Tuesday, June 7, 2011

The Care and Feeding of a Pregnant Dog (part 2)

There are things that I learned while trying to take care of a pregnant Zoey: She needs more than what her feed could give her. The other is that she's very picky about her food.

Dog Food and Nutrition


Pick out dog food that has "complete and balanced" on it. This means that the dog food has been approved by the AAFCO. AAFCO, or the Association of the American Feed Control Officials, stands by three standards:

1. Ensure consumer protection
2. Safeguard the health of animals and humans
3. Provide a level playing field of orderly commerce for animal feed industry.

Simply getting "recommended by veterinarians" isn't enough. It brings up the questions: who's the veterinarian? And just how many are they? It's not a regulatory board of quality, so it's better not to risk the health of the dog.

The Difference between Puppy Food and Adult Food


The same way that a child has different needs from an adult, our medicine reflects that too. Growing puppies need a lot of protein; it helps with the growth of cells and helps with their budding immune systems. Puppy food was made with that in mind and is rich with protein. Pregnant and lactating dogs also need to eat protein-rich foods so they could process the protein and pass it on to their pups.

Normally, though, it's not healthy for adult dogs to have too much protein intake, so it's not good for them to eat puppy food. Don't mix it up!

Food for the Mothers


Mommy dogs must be able to produce a lot of milk to feed their young. To stimulate healthy and increased lactation, though, a dog's diet must also have more than just the dog food fair. There are natural food and herbs that encourage lactation.

Milk thistle, for one, helps with the liver and lactation while goat's rue protects against infections. For blood cleansing and digestive aid, fennel is another good choice.

Borage and liver help with the recovery from whelping by soothing inflammations and increase blood production.

The Feeding and Care for Pregnant Dogs


Changing the routine of a dog can be difficult and can affect the health of your dog. Some dogs don't take well to changes in their diet, like switching from one brand to another. In this case, I had to do some weaning, endearing, and begging.

Getting your dog to eat an herb as-is has a success rate of zero to nil and with barely some success if you hide it in their food bowl. (I've tried.) The best way to do it is by adding a little extra treat for them.

Recipe #1
- also known as: I wish I knew how to cook for myself too…

1) Take the pregnant dog's usual dog food and crush it
2) Boil the herbs with the liver until it becomes an aromatic and edible soup. (It's yummy. Perfectly safe for human and doggie consumption.)
3) Let the soup cool down a bit - we don't want it to be too hot.
4) Mix in the crushed dog food.
5) Feed your dog.

The liver will entice her to eat it, so don't worry.

Recipe #2
All dogs love milk. It's the first food that they've ever tasted, and even if they're old and grumpy and very much hormonal from pregnancy, it remains true.

1) Get milk. Get the milk that's meant for lactating mothers or the ones meant for children of six months. It can be powdered or not, so long as it's good milk.
2) Add in the herbs.
3) Ta-da! Herbal tea for dogs.

Your dog will lap it up and will endear her to you. I know mine did. If your dog begins to have the runs, try lessening the mixture and observe for a while. That should do your dog good.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

The Care and Feeding of a Pregnant Dog (part 1)

- or rather, getting a pregnant dog some care.

After my friend's leaving and unhelpful notes (or lack thereof) on the matter of his dogs' health and even the exact date of Zoey's labor, I thought that it was natural that the dogs didn't like me. However, the lack of information on Zoey's labor did mean that I couldn't give her the proper care and attention she needed. "Sometime in May" just isn't enough. I was already concerned by her lack of appetite and moody disposition. She wouldn't eat, didn't want to be touched, and snapped when I came close.

Since most of those symptoms reminded me of a pregnant woman or any woman, really, when the red dragon is visiting, I thought it was natural. Since more than half of her weight came from her large belly, I thought it was her right to be grumpy. She's a very small dog, the care and responsibility of so many tiny lives were in my incapable hands. My very nice neighbor, however, expressed concern about that particular detail.

The weight, I mean. Toy poodles are small, but they're not meant to be that tiny, especially when pregnant. Dog care is far from my specialties and so I brought her to a vet, risking life, limb and fingers. They confirmed that Zoey was underweight and that can risk her life and her puppies. I had to adjust her diet according to her size and needs as a pregnant small dog. Taking care of a dog is a commitment, I knew that, but it's really different when it's actuality.

(tbc)

Four Boys, Three Girls and a Human

Or rather, why am I here?


My friend recently got a job transfer to a different country. While I'm sad to see her family go, they left me with a gift for our friendship. Rather, several gifts. My friend's family can't take their family of toy poodles with them and so left them with me. That's three fully-grown dogs and one of them pregnant, very distressed and very upset that her owners were not around.

I was stressed out with the new additions to my home and unfortunately, Zoey, the pregnant dog, began to thin, refused to eat and almost didn't give birth.

But thanks to many online help and friends with dogs, as of three weeks ago, she gave birth to her second litter of puppies to join her first batch, Zack and Chelsea.

Four more pups for me to take care of and name, and seven dogs total for me to love.

Can you imagine taking care of all of them at the same time?

I can't, but I'm having a very clear picture of just what I have to do. I don't want their family separated, so I'll have to make do. It's stressful, insane and I'm not sure if I can do it. Thankfully, there's a lot of support to be found in online guides and other sites, but I do want to have my own little archive of tips.

So! This blog will be full of my misadventures with my new dogs as well as dog and puppy care as I find them on the internet, complete with my own reports and experiments. Hopefully, it'll be useful to other surprise pet owners out there!

Wish me luck.