Stella Returning To Her Old Self

Two steps outside the door Sadie saw there were three birds near her burn pile and took off sprinting to chase them away. I didn't have my camera ready for something that fast but I did catch a glimpse of a robin's orange chest flying away.

I noticed yesterday that Stella was slowly returning to her old self. The side effects of her rabies shot were wearing off but at the same time she seemed better than last week when I took her into the vet on Friday.

This morning she trotted out to join Sadie on our first walk of the day (3 yesterday) and spent most of the walk with her tail upright and curled.

I double checked the date when I made the latest change to dog off and it was in the middle of February. To wait 16 weeks giving the food a change to make some changes or improvements that puts the wait out to the middle of June. I will take her into the vet a few times before that to use the vet scales to weigh her, while monitoring her health.

Other ways I can tell Stella is feeling better is the old bloodhound stubbornness is coming back, as evidenced in the picture blow. She is also nudging my hand more when she wants something, goes to the door and nudges the round door knob trying to open it to be let outside. Plus I've caught her a couple of times in the kitchen walking around with her nose in the air, checking to see if there is any of my fruit to steal from the bowl.

I knew at this time when she wouldn't move, that I was going to have to double back to get her. I'd left her there and continued to walk but up ahead I wasn't so sure that she wouldn't take off into the 'no-fly zone'. The last walk of the afternoon yesterday I had to call her to keep her from going that direction.

It was a slow pace back to the house but she stayed with Sadie and didn't veer off the general direction we were taking. They were not ready to come inside though when I got back to the house.

Sadie gave me the look that she wanted to stay outside, Stella never moved. I went inside to change from wet hiking boots to dry running shoes, came back outside to check on them and they were still in the same place.

It such a nice day today I can tell we will be spending a lot of time outdoors today. I can see some weed cutting on the driveway plus reading my book outdoors while the hounds roam the field. Heidi has decided her favorite place during all this good weather is INSIDE on the couch sleeping while she enjoys the breeze coming through the large living room window on the north side of the house.

Have you noticed in this post I am trying to write the content that goes with the picture below instead of on top of it? It's funny just how hard that is to change.

Counting the picture above here are some highlights from yesterday's 1pm walk. After this walk we stayed outside. While they slowly inspected all of the field and part of the north backyard, I continued to read an old paperback book off my self "Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance".

I started reading that book weeks ago but it's a slow read so I go back and forth to it from other books I am reading. I saw where the author of that book died yesterday.

The Single Point AF would not focus on the contrails but when I changed the setting to Auto Area AF it did.

By yesterday afternoon the sun was hot enough that you could feel some heat instead of just enjoying it's brightness. It just reminds me how much I like hot weather compared to freezing temps.

Stella always thinks it is time to slow her pace when it's that hot outside.

Back in 2011 I had a friend bring his bush hog over to cut down all the overgrown wild bushes on the north side of the yard. It had been that way even before I moved here. Somewhere buried inside that growth is the old fence post from the 1940's.

For the next few years after he cut it, I would keep it trimmed down with my then working Echo weed eater with the steel blade. You might notice there are a few small saplings that grew quite tall amongst all of that.

It wasn't until April 2015, almost 4 years later, that I became motivated enough to start clearing all of that out. You can read about it here.

It wasn't so much about my motivation but two things happened since 2011. (1) When my neighbor bought the field in back they had it surveyed for property lines. That pole on the left side is what they came up with. Telling me that my property line was out to the pole.

Of course that survey does not match the property line survey I have with my original paperwork when I bought the house in 1998. My survey shifts all of it toward the camera (south) to where this property line pictured is no further than 25' from the edge of my house. That is even before the fence you see at times on this side of the yard.

The (2) that happened, that once they told me this is the property line I had a clear plan on what I wanted to do with this area, so I cleared it out. I still need to put some chairs out there, with a small table to hold beverages. AT one time I was going to install a firepit and may still do that. I thought it would be a nice spot to tent camp.

This picture was taken in 2011 right before my friend started his bush hog and went to work.

This is that same area last Friday, starting it's 3rd year of grass growth. 

In 2015 when I cleared out right of the trees is when I found the old fence post and fence line. There is a 2nd post behind those trees right next to the corner post of the wood fence.

This year I decided I wanted to clear out the left side of the trees and plant grass seed, while leaving those concrete blocks where they are for erosion control. I wish I would have kept those other 51 or 52 blocks I took out of the yard when I bought the house in 1997. Little did I know the house builder in 1975 put those blocks in the ground for a reason, all I knew was they were in the way of my lawn mower.

Today will not be much different than yesterday. I might fit in a Z4 drive after the hounds have their lunch. You cannot beat this weather in the Midwest this time of year ... although ... late yesterday afternoon the 2017 squadron of gnats flew in and continued to bother me this morning during our walk.

Yes, I did almost forget to edit my pictures before publishing this post. Do you like the difference in picture quality or can you tell a difference?

Beautiful weather here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

Stella Starts Her New Diet Of More Food

After seeing Stella's side effects over the weekend from a rabies shot on Friday night, her running to start Monday morning's walk was a welcomed sight.

I could tell from the first minute she was up that she was feeling the best she had felt all weekend. She trotted through the house to the door to be let out, then howled for breakfast and was energized for her first walk of the day.

She had not looked this alert all weekend. I implemented my 'no shots' policy immediately for all the hounds after seeing Stella on Friday night and Saturday morning. I haven't given the hounds any kind of shots for years, annual checkup ... yes, but no shots.

I was up feeding the hounds and brewing coffee by 7:10am. That's really early most of the time but it was beautiful outside in the cool mid 40's. Sadie stepped into the computer room to let me know it was time for the first walk of the day a little after 8:30am ... so off we went.

With poor lighting for taking pictures and a field overflowing with very wet grass ... both of the bloodhounds took off fast and moved out in front early. Heidi stayed back inside, sleeping on her Marmot sleeping bag as the sunshine hit her shining through the window.

The new plan is for Stella to be fed a larger quantity of kibble twice per day, plus I am adding boiled chicken and rice as in between snacks for her. That means Heidi and Sadie will get very small portions of that same food ... you cannot feed one hound and leave out the other two.

As I was looking at Stella I hear tree limbs breaking and thick bushes making a crackling sound, only to see Sadie charging through the brush with her head down and not caring what was in front of her. A couple of times she stopped and stared down into the gully, knowing that is where the deer went.

I wasn't even halfway into the walk when I see my hiking boots are soaked more than normal. Thankfully the waterproof design kept my feet nice and dry.

Stella spent most of her walk with her tail up, which to me is a good sign that she is feeling better. Over the weekend after seeing a few pictures of her you would have thought she was taking her last steps. She did not look good most of the time, very lethargic.

Sadie had followed the edge of the field into the far right hand corner, then along the backside of the field. Pictures of that trip were too washed out, even with the lens hood, to be posted.

Stella did glance over at the 'no fly zone', probably remembering her trip fro yesterday morning, but once Sadie moved in my direction she followed her. I still find it interesting that Stella stopped in the same 3 places in the field to scratch herself. Why is that?

The owner of the field lives a couple of houses down from me. He is retired but does a little farming on the side. It looks like he made a trip early this morning around his field. Maybe the sound of his 4-wheeler is what woke me up although I didn't hear it. He turned before he got close to the house, but I could tell these were fresh tracks from this morning.

She doesn't look happy when I told her she could not head in the direction of the highway down over the hill. She wasn't really going to the highway but a spot out in the middle of the field, too far off the return path home. Her stare makes me laugh.

Mostly in the afternoons after school, I will hear a "large" bark from across the highway as the hounds start our walk. Only this morning I heard that same bark and looked over to see the large St. Bernard checking us out.

She is down over the hill and across the highway, all controlled by an invisible electronic fence for dogs. They are about the same distance from the highway as I am and I find it amazing the Saint has not ran anywhere close to the highway.

I almost bought this house ten years ago, but it doesn't have anywhere to walk in the back of it. The field across from my house curls to the right and goes right behind their property. Some find it strange I would turn down a better house because of a 7 acre field in back of mine for the hound walks.

I love these wild yellow flowers and that is why I keep taking pictures of them. They will not be there after 2-3 weeks. The temps are heading to the 70's today. I am going to try and get my act together and get at least one thing lined through as finished, on my 'to do' list. Then again, spending the afternoon outside enjoying the sunshine while reading a book might be a more enticing option.

We did a little of that yesterday. While Sadie roamed the yard and field, Stella slept in the sun and Heidi stretched out in the living room.

I know the urge to blog comes and goes sometimes but I've been having the urge to blog multiple times per day since changing the format on the front page to abbreviated posts and the 'read more' link to open it up for all the pictures and rambling.

I like talking and taking pictures. During a day I end up with more pictures than one post can handle. If I decide to do multiple posts per day instead of just one, some of them may be short with just a few pictures ... similar to the "routine' post I did yesterday afternoon.

I know it's my blog and I have been told before to do what you want but I also like to blog in a way the readers like. So send me some feedback on what you do or don't like about the blog. We will put all ideas/complaints in front of the three hound review board for discussion.

I am feeling much better about Stella's condition today than I was last night.

The weather in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana had been making me lazy.

My Analysis Of Stella By Photos

Like any other pet owner, when there is a medical issue or looks like a medical problem, we all look back to see when it happened, how it happened or did we miss anything.
So today I thought I'd post what I looked at yesterday, trying to double check and see if I had missed a sign or something that led us to being concerned enough for a couple of different vet trips and different tests for Stella.

Not until I went through my photo file in Stella's folder did I see that my memory was not as sharp as I thought. I was inaccurate in thinking Stella had not ran for months, or when was the last time her tail was upright and curled and most importantly ... when she started looking and feeling skinny.

For easy searching like this, I have a lot of different folders for my picture library on my computer. Within those folders I add a title to the first picture of the day in the form of yyyy mmm date. I keep the pictures within each folder sorted with newest on top. Consequently it was easy to scroll through thousands of pictures looking for the certain points I was looking for.

Those points were running, playing, tail up and curled, how she looked, the leash, and when both her and Sadie were side by side on the prowl.

My search lead me back all the way to October 14, 2016 where these first four pictures took place. It was the looked like a good starting picture to show her rib cage and how she looked. They showed her running at full speed and the first time my pictures picked up her scratching ... that she is still doing this morning.

All through November, December to January 2nd I found pictures of her running full speed. Honestly I had forgotten she had ran this much and this recently.

I started to see a slimmer waistline for her but I always thought when she was looking a little thinner it was because of the two and sometimes three walks per day for about 30 minutes each she was getting, along with the running.

Nothing is ever regular in her running, it might not happen every walk but when she does run it is usually at full speed.

Not quite 4 months later she is still scratching but I have yet to find any fleas, raw skin, etc ... even as of this morning. At the time of this picture January 2, 2017 she is still eating the same food she has ate the majority of the time since arriving in August 2015.

Again my memory the other day failed me when I had forgot she had played, wrestled, with Sadie out in the snow in January 5th. I did not see any of this inside the house this winter like I did in 2016.

I am not seeing any issues with her looks here. Maybe a little thin but she looks active and I think with her tail upright and curled that is a good sign. It is the first time that I saw any kind of ribs showing every so slightly ... it's January 11th.

I started increasing her portions of kibble, thinking with her recent activity she is burning more calories than she is taking in. She was slightly overweight when she arrived in August 2015 but she was free fed. I feed her twice per day as per her request but it's weird feeding times.

She wants food first thing in the day and then starts howling at lunch usually around 11:30am but doesn't anytime after that until the next morning.

Through the month of January all activity looks to be normal. I don't really have any concerns and figure the added kibble will put some weight back on her.

By February 4th I don't see anything that would make me think that anything is wrong with her. Even this morning there may not be anything wrong with her and I believe the two visits to the vet prove that. Yet I can't forget how different she looked one year ago yesterday, April 21 2016 in the picture I posted yesterday on this blog. The picture below was taken February 4th of this year.

I know it sounds weird but I did not rule out the possibility that when I put a 6' standard leash on her to keep her from running off during our walks, February 10th, that just maybe that had something to do with her lack of activity and seeing her tail in a lowered position more and more as we walked. Then again that could be over-analysis.

Then about the time I think something might be wrong with her, looking a little sick, hard to tell with a bloodhound expression .... she takes off running at full speed to come from way behind us to catch us on the start of our walk on February 23rd.

Even though the temps are warmer plus she has had one bath with a shampoo that is geared to relieve itching, she sits in the sun on March 4th and scratches away.

We week later I am starting to see more ribs. but at the same time I have switched to a rated 4-star food with more protein and fat. I know it will take up to 4 months before I could see a change but Heidi was showing a lot of improvement with weeks of eating the new food.

I had forgot all about her trip to the neighbor's drainage ditch. I am not sure how long she was there as Sadie and I were walking and I had left Stella behind early in the walk to let her do what she wanted. I also have never smelled anything foul from this ditch so it is NOT like an open sewer or septic tank type of runoff.

Still ... it is a drainage ditch and their has to be something coming out of those pipes that can't be too healthy. This took place on March 14.

Now I am getting concerned when I see this picture and at the time when I pet her I have been feeling more bones than I want. Her hips, shoulders and her ribs are too boney. On March 18th we go to the vet for a checkup and a blood test to see if there is anything internally going on.

If you think she is sick and something going on .... the afternoon walk on the same day as the vet trip .... she is running full speed like nothing is out of the ordinary.

Her and Sadie spend the next week running all over the field on our walks. With a clean blood test result and a vet that is not that concerned, I keep the added kibble going and wait for some signs of her gaining weight.

On March 29, a little over a month since the change to kibble that is higher protein and fat ... I think I am seeing some weight gain. She looks to be back to her old self, active, curious but I forget that she was running full speed just a week or so before and tell myself I can't remember the last time she ran really hard in the field.

I still wonder if something is wrong with her. After doing searches on the internet, and reading information on PetMD website I am not finding any kind of symptoms listed, that Stella is showing. Once I thought it was possible thyroid problem or maybe she was getting diabetic ... yet everything was looking normal from her daily routines.

On April 20th, just a few days ago I thought she was looking better, maybe a little heavier ... still I could not remember the last time she had ran at full speed. She had loved to run in the field before and recently when she had the same situations to run, she stood and looked. Plus she had been walking slowly more and more on our walks.

So, after talking to the vet owner about my concerns, we went back in yesterday for a different test than we did in March with their other vet. He wanted to see her in person just to make sure.

After some squeezing, probing and checking her heart rate he did not see any reason for x-rays. With a strong heart rate, a normal appetite, normal stools and a tick/heartworm test coming back negative he felt she might not have been processing the protein in food in the past.

Like I stated on last night's update, he suggested changing food and source of protein plus monitor her weight using their scales for free. When I told him we were on week 9 since we last changed food to a higher protein and higher fat, he said to stick with that food for another couple of months.

He said they can loose weight fast but it takes much longer to add that lost weight back on.

As you can see Sadie was happy to have her friend back. With Heidi taking her big chair to sleep in, she moved to the couch with Stella. As far as Stella is concerned, she is fine and there is nothing going on ... except that crazy scratching.

With all the two tests showing all things are good and a 7-8 weeks of more added kibble to her meals, I am expecting to see some improvements on her weight where the ribs don't show and she does some sprinting in the field.

Someone asked what supplements I was giving her for possible joint and hip pain ... I am giving her four chews per day of this Hypoallergenic Hip & Joint Supplements. (not an affiliate link)

Let me know if you think I have missed anything that I should have noticed or if you have any ideas. In the meantime I will keep you posted.