Category Archives: Dog food

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Healing Zoey’s gut 3 Things I’ve learned

My Girl Zoey

Healing Zoey’s gut 3 Things I’ve learned.

A few months ago I shared that my girl, Zoey (dog) started vomiting everything up that she ate. I took her and got an exam, then followed by bloodwork, to make sure there wasn’t anything going on that I couldn’t see. Her blood work was perfect. So we started with an antibiotic, some zofran, and a dewormer, in case there was something her regular maintenance wormer missed. (There wasn’t)

During this time I started paying a lot more attention to what was going on with her. One night her heart was beating so hard it was shaking my bed. I spoke with a good friend, who knows a lot about things like this and subsequently put her on a 24 hour fast, to help clean her system out. Looked at her face, mouth and belly, and realized that she was having some sort of allergic reaction to something.

I started feeding her one thing at a time. Her body at this point was hypersensitive. If I gave her something that didn’t agree, the reaction was almost instant. Red eyelids, slightly inflamed, nose and mouth red, inflamed, and her belly was red. She was also itching. I gave her a Benadryl the first time that happened, because I was afraid of worst case scenario.

After almost three months, we are at a good place now. I also realized that her gut had been damaged…and I needed to figure out a way to heal it. So I did some research and started giving her marshmallow root, slippery elm and l-glutamine. She cannot eat anything that has chicken, chicken by products, wheat, eggs, or corn, or goats milk. I make her food now. She gets organic ground beef, or roast, and all kind of fruits and vegetables. (Broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, spinach, apples, blueberries, green beans, asparagus, mushrooms).

(Click the underlined words or pictures to see product benefits and more information)

Slippery Elm, its benefits

Marshmallow Root benefits

L-Glutamine benefits

So we are here today, and her gut is finally on the mend. It’s been rough though, I’ll admit. I knew I didn’t want her to be on a bunch of pharma, and I knew that since her vitals were good, and her bloodwork didn’t show any signs of disease, that I could get her back on track without infusing her body with synthetic crap. As I was looking back, I realized I missed her body telling me the issues. She had been retaining fluid…something I had mistaken as her being a little fat. When I started doing the detox, her kidneys started working normally, her heart wasn’t beating hard…I’m just fortunate that there wasn’t any permanent damage…but I believe that she was on the way to failure, and that the only reason we made it out is because she’s healthy overall.

How did this happen? Well good question. I believe it was her dog food. Kibble. I was feeding a 4 star rated dog food. So I thought I was ok… but since this started to happen only during the time I’ve fed this to her, I’m attributing it to this. I sometimes switched up her dog food, as I would find things in the ingredients that I didn’t like, or was known to cause issues with dogs.

It really doesn’t matter… there is soooooo much crap in kibble. The processing of the food takes out all of the vitamins and minerals, and then they have to add them back in, plus the preservatives that are added to make it shelf stable for a billion years. None of this is good for my dog. It’s not good for me, so why should it be good for her? 🤷🏻‍♀️

If you don’t want to make your own dog food, I’ve found ONE food that has nothing in it that is artificial and it has no chemicals as well. It’s called Sunday.

So what are the three things? 1) Don’t panic 2)ask a trusted person who knows about what’s going on, someone other than a vet, someone who’s had experience in the same things that I’m going through with my girl. 3) Don’t discount your gut feeling, and natural medicine works just as well, if not better than pharma.

Happy tails!

✌️

Shassy

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An open letter to all the people that I have hurt in my lifetime.

Originally published on 14 January 2023

An open letter to all the people that I have hurt in my lifetime.

I’m sorry.

I have never intentionally set out to hurt people, but none the less, I know I have still done it. Through my choices, actions, words or behavior, I know I have hurt others.

I was inexperienced, young, immature, selfish, drunk, tired, scared, unaware…. along with a host of other things. I was set in survival mode most of my life, and that affected everything I did..

I’m not trying to make excuses, I’m trying to express my understanding of my past actions. I have never felt like I was a “bad” person, but I did bad things sometimes. Nothing horrible, but as I look back, I wish I had known then what I know now.

Yes, a lot of people say that. Then quickly write off their actions. I don’t want to not take responsibility for my actions, but all I can do now is apologize.

I can look back and understand that I was born with certain personality traits, and then what I was exposed to in life help mold my mind. I have memories and feelings of how my life was, and what happened and realize that created the foundation for the future. Some things cannot be changed, a person is born a certain way. But the first 5 years mold and impact how a person is for the rest of their lives. I always remember love and care from my grandparents. When I went back and lived with my mom and future step dad, it was different. I know they loved me, but the expression of that love was different than what I had been exposed to the entirety of my life…that’s all I had to go on. The lifestyle was different, food, house, expression of feelings and emotions, communication, pretty much everything. As I look back now, I realize that was a move that altered my way of life, and changed me. I have tried to make something positive out of it, because that’s the only way I can do it.

An open letter
Click here for Sunday Dog Food

Check out the best dog food I have found to date, for dogs with allergies. Zoey eats this, and if you have been following me, you know the story of how we have been struggling with her development of allergies. This is amazing food.

It changed me in that I was able to experience many different things. Different lifestyles, different activities, and different feelings.

I was an introverted child. I found a report card from either pre-school or grade school and the teacher noted that I had a hard time interacting with other kids. I remember how I felt at times, but other than that, I was just a kid. I remember “feeling” a lot. That may sound weird, but that’s how I can describe it.

Anyway, I really don’t want this post to sound like a pile of excuses, but for it to be more of an understanding. Also, this blog started as an online journal for therapy, so it’s that too. Sometimes I need to put what’s in my head out on “paper”, it helps me to process things.

Not a very exciting post, I know. So if you’ve read this far… thanks and I’m sorry at the same time. LOL.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

✌️Shassy

An open letter, an open letter, an open letter, an open letter, dogs with allergies, Zoey’s allergy food, good dog food

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Zoey’s dog food update. I’ve been searching for a dog food that isn’t full of crap.

Zoey’s dog food update. I’ve been searching for a dog food that isn’t full of crap.

In my last post I explained what happened with Zoey and the allergic reactions that she developed and how I’m making her food. I wanted to find a dog food, that I could purchase that has all the nutrients that she needs, and think I’ve found one. I ordered a sample, hopefully it will be here soon.

Making her food isn’t a problem for me, but I know I’m missing something. She’s my ride or die, so I want to do the best I can for her. This dog food is air dried, with ZERO of the food ingredients that she’s allergic to.

After I get it, I’ll post a blog and video on how she responds to it. It’s called Sunday dog food.

Fingers crossed that it is a good thing!

✌️Shassy

PS. I’ll put up a link in a couple of days showing all of the information on this food.

Zoey on a fallen cottonwood tree on our hike yesterday.

Zoey’s Amazon Picks

Zoey’s dog food update
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Product of the week, Humble Collective Pet CBD oil at 40% discount. They can do bulk orders as well. I love this company.

Product of the week, Humble Collective Pet CBD oil at 40% discount. They can do bulk orders as well.

Y’all know I love my Humble Collective products. So I wanted to share the product of the week with you… albeit a couple days late… but better late than never, right?

This is a great product, no additives, all natural, hemp based product for your pets. (I give my pets their product.). It’s vegan and organic.

The ingredients are organic MCT coconut oil, and full spectrum hemp extract. That’s it! No fillers, additives or any other junk you don’t want for your pets.

Speaking of junk, have you ever looked at the ingredients in your dog food? No? Well, if you have a dog, go check out the ingredient list, and tell me how many words you understand, and if you would eat it. My theory, after going through a rocky past two months with Zoey developing serious allergies, is that if I won’t eat it, then I’m not going to feed it to my girl. Yes, I know that dogs are different, but don’t you wonder why some dogs develop allergies? Get sick?

I’ve learned a lot in the last couple of months about stuff like that. Sure, if Zoey was in the wild, she’d be eating whatever she could catch, but she’s not, she’s domesticated and relies on me to do right by her.

During the onset of the problems, she started vomiting…. Like projectile vomiting. Dogs and cats throw up, we all know this. But this was different, I could tell. So I rushed her to the vet, he checked her over and we did a round of antibiotics, just in case, some zofran, and a dewormer. She didn’t have worms, I watched diligently. But the problem didn’t stop. It slowed down for a short time, but if I didn’t give her a zofran, she would be sick. She was showing classic signs of allergy…eyes, nose, lips and tummy were red and swollen. These symptoms went away when I gave her a Benadryl.

I hadn’t changed her food, and wasn’t feeding a cheap dog food. One night she was laying on the bed, and her heart was beating so hard, it was shaking my bed. I knew there was something going on, and it was causing her cardiac distress.

So I talked with a friend, and did a 24 hour fast, and started adding in one food at a time to see how she would react. Long story, not as long…she was allergic to chicken, anything chicken related, eggs, salmon, anything with wheat and oats. I gave her some scrambled egg mixed with pumpkin, and after about an hour, she threw up JUST the egg… no pumpkin, and showed signs off allergy in her face again. Same thing happened with chicken, bread, oatmeal….all things she could eat before on a limited basis. (Think giving your dog a snack of what you are eating… not a lot).

So basically, now I make her food. She does ok with organic grass fed hamburger, cooked with veggies. But if she gets into something at the ranch that she’s not supposed to, like all dogs do, she will throw it up. There’s different information out there about dogs eating legumes, and peas. So if you choose to make your dogs good, you’ll have to decide what you want to do there. Zoey eats peas and beans that I have cooked mixed in with her veggies. Garbanzo beans, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, sweet potatoes. She does well on them.

When we started getting to the end of these last couple of months, I notice she looked like she was losing weight, but it was really fluid. She was retaining fluid like crazy, which is what caused me to notice her heart beating so hard.

I’ve also noticed her urination is much better. It was a close call in my opinion. I’m hoping there wasn’t any damage done, and that there’s no other issues. Her vet ran bloodwork, and said that it was all good, and there was no evidence of disease halfway through this ordeal. I wanted her checked just in case before I started figuring out what kinds of foods she could eat.

The dog food that I was feeding is a good brand and showed 4 stars on Dogfoodadviser. (Click the underlined words to check your dog food and see how it rates.) But the list of ingredients still included fillers and words I couldn’t pronounce.

Anyway, back to Humble Collective Pet CBD. You don’t have to worry about any of the additives or words you can’t describe. The Humble group is a sustainable, homegrown, amazing company and I can’t say enough good things about them. You can click on the underlined words to check out their site. I’ll do another post on another product in a couple of days. I love them. If I lived in Michigan, I would for sure be trying to be in their store everyday. 😁

Here’s my girl just because I love that face!

Humpy hap day!

✌️Shassy

Click here to check out Zoey’s Amazon Picks.

Product of the week

Product of the week. Dog Food Advisor. Product of the week. Dilated Cardio Myopathy. Product of the week.