Hello! First time posting here.
I rescued a small 3-year-old female chiweenie, 13lb, about a month ago. Her name is Augustine. She was given the basic round of vaxxes early on this year, and is spayed (she was originally rescued from a city shelter with her puppies early on in the year by a foundation, spent the year living with fosters, and we adopted her a month ago. How she ended up at the city shelter isn’t known). She has a small lump on her back that our vet suspects may be a fatty growth, and red, itchy allergies in her paws (have improved since coming to live with us but still present). Her BEAM is great. She had bloodwork done early in the year and our current vet reviewed it and said it all looks good. She gets about 1h exercise total a day (light walks in the morning and evening and a longer walk on the weekend). She had one weird episode recently in the middle of the night where she woke up from her sleep seeming like she was struggling to breathe, but it resolved on its own and she was her usual self the following day. We contacted the emergency vet immediately and regular vet the next morning and they said they couldn’t do anything if it wasn’t happening in front of them, and that it could be nothing and just pass (which it did).
My main reason for posting is that I want to double check if the diet I’m feeding her is ok and what suggestions you would have for me. I want her on a Medical Medium-informed diet, and have been working on implementing the guidance he has to offer on that. Our vet okayed everything we’re doing but I want to double check here if it’s actually ok or if you have suggestions for any changes.
At the moment, we’re feeding her between 1-1/4cup total a day, half that amount being the Raw Vibrance brand veggie base mix, and the other half being sardines (basically 1-2 sardines a day, in just water, no oil or salt), plus a sprinkle of flaxseeds and ground turmeric once a day. She also gets cucumbers or carrots for snacks, and her treats (she gets about 4 a day) are a 100% grass-fed beef liver treat or a coconut + banana one (k9 Granola Factory brand). She absolutely loves all of the above. I plan to eventually bring in raw meat and raw marrow bones, but haven’t been able to yet. Soon I’ll be bringing in the Honest Kitchen meals and offer that instead of Raw Vibrance + sardines, and plan to take turns between those two brands (would it be better to rotate them weekly or is it ok to rotate them monthly?) I also plan to experiment with making homemade meals by steaming sweet potatoes, peas, russet and yellow potatoes, broccoli, adding in raw spinach, plus other MM recommendations and offer her a rotation of that plus what I described above, but haven’t started that yet (would sea salt or Himalayan salt or Atlantic dulse be needed for these meals?)
For her daily supplements, she gets 2-3 drops each of B12, zinc and olive leaf; a sprinkle of micro-c; 1-2oz of celery juice, and these are all mixed in with her meal, to which I add a bit of the sardine water too. I give her a splash of wild blueberry juice as well, separately. I’ll be adding a mushroom supplement for her paws, and spirulina and barley grass juice powder in the future.
Visually she looks leaner and stronger to me since coming home but she actually gained half a pound within the month. The vet said she’s at the right weight for her size but I’m concerned since I read online there’s a concern with pancreatitis when it comes to feeding dogs sardines daily (also, she’s been overweight before so I am concerned about that happening again). She doesn’t drink much water at all but the vet said she’s hydrated and well and that she’s getting enough from her diet alone.
If you have any insights about things that could be improved or if what I’m doing is already ok, please let me know. Also, if you have any insights on the breathing thing, I’d appreciate it (it was like she couldn’t catch her breath and kept using her stomach to try to inhale as she tried hard to bring air in through her nose. First it lasted for what felt like 1 minute, then 30s more, then 10s, and then it stopped).
Thank you in advance
I rescued a small 3-year-old female chiweenie, 13lb, about a month ago. Her name is Augustine. She was given the basic round of vaxxes early on this year, and is spayed (she was originally rescued from a city shelter with her puppies early on in the year by a foundation, spent the year living with fosters, and we adopted her a month ago. How she ended up at the city shelter isn’t known). She has a small lump on her back that our vet suspects may be a fatty growth, and red, itchy allergies in her paws (have improved since coming to live with us but still present). Her BEAM is great. She had bloodwork done early in the year and our current vet reviewed it and said it all looks good. She gets about 1h exercise total a day (light walks in the morning and evening and a longer walk on the weekend). She had one weird episode recently in the middle of the night where she woke up from her sleep seeming like she was struggling to breathe, but it resolved on its own and she was her usual self the following day. We contacted the emergency vet immediately and regular vet the next morning and they said they couldn’t do anything if it wasn’t happening in front of them, and that it could be nothing and just pass (which it did).
My main reason for posting is that I want to double check if the diet I’m feeding her is ok and what suggestions you would have for me. I want her on a Medical Medium-informed diet, and have been working on implementing the guidance he has to offer on that. Our vet okayed everything we’re doing but I want to double check here if it’s actually ok or if you have suggestions for any changes.
At the moment, we’re feeding her between 1-1/4cup total a day, half that amount being the Raw Vibrance brand veggie base mix, and the other half being sardines (basically 1-2 sardines a day, in just water, no oil or salt), plus a sprinkle of flaxseeds and ground turmeric once a day. She also gets cucumbers or carrots for snacks, and her treats (she gets about 4 a day) are a 100% grass-fed beef liver treat or a coconut + banana one (k9 Granola Factory brand). She absolutely loves all of the above. I plan to eventually bring in raw meat and raw marrow bones, but haven’t been able to yet. Soon I’ll be bringing in the Honest Kitchen meals and offer that instead of Raw Vibrance + sardines, and plan to take turns between those two brands (would it be better to rotate them weekly or is it ok to rotate them monthly?) I also plan to experiment with making homemade meals by steaming sweet potatoes, peas, russet and yellow potatoes, broccoli, adding in raw spinach, plus other MM recommendations and offer her a rotation of that plus what I described above, but haven’t started that yet (would sea salt or Himalayan salt or Atlantic dulse be needed for these meals?)
For her daily supplements, she gets 2-3 drops each of B12, zinc and olive leaf; a sprinkle of micro-c; 1-2oz of celery juice, and these are all mixed in with her meal, to which I add a bit of the sardine water too. I give her a splash of wild blueberry juice as well, separately. I’ll be adding a mushroom supplement for her paws, and spirulina and barley grass juice powder in the future.
Visually she looks leaner and stronger to me since coming home but she actually gained half a pound within the month. The vet said she’s at the right weight for her size but I’m concerned since I read online there’s a concern with pancreatitis when it comes to feeding dogs sardines daily (also, she’s been overweight before so I am concerned about that happening again). She doesn’t drink much water at all but the vet said she’s hydrated and well and that she’s getting enough from her diet alone.
If you have any insights about things that could be improved or if what I’m doing is already ok, please let me know. Also, if you have any insights on the breathing thing, I’d appreciate it (it was like she couldn’t catch her breath and kept using her stomach to try to inhale as she tried hard to bring air in through her nose. First it lasted for what felt like 1 minute, then 30s more, then 10s, and then it stopped).
Thank you in advance
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I have great faith in the science behind Teef! We also feed lots of bones...
