Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Now that Bonnie is home and spending most of her time lying down recuperating, I need to figure out how to keep her weight constant. The last thing she needs as a new tripawd is excess baggage round the ribs.
She used to run around for ca 1 hour every morning, but will be off walks altogether for a few weeks now. This morning I gave her 3/4 of her usual ration - is that about right?
That's a very important question, thanks for bringing this up.
First off, what kind of food are you feeding her? If you're talking about 3/4 of her ration of kibble, that sounds right I think. You are smart to reduce her calorie intake while she is recuperating, but if you can, add some good supplements into her diet to help boost her immune system. You can see the kind of food I ate on my Health Tips page, and lots of Tripawd pawrents have posted their own tips here in the forums too.
When it came to my diet, it was somewhat of a guessing game for my pawrents, and my weight yo-yoed slightly for the first few months. Good thing we dogs are great about taking off weight (and gaining it back!).
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Thanks for your quick reply.
My dogs get two meals a day; Arkwrights Complete with a bit of tinned sardine and granulated charcoal in the morning - and in the evening, boiled pet mince with garlic granules mixed into another portion of Arkwrights, plus a canine joint complex supplement. They get bones regularly, and occasional additional table scraps when suitable.
Here's a link with the Arkwright nutrition info.
That Arkwrights isn't here in the states. Sounds like you're pups get a good healthy diet though, especially the sardine. Tell me abou the granulated charcoal though, that's a new one to us.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
The granulated charcoal is mainly for the greyhounds - it adds digestion, and reduces flatulence. Greyhound gas is much much more noxious than normal dog smells! It also helps improve our big boy Monty's bad breath.
Wow, thanks for letting us know, this is really interesting.
So where does one get granulated charcoal? And how much do you give each time? Does the dosage go according to weight?
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
I have found one local pet shop that stocks the granulated charcoal (before that, I was giving the hounds charcoal biscuits). The dosage is per weight, but I ignore the instructions on the tin, as they suggest ridiculously huge amounts - I just sprinkle it on liberally & hope for the best... If I followed the instructions, I'd go through a tin every week, what with having four hounds of large to medium size.
It so happens that our biggest dog is also the smelliest one, whereas Bonnie is the smallest and least flatulent (although her emissions are of particular relevance, as she sleeps under our double bed!)
There is granulated charcoal in the raw meat that is fed to greyhounds at the farms and the racing kennels. It's very finely granulated & it does help with the horrid gas they have!
It can take months to change a greyhound's digestive system from "race feed" to home feed.
I have had greyhounds for 16 years now & have found that the food they are being fed makes a huge difference in their gas. We feed Pro Plan normally, and don't have too much gas here. Actually, my younger ones do better with Purina One with gas issues so they get a spoon of yogurt on their food.
I have seen charcoal biscuits for dogs but never actual granulated charcoal to sprinkle on food.
Janie & Calamity
Janie & Calamity http://www.trix.....gspot.com/
Wow you guys, we learn so much here from pawrents all over the world. Thanks for the education about charcoal. Who knew?
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
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