The Hounds Enjoy My Retirement

I couldn't come up with a title for this post this morning. That doesn't mean I can't put a post together and give it some time to 'simmer' and hopefully the day will come up with something to put in that title block. The rain did not show up again yesterday, while my friend in Chicago told me she had 2" in less than 15 minutes yesterday. We are a few hundred miles south of Chicago. Like always the bloodhounds lead me outside to start a new day. If it weren't for them I wonder if I would take as many walks per day? I think I would.

I still think this is the prettiest flower in the field, no matter how dangerous it is.

I felt on Sadie's right side this morning, no change. It's not gushy with fluid, it's not hard like a rock, it's a bit smaller in area and it feels just like it would if you felt her stomach ... there's still a small lump.

Verbal herding was needed this morning and a lot of it. They did not hear the bribes I was offering them for when they returned to the house. They did not hear me mumbling to myself. They did not hear anything I told them ... nada, zip ... nothing.

I have a new container of K9 Creme that I am going to apply on Stella's elephant spots. Hopefully that will work and it will show if it does or not in the following blog posts for the next few weeks, maybe months, or longer.

Here is the only photo I could get of Sadie's right side ... she wasn't thrilled about it. If my eyes are focused correctly, I can barely see that fatty tissue ... can you?

With the morning temps in the mid-70's, it was nice and cool each time we walked in the shade. When we made the first turn, a slight cool breeze hit me from the NE ... I could tell it was going to be another nice day here in 'the tropics' ... you cannot beat summer weather like this. The Farmer's Almanac predicted it would be wetter than normal this summer ...

If you are wondering, yes I did have to backtrack and take a hold of Stella's collar to get her to move. She was in the same position you see even after I grabbed her collar and refused to move. She didn't growl ... just didn't move.

A little color in the field.

From a distance the 7 acre field looks flat. It's not. There are not large hills but there is plenty of rolling terrain as these two regular size rolls of hay show. The times I have walked from the woods up ahead, back to our direction in that area, the incline looks tall and steep.

How long will the hay sit in this field before they load it onto a trailer and take it away.

That might look like Stella is increasing her walking speed, don't let it fool you ... one paw at a time ... slow slow slow.

A smaller roll and was probably the last bale the did. It was rather a poor outcome with about 50% of the hay they normally get from the first cut of the summer.

Hard to see but the trees near the house show the slight breeze from the NE.

Is it food she smells, does she hear people talking, or is it some kind of other noise?

When everything seems to be green, including the house (painted to blend into the environment) ... this bright red leaf stood out 100' away.

I did a flea search on Stella last night with one of those metal flea combs that will bring a flea to the surface ... not one flea was found. So it has to be allergies, maybe environmental? Pollen? Grass?

Allergies reminded me of all the different kinds of Grain Free Food I was feeding the hounds a couple of years ago. I found this article this morning to be interesting and concerning. If you feed your dogs Grain Free Food ... take a look.

FDA warns pet owners about the dangers of Grain Free Food ... here.

Since February of 2017 all three of the hounds have been on Chicken and Rice or Lamb and Rice without the long list of fruits and veggies. I stuck with it because it because Heidi got results in battling her skin issues and Stella's coat was softer than ever plus she started gaining her weight back. Sadie's coat was also and continues to be softer than ever.

A vet told me when he was looking at Heidi at her worst, in his study on food allergies for dogs, only 3% of those allergies were food related. He said they had found that one cause was the beef in Heartworm meds. Yet, Heidi never responded to treatment in 2015 (?) with environmental allergy meds. She did not respond to Grain Free Food but she did respond to a food with fewer ingredients.

Of course I have a spreadsheet to compare all the different foods I fed the hounds, listed by each ingredient.

The following photos are going to give you a pretty good idea of the daily routine of the hounds after their lunch. I don't know why, but rarely do they do anything more than this. Today was very nice outside, nice enough to sit outside and just enjoy the day ... but it wasn't more than 15 minutes where they wanted back inside.

They don't understand that it's a life of retirement that gives them this opportunity in the middle of the day. A little over 4 years of me being retired and I still enjoy each and every day as they do also.

Obviously from the photos you can see they do a lot of thinking about possible plans or scents to check out that they missed in the morning.

With Stage 10 of the Tour de France being in the Alps today, it was nice to watch that in the middle of the day, fast forwarding through the 3 minute commercials. Fantastic shots of the Alps taken from the aerial tv cameras during the race. It's really unbelievable country and villages in France.

It looks like Stella could sleep there all afternoon but she was at the door wanting back inside within 10 minutes after Sadie, Heidi and I had gone inside.

Of course after watching all of that bike riding up 7% - 9% mountain grades, for over 100 miles having a few flat sections between climbs all of us were exhausted by the time their 4 hour race was over. They moved from their living room sleeping spots to the bedroom floor while all of us took a nice long siesta. Just another advantage of being retired.

The highlight of the night will be watching the MLB All-Star game. I will not tune in until after all the 'made for tv' introductions are finished. I will miss all of the pre-game festivities. I just like watching the game itself. Anymore it seems like the MLB, NBA, and the NFL all try to be more extravagant than the other sports All-Star games or the NFL Super Bowl. As a long time sports fan I will say it's all out of control anymore ... a topic I find very irritating.

Although it was 88°, the cooler wind from the north made it possible to take a late afternoon walk. Sadie took her normal path while I walked Stella on the retractable leash.

Another fantastic day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Thinking And Thoughts About Dog Food

This article is one of two reasons for this blog post.

Sometime back around 1987 when I had my first basset hound, Harry ... is when I first read about harmful ingredients in dog food. At that time the word was "ethoxyquin". It was found by a husky breeder who happened to be a chemist and raced her dogs in the Iditarod. Her litters were having deformed puppies. She thought ethoxyquin to be the cause.

Ethoxyquin is a quinoline-based antioxidant used as a food preservative and pesticide to control scald on pears after harvest. It is commonly used as a preservative in pets foods to prevent the rancidification of fats.

Ethoxyquin is the same thing used in rubber tires.

Within a few years of media exposure, it was no longer included in most dog foods as a preservative. It was then I started buying "premium" dog food. Still for the next 28 years my analytical mind was always asking if it really made a difference.

Even before Heidi's skin problems, where they increased this past year, I had hounds that itched, scratched, licked even on premium dog food. Some bassets lived older than 10 years old yet a couple of them died from cancer before the age of 7. All of them had eaten what was considered premium dog food.

A large percentage of dog food companies have had recalls for one reason or another. Very few have never had a recall, Fromm is one.

So why is this the topic of today's blog post? It's a combination of me searching for a dog food that Heidi can eat and results in her skin improving back to 100% healthy ... plus ... this article I ran onto yesterday.

You can read it here.

As I have stated in past blogs, I have kept an Excel spreadsheet on every penny I have earned and every penny I have spent since 1998. Each expense is labeled and categorized with a monthly average. I then compare those monthly averages to the averages from the prior year. This has really helped in controlling my spending and catching "leaks" within my budget over the year.

One of the items that has increased in costs annually is ... dog food ... by a large margin. The bags get smaller and the price gets higher.

Yes, the number of dogs would change that average but also the cost per bag changes that average. When you have the same number of hounds, eating the same food and the same quantities over a period of years, it is pretty easy to see the increase in costs.

Of course that formula changed for my monthly average spent this past August 30, when I added Stella to the herd of hounds.

I've always asked myself if "grocery store" brands of dog food are so bad, why are they still in business? Purina/Nestle is 80+ years old, why aren't they shut down? Why are all the breeders that won at the largest dog show of the year, in every category, feeding their show dogs Purina Pro Plan? They have won the past 3 years in all categories.

Or why is meat by-products or chicken by-products so bad when you will find a stray dog or wolf eating most parts of any animal they will kill to eat. I know there is a difference between raised chickens and wild animals in nature. That article brought out some information that made me think even more about why I am feeding my hounds what I am.

Is ground corn really better than potatoes like the article states? Does it really matter that blueberries are part of the diet of my hounds? Even though our hounds are like family and loved like family, they are still dogs. Some dogs even like eating poop. That puts it in perspective when you are analyzing dog food ingredients deeper and deeper and are being told all those fruits and veggies are important for dogs.

I know that the genetic makeup of all dogs are different. I know that all dogs will react differently to different foods. I know that no matter what you do, eventually they will die or have health problems during their lifetime.

Have pet owners been lied to? Has the marketing of dog food into a billion dollar business influenced the common pet owner in what they feed their dogs by a lack of research?

-  If the cheaper dog foods are so bad, why are they still in business?
-  Why isn't their more media published reports telling that only 3% of dog allergies are due to food?
-  Are the premium dog food companies trying to hide something by not testing their ingredients in depth?
-  How can a dog live to be 14-15 years old eating that "grocery store" brand dog food?
-  Why do "grocery store" brand dog foods have high customer reviews?

I don't want to start a firestorm over this ... pet owners know that most dog food forums, Facebook dog groups and dog food reviews are full of angry verbal battles fighting over what to feed a dog and what makes a good or bad pet owner ... but feel free to comment about the linked article, my questions and blog post.

I just find the whole dog food business quite remarkable at times.

Don't worry ... I'm writing a hound blog post with photos right after I hit the publish button on this one.

Dog Food Analysis Again For Heidi

It turned out to be another beautiful day here in 'the tropics of Southern Indiana. I am not sure why but after getting up and staying up this morning the hounds never begged to go walking. They had breakfast and slept almost to the time of lunch.

During that time I started going back over my notes and spreadsheet where I have been tracking Heidi's skin issues, and what kind of food I was feeding her. I've been tracking that in a spreadsheet since last summer. She was doing pretty well and then a few days ago broke out bad enough that she was chewing her paws down inside her pads, scratching her armpits, skin became irritated.

Paws and armpits led me to believe she had a yeast infection ... although she did not have that yeasty smell nor did her ears have any yeast smell or infection. Reviewing some notes I took last year and some websites I saved I was reminded to keep her from eating grains, potatoes or sweet potatoes.

Well a lot of the grain free food I have been giving her had sweet potatoes. Then when I moved to Fromm and Diamond Naturals, those had grain but I knew that and was trying to put weight on her.

Then last night in the Bloodhound Group on Facebook that I follow, someone had posted photos of skin issues on their bloodhound that looked just like Heidi's neck. Multiple answers below were calling it a yeast infection. So from that I thought I was on the right track.

Here is the confusing part ... my spreadsheet shows her skin was the best these past 9 months when feeding her the Fromm for Large Breeds which has brown rice, oatmeal, but no potatoes. The times I fed her grain free food, the average rating for the month was not as good as when I was feeding her the Fromm food with grains but still below 3.

I rate her skin on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being the best.

Some notes I also logged on the sheet had "the best skin ever" ... but glancing a column over I saw that I was feeding her food with grains. So is it a yeast infection or is it because spring has arrived and the grass seeds and other plants are in the air?

This is nothing new ... I've asked all of the same questions before, over and over. Tested and used different foods, different treatments. After going back and forth most of the day I have decided to feed Heidi either Earthborn or Fromm Gold Adult.

I also need to stick with one kind of food instead of chasing her tail with different kinds while trying to find the one that works best for her skin. The 4 different vets I've seen over the past 18 months have different opinions on treatment and what food to feed.

I had someone ask me last night by email if Heidi's skin was normal above her rear legs. Actually that is normal Basset Hound skin but what makes it look so bad it is not covered by hair.

Here is the only photo I could find of her a few days after I brought her home in July 2011. You can see the folded skin on her rear hocks but they are covered with hair, as they should be. With her reputation of being "a runner" she was still being tethered whenever we went outside. It was not long afterward I found out that she didn't feel like keeping that reputation once she got here.

So mid-afternoon while Heidi slept in the sun on one of her favorite spots in the living room, Sadie, Stella and I jumped into the FJ for a trip to get Heidi's dog food. During the 30 minute drive I was still thinking which food to buy.

Between the email Fromm dog food sent me last spring about skin allergies, my previous notes and information I read this morning I decided to go with Earthborn Great Plains Feast (not affiliate link). With her thin build I want to build more muscle, hopefully some weight ... I also wanted:

• No grains
• No potatoes, no sweet potatoes
• No chicken or chicken meal
• I wanted a high percentage of fat and protein.

It is also the same blend of Earthborn dog food I bought last July for the first time. With 38% protein and 18% fat I am hoping that will put some weight on her. The 28# bag should last her almost 8 weeks. I plan to follow a suggestion and stay with this food for 16 weeks to completely cleanse her system of the dog food eaten in the past and will post updates.

Before that trip in the FJ though, we had our afternoon walk in fantastic weather. Stella was wandering at the back brush line when I came outside but when I started walking she came running toward Sadie and I. When I asked if they were ready for a walk, Sadie came trotting .. she was ready.

It was a pretty laidback walk, hardly any running yet they were panting a little bit with the temps finally over 70°.

I took some photos of the wooded area, plus what I call the gully, where I don't want Sadie or Stella running down to the bottom. That is a steep incline down through those trees.

This is the brush area where there seems to be a lot of deer traffic.

The base of those trees is still not the bottom of the gully as it curves to the left from where this photo is taken.

By the time we returned from the trip for dog food, Stella decided the best place to be was feeling the cool breeze and getting some more sunshine. She loves to ride and also lay in the sun.

I am happy the dog food decision is settled. With the $5 increase in price for the 28# bag it is still affordable for Heidi. I notice the recommended serving sizes are smaller than what I have been feeding her.

Another relaxed day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Something New For Heidi's Treatment

First of all this is what I consider a very long post and doesn't have a lot of photos. It's more of a collection of my thoughts today on Heidi's current skin issues and where to go from here ... again!! I will post later about Stella's and Sadie's daily activities.

The photos below were taken this morning and is the starting point for another idea of treatment. Based on what I read about yeast infections recently and last year I have decided to try the water/vinegar mixture the article talks about. Diet changes were already made last month with no-grain food and no potatoes of any kind in the kibble. The vet states those promote yeast growth.

After my friend who has a PhD as a Physical Therapist, who not only suggested I try the Wounded Warrior Ointment but made a special trip to buy it and ship it to me ... agreed with me that we were not seeing any differences in Heidi's skin late Sunday afternoon after using the ointment for eighteen days.

I decided after that to give Heidi a 20 minute soak with warm water and epsom salts. I rinsed those areas with plain cold water afterward. She seemed to scratch less Sunday night but still spent a lot of time licking her paws.

By Monday morning I was seeing signs of improvement. I was happy with what I saw and posted that I planned to give her a soak at least every three days or more often depending on what her skin looked like.

From Sunday night until this morning, I've been reading a lot of different websites. Some of those I found, some were sent to me by readers via email. One reader, a retired nurse, suggested in a comment on Monday night that maybe I should try a daily epsom salt soak for ten days and see if that would help killing the infection.

I was about to try that until I started my reading and searching on websites. It is an option I will still consider doing after I try this latest treatment that I picked up last month and again yesterday when reading about Yeast Infections. If this doesn't work then I'll try the daily epsom salt soak.

The reason I didn't decide to go with the tens days of epsom salt soaks at this time, was because of what her skin looked like Tuesday and Wednesday morning. I gave her another soak on late Monday night with the plan of doing it every day for ten days.

Tuesday morning the redness was gone. Yet the places where her skin is raw or has little hair, was hard and crusty. It had lost the suppleness it showed with the Wounded Warrior Ointment. Over night she had scratched a lot and by Wednesday morning there were flakes of skin were all over her blanket ... just thick with skin flakes.

I was still in the middle of reading websites on Tuesday so I decided to hold off on the epsom salt soak for that day. Taking a day off from that soak, Wednesday morning her skin was inflamed, really red and she had chewed a couple of spots raw.

These photos taken this morning actually look better than her skin looks in the flesh. Her skin looks a lot more red than this. Notice the bright read spot on her right paw.

Her skin under her neck has been this way for such a long time. The K9 Klear cream used last winter, nor the Wounded Warrior Ointment made any changes to her skin under her neck. All vets have seen it but have not made a recommendation. This is similar skin to what is below each of her ears along the sides of her face. That gold color stain is from the Wounded Warrior Ointment.

I am saying she has a yeast infection again because I can smell a definite yeast smell. The vet article calls for a cup of vinegar for a gallon of water. I did not want to mix that much at one time but did have a smaller container that was 48 ounces of water and that equated to 3.2 ounces of white vinegar.

I planned to put this mixture in a spray bottle but all the spray bottles I have held something else at one time. I want to use a new, cleaned bottle for this mixture.

Just like the water she drinks, the water in this mixture is filtered water.

Without a spray bottle I applied the mixture with cotton balls. You are suppose to towel it off and let the mixture dry. I applied it by dabbing the cotton ball and leaving it on any skin that was red/raw.

Before I bought her from the rescue service in June 2011, her vet paperwork showed they had diagnosed her with Atopic Dermatitis. This is the same diagnosis my local vet said in December 2014.

At the time she said she smelled a strong yeast odor, she recommended me giving Heidi Atopica and change her diet to grain free food, I posted the results of that decision on the blog. You can see the multiple blog posts from the past by searching "Atopica" in the search box in the upper right corner.

As I have posted in the past ... this health issue is a long drawn out, hit or miss, type of thing. That is consistent with what I have read from regular vets to vets that deal in only holistic treatments. For me it's not only been very frustrating but sad that she has to go through something like this, especially since no one can find a solution or cure.

From the link I posted the other day sent to me by a blog reader, the vet writing that article even stated there may not be a solution ... ever!  Also there is not a specific treatment for this type of skin allergy. Thus the comment about being "hit or miss". It also verified why four different vets have not been able to fix the problem, each trying their own ideas.

One reason is, they have been trained to suppress the injury/allergy instead of treating it to cure the problem. You might think that going to a vet that deals with holistic treatments would be the way to go. I read a lot about holistic treatments yesterday and last night, written by vets that do deal in that type of veterinarian practice.

Many of the readers on the holistic vet's website commented and they also had the same frustrations I have had. In many cases they had their dogs on a raw diet, or a no-grain diet since they were puppies. They had always used holistic vets instead of the regular vets ... the majority were still having the same issues with their dogs as they got older, with no solutions. NO ONE made a comment that whatever their holistic vet recommended ... worked!!

The two main causes of allergies in dogs have always been either food or the environment. All the vets I have taken Heidi to have agreed on that. John said that 85% of his dog clients show up in his office due to skin allergies. Yet, his studies showed that only 3% of them were caused by food.

I've kept a spreadsheet log for Heidi since last fall. I tracked her skin condition, rated 1 to 5 with a 5 being the worst. I listed dog foods being fed at the time by name, any possible reason for her skin having a strong reaction. In all of that record keeping I cannot see it makes a difference between grain and no-grain dog food. Nor can I find any differences in her skin by feeding her different kinds of protein. Nor did I see any improvement using the ointments, the creams, the liquid zinc oxide, steroid shots or pills.

The holistic vet I was reading about last night stated that "food is only a temporary solution" because over time the dog's system will adjust and become allergic to the new food.

Environmentally, I live in an area that is probably not the right situation for a dog with allergies, even a human being for that matter. That is something I did not consider when making the decision to buy Heidi. In fact it was not even a thought because based her photos in June 2011, her skin didn't look bad at all although I was told she would need regular medical attention for her skin allergies.

I live 80'-100' from a highway that has heavy traffic. That brings a lot of dust into the air and since I like to have my windows open during the seasons where the temps have not hit 90° yet ... a lot of that dust shows up inside my house. I've never lived in a house that collects dust faster than this house.

I am also surrounded by fields that are plowed, planted, fertilized, crops harvested, then plowed again. That cannot be a plus for her skin condition. I also have two other large hounds that are sure to have dander, and their normal walking or playing on carpet is sure to create air particles that are not helpful to Heidi's skin allergy.

My house was built in 1975 or 41 years ago. I don't care how great of shape it is in, with the drastic differences in seasonal temperatures there has to be mold somewhere inside and outside.

So all of this is the "perfect storm" for flaring up allergies whether it be me or Heidi. Why don't the bloodhounds have the same problems while they live in the same environment????

Is it their genetics? They also eat dog food with grains, always have. They have both had rabies shots although I stopped giving mine shots in 2011 after articles I had read ... but that's another story I'll not blog about today. According to the vet records that came with Stella, she was given the typical annual shots her whole life ... holistic vets claim that those annual shots are the cause for all the health issues in dogs we see today.

Stella and Sadie have had no skin issues or health issues. Stella will be 7 years old in August and Sadie will be 8 years old in June. Yet Heidi came with skin issues. As she got older they have become worse and continue to be all twelve months of the year and not just seasonal.

Someone else has told me they think that Heidi's problem is not food related. They understand why I am feeding her no-grain, no potatoes food based on the yeast infection article that has been linked a couple of times today. They feel it is stressed related, that Heidi is affected by the two large breed bloodhounds and specifically Stella.

Even though Heidi has never lost her appetite for food, losing 13 pounds in 2015 gives them concern. Yet for the past year Heidi has maintained the same weight at 36 pounds. On two different blood workups, both had normal levels and nothing showed anything wrong on the inside.

Add in the lack of activity this past year and all the sleeping she does ... this person seems to think she is depressed living here with me and the two bloodhounds.

They thought in the past that Heidi may have thought her foster home was going to be her forever home, thus her change in moods. I reminded them that Heidi did not act this way until the fall of 2014, three years after I got her, when her skin flared up outside her normal allergy reaction.

I have no idea if her original family had kids or why she ended up as a volunteer turn in to the shelter. It was noted that she was a "runner" and would run away every chance she got. It was recommended that I keep her on a leash at all times. She has not shown that tendency to run while living here.

She didn't look depressed a month or so ago when I forced her to join us on the daily walk. The photos showed Heidi rolling on her back in the tall grass, her nose to the ground with her tail curled and upright as she explored the field. She still does and always has did a morning sprint, and at times rolling on her back growling at herself.

I don't see that as Heidi having problems living with a couple of large breed bloodhounds, without having kids around. I think her activity level is determined by how she feels that day ... where her infected skin or rear hocks might be too sore to do anything else but lay around and sleep.

My records show that Heidi's skin did not have a lot of negative reaction when Stella arrived but did when Winston died. She didn't have a reaction traveling out west last June but did have a UTI a few weeks after we returned home. Her skin was the worst I've ever seen in February 2015 but started flaring up outside the norm the previous September.

Heidi will eat all that I give her. She will even come running from a deep sleep if she thinks I will give her some of my own food. She will eat all the dog food I will give her and I have tried to see how much she would eat before stopping ... that one time, she never stopped eating!!!

If no-grain food is suppose to prevent yeast growth ... yet I can smell yeast after feeding this to her for a month this time and many months prior ... is there a need to continue feeding her no-grain food? Would foods with grains and carbohydrates help her gain some weight back? This past week I have been giving her a little chicken, steak, ground beef and fish .... all cooked ... in addition to her kibble, in hopes that helps her gain some weight.

Do Stella and Sadie play a role in stressing out Heidi, thus causing these constant skin flareups? A couple of people say I should rehome her to a place where she would be the only dog. Some say she needs a family with kids. That was one of the first questions I asked her foster mom in 2011, if Heidi could live in a house with two or three other dogs. She replied that was not a problem because they had a large greyhound and another smaller dog.

The question of rehoming her is a tormenting question for me. One, I like her too much to give her away. I never give my hounds away whether it be for medical problems or destructive issues. Who would give a hound away with medical issues that cannot be figured out and may not have a solution? How would that affect Heidi after living here since July 2011? That would be another change for her in where she lived. Since she spent her time in and out of dog shelters her first two years, who knows how many times she has had to move to a different owner her first two years.

I remember the day I made the four hour drive home after picking her up ... she "talked" to me nonstop for the first thirty minutes of the drive. She was happy to be around Winston. She LOVED being in the field and LOVED the walks.

Stella was an obnoxious and clumsy four year old bloodhound when Heidi showed up. They rarely played when Sadie tried to engage. Even then Heidi was "a loner", staying by herself most of the time and didn't sleep with Winston nor Sadie like other hounds did.

A lot of questions and many of them have been asked over the past 20 months since her skin went crazy with redness and inflammation. Here are a couple of photos I just took a few minutes ago after her lunch.

Let's see how the vet suggested mixture of water/vinegar works in the days ahead.

I've got to go ... I hear Heidi scratching again.