Hounds Normal Routine After Lunch

These few pictures epitomize the daily routine the hounds have right after they finish their lunch kibble.

They are let outside to make any runs to the field, except Heidi, where they will dump their tanks. Heidi prefers the front yard to do that, under the Yews if it is raining. Sadie will wander in the field or backyard during rain, hail, sleet or snow and sunshine. If it's sunny, Stella will sleep either on the hot gravel in the driveway or in the grass. Heidi will cruise the front yard before coming around the house to the back.

Stella's thinking pose before every nap, inside or outside, then she flops to her side.

Unlike months ago, I can no long feel her ribs, hip bones nor shoulders. I still think she will be close to her original weight, 45 pounds, before the loss in June 2015. I did nothing more than feed her 3 cups of kibble per day but I saw the greatest improvement in her skin and coat after the last dog food change to Wholesomes SportMix manufactured by the same company that produces Earthborn Holistic Pet Foods.

The hounds are all asleep, time for my lunch and some Reds baseball here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

Stella Must Be Feeling Better This Morning

Her morning walk today proved she must be feeling better. She runs away deep in "the no-fly" zone!

If you look at this next picture you would think she feels terrible. The camera caught her at a bad time and I debated whether to post it or not. She woke up at 6:45am to go outside with her tail wagging as she trotted toward the door. A fast trot around the corner of the house and into the field. I stepped back inside after letting the other two hounds out to serve their breakfast kibble.

This picture was taken during our 2nd trip outside, which happens right after their breakfast while my coffee is brewing.

She then came back inside and slept up until the time Sadie decided it was time for the morning walk. I figured we would be taking it slow today based on yesterday afternoon's walk. She already looked better this morning but was totally out of it Saturday for most of the day ... due to my mistake.

I haven't in the past for many years, had my hounds get rabies shots. I made that mistake for some reason on Friday's vet visit but after the way her side effects were yesterday I will not giving her any more shots, nor Sadie and Heidi.

That is why this morning I could tell she was feeling much better so soon after waking up. Compared to yesterday she looked and acted so much different. Her tail was high and wagging as she trotted to the door. She howled loud when she came back inside knowing it was time for breakfast.

While Stella stood and posed for that terrible picture, Sadie was out in the field searching for the latest scents. We finally headed out a few minutes before 9am for the first walk of the day in 48° weather.

Stella was cruising at a speed a little faster than I had anticipated and I think it was a good sign seeing her tail held a little higher than she has recently. She was a lot more curious about what she smelled and a few times caught up with Sadie ... so things were looking much better for her today compared to yesterday's afternoon walk without the camera.

All the way up to the last turn toward home I suspected nothing out of the ordinary taking place. Sadie was pretty relaxed in her walk today and I saw no signs of deer on the horizon. Little did I know what would take place in the next 10 minutes.

This is just a little past the last turn, toward the back of the field, not 10' away. I decided I'd let the hounds do what they do as I continued to walk home.

It wasn't until Sadie ran up next to me, acting a little upset. I'd seen that look many times over the last 8 years and 8 months that I have had her. As I turn to check on Stella I can see what Sadie is upset about ... Stella has not moved from the spot that Sadie found. When I looked before making the turn home, I saw nothing but bare ground where the grass had been mashed down and moved by Sadie's nose to get a better look.

One thing to keep in mind when you are looking at this pictures, I am really far away. I am shooting them with a 200mm zoom and still not even getting close to her. Yet, I could tell that she raised her head to look for us to see or smell where we were.

It wasn't five seconds after I snapped the shutter, that she turns and starts walking to the left, along the edge of the field into the "no-fly zone". You can barely see her in the center of the picture as she walks with her head down. I can tell she is in a slow trot ... she is going places !!

I immediately turned off the camera, slide the lens back into it's normal position and took off running up the path. She had a real good lead on me and I knew by the time I got to that tower she could be either in the woods or sprinting after a scent in the cornfield just behind those bushes.

Sadie realized what was going on and sprinted past me like I was standing still while my run turned into a jog up the path. At this point I thought Sadie had found Stella and she would be in view.

When she took off running I thought she had found her and was running toward Stella ... I was wrong.

By the time I got just past the tower, Stella was nowhere in view. By the way Sadie was acting I thought Stella had turned right into the cornfield. I stepped a few steps over the tall grass into that corn field looking every direction, calling Stella's name and did not see Stella anywhere in the cornfield.

Just about time that Sadie and I started heading straight ahead to the right of those trees, calling Stella's name, I make one more search along the tree line ... there she was, staring back at us and sitting as quietly as possible. It was almost like she was trying to hide from Sadie and I, as we were walking north instead of west toward her.

She finally came when I called her.

As she pushed her nose up nudging my hand to let me know she was okay, we made our slow walk back to the path. You can tell by the yellow field in the distance just how much of an incline there is on the north half of the field when it looks pretty flat as you walk on the other side.

So her excitement was over for at least this morning. By the time I downloaded and looked at the 45 pictures I took during the walk, Stella was sleeping right up next to my desk chair while Sadie slept guarding her water bowl.

I thought I'd include a couple of pictures from yesterday. This is Heidi's normal routine after she comes back inside after her lunch. She sprints from the door to the other end of the house in the living room, nose diving into the carpet, scratching each side of her face while growling to herself ... or most likely wiping her mouth clean.

I can only hope that Stella regains her weight as well as Heidi has. I am taking Heidi in on Monday to get on the vet's scales for an official weigh session. I have a feeling she will be back close to 45 pounds.

As I sat playing some Mahjong on my laptop at the kitchen table early yesterday evening, it looked like the field was turning more yellow before my eyes. I was too lazy to go outside at that time, so I took the picture through the window.

If you look close in the dirt, you can see the recently planted crop is staring to grow.

With the temps climbing to over 70° today, we will be taking another walk and multiple other trips outside. The 6' standard leash will NOT be taken but a closer eye on Stella will be. I am off to read more about dog food protein, how much is needed, how much is too much and hopefully find out why a hound stops processing it.

It's a beautiful Sunday here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

Bloodhounds Walk Before It Rains

They predicted this and they were right .... it's cold !!!! Nothing like going from the high 70's on Thursday to the high 40's earlier this morning as we stepped outside. By the time we started our walk it had edged up over 50°.

That didn't bother Sadie at all, in fact she seemed a little more energized than normal but it might have been those new scents that were filling her nose instead of cooler temps. She did not even escort me to the field this morning and took off running from the very start.

With Wunderground being right on with their rain prediction time yesterday I decided I would believe them today. We needed to get outside and walk before 1pm when it was suppose to start raining.

Sadie spent the majority of the walk way ahead of Stella and I. We were cruising the path together, on a slower pace than I am used to.

By the time we hit the first turn, Sadie was almost to the far right hand corner of the field. I don't know what scent she picked up but she went from her head buried in the grass to sprinting around the turn. The pictures did not capture her speed.

Stella did not attempt to chase her. I have a feeling that Stella is feeling the effects of an annual rabies shot and a dose of NexGard yesterday. The vet office had the same offer as last year with a coupon, one that I did not bring with me. Nancy at the front desk fixed me up with free NexGard chews for all three hounds.

Last year after picking off over 100 ticks in the month of April from the three hounds and myself, a dose of one NexGard for the hounds only (LOL) eliminated the ticks for the rest of the summer. I decided as long as I didn't see any on the hounds, there was no reason to give them anymore doses.

As usual Stella was more than happy to eat breakfast as it was served about an hour earlier at 7:15am. Too early for a Saturday or any day for that matter but we were wide awake and coffee sound too good to pass up on a day that looked as if I was in Seattle, overcast cold and rainy.

Sadie cannot figure out where the deer are. By this time last year she and Stella had a couple of deer chases under their belt but so far in 2017 they are being shutout. It would be a good test to see Stella's response if any deer showed up on the horizon.

When Sadie has her head buried that deep into the grass, she gives off that strange sound that only a bloodhound makes with her jowls making a sound moving while Sadie is sniffing as deep as she can into the earth.

This wasn't a morning that Stella was interested in exploring. She walked at the same pace throughout the walk but did have time to check and see if I would catch her veering off to look at the neighbor's house where the mystery dog showed up last Christmas.

While Stella was doing that, Sadie was back on another adventure way ahead of us.

Once I yelled at Stella "over here" she slowly turned and started the slow walk toward my direction. It's her personality more than anything. She is just laidback and obviously has her thoughts on other stuff besides doing this walk.

Sadie was wondering what our problem was and why weren't we up to where she was. She waited and waited, then took off running for the house as soon as I caught up with her.

Stella did pick up her pace the closer she got to the backyard. I didn't have to call her to do that but she seemed anxious to end the walk and get back inside ... where she was back to sleep within minutes ... her normal activity until lunch is served.

I am not sure how long that nice blue 2017-18 rabies tag will last on her collar. It doesn't matter how tight I crimp them to the collar they always find a way to come off and get lost. In stead of scanning the vet receipts and rabies certification this year I decided to just use my iPhone camera. It's easier and faster than scanning plus gives you the same file as a scanner does ... a file that you will probably never use.

After talking to the vet yesterday I decided that I would give Stella even more food than the extra I was giving her the past few weeks to a month. It will double her quantity I gave her in the past and will end up 33% more than what a larger Sadie eats. Of course if I let her, Sadie would eat the 40lb bag in one setting.

As with any large breed dog, you have to be aware of them getting bloat. In all the years I have had a bloodhound, since 1997, I've been very fortunate not to have to experience that with any of the bloodhounds I've owned.

With the weather outside, all of us hid inside. The hounds slept, I watched baseball and read out of different books. It's too quiet for a Saturday.

BTW ... for those of you that read this far .... it didn't rain today and by that 2pm prediction time, it was nice and sunny outside.

It's been a good day here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

My Analysis Of Stella By Photos

Like any other pet owner, when there is a medical issue or looks like a medical problem, we all look back to see when it happened, how it happened or did we miss anything.
So today I thought I'd post what I looked at yesterday, trying to double check and see if I had missed a sign or something that led us to being concerned enough for a couple of different vet trips and different tests for Stella.

Not until I went through my photo file in Stella's folder did I see that my memory was not as sharp as I thought. I was inaccurate in thinking Stella had not ran for months, or when was the last time her tail was upright and curled and most importantly ... when she started looking and feeling skinny.

For easy searching like this, I have a lot of different folders for my picture library on my computer. Within those folders I add a title to the first picture of the day in the form of yyyy mmm date. I keep the pictures within each folder sorted with newest on top. Consequently it was easy to scroll through thousands of pictures looking for the certain points I was looking for.

Those points were running, playing, tail up and curled, how she looked, the leash, and when both her and Sadie were side by side on the prowl.

My search lead me back all the way to October 14, 2016 where these first four pictures took place. It was the looked like a good starting picture to show her rib cage and how she looked. They showed her running at full speed and the first time my pictures picked up her scratching ... that she is still doing this morning.

All through November, December to January 2nd I found pictures of her running full speed. Honestly I had forgotten she had ran this much and this recently.

I started to see a slimmer waistline for her but I always thought when she was looking a little thinner it was because of the two and sometimes three walks per day for about 30 minutes each she was getting, along with the running.

Nothing is ever regular in her running, it might not happen every walk but when she does run it is usually at full speed.

Not quite 4 months later she is still scratching but I have yet to find any fleas, raw skin, etc ... even as of this morning. At the time of this picture January 2, 2017 she is still eating the same food she has ate the majority of the time since arriving in August 2015.

Again my memory the other day failed me when I had forgot she had played, wrestled, with Sadie out in the snow in January 5th. I did not see any of this inside the house this winter like I did in 2016.

I am not seeing any issues with her looks here. Maybe a little thin but she looks active and I think with her tail upright and curled that is a good sign. It is the first time that I saw any kind of ribs showing every so slightly ... it's January 11th.

I started increasing her portions of kibble, thinking with her recent activity she is burning more calories than she is taking in. She was slightly overweight when she arrived in August 2015 but she was free fed. I feed her twice per day as per her request but it's weird feeding times.

She wants food first thing in the day and then starts howling at lunch usually around 11:30am but doesn't anytime after that until the next morning.

Through the month of January all activity looks to be normal. I don't really have any concerns and figure the added kibble will put some weight back on her.

By February 4th I don't see anything that would make me think that anything is wrong with her. Even this morning there may not be anything wrong with her and I believe the two visits to the vet prove that. Yet I can't forget how different she looked one year ago yesterday, April 21 2016 in the picture I posted yesterday on this blog. The picture below was taken February 4th of this year.

I know it sounds weird but I did not rule out the possibility that when I put a 6' standard leash on her to keep her from running off during our walks, February 10th, that just maybe that had something to do with her lack of activity and seeing her tail in a lowered position more and more as we walked. Then again that could be over-analysis.

Then about the time I think something might be wrong with her, looking a little sick, hard to tell with a bloodhound expression .... she takes off running at full speed to come from way behind us to catch us on the start of our walk on February 23rd.

Even though the temps are warmer plus she has had one bath with a shampoo that is geared to relieve itching, she sits in the sun on March 4th and scratches away.

We week later I am starting to see more ribs. but at the same time I have switched to a rated 4-star food with more protein and fat. I know it will take up to 4 months before I could see a change but Heidi was showing a lot of improvement with weeks of eating the new food.

I had forgot all about her trip to the neighbor's drainage ditch. I am not sure how long she was there as Sadie and I were walking and I had left Stella behind early in the walk to let her do what she wanted. I also have never smelled anything foul from this ditch so it is NOT like an open sewer or septic tank type of runoff.

Still ... it is a drainage ditch and their has to be something coming out of those pipes that can't be too healthy. This took place on March 14.

Now I am getting concerned when I see this picture and at the time when I pet her I have been feeling more bones than I want. Her hips, shoulders and her ribs are too boney. On March 18th we go to the vet for a checkup and a blood test to see if there is anything internally going on.

If you think she is sick and something going on .... the afternoon walk on the same day as the vet trip .... she is running full speed like nothing is out of the ordinary.

Her and Sadie spend the next week running all over the field on our walks. With a clean blood test result and a vet that is not that concerned, I keep the added kibble going and wait for some signs of her gaining weight.

On March 29, a little over a month since the change to kibble that is higher protein and fat ... I think I am seeing some weight gain. She looks to be back to her old self, active, curious but I forget that she was running full speed just a week or so before and tell myself I can't remember the last time she ran really hard in the field.

I still wonder if something is wrong with her. After doing searches on the internet, and reading information on PetMD website I am not finding any kind of symptoms listed, that Stella is showing. Once I thought it was possible thyroid problem or maybe she was getting diabetic ... yet everything was looking normal from her daily routines.

On April 20th, just a few days ago I thought she was looking better, maybe a little heavier ... still I could not remember the last time she had ran at full speed. She had loved to run in the field before and recently when she had the same situations to run, she stood and looked. Plus she had been walking slowly more and more on our walks.

So, after talking to the vet owner about my concerns, we went back in yesterday for a different test than we did in March with their other vet. He wanted to see her in person just to make sure.

After some squeezing, probing and checking her heart rate he did not see any reason for x-rays. With a strong heart rate, a normal appetite, normal stools and a tick/heartworm test coming back negative he felt she might not have been processing the protein in food in the past.

Like I stated on last night's update, he suggested changing food and source of protein plus monitor her weight using their scales for free. When I told him we were on week 9 since we last changed food to a higher protein and higher fat, he said to stick with that food for another couple of months.

He said they can loose weight fast but it takes much longer to add that lost weight back on.

As you can see Sadie was happy to have her friend back. With Heidi taking her big chair to sleep in, she moved to the couch with Stella. As far as Stella is concerned, she is fine and there is nothing going on ... except that crazy scratching.

With all the two tests showing all things are good and a 7-8 weeks of more added kibble to her meals, I am expecting to see some improvements on her weight where the ribs don't show and she does some sprinting in the field.

Someone asked what supplements I was giving her for possible joint and hip pain ... I am giving her four chews per day of this Hypoallergenic Hip & Joint Supplements. (not an affiliate link)

Let me know if you think I have missed anything that I should have noticed or if you have any ideas. In the meantime I will keep you posted.