Busy Little Bee

So far today...

I have been a secretary for Dad. 

A food inspector for Mom. Well at least I laid in the kitchen in front of the stove while Mom baked cakes. She is not allowing me to taste test. I keep trying to tell her that I am just trying to make sure it is safe for her to eat.

After that I was tired so I had cuddle time with Mom.

Dad says I am so sweet and innocent that that is why my eyes sparkle. 

 Time to go looking for more adventures.

Pitbull wiggles

There is nothing like coming home to a wiggly pitbull and lots of kisses. 

It is one of the most adorable things. The uncontainable joy at seeing her humans again that spills over until her whole body wiggles. 

Even though I have a list a mile long that needs to be complete, I will delay doing these things to sit on the floor and play with my girl. 

Chores are over-rated anyway.

Paperwork with Dad

So dad has been home and has been doing lots of paperwork and training. So I have been helping him out.

 

I passed out helping Dad and Mom got this picture of me. 

 

Cooking for Three

The first thought I had after the vet diagnosed Topaz was well what do I feed her? What did you feed a dog that is allergic to grain, wheat, soy, dairy and most meats? My previous dog ate Purina Dog Chow and when she reached her golden years was then switched to Purina One and given a high protein diet. It was the only way to keep decent weight on her. I was not even aware that dogs could have grain, wheat and soy allergies until that day at the vets. The vet informed that several dog food brand companies made grain, wheat and soy free formula dog food and that I could find these brands at Petsmart. He had no suggestions for what brand to put her on, but informed me that I needed to ensure that the protein in the food was either lamb or fish.

I took Topaz home and then headed to Petsmart. Oh what an ordeal it was. First, wandering up and down all the aisles looking at all the brands and noting which ones were grain, wheat and soy free. Next, weeding out all the ones that did not offer a lamb and rice diet. Then, reading all the dog food labels of the few brands I had narrowed it down too. If the ingredient list contained the words chicken byproduct, chicken fat, chicken meal it immediately got bumped off the list. If the ingredient list contained the word egg it went into a tentative category. After reading all the potential new dog food ingredient labels I called Ken and had him do an internet check on all the potential brands. Only one brand got cut from the internet check due to some ingredients that were being called into question. Finally, it was time to make a choice.

We began with Natural Ultramix. She enjoyed there food and did improve on it, however, she did not completely improve. I believe next we went to Blue Buffalo and that did the trick. Of course, she was still notorious for managing to eat things she was not supposed too. Eating the other dogs food, anything left over by the kids on any of the floors, the cats food, etc. Then there was the list of foods (primarily peanut butter) that I used to hide her medicine in that I quickly learned were on her no-no list when she began to get better. 

Prior to this point, Topaz had been given fruits and veggies from time to time but they were not something she got on a regular basis. The Ultramix dog food contained lots of fruits and vegetables in a form in which they were still recognizable. I decided to go ahead and try giving her fruits and vegetables as treats and to hide medicine in. I already knew she liked carrots, green beans and as a pup she had happily ate banana and peeled apples(she refuses to eat the peel). Banana is now an item she will eat a bite of on rare occasions and probably only because it is what I am eating. I believe this is because after her diagnosis bananas were what I primarily used as a treat and she got sick of it. 

 However, since moving to Tennessee her fruit and veggie list has expanded. It began by making sure I made meals with ingredients that I knew she liked at least once a week so that she got to have goodies. If  we were having a salad, we would save out some carrots and let her have some carrots. Sometimes it was cooked green beans. However, the list became expanded in an accidental way.

I had been preparing an Italian pasta salad dish for dinner and had some broccoli that I was adding to it and a piece fell and hit the floor. Before I had a chance to scoop it up it was in Topaz's mouth. I did not expect her to eat it. I expected she would chew it for a moment decide she hated it and drop it on the floor. However, she ate it right up and then was under my feet asking for more. I gave her another piece. Again she scarfed it up and was back asking for more.

I began setting aside vegetables and fruits that I was preparing for us to give to her. I did this for two reasons. One the more fruits and veggies that I discover she likes or even better loves the larger my treat list becomes. Also, keeping the treat list new and interesting keeps her willing to work for the treats. I have found that if I get the same treat to much she just gets this attitude of Mom you've already given me a lot of that and she will no longer work for that treat well.

Finally, last night I decided what the hell. I was already cooking fish for us and sauteing squash, zucchini and onions why not make enough to go ahead and give her some. I had already discovered that she liked zucchini and she likes fish. This meant I had to alter how I intended to cook the food. Normally, I would have used butter. However, since she was eating too I decided to brush some olive oil on both sides of the fish. The sauteed veggies I went ahead and used 2 tablespoons of butter on. Since through past experiences I knew 2 tablespoons of butter was not enough to cause a problem (meaning from all the times that she has jumped on the counter top and gobbled down entire sticks of butter).

She loved it. Cooking for three is now on the to do more often list. This means Ken and I are committing to eating gluten and grain free and a mostly vegetarian meal at least 2 to 3 times a month simply so we can reward her from time to time with goodies from our plate.

Treating the Itchy Blues with natural ingredients

As I mentioned in my very first post Topaz has allergies. Our biggest battle has been her food allergies- she is allergic to grain, wheat, soy, beef, chicken and dairy. She was diagnosed with this allergy about a week after July 4th last year. At the time that she was diagnosed, her rash was so bad that the vet warned me that once her rash began to clear up I may find other allergy triggers including seasonal allergies. We have had our battles with foods and I imagine we will continue to do so.  I will discuss our many food struggles in other posts. Our current struggle has been medicine. The veterinarian had me put her on 50 mg of benadryl daily to treat the symptoms her allergy caused. Nearly a year later she is still on 50 mg of benadryl daily. I have tried taking the benadryl away and we can usually keep her off of it for a two to three week period before she has a flare up and has to be put back on it. However, as spring has come benadryl is not working.  The grass in the yard got tall (and by grass I mean several types of different plants including dandelion greens, nettles, wild onions, hay, grasses, etc. ) and I noticed her belly looking pinker than normal. I did a thorough check to make sure I had not missed any new hives and noticed that only her belly and chest seemed to be bothered. I made the assumption that walking through the tall grass/weeds was more than likely to blame. However, since she did not seem to be scratching more than normal I did not fret about it.

However, Tuesday our lawn was mowed.  Of course, halfway through the lawn being mowed she decided she had to use the bathroom so while the lawn mower was getting a gas refill we went and walked in the freshly cut grass. After the lawn was completely mowed, we went for another walk and I let her play in the cut grass. This resulted in extremely itchy doggie- we spent hours with her scratching and gnawing at her chest, belly and paws. She also gets extremely agitated when she is super itchy so if she was not gnawing or scratching herself she was taking out her frustrations on her bone. I gave her her nightly benadryl and then began to wait patiently for the next five hours hoping the benadryl would give her some relief. By 11 pm, her gnawing and scratching on her paws and belly had gotten worse. She was miserable so I decided to google natural antihistamines.

I discovered that chamomile tea, several vitamins and omega 3's  are all natural antihistamines. Thankfully, we happened to have three boxes of chamomile tea. I did not have just the vitamins that contain antihistamines, however, I do have a large container of multivitamins. So I researched each vitamin contained in the multivitamin just to ensure it was safe to give her. After determining it would not hurt to give it to her, I opened two of the capsules up and poured the contents in with the tea. I also add a tsp of salt because people had stated that their dogs took better to the tea with the salt added in. Thankfully, Topaz is not a picky eater and so after I few minutes of adjusting she happily drank it.

Topaz is a 45 to 50 pound dog so I gave her 6 ounces of tea. Topaz is normally a very active dog- rising between 7 and 8 am. Promptly needing to go outside for a walk then we come inside for breakfast. After breakfast, she plays until she wears herself out which is usually about 1 or 2 pm. She will sleep for about 2 hours and then get up, go outside for a walk and come inside and have play time until bed time. Today, was not one of those days. She awoke at 8 am on Wednesday and immediately began dancing in front of the door. I took her out, she did her business, and we returned inside where she immediately returned to bed. She slept until 11 am! She would wake if I moved around but so long as I stayed nearby, she happily snored the morning away. The rest of the day she was much more subdued than normal. We still had some play time but not as much as normal. 

 I have been brewing 8 ounces of tea at a time and then only giving her 2 ounces at night with the vitamins mixed in. I pour this over her dog food and she happily eats it up. Her itchiness is improved and a lot of the pinkness has left her skin. I have had to give her 25 mg of benadryl twice but that is much better than the 175 mg of benadryl that she would have had without the addition of the vitamins and tea to her diet.

Rainy day

Mom has a migraine so she said I could do the today's post. Yaaaaaaay I get to do a post.

Well today it rained A LOT...like all day kind of a lot. Plus Mom had a migraine so she wasn't up for lots of playing so I did lots of this.

Mom was nice and let me have all the pillows. I loooove pillows. Can you tell?

Hopefully the sun will be back out tomorrow and things will be more exciting.

What's in a name: an introduction

There are many names I call my dog. There is her name, Topaz. Her mothers name was Pearl and I wanted to name her after a gem as well. I choose Topaz because she was a reddish brown with white markings that  made me think of a golden-brown topaz. Little did I know that the orange topaz is considered a symbol of friendship.

Then, there are the many things family, friends and I endearingly call her that her personality determined. Her first nickname was Spazzy. I am not sure which of my family members dubbed her this. She earned this one by being an extremely hyper, curious dog. If she was loose in the house she spent the entire time running through the house exploring everything. She had to see what had changed, what new smells had developed while she was in her kennel; had to know what everyone was doing in every room at all times. Considering that this meant she felt she needed to know what nine people, two other dogs, and two cats were doing you can see how this lead to the name Spazzy. As time progressed Spazzy was derived to Spazoid as well at times. I had a veterinarian who called her his ADD baby, for similar reasons as to how she earned the nickname Spazzy. Anytime we went to his office she inspected everything- the bags of dog food, the fish tank, the bench, the examination room, any counters, drawers, desks, etc. that she came across. I simply tell her that I am convinced that she is part cat since is so curious about absolutely everything.

My first nickname for her was Houdini because she has accomplished getting herself out of many things. When she was a puppy she was the first to figure out how to get out of the puppy kennel. We had used spare pieces of wood between a dresser and a couch to make a fence with tarp to protect the floor in case they had accidents while throughout the night. She would climb up on the couch, walk down to the arm, then jump down managing to be on the other side of the "fence" and free to do what she wanted. The dog kennel took her longer to figure out- I believe she was about 5 or 6 months old when she realized that if she kicked the door just right that she could slid the bars out and slip out. I tried carabiner clips on the kennel door, preventing her from getting the door open after she slipped the bars. She countered this by pushing the kennel open where the sides connect. I tried zipties- she ate those off, this led to using carabiner clips on all the edges where one would typically put zipties. That led to the end of escaping from her kennel. Of course, there are still the numerous chains she made it off of, the numerous dog lots that she made it out of, and the front screen door that she opens with her nose if we forget and leave the solid door open.

Sometimes, I simply poke fun at her- telling her she is part goat, part cat and part dog packaged in the body of a pitbull. The cat for the curiosity explained in this post, the dog obviously for all the dog characteristics that she has and the goat because she will eat nearly anything (but that is for another post another day).

The name clearly fits her with her gift of friendship that her name will forever symbolize and her uniqueness since no two gemstones are the exact same.

A note about this blog

This is my narrative of the friendship that my dog and I have. It is here that I share our journey- the good, the bad, the ugly and the sad. I am one of the countless owners of a pitbull type dog. It is my hope that through this blog people will not see Topaz as a pitbull but rather as just a dog- her personality, her quirks, what makes her unique and herself could have come in any type of package. It just happened to come in a package that fits in the pitbull category. Topaz also has severe food allergies to wheat, grain, soy and most meats so our journey also involves experimenting with foods (both trying out new dog food brands and cooking for her) and medicines. These food allergies have presented (and at times still do) numerous hurdles for us. Perhaps our struggles will be able to help others out there walking a similar path as ours. This blog will primarily focus on the narrative of our journey and friendship, however, from time to time it may feature other topics that do not immediately relate.