited. He still cough/hacks in morning, but the rest of the day is fine. I think my baby boy is finally doing well. :D
I hope things continue in a possitive way and he will be able to get his vaccine mid June.
I want to call him fuzzy now.... hee hee

Just read through this whole thread. Oh my goodness, you've been through alot. So happy Wiley went to a good Momma, and I'm sorry that your experience with him has been so rocky. The good news is though that, like a sick baby, it seems that you become even more attached when you nurse them back to health. My Gizmo was a puppymill/backyard bread puppy as well, however he hasn't had the problems poor little Mr. Wiley has had.

Glad you switched over the foods, Acana is a good food to be on.

I'm thinking that the hair loss could have been from all of the stress combined with the bad food and lots of medicatios that he's been on.

But thinning hair or not, he's a cute little peanut!!!:p

Prayers that all goes well!!! And lots of love a support to a fellow Puppymill/BYB rescue Momma!

Happy to hear Wiley is doing good and his mommy is happy.

So glad to hear the good report. Such a sweet little baby. Thanks for keeping us informed.

Great news.

I have been looking into Honest Kitchen which is human grade and dehydrated. The have meals with protein and ones to supplement your protein choice.
Grain-Free Dog Food | All Natural Dog Food | Dehydrated Dog Food | The Honest Kitchen

FYI I recently read that if you are concerned about skin issues you should not feed lamb which is Yang (hot) Yin/Yang. I am in a learning process about a holistic approach. I will try to find where I read that and post the information. I figure I will try to keep Buster as healthy holistically as I can and use medications when necessary.
I just did and it was in the Honest Kitchen website. http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/2011/01/05/skin-coat/

Strange. Our Shih Tzu who had skin issues did very well when I switched him to a lamb based dog food. Lamb has been used for years for sensitive and problem skin.

I am so glad things are looking better.

I am just learning about all of this and am interested in the concepts but I will agree that they may not apply all the time. I am glad your dog did well with the lamb. I am a newbie to all this alternative approach but Buster had so many health issues when I got him and was on so much medications I wanted to try and get his immune system as healthy as possible through diet and supplements.
This is what the Honest Kitchen web site post said "Although a lamb and rice diet is often recommended for dogs with skin sensitivities, lamb is actually once of the worst possible meats to feat a ‘hot’ itchy dog according to the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine, because it is a warming ‘yang’ food. Instead, cooling ‘yin’ or neutral foods should be served – including white fish, turkey, duck or beef. "
I try and gather a lot of information and sift through it with a slightly skeptical eye. But I figure the chinese doctors researched for years for cures for aliments so they might have some good ideas. I am not against conventional medicine, my dad is a doctor. I just like the idea of trying alternative approaches before medicating. I had just read the post on the Honest Kitchen web site the other day and that is the first time I had heard about the yin/yang food theory and found it interesting.

I don't know much about yin and yang other than it is based in Chinese philosophy concerning how things are interconnected in the world.
Basically I am coming to see that the dog food industry as a whole has most people duped into thinking that because a bag of food says,"nutritionally complete" on it that their dog is going to be healthy eating it. Humans are getting sick at record high rates eating what they think is healthy while our foods have been genetically changed and the animals that our meat comes from are pumped full of hormones, steroids and antibiotics. Even the farmland it's self has been stripped of the natural minerals that it used to contain thus even our fruits and veggies are lacking in nutritional value. While there are those who are grass feeding live stock and going back to the real natural way of producing food our markets are lacking this type of food in the quantity needed to feed our population.
All that said I am still searching for a real natural food for my baby that is also something that she will eat. I have found recently that she hates rice but will accept sweet potato based food. White potatoes are too starchy for dogs. Humans are not supposed to consume large amounts of white potatoes so why would we give them to our dogs?
I think any meat that is raised "free range," "grass fed" without the adding of all the chemicals being injected into the animal is going to be a start for our pets health. I used to think that a more expensive food was a better food but as I am researching I am finding how wrong I have been.