Before and After

Here are Sweet Pea's B.D. (Before Diet) and A.D. pictures.
Pic #1 was taken in August 2012.
Pic #2 was taken in February 2013.

What a difference 6 months makes!

Adventures in Raw Food

Happy Inauguration AND Martin Luther King Day! We spent the morning watching the Inauguration and the afternoon at the Colorado History Center. A good day!

In between, I ran over to P.C.'s Pantry to purchase some raw food, as well as non-raw kibble, for SP. The woman who owns the place is a wealth of information. She showed me that Instinct Raw (the brand I had researched) is more expensive with a lower food grade than Northwest Naturals, which produces human grade food! Well, that was easy!

So, I bought a variety of proteins in a case (15 vacuum-packed bags, each containing 4 meals, or 2 days worth of raw food) as well as a bag of Instinct Chicken Meal Formula kibble. Our freezer is stocked!

We have a 7-day gradual food switcheroo schedule to follow to avoid too much tummy upset. SP LOVED her dinner tonight; she actually licked the bowl clean and was hyper afterwards. It's like she was saying, "OMG, they actually gave me real food! I'm so excited!" At this point she is getting 1/4 cup Instinct kibble, 3/4 cup diet kibble and 4oz raw, twice a day.

Happy doggie! Once we are all transitioned, I'll update again about any change in her behavior - more energy perhaps? More joie-de-vivre?

Also, once Fuffles finishes up her monster bag of Costco Cat Chow, we'll put her on it as well. They can eat the same food! Too cool.

Hooray for happy eating and happy tummies!

VICTORY!!!!!!!!!!

This morning SP had a vet appointment to check her weight and test her blood for her heartworm medication. We want to put her on heartworm since she enjoys snacking on scat. Blech.

She weighed in at 66 pounds!!!!!!!!!! Our vet's goal for her was 70, so she is DONE! We are to increase her diet food by half a cup and gradually introduce her new food. We are going to put her on a raw food diet to help, we hope, satisfy her cravings. We hope a food that actually TASTES good will help her not be attracted to gross things on the trail!

She is continuing to run 2 miles a day, 3-4 days a week, and still romps in the mornings with Lewis, Clara, Diesel, Stella, Baci, Penny and Kona (the regulars at our dog park).

I plan to research raw dog foods and choose one that can be bought locally. On Monday we'll start her up! We can supplement with as many fruits and vegetables as we like, so she can have her beloved apples and carrots!

We are all so proud of her. Great work, SP!

Last update of 2012!

Here it is, the end of December! We've had SP for about 4 months now and she is going strong! Unfortunately, she has become a poop connoisseur, which has slowed her weight loss, plateauing at about 70 pounds. But she is running 2 miles a day and you can see from the videos that her energy level is way up! On her walks, she is at the end of the leash and trotting. It is hard to keep up with her. We love you SP! Keep up the good work! (Skip the turd flakes though, please!!)

Blood Test is clear!

The vet came last weekend and took blood. We got the call Monday that her bloodwork was clear! Hooray! No more poison is left in her system!

We celebrated by breaking out the balls and frisbees and getting her moving a bit more. Here is a video from today's adventure with a new frisbee.

Quick update

Just a quick update on Sweet Pea! The vet came today a week early, for her blood test - oops! Rescheduled til next week! SP weighed in at 77 pounds! Huzzah!

In other SP news, she's gotten very interested in squirrels lately. We think she's so hungry she's looking for food! She also has been playing more and more ball outside. We hope when she's at a good weight she'll turn into a ball freak like Ole was!

At the dog park, she plays well with Baci but still tends to lie down. She loves her hikes and walks though! I'll update again when we know her blood test results.

Poison!

Sweet Pea's update this week lacks a weight, because we were all too traumatized to take her to Petsmart.

Sunday afternoon she got into some rat poison at a neighbor's. We called the Emergency Vet, who referred us to the ASPCA Poison Control line. They walked us through the process (induce vomiting with Hydrogen Peroxide 3%) and we called our vet this AM for a 30-day Vitamin K1 prescription.

The type of rat poison she ingested is an anti-coagulent, which means she could literally bleed to death if enough of it got into her system. The Vitamin K1 helps restore the blood's clotting ability. She'll have a blood test in 30 days to be sure she's clotting again. In the meantime, I'm not going to encourage roughhousing, so her weight loss may slow this month. That's OK with us.

Hang in there, Sweet Pea. We love you!