Heidi's Basset Hound Skin Issues Stabilize

About this time last year I was taking Heidi to her 2nd new vet in 4 months. The vet changes were an attempt to find the cause and solution to Heidi’s Basset Hound skin issues that exploded at the end of the summer in 2014.

When I adopted her in July 2011, vet records showed she did come with skin allergies that would require treatment. In certain parts of the year, those treatments might be a monthly shot. At the time she was prescribed Ketoconazole but had a steroid shot of Depo Medrol the day before I picked her up.

Over the next 20 months Ketoconazole lost it’s effectiveness, meaning the treatment was not working longer than 2 weeks compared to months in prior years. Her treatment changed to Vetalog steroid injections.

Like the medication before, it eventually became less effective. Her last steroid shot did not last 17 days before her skin was back to where it was before the Vetalog injection. I decided I needed a 2nd opinion.

In October 2014 after an examination I was given a choice between two treatments for her skin condition. I chose Atopica, along with a shampoo prescribed 3x per week. The prescribed plan was daily capsules for 1 month and then decrease the dosage. Her skin never looked better after 30 tablets. I was happy with the skin improvement but she was very lethargic and that concerned me. Due to the severity of long-term use, plus side effects (Heidi was showing), I was reconsidering the choice of having her on a daily dose.

Before Atopica Treatment

After 6 Weeks of Atopic Use

After 6 Weeks of Atopica Use

The goal was 1 tablet per month. We would start cutting back dosage to every other day, then twice per week. Within days of changing the dose to twice per week, her skin condition flared up worse than what it was months before. The vet wanted to move her back to a daily dosage.

With Heidi showing signs of some of the listed side effects, namely very lethargic. She barely made the walk to her food/water bowl, along with zero activity. I decided to discontinue Atopica. Her tail was always lowered and she never did her routine of daily morning sprints around the living room. What I was reading about long-term use was turning me off on the medication.

My decision was not to continue giving her Atopica.

A neighbor is a vet but his office was 16 miles away, a direction I rarely traveled. I decided in January 2015 I’d have John look at her. Basically Heidi’s 3rd vet in a 6 month period. ALL of this is discussed in detail on my blog hosted by Blogger — the older version of this blog.

At that time Heidi’s skin was so bad he did not think she would ever grow hair back on her paws and rear shoulders. Even though he found in his studies that only 3% of canine skin allergies were food related, he suggested a ‘grain free’ dog food, one that I had been feeding her for the past year. I changed brands of ‘grain free food’, with very little improvement.

February 2015

He thought her allergies were more environmental allergies instead of dog food allergies (only 3%). From February until May 2015 I gave her a daily shot of RESPIT. Yet, I was told I may not see any signs of improvement for 6-12 months.

With little to no visible improvement from February – May, I stopped the RESPIT injections. With more research, more emails to friends … I decided to change her food to minimal ingredients and only one protein source. I also decided to take her off all medications.

May 2015

May 2015

May 2015

We traveled west for a week in June 2015. There were no signs that her skin was getting worse in a different environment and a change of dog food to Fromm’s very basic blend with chicken, chicken meal and grains.

With a change back to basic food, with rice and barley, chicken, chicken meal and no medications of any kind … her basset hound skin condition did not get worse. Looking through her file of photos in date sequence I could see slight improvement with hair starting to grow back on her paws, rear shoulder plus her stomach started to clear up.

August 2015

Upon a recommendation from someone who had positive results on their basset hound’s skin condition, I changed to Earthborn Holistic Dog Food, grain free. Multiple sites ranked their food 5-stars. All ingredients are USA based. It is manufactured 70 miles from me, so the cost is below the standard price for dog food of that quality.

I liked the changes of Heidi’s coat and skin at first. After a couple of months she started itching more, almost obsessively, along with a ‘greasy’ feeling to her coat, I could smell yeast from her ears (first time) and skin. I decided it didn’t matter if it was rated 5-stars, I was going to change food brands.

I tried their different protein sources … with the same results.

It was also in June 2015 that she became “skin and bones”. Was it the stress of the camping trip out west? Was it the RESPIT shots I gave her for 90 days? Was there not enough carbs in the ‘no grain’ food to help her maintain her weight? All blood work showed normal readings. The vet could not come up with a reason for her 13 pounds of weight loss in 10 months. In the 2 months prior she had lost 7 of those 13 pounds.

In the past couple of months I have mentioned without going into detail, that I had changed her dog food back to ‘grain’ dog food with only one protein source. I started a probiotic supplement with her food for her immune system in October 2015. Her skin has shown improvement with that supplement and has stabilized. My spreadsheet log for Heidi’s skin condition that I update daily, shows there is not a difference in improvement between ‘grain free’ and dog food with brown rice and barley included.

In fact I find that her skin looks better — longer — feeding her Diamond Naturals with Chicken and Chicken meal as the only protein source. I tried their Lamb blend but within a week her skin flared up enough that I stopped feeding her lamb and lamb meal immediately.

The times I tried Fromm for Large Breed, with duck, chicken and chicken meal being the protein sources, her skin would become red and inflamed within a 7-10 day period. Changing her back to Diamond Naturals, her skin improved.

It is interesting that as the day progresses, not every day, her rear hocks will become red and inflamed. I have changed blankets from wool to cotton — no difference. I have periodically have soaked her with Epsom Salts with mixed results. Sometimes it looks like it makes a difference, other time it looks like the skin is irritated by the Epsom Salts soak.

Bottom line … feeding her Diamond Naturals, with chicken and chicken meal along with the probiotic supplement, there is NO yeast smell coming from her ears or body. Her coat is shiny and soft but not oily and does not smell. Hair has grown back on her paws but not with the normal thickness. Her belly is clear and normal skin color. Her rear shoulders have improved with skin texture that is now the normal softness even though parts of it are bare.

January 2016

Remember the vet in February 2015 didn’t think hair would ever grow back on her paws and rear shoulders based on the severe damage she showed. In that January 2016 photo you can see the white hair on her rear shoulder has tried to fill back in, where in the February 2015 photos above, you can see the hard crusty elephant type skin.

I forgot to add, currently her energy level has never been better … like a puppy. She IS gaining her weight back slowly but surely, 2 pounds at a time it seems. Her tail is wagging and she does her morning sprints around the living room until Stella decides that she wants to play … then Heidi stops.

So, we will stay with the same dog food currently fed. She will still be supplemented with Probiotic Miracle. I have noticed she doesn’t really like having her picture taken with the Nikon D3200 but with an iPhone I no longer have, I am not able to get a picture of her before she moves. Consequently, less really good photos of Heidi are available.

I will continue to post photos and updates on Heidi’s skin condition.

The Hounds Can Eat Anything!

The hounds can eat anything they want from now on. After reading comments from Mary and Russ I decided it was only insanity to keep yelling at them for eating stuff that “I” didn’t want them to eat. I tried that once before and forgot how easy it was to stand outside taking photos of them, or even on the daily walk … it just didn’t matter what they decided to eat.

I thought I’d try this new approach right after their lunch. It worked out fantastic. My blood pressure had decreased to normal levels. My pulse rate was slow and the urge to yell or scream “don’t eat that” was not there.

They were happy and I was happy.

With their happiness in being able to ‘eat free’, they came when I called their names. Although Stella was just a bit distracted at the very end.

 The new policy worked so well I thought I’d tried it on our walk. I had to turn my head a few times but it just didn’t matter … ‘eat whatever you want’. With the sun shining bright and the temps feeling warmer than the 38°, you would have thought that spring was just round the corner.

It was a great walk!

The other night on The Bayfield Bunch, Al had mentioned that he and Kelly both liked McDonald’s coffee and they considered it second only to Tim Horton’s coffee. Al had mentioned it before on his blog, so I decided when I was low on coffee, I’d give it a try.

A few weeks ago I forgot to buy coffee and ran out. It was a 25 mile round trip to buy Seattle’s Best Coffee or Starbuck’s or I could drive about a mile away at the Dollar Store and grab a bag of the McDonald’s coffee and check it out.

I was desperate enough to try it and too lazy to drive the 25 miles to buy what I was sure about.

I was pleasantly surprised. McD’s coffee had a good flavor, no after taste, no bite to it. The only complaint I had, it came in a 12oz bag but wasn’t full and only filled up 1-1/2 of my 2 canning jars that I usually pack to the very top with ground coffee. Did I really get 12 oz of ground coffee?

I did a little ‘clean up’ around the blog today. Moved some pages off of the banner, re-wrote some pages that needed updated with current information. I DID NOT LOOK AT ANY TEMPLATES (WP calls them THEMES). I did not even look to change any of the design or the style of fonts.

I agree with a lot of the readers I’ve heard from … this template is easy to read, see the labels, the test on the sidebars and the red banner is a nice way to divide the header and content.

Tomorrow I hope to take the camera with me on our walk. I am awfully close of letting Stella go leash free on the daily walk. Sadie has been leash free on the walk for years. So, my hands would have room for a camera if Stella could stay around without a leash.

I figure it this way. Have we seen deer on our walks this year? No. Is she leash free when I let her outside, even at night? Yes. So I think I’ll take a chance on the walk and see how she handles it. She has always stopped the couple times something has her interest, when I yelled her name.

So hopefully some different photographs tomorrow.

While we walked today, Heidi did her favorite aerobics ….

That’s about all from the “tropics” of Southern Indiana.

Can't Sadie & Stella Eat Only Dog Food?

It doesn’t matter what dog food I feed them. It doesn’t matter what time of year it is. It doesn’t matter what the temperature is or if there is snow on the ground. Sometime in the past 6-7 months, Sadie has decided to eat gross stuff in the field anytime she can get the chance. In the past month Stella has picked up on Sadie’s habit and has decided to join the fun.

They started their day like any other day, noses to the ground and off they went. Stella did have to start with a scratch before she could join Sadie. Oblivious to any of my commands to them or hearing their name called. That is the typical bloodhound though, so it’s not a surprise.

Here they are both in the concentration phase of their exploration. They hear nothing.

Glancing through my 200mm lens … sure enough, Sadie is ‘gobbling’ something down fast before I yell at her. She doesn’t know that I can see her and plays it off like nothing happened when she came back to the house.

Stella on the other hand wanted to show me how good she was when her name was called. She forgot to finish her ‘gobbling’ before returning. She also acted innocent and claimed nothing was going on.

We will see how the day progresses here in the ‘tropics’ of Southern Indiana.

Thinking Of Past RV Decisions

First of all you will notice the new blog theme. I was looking around this morning at different themes I had found through my Google search and this one, called “Flat” jumped out at me. I’ve looked at hundreds of themes this past week and nothing ‘hit’ me like this one. So along with the permanent move to a hosted site and a domain ending in .net, I also have a theme that I feel will last a long time. Let me know if you have any problems with it loading, reading it on your smart phones and those that have tablets.

~~~ Found the sidebar on the new theme was too hard to read. Some where having problems loading the page. Voted to “go back to the white with red banner” ~~~

I don’t know why or where the thoughts of different RVs struck me but I did a quick journey back through RV Memory Lane. Not all the way but back to the 2013 summer. Long time readers remember that I have changed my mind a million times on motorhomes, trailers, trucks, tow vehicles … the list is long.

I will say that after I did all of this analysis again, I still feel I made the best decision of not selling the house and even not buying a motorhome nor a trailer. I’ll not go into details again about the pros and cons, but my ‘home base’ is paid for, low property taxes, great location and not much more than routine maintenance. As far as trailers or motorhomes go … how would I have been able to handle those last few weeks with Winston? Or fitting a 2nd large tall bloodhound into a small trailer?

So here is a short recap and photos of things I either passed on, bought and sold. In all cases, money had been put down for a purchase and not completed most of the time.

The Summer of 2013 I put a down payment on a refurbished Casita trailer, local seller and a tremendous refurbish job. I backed out of the deal because of the lack of space for a bloodhound and two basset hounds. Now in January 2016, that would be two bloodhounds that would have had to fit inside withe me and Heidi … I would had to sell it. It was a great trailer though, someone got a great deal.

It was sometime in August 2013 I had put a deposit on the 2013 Starcraft AR-ONE 17RD trailer. The only delay was their prepping the trailer for delivery. Those couple of days gave me time to 2nd guess my decision and change my mind. I really liked that trailer, although I am not sure how it would have done as a full-time trailer.

September 2013, Winston, Sadie and Heidi head to Arkansas to pick up the Lil Snoozy Trailer I had decided to buy. Hours before closing the deal I changed my mind and didn’t buy it. You can read about that 586 mile trip here.

It wasn’t 2 weeks later after backing out of the deal on the Lil Snoozy trailer and blogging that I would not travel with 3 hounds … blah blah blah, I turned right around and bought a 2003 Coachman 258db from a local seller. A week after I purchased it, due to a large oil leak, I had to replace the oil lines from the oil filter halfway back to the oil cooler in the radiator. (Thank you YouTube). I let it sit through the winter and sold it the 2nd day of great spring weather.

The day I bought it Sadie, Winston and Heidi gave it a close inspection … decided it was the way to go … it wasn’t long before Sadie used her Bloodhound Property Laws and claimed the couch as hers. That’s Winston in the driver’s seat.

 

 It snowed a lot that winter in the ‘tropics’ of Southern Indiana … It was a good ‘leak test’ for the Class C.

In May 2014, on a whim, I bought a 2006 Chevy 2500 HD 4×4 short bed pickup truck. My friend had just pulled it onto his used car lot for sale, minutes before I stopped by to just visit. With a bigger tow vehicle than the 2006 H3 Hummer I had at the time, I investigated truck campers and larger trailers. I kept this truck for only a month. It was a great truck but when I saw my current 2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser for sale online, I traded the truck for the FJ and that put me back int the area of small trailers.

It was toward the end of May in 2014, about a week after getting the Toyota FJ, that I drove up to Northern Indiana to take a look at someone’s Escape 19′ trailer. It wasn’t for sale but that is the way Escape Trailers in Canada work. They will hook you up with someone as close to you as possible, so you can take a look, if you express interest in their trailers. I lost a large deposit on that decision when I backed out of it. Fantastic trailer though. IF I were to buy a trailer in the future, the Escape 19′ or 17′ would be the one.

It was sometime in June 2014 that I came to the conclusion I wasn’t traveling full-time with two basset hounds and a bloodhound. I would continue to downsize here at home, enjoy what I had and the area I lived. I had the feeling of contentment from that point forward. Yes, there have been times those thoughts of traveling come back to the forefront … but never as intense as they were from October 2011 – June/July 2014. We did travel for a week or so last June 2015. It was a great trip and I found out that it is possible with 3 hounds. Although the number of bloodhounds and basset hounds changed since that time.

I guess all of this is like me changing themes (templates) on my blog frequently, only this is not as drastic financially.

Sadie and Stella had a great walk through the field today here in the ‘tropics’ of Southern Indiana.

An Enjoyable Monday

An enjoyable Monday … those three words were rarely spoken in the years that I worked. Sure, I’d have good days at work, even Mondays, but starting the night before on Sunday I would always seem to dread the thought of going to work on Monday. That was different last night because I was sure of what I wanted to do today and by early afternoon if not before, I had finished what I planned on.

That plan was moving my blog once again from the WordPress free side to my own domain. So I have two domains, the same name except one ends in .com and this one ends in .net. That is something I’ve been thinking about doing for over the last couple of years.

I am already finding it much easier to come to one site, load images, post and do any of the editing work I need to do in the background. I’ve updated some pages that are located on the red banner across the blog. It was also easier to download images from my Apple Photos program into just one folder instead of four different folders, so they could be uploaded into this blog.

Just a couple of days ago setting up each of the hounds with their own blogs, they had their own folders for their blog photos to be uploaded into their blogs. I’ve always had separate folders for them in iPhoto and Photos.

Needless to say I have not heard even one objection from Sadie, Stella and even Heidi about losing their blogs. They must be okay with the new arrangement. At times I’ll add their ‘point of views’ to my blog post that day. They are still opinionated, still demanding at times and still spoiled. They will enjoy the additional time they will get with me spending less time on only 1 blog instead of 4 blogs.

With the temperature starting the day in the upper 30’s, it felt like spring had arrived compared to the single digit temps less than a week ago. Sadie, Stella and I started an afternoon walk but the ground had become so saturated with the above freezing temperature, it was very soft and muddy. We turned back to the house after only a few steps into the walk. Back inside they were given a couple of treats for wasting their time and letting me clean the mud off their paws.

Heidi? She didn’t do anything outside her normal routine of sleeping. She headed outside mid-afternoon and this is the only photo I was able to get of her. She is fast when she goes out and back in, rarely ‘posing’ for a photo. For concerned readers, she has gained a few pounds since her weight loss last summer. She is being fed twice per day and twice the amount recommended on the dog food bag. She saw the vet just last week for her annual check up. The vet is looking at some other possible causes for her weight loss, otherwise Heidi tested out “a healthy basset hound with a strong heart and a nice soft shiny coat”.

Sadie and Stella are still finding a lot of new scents to smell since the snow has melted yet that also leads to potentially new things for them to eat. It’s stuff that I don’t want them eating. Maybe I should just say heck with it and don’t look as they are gobbling down their fiber found in the field.  :)

No matter what, they always come running to the house when I yell anything about ‘eating’ or just the words ‘milk bone’.

Although the clouds became dark as the afternoon progressed, the winds picked up, it was still high 40’s today in the ‘tropics’ of Southern Indiana.

It's Too Much "Work" For Retirement

It’s not really surprising, at least not for me. It was something I questioned in the back of my mind during the time of writing down ideas and putting some of them into action. Did I really want to do this?

Multiple blogs, different accounts feeding into those blogs to generate new traffic. Spending time on the internet on other blogs, making comments to increase visibility of the hound blogs. Did I really want to make a commitment to do this?

Based on working full-time online from 2005 – 2008 and then part time around a job from 2009 – 2011, I know how much effort it takes to build an online business and even more time to maintain it. It is time consuming and hard work. It’s just not showing up on occasion to post on a blog or read those blogs of others.

Yes, I’m talking about the 3 different websites for the hounds – plus the plan to add Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus accounts for each of them. That is not what I want online. I do not want nor maintain that many online accounts. Less is better in my eyes.

I didn’t retire to work a different job, nor to work part-time. I retired to kick-back, do the least amount possible, downsize commitments and responsibilities — along with that, I was willing to live with a lot less income than I had been living on working. Some days in retirement means doing absolutely nothing and I am enjoying it!

Moab Area Hwy 128

So, there will be no Facebook, Twitter or Google Plus accounts for the hounds. I am not even sure if I’ll maintain their websites.

It was less than a year ago where I decided to take a break from blogging not really sure I was even coming back to blog. I did and I am glad I did. That is, working only 1 blog, not 4 plus my personal private journal. Last February I deleted my Google Plus account. I shut off my Facebook account and spent less time away from the computer. It felt fantastic.

How would that work with 4 different websites and all those other accounts?

Rifle Gap SP, Colorado

So it WAS something I kept thinking about while spending the past week building the sites, moving them etc. Was it something I really wanted to do, knowing it required a large commitment. All that was good and fun to do, even with the frustrations. Why? Because I was able to complete the job even with the frustrations. It was also something I needed for my frame of mind at that time. Too much dwelling on things is never healthy.

Now for all those readers that love reading about the hounds from their point of view … that will still take place. Those views will be posted on this blog, not every post but just as much as was being said on their own sites.

That is something I will think about. I’m sure some are asking if you can write their points of view here, then why not over their on their sites? That’s a good question. Is it worth $125 per year for hosting cost and domains. Okay…so I could move their blogs back to the free side of WordPress.

That’s the thing though … I don’t want to post on 4 different blogs/websites. I want to come to one blog and cover all of their and my activities.

The purpose of this blog remains the same as it did when I started the blog in October 2011. I wanted to document what I found out in my RV research, and any travels we did. That gradually turn into the direction of blogging about life here in the ‘tropics’. Then it was less RV talk and more photos and posting about the hounds or whatever projects I had to do around home.

That’s the way this blog will continue.

I cannot make the commitment to run a whole dog life online. I still want our lives to be less online and more in real time. As the weather gets warmer, as in the past, I will be spending less time on the computer as will the hounds. There will be more photography with better weather but that still means less computer time and more ‘living’ time.

We still have plans to travel this spring and/or summer. We still have plans to blog about what we do (even at home) and where we go … we just don’ have plans of waking up everyday with a job to do.

Retirement in the ‘tropics’ of Southern Indiana means not working !!

Now What??

Basically the websites of the 3 hounds are up and running. There are a few more things to add to the sidebars but basically the majority of the work is finished. The feeling an ‘ex workaholic” gets when working non-stop is gone.

So, now what?  What’s next?

When I shut down my computer last night I was reminded of the time last June while sitting at the picnic table on a beautiful Colorado day, at Rifle Gap SP, thinking to myself “now what?”

Both seemed to be very similar in feeling but so much different in the task. One was building websites with most of the hard work furnished, so there wasn’t major building involved. It’s not like I was writing code, which I don’t know how to do. Yet, there is a lot of work to get the website/blog designed and working correctly … times 3 or 4 if you count mine.

Whereas in traveling, there was the planning, the packing, getting the hounds situated to travel, non-stop driving, setting up the campsite and then sitting back with a feeling “that’s all finished … now what do I do?”

Weird comparison isn’t it?

Not much was planned for today except watching some college basketball before the two NFL Playoff games play back to back (almost 7 solid hours of football). Not only am I out of high-speed data, using my 1gig yesterday for $10 … but I am also out of food and no motivation to go shopping. The life of being a single sports/computer addict.

Not much of a post today … I guess I need to look through the old photos I have on file and post some here. This blog is more about photos than just plain commentary.

On a side note … traffic reports show that 50% of my blog traffic has deserted me and has moved over to the websites of Stella, Sadie and Heidi, now following the hounds … so much for thinking you and your content were the reason people were coming back to read your blog … lol

It’s was a cold but beautiful sunny day in the ‘tropics’ of Southern Indiana today.