Look at this face. I had to look at this face for two weeks.
I give my animals a good week to start resolving their health issues on their own before I start interfering, and this guy had been getting increasingly miserable for more than a week. When he was mostly laying around moaning, I decided it was time to take him to the veterinarian.
The vet diagnosed him with what I knew he would diagnose him with, a sore back. Jimmy is an older dachshund, and they are susceptible to broken backs. I also knew what the vet would prescribe: gabapentin, a muscle relaxant, and, western medicine's poisonous go-to for all things, steroids.
This time however, the vet had some additional news. Jimmy has an enlarged liver.
As the vet handed me the meds, he said "I suspect Jimmy has Cushing's disease. If so, the steroids will make it worse."
After the first day on these three meds, Jimmy felt much better. Steroids do that. But by the second day, that effect had worn off, and he was back to miserable. By the third day, he was so swollen and in so much pain he could no longer lie down. He spent hours standing and moaning. It was awful.
Let's think about this
I knew that, if the liver were involved, pushing toxic meds into Jimmy was aggravating that condition. I began to taper off the steroids sooner than the vet prescribed, and discontinued the other two meds. This helped some, but the poor guy would still not go for any walks, which previously were the highlights of his days.
What else could I do for this animal?
I started cooking for him.
And I learned something I already knew very well when it comes to humans.
Health is nearly all about what we eat.
I have long known how to identify, via elimination diets, which foods challenge humans. I began feeding Jimmy only "safe" foods, foods that generally don't challenge anybody. Right away, the swelling went down some, and Jimmy began to perk back up.
When I had seen significant improvement in Jimmy's condition, I started testing his food tolerances, by introducing possibly challenging foods and watching for reactions.
One lick of raw milk cream did him in, and that meant no more dairy for Jimmy. Jimmy likes his dairy. Liked. With a reaction that strong, those days are over.
I haven't yet tested for his reaction to gluten, but so far there seems to be only one other class of food that makes Jimmy miserable. If he eats even just a few bites of this type of food, he can do nothing but stand and shake and moan. It is a terrible thing to see.
What is that food people?
Dog food of any kind!!!
And I buy the good stuff. The expensive frozen raw stuff. The dried raw stuff. The best-of-the-best kibble stuff.
I now know that ALL OF THESE ARE CLEARLY HARMFUL TO THE LIVER. Jimmy had been eating this stuff for nine years, supplemented by human food scraps.
I wonder how long it will take me to undo nine years of damage, or if I even can.
What am I doing about it?
I'm cooking meals that are loaded with nutrition, contain detoxifying foods, and are as devoid of toxins as possible.
EVERYTHING is organic, bio-dynamic, pastured, or foraged.
EVERYTHING is prepared by my own hand with love.
One or more of shiitake, maitake, cilantro and chickweed are now present in every meal. All of these have liver detoxifying properties, and loads of nutritive value.
I make sure he has at least one 12 hour stretch, each day, of no food at all.
I add a drop of vitamin D3 with K2, and a few drops of a tincture of milk thistle and dandelion, to most meals.
I put a bit of zinc in his filtered water with every change.
I measure and record his girth often, and have found him to be the least swollen in the mornings, before he eats.
I take copious notes about what he eats or does, and note any possible reactions.
I've started giving some thought to homeopathic remedies, and will choose one for him soon.
I love him up good.
In short, I am doing what I would do for any sick human, starting with cleaning up the food.
Three days later
Some of the meals
I am making this up as I go along folks.
If any of you have any knowledge, suggestions, inspirations, or advice of any kind, I would be grateful to know.
all images are mine
Posted on NaturalMedicine.io
If any of you have any knowledge, suggestions, inspirations, or advice of any kind, I would be grateful to know.
Poor Jimmy. I hope he continues to improve. I suspect changing his diet is a bit easier than trying to change a human's, who will still go and get things that make them ill. 😉
My friend's dog has always everything cooked for her, because she has such a delicate stomach. She'll be about the same age as Jimmy now and was likely lucky that her stomach meant she had to eat right from the start. It's horrific to think that ready prepared dog foods are this bad for them.
Glad you figured out the NM front-end.
Thank you @ewkaw ! And @qurator !
My pleasure. Hope he feels better soon.
The food you make looks really good!
lol, It always often tastes surprisingly good too!
Haha you are stealing food from the poor doggie? :P :D
This is AMAZING. I wonder if a strong brew of chamomile added to his rice might help? It's anti inflammatory and soothing..well done Mumma!
He's still ravenously hungry, a symptom of Cushing's, and will (unfortunately) eat anything, so I will definitely try the chamomile. He is by no means cured, but better than he was when I first took him to the vet. He can jump for joy again!
Thanks for liking my post!
You're doing great! Be both healthy and strong.
Thank you! Same to you.
Jimmy better start feeling better soon, because he's now eating better than many humans do. I would dare say his diet is more diverse than 80% of my American friends. Hang in there Jimmy!!
Thanks! He is eating well, and a lot of what I make for him tastes really good. I think I am eating better now too.
NOW I have read it. Hoss -- I mean Jimmy -- is in just the right hands!
My daughter's mini-dachshund has been through a lot in is 12-14 years. (We don't know exactly how old he is.) Her grandmother ran over his foot and broke it with her rocking chair in 2014. A careless roommate left chicken bones on the floor in 2019 and he had to have surgery. In 2020 another careless roommate dropped a prescription medication pill and the dog ate it, and he had the diahhrea and was listless for days after that. We fed him diced chicken with rice after his stomach surgery, and now he doesn't want to eat canned dog food any more. It's probably just as well. He is picky about some vegetables, and I can't imagine him eating mushrooms.
Oh my that poor dog. The rocking chair, the chicken bones, the Rx pill.
Our butcher seconds the vet's Rx - green beans, rice, and chicken for the dog. This new vet isn't pushing Science Diet the way our other vets do. (Who funds the veterinary college? Hills, maker of Science Diet!)
We have been misled and mis-fed for decades. Our medical bills, human, canine, feline, are proof that what we have been instructed or encouraged to eat is WRONG. All the TV commercials and ads hawking so many unhealthy foods that we get addicted to - it's an industry, and it's getting to the point that I wonder if I'm an olive-drab communist worker at heart.
Even those of us who stop to think get sucked into the wrong ideas from time to time. Part of the challenge is trying to figure out who is right. By the way, there is a picture of my granddog in my latest post, if you would like to admire him.
My dog seems to like them, as long as they've got some meat mixed in. That he will eat chickweed is what surprises me. (sorry about the passive voice fellow writer) Today he gobbled up a big handful chopped up and wilted in scrambled eggs.
I think perhaps your granddog feels ill if she eats dog food. I sure learned that with this guy. I've made some mistakes with him over the years, disregarding rules like no onions and no bones, but he's a very happy dude.
Reckless Rocker Granny, thanks for you visit!
I am happy to report I am not the granny who ran over the dog's foot. It was my husband's mother. I'm sure she was quite upset. I sure would have been!
Oh Jimmy!!!!
A professional restaurant chef and herbal-remedy expert preparing his meals: I'm envious. Those photos are glorious. Few people eat as well as this dog is now eating.
No surprise that commercial dog foods, pushed by our vets as "ideal," are killing our dogs. I read that Marty Goldstein book about the history of the pet food industry, and the horrific rise in liver/kidney/pancreatic disease because we feed our dogs 'The Best,' veterinarian recommended, loaded with preservatives and other garbage.
Our Prince is in the same boat. The gabapentin did nothing for him, so we increased it to 3/4 a tablet, then a whole tablet, twice a day, and now we get to add another $2 a day to the regimen with carprofen. Vet says tramadol doesn't work well and is an opiod, and what does work, Deremaxx, made Prince's liver count shoot up. What is left. Last night I baked chicken for the dogs. They despise the dry kibble and eat it only with bribes (gravy, e.g.). I emptied the bag of the last cup of kibble, outside by the bird feeder, and not one creature touched the stuff. Not a mouse, not a squirrel, not a stray cat. Wow. This was not cheap dog food. It was grain-free, "quality" stuff.
I hope Jimmy recovers despite the veterinary "care" -- he's better off trusting you.
Mind sharing those dinners with me, Jimmy? :)
I showed Jimmy's smorgasboard of home-cooked dinners to my husband. "Will she cater to me too?" Um, not while she's on the east coast and we're in the Midwest. "Can we get her to move?" I'll second that motion!
I could be heading there, Iowa is a much safer state than NY is to be living in.
Some of them did taste good. But it is a good thing Jimmy will eat anything. Of all the veggies I've been giving him, and I'd say half of what he eats right now is veggies, he has left one single sprig of chickweed in his dish.
Wow, can he teach Prince and Bear to expand their palate, or do we just need you to teach me your cooking skills? Bear spits out potatoes and mushrooms, if he accidentally gets them in his mouth (after I dare to sneak them into the mix of rice, chicken, and green beans). He also spits out green beans, and now I feed him outside, he's so messy. The cats were amazing. Years ago we had two ginger toms who liked leftover Dinty Moore beef stew (yeah, I used to buy that stuff), and one brand had peas in it. I'd find the food dish with immaculately clean peas left behind. They licked off every atom of gravy without ingesting anything green. The potatoes and carrots, they tolerated. The gravy! Not a single molecule left behind!
Picky eaters... I've been surrounded by them since I became a mom and a pet owner.
Jimmy's the best. :) And so is his personal chef.
They licked their peas clean! That is really funny!
Jimmy will eat anything right now. Apparently ravenous hunger is a symptom of Cushings. But I put peas in one dish, and they came out whole, so I don't think he can digest those. Which is odd, since so much dog food has pea protein in it. I've heard that's bad, but with this dog, I could actually see it.
Peas, please - "Pass the peas" - sorry, it's a phrase I've heard at the dinner table.
Corn. It passes through a dog and comes out intact.
Birds pass seeds that can germinate and grow. How is this possible? Why do they bother to find and eat seeds if they don't even get digested? What's the point?
How did my mom endure me asking so many questions? Our youngest was especially interrogative, and I can't count the times I've said, "I don't know. You'll have to look it up on the internet."