Yorkie black sticky discharge around vagina-MY DOG IS SCOOTING OUT OF CONTROL...

[dwerten]

Originally Posted by MyFairLacy

Raw is much better for their teeth then canned or kibble. The grain in kibble causes plaque and tarter buildup and canned food tends to be a little more sticky and sticks to their teeth causing plaque and tarter as well. Lacy had a little tarter along her gum lines around the time we stopped feeding kibble and started feeding raw. There has been no more tarter buildup at all on her teeth in the year I've fed her raw. I'm going to clean her teeth this summer just to get that small amount of tarter off because I don't think I'll have to have her teeth cleaned again since she's on raw. I do also brush her teeth once a week though - I think that is neccessary no matter what food you feed. I compare her teeth to my cat who ate kibble for years, and I had to clean her teeth at least once a year - sometimes every six months because the tarter is so bad. Kibble doesn't help clean teeth - it would be like eating a cookie or cracker and expecting it to clean your teeth - it doesn't.

I switched my older cat to canned and raw when i got my new cat who also eats canned and raw. My older cat doesn't like the raw much so I mix it with some canned and there hasn't been a problem there. So I don't think it would hurt your dog to still have some canned if you want to do that. Just make sure it's a high-quality canned food and grain-free would be best. Nature's Variety also makes some grain-free canned food (my cat eats their canned food), and Merrick makes good canned food. If the canned has grain in it, I wouldn't feed it too close to the raw for the same reasons as not mixing kibble and raw.

A lot of people are afraid of feeding their dog raw food, but dogs aren't people and have different digestive tracks than us. People weren't made to eat raw food. Bacteria in the food can make us very sick. Dogs however have a shorter digestive tract and the food doesn't stay in system as long so the bacteria doesn't have time to multiply and make it sick. Dogs in the wild always ate raw meat (animals they killed). Also, this is why your dog can eat some nasty decaying bird outside and not deathly ill. The bacteria in raw won't hurt your dog unless it is already immunocompressed and really susceptible to bacteria making it sick. Healthy dogs are just fine with the bacteria in raw. Plus with Nature's Variety, the know the food is meant to be eaten raw and they prepare it and handle it in a way that it should be safe to be eaten raw.

Here is what Nature's Variety says about raw being best:
http://www.naturesvariety.com/conten...1329KyP421FC6D

Why the bacteria in raw won't hurt your dog:
http://rawfed.com/myths/bacteria.html

Myths about raw:
http://rawfed.com/myths/bacteria.html

This is a great FAQ page: (BARF means Bones and Raw foods - another name for RAW - alot of this though is for people that mix their own raw)
http://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm

Another FAQ about raw (might answer more questions):
http://www.rawlearning.com/rawfaq.html


Hope these help

which raw diet do you feed yours?

I spoke to the district manager for natures variety at a petexpo and he used the oreo cookie analagy you just did and everything you said below and it makes a lot of sense.

If dd has a week immune system as she has bad allergies I thought i should not do the raw - what do you think ?

[Yorkieluv]

Originally Posted by MyFairLacy

The bacteria in raw won't hurt your dog unless it is already immunocompressed and really susceptible to bacteria making it sick. Healthy dogs are just fine with the bacteria in raw. Plus with Nature's Variety, the know the food is meant to be eaten raw and they prepare it and handle it in a way that it should be safe to be eaten raw.

I agree that raw is good for healthy dogs and there are numerous benefits to it But please do keep in mind that if your dog is sick in any way, it can do more harm. I know several dogs who have gotten E.Coli and are still trying to fight it after over 6 months...There are so many strains of that illness, that not all antibiotics will work...Just something to keep in mind.

Could your baby have an underlying problem?? Many times, dogs with liver issues develop recurring stones and they feel sick and down after eating foods that have red meat or that are high in protein...I pray that this is not the case with your baby, but just throwing that out there...

[MyFairLacy]

Lacy eats Nature's Variety raw in venison and rabbit. She's not immunocompromised at all that I know of so I can't really give advise for a dog that is. She has done great on the raw though. It's already been mentioned on here that most vet don't support raw, but I recommend finding a Holistic vet to ask about diet choices. Holistic vets normally support raw. I think a holistic vet could look at your dogs past medical history and know if it's okay for you to feed raw or not. An option for an immunocompromised dog would be a homemade cooked diet. Of course you lose some of the nutrients since you are cooking it but it's still a lot better than kibble. And you can add a supplement to the cooked food to add some of the nutrients back in.

[sadiesamie]

i wouldn't even know how to find a holistic vet. I am awating the urinalysis and hopefully tomorrow i will know more on that. she ate around 9:00 tonight and she is feeling a little better. i got her to drink as much water as i could. it's bed time and she is already in her bed. she will rest tonight and we will see what tomorrow has in store. i just can't stop worrying. if the vet wants to change her food then it's got to be something that does not contain corn or something we can find that's best for her to be on. it's scary b/c i have no idea what the vet will say. she is a better vet than the one we were going to so lets keep our fingers crossed. :-) i will post an update as soon as i have it.

[dwerten]

dd is ok except for allergies and on atopica which is similar but not as bad as steroids which affects the immune system so i was told if they are on atopica then no raw as she even cannot have live vaccines on this drug. I hate doing the drug but at least it gives her relief while i still search out things to help her

[Yorkieluv]

Originally Posted by MyFairLacy

Lacy eats Nature's Variety raw in venison and rabbit. She's not immunocompromised at all that I know of so I can't really give advise for a dog that is. She has done great on the raw though. It's already been mentioned on here that most vet don't support raw, but I recommend finding a Holistic vet to ask about diet choices. Holistic vets normally support raw. I think a holistic vet could look at your dogs past medical history and know if it's okay for you to feed raw or not. An option for an immunocompromised dog would be a homemade cooked diet. Of course you lose some of the nutrients since you are cooking it but it's still a lot better than kibble. And you can add a supplement to the cooked food to add some of the nutrients back in.

Great suggestion regarding a holistic vet!! They are usually more in tune with feeding healthy foods.
Check out the b-naturals website that I posted in one of your thread and go to their newsletter directory...They have a more holistic approach and some of the articles may be able to guide you in the right direction...

[dwerten]

Originally Posted by Yorkieluv

Great suggestion regarding a holistic vet!! They are usually more in tune with feeding healthy foods.
Check out the b-naturals website that I posted in one of your thread and go to their newsletter directory...They have a more holistic approach and some of the articles may be able to guide you in the right direction...

we did see a holistic vet when the allergies first started in 5/05 - we went until 9/05 and did all the herbs, raw food natures variety, and staph lysate injections - we drove an hour each way every saturday in traffic and did not see much results he came highly recommended from a client of mine that he cured her maltese from a rare fungus and she was better within 12 mos -he kept saying i had to give it 12 mos but then i ruptured my achilles tendon and could not drive for 3 months so we went to the regular vet. I just took her to a different holistic vet 2 mos ago and she recommended to get her comfortable (atopica) and then work our way back with diet etc but first thing - get the dog comfortable - she recommened the wolf diet - the thing is it has a lot of ingredients and i want to stay with a food with one carb and one protein to eliminate too many things she could be allergic too

[MyFairLacy]

Dwerton, has your vet talked to you about doing an allergy test? A lot of the time vets try elimination first to see if they can find a food that works for your dog without doing the test, but when that doesn't work they can do an allergy test. They do a skin scraping and send it off to a lab to be tested against common antigens -they test it against all kinds of things. Then they send you a report back saying what all your dog is allergic to. I've never done it but have thought about doing this with my cat. The vet I use quoted me about $200 but I'm sure that varies with the vet and lab you use. I know someone on another forum that recently did this and found out her dog is allergic to almost everything. It's really helped her though because now she knows what is okay to feed her dog and he's doing a lot better.

[dwerten]

Originally Posted by MyFairLacy

Dwerton, has your vet talked to you about doing an allergy test? A lot of the time vets try elimination first to see if they can find a food that works for your dog without doing the test, but when that doesn't work they can do an allergy test. They do a skin scraping and send it off to a lab to be tested against common antigens -they test it against all kinds of things. Then they send you a report back saying what all your dog is allergic to. I've never done it but have thought about doing this with my cat. The vet I use quoted me about $200 but I'm sure that varies with the vet and lab you use. I know someone on another forum that recently did this and found out her dog is allergic to almost everything. It's really helped her though because now she knows what is okay to feed her dog and he's doing a lot better.

yep did two of them $400 each by two different vets and labs and she is highly allergic to just about everything. They say if they are allergic to chicken that duck is a fowl and they can be allergic to that too. This is why i went with the salmon- they did both allergy tests through blood. I have heard blood does not determine food allergy though so elimination diet only way to determine this but blood is great to determine environmental allergies which she has a lot of and where we live is the second worse place for allergies

[dwerten]

Here is the holistic doctor we went to

she was on revolution, natures variety, shampoo with ketachlor, cod liver oil, acidopholous plus pectin, un gato, lyprinol, keflex, and one other herb it was tough but i did it for 4 mos with little results

http://www.petholisticare.com/

http://www.cancercontrolsociety.com/...pasternak.html

here is his book which is excellent

http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Pets-N.../dp/0970967845

[sadiesamie]

Spoke to the vet today. Samie's showed 4+ crystals. the vet believes she has kidney stones. in order to rule that out we would need to do some xrays. We had an appt scheduled for this Saturday morning. Right after I talked to the vet I got a call from my sister in Ohio. My Grandma passed away. I am heading out for the funeral first thing in the morning. :-(
I do not know if my husband can handle getting samie to the vet himself. I am always the one to give her the hydomet and he has never done that. I know it makes him uneasy. Plus the stress of something going wrong and if she has bad trachea issues. Oh just the thought of being in another state so far away from my baby......makes me so stressed.
I definitely will not miss my Grandma's funeral. Oh gosh....such bad timing. :-( I am soooooo sad right now and sooo worried. Been crying all morning...

[Yorkieluv]

I am so sorry to hear about your loss

[sadiesamie]

Originally Posted by Yorkieluv

I am so sorry to hear about your loss

thank you! Samie's appt has been rescheduled for monday morning for xrays. The vet says Samie will do ok if she needs surgery... since her airway passages will be open. she is worried about "post" surgery and how she would be afterwards. she said if samie was to anxious we possibly would not be able to let her stay in recovery for a while. (like when they do morning surgery and you pick up in the evening) she said samie would do better in her usual surroundings.

Samie had cruisiating ligament surgery and 3 artificial ligaments in April 05. she was overly anxious when we dropped her off for surgery and the vet had said that if they could not get her to settle down a little that they would not be able to move forward. well she made it ok through that. i picked her up at 5:00 that evening and she slept once i got her home. However... a few hours went by and she started panting really bad. as each hour went by she was getting worse and worse. I knew it was time for her medication that they sent me home with and i gave her the meds. i started reading up again on her take home papers the vet sent us home with. startled to find that there was only one bottle of med in the little bag they gave me. they sent me home only with her anti inflammatory. but not her pain meds!!! she was in so much pain. we called the vet surgery center where she had the surgery and they said they were closed and no one was there to issue a prescription. my husband got very ugly with them on the phone and needless to say at midnight he was on his way to the place to meet someone outside with her pain meds.
(mind you it was 45 miles each way) i stayed with poor Samie and tried to comfort her but her breathing was getting worse and worse by the minute. my husband got home and we immediately gave her the pain meds and waited. she got terribly worse. by now it's 3am. and we put her up on the counter and was trying to calm her down and when i looked closely at her mouth. her little pink pain pill was stuck in her hair. SHE NEVER EVEN TOOK THE PILL AND SHE SPIT IT OUT! i had no idea!!!!! OMG! by now her eyes are buldging and we rushed her to the emergency vet. they put her on oxygen and i do not know how she made it though that. we came so close to losing are baby. i tried so hard to remain calm for her b/c i was told that they can sense when you are worried.

they kept her overnight and we went to get her the next morning. we decided that we could give her injections so i went to the vet the next day and they showed me how to give her the injection. it was scary and very difficult to do for her but i got over that real quick.

now- the reason for writing all of that... i do have a small bit of hope that samie "could" handle surgery if we find out that she has kidney stones... i don't think it could be any worse than that dreadful night after her leg surgery. although her trachea problems have worsened since then. i just have to have hope and pray.

we will cross that bridge when we get there on monday though. the vet said she "may" have stones but only the xray will determine that.
the reason she suspects stones is that she said the slide they use to do the test only goes to "4" she is guessing maybe 10 or more crystals were found. and with that she says when the number is that high... there unfortunately are stones present.

i am so worried. i am leaving for Cleveland now on Friday morning. so I am glad I can stay with my baby a few more days. she is feeling much better today than yesterday, has an appetite, and i believe her ear infection and yeast infection are clearing to. her stool this evening was normal. no more constipation. vet said to give her 1/4 of a 10 mg pepcid ac. to calm her stomach from being upset due to the sudden food change.

thanks for reading if you made it this far. :-) need your prayers.

[Yorkieluv]

Try not to worry too much about her while you're gone. I know it's easier said than done...It sounds like she really had a hard time last time, but yes, you have to keep thinking positive thoughts. She will make it through the surgery and she will do fine afterwards. You have to believe that she will be okay...Take care of yourself!!

[sadiesamie]

Samie's appt today: After x-rays were taken "NO STONES" were found so that is GREAT news! Vet is going to talk to a nutritionist and place her on a special diet. She also took xrays of her trachea while we were there. She said her vulva area is looking a lot better too.
The vet is wonderful getting us in and out quickly. So glad we found this new vet. Once I have more info- I will post as soon as i get it.

My trip to Cleveland was ok.. It was hard to say good bye to my Grandma. I read a nice little page I wrote about memories I had growing up and about her. It was hard to do that and I cried so hard. I can't believe I was there and back already.

I am so relieved my little girl doesn't have stones. OMG....My stomach was in knots all w/end-I was really dreading this appt today and wondering what we would do if they did find stones. What great news!! I was so worried.