Heidi Is In Hiding

I don’t believe Heidi was feeling good yesterday. Her activity level was even lower than her normal one. Her stool late evening looked like she might be sick. This morning she was up before anyone, with a full body shake with flapping basset hound ears waking me up as daybreak shined through the window.

The bloodhounds and I chose not to get up at that time, nor do a full body shake.

Later, daily morning routines were followed. Seems just like another day, but it’s Friday. That use to be my favorite day of my work week. Now in retirement every day is a Friday to me … it’s great.

While Heidi stayed in bed, the bloodhounds did their 1st thing in the morning search and destroy mission. They always like to see who or what has been in their yard, field, under the cars, or behind the chair. I suspect it is the cat I see at times in the field past midnight. Her eyes shine bright when the flashlight catches them.

As you can tell from the photos, Sadie and Stella didn’t do much. Where are the days where they would start wrestling or playing as soon as their paws touched the yard?

Instead Stella started off with long scratch.

Sadie went looking for her first diet supplement of the day, while I walked across the frozen grass to the piece of land I cleared just last April and is now a part of the yard. I’ll set a chair out there this spring, even though I hate having to mow around things. One of the reasons my yard is pretty plain.

I had my first test this morning to see if the “new policy” was going to work. Sadie had found her first ‘dietary supplement’ today.

While Al, over at The Bayfield Bunch said last night that snow is in his Congress Arizona forecast, I am looking at sunshine and temperatures to hit the upper 50’s today. In the Midwest. In the month of January. In the middle of winter.

As you see in these last photos, the hounds are heading for the house. Not one minute was spent on playing … that started as soon as they took a step inside the house. It never lasts long before they stop with Stella chewing her Nylabone and Sadie laying in the corner of the living room, with her back against the vintage 1975 paneled wall.

Before I go I want to talk a little about Internet Browsers. My satellite internet account started the first day of the billing cycle yesterday so my speeds were back in the 12-14Mbps range. I had 15Gb on the counter for the next 30 day billing period. Once I hit my limit of 15Gb per month of data a few days ago, my internet speed reduced to the “old days” of dial-up connections. I was turning a .44Mbps for the last couple of days. Yes, that is a ‘point’ you see before the 44.  :)

So I keep a close eye on my data’s burn rate, tracking it daily in an Excel spreadsheet. (of course). I also have an Activity Monitor open at all times on my 2nd monitor just in case a file downloads that I am not expecting. I have ALL automatic updates turned off. I also have caught those unexpected downloads before, that can burn a Gb of data in a matter of a minute.

But that does not stop Google. I glanced up at that Activity Monitory last night, I’m not sure why. What I see sent me into a panic state but I’m still thinking clearly. I have been through this drill before … the Activity Monitor chart is maxed out in blue … something is downloading and taking a 100% of my cpu. I tried to force quit … it was relentless. I ended closing Google Chrome and the file went away.

By the time I got the file download stopped, a day’s worth of data had sprinted thought my hard drive. Gone! Just like that.

I do a quick search on the file name and find it its an update by Google for any Google products you are using, even if they are closed on your computer. Different articles were saying the same thing “it acts like a virus” but it’s only a Google update for all of their programs downloaded on your computer.

As much as I like using Google Chrome as my browser, after that I decided it was time to change. Firefox or Safari. All my bookmarks (favorites) are the same on all three browsers. Safari is faster, Firefox is more secure. I’d love to use Safari but I cannot stand the gray tabs and the bookmark bar. Gray gray gray … give me some color. Give me those website icons across the bookmark bar, for the sites I’ve added as a favorite.

So this morning I am switching back and forth between Safari and Firefox. Everything is updated. Firefox updated to 44.0 yesterday. Safari seemed faster last night but today Firefox is fast so that is my browser choice for today.

In the meantime, Google Chrome has been deleted, uninstalled … whatever from my desktop computer as well as my laptop.

My data meter is looking great this morning, as the sun is shining in the ‘tropics’ of Southern Indiana.

Stella Does The Dog Walk Unleashed

We had just gone outside, a typical break from the indoors, that happens throughout the day. After taking a couple of photos of them in the yard I decided “why not?” … let’s go for a walk … no leashes. Of course when I said “let’s go for a walk”, out of habit Sadie and Stella came running toward the house. Normally I would have gone back inside to get the retractable leash to connect to Stella.

We took off, the Nikon D3200 with the 55-200mm lens in my hand and the hounds walking leash free.

Stella performed just like I expected she would. Under control, with Sadie. She never ran away. She came running towards Sadie and I when we started the trip back home, because she realized how far ahead of her we were.

I’ll let the photos tell the story.

A beautiful day here in the ‘tropics’ of Southern Indiana.

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.