I thoroughly enjoy taking care of Freddy and just love how much he loves us. We focus on positive reinforcement and sometimes treat him like a little human (I mentioned some of this and his training in this post I did the other day). It really has made all the difference in respecting us and listening.

There are many obstacles when you first get a dog and many more that emerge as the years go on, which is why you really need to be up for anything if you are planning on getting a dog. A challenge we faced this year was with a food sensitivity. Freddy was throwing up for an entire month — give or take a day – but it was pretty consistent. I had my Vet on speed dial as I was making a bunch of calls over this month until finally bringing him in.

Along with the guidance of our vet, we started off with the idea that he was anxious and stressed from going to daycare which made sense because he was dealing with quite the separation anxiety. So, he didn’t go for almost two weeks but nothing changed with the vomiting. His daycare suggested that since it was bile he was throwing up, he might be more hungry at night, and to give him some extra food/treats before bed. This caused him to vomit not just bile, but food. Thank goodness I found this cleaner otherwise my new carpet would also be ruined — the brush on it is key to get into the stain good.  Finally, we went with trying to settle his stomach, which always means to give the dog bland food, ie boiled chicken and rice or boiled ground beef and rice.  Once things seemed to be back to normal, we went on our planned weekend getaway to Vermont. 

I ran out of chicken/rice so I figured I would introduce his dog food again. Well, he threw up on our walk, and again in the hotel.  He looked like he was choking each time he threw up, so I guessed something must be stuck in his canal. Nonetheless, we had enough, so I set up a vet appointment for Monday morning when we got back.  I was instructed to give Freddy some Pepcid to help with acid build up. Well, that night he threw up all his food and some blood. :(. 

We weren’t messing around anymore so we got an emergency appointment (it was Memorial Day so there weren’t many vets working in the small towns). He was injected with fluids (electrolytes), Maropitant Citrate  (for acute vomiting), and Sucralfate (incase there was an ulcer). Our little guy was still so happy even after all that and just wanted to play and swim (so we did!)

On Monday, Fred got an X-ray to see if anything was causing blockage. It wasn’t.  All his tests appeared normal, so we decided that it was some type of food sensitivity. He was put on the Hills Prescription diet z/d Canine for Skin/Food sensitivities. You can only get the z/d which has highly hydrolyzed animal protein & single purified carbohydrates, from the Vet. Everything seemed to have gone back to normal after we switched out his food, only problem was his stool was nowhere near normal even after a month and it was a struggle to get him to eat the food.

The first ingredient is cornstarch…which if you know anything about dog food, you know the ingredient list should not start with cornstarch.

So you may of guessed that Freddy is no longer eating prescription kibble. He is eating a raw based homemade diet, but recently I have added in some kibble to have as backup and for convenience purposes. The only one I will get him is this and this and this one. For his homemade food, I sometimes put in a scoop of Nupro just to make sure he is getting all the essential supplements. It may seem like a lot of work, but it isn’t if you meal prep for the week. I don’t always follow the recipes I provided below if I don’t have something on hand. I use whatever I am already making for dinner like if I am making a chicken dish using chicken breast, spinach, tomatoes and sweet potato, I simply put the extra of that into boiling water, take it out once cooked through, add a scoop of Nupro (mix it with a little of the water), chop everything up nice and Freddy is all set. Please be careful with what ingredients you are giving your dog – they cannot eat everything we eat, so do your research to make sure it is okay to give to a dog. No onions, for example!

Some of the combos I make for Homemade dog food:

Chicken & Rice
Chicken breast, brown rice, peas, spinach, blueberries, cracked egg

Turkey & Lentil
Turkey, tomatoes, pearled barley, lentil, zucchini, coconut oil 

Pork with Apples, Oats & Beans
Pork, lima beans, oatmeal, apples, butternut squash, peas, olive oil

Beef & Mashed Potato
Beef, potatoes, green beans, carrots, spinach, kale, olive oil

Lamb & Pumpkin
Lamb, pumpkin, carrot, green beans, peas, cauliflower

 
This is enough for the entire week.

Let me know if you cook for your pup too and what you make! I’d love to hear. As always, thanks for reading! XO