Both Hounds Get Their Walk Yesterday

For the first time in a couple of months, due to Stella's surgery and mine ... both Heidi and Stella got their walk in yesterday. Each hound was taken separately at different times of the day. Since it had been a couple of months since their last one, they both were asleep early and soundly ... they never woke up to beg for my food during the baseball game nor when I headed to bed. Photos below.

I followed the great news my doctor gave me on Tuesday and had my biggest day of activity. With my Apple watch recording every move and then synchronizing with the Activity app that comes with every iPhone ... I recorded 11,369 steps, a total of 4.6 miles with 3 different "workouts" where I click the green walking icon for a walk outside. 2 of those were the hound walks. Heidi got in .42 of a mile and Stella's normal path we always take was .69 of a mile.

At no time did I feel sore or tired ... I felt stronger than ever.

The one big thing I noticed after the doctor appointment on Tuesday where I was given the okay to bend more than 90°, knowing that stiffness and soreness I would feel in my hip when bending that far was a normal "get in shape" pain and not "you've damaged your new hip pain." With that I was able to sit in a chair and bend over far enough to put on my sock on the right food plus tie that shoe as tight as my left shoe. You don't realize how nice that was to do. I also sat both food dishes on the floor for the hounds without using "the grabber' but used the wall with one hand to balance myself.

Stella must have sensed I was feeling pretty good, it was soon after the temps crawled above 50° that she gave me that look to go walking. Yet I had a long list of errands to run around town. When you cannot drive and are getting things delivered by Amazon Prime and dog food by Chewy, you collect a lot of corrugated cardboard. That is the only kind of cardboard that is now recycled locally. It was good to see the city's set up for recycling drop off since they changed from curbside pickup in June. After seeing their set up I'll start recycling glass and #1&2 plastic again.

With the perfect weather, not getting really hot until mid to late afternoon, Heidi has never been more active. She patrols that stone yard like she did with the green grass in "the tropics", lays and sleeps in the sun on the patio and does laps around the edge of the fence with her nose to the ground. I was planning to give her a walk when I got back from errands but I was going to take her by herself.

I stopped by a locksmith, then the bike shop to pick up the bicycle they had been storing since my wreck. I had dropped it off the day before my wreck for them to change out a long stem for a shorter handlebar stem. They loaded the bike for me. After that it was a trip to the Animal Shelter ... dangerous for me. I wasn't going their to look or get a new dog but to drop off a brand new bag of Diamond Natural for Large Breeds. It didn't take more than 100# of food to see the hounds lose their shinny coats, started shedding and both were licking their paws.

I changed to that brand when I found out that Chewy did not sell Fromm dog food and I had to have my dog food delivered when I couldn't drive or lift heavy weight. Feeding  them a 33# bag of Fromm had them looking the best they had looked in a long time, no shedding and no licking their paws.

They were happy with the donation at the animal shelter. I had to take a look, see what kind of dogs they had. I stepped outside in a large area that was immaculate with the row kennels on each side. I didn't count how many there were but every kennel was filled and as soon as I was outside 99% of the dogs were barking at me. I walked by each kennel looking at each dog. All kinds of different mixed breeds and pure breds. Each had a card telling me who they were and how they arrived at the shelter. A few were the type that you wanted to rescue but I remembered what my friend told me a few years ago ... "Steve you cannot rescue every hound that needs rescued" ... so I continued my walk around the edge of the LARGE area and made it home "dog free."

I decided I'd try a test when I left. I let Heidi stay outside with Stella but I took my phone with me this time so there was no video recorded. I would be able to tell what Stella did by the time I returned a little over two hours later. It was in the low 70s mid-morning so they would be okay. A full water bowl was left but this time in the shade on the stone next to the fence instead of the patio. You wonder why??  :)

I expected the worse ... either a tunnel dug under the concrete blocks blocking the bottom of the gate, or my steel screen door tore into or bent, or my kitchen window that sits low having it's screen tore out. All repairable stuff if destroyed and if it happened it would not surprise me.

I had good news when I got home.

Normal night time position for Stella while I watch ballgames. That walk she had earlier put her in a deep sleep where she didn't move for the rest of the night that I was up.

I didn't see them standing at the gate when I pulled in. They were when I left. I glance in the living room window that lets me see the patio door from there. Neither hound was standing at the patio door. THAT was also a good sign. I quietly entered the house and walked to the back ... Heidi was asleep in the shade on the patio and Stella had cleared out all the stone for a cooler dirt floor to sleep on in the shade in the corner of the yard.

No scratches on the steel door nor any signs of that taking place on the patio floor. I even saw evidence Stella had slept out by back fence when there was shade, once again a spot where stone had been cleared to the dirt floor for cooler temps. I returned home a little after 11am with the temps already up to 77°. The gallon water bowl was completely empty but it was not tipped over this time.

Heidi normally wanders at night between her bed and the living room before we call it a day but last night she never came back to the living room once she head toward her bedroom. That walk was good for her. She didn't walk fast yesterday but her tail was up and wagging as we cruised down the sidewalk.

I almost forgot one of the fun things I did yesterday before coming home in the morning. I did my own grocery shopping instead of having them delivered. I didn't buy much and the heaviest bag was just two 1/2 gallons of Almond Milk. I did not go through self-checkout. I had no problem navigating the store without being ran into by someone's cart ... yes it has happened before.

Also after some lunch I put the hounds in the dark cool bedroom and took off downtown to the only place that sells Fromm Gold for Large Breeds dog food. I use to have to drive 50 miles round trip for this food, not anymore. Less than 2 miles each way. Furbabies Pet Bakery is only open noon-5pm but they have all the top brand names plus they have home made dog treats.

Right after I took this photo I asked Heidi if she wanted to go outside ... it's the nightly question I ask and she will trot to the patio door for her last pee of the day then go back to sleep.

But not last night ... she didn't even look at me. She just changed her sleeping position and went back to sleep. It wasn't until 2am when she woke me up to go outside.

Someone asked me the other day how I was able to feed the hounds without breaking the 90° bending rule. Before I let my dog sitter go, I had her move that case you see things sitting on from the garage to here. Just that added height put the food container high enough that I could get to the food out without bending over much. The bag was high enough for me to reach without bending over.

Once the bag was lighter I could pour it into the food storage container, all without bending over and breaking the 90° rule they gave me. I'll keep this setup a while longer until I can bend over without bracing myself with my opposite hand.

Yes, those stains you see on the trash can, and the case are nothing more than bloodhound drool and nose smudges from Stella smelling kibble and wanting kibble between meals. Since I am now allowed to bend over, today will be "clean up Stella's dried drool" from one end of the house to another. Luckily only a damp microfiber rag is needed to get that job finished.

 

While waiting to talk to Mike at M&M Cycling, to get my bike, I noticed a display of Hammer Nutrition. Most of the product was for bicyclists that race and for recovery after their training or racing but one product caught my eye. "Joint Health Support." I had nothing to lose and when I saw the words  "go to work immediately" I bought a bottle. I took their max dosage recommended yesterday twice and I have not taken it yet today ... I had ZERO soreness this morning after my biggest day of activity since my surgery. That's all I'll say about it. Pretty amazing.

While taking photos of Stella last night I focused in on a Menu I have sitting on the shelf under my small and soon to be replaced coffee table. It was a place I visited while on deployment in 1994. Great food, strong beer and owned by Australians. Mad Dogs in Kowloon Hong Kong. I have no idea if it is still there.

With me able to walk Stella again I am trying to remember if we walked before or after her breakfast. It was just after sunrise but now sunrise is a couple of hours later than before. Plus it's about 20° cooler now. If I wait until after 7am, we don't have our empty streets where she can trot on and explore at her leisure ... all within the 25ft retractable leash So we are kinda between a rock and a hard place to decide when to go. I do know for sure that our walk in the late afternoon when it was cooler with the wind but not the temp, was the wrong time to walk ... to many cars and noise.

Heidi's walk will be late morning like before.

The doctor told me that I would start experiencing more improvement than I had so far and based on all the activity I did yesterday and how I feel this morning, I'd have to agree. I've never felt better nor moved better and it's only 6:11am as I type that. I have some things to do at home today as far as cleaning the house but I hope to take a short trip for some hiking with my camera this afternoon.

I'll post today's photos later tonight. One thing about the new iPhone camera ... I love the photo quality. This morning I discovered the possible reason why they are so clear and sharp. The photos downloaded into my computer with .HEIC instead of .Jpg or .Jpeg. This explains it the best ... smaller file with better quality than a .jpg file .... yet when I moved them from my computer to the blog the transfer program turned them back into .jpg files so you should have no problem opening them.

It's going to be a good day in the Wild West today ... I feel a short roadtrip today with camera(s) in hand.

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.

Rain - Dog Food - Rambling

Yesterday after lunch turned into more lazy time ... for me and the hounds. Heidi made it outside after lunch and after her Epsom Salts soak. I did something different after the soak. Instead of shampooing those areas of bare skin or spots with little hair, I only rinsed those areas with water. What a difference that made.

Whereas before when using the shampoo at the end of the soak and then her skin being right red, possibly irritated for a day ... her skin yesterday was normal skin color soon after she dried. There is new hair trying to grow on the sides of her stomach, that was much more evident yesterday than last week. Plus her energy level is way up ... I take that as a sign she is feeling much better. Nails were trimmed as I am trying to get them shorter with weekly trims.

The bloodhounds didn't do much either. They slept a lot even with great weather outside. I am not sure why but the urge for a siesta hit me mid afternoon and that led to a 4 hour deep sleep. I slept the sunshine away. That has been the trend for the past 7-9 days ... a daily siesta. I'm retired, I'll go with it.

Consequently there were not a lot of photography taking place yesterday afternoon.

Today we were up about an hour earlier than normal. It gave me time to take a few photos before it started to rain. It's early but from the way it looks early this morning, the weather radar, the forecast and the rumble of thunder I just heard .. it looks like both walks will be rained out today.

Soon after taking those photos big drops of rain started coming down ... the hounds still wanted to stay outside ... "milk bone" gave them the initiative to head home.

I am going to be checking out eBay today. For about 5 years I was a full-time eBay seller, with 3 of those years working at home. I can't really remember the last time I listed anything for sale, it's been years. So with the rain starting to lightly fall, it will give me a chance to read about any changes on how eBay operates. I do see that a lot of the sellers I followed are no longer on eBay.

Basically I have some stuff to get rid of that should sell. I won't list everything here, most of it is garage sale type stuff. With my location on this high speed highway it would not be safe to have a yard sale. I like selling online better, although I will not use Craig's List. I've rarely had any luck selling there, plus I am not a fan of having strangers at the house. Selling on eBay is better and I always use USPS Priority Mail for shipping, unless I have something heavy.

After 9 months being on a personally designed Paleo Diet ... basically all fresh veggies, fruits, chicken, fish and beef .. with coffee and sugar being the only packaged food ... I started thinking at the urging of a couple of friends, to go vegan. I was a strict vegetarian in my 20's and had many friends on the vegan diet. They never looked really healthy to me. During that time I continued to eat fish, chicken .. I guess they were calling it "lacto-vegetarian" then.

I have stabilized my weight on the Paleo Diet, after losing 20 pounds. I've felt much better right from the start, than when I did using the diet suggested by Dr. Fuhrman. There was no meat in that diet but I was finding that grains, beans, even certain fruit was giving me bad cases of indigestion. The Paleo Diet effect was immediate ... I was no longer living on Tums anti-acid tablets. It was hard to adjust to lower carbs and more fat. Even eating beef again on a regular basis was an adjustment ... but I felt much better with no acid-reflux issues. I also wasn't hungry all the time on the new diet.

So, being inside most of the day today I will review some different diets ... if I change I'll probably move to the "Mediterranean" diet.

As far as the diet for the hounds ... huge difference in changing Sadie and Stella from Diamond Naturals for Large Breeds to Fromm for Large Breeds. Both of their coats went from very soft to softer. Both of their energy levels increased. Sadie stopped licking her leg obsessively and no longer sprints to the field at night to eat grass. Stella did not have any digestive issues.

I know that I said I was going to keep Heidi on the Earthborn but when she finished her bag of food last week I put her on the same food as the bloodhounds were using. I am hoping the grains and other carbs will help her gain some of her weight back. The strange thing is, Heidi 's skin has had NO reaction to eating grains. That was the main reason for moving her to a grain-free food in past years. So I think for a while that is the direction we are going to go, giving her the same food as the bloodhounds are eating.

As far as the Mini Cooper -- headed to the local mechanic for oil change, possible repairs after they get the drain plug off and a 3 week waiting list, as always with him. Biz is good in small town USA. As far as the FJ ... funny way of thinking, easy to get under the FJ, easy to change the oil but it's cheap ($30) to have it done, so I'll take it in.

Oh, while it is raining today I may start my research or go back through my previous research about cameras. I can find some of that documented right here on this blog. Blogging makes it easy to find information, although I did actually find a pdf file on Sunday in a file on my computer, inside a folder called 'Mini Cooper'. I know that doesn't sound like to much happened there but I seem to remember not only at home but at work ... it was always the file you or someone was looking for on a computer that couldn't be found ... it was always hard to find.

Work? ... I don't miss that one iota.

As you can see if you made it this far ... there will not be a lot of outdoor activity here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana today. The thunder is rumbling loud and the skies are really dark ... it has the feel of April today.

A Hound Walk At 12°

We were fooled by the sun around 10:40am. With Heidi buried deep in her multiple blankets, Sadie and Stella kept sitting near the doorway to the computer room, giving me that 'stare' they use when they want to go outside. I headed outside with them wearing my Golite 800 jacket. It's just as worthless this winter as last year. Within minutes I left the hounds outside and went back inside to change into the Mountain Hardwear Parka w/hood.

The stares continued even outside ... I sat the camera on a chair while adding some gloves to the equation. The sun was bright as you can see, the ground was as hard as any highway but off we went. From the start both hounds took off and I was way behind for most of the walk. They were supplementing their diet of Fromm Dog Food for Large Breeds. Some say it takes weeks before you notice a change in dog food but I can say that within 7 days their coats became even softer, Sadie quit chewing and licking at her front leg. Stella never has an issue with different food. I am sticking with Fromm.

Even with them stopping at the  normal places, I noticed they were in a lot of hurry to get around that first right turn. I am pretty sure that is where the deer spend a lot of time. Today Stella wasn't going to move and we got quite a bit out in front of her before she started sprinting to catch up.

No sprinting photos ... why?? ... that damn camera. After not getting it to focus I glance at the rear screen to see "lens not attached" ... it was just a photo before. By the time I took the 55-200mm lens off and put it back on, Stella was already beside me. From then on, each time I tried to catch her running ... camera wouldn't work.

By the time we were about 3/4 of the walk, it must have been really cold to them (12° WC 2°) because both of them took off running toward the house. That is something neither one had ever done before. They were able to continue to eat the stuff I don't want to see while waiting for me to catch up.

From the way the air felt ... the afternoon hound walk has been cancelled for today.

Here is a photo of Heidi from yesterday afternoon. It shows she is up and has a pulse. In addition, I am also happy I went back to Earthborn Primitive Natural for her. I still had the 28# bag to finish. The top two ingredients are Turkey Meal and Chicken Meal. Her skin has never looked better and lately has not been turning red as the day progresses. I might change the blend but I will be sticking with Earthborn Dog Food from now on.

It's sunny and dry here in "the tropics' of Southern Indiana even if it is only 12°.