One Sunny Acre garden journal 2015

bobm

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One of the things I most miss about chickens, is fridge clean out. Any old food would be given to them, now I have to throw it away ( dogs only eat dogfood)
Well gee wiz NY boy, dogs will eat what their owners give them and/ or can scrounge. They think that the neighbor's cat poop is a delicacy. Surely , you can give them the "T" bone from your steak, or the ham bone from your ham as they are much better in cleaning their teeth than anything you can buy commercially. All of our dogs got table sraps, bones, or leftovers from butchering chicken, turkey, duck, rabbit,pheasnat sheep, beef , etc. over their commercial feed. We always gave any old food from refrigerator clean outs. Healthiest dogs in town or country ( lived to rpe old ages ) as the only time we ever took them to a Vet. was to get their rabies shots as mandated by State law. :eek:
 

journey11

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What do you mean by low residue, @Nyboy ? Less poo?

I always gave my dog pork rib bones (leftover from BBQ) for years, then one night a couple of years ago she had such terrible pain in her bowels that I thought she was going to die. I sat up all night with her as she had her nose pressed hard into the couch, shivered, whimpered and breathing hard. I thought that was going to be the end of her. Woke up in the recliner next morning and she was fine after she went out to do her business. I had always heard that pork ribs were soft enough and safe for dogs. Guess not! As a child, we mistakenly gave one of our dogs a cooked beef bone which caused much pain and distress.

I looked into feeding a raw diet once and they say that as long as a bone has not been cooked, it will not hurt the dog as it is soft and does not splinter. You can feed them chicken wings uncooked and everything. We do give the dog meat scraps when we butcher deer. I have not tried the chicken yet (we eat the wings!) They said not to feed turkey to dogs as it is too rich. Livers can be too rich as well, but just a little bit is ok, and it is very high in iron and other good stuff.

The dog only gets certain scraps. Chickens get the rest. What chickens can't have, the compost pile gets. It all works out. Although you can't/shouldn't compost dog poo...

Think I forgot to update you all on how my dog is doing since her surgery. So far no regrowth of new tumors. She still has cancer, of course, but after 3.5 years I think we can say it is confined to the skin layer as tumors removed were never attached to the abdominal wall. Life expectancy for hemangioma sarcoma is less than 18 months if it metastasizes to the organs, but in some cases it stays in the skin layer and outcome is better. We got lucky. She is feeling great nowadays on Cosequin DS joint supplement and 1/2 a dose of Rimadyl daily. She's climbing the stairs to come sleep by Ava's bed again and loves to go out and follow us around the backyard. She's playing again (we have to remind her to play gently, because she loves to horseplay) and rolls in the grass with the sun on her belly, feeling just like a pup. She'll be 14 this October! :)
 

Nyboy

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Thats great my friend Dana just picked up her 14 year old pit bull about half a hour ago!! The low residue does mean a lot less poo. It is a great food for dogs the are prone to diarrhea. It is so good to hear your dog living so many years after being diagnosed with cancer !!
 

journey11

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Ah, I see...it is a type of dog food. I will read more about it. Dogs were never meant to eat corn. It all comes out undigested anyway (and extra stinky).

I was enlightened about the importance of a good diet for dogs about 3 years ago. When I switched away from cheap ol' Purina to a lamb and brown rice feed, her skin allergies disappeared and she trimmed down quickly to a healthy weight. It is in large part why she has lived so long. I often wonder if I had started out with good food if we might have avoided the cancer entirely. I would ideally like to feed a raw diet or Call of the Wild, but did have to consider my budget. Of course if I didn't have so many pets, I would have a better budget for that, but they all do get their proper care and vet visits.

Yeah, 14 is a long life for a pit bull anyway. Love mine...sweetest, most loyal dog I've ever had. :love
 
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