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.

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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.

Heidi Improved Today

The day started the normal pace of slow but by the end of the day a lot was done. There was a wide range of activity, except housework :) There is always tomorrow for that. :) :) Tonight is movie night and the feature is The Revenant. I was really surprised it was not sold out since it was released only yesterday. Usually movies that popular are sold out by the time the DVD is on the shelf.

The hounds napped, ate lunch. I did a little more reading about dog yeast infections that Heidi was diagnosed in December 2014. As you remember last Friday we changed her food to Grain Free Earthborn Great Plains Feast ... and the important change was NO POTATOES, sweet or white, then of course no grains. As far as shampoos go, it was suggested none of the oatmeal shampoos ... of course I missed that some way when I read the article in December 2014.

Sadie and Stella are being taught NOT to go down the driveway. In this case I am going to the mailbox by the highway. They are never allowed in the front yard just because of the highway. They are getting better and will stop when I yell "no". If thy get 1/4 of the way down, I go back up immediately and take them inside.

I looked on Chewy and Amazon at different dog shampoo, plus customer reviews. Something called Burt's Bees struck me as something to try. One blend even had green tea but that was for calming. I was wanting something to relieve the itching, plus good for her skin. I came up with this. I was about to place an order on Amazon but just in the nick of time I held off ... because I was heading to "WallyWorld" to pick up that movie for tonight, some groceries and some other house stuff.

I never look at dog stuff at WallyWorld ... but there it was. Almost $3 cheaper than Chewy and Amazon, plus 3 different kinds of Burt's Bee Shampoo to choose from. Needless to say, my shopping trip was a success.

By the time I arrived home, I blocked the bloodhounds from jumping in the back of my FJ on top of my groceries ... I decided to give Heidi a bath. She needed it. I had put on some Aloe Vera gel on those hot spots this morning. She had a lot of skin residue from her scratching ... she needed to be shampooed, not just soaked in Epsom Salts and rinsed.

For readers that started reading the blog in the past six months, this skin issue is nothing new. When I bought her from GABR in June 2012, she had minor skin issues but that just went crazy in September 2014. You can click different labels on the right lower sidebar to read about all the issues and treatment.

This is nothing new. Basically everything has been tried from 4 different vets, dog food, shampoo, etc ... it's all there on the side bar to read.

This photo was taken within 30 minutes after her bath, so the skin still shows some redness, possibly from the shampoo and warm water but it looked much better soon after we started the walk.

The shampoo worked really well. Her skin really clean up well and those ugly looking rear hocks were soft and clean. After getting her almost dry I figured she could dry off faster with a little exercise so we were out the door for the late afternoon walk. After the walk, she traded itching nonstop for sleeping ... so she must feel a lot better after her bath.

She took off  on the walk right from the start, had a big lead, tail wagging ... that shampoo must have helped with feeling clean again. During this walk she trotted and ran more than any other time since she started to join us again. I will also have a clean skin surface when I try the Wounded Warrior Ointment when it arrives in the mail either tomorrow or Thursday.

I noticed on the walk that her legs, stomach and tops of her paws were a natural tan color. Her rear stomach was all clean and nothing irritated, it was almost a pale tan just as it should be. The only marks on her stomach were on the sides where she had scratched herself raw. Her armpits looked great as well as under her neck. There was no redness or allergy type irritation.

So with normal color skin, more energy and a lot more active around the house ... 3 days since we started making her go into the field to walk, she has shown more improvement than I can remember.

Of coarse Stella lagged behind a couple of times to get her running in. I'm sure she does that just so she can run ... she loves it.

Some more good news. I was gone for almost 3 hours and Stella must have slept the whole time I was gone because there was ZERO damage when I got back. She has been on a good streak but those trips were 45 minutes to an hour and a half, nothing this long. So slowly but surely her separation anxiety is getting better.

While Heidi trotted home, Sadie even got into the running act and did a little herself toward the end of the walk. I can tell she is losing weight this month. That's good for her and her hips as she ages.

I had my oil changed in the Toyota FJ while I shopped ... I was asked if I wanted to sell it when I went to the counter to pay and get my keys. Surprising they would ask that, since there are dirt footprints from the hounds, a lot of dog hair and a lot of bloodhound drool on the dash. I have another car for carrying passengers, the few I have ...  the very few in fact ... so the FJ can get "lived in" all it wants. I told him it was a great vehicle and no desire to sell it.

It's a beautiful early evening here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.