Happy Birthday Big Steve! – 14 year’s old

May 1, 2018

On April 22nd, 2018, Big Steve turned 14 years old! Considering that he had many health issue in a past, he actually has good gene! Amazing, miracle dog! We are so happy for him!!

We wanted to treat him on his special day, so we went to pet food express and got some treat!

They just happened to promoting KIWI Kitchens brand, so we got to talk to the staff about the product.  KIWI Kitchens are from New Zealand and they have freeze dried and wet food, contains good natural ingredients, you can read all about from their web site. Anyway. Big Steve loves it!! I didn’t doubt he wouldn’t like it, but I’m happy to see him enjoy these food! 🙂

We also got him sweet potato cookies.:) Happy Birthday Big Steve!

Big Steve and his Birth day cookie!

As you can see it’s quite big!

He struggled to break it, so I broke into 5 or 6 pieces and gave him one piece a day.

Happy Birthday Big Steve!!!!

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…

inflammation around hip 8/11 – 23

August 11th 2014

Big Steve has been depressed since around July 31st, the day we picked him up at the dog sitter’s house. The symptom has gotten worse around last Friday. He doesn’t have an appetite and he doesn’t want to go walk. He seemed to having some discomfort in his lower back. His hind-legs are shaking as if he can’t support his body. He can’t even jump up to the sofa or car. Since he doesn’t eat well, he won’t pee and poop so much. He is not taking enough water since he is not eating his food.(We add water in his food so that he can take recommended amount of water every day.)

I wanted to take him to his vet, but I don’t have a car I could use anytime I want anymore. So I have to find a new vet somewhere I can go without driving.  Luckily I found one nearby and made an appointment today.

Dr examined his back and suspected something was wrong, so he took his back’s X-ray and explained what’s going on. There is a space between each spine that is stable except the last spine around his hip. It looks like something that connects those spine are narrowed around the last spine. Dr said, maybe he has some inflammation around that area that might be giving him a pain that causes him a less appetite. He gave injection (Rimadyl) to him for the inflammation, however Rimadyl won’t go well with prednisolone which is a medication he is taking once a week.  Big Steve needs to be on Rimadyl for a week (twice a day for the next 7 days), and it takes another week to rid of Rimadyl from the body. That means he can’t take prednisolone for 2 weeks.  Vet gave us Dr’s cell phone number and said we can text him if there is anything happened to him during that time.

Rimadyl (carprofen) is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID)

 

I don’t know if this is what Big Steve has, but maybe he has osteoarthritis(骨関節炎).

Explanation about osteoarthritis. Really good. : http://www.osteoarthritisindogs.com/

Video about osteoarthritis: http://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/musculoskeletal/c_multi_arthritis_osteoarthritis

Video about osteoarthritis(骨関節炎) in Japanese. Really good. :  http://movie.petful-life.jp/Jj45W

 

At first, my husband and I mentioned to the Dr that he might got pancreatitis back again. I think that is why Dr also took blood sample to make sure nothing is wrong. Result for his blood test will be informed tomorrow.

We were still worried about him not eating food much. Dr told us that he will probably get his appetite back even tonight. After the visit, Big Steve looks better a bit and ate his food. 🙂 We just hope he gets well soon.

 

 August 12th 2014

So, Dr. called us and let us know that Big Steve’s blood test came out really good. There is nothing wrong. So we are relieved that he didn’t get pancreatitis again.

 

August 16th 2014

During the time we gave him Rimadyl, he sometimes lost his appetite, but I was clearly able to see that his condition has gotten better.

We always carried him and never let him jump on to the sofa or stairs. I also brought a dog stroller whenever I took him for walk so that I can put him in the stroller when he seems tired. One day, a guy saw me walking with Steve in a stroller and he laughed at Big Steve so hard. I explained why Steve was in a stroller, but he totally ignored what I was saying and just laughed at him forever. His friend came and asked him what he was laughing about. He was like, “pug in a stroller!” I somehow I felt offended and left there. But those guys kept laughing for a while even after we left.

I don’t mind when people just gave him a smile and ask why he is in a stroller. But that guy was so rude. I hope he gets laughed at just because he looked ridiculous. 😛 Too bad some people doesn’t know dog is a living creature, like humans. 

 

August 18th 2014

Big Steve’s re-exam.

Dr. asked me how Steve was doing. So I told him that Steve is definitely getting better. I can say that just by looking at him. Dr. palpated his hip area and told me that he can say Steve is better just by touching the area. Dr. didn’t want to take medicine off at this point, so recommended another week of Rimadyl. Steve needs to go through another week of Rimadyl again.

 

August 23rd 2014

Steve can walk like the way he used to and is looking a lot more energetic, so we took him to the dog park. We still worried about his hip, so I just kept him with leash. There were many dogs at the park, Steve was so excited to see them and chasing after a bigger dog. 🙂 I just kept my eyes on him, so whenever he start getting on another dog to hump, I can stop him.  He had a good time at the park. 🙂

 

Depression? New Canned food

2014 Aug. 4th

Big Steve seems depressed lately.  I see him licking his paw and chewing. He also refuses to eat sometimes.

My husband and I are on summer vacation and there were times we needed to board him to dog sitters. It works well with some cases, but there are cases it won’t work. The day before we leave home, Big Steve already knows we are going somewhere, but he just doesn’t know if we are taking him with us. So he must be so stressed out.

This summer, we visited my family in Japan for the first time in 6 or 7 years. We needed to board Big Steve to one of our dog sitters during the trip. It worked pretty good! He loved being there. She, the sitter, always has many dogs boarding at her house, so Big Steve can play with them. He was a happy dog when we came back from Japan.

Now there are other times we needed to board him with other sitters. When we pick Big Steve up from these sitters, he doesn’t seem so happy. Even the day we took him to one of my sitter’s house, he throw up.

So we try to take him to dog park often so that he can social with other dogs. He seems like having a good time at the dog park, but he seems not so happy after returning home.

As his owners, we think what we can do to make him happy. I realized how he is probably bored of his prescribed canned food. Vet told us only give him that prescribed canned food, GI Low fat, but I asked vet if we could give him other food. Usually, vet seems like not so sure what’s okay and what’s not. Well, I can understand why that is so because every dog is different, and we just don’t want to take any risk. However we know about Big Steve better than vet, and there are some time we, owner, need to decide what to give to make our dog happy.

Today, I found this new canned food called “Chopped Lamb & Rice Dinner – Premium dog food with vegetables” at Trader Joe’s.  Ingredients are good and contains only 4% min of crude fat. It’s kind of difficult to find a good low fat canned food, but I though this may be good for Big Steve, so we bought it.

We added some of this canned food to his prescribed canned food, and he loved it so much! He seems happier!! 🙂 We need to keep an eye on his diet, but I hope this helps his stress.

The following picture is the new canned food we are giving to Big Steve. It’s good!

 

ear infection

Aug. 3rd, 2014

Yesterday, we took Big Steve for a Pug Meetup at the dog park nearby. They do a pug meetup every first Saturday of the month. There will be 30 or more pugs at its peak! It’s just so therapeutic for pug owners. 🙂

There was a cute pug coming to me and scratching her ear so badly. I suspected that she may have an ear infection when I saw that. The reason is because Big Steve had an ear infection and he did the same thing. So I checked her ear and found black discharge in her ear. That’s it. That’s ear infection. (We told her owner about it, so don’t worry!)

*Click here to check the image of ear infection.

The ear infection Big Steve had looked like black discharge and it smelled bad.

Big Steve had this for a long time. He scratched his ear, and after he would scratch his ear, he even smelled his paw and acted like “ewwww!” Because it smells bad. However, we didn’t know that was an ear infection and vet never told us about it, so I was just cleaning his ear with cotton bud every day.

Anyway, the vet gave us otomax, liquid ointment for ear infection, that I can apply in both ears. In less than 10 days,  his ear infection was gone.

I don’t use otomax now, and I check his ear everyday. However, I don’t see any black discharge in his ear since then.

The photo below, left one is Big Steve and the right one is Arnold. I think Arnold likes Big Steve. He always comes to Big Steve. 🙂

 

 

Heat rash?

June 12th, 2014

He’s been doing okay except that he’s been gassy. Yesterday and today, I found some rumps and bumps under his armpit and around his hind leg (inner thighs). I gave him Allergy pill and it went away. I am wondering what are these? When I touch the part, it feels sweaty and sticky a  bit. I called the vet to seek some advice. The nurse told me that I could try “Neosporin or Triple Antibiotics,” but I didn’t want to cause more trouble on him, so I just wipe the part with wet towel and keep the area clean. Nurse told me that if this keeps continuing, she could talk to Dr. and see what he wants to do. I hope this is nothing serious.

throw up and diarrhea

2014, June 2 ~ Now

After the bug bite, he threw up his food. The next day, I called the vet to see if this is an emergency situation I should take him to vet. Nurse just asked if I want to bring him to vet. I didn’t see anything that stands out, but I didn’t know what to do, so I said yes. My husband and I took him to the vet that day, but doctor couldn’t see anything that stands out just like I thought. He didn’t eat much that night.

The next day early in the morning, like 4:00am,  he threw up yellow bile and white form. He also had diarrhea. I called the vet 2nd time, and this time, Dr. told me to bring him to emergency center because Dr. though he may have pancreatitis again. This is the emergency center Big Steve had been seen before. They did ultra sound and found pancreatitis at that time. Anyway, I thought they could give him antibiotics or something for this kind of condition, but they didn’t want to do that.

Anyway, I had no choice but to call the emergency center. I explained the situation and my opinion. The nurse talked to the Dr. about it and that emergency Dr. called Big Steve’s primary Dr. to talk about Big Steve. At the end, the nurse from the emergency told me that Big Steve’s primary Dr. will take Big Steve’s blood to check his condition. I took Big Steve to his primary vet that day and they took his blood sample. They also gave him an injection for anti-nausea. Big Steve seemed like doing better after that.

On June 5th, the result of his blood came out normal. But since Big Steve still have his soft stool, Dr. decided to give him “Metronidazole 250 mg tablet,”  1/2 tablet twice a day for 10 days. Metronidazole is an antibacterial drug. I’m still quit not sure why they couldn’t give him antibiotics from the first. Is Metronidazole some special drag? Did I miss any explanations?

It’s been a week, and it looks like he’s been doing fine. Except he’s been gassy. So I don’t know and I can’t say that he is fine now.

 

 

 

 

blister around his penis?

June 7, 2014

We took Big Steve to the Dog Park today! It was a pug meetup day! We weren’t sure if we should take Big Steve to the Park since he had health problem. But we though he need social time. It went great. We all enjoyed seeing other pugs! 🙂

When Big Steve finds other dogs he likes, he starts humping. He won’t do that to any dogs. He follows after one particulate dog and humping.

My friend was at the park today, and Big Steve loved her dog so much. It’s a male pug and his name is “Fidel Castro.” Yes, Fidel Castro. There was a dog called “Newton” also. I guess it was also a celebrity meetup. 🙂

Anyway Big Steve loves “Fidel Castro,” and Steve was humping him so much. My fried didn’t care, so we just let him do what he had to do.

After we came back to home, I found something looks like a  blister around Big Steve’s penis. I’m not sure when did he have that. But I suspect he got it by humping other dogs. He doesn’t look like bothered by it, so I’m gonna just keep an eye on him.

2 big dogs and Big Steve and Fidel Castro.