swinn's Comments

Wow, it sounds like you have an amazing vet!!! :)  I hope the holistic vet here is that good.  She is the only one here so I have no choice lol!  I don't think I've asked you this, but what kind of dogs do you have?  We had another dog named Carson until last September when we lost him to congestive heart failure :(  

http://www.freewebs.com/bryanmurphycarr/

Well, yesterday I had to leave for a while, so my husband fed the dogs Canidae salmon dry food as their 2nd meal.  Well, when I came home I saw that Any was having a bad allergic reaction to it :(  I was up most of the night with him...after he threw up a few times, drank two entire bottles of water, had some rescue remedy, and went to the bathroom outside quite a few times, he finally got a couple hours of sleep.  His poor tummy was bright red like the worst sunburn I have ever seen.  It was scary.  Today he keeps frantically itching all over, so I had no choice but to give him 1/2 a benedryl. Our vet says they are safe and actually wants me to give them to him all day every day, but I'm trying to do this the holistic way lol!  Has this ever happened to your dog?  I know you have a dog that's allergic to lots of things.  The funny thing is that while I was waiting for this new food to arrive, I had been giving Andy a bit of the Spot's Stew brand dry food Salmon formula from Whole Foods (I had some left over from a while ago when we went on vacation), and he did alright on it...no reaction.  But for some reason, this Canidea salmon formula really did a number on him.  Sadie-Mae did alright on the food, but she did drink quite a lot of water too.  So even though I do need a good dry food option for her, I'm not sure that this one is it.  I'll keep searching.  As for Andy, I may never feed him dry food again.  I think I'm going to fast him on only water today, and then just only feed him the canned lamb food for a couple of days.  Then I'll introduce him to the raw primal.  This darned dog is allergic to so many things, he makes my head spin! lol!  Well, thank you so much for the information on the hempseed oil and the pumpkin oil! :)  I'm glad that I found the same brand that you use!  Do you just give the dogs the pumpkin oil by itself, or do you mix it with other oils?  I read the vitacost reviews on that oil and everyone says it's really tasty!  So I might even try it myself! lol!  I'm going to order some hempseed oil as well:

http://www.vitacost.com/Nutiva-Organic-Hempseed-Oil

Wow, that Hare Today site looks great!!  It looks like they only have the green tripe with spleen.  Is that ok to use?  I will order it today.  I am also going out today for Sadie's first training session with the dog trainer, so I am going to pick up a coffee grinder to use for the egg shells.  Thank you for that information!! :)  Now I'm off to go do more research on dry dog foods lol!

-Danielle

Good morning Shawna! :)  Hope your day is going well so far.  I just fed my pups their first canned meal today and they loved it!! :)  It was the nature's logic canned lamb, and the only thing I added to it was some water (it seemed pretty thick) and also added probiotics and digestive enzymes.  When they were finished, they were both looking at me like "more please?" lol!  Poor Sadie Mae was eating Purina that smelled absolutely rotten! :(  I took her to the Humane Society vet this weekend to get her stitches out from her spay surgery, and the vet wasn't happy when I told him I was switching her off Purina lol!  Oh well, she likes this food much better! :)  So thank you for recommending it.  I feel really good feeding it to them after reading how awesome the ingredients are.  I just found a holistic vet that's in the St. Louis area, so I will be taking both dogs soon.  Sadie won't be going to the Humane Society vet anymore.  I went to Whole foods yesterday and they didn't have tripe or mackerel...but they did have sardines packed in water.  So tonight with their dinner, I'm going give them each a sardine and see how they like it! :)  Whole foods didn't have unrefined safflower oil and they didn't have pumpkin seed oil at all.  So, I found this...

http://www.vitacost.com/Flora-Pumpkin-Oil-Certified-Organic-Full-Favored-Unrefined

I will be ordering it today or tomorrow.  I am really just wanting to feed the Ultra Oil because of the Hempseed oil in it.  I have been reading such great things about that oil for dogs.  Do you think if I added some pumpkin seed oil into plain hempseed oil, it will be ok to feed the dogs?  Since the hempseed oil has a 3:1 ratio, I know I would need to add more omega 6 in there.  But that would allow me to add some hempseed oil to the dog's diet without having to buy more of this Ultra Oil stuff.  Thank you for your input on the vitamins! :)  The brand you use does sound great.  I would try to get it if you think I need it, but since I am feeding balanced diets then it may be best not to use a multi?  I will stop feeding the other ones I have been using.  Also with eggs..do you think it's best to whisk the egg and then add a teaspoon of already ground egg shellent to the egg?  That would eliminate the problem with the eggshell not getting broken up enough etc.  I have this and used it for my dog when I fed him raw...

http://www.pet-grub.com/pet-supplements/eggshellent_calcium_supplement_for_dogs_and_cats

Also, thank you for your compliments on my tutu outfits!! :)  I'm so glad that you like them!  And congratulations on expecting a new granddaughter!  That is so exciting :)  I really love the name Phoenix, it's so pretty.  I think you are very kind to help me, and yes, you do have a great karma!! :)  But I would still love to send little Phoenix a tutu since you have been such a big help to me! :)  My email address is [email protected]... If you want to send me your addrees, I will send you a cute little tutu just for her :)  Maybe should could wear it for a photoshoot! :)  Anyway, thanks again for all of your help, I feel like i'm a better mom now that I'm feeding them a properly balanced diet :)

-Danielle

I am so glad that you had an nice weekend!! :)  Mine was really good, but I have been so busy lately! lol!  I run my own little shop on Etsy, and sometimes it gets me so busy that I have no time to do other things lol!  Another reason that the commercial pet foods will be a good option for me right now.  Here is my shop in case you want to see what I do! :)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/gogirlusa

I did read Dr. Becker and Beth Taylor's posts! :)  Beth recommended some of these foods:

 Darwin's, Northwest Naturals, BARF, Steve's Real Food

Have you used any of them?  Steve's Real Food looks interesting! :)  Dr. Becker's post made me feel that I was on the right track feeding one meal raw and the other meal canned or dry.  So that's a good thing! :)  Thanks for the advice on eggs...I think I will try the raw egg like you do.  Maybe if I just put the entire egg in my Vitamix blender, it will blend the egg and the shell well enough together and I can split it between the two dogs and poor it over their food.  Also, thank you for letting me know what tripe is lol!  I thought it was a fish lol!  I will look for it at the store tonight!! :)  I will also look for the canned mackerel and sardines. Thank you so much for the suggestions!!  I also love the idea of using pumpkin seed oil...I will try to find the unrefined one at whole foods tonight so that I can start using the Utlra oil.  Thank you for doing all that figuring...it has really helped me out a great deal!! :)  If I can't find unrefined pumpkin seed oil, then I will get the safflower oil that you mentioned.  I'm glad that you mentioned that I should only give the oil a few times a week...I was thinking of doing it everyday lol!  But you are right, that might be overkill.  So the days that I don't add in some canned fish and tripe, i'll do the ultra oil/pumpkin oil blend.  I was also going to ask if you give your dogs a multi vitamin?  I have been switching off between these:

http://www.onlynaturalpet.com/products/Only-Natural-Pet-Super-Daily-Canine-Multi-Vitamins/999010.1.aspx

and these:

http://www.doggiefood.com/drbodhenusuf.html

Gosh this can get a little tricky...I'm really glad that I have you to help me!! :)  I would love to repay you for all of your help...do you have a little girl or a granddaughter?  If so, let me know your address and I'll send you a tutu outfit! :)

Hi Shawna!  I hope you had a great weekend!! :)  Thank you for your suggestions to adding things to the dry and canned food! :)  I will definitely try to do that.  I am confused about adding eggs.  Do you always have to put the shell with the egg since you need to balance it with some calcium?  I always try to put some egg shell in with the egg if I feed eggs, but if I don't have to, that would be fine with me as well.  If it needs shell with it, do I put the entire egg shell (ground up) in with the egg or just part of it?  Also, I keep reading that raw eggs are really bad for dogs because there is something in them that causes skin conditions.  So is it true that I always have to cook them?  I always soft boil my dog's eggs, but if I didn't have to cook them, that would be awesome! lol!  You also mentioned canned tripe...since there aren't bones in the fish, would I need to put some sort of calcium in with the fish?  I know I would just be adding it to the dry or canned food, but I wasn't sure if I'd be throwing off the balance of the meal if I added that in there without calcium.  I really want to try and do this the right way! :)  Also, thanks for your suggestion on adding some other kinds of oil to the Ultra Oil so that I can use it! :)  I saw that Dr. Becker uses Hemp Oil, Krill Oil, and Flax Oil.  Is the Krill Oil the one that's higher in Omega 6's?  If so, could I add that into the Ultra Oil to make it higher in Omega 6's?  I've never seen Krill oil at the store but I can try to find it at Whole Foods tonight if you think it would be a good thing to put with the Ultra Oil.  If not, then I will get the Walnut oil you suggested :)  Thank you for offering to figure out how much I'll need to add to it, that is so kind of you and would be greatly appreciated! :)  I ordered the new food on Friday, so it should be here soon...I'm so excited for my dogs! :)  Thank you!

-Danielle

Hi Shawna!  I hope you had a great weekend!! :)  Thank you for your suggestions to adding things to the dry and canned food! :)  I will definitely try to do that.  I am confused about adding eggs.  Do you always have to put the shell with the egg since you need to balance it with some calcium?  I always try to put some egg shell in with the egg if I feed eggs, but if I don't have to, that would be fine with me as well.  If it needs shell with it, do I put the entire egg shell (ground up) in with the egg or just part of it?  Also, I keep reading that raw eggs are really bad for dogs because there is something in them that causes skin conditions.  So is it true that I always have to cook them?  I always soft boil my dog's eggs, but if I didn't have to cook them, that would be awesome! lol!  You also mentioned canned tripe...since there aren't bones in the fish, would I need to put some sort of calcium in with the fish?  I know I would just be adding it to the dry or canned food, but I wasn't sure if I'd be throwing off the balance of the meal if I added that in there without calcium.  I really want to try and do this the right way! :)  Also, thanks for your suggestion on adding some other kinds of oil to the Ultra Oil so that I can use it! :)  I saw that Dr. Becker uses Hemp Oil, Krill Oil, and Flax Oil.  Is the Krill Oil the one that's higher in Omega 6's?  If so, could I add that into the Ultra Oil to make it higher in Omega 6's?  I've never seen Krill oil at the store but I can try to find it at Whole Foods tonight if you think it would be a good thing to put with the Ultra Oil.  If not, then I will get the Walnut oil you suggested :)  Thank you for offering to figure out how much I'll need to add to it, that is so kind of you and would be greatly appreciated! :)  I ordered the new food on Friday, so it should be here soon...I'm so excited for my dogs! :)  Thank you!

-Danielle