Extra PB tonight

Topaz acting a little "off" to me, so I gave him an extra 1/2 pill of PB. I thought it can't hurt, right?

He ate some diarrhea cat poop earlier too.

Other than that, all is well!

200 DAYS!!!!!

Topaz has made it 200 days without a seizure as of today! He's been doing SO WELL since the whole pancreatitis scare. I don't know what it is that turned him around, but we'll gladly take it!!

I know that the seizure monster could come at any time, so we're not letting our guard down.

But we should celebrate the milestones!

Yeah Topaz!! I hope it continues, puppa!!

More Goops & An Update!

I have been wanting to make more "goops" for Topaz for a few days now. We've been improvising on his meals.

So I started as soon as I got home from work and I made 4 different goops. These ones have meat, veggie, fruit and supplement in them. well, all but one has meat and supplements. One is just veggies and fruit. I can always add meat to that one later.

The first one I made has canned pumpkin, carrot, celery, spinach, garlic, apple, and pork, plus the supplements. I gave them this one for dinner...it's a little thick, I added 1/4 cup water to the other ones...but they both LOVED it...I think the garlic makes the difference!!

The 2nd one I made has spinach, celery, broccoli, cabbage, canned pumpkin, garlic, 2 apples, pork and supplements.

The 3rd one is mostly cabbage and broccoli, but also has canned pumpkin, garlic, an apple and a pear in it. This one is strictly veggie/fruit...no meat. I had a lot of cabbage to get rid of so I just made this. I may add meat to it when we give it to them.

The 4th is cabbage, broccoli, a lot of canned pumpkin, 2 apples, garlic, pork and the supplements.

There has been a lot of discussion lately about food for epi dogs and a question asking what people feed and what they do differently than others do to keep the seizures at bay.

I know we're *very* lucky with Topaz right now. He's gone over 190 days seizure free, and that's amazing!! I hate to say that I feel blessed (just because I don't like that saying...another blog...maybe on my regular blog) but I truly feel blessed right now by his progress and how long we've been able to keep the seizures at bay.

What to do we differently? Nothing that I know of. I just know we, like so many other people who are owned by epileptic dogs, have done and are doing everything we possibly can for Topaz.

Oh and he's been doing so well. I think that the pancreatitis was like a blessing (ack that word again) in disguise! He's turned completely around as far as how he's acting. He's our old, crazy, hyper, boofie Topaz! My husband drove me to work today and when he picked me up he brought the dogs and Topaz was in heaven! He was wagging his tail the whole time!! The last car ride he went on he barely moved!! And he was just SO happy today...chasing cars in the truck like he normally/used to do. It was amazing and I was so happy that he was happy!

I hope he continues to feel better and that we finally have control over the seizures. I know at any time he could have one, but he's just been doing SO WELL lately1!

Veggie & Fruity Goop & Topaz update

Today I made two batches of Veggie Goop and one batch of fruity goop.

In the first batch of veggie goop I put 2 or 3 celery stalks, 1 broccoli, spinach, 1 carrot, canned pumpkin and strawberries...plus supplements: Digestive Enzymes, vitamin E, Flax Seed Oil and their supplement.

 

In the second batch I put spinach, cabbage, broccoli, red pepper, strawberries and canned pumpkin and the same supplements as above. We are freezing the 2nd batch. 

Then I rinsed everything off and made the fruity goop. I put in 1 whole pear, 2 whole apples, a banana, strawberries and nonfat yogurt. It smells DELICIOUS!!! I wanted to taste it! LOL

 

I gave the dogs the fruity goop and some hamburger this evening. they loved it. I may try out the veggie goop tonight at pill time. 

Topaz is doing really well too. We're lowering his KBr, and he's really acting much better. Like the old Topaz. It's awesome to see.

We haven't added the milk thistle and I need to find some cod liver oil and vitamin C and a couple other things, then I'll be making patties and freezing them. it's from that diet I posted. It's the longterm part of it.

The Diet We're Following

Topaz is doing so much better. He's just about back to his crazy self. I missed my loveable nutty puppa!!

He's eating pretty good, still getting smaller meals and we're feeding 3-4 times a day. Mostly veggies too. We're going to add some meaty bones back in probably in a week or so.

We have a pretty good variety of things to give him. This weekend I'm going to make a batch of the veggie goop as well as a fruity one and probably a meaty one, or else just chop the meats up so they are ready to give when we decide to do so.

I looked online for the article that the lady who we buy our food from, I call her my mentor, sent me about pancreatitis. I found part of it at this site, but I could not find the entire thing.

So here is what we are trying to follow...please remember this is copyright Ian Billinghurst.

DIET FOR PANCREATITIS

When it is time to re-introduce food, your dog will be nice and hungry and ready to eat just about anything.  This is great because we want your dog to start a completely new diet.  The diet is designed initially to prevent reoccurrence of the problem and, ultimately, to not only prevent re-occurrence but to improve your dog's total health.

You must not feed . . .

Cooked food, grain, fatty meals, processed food, canned or dry dog or cat food.

WHAT YOU SHOULD BE FEEDING

1. Lots of little meals - i.e., small meals several times a day.

2. Lots and lots of RAW vegetables - which must be CRUSHED, i.e., put through a juicer or a food processor.  Carrot, celery, cabbage, pumpkin, etc.

3. Lean RAW minced meat - chicken, beef, kangaroo - RAW - and only in very small amounts.

4. Non fat yoghurt

5. Fruit - apples, pears, orange, banana, mango, etc.

6. Liver, egg, cottage cheese, sardines [in spring water] - in very small amounts.

7. Slippery elm bark powder

8. Enzyme tablets

9. Supplements including Multi-vitamin B, vitamin E, Flax seed oil, Cod liver oil, garlic, kelp, vitamin C and zinc.

The first water after an attack - should be little and often till satisfied

The first food fed after an attack should be 90 to 100 percent raw crushed vegetables.  To this is added an enzyme tablet -crushed and mixed through and left to stand for 10 to 15 minutes.  If this is refused, add a tiny amount of one or several of the foods from the WHAT YOU SHOULD BE FEEDING list - to make it more interesting.  That is, depending on what your dog likes, a tiny bit of minced meat or egg etc.  BUT ONLY A TINY BIT!  This is a small meal.  Maybe a quarter to an eighth the size of what he or she would normally eat.

Two to four hours later offer the same again.  Repeat this over the next several days.  You may gradually increase the size of these meals to about a third to a quarter of what he/she is used to eating, and reduce the frequency to two or three meals a day.  You may do this over a period of several weeks.  Gradually introduce the other elements of the diet such as the vitamins, the cod liver oil, slippery elm bark powder, the zinc, the kelp etc.

When all is going well, and usually after a blood test has confirmed that the pancreas is back to normal, you may start to introduce some raw meaty bones into the diet.  Chicken wings/necks, shank bones, large beef bones.

 So far we've got the digestive enzyme, I need to get the flax seed oil, we have vitamin E I think it is...and we're getting cod liver oil. We're also adding milk thistle to his diet for his liver. I am starting that next week.

It's kind of hard because my husband feeds him his breakfast meal. I take care of dinner, but it's the morning meal that gets his taurine and anything else we will add in. Although, maybe if he's not getting a bone meal for a while I'll put somethings in the dinner meal for him.

I don't know, it's a big change for us. We were kind of used to our little schedule and routines.

I think we're also going to have his vet draw blood for a 6 panel thyroid test and see if I or they can send it to Dr. Dodds to have it analyzed. I'm pretty sure that he'll end up on thyroid meds as well...since his test was low. Maybe that's the reason for the seizures...oh wouldn't that be wonderful if we found his trigger???

Anyways,...will keep updating here and will probably add pictures as I make the goops. LOL

Pancreatitis, the Puppa and the BARF Diet

Today was a much, much better day. Topaz ate a bit this morning, took his am PB in peanut butter and just overall is acting so much better.

I tried to feed him a bit of banana and the turkey mix at dinnertime since he was acting really interested in food and was looking at me like..."where's mine" when I fed Onyx her chicken back.

We did his temp today:
10:15 am - 102
1:30 pm - 103.2
3:00 pm - 102.1
10:30 pm - 102.3

So even his fever is better.

I got a list of his blood work results and his WBC is elevated, one of his liver tests was slightly elevated and one of the thyroid tests came back a little low. (hmm...reason for the seizures?)

So he's on a different antibiotic for the high WBC and we decided against the flagyl. Oh, and the antacidy medicine they gave us...we just can't get it in him.

We are also going to really give a BARF diet for pancreatitis a try. So, tonight the hubbs was so nice to go out and get me some fresh veggies and a food processor and I made a "veggie goop" for him. I put broccoli, celery, carrot, cabbage and canned pumpkin. I also added in digestive enzymes and their supplement.

The entire time I was making it he was in the kitchen and seemed really interested in the smells of the veggies and everything. I even gave him a little to taste...and then we did the big test and gave him some with a little lean hamburger and were able to put his pills PB, the KBr, and even his antibiotic in there! And he ate most of it.

I think this will work out well. Tomorrow, or whenever the kitchen is cleaner I will make a fruity goop and also a meaty goop. And then I'll freeze them into small baggies and we'll feed him like that.

So...hopefully, things are looking up for the puppa!!!

Temps

We have been checking Topa's temp at various intervals today.

12:30pm - 102.7
3:00pm - 101.5
5:30pm - 100.1

So his fever is going down! YEAH!!

I am so torn about this whole Flagyl issue...and where do we go from here?