Heidi Does Get Outside Sometimes

A few people have asked if Heidi is okay since they don't see many pictures of her on the blog. Weather dictates most of Heidi's actions. She has always been like that even when Winston was around. She has always been somewhat of a 'loner'. Readers that don't know ask about her bare skin around her feet and ankles but compared to early 2015 that looks fantastic. She is actually doing very well. She goes outside 3x per day at a minimum and is sleeping most of her other time.

The first thing in the morning she runs outside either behind or under the bloodhounds to relieve herself after sleeping all night. Then right after lunch she will go outside with the bloodhounds for the same purpose. If it is great weather she will lounge and possibly even nap in the sunshine during the hot summers. Other times she was roam the yard giving her nose a workout. Or she will do a lap around the house.

A lot of times that mid day trip is nothing more than out to the front yard, dump her tanks, trotted across the yard to the driveway for a slow walk up the hill with her nose inspecting every inch. Her toenails have been longer than normal since the first day I got her. One of the vets that was treating her skin problem told me in June 2015 that most likely hair would never grow back where her skin was raw ... but it did on her legs  and shoulders where there is white hair. Not all but some.

Almost daily Sadie will make sure she is okay and will walk into the front yard kind of like helping her back to the house, even though she does not need any help. At night Sadie will wait and meet her at the door as Heidi walks back inside with her 'infamous' nose tap as Heidi scrambles back to the couch.

She will always go outside around 8pm or 9pm at night after sleeping most of the afternoon and early evening away. I basically let her do what she wants. If she wants to join us on our walks she will hop down off the couch and run to the door on her own without me saying anything. If she wants to stay outside on her own, she does, but only during hot weather.

She will greet me at the door every time I come back home from a shopping trip or a road trip. She roams the house while I am gone while the Sadie and Stella stay together in a shut off room, for their own safety and my sanity. Stella still dreams of riding in the Z4 but that will never happen, sorry.

Since she was picked up from the shelter by the basset hounds rescue service, her exact age is not known. Best estimate is she is around between 8 and 9 years old right now, maybe a few months older.

For all of the plant experts that visit the blog. I think I am seeing some deeper colors and maybe some new life in the Azaleas I planted last summer in the middle of the hot weather. I was going to leave them and let nature take it's course to see what they do in the winter. Is that a good plan?

Do these look normal? Okay? I've only let the little rain we've had this fall water them.

I am not sure about these. Are they dead or dormant? I guess I'll find out next spring.

I'll wait to see what the winter weather does to them and then do any changes in the spring this year instead of changing my landscaping plans in the middle of July.

Thanks for asking about Heidi. I know a few readers consider her their favorite hound of the three.

Hard to believe how fast this week has passed here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Another Day Of Laziness

WARNING ... I started rambling unintentionally in this post. It was our normal routine after lunch is served. Even Heidi made an appearance outside long enough for me to capture a picture of her, just to let readers know that she still exists and has a pulse. She is into her winter hibernation mode earlier than I can ever remember. For Sadie and Stella I changed the camera setting back to "Auto-Area AF" for walk #2.


Heidi is in need of another bath, possibly an Epson Salt soak. I hid the wool blankets a few weeks ago thinking that was causing her skin to break out again. That does not seem to be the case and in fact may be just the time of year. Looking at her photos from October 2016 I saw the same changes to her skin after a summer of very little allergy reaction.

I am going to ramble about things in general this post, not even knowing when I will schedule it to publish. All of these photos were from our walk this afternoon (Monday). It's always nice the day after a storm blows through.

I've had another huge case of lack of motivation lately. I may have posted I was going to clean house, do laundry, rake leaves or whatever but none of those things have happened. I've been glued to either my computer with the large monitor at my desk either blogging, reading blogs, reading sports, working in my large photos library etc ... During the day I'll move to the kitchen table with a view and the permanent home of my laptop, to play Mahjong or write in my private journal.

There might be days where a siesta is needed from this fast paced lifestyle. You need all the rest you can get when you follow a nightly routine of ballgames from one sport or another and many times where multiple games are on at once. I did squeeze in a long movie last night instead of watching the NFL Sunday Night game.

It dawned on me during our afternoon walk that I have been using less data the past few days with internet speeds slower than Stella's afternoon pace. Does slower data download speeds equate to less data being used? I'll have to look into that later on the internet and see what I can find.

See it's questions like that keeping me at my desk in front of a computer. I have stupid questions like that all the time floating through my brain cells and the fastest way to find an answer to any of them is doing a search on the internet. Before you know it, it's 4pm and the day is gone.

Really though I am not in the mood for much more than I do most days, at least lately. So there are no feelings of guilt. It's kind of the lull before the storm as college basketball full-time viewing on tv starts this weekend as college football is heading for their last thee to four weeks of games before their holiday bowls and playoff games.

I have picked a couple of books off my bookshelves lately but stopped reading them soon after I started. my trips to the local library will probably not be a part of my week until the temperatures drop into the 30's and lower. The future weather in the next few weeks looks good for replacing the damaged plastic parts under my Z4. That should be a pretty easy fix, once the new parts arrive.

The pain in my jaw from a few weeks ago disappeared about as fast as it started. There isn't anything as intense as what I was feeling but I do have some occasional discomfort. After some jaw massage, or some heat and plus some ibuprofen, the jaw feels normal again. I still wonder at times what he cause of the jaw pain is.

From the few blogs I read that are showing snow in their area, it definitely proves to me I am not ready for that type of weather yet. I'll get through it when the times comes. The hounds will still get their walks. I will still wonder what we are doing outside with temps in the 20's or lower. I'll wear the same winter clothing I've worn every year since moving back to Indiana 23 years ago this December. Then before I know it, spring will be here and I'll be building my first large fire of the year, while burning the driveway bank full of dead ragweed and other wild brush.

I also remember over the weekend while looking back through my photos, it was October 25th last year that I traded the Voodoo Blue Toyota FJ instead of spending $3,000 to replace the catalytic converters and possible other repairs. I never planned to trade that FJ. It was the beginning of where I traded three cars within 9 months.

I'm glad those days are finally over since I have the only combination of cars that I have ever liked ... a sports car and a Toyota FJ. With the amount of miles I drive per year I don't need to trade cars ever ... and may not need even two cars. Yet with my constant brain activity it's always good to have options. So two cars are best for me.

My senior moment of the day was a little after lunch when I went to the fruit bowl to eat the last mango. It was gone !!! It was there last night because I remember seeing it while I ate the second to last one. I was about to interrogate Stella about the missing mango ... then realized that sometime around 3:30 am (yes in the middle of the night) as I looked at my watch, I was standing in the kitchen cutting the mango into slices ... eating my last mango in the dark.

A slight interruption here as I let you know that once again today, Stella spent a long time staring in the direction of the neighbor's woods and with hopes of seeing the yellow field cat that is larger than any cat you can imagine. She obviously smells or hears something over there.

I've been thinking about diets again lately. I've been eating healthy and just set an all-time historic event in the month of October for the first time I can ever remember. I did not make one trip through a fast food drive-thru and didn't spend any money eating out or ordering out for pickup.

That will not happen this month. I've spent the last three to four days thinking of the Chinese buffet downtown. It's around $8 for all you can eat. It is served every day except Monday's. It's hard to believe that we can have that kind of restaurant in a small rural town, out in the middle of nowhere, in the land of meat and potatoes. It's popular and has withstood all the economy has to offer for at least 15 years. It is one of my favorite places to eat.

With all the excitement and pounding my chest for the accomplishment of no fast food, there was disappointment at my monthly weigh in and measurement day on the 1st of November. Not only did I gain 4 pounds but measurements around my stomach and body fat also increased. That told me it's never a good idea to stop eating fast foods.  LOL

I continue to knock off one game at a time of Mahjong, completing that tile game under 3 minutes. I have 160 different Mahjong games to choose from, all different levels of competition. That is probably the best 99cents I've ever spent when I bought that app.

What does it mean when you are too lazy to get in your car and make a short trip to the store to buy the food you need or are craving to eat? Will those Amazon drones deliver to small town USA if you live outside of town?

Would that nice small round robot vacuum I see on every other commercial during the football games on tv, work well in my house? Or would it turn into a chaotic situation where the hounds chase it all over the house while it tries to be my maid? Would it be cost effective if it turned into a toy for the hounds with dog treats taped to the top of it? Does anyone know how good the suction is on those robot vacuums?

I wonder why these current hounds are growing more skin warts or skin flaps than any of my other hounds in the last 30 years? Food? Environment? Allergies? I think I have asked this question during a visit my vet but can't remember if they gave me an answer or passed it off as not important?

7 acres of field available to the hounds and Stella likes to walk very slow right in front of me. A huge stainless steel bowl of fresh water, enough for all the hounds. Yet, Sadie thinks enough of it to sleep next to it, protecting it from Stella and Heidi. Is there any food for human consumption that Stella does not like or at least feel it's not hers? Did her previous owners 'free feed' her?

Watching the tape of Dr Jeff, Rocky Mountain Vet last night ... they had their first Bloodhound patient. I have yet to see any basset hounds visit their facility on their tv show. This bloodhound puppy looked like Stella in the face but was what they call a 'black and tan'. He was accidentally ran over by the owner, breaking it's leg right next to the ball joint in his hip. They inserted three small pens with a prognosis he would be okay eventually. 14 weeks later, even with physical therapy, the hound was barely using his rear leg if at all. I hate seeing those kind of stories.

There is never a day that goes by that I don't think of Winston. He had the best personality of any of the basset hounds I ever owned. All of them had great basset personalities but his was much different. Hard to believe it's been almost two years later and I still find it hard to look at his pictures.

Well that's about it for this afternoon. I am not sure if I'll watch Monday Night Football or watch another movie. I know right now I'm going to grab a snack and play a few games of Mahjong for the first time today. I guess the trip to the grocery store can wait a little longer.

Life is rough in the fast pace lane of 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

A Quiet Sunday

With two of three of my football teams winning this weekend, I guess you could call it a success. Besides the game, the weather was fantastic, no rain and even some thoughts of prepping the AC for winter.

Like I mentioned the other day, it's nice leaving the windows open but lately my allergies have been in the high range and drives me insane even after taking a tablet to control them. I saw today that Heidi's eyes were having the same allergy problems also.

I'm pretty sure the soy beans in the photo above and the rolls of hay in the photo below will be gone sometime this week. I hope to take some photos of the equipment that will do both of those tasks.

We were not outside long for time this morning. With the Indianapolis Colts playing in London England, their game was going to start at 9:30am which would just extend our day of watching football after a busy Saturday.

All the hounds came back inside to sleep until their lunch was served. They didn't seem interested in taking a walk that early in the morning.

By 3pm they decided it was time. It looked like rain but it was just clouds. By late afternoon the sunshine was out bright. It was another good walk.

You could tell Sadie and Stella were both on a mission today ... it was like there was somewhere they both needed to be.

By the time Stella hit this spot, she didn't leave. I caught her here between sneezes ... she must have snorted something as she sneezed 4 to 5 times.

But she didn't leave that spot while Sadie and I continued our walk. You can barely see her dead center of the next photo.

Sadie continued her walk with no problem. She would prefer to stay fairly close to me and rarely if ever stays as far back as Stella does.

Stella finally raised her head long enough to see Sadie and I were on our way to the house ... she decided she might want to head our way.

It was an easy stroll for both of them all the way back to the house.

Heidi was standing at the corner of the house wagging her tail as she was happy to see us. My photos never catch her tail moving from side to side but she does wag her tail a lot more than my photos show.

Due to health reasons an 'icon' in my small town is having to shut the business down. It's a feed store for all the locals that have farm animals, dogs or cats. It's been a family business for 75 years and really the main place I buy the dog food for the hounds. The prices rarely changed over the years and carried all of the different Diamond brand dog kibble.

It's not the dog food I'll miss but the conversation with the owner during the times I stopped there every 18 days for another 40# bag. It was also a place for the older guys to hanging out and chew the fat. It will be sad to see the doors closed for the last time.

Otherwise, besides those allergies ... all is good here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Something New For Heidi's Treatment

First of all this is what I consider a very long post and doesn't have a lot of photos. It's more of a collection of my thoughts today on Heidi's current skin issues and where to go from here ... again!! I will post later about Stella's and Sadie's daily activities.

The photos below were taken this morning and is the starting point for another idea of treatment. Based on what I read about yeast infections recently and last year I have decided to try the water/vinegar mixture the article talks about. Diet changes were already made last month with no-grain food and no potatoes of any kind in the kibble. The vet states those promote yeast growth.

After my friend who has a PhD as a Physical Therapist, who not only suggested I try the Wounded Warrior Ointment but made a special trip to buy it and ship it to me ... agreed with me that we were not seeing any differences in Heidi's skin late Sunday afternoon after using the ointment for eighteen days.

I decided after that to give Heidi a 20 minute soak with warm water and epsom salts. I rinsed those areas with plain cold water afterward. She seemed to scratch less Sunday night but still spent a lot of time licking her paws.

By Monday morning I was seeing signs of improvement. I was happy with what I saw and posted that I planned to give her a soak at least every three days or more often depending on what her skin looked like.

From Sunday night until this morning, I've been reading a lot of different websites. Some of those I found, some were sent to me by readers via email. One reader, a retired nurse, suggested in a comment on Monday night that maybe I should try a daily epsom salt soak for ten days and see if that would help killing the infection.

I was about to try that until I started my reading and searching on websites. It is an option I will still consider doing after I try this latest treatment that I picked up last month and again yesterday when reading about Yeast Infections. If this doesn't work then I'll try the daily epsom salt soak.

The reason I didn't decide to go with the tens days of epsom salt soaks at this time, was because of what her skin looked like Tuesday and Wednesday morning. I gave her another soak on late Monday night with the plan of doing it every day for ten days.

Tuesday morning the redness was gone. Yet the places where her skin is raw or has little hair, was hard and crusty. It had lost the suppleness it showed with the Wounded Warrior Ointment. Over night she had scratched a lot and by Wednesday morning there were flakes of skin were all over her blanket ... just thick with skin flakes.

I was still in the middle of reading websites on Tuesday so I decided to hold off on the epsom salt soak for that day. Taking a day off from that soak, Wednesday morning her skin was inflamed, really red and she had chewed a couple of spots raw.

These photos taken this morning actually look better than her skin looks in the flesh. Her skin looks a lot more red than this. Notice the bright read spot on her right paw.

Her skin under her neck has been this way for such a long time. The K9 Klear cream used last winter, nor the Wounded Warrior Ointment made any changes to her skin under her neck. All vets have seen it but have not made a recommendation. This is similar skin to what is below each of her ears along the sides of her face. That gold color stain is from the Wounded Warrior Ointment.

I am saying she has a yeast infection again because I can smell a definite yeast smell. The vet article calls for a cup of vinegar for a gallon of water. I did not want to mix that much at one time but did have a smaller container that was 48 ounces of water and that equated to 3.2 ounces of white vinegar.

I planned to put this mixture in a spray bottle but all the spray bottles I have held something else at one time. I want to use a new, cleaned bottle for this mixture.

Just like the water she drinks, the water in this mixture is filtered water.

Without a spray bottle I applied the mixture with cotton balls. You are suppose to towel it off and let the mixture dry. I applied it by dabbing the cotton ball and leaving it on any skin that was red/raw.

Before I bought her from the rescue service in June 2011, her vet paperwork showed they had diagnosed her with Atopic Dermatitis. This is the same diagnosis my local vet said in December 2014.

At the time she said she smelled a strong yeast odor, she recommended me giving Heidi Atopica and change her diet to grain free food, I posted the results of that decision on the blog. You can see the multiple blog posts from the past by searching "Atopica" in the search box in the upper right corner.

As I have posted in the past ... this health issue is a long drawn out, hit or miss, type of thing. That is consistent with what I have read from regular vets to vets that deal in only holistic treatments. For me it's not only been very frustrating but sad that she has to go through something like this, especially since no one can find a solution or cure.

From the link I posted the other day sent to me by a blog reader, the vet writing that article even stated there may not be a solution ... ever!  Also there is not a specific treatment for this type of skin allergy. Thus the comment about being "hit or miss". It also verified why four different vets have not been able to fix the problem, each trying their own ideas.

One reason is, they have been trained to suppress the injury/allergy instead of treating it to cure the problem. You might think that going to a vet that deals with holistic treatments would be the way to go. I read a lot about holistic treatments yesterday and last night, written by vets that do deal in that type of veterinarian practice.

Many of the readers on the holistic vet's website commented and they also had the same frustrations I have had. In many cases they had their dogs on a raw diet, or a no-grain diet since they were puppies. They had always used holistic vets instead of the regular vets ... the majority were still having the same issues with their dogs as they got older, with no solutions. NO ONE made a comment that whatever their holistic vet recommended ... worked!!

The two main causes of allergies in dogs have always been either food or the environment. All the vets I have taken Heidi to have agreed on that. John said that 85% of his dog clients show up in his office due to skin allergies. Yet, his studies showed that only 3% of them were caused by food.

I've kept a spreadsheet log for Heidi since last fall. I tracked her skin condition, rated 1 to 5 with a 5 being the worst. I listed dog foods being fed at the time by name, any possible reason for her skin having a strong reaction. In all of that record keeping I cannot see it makes a difference between grain and no-grain dog food. Nor can I find any differences in her skin by feeding her different kinds of protein. Nor did I see any improvement using the ointments, the creams, the liquid zinc oxide, steroid shots or pills.

The holistic vet I was reading about last night stated that "food is only a temporary solution" because over time the dog's system will adjust and become allergic to the new food.

Environmentally, I live in an area that is probably not the right situation for a dog with allergies, even a human being for that matter. That is something I did not consider when making the decision to buy Heidi. In fact it was not even a thought because based her photos in June 2011, her skin didn't look bad at all although I was told she would need regular medical attention for her skin allergies.

I live 80'-100' from a highway that has heavy traffic. That brings a lot of dust into the air and since I like to have my windows open during the seasons where the temps have not hit 90° yet ... a lot of that dust shows up inside my house. I've never lived in a house that collects dust faster than this house.

I am also surrounded by fields that are plowed, planted, fertilized, crops harvested, then plowed again. That cannot be a plus for her skin condition. I also have two other large hounds that are sure to have dander, and their normal walking or playing on carpet is sure to create air particles that are not helpful to Heidi's skin allergy.

My house was built in 1975 or 41 years ago. I don't care how great of shape it is in, with the drastic differences in seasonal temperatures there has to be mold somewhere inside and outside.

So all of this is the "perfect storm" for flaring up allergies whether it be me or Heidi. Why don't the bloodhounds have the same problems while they live in the same environment????

Is it their genetics? They also eat dog food with grains, always have. They have both had rabies shots although I stopped giving mine shots in 2011 after articles I had read ... but that's another story I'll not blog about today. According to the vet records that came with Stella, she was given the typical annual shots her whole life ... holistic vets claim that those annual shots are the cause for all the health issues in dogs we see today.

Stella and Sadie have had no skin issues or health issues. Stella will be 7 years old in August and Sadie will be 8 years old in June. Yet Heidi came with skin issues. As she got older they have become worse and continue to be all twelve months of the year and not just seasonal.

Someone else has told me they think that Heidi's problem is not food related. They understand why I am feeding her no-grain, no potatoes food based on the yeast infection article that has been linked a couple of times today. They feel it is stressed related, that Heidi is affected by the two large breed bloodhounds and specifically Stella.

Even though Heidi has never lost her appetite for food, losing 13 pounds in 2015 gives them concern. Yet for the past year Heidi has maintained the same weight at 36 pounds. On two different blood workups, both had normal levels and nothing showed anything wrong on the inside.

Add in the lack of activity this past year and all the sleeping she does ... this person seems to think she is depressed living here with me and the two bloodhounds.

They thought in the past that Heidi may have thought her foster home was going to be her forever home, thus her change in moods. I reminded them that Heidi did not act this way until the fall of 2014, three years after I got her, when her skin flared up outside her normal allergy reaction.

I have no idea if her original family had kids or why she ended up as a volunteer turn in to the shelter. It was noted that she was a "runner" and would run away every chance she got. It was recommended that I keep her on a leash at all times. She has not shown that tendency to run while living here.

She didn't look depressed a month or so ago when I forced her to join us on the daily walk. The photos showed Heidi rolling on her back in the tall grass, her nose to the ground with her tail curled and upright as she explored the field. She still does and always has did a morning sprint, and at times rolling on her back growling at herself.

I don't see that as Heidi having problems living with a couple of large breed bloodhounds, without having kids around. I think her activity level is determined by how she feels that day ... where her infected skin or rear hocks might be too sore to do anything else but lay around and sleep.

My records show that Heidi's skin did not have a lot of negative reaction when Stella arrived but did when Winston died. She didn't have a reaction traveling out west last June but did have a UTI a few weeks after we returned home. Her skin was the worst I've ever seen in February 2015 but started flaring up outside the norm the previous September.

Heidi will eat all that I give her. She will even come running from a deep sleep if she thinks I will give her some of my own food. She will eat all the dog food I will give her and I have tried to see how much she would eat before stopping ... that one time, she never stopped eating!!!

If no-grain food is suppose to prevent yeast growth ... yet I can smell yeast after feeding this to her for a month this time and many months prior ... is there a need to continue feeding her no-grain food? Would foods with grains and carbohydrates help her gain some weight back? This past week I have been giving her a little chicken, steak, ground beef and fish .... all cooked ... in addition to her kibble, in hopes that helps her gain some weight.

Do Stella and Sadie play a role in stressing out Heidi, thus causing these constant skin flareups? A couple of people say I should rehome her to a place where she would be the only dog. Some say she needs a family with kids. That was one of the first questions I asked her foster mom in 2011, if Heidi could live in a house with two or three other dogs. She replied that was not a problem because they had a large greyhound and another smaller dog.

The question of rehoming her is a tormenting question for me. One, I like her too much to give her away. I never give my hounds away whether it be for medical problems or destructive issues. Who would give a hound away with medical issues that cannot be figured out and may not have a solution? How would that affect Heidi after living here since July 2011? That would be another change for her in where she lived. Since she spent her time in and out of dog shelters her first two years, who knows how many times she has had to move to a different owner her first two years.

I remember the day I made the four hour drive home after picking her up ... she "talked" to me nonstop for the first thirty minutes of the drive. She was happy to be around Winston. She LOVED being in the field and LOVED the walks.

Stella was an obnoxious and clumsy four year old bloodhound when Heidi showed up. They rarely played when Sadie tried to engage. Even then Heidi was "a loner", staying by herself most of the time and didn't sleep with Winston nor Sadie like other hounds did.

A lot of questions and many of them have been asked over the past 20 months since her skin went crazy with redness and inflammation. Here are a couple of photos I just took a few minutes ago after her lunch.

Let's see how the vet suggested mixture of water/vinegar works in the days ahead.

I've got to go ... I hear Heidi scratching again.