What A Strange Trip

From the title of the this post you have come here expecting to read about a possible day trip the hounds and I took yesterday ... since we didn't blog. I wish that were the case but it's not.

My mind took off on it's own trip yesterday ... a very strange one, I was just along for the ride. It happens sometimes out of nowhere. There might be some readers here that understand what I'm saying. 

It was a wasted day actually and one that I will not say anymore about. I did catch this sunset though while sitting at my kitchen table last night.

This is the view I have when I am at the kitchen table either eating or on my laptop computer. This was taken just after snapping the sunshine setting in the window, a little after 8pm. I knew then that Friday would be a better day.

Although Sadie, Stella and I were having a snack of sliced baked turkey at 1:30am, we ended up having a great night of sleep and waking up about an hour earlier this morning than we usually do. Of course that meant the field would be wetter with morning dew and the lighting would be different for the daily morning photos.

It was just a couple of minutes past 7am but Sadie didn't hesitate in going out into the wet field, while Stella did her normal thought process on whether to or not. She decided to take the path of least resistance and walk into the field along the edge where grass/weeds were shorter.

They didn't stay out long and as the norm, they went back to sleep for an hour or so while I drank coffee and did my daily morning reading on the internet.

By 8:30am, I could tell the day was going to be a great one. I need to get up on the roof today to clear some of my gutter before the next storms on Tuesday. The tornado site I follow on Twitter tells me next Tuesday could be interesting in this part of the state.

I could tell by the way the hounds moved, they were not ready to start their day. They didn't beg to take the first walk of the day. They didn't play, didn't explore. Right after the last photo, they led me back to go inside, I didn't say a word. They have been sleeping every since.

Not sure what today will bring but I know I feel a lot better today. My coffee is gone and I want more. Heidi is still sleeping on the bed where the sunshine comes through the window on the east side of the house.

Speaking of Heidi ... as usual her skin looks great first thing in the morning. Her appetite is big enough to eat a bear. The ointment is applied multiple times per day. Late last night I started reading about different recipes for cooking her meals and getting away from kibble.

Some said it would take up to 3 months before I might see any improvement. Since she had a strong yeast odor last night I saw a website that talked about a specific diet for that ... it also used and had links to the Dinovite supplement we tried in 2014.

What makes me hesitate to break away from my latest plan that was started weeks ago ... it says it would take 16 weeks for the dog food to get out of her system and for the current Earthborn no grain kibble to show improvement. It would take maybe that long to see any improvement from the Wounded Warrior Ointment. Others said it would take 7-14 days.

Since I do see signs of improvement AT TIMES, I'll stick with that plan.

A reader linked this article to her comment the other day ... it was great explaining what we have been going through. It was nice to read that what I have been feeling in trying to find a solution for Heidi over the past 20 months is normal in this situation. It was also sad to read there might never be a solution.

In more than a few websites I read last night about yeast infections in dogs ... they said her skin getting worse before it got better was part of the process of getting rid of the infection. So I will stay with the no grain kibble, no potatoes, wounded warrior ointment and see how it plays out.

It's going to be a nice day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Heidi Is a Happy Hound Again

FINALLY -- Heidi returned to being a happy basset hound yesterday, like her old basset hound self.

Where has that been after months and months of little activity and more hours of sleeping than I care to count? No, it's not the food change. I did give her a portion last night when I got home for her 3rd feeding of the day. She had the new Earthborn Great Plains Feast for breakfast this morning. It's WAAAAY to soon to show any kind of changes in her due to food.

It might be the Epsom Salts soak she had on Wednesday. That usually takes a couple of days after the soak for her skin to really calm down. Since that soak she has spent a lot of time in her old favorite spots in the living room instead of hiding out in the bedroom. Her spots in the living room are usually where the sunshine hits the floor or couch, while shining through the window.

It started when we got home yesterday from our 60 mile round trip where we bought the Earthborn dog food. She didn't want to ride in the FJ, plus the last couple of local trips she has acted car sick although she never got sick. So she stayed at home while Stella, Sadie and I headed to T&T Feeds in Bloomington Indiana.

To keep the bloodhounds occupied on the return trip I also picked up a couple of slim bully sticks, 2 feet long. I thought they would probably be gone by the time we returned home. As I opened the back of the FJ, Stella took off to the backyard with about 6" left in her mouth.

Sadie headed for the house with nothing. Since she had spent most of the return trip standing and looking out the window I had a sneaky suspicion that only one of those bully sticks were chewed and the other was somewhere in the FJ.

I was right. One of the two had fallen down inside between the front seats and the folded down back seats. So I cut the remaining one in half and gave each piece, about a foot long, to Heidi and Sadie. Heidi started wagging her tail as I handed it to her, trotting off to one of her spots on the floor. She never stopped chewing until the bully stick was gone.

I was only able to get a few photos plus every time I thought I had a good shot she would move, so these are the only ones I could come up with.

Afterwords she takes off sprinting in around the house, barking, going from room to room wanting me or Sadie to chase her. We did, without my camera in hand. Stella in the meantime had finished her bully stick and was standing outside the screen door wondering what all the excitement was about.

By the time she had wore me and Sadie out, she nose dived into the living room floor, wiping each side of her jaws of any left over drool from chewing the bully stick. She was growling to herself while cleaning the sides of her mouth.

While barking she rolled over on her back for a good long scratch, barking and growling at herself .... finished ... hopped up on the couch in the sunshine and thumped her tail against the back of the leather couch.

I am thinking her lack of activity was a combination of not feeling good and boredom. Even though there a LOT of balls and different bones to chew on ... she never uses them. She might feel those belong to Sadie and Stella. Yet she rarely played with them after her first few months of arriving in July 2011.

She obviously liked the slim bully stick and maybe that helped getting her out of any bored feelings she may have had. She has been going outside these past few days more and more, snooping around ... so hopefully she was just feeling the "winter blues" these past few months.

It was great to see her finally acting like she felt good and being the basset hound I remember before her skin issues started to get really bad. Maybe it's the warmer weather like I predicted a month or so ago ... that she likes it when the temps get above 70°. Hopefully we are close to where she will join us in the daily walks that she use to like so much.

An order for a bigger quantity of bully sticks will be placed this morning from Chewy.

We will see but I can tell from her activity yesterday she was feeling good, here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Dog Food Analysis Again For Heidi

It turned out to be another beautiful day here in 'the tropics of Southern Indiana. I am not sure why but after getting up and staying up this morning the hounds never begged to go walking. They had breakfast and slept almost to the time of lunch.

During that time I started going back over my notes and spreadsheet where I have been tracking Heidi's skin issues, and what kind of food I was feeding her. I've been tracking that in a spreadsheet since last summer. She was doing pretty well and then a few days ago broke out bad enough that she was chewing her paws down inside her pads, scratching her armpits, skin became irritated.

Paws and armpits led me to believe she had a yeast infection ... although she did not have that yeasty smell nor did her ears have any yeast smell or infection. Reviewing some notes I took last year and some websites I saved I was reminded to keep her from eating grains, potatoes or sweet potatoes.

Well a lot of the grain free food I have been giving her had sweet potatoes. Then when I moved to Fromm and Diamond Naturals, those had grain but I knew that and was trying to put weight on her.

Then last night in the Bloodhound Group on Facebook that I follow, someone had posted photos of skin issues on their bloodhound that looked just like Heidi's neck. Multiple answers below were calling it a yeast infection. So from that I thought I was on the right track.

Here is the confusing part ... my spreadsheet shows her skin was the best these past 9 months when feeding her the Fromm for Large Breeds which has brown rice, oatmeal, but no potatoes. The times I fed her grain free food, the average rating for the month was not as good as when I was feeding her the Fromm food with grains but still below 3.

I rate her skin on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being the best.

Some notes I also logged on the sheet had "the best skin ever" ... but glancing a column over I saw that I was feeding her food with grains. So is it a yeast infection or is it because spring has arrived and the grass seeds and other plants are in the air?

This is nothing new ... I've asked all of the same questions before, over and over. Tested and used different foods, different treatments. After going back and forth most of the day I have decided to feed Heidi either Earthborn or Fromm Gold Adult.

I also need to stick with one kind of food instead of chasing her tail with different kinds while trying to find the one that works best for her skin. The 4 different vets I've seen over the past 18 months have different opinions on treatment and what food to feed.

I had someone ask me last night by email if Heidi's skin was normal above her rear legs. Actually that is normal Basset Hound skin but what makes it look so bad it is not covered by hair.

Here is the only photo I could find of her a few days after I brought her home in July 2011. You can see the folded skin on her rear hocks but they are covered with hair, as they should be. With her reputation of being "a runner" she was still being tethered whenever we went outside. It was not long afterward I found out that she didn't feel like keeping that reputation once she got here.

So mid-afternoon while Heidi slept in the sun on one of her favorite spots in the living room, Sadie, Stella and I jumped into the FJ for a trip to get Heidi's dog food. During the 30 minute drive I was still thinking which food to buy.

Between the email Fromm dog food sent me last spring about skin allergies, my previous notes and information I read this morning I decided to go with Earthborn Great Plains Feast (not affiliate link). With her thin build I want to build more muscle, hopefully some weight ... I also wanted:

• No grains
• No potatoes, no sweet potatoes
• No chicken or chicken meal
• I wanted a high percentage of fat and protein.

It is also the same blend of Earthborn dog food I bought last July for the first time. With 38% protein and 18% fat I am hoping that will put some weight on her. The 28# bag should last her almost 8 weeks. I plan to follow a suggestion and stay with this food for 16 weeks to completely cleanse her system of the dog food eaten in the past and will post updates.

Before that trip in the FJ though, we had our afternoon walk in fantastic weather. Stella was wandering at the back brush line when I came outside but when I started walking she came running toward Sadie and I. When I asked if they were ready for a walk, Sadie came trotting .. she was ready.

It was a pretty laidback walk, hardly any running yet they were panting a little bit with the temps finally over 70°.

I took some photos of the wooded area, plus what I call the gully, where I don't want Sadie or Stella running down to the bottom. That is a steep incline down through those trees.

This is the brush area where there seems to be a lot of deer traffic.

The base of those trees is still not the bottom of the gully as it curves to the left from where this photo is taken.

By the time we returned from the trip for dog food, Stella decided the best place to be was feeling the cool breeze and getting some more sunshine. She loves to ride and also lay in the sun.

I am happy the dog food decision is settled. With the $5 increase in price for the 28# bag it is still affordable for Heidi. I notice the recommended serving sizes are smaller than what I have been feeding her.

Another relaxed day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Weather Breaks Mean Hound Walk

It took a while but finally the temperatures moved out of the upper teens and low 20's to something more bearable. It took another day for the ground to absorb the melted snow. We found out yesterday afternoon it was solid enough to take a walk. The hounds loved it, as they had some serious 'cabin fever'.

There was plenty of other action before that afternoon walk though and at the time I didn't care for it ... because it caused me to lose my favorite baseball cap. It's the one I wear whenever outside doing yard work and at times when I am running errands around this rural area.

Sadie tried to warn me ... but I didn't pick up on what she was telling me. She came to sit next to me at my computer desk and had this look in her eyes that there was something going on that should not be going on ... she turned her head toward Stella. Both of them had been laying on the floor chewing different bones. I thought that was what Stella was doing. When I checked ten minutes later I found out what Sadie was trying to tell me ... Stella was chewing up and eating my favorite baseball cap.

Anyway after the initial shock was over, everything was okay ... I figured Stella was telling me it was time to buy a new ballcap to wear when I do yard work in this year. I am not really sure how old the one was that she chewed up.

With the snow melted and the first walk in a few days, the hounds were pretty excited with all the new scents and with the amount of deer tracks I was seeing the deer activity had been heavy. There was one close call yesterday with Stella. By the time I got the camera pointed in that direct she was already running towards me knowing she was in trouble. I had turned just in time to see her inside the wooded area and was on her way of running down into the very deep gully. She came running when I yelled her name.

The sun was trying to break through the overcast toward the end of our walk. Plus this shows a pretty nice "skyline" view of the neighborhood. The place is so quiet you don't know if people are still living there or have gone south for the winter.

Heidi for some reason protested any offers to go outside yesterday after her initial trip in the morning. With the change back to Earthborn Holistic Dog Food, the Primitive blend ... her skin has really looked good and has shown no signs of redness as the day progresses.

Stella spent most of the walk lagging behind ... I think it's because she likes to run to catch up to us. That's good exercise for her.

I didn't notice until I was editing this photo that a neighbor had put on a new red metal roof. I evidently don't get out much because I don't ever remember seeing that replacement taking place. Back in the 60's I remember visiting that house to meet and talk to my great grandfather. 

You can see that the hounds tracked scent all the way home. I also think you can see that the collar I bought for Stella a few weeks ago shows up well when the two hounds are together ... it's easy now to tell them apart.

Some of you know I've been thinking again about blogging. I am going to leave this blog open but I will be posting less frequently. Over the years there have been so good online friendships developed and due to the distance from 'the tropics' this blog is one way to stay in touch. Plus everyone likes to check in on the hounds to see what they are up to. I would prefer to set the blog up by invitation only but I found out yesterday from further reading that each person would need to log in with a Google account, which I assume that means you would need a gmail address to log in to read the blog. Most of the readers that I would invite don't have gmail accounts.

Honestly I'd like to block a few readers but that is not possible with Blogger like it is with Wordpress.

So, the blogging will continue but on a less frequent basis. Life is pretty boring here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana, especially in the winter months. It's hard to find things to write about during those times, as well as the warmer times of the year.

It's time to head out ... Sadie is giving me her stare telling me it's time to go out and check things since the sun is up.