In the post When The Time Comes, I wrote about our old dog, Beanie, whose health was not good. Her heart was failing, she wasn’t eating and to be honest things weren’t looking good for her. Well, two weeks later I am pleased to report that the heart medication she is taking seems to be working. She is back to her greedy old self albeit a little fussy now, she is enjoying the food she does eat, going on short walks and chasing the lizards that are emerging out of their winter hidey holes around the garden. I am happy that things are looking good for her again.
It did take her longer than expected to regain her appetite and she is still being fussy about what she eats. At the moment she will still only eat tinned dog meat and Friskies dry dog pellets – both foods that I don’t usually feed our dogs since one of our dogs developed liver problems.
When our German Shepherd, Roxy, got ill I stopped feeding the dogs tinned dog food and put them on better quality dry food. At that time I was unaware of the rubbish that is put into the cheaper commercial dog foods to pad it out and on our vets advice we changed the way we feed our dogs. I now cook their wet food from scratch – it’s so much better for them, doesn’t cost as much as you may think, but can be a little time consuming; thank goodness for freezers!
When Beanie was off her food I offered her everything to tempt her into eating again, I didn’t care how bad it might be for her, I just wanted her to eat! At first she would eat a little tinned dog food and that was it. Then she would eat a couple of hard boiled eggs, and now she will eat a bowl full of tinned meat with Friskies dog pellets, I have tried adding her normal Purina dry dog pellets for senior dogs, but she licks them clean and leaves them in the bowl.
I am convinced by the way she looks at any cooked food that I offer her and then back at me, that she is playing me, she knows what she wants and how to get it. She is pulling my heart strings, but I don’t mind, I am just grateful that she is better again.
The even better news is that the vet has told us that she could go on for a few more years if the medication continues to work. We will just have to wait and see. I worry about taking her for walks though, even though I know that the heart needs exercising like any other muscle, it’s just that she gets sooooo excited I am scared that her heart will just stop mid excitement – I suppose that’s not such a bad way to go if you’re a dog! But until then I will appreciate every day we have left together.
Related post: When The Time Comes….
Copyright © 2014 by Debbie Roberts
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