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Old 10-17-2009, 03:34 AM
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Shelli Shelli is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2006
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Smile An Arf-Arf Here and a Meow-Meow There... E I E I O!

This thread is an offshoot from the What's up with you? thread. :yes:

Recently, I've thought about starting a thread on the health care of cats and dogs and this seemed like an opportune time, not to mention, I didn't want to derail the other thread. :train:


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Originally Posted by Shelli View Post
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Originally Posted by Demimonde View Post
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Originally Posted by Shelli View Post
I found out tonight that all three of my :dog:s like tofu. :stwitch:

I mean, seriously... wtf dog likes TOFU??? :whoa:
We don't do tofu in the Monde household unless the Chinese take out place slips some in as filler. The dogs love them for that. They also love edamame. Though I hull them for the pups.
I've had tofu in the past, but I've never bought it raw at the store before this. I bought it specifically for the :dog:s. I add that along with canned pumpkin and sardines to their wetted dry food. They freaking LOVE it. They whine for it as I make it up and one dog who normally eats laying down is so excited by it that he eats the first part of it standing up. :lol:

I really wasn't sure how all of this would go over with their taste buds. I started and continue adding these items to their ummies for dietary reasons so, I'm glad they've taken to it like they have. They also all get a vitamin E supplement at night after dinner. :=D
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Originally Posted by Demimonde View Post
My kids get canned pumpkin mixed with their kibble once a month, or every week during the allergy season. Dante will bite himself even with medication. He can get furballs and let us say... irregular. And of course whatever brother gets, sister wants too. They love it.

ETA what kind of VE do you use? I had my boy on 3V caps as a pup, but as he got older he refused to eat them. No kidding, I would put it in his kibble and he would carefully remove it and leave it next to his bowl on the placemat. They I started putting it in food to give him, and he would make himself cough it up. Cutting open the get caps and mixing it in the food led to hunger strikes. I buckled after 36 hours. So it just became more trouble than it was worth for a twice a day vitamin. I found a Science Diet formula with VE and fish oils that he likes but it is more expensive.
I give them one 400 I.U. E softgel (put out by Spring Valley) daily after their dinner which is the one meal that they each get a teaspoon of sardines with. They get a chunk of tofu (maybe two tablespoons?) with their breakfast and also with their dinner, and they get canned pumpkin (a teaspoon for 28 pound Raistlin and a tablespoon each for 43 pound Tigger & 53 pound Shelby) with breakfast, lunch & dinner.

I give them the Vitamin E softgels via opening their mouths and placing it to the back of their mouths, lifting their snouts up while rubbing their throats and talking to them. Then they all get a treat. Then I wash my hands. :gross:

Raistlin has swallowed a pill for a day since he was a puppy so he's used to it and he's never had a problem with it. (knowing that he'll always get a treat afterward helps too :dog:) Tigger and Shelby, except for the occasional Ascriptin (Maalox coated aspirin), are new to it, but while not necessarily thrilled with it, are not too bad about it either. :shrug:

These additions to their dry food began a couple months ago in an effort to help my dog, Raistlin, through diet, with his condition called inflammatory bowel disease. I started with the vitamin E first, and then when his symptoms were somewhat under control, I added the canned pumpkin. Just a couple of weeks ago is when I added the sardines (packed in water) and just this week is when I added the tofu.

I didn't add the vitamin E to my other two dog's diets until I began giving them sardines. The canned pumpkin I've been giving to all of them since I started with it because not only does canned pumpkin have hardly any calories and comes vitamin packed, but it also helped with Shelby's constipation. :thumbup:

The vitamin E, sardines and tofu are ideas that I got from this book :rarrow: Home-Prepared Dog & Cat Diets ~ The Healthful Alternative by Donald R. Strombeck, DVM, PhD. I tried the pumpkin after extensive research on the net.

Raistlin is presently taking 10 mg. of prednisone every other day for the inflammatory bowel disease. This dosage is considerably lower than he had been on for a few months in an effort to try to get this autoimmune disease under control. He is also presently taking a small dose of azathioprine once a week which is also a considerably lower dose than he had been on for awhile. Eventually, I hope to have him taking only 5 mg. of prednisone every other day like he had been taking for years prior to him contracting whipworms which caused his bowels to retaliate, and the azathioprine either once a month or not at all. I'd much rather nix the azathioprine all together if possible. His belly fur is just starting to grow back now that his dosage has been reduced. I love giving belly rubs to his newly, softly furred belly. :^^ It reminds me of how far he's come since The Battle of The Bowels. :cheerful:

I also give him one chewable levothyroxine sodium tablet twice a day to treat his hypothyroidism. That, he will be taking for the rest of his life, which I hope to be as long and healthy as possible. :heart:

In his case, more fiber rather than less fiber helps his condition, so for awhile he was eating Hill's Science Diet w/d which is loaded with fiber. He's now been weaned back to what he had been eating which was Hill's Science Diet Light, which, while it doesn't have as much as the w/d, it also has a lot of fiber.

His situation was looking pretty bad a few months ago :worry: but he's doing considerably better these days. :bliss:


Have any stories or health tips you'd like to share about your fur kids? :dotell:
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Crumb (10-19-2009), Stormlight (10-17-2009), vremya (11-08-2009), Watser? (10-17-2009)
 
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