Aspen the Yorkie

As a Yorkie, I can tell you having Pancreatitis is not fun…it hurts…and it’s kept me from wanting to blog for a long time, but I’m feeling great now, back to pestering my owner regularly, and now she appreciates it because it means I’m feeling good>:-)<

I am hoping that I went through might help other Yorkie friends out there.

Over the years, I’ve been getting (sorry, this is yucky) diarrhea a lot easier than I used to depending upon what I eat.  So my owner has been doing all kinds of things to take things out of my diet, and carefully add new things, very gradually, that’s what you have to do when you’re changing foods with a Yorkie.

One day a month or so ago, I got really bad, and we went to the Vet.  We’ve done that before, but this time, the did a blood test for Pancreatitis, and I came up as having it.  There are really no medications for this, but they did treat it in almost the same way as they did a year ago in January, 2009, and then we just had to watch and see.

Here’s some things my owner did wrong (I forgive her) and what the doctor had us do:

• My owner gave me Chicken Livers the night before, you would think that wouldn’t bother me, but it’s very rich and high in cholesterol.  When I was younger, I could handle more foods than I can now.
• The next day I had VERY yellow diarrhea, and was throwing up, also yellow, and walked around with my back kind of hunched and head down because it hurt inside. So we made an appointment with the Veterinarian.  So important if you think something serious is wrong.
• The vet gave me subcutaneous (I think that’s the word) fluids, they put a lot of water just under my skin with a needle to help with dehydration since….
• I wasn’t allowed to drink or eat anything for 24 hours!!!  But it wasn’t that bad, I wasn’t feeling well at all so not very hungry, and if I did eat was in pain.
• I was given 1/4 of a 10mg Pepcid A/C tablet on an empty stomach in the afternoon a 1/2-1 hours before when I would have had my dinner, then every 24 hours for a week before my evening meal. The veterinarian had us add another week on because I still wasn’t quite right after a week. After finding that to be a battle (I hate taking pills), and after I had started eating again, my owner added it to just a tiny bit of chicken breast so I wouldn’t notice it, then gave me the rest of my meal later.
• I had to eat several small meals a day of white rice (or I like Gerber’s baby flaked rice…just about a tablespoon mixed in with the cut up chicken with a little water added) and chicken breast, morning, mid morning, noon, mid afternoon, and dinner time, about 2 tablespoons of food each time until I got better.

I finally did get better, then there was the quest to find the right food for me, that’s another story that we’ll share with you in our next post.

It’s good to feel good again!

With a little help from my owner, I’ve opened a little store so you can shop for things JUST for your Yorkie or Yorkies, or things for Yorkshire Terriers and other small dogs.  You’ll find just about anything you need and more, even things that you can give to people who love yorkies.

Right now we have the following departments:

• Small Dog Toys
• Small Dog Food (and Snacks)
• Small Dog Grooming & Pharmacy
• Yorkie Gifts for People
• Small Dog Beds, Cloths and Misc.

It was a lot of fun putting the store together, and we hope you’ll visit by clicking here, or the link to the right of this post in the margin.

I love eating…especially when my owners have chicken for dinner and give me a little bite…like I said in the post before this one, I do beg, but I don’t get what I want until the owners are ready to cut it up and give it to me.

One thing dogs and their owners should know about many dog foods that you buy in the store is that they are heated up a lot while processing, and my nutritionist owner can tell you that kills a lot of the vitamins and nutrients that are in the food.

If your food doesn’t have the nutrients in it that your body needs, it can lead to many problems, including shedding and itchy skin. All dogs with fur (not hair like me, my hair grows like a human) shed when the weather gets warmer, but there are some dogs that shed all the time…their skin is dry because of missing essential oils and other nutrients in food.

So, like humans, dogs and even cats need supplements. One supplemental source you will want to look into is Dinovite.

You can learn more by going to the solutions center and completing the customized solution guide.

We depend on our human owners to take good care of us, because we can’t go out and find our own food…we have to eat whatever you give us, whether it’s healthy or not…why not help us out by giving us foods that are healthy, and when you aren’t sure whether they are healthy enough, giving us the pet supplements we need?

I love it when we have a chance to talk about places that sell things that we don’t hear about every day, because I hope that after my owner finishes typing the post for me, she will want to buy some of the things she sees.  (No, this isn’t me in the picture, but what a nice white coat of fur!)

Tonight, we stopped by at a site, and my owner had a puzzled look on her face, then smiled,  because she had never, ever heard of some of the things that you can find at a site called North Coast Pets. Let me tell you about a few of them and you’ll see what we mean:

• B.A.R.F. – Okay, we know what you’re thinking when you read that, but you’re wrong, it means “biologically appropriate raw food”.  My owner’s Mom has cats, and her Veterinarian thinks a raw food diet, including meats, is natural and the right way to feed pets, but it has to be done right.
• Deer Antlers
• Himalayan Yak Treats – yes, deer antlers and yak treats for dogs.
• Animal Naturals Food Supplements
• An EGGE for dogs that like to play ball, I have to get one of those, or get my owner to get me one.
• Flea season is coming, how about a High Tech Flea TRAP for the ones that get away from your pet.

I could go on and on, there are lots of things for people who like fish…as a dog, I don’t quite understand what people like about fish, they aren’t soft and fuzzy, but my owner’s daughter just got a BIG one for a LARGE fish tank, so I think they’ll need a pump, maybe a skimmer and all the things that people who keep fish need to keep the tank clean so their fish are happy fish.

There is SO much more that I can tell you about, things for almost any pet you can think of, and the thing that is special about North Coast Pets is how different and unique their pet supplies are. They aren’t just your every-day pet shopping site.

Stop by and see for yourself…and now if my owner will just stop typing and go shopping there herself, I’ll be one happy Yorkie!

We are done posting for the week, the owners are going away for a few days, so have a very special Easter, remembering what the season is all about.

Humans aren’t the only ones affected by the peanut butter recall that is going on right now because Salmonella has been found in peanut butter products who use peanut butter supplied by a particular peanut butter manufacturer, the Peanut Corporation of America. If you want to find out whether your pet food is safe, there is a searchable list (more…)