In his prime

Hypothermia is tasty!

This is my dog going all out for 1.4 pounds of frozen chicken. By half way through he was shivering, and when it was done I caught him in the basket of clean laundry trying to warm up. Ridiculous animal.

End of week 2

Replenished the dog food stores today. Chicken was on sale at Winn-Dixie for $0.69 per lb...which worked out to almost 50% off. I got 4 chickens which is 16 days of dog food. $3.00 every 4 days is still less than the premium kibble I was feeding him.

He's enjoying the hell of of the piece of pig leg that I found for $0.40, diligently gnawing away at it in the kitchen....took him ~10 minutes to chew. Let's hear it for the cephalic phase of digestion.

In other news he's starting to grow some hair back.
His tail is emaciated on the back, kind of scary as you can clearly feel each individual vertebra.

Now that he's eaten, he needs a bath.
'Cause he smells.

Day 7

Now we're acting like an idiot. Last night I got out of bed for a funny noise, which turned out to be the dog trying to nest IN the dirty clothes' basket. 37 lb dog IN the clothes' basket. Would have been funny if it hadn't been oh-dark-thirty....literally.

This morning he was sleeping ON the treadmill. We have no idea what's gotten into the dog and his sudden boycott of his nice warm bed.

The vet gave us Chlorhexadine shampoo, Advantage flea stuff, and 10-days of Cephalexin. Vet says the itchy rash could be a staph infection....that they get Staph intermedius. That he should take the 10-day course and then, if he's better from it, another 10-days.

Put Advantage on yesterday, means no bath until Sunday. Then Chlor-Hex bath with soak.

The Cephalexin is in caplets, which is kind of a pain. I HAVE to put it in his food. Most pills you can just hand this dog and he gladly swallows them. The big caplets break and end up all over the floor, which is less than useful.

Oh, also giving him benadryl to relieve some of the itchies.

He's delightedly eating everything he can get. Green tripe, chicken wings, necks, hearts, livers, thighs. I have some turkey that I think I'll give him today.

So far so good...

But he's been acting decidedly weird.
Sleeping on the couch while we're not looking, refusing his basket, avoiding the grass.
Just damned odd.

Eats anything you put in front of him. A chicken wing and thigh today as well as a heart and 2 scoops of tripe. D/C'd the pumpkin.

Day 3

Went fairly well.
He ate his pumpkin/tripe/supplements for breakfast & his chicken thigh for lunch....mostly not on the floor this time.

He had 2 frankly bloody stools. Still low on the concern-o-meter for this dog.

By his PM walk the diarrhea had resolved.

He's still itchy. But I think I'm getting bug bites too....so I think a bug bomb is in the future.

Day 2

Had to add pumpkin puree to the diet.

All the sites swear by it as a GI binder. However, so far, the diarrhea is not too bad...not for this dog at least.


He also has a beef rib to chew on.

I need to go buy a spray bottle for vinegar or astringent for his beard.