Posts Tagged ‘dog food’
Bigger Boy
A week ago we took Asher to the groomer for a good cleaning and nail trim. The morning of his appointment, we noticed he hadn’t finished eating all the food in his bowl. That wasn’t the first time he’d done that, so we weren’t overly concerned. However, he continued to show a lack of interest in his food. As we monitored that and experimented with some ways to figure out the reason for his apparent change in appetite, we also noticed he was developing some bumps on his skin.
The skin issue showed up after the grooming appointment, so we suspected he may be experiencing a reaction to a product they used. With the two issues happening simultaneously, there was a possibility there was more to it than we could deduce on our own.
Time for a visit to the veterinarian.
The first thing Cyndie learned was a confirmation of two similar opinions we have heard from visitors recently. Asher has gotten bigger! Measuring in at 18 pounds more than when we took him in almost a year ago, Asher now weighs 88 pounds.
The medical diagnosis was a skin infection or allergic reaction and the possibility he simply had a stomach virus or ingested something that upset his system. He hasn’t been throwing up and is drinking water and continuing to produce normal poops.
Given the number of times I have seen him gobble up very questionable finds on our walks through our woods, it is not the least bit surprising that he would develop a digestive disruption.
It sounds like he was a real lover and won over everyone at the clinic. Cyndie gave him a massage last night with an anti-bacterial potion to calm his lesions and we will continue to tailor his meals toward guiding his gut back to normal. The vet said that dogs may associate the smell of their food with the time they didn’t feel well and lose interest in their regular food even after their tummies return to normal.
If we don’t win him over to devouring his food like he used to, we’ll transition to a different brand. I wouldn’t mind if he lost some of the weight he has gained. It’s getting harder for me to wrestle him given his increased size combined with him figuring out all my moves. He’s not as dumb as he sometimes pretends to be.
Eighty-eight pounds. No wonder it hurts when he tries to pretend he is a lap dog.
.
.
Flowing Now
It’s quite possible that we are done with the snow season. That doesn’t rule out a stray snow shower in the next month but future incidents are unlikely to result in days of white blanketing the land like we are just had. The water was flowing at maximum levels in the drainage channels yesterday afternoon.
We have reached the point where the remaining piles of snow around the barn become precious resources for cleaning mud off my boots. These days are numbered.
Our afternoon will be filled with an Easter feast that Cyndie has been preparing for days to serve to a gathering of family and friends.
I suspect the day will be filled with struggles to contain Asher’s enthusiasm for visitors and food left in his reach. For the record, nothing is truly ever out of his reach. The poor guy has been noticeably unenthusiastic about his dog food of late. We were wondering if he might be unwell but this morning it occurred to me that there might be an issue with the current bag of food. A bad batch, maybe?
When he sniffed at his bowl this morning and then walked away from it, we replaced the serving with some rice and chicken and he gobbled that up without hesitation. We definitely don’t want him going hungry so we will make solving this a priority. It’s hard enough to keep Asher focused on responding to commands he has already learned without us having to cope with him being in a “hangry” mood.
Delicious food and merry mirth will be flowing momentarily at Wintervale. I’m looking forward to being able to taste what I have been smelling from Cyndie’s kitchen for days.
.
.
Wild Game
What a day that was. I initially chose the title of this post as a reference to Delilah’s diet yesterday, but the US Women’s soccer team decided to play the final match of the 2015 World Cup tournament in such a way as to steal the meaning. What an outburst of effort they put forth in that first half last night! Carli Lloyd getting a hat trick as quick as she did was astounding to witness.
They played the final two games of the tournament as if they were the best team in the world. I’m happy they were able to lift the cup at the end. They earned it.
Earlier in the day, our dog took it upon herself to hunt for her own breakfast. Her usual fare from us is a mixture of dry food and some meat from a can, twice a day, but yesterday she seemed particularly determined to get her protein from live-catches.
With Cyndie gone to the lake, I was on my own to try to keep track of Delilah as she romped off-leash in the manner she has grown accustomed after just one week of being watched by a new master. In just a few days, Cyndie accomplished more control over our dog roaming freely than I was able to achieve during the entire time I was home with her.
Not long after I had become engrossed in my tasks of putting out morning feed for the horses, and cleaning up their manure, I realized Delilah had gotten out of sight. Eventually, I found her on the other side of the barn, excitedly engaged in a “negotiation” with a young rabbit. It was not an exchange that the rabbit was going to win.
Meanwhile, the horses were demonstrating their high sensitivity to the predator-prey drama unfolding, even though it was out of their line of sight. They knew exactly what was going down, and remained on high alert until it was fully concluded. It prompted an increased sensitivity in me for the poor victim whose life was ended for our dog’s meal.
Back in the house, I opted to serve just dry food for the morning feeding. After her early morning excitement, Delilah was confined to her kennel in the yard while I went under ear muffs and used the power trimmer and then the diesel tractor to mow down more rampant growth around the property.
When I had finished, and it was time to feed the horses again, I hooked up Delilah to her leash and brought her with me. When we got to the back pasture, where I had just mowed, I decided to let her run free inside the fence. Before I could even get her unhooked, she reacted to a scent, despite the strong wind, and pulled hard to get after something. When I opened the clip on her leash, she bolted for the spot uphill in the direction from which we had just come.
It looked like a mouse that had probably been killed by the mower. It appears that the scent of death is something Delilah is exceptional at detecting. I moved on without her and headed toward the barn, to put out the horse’s evening feed. Delilah caught up to me eventually and lingered for a while, briefly annoying the horses with some aggressive barking and threatening gestures. One of these days she is going to get kicked and it will be no surprise.
To her credit, when I finished in the paddock and was ready to wheel manure out to the compost pile, she heard my call and came running from somewhere out of sight. The success thrilled me, until I got the gate open and she sprinted up the trail into our woods without me.
I finished puttering with the compost piles and contemplated how I might get her to come back. Then I heard the tags clanking on her collar. She returned with her 3rd prize of the day: a freshly killed squirrel.
Our intrepid hunter seemed driven to not eat canned dog food this day. She, and the US women’s soccer team, had their hearts set on wild game, for sure.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Relative Something 