Domineering Me

Jack and I have different characters and most times, we complement each other. There were days where I will give in (by looking away to avoid confrontation) when Jack growls at me. But when it comes to HC's affection and food - I am usually the more domineering one.

Today, I did a really naughty deed and I hope Santa is not reading this.

The source of confrontation...

Big, red juicy 'rose' apples that HC bought for all the humans to share at Scuba's place.

Both Jack and I were running around HC so that she will notice and feed us, when I heard a voice in my head saying "bite Jack so I have all the apples to myself!!"

So I did what I was told... turned around and bit Jack on the face.

Fortunately, HC shouting "hey!" stopped the evil demon invading my thoughts...

but the damage was bloody apparent..

Jack had a cut just above his eye and was bleeding slightly.

We quickly returned home so that HC can wash his wounds. Luckily for Jack - HC has a anti-bacterial ointment that is safe to apply on/around the eye.


Jack had to wear the lampshade so that the ointment can work its magic.

HC doesn't think that Jack's eye is hurt - but she will continue to monitor closely the next few days due to the last incident.

(HC : Jack and Joey both tore their cornea before on 2 separate fights. But I am lucky in that they do not fight often, and one usually gives way to the other, plus they will stop their nonsense whenever I reprimand them. And they do not bear grudges - they could fight/squabble now, and within a minute, quietly sleep near to each other.)

#%$^@#%

..........

The clinic assistant called and said my blood samples from Sunday cannot be processed by the lab (*&@#@ something to do with hardened blood)! They told me to come by again for the full blood test... which means another 3 rounds of blood drawn every 4 hourly, and I will be stuck in the clinic for an entire day!!!

I cannot believe I have to relive Sunday's traumatic events all over again!!! Arrggghhh....

Day 2 - the bruise area had spread. I wonder if it will be more painful to do blood test on bruise skin?

I need love, kisses and treats now..... sob....

Cushing LDDS Test

HC left us at the clinic early this morning as I had to undergo the Low Dose Dexamethasone Suppression Test (LDDS) for Cushing's disease. In addition, both Jack and I will also have comprehensive blood test to check on our general well-being.

Needless to say, we were abit nervous about being left alone. At 8.45 a.m, I was sent to the 'slaughter table'. I struggled and tried to bite the doc and nurses but was sadly overpowered. A huge vial of blood was taken from my neck region :( . I also had an injection - which I think is called Colvasone. (HC : I remembered the vet said that with this injection, a normal dog will not produce cortisol. That's why blood samples are taken every 4th and 8th hour to check if the body produces cortisol)

At 12.45 p.m. and 4.45 p.m., I was again sent to 'slaughter table' for blood to be drawn. Resigned to my fate, I co-operated and let the humans do whatever they wanted. (HC : the doc said Joey was very co-operative on the next 2 rounds and simply lift up his head so that the vet could have easy access to his neck region. hahaha..)

HC picked us up right after my last blood sample was drawn. We were esctatic to see her.

The vet updated HC on our health status based on the comprehensive blood test:.

Jack - very healthy but dehydrated due to lack of water intake. However, he has very dirty ears. (HC : I went home to check on his ears, even shone a touch light into the ear. I see very little ear wax, and am perplexed why the vet said Jack's ears are dirty. Could he mistake Jack for Joey? mmmm.... )

Joey - that's me - very healthy but dehydrated due to lack of water intake. Ear infection and swollen eye - due to this incident! (HC : I was aware Joey has slight ear infection the night before, but as for the eye - I thought he had recovered.)

As for the LDDS test for Cushing's - vet said it will take about 10 days. *fingers crossed*

The financial damage for this day trip to the vet? Almost $700!!!

After a nerve wrecking day - HC bought us yummy lamb meal from a nearby doggie cafe.

I also have swollen, bruised neck from the countless needle poking.

These two pictures show my calcinosis cuties on my belly region. I have no such skin problem on the rest of my body.

Cushing's ??

For the last 1-2 years, I’ve had some skin problems on my belly area – pimples, blackheads and whiteheads. I’ve been to a few vets, and the advices were usually ‘stay away from grass area’, ‘food allergy’ and sent home with a course of antibiotics. As my skin does not itch, HC usually use natural remedies instead of relying on antibiotics.

Some natural remedies that she has tried included: marigold/yarrow rinse, nettle extract, licorice extract, homeopathy meds, neem cream etc.

To a certain extent, my skin does improved from these herbal remedies but I would still get bouts of pimply breakouts. :(

Yesterday – HC sent us to the vet for a check up and showed the vet my skin condition. The lady vet suspects that I could have Cushing’s Disease – due to the presence of calcinosis cutis and my age.

HC decided to make an appointment for me to undergo LDDS (Low Dose Dexamethasone Suppression) test in 3 days time. It will be an 8-hour stay at the vet as I would have to have 1 injection plus 3 blood samples every 4 hour interval. Aarrggghhh….I think I might just die from the loss of blood!!!!

To make me feel better, Jack will come along as well for a blood profile work done – to see how healthy he is.

Please pray for me! I don’t want to have Cushing’s! I don’t want to have blood tests done!

(HC : I’ve read up on Cushing’s disease before, and I’ve never thought Joey might have it. Because besides calcinosis cutis, he does not display the classic symptoms of Cushing's. Ok, he does seem hungry all the time – but he has been like this since puppyhood, and most dogs are greedy, right? Haha..
In any case, it will set my mind at ease (but my pocket empty) to have the LDDS test done. I’ve already sort of decided to let him have homeopathy treatment instead of conventional ones if he does have Cushing’s. But again, it depends on the severity of his condition. But let’s hope it’s just a case of bacterial infection.)

On a happier note -
Old, grumpy Jack has some good news to share from the vet. From his physical examination – the vet exclaimed that she cannot believe he is more than 11 years old as he looks good. There are no signs of cataract and he has good dental health. Jack was diagnosed of having a slight heart murmur 2 years back. But during this examination, the vet said she cannot hear any heart murmur at all!

(HC : I don’t know if the heart supplements helped. But I am happy to hear that Jack does not / no longer has heart murmur.Yay!)

Abused Dog

Not only do I not have a new leash/collar set like Jack, I am also badly 'abused' at home!

Look at my swollen right eye! I could barely opened my right eye.
(This pic was taken about 12 hrs later, and it was not as bad as how I initially looked!)















HC had slammed her door on my right face!

(HC : Joey woke up on Tue morning with his right eye barely opening. I thought he had scratched himself at night, but after much monitoring - I realised that he wasn't itching at all. It took me half a day to remember that I had accidentally slammed my door on his right face on Mon night as he had followed me too closely.*sniggers*)

Lost another tooth

4 yrs ago, I had a surgery to remove my right largest pre-molar .

Recently, both Jack and I lost one of our front tooth.

HC thinks that Jack's lost was due to decay as his front had more tartar as it is not used to chewing bone (note : chewing bones help to lessen tartar.)

However, mine was lost due to too vigorous chewing! HC knew it was chipped instead of dropped off as part of my tooth is still embedded in the gum. However, she doesn't think surgery is required as it doesn't look swollen or infected.

My former glorious teeth














Less 1 tooth... sob..

(HC : I guess this is part of aging process. ..sigh.. but luckily, their teeth are still generally clean and healthy for their age. )

Allergies

I have always been slightly allergic to grass. Thus, HC ensure that she washed me thoroughly after every walk and put some antiseptic cream on the rashes.

However, recently I started to have more rashes, on my body as well as belly. HC does not think it is merely from the grass. She applied alot more cream all over and put on this hideous thing on me so that I won't try to lick it off.

I hate this thing - can you tell from my body language?































HC remembered that for the last week, she has been feeding us 1 cherry every night as she heard that cherries has natural melatonin and aids in sleeping (actually, we don't need melatonin to sleep!!!). Anyway, she reckoned that I must be allergic to cherry since there is no change to our diet/routine.

How can any dog be allergic to cherry?? Look how nice, big and juicy these are.... how can it be... life is so unfair!

Actually, HC does not need to stop our cherries consumption. All she has to do is to continue to feed me so that I can slowly develop an immunity to it.. RIGHT??? HEARD THAT???

Hot Hot Dog

Two days ago, we went to Scuba's place to decorate Xmas tree (ok. the humans did - we were only interested in eating the fallen baby breaths). Anyway, Scuba's mum was sympathetic to our hungry stomach and decided to treat us huge deer tendons each.

As mine was really huge, the rest of the dogs finished theirs before me. So i guess I was very worried and take bigger gulps than usual.

By the time I finished it, HC took a look at my bloated tummy and my unusual stand and got worried. She quickly brought me home as she thinks I was gonna puked. True enough I puked once in the car.

As for the rest of the night, HC could tell that I was very uncomfortable. She was worried that the deer tendon was stuck in my insides, (like how Scuba got an oxtail stuck and had to have an operation).

Anyway, she brought me straight to vet the next morning as she felt that my body was hot (not "hot bod", but temperature "hot") and I was having chills and shivering uncontrollably.
The worst thing was i wasn't even interested in food - which was really unusual for me.

The vet diagnosed me as having gastritis and high fever of 39.9 degrees and said I was a hot dog! The vet also drawn alot of blood from my left paw (OMG) and said that the good news is that the fever is due to bacterial infection. He said that most likely, there is nothing stuck in my insides and he does not see a need to spend unnecessary money on doing X-rays. However, should I not recover in the next few days, then he will do further tests.

Anyway, the vet said I am a good dog, and didn't misbehave (i.e. bite) like the JRTs when I had needles stuck in my left paw and bum. I guess JRTs had a reputation?

HC : I guess he had gastritis due to overeating and had also taken large gulps of air when trying to chew the huge tendon. Usually Joey will shriek when he has his temperature taken and injections, but I guess he was too weak to protest verbally.
For the entire day/night, Joey was weak. He does want to eat and drink but will vomit soon after. I had bad gastritis and fever myself once, and know that once you eat/drink, the gas will pushed it out again.
Last night about 3a.m., he behaved weirdly and walked around aimlessly and dazed. Luckily, the vet had informed me earlier that this was a common side effect from the injection. Else I'll really be worried the entire night. Finally, I scooped him up to my bed (I was really tired as I was woken so many times) and he slept throughout after that.
The good thing is this morning, I fed him a spoonful of salmon which he didn't puked out. I also heard him bulping loudly which is a good sign that gas from his stomach is being released. He was just lying down on his bed sadly when I left him for work. :(

I hope to see a more cheery Joey later..

At the vet's office

At home

Puppy Eyes

We were shopping at a pet store the other day, when a couple stopped and asked HC if we are puppies? HC said noo.... they are old (whaddya mean OLD?) . When the couple heard that I am 7 and Jack's 10 (or older, we don't know...), they exclaimed, "but they look so young! At most 3-4 years old!!".. and kept ooh - ahh over our looks...

I know I know... we do look good.. ahem...


Then the lady exclaimed, "I think it is because they have PUPPY EYES!!"

Puppy eyes? (Jack's)










And maybe the fact that I winked at her?










Anyway, we were totally happy that day as we're acknowledged for good youthful looks and HC bought us lots of treats and balls.

I think we I look great due to good, nutritions food and lots of exercise?













Talking about nutritious food, our local health authority will be testing dog food for melamine soon. This is after the worldwide scare of melamine in human food recently, and also the massive pet food recall in US after some dogs died/seriously sick from tainted products. This is totally sad - and no doubt due to the greedy humans who are only looking to earn quick bucks.

I am glad HC has switched us to raw food years ago. Dogs & cats (I don't know if hammie can eat raw) - please ask your humans to switch your diet! NOW!!

Vitamins purchase

This is really a delayed post.

Our loot from iherb came in less than five days after we made the order. HC is really amazed at the speed of the iherb team and USPS!
















Some of these bottles are meant for our consumption. There's freeze-dried hawthorne, CoQ10, super colostrum as our existing supplies are running out soon.

Hidden behind the hawthorne was a big bottle of Enriching Greens for HC. She said that she need this as she does not take vegetables - or anything that does not move!

So how come Jack and I are made to eat blended organic vegetables when HC herself does not????
Double standards???

It's a Dog's Life

Just yesterday, we received another vitamins package that HC ordered.















Half of the items are for us - CoQ10 (from Life Extension and Country Life) and flax/fish oil (from Twinlab).

HC said that we take more supplements than she does, but this time round, she got something for herself - two of them were supplements that should allow her to sleep better.

I think she should be reincarnated as a dog - we could sleep almost immediately all day, and have no problems waking up too!

Look how Jack is enjoying his dog's life~

More online purchases

Thanks to a all-time low US currency exchange, HC bought these for us:




















This is a plant-cell grown nutritional supplement for dogs on raw food diet. HC had been feeding us the calcium supplement under the same brand, but decided to switch to this as it has a combination of the 3 essential starter supplement based on Pat Mckay's formulations.

Ms. Mckay has years of experience in raw food, homeopathy and plant cell supplements, and is an accomplished author of several books (Reigning Cats & Dogs, A Holistic Approach to Royal Treatment for Healthy, Happy Carnivores and Natural Immunity, Why You Should NOT Vaccinate!) . If you want to read her free e-books, click here.

Write up about plant-cell grown supplements are available here and here.

And the difference between natural and synthetic vitamins - here

(HC : the articles are really lengthy and gives me a headache each time I read them! But I came across a very interesting study about cats being given 2 different diet : cooked food and raw food. Needless to say, I am happy that Jack and Joey are on raw food)


Let's switch to some fun stuff instead of boring statistics and studies done by humans!

Toys Galore!















So far, I can only managed to beg for a new toy out of this lot. Mmmmmm... wonder when will HC give me the entire box of toys to play.

The Fight Against Tartar

Remember an earlier post where HC was contemplating sending Jack for a teeth scaling due to the tartar on his front - lower teeth? She brushes our teeth every night without fail, and even purchased an expensive tooth gel that promised to remove tartar in 2 weeks! Unfortunately the tooth gel didn't work.

Then, back in end September, she ordered some homeopathic products from an online store in Australia. One of the product was called Plaqgone, and even though HC was sceptical about how some tiny poppy pills can help, she went ahead to order it as shipping was expensive and it make sense (does it?) to buy more items.

Just last week, when HC was brushing our teeth, she saw a crack along Jack's yellow tartar. At first, she was worried as she thought that his canine teeth must be infected and about to drop off. She tried shaking the teeth a little, but it was still intact in his gum.

The next day, she checked Jack's mouth again, and was ecstatic to see that the lower portion of his tartar (closest to his gumline) had dropped off.

See the highlight area where his tartar used to be.


































As you can see, there are still some tartar left but HC is very glad that there are major progress to removing tartar without having to get Jack go under GA.

To every dog who doesn't want to visit the vet for teeth scaling - please go and purchase plaqgone from here . The price that you see on the website is for Australian resident (who will be subjected to govt taxes/duties). To avoid misunderstanding, do write to them to ask for international prices.

Disclaimer - If plaqgone doesn't work for your dog, please don't ask me for a refund. The most I can offer is sloppy, wet kisses in return. Also, I think plaqgone works well for Jack because HC brushes our teeth every night.

Breath test

Have you ever wonder how bad your own breath is?

According to HC, mine rates 4/10 (10 being really bad bad bad breath), and Jack's used to be like 8/10.

The reason is this

See the yellow tartar on Jack's front inner teeth? She has tried giving him bones, but it didn't managed to clean off the front inner part cos we don't use it to gnaw on bones. For the last few months, HC has been religiously brushing our teeth every night, and Jack's stain has gone down a little. She is contemplating sending Jack for teeth scaling later this year.

Anyway, HC found this write up about parsley :
- Parsley is rich in vitamins and minerals, including A and C, as well as calcium, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, zinc, potassium, and iron.
- The boron and fluorine in parsley give strength to the bones.
- The German Commission E, an advisory panel on herbal medicines, has approved parsley for use in the prevention and treatment of kidney stones.
- Parsley's high chlorophyll content makes this beneficial herb a natural as a tasty breath freshener.

So, HC has been boiling parsley in water, and stored these boiled water in little containers in the fridge. Every day, we will get 2 tablespoon or so with our food. And it helps! HC said that Jack's breath is now 7/10 and mine 3/10! Yay!

Note : Jack has protested about me posting the above un-cool picture of his yellow teeth, and wants everyone to know that most of this teeth are WHITE! In fact the vet has seen him and said he has healthy teeth and gum given his age.

He posed this picture to prove how white his teeth are: