How I Killed Mitzi!
In 1999 we had another Jack Russel, Mitzi. A lovely little mate she was too. She died when she was but 1 year old!
One day I noticed she was drooling a lot and that she wasn’t passing any faeces. This went on for a few days so a visit to the vet was called for. We were in France at the time so language was, to a certain extent, a problem.
The first vet we visited was just about to leave to go on holiday and obviously wasn’t all that interested. Instructions were to stick some soap in Mitzi’s bottom and that should sort it. It didn’t. We then visited another vet who made an x-ray and discovered that Mitzi’s intestines were blocked and the blockage couldn’t pass through her hips. An operation was called for. The vet confirmed the diagnosis by sticking his finger up Mitzi’s backside whereupon she turned on him. He’d obviously hurt her. I realised later that when he did that he’d most probably damaged her gut, that’s what killed her.
The next day we returned but little Mitzi had died from a ruptured gut in the night. If only we’d gone to the vet we now use maybe she’d be alive today but we didn’t. I stroked her little body, already cold and stiff, and realised I’d let her down. We were devastated. Something I’d given her had caused the blockage so learn from my mistake.
I’d got a marrow bone for Mitzi and “parboiled” it, therein lies the problem. When Mitzi, with much enthousiasm ate the bone it crumbled and those crumbs then got together in her gut to form a block of, for want of a better word, “cement”.
Daisy is Mitzi’s half sister and she never gets bones of any sort.
Beware!
A Dog Is What It Eats!
When Daisy was a young dog she suddenly had excema between her toes. When I showed it to my friend in the village, the local farmer, he asked what I was feeding her. Then I gave her heart every day, she loved it. She was crazy about it but therein lay the problem. The farmer told me that heart every day was too one-sided so we went over to proper dog food and the problem quickly disappeared.
After she’d been sterilised she put on a lot of weight quickly, suddenly she was up to 8.5 kilo. I should point out that we were not that disciplined when it came to the little extras she got from us so a stronger regime was needed. When I mentioned to the vet that Daisy had one meal a day, in the evening, she suggested that twice a day would be better for her. So we divided the rations by two and served and breakfast and dinner and combined with no (less) extras she started slimming down.
After her two recent operations for “breast” cancer she lost even more weight and now weighs 6 kilos which is, according to the vet, the perfect weight for her. I once saw a Jackie in France that looked like a square cushion with a leg at each corner. It was a restaurant dog so there was always too much food and I wonder what his health was like.
Never forget that our pets, when given the wrong food, can get the same health problems we get; diabetes, heart problems, blocked arteries. So be aware of what you put in their diet and that human food is usually bad for dogs.
Having said that, a couple of times a year – Daisy’s birthday, International Animal Day – she gets a 12 ounce entrecôte. I chop it big but she still downs it in a minute!
Here’s a piece from an interesting article on dog’s food. You can read all of it and more at:
Healthy Dog Diets
It is the responsibility of the dog owner to provide healthy food for his/her dog. After all, your pet is part of your family. A nutrition-deficient diet will lead to serious health problems for your dog, including diarrhea, vomiting and behavioral problems. It is therefore essential to look after your dog’s diet, and feed it the necessary foods for its optimal health.
1. Giving your dog a variety. Feed it with lean meat, cheese, vegetables, dried fruits, dog biscuits and raw knuckle bones.
2. Include garlic in your dog’s food. Garlic fights harmful bacteria and strengthens its immune system. Add finely minced fresh garlic to its food. Most dogs like the flavor of garlic, so you might want to make garlic biscuits for your dog as well. Google for the recipes.
3. Adding fiber. Add a small amount of wheat bran to your dog’s diet as it cleans up the intestinal tract and thus prevent constipation.