Canidae ALS

We got Lace some samples from naturally pet but she didn’t eat it.like w/natural balance dry/can food & any dry/can food w/limited ingredients.i’d switch her over to 100% grain free if she ate it as well as her Halo’s!Her stool is excellent on TOTW even w/can food.Halo’s is low in grains…eats it close to a daily basis..medically it helps a lot…both Halo/s & TOTW has good variety ingredients which she’s faithful to…So far we tried Science Diet,IAMS,Beneful,Chicken Soup for the pet lover’s soul,prarie,instinct,stella & chewy,solid gold just a wee bit,wellness,canidae,halo’s(current),earthborn(current),totw(current),nature’s best(refused after once),natural balance(refuses can/dry),merricks(will eat sometimes,loves the can food),primal raw,thk ..when we are in pearl city i plan on trying a few different flavors from blue buffalo to see if she’ll eat it..

Looking back at Lacey’s first year:Health and all

Name:Lacey Princess Maltipoo Akamine
Current Weight at one year old:7.11 pounds according to vet records,7.6 according to home weight
Birth Date:March 13 2009
Born:Kailua,HI
Breed:Maltese/Toy Poodle
Mom:Poodle
Dad:Maltese
Adopted:july 17 2009
Age of adoption:16 weeks old
Found on:Kijiji.com
Price:$600
Name of Vet:Dr John Kaya
Vet Hospital:VCA Animal Hospital aka VCA University Hospital
Weight at first vet visit:4.5 pounds
Dog Food:Science Diet & IAMS,Beneful Prepared Meals till December 2009
Puppy Pad Training:9 weeks
Health Issues:Yeast infection in ear,worms,UTI,Spaying(February 2010)
First Heat:November 2009
First Treats:Nutro Dog Biscuits,Pupperoni,The Goodlife Recipe treats
First Walk:November 2009
Shortest Walk:<<<than 5 minutes
Longest Walk:62 minutes on her birthday
First Time Out: December 2009
First Thanksgiving:Thanksgiving 2009:Family Dinner
First Christmas:Christmas 2009:A new top,Waggin Train
Brands of dog food we tried:Solid Gold Just a Wee Bit,Chicken Soup for the Pet lover's Soul,Wellness Super5Mix Small Breed/Super5Mix Complete Health Chicken,Halo's Spot's Stew
Current Dry Food Brands:Solid Gold Just a Wee Bit,Halo's Spot's Stew(Wholesome Chicken & Wild Salmon flavors),Earthborn Holistic Primitive Natural
Brands of Can Food we tried:Natural Balance,NV Instinct & Prairie can food,Wellness Can Food then lost interest,Halo's Spot's Stew Can Food,Merricks
Current Brands of Can Food:Merricks
First introduced to Raw(Freeze Dried):January 2010
Started accepting Freeze Dried Raw:Feburary 2010
Brands we tried:Stella & Chewy till APril 2010 then we'll be switching to Nature's variety Freeze Dried
First Freeze Dried Raw Treat:Primal Pet Turkey Liver(A birthday present)
Organic Treats she's tried:Trader Joe's,Waggin' Train,No Grainers
First Boarding Facilities we considered:Di Ventus Dog Hotel & Spa
First Boarding Facilities we looked at:The Ohana Doggie Day Care,Pets in the city
First Starts understanding people conversations:7-8 months old
First Command:SIT
Commands she knows:sit,stay,don't move,time out,sit & stay,shake paw/hand,"eat",hi5,shake your tail,down aka sit,lay down,kiss,learning roll over,"wait",inside,outside,table manners at the table
Uses Common Sense while walking:About 8-9 months old
Checks for cars like a human(right,left,right,left,center,then walk)about 10 months-1 year old
Goes outside for afternoon poop:December 2009-learned by example of aunty's dogs
Vaccinations:Distemper,Parvo,Lepto
First Carrier:casual Canine
First Crate:Pet Mate Kennel Cab
Characteristics:A definite mix of Maltese/Toy Poodle.Brains of the poodle.Looks of a maltese.eyes are poodle.Loves to play.Loves to sample food
Types of food she tried:Mexican,Italian,Japanese,Chinese
Favorite Fast Food:KFC chicken skin
Shops we shop at:Naturally Pet,Halo’s Purely for Pets,The Pet Spot,Kalihi Pet Store
Misc:Also tried Hartz Oinkies
Able to climb steps:10-11 months old
First Shampoo;Sergent’s Puppy Shampoo
Current Shampoo:Halo’s Cloud Nine Herbal Shampoo/Earthbath Shampoo
Grooming:Cardinal Pet Gold Metal Pets Unicoat Professional Spray

Lacey tries Solid Gold Just a Wee Bit…one last & final attempt….

We still had the bag of Solid Gold Just a Wee Bit & decided to give it one more try to see if medical issues still comes up.If it does,we’ll take her off of it completely and toss the rest out in the garbage.Dr Kaya said it could’ve been hormones that was causing the medical issues.Sometimes in some dogs spaying could help.She did get spayed so I am willing to give it one more attempt.One good thing I remember last year when we first started organic dog food,Solid Gold was one of the first ones we tried that she ate..During that one month we tried it,the protein was Bison & her itching was less than on Science Diet & IAMS.Not sure but she may be allergic to chicken.We’ll be trying SG Just a Wee Bit for a few months in addition to her Halo’s Spot’s Stew Wholesome Chicken & Halo’s Spot’s Stew Wild Salmon to see if any medical issues come up while on SG just a wee bit.See next post for more info.

Lacey’s recovery is going very well…..

Lacey’s recovery from her spaying is going very well so far…She has started to eat some raw & has eaten her Halo’s.She’s been “begging” for walks,going out/on a car ride to go get pizza hut for dinner which she did amazingly on(very calm,relaxed,laying down,enjoying herself w/a smile on her face,looking around and not breathing heavily).In the morning she was prancing around somewhat but still “very still” or what I call her “frozen stand”and not move a muscle except she’d move her face & stay in one spot for minutes at a time.We decided to give Lacey some pain medicine after I asked her “are you in pain?” she responded with looking away from me and drooped her head to the side as if she was somewhat embarrassed to tell me “yes,I am sore.”.I took the response as yes,I am in pain & we gave her some pain medicine that Dr Kaya had given her to take on the day she was discharged from her spaying.In the evening,she made a miraculous turn around in her behavior…Before we knew she was being quite a rascal,prancing around,”digging for gold” inside the house,lapping up water more,ate some Halo’s after I gave her 4-6 pieces of solid gold just a wee bit I switched it to the Halo’s which she gulped it up & took from the carpet,running around the house with endless amount of energy,wanting to go walking,ate some meat off the floor while we ate dinner,playing with her toys & looking for Halo’s food & raw food in her bottles..Her incision is healing very quickly..97% of the incision is healed and moreorless closed up.I would have thought it would take about a week to close up but it has been less than 4 days since her spaying and already 97% of the incision is healed!If Halo’s ever comes out with another flavor besides Salmon we’ll be more than happy to try it out on Lacey!As far as we are concerned Halo’s makes the best products when it comes to dry food for dogs.When it comes to Halo’s canned food that’s a different story but the dry food is the best which I believe has helped heal Lacey quicker than Science Diet,quicker than IAMS, & quicker than Solid Gold Just a Wee Bit.She’s also doing more tricks.

Lacey’s choices of dry food and her reactions to all 4 brands

We tried Lacey on Wellness Super5Mix Small Breed,Solid Gold Just a Wee Bit,Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul,Halo’s,Science Diet & IAMS.
On Science Diet & IAMS we gave her that because we had gotten the IAMS when we got her from Kailua along with her puppy food and the Science Diet we got that when we first took her for her first check up with Dr Kaya.she was doing well on it but wanted IAMS more.At the time looking back now she was itching more and had more medical issues.
One of the first organic/holistic dry food I had her sample was Solid Gold I believe was the very first one and from the beginning she loved it!Her reaction was almost instantly.As the days went by giving her Solid Gold her itching slowly got better.The next one we tried was Wellness Super5Mix Small Breed and her reaction to that one was also pretty quick but the result was soft bowels.Yet on the canned food her bowels were slightly better & the Wellness Treats.So Wellness was out but she enjoys the canned food and treats from Wellness!I use Wellness on the side for her.
The next was Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul.It took her a while to warm up but at the beginning she loved it.About a day after I gave her Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul she wasn’t too thrilled to eat Chicken Soup.Sometimes she won’t even look at it,turn her face away or won’t even open up her mouth.Good thing it was only a sample.Now we feed it to our neighbor’s dog.
The next one was Halo’s.Lacey took a while to warm up to this one..a little longer than with Chicken Soup..But she ate it and actually knew when I was trying to trick her into Chicken Soup.She’d rather have Halo’s.Halo’s has sweet potatoes in it but was surprised when I saw her bowel was good and firm not even the slight of softness to it!I think it’s the amount of sweet potatoes the companies put in the dry food that can be too much for her tummy.
So her main foods are Solid Gold Just a Wee Bit,Halo’s Wholesome Chicken Recipe, Wellness Canned Food/Treats,Beneful along with some table food & home cooked treats.I still give her some by products but definatly not to the same extent before where it was mostly commercial dog food.Most of her dog food and treats are higher quality with a few treats that still have by products.Only a few exceptions.

Organic Dog Food Samples & Earthborn Dog Food Trial Package

Today we requested to get samples of Halos & Wellness for Lacey.We also got Lacey a brand called Earthborn which is supposed to be grain free and Holistic..Thing about this brand is while it may be “recommended” I don’t see a lot of reviews on the products or testimonials on their website.Lacey also took longer to warm up to this brand where as the SG(Solid Gold) was a fairly quick response to the first attempt!
I always look at her responses and how fast she warms up to the food.We have some SG left and I am saving it to compare with the next two brands to see which one she warms up to quicker(wellness or halos.The Earthborn one you are feeding almost as much as you would with Science Diet.For a 5-20 pound dog you are looking at 1 cup to 1 1/4 cup of dog food.On Science Diet she was taking anywhere from 1/8 cup to 1/3 cup of dog food.So to me while it may be holistic,not highly review nor recommended by many dog owners you are feeding more as you would with any commercial dog food,I wouldn’t encourage Lacey to eat it every day.In fact,I’ll just leave it out and let her eat when she’s hungry or I just may temporarily place her back on commercial dog food if i see she doesn’t eat for as many as 3 days of the Earthborn dog food.

Lacey’s serving size for Solid Gold:Just a wee bit

Tonight I measured and calculated how much Lacey needs for her Solid Gold dog food.It turns out that Lacey actually is taking in less from what it was with commercial dog food.I gave her 1/8 cup which is what she ate when she was on Science Diet & IAMS.Science Diet & IAMS was 1/8 cup to 1/4 cup.After she finished her Solid Gold I calculated it and she now eats 1 Tablespoon + 1 tsp=20 ml.It’s less by 10 ml which means her food will last us a while.I am guessing it’s probably going to be the same with her second organic food.This is off the subject but even when she took a bath I noticed that she was a lot calmer and still compared to when she was on commercial dog food.Could it be a coincidence?We’ll see next week.

So long Science Diet & IAMS:You were good to us while it lasted….

Today Lacey embarks a new dry kibble.As the primary care giver of Lacey I wanted her to live long yet enjoy her life as a dog.So I researched many brands to see what is good and what is recommended.What to look at for nutrition.I even settled into prayer about it.The ones I was looking at were Canidae,Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul,Wellness,and Halos Spot Stew.We went to Natrually Pet which was in town and I saw many good brands except one brand had salt as a ingredient(Royal Canine).Instead between debating on Canidae,and Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul we bought a sample of Solid Gold.So happened that Lacey warmed up to the idea of trying a new kibble.She loves it.We still need one more dry brand of kibble.Hopefully similar to Solid Gold.She’ll also get Beneful too but no more Science Diet or IAMS!We are done and finished using by products as one of the main sources of dog food.Lacey does need variety though.Otherwise she will get bored with one brand.
Quick Note:I haven’t heard about Royal Canin when my dad asked me about it at Natrually Pet.The lady there recommended Royal Canin for a small dog like Lacey but I never heard of that brand before.I checked the ingredients and it was fairly good but there was salt and I knew that was a no-no.When I came home I looked it up and others say that it’s “good” but it’s not at the top of the line like Solid Gold.But what Lacey is on is good so we don’t have to worry.Likewise I am sure that she’ll do good with Wellness.

Lacey’s bowels are much better despite the fact she still gets table food and still has treats that has by products.Friday was her first attempt at Organic Dog Food.Throughout the whole day from Friday morning to midnight on Satuday she only made one bowel.Her urinating has also decreased by a lot too.Lacey’s doing really well on Organic Dog Food so far and we hope to eventually get her treats organic too after the ones with by products are done.We are considering Wellness as the second brand of dry dog food to alternate it with the Solid Gold something like every other week or every other day