Big Steve and iguana

2015. Feb. 10th

Recently, my dog, Big Steve, seems not enjoy walking so much. Last time I saw him like this was when he had a hip joint problem. It’s not that bad though, but my husband and I can see he walk very slow than usual. We give him glucosamine for his join everyday, but we need to keep an eye on him. Big Steve is 10 years old, so it can’t be too careful.

I took this photo on Feb. 7th. He is so cute.:)
He still have his appetite. That’s great!

Today, some lady talked to me on the street asking about Big Steve. They loved Big Steve, and one of the lady happened to have a pet igiana with her!!

Probiotics and Fish oil

2015. Feb 4th

This is about last summer. I’ve been wanting to write this, but I was too busy. I’m glad that I finally am able to post this.

Last year, Big Steve had a lot of skin problems. Whenever he gets hives, we give him Benadryl which is an antihistamine, and it works every time for his skin rash.  You can read more about his skin rash here.

As you can see on the photo above, he had some rumps and bumps under his armpit and around his hind leg (inner thighs).

My husband and I went to Pet Food Express and talked to some of the staff there. The staff at Pet Food Express is pretty informative and always helpful.

We were trying to find why Big Steve gets skin problems now. Come to think about it, he didn’t have so much skin problems like hives before we lived in California. We can’t say for sure, but it might be something to do with the environment. Big Steve might have some kind of allergy.  He’s been going through many medical issues since we moved to California, and he also had to change his diet. His stool has gotten softer than before.  His hives broke out around that time he had to change his diet due to his pancreatitis.

Probiotics

The staff had some recommendation for Big Steve. She recommended us to give Big Steve “Probiotics.”  He may have some digestive problems, and probiotics might help with his allergy and may solve his skin problem also. We can’t say what is causing him the skin problems, but we could at least try. There are some choices, but I chose “Microflora” because it is made of herbs. (Microflora : $22.99)

I’m not sure if this is helping his skin problems, but since then he is not getting hives.  (Just a little note: One day, he was taking antibiotics when he had inflammation in his mouth.  He had soft stool at that time, but didn’t get hives. )

Fish oil

That day, we also got fish oil for his coat treatment at the Pet Food Express. We immediately found big differences since we gave him fish oil. Big Steve’s coat became so very soft, and on top of that, he is more energetic than ever!! 🙂  When we took Big Steve to the dog park, someone who knows Big Steve was surprised to see how energetic he was! I also met some veterinary nurse at the same park and she was also very impressed considering that Big Steve is 10 years old and yet he is very energetic!! I really believe that this is because of this fish oil we gave to him. Big Steve loves the taste of fish oil!! 🙂 (Salmon oil : $17.99~$24.99)

 

Flora_probiotics

Flora_probiotics

Fish oil

 

The canned dog food caused my dog to have diarrhea?

2015. Feb. 3

My dog, Big Steve, got pancreatitis last year, due to some unknown cause. Since then, we had to give him prescribed canned dog food. I wrote about it here. We are still giving him the prescribed canned dog food (GI low fat), but since his pancreatitis seemed to have improved, we decided to try some new food. We started to give him Trader Joe’s canned food. I wrote about it here.  He loved it, so we’ve been giving him a combination of Trader Joe’s canned dog food and prescribed canned food since then.

One day I found the place that I can order GI low fat canned dog food online. Since GI low fat is prescribed canned dog food, we needed to send them a doctor’s note.  One day, I ordered GI low fat online, but after they took my order, they told me that they ran out of GI and they don’t even know when they will have it again. I didn’t know what that means, but we had to give him only Trader Joe’s canned food (chunky beef dinner) for a while.

We noticed that he’s been gassy since then and seemed like his stomach was bothering him.  His stool became really soft like diarrhea. One night, he even needed to go out to poop in the middle of the night. He had explosive diarrhea. Despite all of these conditions, he still had his usual appetite and acted normal. He barked at another dog on the street and sometimes ran around happily.

We weren’t sure what was the cause of these conditions at that time. Big Steve had been in this condition for weeks. Poor Big Steve…

One day, I suddenly realized that my dog’s fart smelled like the Trader Joe’s canned food(chunky beef dinner). We’ve been giving him Trader Joe’s canned food for months, and he never had any problems, but I decided to stop giving him Trader Joe’s canned food completely.

The next day, his stool became much better, and the day after that, he is completely recovered from all these bad conditions. No fart, no diarrhea anymore.

I wonder why this happened to my dog? Is this because of Trader Joe’s canned dog food? Or it’s just Trader Joe’s canned dog food are not going to work for my dog? But why suddenly? Or did Trader Joe’s changed how to produce the canned dog food? It’s a mystery to me…