Heidi's Skin Is Improving

It turned out to be a beautiful day yesterday. All 3 hounds had a relaxed walk, the temps were perfect and I got a lot done.

I was so busy I didn't make it back to the blog late yesterday but did take the trip in the car I had an urge to take ... not what you expected.

Before I start, those are all yellow weeds I am told but they are great looking yellow weeds. I left two of them standing while I cut weeds near the bank after mowing. Last May I walked over to that field to take more photos of them before they were plowed under for planting. I think the horse trailer that is parked there this year adds a little touch to the photo.

After seeing the changes in Heidi's skin Friday and early Saturday morning I decided to give Heidi's skin a day off from the ointment. It was red and inflamed. Her stomach was reacting in some way that concerned me. I wanted to see if it would be red and inflamed without it. I was also going to find out if the grass had anything to do with her skin reactions because Heidi wanted to go on the walk yesterday.

I could tell early on by her pace and amount of exploring that she would not make the walk with us. I would let her lag back into her own little world. She did just that and enjoyed the time it seemed, just to be exploring the area around here.

Sadie and Stella were not their normal energetic selves either. They walked most of the way, never ran and didn't not go to their normal areas.

Heidi was pretty far back in this photo but my 200mm setting finally worked. It has not been working must past 135mm most of the time recently.

You can tell that the bloodhounds were not too excited ... a general checking the areas. The most excitement was on the way back where Sadie saw Heidi but didn't know what she was. Sadie took off running and Stella approached cautiously because she was a little spooked not knowing.

They were wagging their tails once they realized who it was.

Needless to say, it was a slow walk back home for the hounds. At least their tails were up but you can see that Stella is walking slower than slow.

A little after 1pm I took this photo of Heidi. Remember the last dose of WWO was the prior afternoon. Those dark spots are coloring caused by the ointment. I am seeing improvement and not because there is no redness.

The spots are not inflamed. I can see where the skin on her chest and neck are drying out, flaking off like dead skin. So today I will be applying multiple doses throughout the day and night. I am going to give her a bath this afternoon to clean off the dead skin.

By this time of day I still had not taken that drive to somewhere I had spoke of early Saturday morning. I couldn't make up my mind where I wanted to go ... so I didn't go anywhere. I had the urge to enjoy the day outside and pick up the remaining tree limbs blown down by the last storm. The grass was dry enough to mow ... and with all the rain in the previous days ... the grass was really tall. I can tell the seeding I did last year has made a difference this spring ... more grass, less weeds in the front and back yards.

So where did the hounds and I go for a drive??? No further than the local Dairy Queen downtown for a large Hawaiian Blizzard ... a great treat after the workout of mowing up and down that hill in front.

After spending more time outside to enjoy the afternoon, cleaning up and having dinner, it was already past 7:30 pm. I got involved with two games on tv. I had the Reds/Cubs game on one channel and then at 8pm turned it on to the Chicago Blackhawks hockey game. For the next few hours I rotated back and forth between games during the period breaks in the hockey game.

The hounds snored through both games and not much was done afterwords. The yard mowing is a good workout. It always puts me to bed before midnight which is rare for me. The mower is only a push mower and since I like mowing the front in different directions each time, two out of three trips will be pushing that mower up that hill in front.

I can tell it's going to be another beautiful day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Some Saturday Morning Rambling

If you thought my blog was boring yesterday you will hate it today ... it feels worse. It's to the point that I decided to write one of my "rambling" posts that I do from time to time.

As you can tell from the blog appearance I was a little bored this morning and did a little redesign work. I was about to change to a totally different template and colors but after spending time looking at the different options and playing around with colors and different fonts on this template ... I deiced to make a minor change to the date color so it would show my different posts a little better. I also added a little gray to the sidebars so they would not run into the posting part of the blog ... separate them a little.

I like to write so that is one reason I write these "rambling" posts every once in a while and writing is another reason I have two other blogs that are set to the private setting. Some say even that is not safe so I had to ask myself when I decided to go that direction, "is there anything here that I would not want the public to see?" ... the answer is always no.

If you feel like reading on, I have some photos of Heidi's skin and my thoughts as we start Day 4 of the Wounded Warrior Ointment. I don't have any photos of the hounds except this one of Stella ... because we have not done anything outside and it's already 12:30pm as I write this.

So ... for those that want to cut this post short and not waste your time, I may have something more in depth tonight and with more photos. I do know I have the 'itch' to do something today that involves driving, I just don't know yet what that might be or where it will lead us.

As you can see Stella wasn't much more enthused about this morning as I was.

I noticed on our late evening walk we ended up taking last night after I posted it was not going to happen, Sadie was having some digestive problems. Nothing had changed in her food so it hopefully is just a 24 hour bug. Still at 3am I can't say that I was happy about getting up to take her outside.

My little LED camping flashlight wasn't strong enough to see her in the field but the sky was bright enough that I could barely catch her as a dark figure roaming the field. She has never requested to go outside at that time of morning except when she was a 12 week old puppy and we were house training.

I couldn't see if she was dumping tanks or just locked onto a scent ... she was trotting fast all over the field but she also does that at times when she is looking for her perfect spot to relieve herself. She must be okay today since she has been sleeping all morning. At least there have been no accidents in the house.

Consequently after waking up and getting up in the middle of the night I needed coffee and I needed it bad this morning when the hounds finally woke up. They let me sleep in until 8:30 am. I did wake up on my own when I THOUGHT I felt something crawling on me ... like one of those small ticks.

As you see in the upper left corner, our tick count continues to increase at a rapid rate. They seem to love Stella's ears, they don't like Sadie and Heidi isn't out enough to collect them. Most of mine if not all of mine are caught crawling before they attach themselves.

I emailed Stella's previous owner last night asking her what she used for tick prevention on her outdoor herding dogs that live on a Kentucky horse farm. What a better place to have a tick problem. She said she had great results with this collar, the Bayer Seresto Flea and Tick collar. She didn't see a tick on her dogs or Stella at all during the summer or about 6 months total time.

Remember that all my links I put in my posts are not affiliate links, only links that provide information. They are safe to click.

Somewhere during my coffee I decided I was going to get online and look for a game store locally where I could by the old board game Strat-O-Matic Baseball. I knew it had gone to an online game or a computer game ... but I want the board game. Actually while reading Greg's story about his puzzle last night ... that was when I started thinking about the board game.

I mean I can't sit all day at the kitchen table, while looking out the large window at the traffic passing by ... playing Mahjong all the time. I use to love playing that baseball game, keeping score and then writing out the stats for the Top 10 in different categories like the newspapers use to do.

So took most of my morning, looking online then calling a lot of game shops in central Indiana trying to find the board game that I could bring home today. After hours of doing that, wanting to drive somewhere in the back of my mind ... I'll have to buy the game online and have it shipped. In the meantime I'll give it a day or two to see if I really want to start playing that game again or try my hand at putting puzzles together.

Now on to Heidi. I've been taking photos at different times so I can see any differences in her skin as we use the Wounded Warrior Ointment. Yesterday around 2pm I had a scare when I looked at her stomach and noticed it was not a smooth texture but each little piece had it's own boundary.

Because of this plus it was a little more red than the photo shows ... I did not apply the ointment for the rest of the night.

 
This morning around 8:45 am when I looked at that same side of her stomach a lot of those, what I called "individual" pieces had moved back to a smoother texture although still evident. In the area on the far left, the skin was dried out and rough ... I took that as her skin is healing from the use of the ointment. I cannot explain what was going on yesterday in the first photo.

I wanted to wait until now to see what her skin looked like before applying any ointment today. We have had only 5 doses since it arrived on Wednesday afternoon in the mail.

There is another possibility ... most of the time she sleeps curled up on that side of her stomach. That skin is always hidden underneath her and not exposed to the air. The opposite side of her stomach is normal with a smooth texture. Did the confined ointment make her skin react that way? I don't know.

Sadie and Stella have passed their normal time for their lunch. No begging, no howling for food ... both sound to sleep. That proves today is not lined up correctly with the moon and stars. The whole day is out of whack.

I had other things on my mind to write about in my next "rambling" post and now I sit here trying to remember them. I hate it when that happens to my memory and it seems to be happening more and more.

I saw on one of the news sites that more and more consumers are moving back from smart phones to flip phones. I did that for the first time last November. So far so good but I do miss a couple of things from the iPhone ... the camera capability for those unexpected shots. Also the "note" program that helped me during the times my memory lapsed.

Still when I can see after a year I will have saved $444, I am still quite hesitant in going back to the new iPhone SE. Of course Verizon sent me an email yesterday telling me "you can buy the new iPhone SE at FULL retail price" ... 2 months before my upgrade month.

On one  of the pages I follow on Facebook, called Juicing for Life, it had an article about drinking water decreased your chances of a heart attack. I read on. After figuring out how much water I needed to drink every day to reap those benefits I realized they don't know how my bladder now operates ... LOL ... no way can I drink that much water every day.

How much do you need?  Take your weight and divide it by two. That number is the amount of ounces of water you need to drink every day. Take that number and divide my eight and see how many glasses that amounts to. Good luck!

I don't need two vehicles since I am barely driving either of them since being retired. Yet, I like having a different car to drive at times when I need a change. Is that a bad thing?

Well I need to get going. It's already past 1pm ... the hounds are eating ... I want to go somewhere but don't know where ... it feels cold today with the temps in the 50's. ... none of the hounds have ever lost their appetite.

It's a cold, damp, dreary day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Hounds Cruise Through A Lazy Friday

Stella heard thunder last night and became a little nervous but did not really go crazy. Paced a little but not much. I was told when I got her that she was afraid of thunder. Sadie did nothing but lay down and sleep as did Heidi.

It wasn't too long this morning before the skies turned dark and rolls of thunder were being heard. I had to look at the weather sites to see that it was suppose to be a day of thunderstorms. By noon the sun was trying to come out through the clouds. Needless to say, there has not been a lot of activity her in 'the tropics' so far today.

Heidi's skin looked good this morning as I applied the 4th dose of Wounded Warrior Ointment. All of the redness was gone on shoulders, her legs, insides of her rear feet and armpits. It's hard to tell because of her skin folds but it did look like there was not any inflammation.

Heidi came outside after her lunch. I thought I saw some skin improvement first thing this morning. By noon I wasn't so sure when I looked at her. Then I look at this photo and see a lot of the redness is gone on her rear legs and stomach. She still continues to chew small spots on the edge of her rear shoulder.

While Heidi headed to the front yard, Sadie was chest deep in wet grass. Stella didn't leave the driveway and just stood looking at me as if to ask what now? I thought of taking the walk but 10' into the field I see standing water. If it is that bad at lower elevation it gets worse as we get further away and a little higher.

Once Sadie found out the walk was temporarily called off until later this afternoon ... but that would take some strong sun to help dry out the ground ... she didn't get too far and did a little posting for the camera.

For the first time in a long time my 55-200mm zoom actually worked at the setting of 200mm. It had only been working at 135mm for the past month. I keep having to turn the ring counter clockwise to move the lens back to the original position when set at 55mm. A new 55-300mm Nikkor lens is sounding better all the time.

Temps are rising, sun is trying to come out and those big rain clouds are slowly moving east.

Bloodhounds are a great breed ... but I think it takes a special person to own one. They have a couple of things that other breeds don't have and one of those is drool. Some hounds drool more than others. In this case Stella's is hanging lower than I have seen in a while. It's as strong as that Gorilla glue you see advertised but can be wiped away easy with a Bounty paper towel.

Well back to my addiction of the day ... Mahjong. I am still attempting to get those last few games below 3 minutes and 30 seconds. I justify it by being retired, plus it keeps my hand and eye coordination in good shape.

It's a quiet Friday in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Found Some Trends In Heidi's Skin Changes

Late last night I could hear the rain lightly hitting the leaves of the trees. Every time I woke up, it was raining lightly ... great sleeping weather.

With rain Heidi heads out behind the yews under the overhang to relieve herself while the bloodhounds attempt to go to the field. Depending if it is raining they don't always go out into the field.

They will stand at the edge of the carport and observe, then venture out for some inspection if it is not raining hard. This morning the rain had just stopped for them to go outside. This morning Sadie went to the field only because it had stopped raining. As soon as Stella feels a lot of wet ground under her feet she is not interested in going anywhere. She stood almost like a statue until I went back inside, then she sprinted for the door.

With the on and off rains today the daily walk may be cancelled. I am willing to do the walk if the rain stops as it has not saturated the ground like a hard rain would do. Of course if Stella will not go into the field, the walk will be cancelled. The radar looks pretty clear though for the rest of the afternoon.

While they slept this morning, I lined up some of the best photos of Heidi's skin since January and then added my notes with dates in between the dated photos. I found some trends I think, although looking back through 18 months of photos -- really not a lot of change in her skin condition.

Her skin will have periods of improvement but just as fast as I noted that improvement it flares up again like nothing has worked. If you click on the label on the lower right sidebar, named Heidi's treatment, it will show all of the blog posts I made last year with 4 different vet ideas, different shots, lotions, pills, etc.

The major trends I noticed from my notes compared to her photos happened to be fairly noticeable in the photos:

1. Putting Winston down on January 5th
2. Giving her pieces of my steak and steak fat
3. Giving her bacon grease
4. Could be season related with grass & pollens in air
5. Epsom Salt soaks for 20 minutes with a water rinse helped every time

Right after Winston was gone, there wasn't any change in her appetite. She is usually low energy so I didn't notice any change in her moods. She didn't pace the house looking for him like I have had some hounds do in the past. yet for the next three days she skin flared up with redness, inflammation and chewed spots.

I gave her the steak and bacon grease in early March when I thought that "fat" might help her skin. She has not been given any since and will not be given any. Once again during a 2-3 period her skin became inflamed redness and she had chewed different spots.

As far as pollens, grass or farm field chemicals in the air ... I don't have much choice on that unless I sell the house and move. I am surround by fields that are planted annually with fertilizer applied on those fields. Yesterday when the neighbor was mowing their yard, it was windy and my sinuses inside the house with the windows up, plugged up. So grass may also be a reason for her skin issue.

Some have thought stress is her problem. Yet, when we traveled for 8 days in June 2015 feeding her Fromm's Classic chicken/rice basic dog food ... her skin actually improved. During those 8 days she never ate at the same time every day because it depended when camp was set up or where the next Rest Area was as we drove down the freeway. When Stella showed up on August 30, 2015 there was no noted change in Heidi's skin.

The most likely cause isn't the food she eats, as Vet #3 said ... it's environmental. Her skin flared up last week when my sinuses decided to go crazy after mowing the yard. It was the 4th mowing this spring but the 1st time my sinuses went nuts.

Notes and photos show that last April to the middle of May her skin looked just as bad as it does today. Yet by June to the middle of July her skin looked much better.

So it's just as confusing as ever. 

This is Day 2 of the Wounded Warrior Ointment where it is claimed it helps with skin issues, cuts or hotspots on the dogs that are used or were used overseas in combat situations.

I will give her a fresh dose every 4 hours during the day and right before she goes to sleep for the night. Since she tried licking her paws after I put the ointment on, she is back to wearing baby socks that not only cover her paws but her legs. Unlike February 2014, she has not tore off the socks this time.

I should see some skin improvement within the next 2-3 days based on what the seller told my friend that bought it in North Carolina for me.

The radar may be clear but the sky sure looks like another storm is near here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

A Low Energy Day

Overcast skies always seems to bring low energy for the hounds. We might even get some rain the next few days so that will not only change the hounds but also what topics are blogged about.

Sadie and Stella were not out longer than 5 minutes after their breakfast. Heidi didn't follow but had been outside first thing in the morning. The cooler temps felt great, no humidity to speak of and the sounds of different birds filled the air. I could tell it was going to be a nice day.

It was time for the walk after following the normal routine. Heidi didn't respond when I asked if she wanted to go for a walk. She always does that. What was different today was after I attached the leash, she got up started to come and then turned around and laid back down. That told me for whatever reason she wasn't feeling good today.

Even with us leaving a little later than normal, the field was still wet as  you can see by my shoes.

Neither Sadie nor Stella ran a lot. Stella did not even go to her favorite area in the far right hand corner, nor the bushes next to the gully. All the scents seemed to be out in the field or along the back side. They both spent a lot of time with their focus on tracking.

Even though it was a much slower paced walk ... they both were sound asleep soon afterward.

After I posted last night, Heidi's skin became red and inflamed again. It looked just as bad as it did good when I posted about her improvement. On a scale of 1-5 I would have to rate her skin last night and this morning as a 4 ... 5 being the worst.

It could only mean two possible causes ... the shampoo or the field grass. Yesterday was only Day 4 with her walking in the field. I will have to go back in this blog to see what her skin was doing this time last year. I wasn't using a spreadsheet then to track her skin condition but I do have dated photos that will give me a good idea.

The ointment due to arrive in the next day or two will have it's chance to prove that it is as good as claimed ... because her skin is not the best right now.

It's a day of birds chirping full-time here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

**********************

This portion is the afternoon side of the day, all in one post instead of two. I didn't feel like going back to change sentences or word structure to fit 'current' conditions. This is easier ... I'm lazy today ... as were the hounds.

Heidi and I made our monthly trip to the local recycling. I can hand them my 39gal bag of trash for $2 and then dive through the building to unload my 32gl plastic trash container of recycled glass, plastic, paper, carboard, for free. With their new policy of the past 5 months I no longer have to sort it.

The bloodhounds cannot go because the back is filled with the two trash cans. Plus it gives Heidi and I some time alone ... she also enjoys the ride.

Pulling back into the carport what do I see on my clean concrete floor???  *#(@#*@# oil !!!!  I had it changed at WallyWorld yesterday instead of Toyota which is twice as far away. It was convenient since I was shopping for other stuff. Maybe this is way I never have them change the oil.

Looking under the FJ, the aft skid plates were dripping with oil. To say the least I wasn't real happy with what I saw.

I put the hounds in the bedroom, their normal room while I am gone ... grabbed my oil change receipt and headed back to WallyWorld to have them double check and clean up their mess.

They explained everything. Cleaned everything up and I checked it when I got back. It looked like there wasn't a drop of oil anywhere. I'll not bore you with their story ... they also gave me a free gallon of industrial concrete cleaner to clean my concrete floor. I'd prefer not to go through all of that when I get it changed again.

The Wounded Warrior Ointment was in the mail when I came back. I immediately found Heidi and put on the first application. I hate posting photos of her with skin this bad but it will give us a starting point to see how the ointment does. Her skin has not been this bad in a  while even though in February 2015 it looked a lot lot worse than this.

Luckily all of the red skin is not hard and crusty, and dried out. It is soft and flexible. You can see the skin flakes she scratched onto the couch.

Sadie and Stella were not too enthused on their after lunch trip outside. They barely walked slowly around the field most of the time.

We didn't do much the rest of the day. If they are not eating, or outside they are usually sleeping. With the low energy day, sleeping was that much easier for them.

With the wind picking up and the skies becoming a little overcast, I went outside to enjoy the breezes at 80°. Rain is definitely in the air but it is not suppose to arrive until late tonight. The owner of the house next door must have heard me talking about their yard yesterday ... they came in today and mowed it, in two different directions.

With the winds picking up, I decided to head out for the afternoon walk. They didn't respond until they saw me walking toward the field with my camera ... then they came to join me. Supposedly dogs cannot see well so evidently my movement is what they remember and associate with going for a walk.

This was the pace about the whole walk. They were not searching too much, kind of casual until they either smelled something or were just trying to leave me to go to their favorite corner.

My curiosity got the best of me, so I walked over to see what Stella likes so much in this area of the field ... that she never wants to leave. That is Sadie checking it out with her.

These ground photos are three different spots that Stella had her nose buried with the bloodhound sniffing and snorting sound.

I don't think she liked me following her but it was nice walking the outside border of the field ... maybe that will be the new way.

They had enough excitement and headed back to the house. That's an AT&T tower. Living that close to the tower I rarely had more than 3-bars of phone reception before switching to Verizon in June 2014.

It felt warmer to me although I had no idea what the temps were. Stella's tongue hanging out told me it was close to 80°. She joined Sadie walking next to me and that is how the walk ended. They never were far enough away to get a photo of them.

I cannot believe that Wednesday has come and gone ... how fast this week has gone. I am going to study Heidi's skin photos of these past 18 months and try to find out again what might be the reason for the outburst of raw skin. I would hate to think that by her walking in the field did that. She slept through the afternoon walk.

It could be book night tonight. My Reds have already won an afternoon game and unless it's a movie or a ballgame I am not much of a tv watcher.

Rain is coming in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.