Raw Photo Journal

[Kbug]

Okay, here are day 14 on raw pictures of the pups.

First up is Fayt:


This one shows her back and ribs. You can see how well her coat is growing in now. Her back is still obviously noticeable both visibly and by feel up close, so this may not be a good angle to show that. But, when you look at her profile, her backbone is less prominent and overall she no longer looks like she'll fall over any minute.


A picture of the hind end that shows just how hippy she still is. She has good muscle tone in her legs, just not very padded over the hips and by the tail bone.

Next up is Aerith:


My poor Ms. Porky. She desperately needs to lose weight. Part of the problem on kibble is no one else would really finish theirs so she's come behind and been the cleaning crew. If she doesn't start losing some weight on the raw then I'll probably need to go see if there are some metabolic issues going on.


Yeasty ear picture. They actually don't look to bad on the outside, probably mostly dirty more than anything else...but there is something going on down inside because they smell horrible and when you scratch them she practically falls over on you in pure bliss.


Here is an allergy picture. I think it's some kind of environmental allergy. Earlier this summer she was scratching off all the fur on her neck. That has since grown back in and now she's pulling out the fur on her legs.

Now for Dixie:


I've only got a tooth picture. Her ears look exactly like Aerith's and after messing with her for pictures she was avoiding me so I didn't get a full picture of her. Aerith's teeth look the best out of all of them (slightly yellow but no real build up) since she's the youngest.

No pics of Kaiden yet. I'll need to get my husband to help me because he won't sit still long enough for a picture.

Now I have a couple of poo pictures. Fayt was kind enough to make a raw poo right next to a kibble poo, so I shot a picture


The smaller pile is the raw poo and the big one is the kibble poo that has been sitting there for probably close to a month.


The same poos 24 hours later. The raw poo is all white and the kibble poo is still brown.

Otherwise, doing good. Ordered my turkey necks to pick up on Monday. They were .99/lb for a 30 lb case - is that a bad price? Also, I'm going to switch from buying chicken backs/quarters and buy whole chickens to cut up. The bought quarters are too big to give to my diabetic in one meal and I was thinking it'd be easier to portion her meals by cutting up the whole chicken/turkey myself.

The whole chickens are going to be $1.29/lb and come in 70lb cases and currently the whole turkey will be about the same and come 2 - 4 turkeys (depending on weight) in a case. I was also told that once we get out of the holiday season the turkey's will be cheaper.

Kbug

[Kbug]

Update on Fayt:

Took her to the vet for eye issues. The poor girl has some severely irritated eyes from bumping into everything. She's got an eye ointment to help with that. But what was great was we discussed her curve some. I mentioned that I was feeding raw and I didn't get a meltdown. I got a slight push about the Hills w/d kibble but I told the vet it didn't matter, her curve looks exactly the same regardless of Hills or raw, the only difference was the amount of insulin I was using. Then I pointed out that she was finally putting on weight and growing her coat back on the raw and we dropped it. We'll see how it goes when I show up with 4 days worth of raw meals for them to feed.

Also, she's gained weight. 4.6 lbs so only another 6 or so lbs left to go. I'm so happy about that. I'm getting my turkey necks tomorrow and as a bonus I found pig ears in the reduced bin at the grocery store while ordering my daughter's b-day cake. So, I got 3 packages of pig ears for 1/2 price. I think they'll be a nice treat for around Christmas. They had a couple of packages of ox tails but they were cut into pieces and some of them were pretty small so I passed them up as a choking hazard.

Kbug

[lauren43]

Fayt looks fantastic! I can see the difference already!!

I'm sure your other girl will loose weight on raw give it time, if she's still packing on lbs you may have to adjust her food intake...labs seem to be so difficult in the weight department.

[Kbug]

I'm still going to feed the other 3 dogs on the raw diet. I know Fayt died of colitis and colitis is something that can be triggered during the transition to raw but I still feel she was doing much better on the raw diet. I do know that her immune system was already compromised before the switch, but there must have been more going on that wasn't so obvious. When she was diagnosed she was anemic and the vets didn't know why and assumed it was somehow related to the diabetes.

The others have been doing good with Turkey so now I need to add something else. I'm not sure if I'll try fish or pork now. I need to make my order in the next day or two. I'm going to order whole chickens and cut them up. I've still got quite a few turkey necks but I'm going to go ahead an order another 30lb case. That leaves pork or fish. Pork might be easier to obtain in quantity.

As for the dogs they are doing good. The spots on Aerith's legs are mostly healed over now and I'll get a picture later. I haven't noticed her moving on to another location and she doesn't seem to be scratching as much. She tends to rotate between her neck, legs and the base of her tail. Also, her back doesn't have the gunky, scabby stuff either. I'm going to buy a tape measure and see if I can start taking measurements so I can tell just how much they are losing.

Also, we are adding a cat, which I'll be raw feeding as well. My daughter has really been wanting one and I've been holding off because I've got a 4 animal limit right now. We are going to the shelter to look for an older kitten or adult cat to adopt. DH and I are going today to see what is available and what the prices are going to be and then we'll take my daughter back and let her make the final pick.

Kbug

[Liz]

I would go with pork because fish tends to be a love it or hate it kinda of thing and I would hate for you to have a 30 pound case your guys won't touch.

[DaneMama]

When Fayt boarded at the vet for the holiday did she stay on raw while there? I'm still so sad about her sudden passing, even though I'd never met her. I'm so glad that you still believe that she was doing best on raw even after all of that.

Colitis is only a real issue to dogs with compromised immune systems. I wouldn't worry about your other dogs unless they have immune system issues as well.

I would also go with pork as your next protein. The best cut to switch to would be pork ribs or riblets (country style pork ribs should be avoided as they're cross sections of the shoulder blade and can be sharp odd shapes).

I am thrilled that your other dogs are doing do well on raw! Keep the updates coming!

[Kbug]

Yes, she was on raw while being boarded. The tech commented to me that he could tell how much she was enjoying it and going after it up until that last morning. I'm upset, but the whole incident was very telling on just how close to the edge she really was. I do think that based on this just about any infection could have probably sent her over. It was a risk to switch her to the raw diet, but its not like she was necessarily doing better on the kibble....maybe just declining slowly over more time.

Kaiden had a malignant tumor removed from his ear in the last 6 months, but other than that, no one else has had any disease problems.

I did order pork ribs.....but at 2.20 a lb I'm going to find some other pork cut to be their staple after this. If I ration them just a bit I can make them last 2 weeks. I got what I think is enough chicken to last me 6 weeks in rotation and enough turkey to last me 4 weeks, maybe 5. Fish will be up next. I think, at a minimum, Kaiden will take to the fish. When he was a year old he spent 30 minutes playing with a long dead and half decayed fish. It was in and out of his mouth the entire time. I do think he would have ate it if I'd let him. He also spent a weekend chasing fish at the lake once. But, my labs are hoovers. I've yet to see them refuse to eat anything, maybe fish will be a first.

I'm going to start trying to switch the cat after the weekend. I'll give her a few days to adjust before we start messing with something else. We picked her out at the shelter. Her name is Panda and she's a black and white domestic short hair that is about 8 months old. So far she's been really fun and playful. She slept with my 4 year old last night and she's been really tolerant of her so far. Found her in my spot on the bed when I came home from taking my daughter to preschool.

Kbug

[Liz]

I don't know where you are at but we use pork heart, and pork roasts we can generally get for about $1.45, we can also get pork neck cheap. You might want to check out those cuts.