New Dog Food & No Damage By Stella

This morning I was talking about different dog foods. A few days ago I posted photos and wrote about Stella's separation anxiety and a lot of damage.

Well in the past 2 hours, I bought a brand new type of dog food and rearranged my bedroom so Stella would not continue to tear the wall apart that was next to the door handle.

Last March, my vet (John Royal) suggested I try 4Health Duck & Sweet Potato for Heidi's skin problems. He had a client that showed a certain breed of dog, that had similar skin issues as Heidi's. Another words ... severe. He didn't know the name of it but it was Tractor's Supply's brand of no grain food. It's made by Diamond.

I have a 'gut' feeling this is going to work for her for a couple of reasons. One, there is only ONE protein source (duck, duck meal), whereas all the other brands that have Duck as their #1 ingredient also added chicken or lamb further down the list of ingredients. I have always suspected that the chicken or lamb could be an allergy problem, especially after emailing Fromm Dog Food and hearing them say that chicken was a problem.

Why did I wait so long to try it?

I am trying it now because I am desperate for Heidi. The bison, chicken, lamb, duck with chicken meal, pork, and the duck with quail and chicken meal never really worked. All no grain food. The times I tried to put her back on Diamond Naturals Chicken and Rice ... her skin was red within 2 days.

So the Diamond No Grain I bought for her November 30 is now for Winston, Sadie and Stella since it was time to buy food for them. The 30# bag will last Heidi almost 2 months.

It took 38 minutes and 31 miles to drive to Tractor Supply in Bedford. That was less time and less miles than driving to T&T Feeds in Bloomington, plus they had a great selection of all the different dog foods, just a much lower prices.

I'm sold.

Before I left, I moved my chest of drawers from the west wall of the bedroom to the small south wall that is between the door and the closet door. That blocked the wall so Stella could not dig into the wall and continue to tear it apart like she has the past two times I've left the house.

I also opened the right closet door all the way, then locked the baby gate perpendicular inside the close to give support to the closet doors from behind pushed in and also block Stella from getting into my cloths that are on hangers.

I am not sure what changed for her but when I got home 1:40 minutes later, there was zero damage and no signs where she tried to tear down the baby gate or try to move the chest of drawers. The door was NOT scratched either.

That is a great thing.

Dog Food Indecision Continues

It's time to buy dog food for Winston, Sadie and Stella. I've analyzed this over the years to the point that I am tired of it. I know for good food and the best bang for the buck, Diamond Naturals for Large Breeds, 40# bag and $33 including tax is the best overall choice. I can drive right downtown 2 miles away and buy all I want.

All three hounds scarf the food up, they love it ... but they seem to love any kind of food put in front of them. Switching back and forth between Diamond Naturals and Fromm I have always noticed a change in their energy levels. Their stools are firmer. Their coats are soft and shinny. The bag will last 15 days instead of 18 days before I got Stella.

I am still so tempted to go buy a bag of Purina Dog Chow. Grain is the source of protein, corn etc. No meat but "meat flavor". That would give me 10 more pounds and $11 less. A huge savings. The propaganda train says that dogs HAVE TO have meat as their top ingredients. Then why is Purina Dog Chow still being manufactured after 80+ years?

Does the expensive, highly rated food prevent health issues? All 3 hounds have a clean health history.

Now Heidi is a different problem. Her skin allergies flared up beyond control in June 2014. The steroid shots stopped working after 7 days. We tried Atopica but it was said to be dangerous plus I could not afford the cost. I tired RESPIT shots but after 15 weeks there was little change. Did I stop those shots too soon? Those shots did make her lethargic thought.

She has been on the most expensive and no grain food there is over the past 15 months. Even longer but never changing the past 15 months ... except the brand/mfg. I have a spreadsheet to track her skin condition, changes in food, any supplements, etc. Her skin never really changes. She still chews non stop, itches, craps in large amounts ... more than any of the other three hounds. In the mornings her skin looks the best ... by late at night it can be flaming red with raw spots where she has chewed.

I thought of putting her back on Earthborn No Grain, but looking through my spreadsheet I saw no differences than now with her on that food. With the Diamond No Grain we just switched to on November 30 she seems to itch and chew a LOT more than before. I could buy her a new bag of something else and have the other three hounds finish her Diamond No Grain. A 15# bag will last her a month.

I was thinking last night "what if ... ", I was to change her to Purina Dog Chow and it worked!!! What if that would happen. What a joke that would be after spending close to a $1,000 in meds last year on her and nothing really worked.

It's a gamble isn't it.

This Blog Is Closing

Instead of just disappearing or stop writing entirely, I thought I at least owed blog followers, regular readers and even the newest blog visitors an explanation on where "this blog went" and where it's going. So this will be my last "public" post for 'Hounds & RVs'.

I've gone back and forth on this decision. It's nothing that any of you have done to make me come to this conclusion. It's entirely my thought process. Nothing in the past made me re-think about having a blog for all to read, to see. It's just my own DNA.

By nature I've always been a private person, somewhat of a loner although some close friends say I was entirely opposite. Still you can't be the "life of the party" forever. I need to keep this short and to the point.

The fact is I like to write. It's why I came back to this blog a couple of times over the blog's 4 year history, but really this blog has ran it's course. It started about RVs, my research, my RV thoughts and ideas. It migrated to my hounds and toward the end it was only about my hounds and my boring lifestyle in retirement.

I still want to keep this blog as a personal journal, a reference.

Believe me there isn't much here to write about. As time went on, it became harder to set down, edit photos and write a narrative. I lost interest. For some reason I no longer wanted to share what was going on here in "the tropics of southern Indiana". I still wanted to take photos of the hounds. I wanted to document what is going on with them for my own personal record that could be used as a reference in the future. Those postings would be in longer intervals.

A few months ago I started to write less about my ideas, less of what I was doing and less of what was going on around here. I mean you have to admit when I am taking photos and writing about the five days it took me last summer ... pulling weeds out of my driveway ... something has to change. That's just not a good blog topic.

Yet, I was never comfortable putting personal information out into a format for all to see. I was putting more information out there, than I wanted. Even by accident sometimes. So, I guess I've always had those lingering thoughts in back of my mind, asking myself what is too much personal information? Where does this blog end? I wanted to travel to get away, to escape. A blog would let people know where I was.

The blog has turned into a place where people visit and enjoy all the photos of the hounds. I understand that. So for those that enjoy that, I strongly urge you to bookmark this link. I will start posting photos of the hounds there from now on for public viewing.

I've decided this blog is moving to the "private" status within the next few days. The domain name will not be renewed next year and it's very possible I will shut it off within the next few days also. I wanted to keep this blog for my own record for when I might need to look something up later. I also wanted to keep this blog because of all of the photos and stories about the hounds, similar to a photo album I guess. A journal about them.

I guess for selfish reasons, I no longer want to share what they do, what I do and what is going on.

Thank you for all your comments and emails over the years. Thank's for following the blog. I met a lot of good friends by blogging.

Old Injuries Never Die

This post will be short due to my current issues. It started out with me not feeling like blogging and even wondering if I was done blogging. I was finding it hard to come up with new daily material to write about. All my photos seemed to be in the same location and the same action shots of the hounds. Maybe the blog had ran it's course.

Before I could come up with an answer I woke up one morning a week ago, to find out an old injury from a serious car wreck I had in March 2010, had come back and it has put me on the sideline so to speak.

It's 24/7 of constant nerve pain and at times I cannot lift nor use my right arm.

All of the exercises given to me by Physical Therapists in 2010 to use if/when I had a flare up, usually work but for the past week they have not worked. Other techniques have not worked. Anti-inflammatory meds have not worked.

So once I can raise my right arm long enough to type, I'll post an update. Maybe by then I can decide if I want to continue to blog. Even with the pain challenges, the decreased time I have spent on the internet has helped me remember what it's like to live 'normal' again. I've been on the internet since 1996 for either work, enjoyment, and a lot of hours in a desk chair ... so maybe it's time.

All the hounds are fine, maybe Winston and the two bloodhounds have a little cabin fever but all of them are good.

I have enjoyed my vacation away from the internet.

Little Hound Activity

I read an interesting blog post yesterday by someone I have followed many years. I cannot believe I started this blog 4 years ago in October. There have been times I have not felt like writing, there have been times I have even shut the blog down and came back. So I could understand what Nina over at Wheelingit was saying here. I think most people that blog have been there at some point. It's a great read about the aspects of blogging.




For those readers that may be thinking of starting a blog, Nina's post is very informative. You can click here to read some great inside blogging information.

As I sit here this Monday morning, it's colder than I like but I know it's part of the deal when you live in the Midwest. It will get warmer later this week where some forecast shows a high of 62° on Thursday. With all of this cold weather, the hounds don't spend a lot of time outside. If they are not eating or outside for a short period of time, the basset's sleep and the bloodhounds chew. All the hounds sleep most of the late morning and afternoon until their 2nd meal time.

Sadie and Stella choose 2 bones out of the 6 or 7 possibilities and most of the time they each want the same one. There is never any fighting over them. The bloodhound that does not have the bone will stand over the other as she lays on the floor with the bone between her paws, chewing away.

The weekend was nothing out of the norm. A lot of good college football games on tv on Saturday. I watched parts of NFL games on Sunday but never stuck with one and would flip over to a college basketball game, depending who was playing ... all around an afternoon siesta. The biggest action during Saturday were the 4 hounds  wanting 3 seats. Even I lost my seat late Saturday night when I got up from the couch.

It was near 20° when we went outside Sunday morning and for some reason Sadie and Stella started playing as soon as they had one paw out the door. By the time I closed the doors and turned on my camera, they were both in the backyard going full tilt, frozen grass and all.

Just as fast as they started ... they will stop ... then head toward to door to come back inside.

I've been reading a lot of books, watched a couple of movies and really just hanging out inside the past few days. I need to replenish the food supply so that will be my social activity for the day ... waiting in the checkout line.

The scenery locally is all pretty dead looking. If it were to snow a lot in the future, I'll get out and get some photos to post but I think you can see by the background of the hound photos, it's pretty ugly right now.

The brown spots in the yard is where I had the Class C parked from September 2013 - April 2014. I've tried to plant new grass there last spring but it looks like I will end up tilling that part of the yard next March or April, plant grass the correct way and then cover it with straw to start the process.

For some reason, even with cold temps, I don't have the urge to travel. That might change later but I have my doubts. I find myself reading fewer blogs, I hardly ever read the RV forums anymore. Those periods of high intensity research on what to buy or do and trip planning has disappeared.

It will be another winter of hibernation here in the tropics of southern Indiana.

Temperatures Drop & The Hounds Hibernate

Today is the first day this week where it is actually cold ... freezing cold. Luckily since I live around 200 miles south of Chicago I will not be enjoying their forecasted 8" of snow this weekend. Still ... it's cold here.

The hounds have moved into their non-activity mode (winter) and I have not moved from my computer most of the time. There have been some changes though these past few days where I have not blogged and I will get to that later.

The hounds didn't do anything different than my last short post ... they went outside, dumped their tanks and sniffed the ground. Pretty simple stuff and pretty boring stuff. The other day I had mentioned "there couldn't be that much animal traffic at night" ... well I found my answer Wednesday night a little past midnight.

We had gone to bed early and I was tired enough to bypass the "last trip outside" for the hounds before they went to sleep. Since I didn't let them out, a few hours later Stella is waking me up to let me know she has to go outside. Since it was cold, dark and I was still about half asleep, I let her go out on her own like always ... only this time I didn't follow her outside.

I thought she would just comeback to the door like always. After a few minutes I had to go outside to see where she was because she had not come back to the door wanting inside. By the time I changed clothes, added a jacket and turned the light out outside ....

That animal at night answered my question ... a cat that I had never seen before is walking from the backyard across the edge of my carport with a mouse hanging out of it's mouth. By the time I was outside the cat had scrambled over the bank that runs along the driveway.

Stella was no where to be found.

Shining my small camping flashlight into the field, pitch black darkness, I see her eyes as she lifts her head up. That was a good thing, much better than seeing her running after that cat down the hill and onto the highway. I had to walk out to where she was before she would come back with me. I didn't take the time to see what had kept her interested in staying outside.

So I now am pretty sure what the hounds are sniffing so much in the yard, first thing in the morning ... the field cat. I was actually happy to see it because it keeps the mice traffic down as the temps get colder. A common problem living in a rural area.

As you can see today, there was heavy frost to go with the 28° temperature. Without the heat turned on last night I woke up to the house being 56° inside. I didn't know it would be getting that cold last night after it was such a nice day on Thursday. So it was quite a surprise to wake up to.

Heidi has basically only gone outside just long enough to do what she has to do and then sprints back to the house. No photos of her these past few days. I have found though the dog food change for her has not been good. Duck and Sweet Potato was a vet recommendation but this food also has grain. Her skin issues have had a relapse, so we will be going back to Earthborn Grain Free dog food.

The other 3 hounds explore a lot, but not much else.

Sometime before noon I took these photos of some air traffic. Both are passenger planes, one heading west and the other north. What I found interesting was in a matter of one minute the crossing pattern had moved east in the sky. As I looked through the zoom lens at the top a the tree I could see the pattern where they had crossed was moving east at a rapid rate of speed.

That seems to be the highlight of the day so far. Winston goes out so often during the time we are awake .. like every time he wakes from a nap ... where today I have seriously considered counting the number of times he has to go outside in a 24 hour period. He's older now so I can understand it.

I guess the big news is I am going to try to pry myself away from a smart phone and go back to a basic phone only to make calls. I had thought about it a few months ago and then I decided I was just like everyone else in the USA that are addicted to their smart phones. I have been using iPhones since they first came out.

The issue I had, although they are a great tool, I rarely receive or make phone calls, never watched movies or played games on the iPhone and would take occasional photos. I text with it more than anything. For $67 per month I didn't think it was worth it. Plus I wanted to get away from the constant connection to the internet.

So I am in Day 2 of the LG Revere 3, a basic flip phone where I have programed it for just making phone calls. I have 700 minutes per month where I have averaged 300-400 minutes per month in the past year and unlimited texting but no data plan. All for $25 per month plus the government fees that are too high. My monthly Verizon bill will now decrease from $67 to $32 per month or a savings of $420 for the year.

To me that's worth it. So far I have not missed my iPhone which is turned off and put away out of sight. If I decided the basic phone is good enough, I'll sell my iPhone 5S to a buy back program from a couple of different companies or possibly on eBay.

Nothing is on the agenda except trying to keep warm and reading books, with an occasional ballgame on tv to watch. Not much to blog about really.

The tropics of southern Indiana are turning into the cold tropics of Southern Indiana.

Hounds Cancel Today Due To Rain

Like any MLB baseball game, at times things get cancelled due to rain. The hounds called today off early this morning while outside in the dark at 7am. They came back outside to check things out at 3pm when the skies brightened up ... only to go back inside where all of them have been sound to sleep since.

Here were their day's activities.

You may be asking where is Heidi?  With the new breakfast plan she went outside in the dark at 7am, came back inside to eat and has been hibernating inside. Here exercise today has been moving among her three sleeping spots.

I've been reading, drinking coffee and enjoying myself on Twitter ... that place has been on fire the past couple of days. Let's just say there are not a lot of happy people throughout our country. Two good basketball games on tab tonight, along with a couple more interesting teams playing. I think ESPN is calling this 24 hours of straight basketball.

Those games will get me to the weekend of college football. Some good books, coffee, sports and the hounds make for a good time here in the tropics of southern Indiana.