i'm currently building a citycore island on my new switch 2 but i also just reset my other island and have no clue what to do with it 🙂↔️
i've done
i really want to do something different i feel like a lot of my themes kinda mesh into one
i'm on the last day of transitioning my boys from kibble to raw 🙏 they're both a year old and have suffered from really bad allergies basically their entire lives, especially ham.
i've always given them raw treats like turkey feet, sardines, lung pieces, marrow, eggs, etc. but they've been rotated on different royal canin prescription diets forever with no improvement (constant ear infections itching and stomach issues).
their daycare is connected to a local petstore and the owner is a big raw fan + sells raw in store so recommend a pre-made raw he thought would be best. i'd like to transition to homemade one day but i want to do a lot more research and get less squeamish (i havent eaten meat myself for 12 years 😓)
how do your guys vets react to you feeding raw and how do you deal with disapproval from them?
ok she said it much nicer, more like "let's watch his weight".. i wasn't at the appointment though my boyfriend was and he decided not to ask how to do that 🙂↔️.
he is on the recommended feeding amount for his breed, age, and weight that he was last appointment that the vet was happy with (73lbs) im not sure what his current weight is because my boyfriend doesn't remember 🙂↔️.
he's mostly herding/working breeds with some hefty genes like pyrenees and dogo. i would say he gets high levels of exercise most days with some days being moderate. i don't think he's faaaat but i have noticed the last few weeks his waist )( has been less prominent. he turned 1 in february.
any suggestions 😭 cut his food down? more exercise? he is allergic to a lot so i wouldn't say he's getting a lot of treats.
i generally dont like things that are super sweet so i put it off for years 😪 i usually cut everything into quarters and eat one quarter as my bedtime snack 🙂↔️. most of what i've tried has been a miss for me and i always end up with left overs that sit in the fridge but these 3... im miserable it seems like some cookies go a year or more without coming back 😭 i need that key lime
feeling like a failed dog owner but not sure exactly where i went wrong 😭 beef has been groomed regularly since he was 8 weeks, around every 3 weeks a bath + nail trim at the salon. sometime around 9/10 months he started getting aggressive during nail trims like showing teeth and acting like he was going to bite so they would muzzle him and he'd get it done in a few minutes.
he has an in home trainer we see every few weeks as well as a veterinary behaviourist who helps with his generalized anxiety hyper arousal disorder (lol). he is on medication for it, it's not like shaking in a corner more like just constantly on alert never sleeps cant read other dogs body language etc. he does herding contests, goes on hour long hikes, loads of mental enrichment games/puzzles, and still comes home ready to run a marathon. the meds have been helping a lot with that, he took a voluntary nap on the couch for the first time a week ago 😅
the nail trims though seem to be getting worse and worse. he is completely fine with anyone touching/holding his feet but the second the clippers come out he's running away or trying to bite an arm off.
i have a great mobile groomer who comes over to do all 4 of my dogs, she did beef for a few months and at one point was even able to use a dremel after the nail trim (he was muzzled and on trazadone for it and was a little snappy but got it done quick) but now we're at the point he wont even come into the trailer, even when bribed with rotisserie chicken.
he's also gotten really anxious at the vet. he frequents there with his allergies and he seemed to enjoy it until he had to have surgery to remove a lump from his foot after they had poked at it and drained it over 3 appointments.
we've tried trazadone, trazodone with gabapentin, and then something i dont even remember the name of but it was given orally.
we're working on somehow getting him back to tolerating nail trims, like giving him treats when the clippers come out or when we fake cut a nail, his groomer comes over just to take him on walks or sniff her trailer, he goes to the vet just to see the receptionist and get treats.
his nails are getting long now though and his vet did say she could fully sedate him and trim them back as far as possible and keep doing it until he's back in a place where the groomer can do them. i just have never had any experience with that before, is it common? any bad experiences or things i should worry about?
my beef and ham are both just over a year old and they're my first "own" dogs. i've always had some kinda raw in their diet (an organ, chicken foot, etc) but they majority of their diet has been kibble.
they've been extremely frequent vet visitors, especially ham. he's had allergy issues since he was a little guy (itching, ear infections, stomach issues) and the vet + a dermatologist still haven't been able to work out the problem. they've had him on that hydrolized protein vet diet for months and he seems to be getting worse
i work in rescue and we have lots of connections to different pet places so i talked to one and i'm slowly transitioning to the raw brand he recommended and uses for his danes starting today.
i'm definitely not 100% set on brands or anything so looking for advice on transitions, favourite brands, etc!
(i would love to do what i see online a lot and feed whole raw pieces but i don't eat meat myself and raw grosses me out so maybe one day i can get to that point 😅)
my ham is just over a year and has been dealing with allergies since he first came home. at first it was just atomic farts his vet diagnosed as puppy tummy & eating too fast so he started using a slow feeder and i would burp him after he ate. that did help a little but not for long.
he gets the worst ear infections in both ears constantly. we treat it and a week later they're both infected again. he gets super red around his mouth & eyes, and he itches pretty frequently. the itching is definitely getting worse though especially his front legs, he chews on them a lot.
he has been on 2 different elimination diets and in total has been on them for just over 6 months. nothing but the food, no treats etc.
he started seeing a dermatologist in late February, who has done blood work and intradermal testing , nothing came up from that
that's basically where we're at. i feel horrible because it seems to be getting worse. luckily it's nowhere near as bad as i've seen other dogs get (bleeding, fur loss etc) but i'm worried we are moving towards that.
i'm discussing moving him to raw food with my vet and derm, wondering if it's just something in kibble like some sort of binding ingredient or something? at this point it feels like if that doesn't work nothing will 😭
anyone have any ideas on what it could be? my vet is very willing to listen to any strange theories i come up with.