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An Arf-Arf Here and a Meow-Meow There... E I E I O!

Posted 10-22-2009 at 04:45 PM by Shelli

Since this thread that I created in response to a question isn't going anywhere, I've decided to move the two posts to my blog and post any further comments here. :user:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Shelli View Post
This thread is an offshoot from the What's up with you? thread. :yes:

Recently, I've thought about starting a thread on the health care of cats and dogs and this seemed like an opportune time, not to mention, I didn't want to derail the other thread. :train:






I give them one 400 I.U. E softgel (put out by Spring Valley) daily after their dinner which is the one meal that they each get a teaspoon of sardines with. They get a chunk of tofu (maybe two tablespoons?) with their breakfast and also with their dinner, and they get canned pumpkin (a teaspoon for 28 pound Raistlin and a tablespoon each for 43 pound Tigger & 53 pound Shelby) with breakfast, lunch & dinner.

I give them the Vitamin E softgels via opening their mouths and placing it to the back of their mouths, lifting their snouts up while rubbing their throats and talking to them. Then they all get a treat. Then I wash my hands. :gross:

Raistlin has swallowed a pill for a day since he was a puppy so he's used to it and he's never had a problem with it. (knowing that he'll always get a treat afterward helps too :dog:) Tigger and Shelby, except for the occasional Ascriptin (Maalox coated aspirin), are new to it, but while not necessarily thrilled with it, are not too bad about it either. :shrug:

These additions to their dry food began a couple months ago in an effort to help my dog, Raistlin, through diet, with his condition called inflammatory bowel disease. I started with the vitamin E first, and then when his symptoms were somewhat under control, I added the canned pumpkin. Just a couple of weeks ago is when I added the sardines (packed in water) and just this week is when I added the tofu.

I didn't add the vitamin E to my other two dog's diets until I began giving them sardines. The canned pumpkin I've been giving to all of them since I started with it because not only does canned pumpkin have hardly any calories and comes vitamin packed, but it also helped with Shelby's constipation. :thumbup:

The vitamin E, sardines and tofu are ideas that I got from this book :rarrow: Home-Prepared Dog & Cat Diets ~ The Healthful Alternative by Donald R. Strombeck, DVM, PhD. I tried the pumpkin after extensive research on the net.

Raistlin is presently taking 10 mg. of prednisone every other day for the inflammatory bowel disease. This dosage is considerably lower than he had been on for a few months in an effort to try to get this autoimmune disease under control. He is also presently taking a small dose of azathioprine once a week which is also a considerably lower dose than he had been on for awhile. Eventually, I hope to have him taking only 5 mg. of prednisone every other day like he had been taking for years prior to him contracting whipworms which caused his bowels to retaliate, and the azathioprine either once a month or not at all. I'd much rather nix the azathioprine all together if possible. His belly fur is just starting to grow back now that his dosage has been reduced. I love giving belly rubs to his newly, softly furred belly. :^^ It reminds me of how far he's come since The Battle of The Bowels. :cheerful:

I also give him one chewable levothyroxine sodium tablet twice a day to treat his hypothyroidism. That, he will be taking for the rest of his life, which I hope to be as long and healthy as possible. :heart:

In his case, more fiber rather than less fiber helps his condition, so for awhile he was eating Hill's Science Diet w/d which is loaded with fiber. He's now been weaned back to what he had been eating which was Hill's Science Diet Light, which, while it doesn't have as much as the w/d, it also has a lot of fiber.

His situation was looking pretty bad a few months ago :worry: but he's doing considerably better these days. :bliss:
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