Need Dog Help

[Ponyup]

As most of you know Logan has been sick on & off & causing me major worry. I've been obsessing most of this week on what I can do to make him better. I'm decided I need to go speak with my vet & get her take on what I should be doing for him, but I thought I would ask your advice also.

We are switching Logan food to a sensitive stomach formula & hoping that will help.

We have also cut out all people food except for carrots; amen I got my hubby on board on this one.

Now the problem is chews. Logan loves to chew, he's obsessed. We used to give him hooves but now he goes through them so fast & breaks off big pieces that I think it's very dangerous. I ordered him the never ending treat ball which came today & we will try tonight. I've bought him real bones with filling & he eats the filling out & then is done with them. He's never been a fan of kongs or nylabones. I also bought him some bully sticks, but now i'm not sure if I should give them too him or not. I'm just very concerned about making him sick again. Any help would be appreciated on this. What do you give your dogs? My one vet recommended Large size knotted rawhide that he can't get in his mouth & get big pieces off. I tried this & he didn't seem to thrilled, but he might now that he's desperate for something to chew on.

I'm going to see about getting the vet I trust email address so I can ask her some of these questions also. I hate to bother her at work about these things since they aren't really important, just my curiousity. Maybe I should see about scheduling a follow up appointment & just make sure we're moving in the right direction.

[DianaB]

I'm not a lot of help on this one because Reuger isn't much of a chewer. I do give him small bully sticks. I usually buy the braided bully sticks and take them apart and just give him one part. I also found a treat at Target that I was really excitied about and Reuger loves them. They're called Breathies and their a dried chicken breast. They say on the front of the package that there's no hormones, no antibiotics, no fillers, and no byproducts. They have several kinds and the one I got is for fresh breath and healthy teeth. The package says that they can have two a day, but I only let him have one. He always comes running when I get them out! They're by Dogswell and you can check them out on www.dogswell.com

[DianaB]

I just went to their site and they have dog biscuits without wheat or corn. You might want to check it out too. I might have to order some myself.

[Ponyup]

I'm not a lot of help on this one because Reuger isn't much of a chewer. I do give him small bully sticks. I usually buy the braided bully sticks and take them apart and just give him one part. I also found a treat at Target that I was really excitied about and Reuger loves them. They're called Breathies and their a dried chicken breast. They say on the front of the package that there's no hormones, no antibiotics, no fillers, and no byproducts. They have several kinds and the one I got is for fresh breath and healthy teeth. The package says that they can have two a day, but I only let him have one. He always comes running when I get them out! They're by Dogswell and you can check them out on www.dogswell.com

They have sweet potato chews that look really good. And you say they have these at Target. I'll have to check it out the next time I go. There's isn't much my dog won't eat so I'll have to try them.

[Gina]

Gucci is on an L/D diet I absolutely give her no human food at all. I have to watch what treats I give her because she had liver shunt and the protein and fat content may be too high for her. At Christmas my niece gave her some doggie treats which were made with peanut butter low fat and baked. I gave her two and she threw up and the vet set they are to heavy for her system..

The only treats I give Gucci are plain cherrios and small cut up carrots thats it.
She is a yorkie and loves to chew , no more bones for her either. I just give her toys where they have that chewing heavy rope she plays with that... Hope this info. helped.

PS What does Logan suffer from?

[Janet]

Mine really like chewing on the knotted ropes. That's about all I let them chew on.

[Ponyup]

Gucci is on an L/D diet I absolutely give her no human food at all. I have to watch what treats I give her because she had liver shunt and the protein and fat content may be too high for her. At Christmas my niece gave her some doggie treats which were made with peanut butter low fat and baked. I gave her two and she threw up and the vet set they are to heavy for her system..

The only treats I give Gucci are plain cherrios and small cut up carrots thats it.
She is a yorkie and loves to chew , no more bones for her either. I just give her toys where they have that chewing heavy rope she plays with that... Hope this info. helped.

PS What does Logan suffer from?

He's been sick on & off since christmas. Both vets I took him to said it was an irrated GI tract. All his blood work came back normal. My one vet thinks he might have a mild case of pancreatitis, but she really didn't think so. She honestly thinks I'm stressing him out. He is a dog that likes he routine & she thinks that with the holiday's & such he got off his routine & that upset his stomach.

The stressing him out part could be true, I made a big mistake the 8th of december & was so stressed over it that I was making myself sick & I guess in the process I was making my dog sick too. I would be really stressed and sick for about a week & about 3 days after I started to calm down logan would get sick. There may be a correlation there may not be, but now that i'm calmed down a lot of the situation & I'm fixing it I'm better so hopefully he'll be better. But I'm trying other things also. The people food we were giving him wasn't good for him anyway so getting rid of that is a good thing either way & my vet hated that I gave him hooves.

[Ponyup]

Mine really like chewing on the knotted ropes. That's about all I let them chew on.

Thanks Janet, but Logan's never been a fan of rope toys. He got his first everlasting treat ball last night with a treat. We let him chew on it for about an hour & he's no more then half done with it. It was funny to watch. It kept biting at it will all his might trying to get it out, it kinda looked like he was having seisures cause he'd use his little body to help, so he'd get a hold with his teeth & then like jump back. I decided I don't want him to have it when we're not there, but he seemed to like it.

[DianaB]

They have sweet potato chews that look really good. And you say they have these at Target. I'll have to check it out the next time I go. There's isn't much my dog won't eat so I'll have to try them.

Target had the jerky treats but I didn't look around to see if they had the other stuff. You'll just have to look and see. As I said, Reuger just loves them.

[judy]

What kind of dog is Logan? My puppy had parasites and I had to give her plain, boiled chicken and rice. I've never gone back to dog food.

At this point, I'm using ground turkey, frozen peas and carrots, frozen spinach and brown rice. Of course, they like the chicken better, but it's quite expensive here. NYC is not a good place to shop for food and I don't belong to Costco.

I take a huge pot, boil up at least 1/2 pot of water, thrown in the chopped turkey, and use a fork to separate it. After about 20 minutes, or as soon as it's not raw anymore, I throw in the veggies. Bring it back to a boil, let the veggies soften a bit, and then take it off the heat and throw in 1 box of brown rice to 5 lbs of ground turkey. Leave it covered until the rice absorbs the water. If you have too much water in the pot, simmer the rice for a while, covered.

It's 10 lbs. of meat to 3 packages of peas and carrots, one package of spinach and
two boxes of brown rice.

I take baggies after it cools and fill them up. I freeze them and it's about 3/4 hour of actual work time!

As far as treats go, they're all organic, like the sweet potato chews. They're expensive, but my dogs are yorkies so they don't eat that much. They get marrow filled bones for chewing. They have a lot of toys, but I'm not going to buy them any more. Bones are safer if they're the right ones - they don't splinter. Rope toys
they have, or I think a knotted piece of rope is fine. I take all my old socks and knot themfor the dogs too. They have cute toys, but I can't see spending money on toys for therm anymore. They could care less. The Merrick's phat flossies are excellent, but really pricey and they don't last as long as a bone.

[Ponyup]

Logan is a yorkie.

Can't you get rid of the parasites. How did you find out that's what your dog had? Or did you mean to type pancreatisis & your fingers got confused? My fingers get confused all the time.

[judy]

No - it's usually my brain that gets confused. I'm not sure about my fingers.

Gracie Leigh did have parasites for which she was treated, but she was very young and her bowels were inflamed from them for quite a while, so I put her on this easy
diet.

Actually, I went to buy ground turkey yesterday - they had none, so I bought ground beef. I cooked up a big batch and they inhaled it! Don't you think one of them threw up this morning? They're not used to such heavy protein as beef. They'll get used to it. I may look for ground turkey and cut it with that.

Yorkies are known to be prone to delicate intestinal systems. Not all, but enough.
They're worth the trouble though, right?

Can we see a picture of Logan please?

[Ponyup]

Things seems to be better, but he usually has a flame up about every 3 weeks so we'll see. I've been a lot less stressed so I think that helps. He seems to like his new sensitive tummy food & we took out all people food except a bit of peanut butter or mozzerella cheese her & there. We took away his hooves & replaced it with a treat ball that he loves. Logan is a big yorkie & seemed to have an iron stomach until christmas & since we've had nothing but problems. We're trying to trouble shoot by taking certain things away. The less he gets the easier it will be to pinpoint the problem. My vet honestly things he has a nervous stomach just like his mommy. Here's the most recent pic I have on my computer it was taken last winter.

[AngieDoogles]

Things seems to be better, but he usually has a flame up about every 3 weeks so we'll see. I've been a lot less stressed so I think that helps. He seems to like his new sensitive tummy food & we took out all people food except a bit of peanut butter or mozzerella cheese her & there. We took away his hooves & replaced it with a treat ball that he loves. Logan is a big yorkie & seemed to have an iron stomach until christmas & since we've had nothing but problems. We're trying to trouble shoot by taking certain things away. The less he gets the easier it will be to pinpoint the problem. My vet honestly things he has a nervous stomach just like his mommy. Here's the most recent pic I have on my computer it was taken last winter.

Aww, what a cutie! He's adorable! I hope you figure out what's causing his tummy problems soon.

[judy]

He's a beauty!

Max has a nervous stomach. He's been sick with a cough (Gracie caught it) and he was on meds. He threw up 3 times a couple of days ago and I just cleaned up tons of yorkie poop. There was a tiny little poop on the paper so I didn't yell too much. I stopped the meds. His cough is gone.

[Ponyup]

He's a beauty!

Max has a nervous stomach. He's been sick with a cough (Gracie caught it) and he was on meds. He threw up 3 times a couple of days ago and I just cleaned up tons of yorkie poop. There was a tiny little poop on the paper so I didn't yell too much. I stopped the meds. His cough is gone.

Sounds like this weather is hard on all of us. Per the x-rays & such they just think he's GI tract gets irrated so now we're trying to limit any food that would be hard to digest. So far so good. I hate it when he doesn't feel good. I'm glad to hear Max is doing better.

[Janet]

Logan sure is a cutie...love the snow picture. I hope you can get it all figured out so you both feel better.

Judy, I'm glad Gracie Leigh and Max are better too.

[Ponyup]

After reading a thread on YT I'm being to think he might have lead toxicity. I bought him these adorable melamine bowls for little kids with Stitch (of Lilo & Stitch) on them. I looked last night & they are made in china. Lead toxicity gives the same symptoms. I may just be being paranoid, but I took them away. I was going to use his old ceramic bowls, but they say made in china too, so right now he's using 2 of my correlle bowls until I can get him a set of his own.

[Tink]

I hope it's as simple as changing food bowls.
It's so hard when they're sick and can't tell you what's up.

Sorry Judy, but I had to giggle when you talked about cleaning up tons of yorkie poop. My dogs POOP the size of a full grown Yorkie. :sidesplit: If a Yorkie does tons I don't want to KNOW how much these 5 do in a day. :scratchhead: