I do not think that Tikki is unwell but something is not quite right. Not enough to bother Ram about at the moment but still rather concerning. She has been off her food since Friday when she barely nibbled at her breakfast [chunk of turkey neck] but then guarded it even though she did not want to eat it, eventually finishing it, taking nearly the whole day to do so. Asked for supper much later than usual but barely touched it. She asked for and took Saturday's breakfast onto her nest, licked it and guarded it all day - I eventually managed to take it when she went out to complain about the fact that someone had parked a car outside and was sitting in it having a chat on his mobile, and again she barely touched her supper. I gave her the rescued turkey neck when she asked for her breakfast on Sunday morning and she decided to eat it but did not even touch her supper even though she had asked for it. Yesterday's breakfast [giant frozen sardine] she took but did not eat it. Again asked for supper [very late] but that ended up in the bin. Kept asking again so I offered her a spoonful of cottage cheese which she scoffed it and asked for more, and hoovered up the half a tub of it that I put in her bowl. Twice during the last couple of days she has retched and brought up a little yellowish foam and she has had a little diarrhroea a couple of times . She is drinking and peeing OK and acting normally, rushing around outside chasing off anything she thinks is intruding on her territory, dances and does her twirlies before I open her crate at bedtime and scoffs her little bikki - in other words she is acting as normal and definitely does not appear to be in discomfort even when I palpate her abdomen, but Tikki is a dog who normally loves her food and this is the first time she has been like this. It will not hurt her to lose a bit of weight as when Ram weighed her last week she had gained over a kilo and definitely looks a bit more solid than she did, but I am still rather concerned. I have asked Hai to please send over some more cottage cheese and will telephone Mikhaël later to ask for some minced chicken or turkey. I cannot think of anything else to do. Any suggestions please?
It sounds as if she has picked up a minor gastric bug and is sensing, (rightly or wrongly), that she might have a problem digesting her usual ration. Would Tikva eat her emergency dried food for a day or two? As she is eating biscuits, that might work. Otherwise, I wouldn't worry too much for a day or so, as you say, she has her own reserves at the moment. Coincidentally, Eddie had a sickly day yesterday - in his case it was his overdue Drontal worming tablet that caused it. (It has never happened before though). He had a little porridge with yoghurt and honey for his lunch, and was well ready for his normal supper. He is bright as a button today.
Tikki had her overdue Parkworm shot last Tuesday, together with her Drontal and Bravecto tabs, neither of which were overdue. She has been known to throw up slightly after the Drontal but on those rare occasions it was later that day and before she had had her supper. Her crate biscuit is either a regular or a teeth-cleaning one and is only a very small one, maybe the size of a sugar cube, and tbh I have recently been alternating her usual raw supper with the emergency dehydrated food as that does not entail too much standing and preparation. iHerb had stopped the two BARF model brands I usually kept for emergencies although they still do the PREY model one, but I had a feeling they were going to discontinue them so did a stock up. I also bought some from Amazon when they first started supplying Israel and were offering free shipping for orders over $49 - one air-dried and one freeze-dried, both being the BARF diet and both having excellent DogFoodAdvisor reviews and she loves them both. And she has turned her nose up at those. Sunday I tried tinned tuna, which she sometimes has and she ate a very small amount but yesterday evening she would not touch anything. That was when I offered her the cottage cheese which I do not think I have given her since she was a puppy and I was weaning her. I just do not know Carole. It is 4.45pm now and she has not asked for any food yet today but she is acting completely normally. She did her usual squeal of delight when she saw the DHL van pull up outside and rushed to greet the driver - who comes down the path calling her [I always say she is a little slut, the way she adores her men!] - but she just does not want any food.
As it's gone on since Friday, I think I'd be giving Ram a call tomorrow Juli, just to run it by him and see what he thinks. Can't hurt and might just help her
Tikki has eaten a bit Chris, Friday's breakfast taking her all day and Saturday's being eventually eaten on Sunday [I put it in the refrigerator when I managed to get it on Saturday] but both evenings she barely touched her supper. Yesterday she did not touch her breakfast, all of her supper went in the bin but then she did have some cottage cheese. Today she did not ask for food all day but about half an hour ago she followed me into the kitchen so I asked her if she wanted anything - and she has just had the rest of the 250g tub of cottage cheese. I cannot get either Marc - I do not even know whether it is possible to get raw goats milk here. At the moment if I need something immediately I can only get what the macolet has - and as far as I can remember they do not stock kefir - otherwise wait until my next online delivery comes and I know they do not have any kind of raw milk. I know they have goat milk but it is not raw, and also goat yoghurt but I cannot find kefir anywhere on their website though. I think I will see how Tikki is tomorrow - Ram is usually busy all morning as usually the only time he can get to the telephone is around 1.30-2pm and if I am still worried about her I will give him a ring then.
I Don’t know of course, if she’s being fussy. I have started chopping up raw heart from the butchers at the moment for mine. They like it , where they may turn their noses up at chicken necks in the morning. As they’ve had lots of those and either get boring or get a bit over balanced in their tummies.
Sorry I did not get back to you yesterday - I was rather concerned about Tikki and seemed to spend most of the day checking on her, but I think she is OK although her normal appetite has still gone AWOL. Anyhow I did not telephone Ram as I do not think that she is ill - maybe just had a stomach upset? - so thought I would give it another day. Yesterday I offered her a piece torn off a slice of cheese, which she thought was yummy so gave her a canine pill [probiotics and stuff] for upset stomachs wrapped in another piece [brought back memories of doing the same for Pereg three times a day ] and she did not throw anything up. She did have a couple of very small loose-ish poos but not diarrhoea though. I had taken a turkey heart out of the freezer to defrost, in case she actually asked for food a bit later, and when she did I cut it up and put it in her bowl and she hoovered it up and asked for more, so I put a few pieces of the air-dried food in with a bit of warm water and that was also hoovered up. Mikhaël brought the chicken necks and breasts yesterday and she did her usual dancing and squealing with joy [little slut] and when I went to freeze them this morning I saw the chicken necks were cut in half so I am open-freezing them as I am not going to pack two kilos of neck pieces! - and Tikki has had a couple of them, although with neck I prefer to give them frozen so she crunches them up with no risk of bone splinters. I also gave her another pill [capsule actually] wrapped in a piece of cheese and although she would have eaten more I thought it better just to give her a little at a time. The chicken breasts can wait - they are very fresh so will be fine in the refrigerator until I have the energy to cut/pack/freeze them. Anyhow, Tikki is still not 100% and I reckon I will keep worrying until she is. There is not really anything more I can do at the moment, is there.
It sounds as if she is improving. Now that a little more food has gone down, her poos should improve too.
One advantage of keeping a puppy pad down in the corner of the salon is that if the door is on the chain and I am not in the room to open the door enough so she can go out, is that in an emergency Tikva will poo on the pad so it is very easy to see what it consists of and if there is any trace of anything suspicious in it. All teaspoonful size of it. And I also watched her poo outside and checked it and that just looked a bit soft but not runny. Also only a tiny amount but being raw fed her poos are always small - and she is only a little dog after all. At the moment I am ignoring her normal morning and evening meal times, just giving her something if she asks for it, and it certainly will not hurt her to lose a little weight as I far prefer dogs to be a bit on the slim side, especially after Pereg, although her weight gain was because of her condition and medication of course. I am not sure how Tikki gained it in the first place - it just crept up on the 9 months since her previous weigh-in, having missed the last one and Ram not weighing her the time before. But I will feel a lot happier when she starts eating properly again.
Tikki asked for some food about half an hour ago so I cut up half of one of the slices of chicken breast - I did not weigh it so am not sure how much it weighed but it was not very much, and even though she looked hopefully for some more I thought it best to see how her stomach coped with this as I do not want to overload her with too much too quickly. I had asked Mikhaël for a kilo but when I weighed the pack when he dropped it in yesterday there was nearly two kilos of it. Thinly sliced ready for schnitzels with each slice wrapped separately, so it is going to be very easy to freeze as I will not have to pack them individually. Hopefully she is getting over whatever it was, but I will still worry until she is 100% back to normal.
I think that Tikva is just about over her stomach upset, at least I hope she is. I am keeping her on light rations for another few days though, just to make sure, although yesterday evening she asked for more food once she had hoovered up what I had given her. As it was only 20g of re-hydrated dried food I gave her another 5g and ignored her pleading looks for more, and this morning, like yesterday, it was only a couple of pieces of chicken neck. Her poos seem to be back to normal - three tiny bits of the usual poo she does each time - one of the blessings of raw is the minimum that seems to be passed, not piles of stinky poo, and the dehydrated food has the same result - if I did not see where she does I would never be able to find it. So - that is back to her usual bouncy self!
I think I spoke too soon. She asked for food this evening......and then just stood over it but would not touch it or let me take it away. Eventually she left it and it ended up in the bin. Then she nagged for a chew which I would not give her, so she threw her toys all over the place and is currently sulking on the couch and giving me the stinkeye every time I turn to look at her.
I honestly do not know Carole. I think that she was just sulking this evening because I am sure if I had given her some chicken breast she would have eaten it. Or the food I gave her yesterday, and yet this was one of her previous favourites. She just refused to eat it but would not let me take it away - she can be a right little booger at times - and then she started asking for a chew. She usually has one in the evening. And she was definitely throwing a strop with her toys - not just chucking them about but putting some under my chair and some behind my rear wheels - oh she knew what she was doing, she deliberately put them there because she knows I will run over them when I reverse away from the table. I really do not think that she ill now. Fair enough she did have a slight tummy upset and now she thinks she can get away with whatever she wants. She is as lively as ever during the day and did her usual dance and twirlies waiting for me to open her crate and give her the little biscuit she has when I put her to bed a while back. She is not ill - I am sure of that now. I think she is just playing up and wants her own way.
This time I really do think that Tikva has gotten over the stomach upset because she had a chunk of turkey neck yesterday - not a very big piece but still a fair chunk, and I cut up a turkey gizzard when she asked for supper and gave her half of it - ~25g plus a few freeze-dried beef trip nibs. No strop either so when she asked for her chew I gave her one, and she has just had another chunk of turkey neck - the size she usually has. I am still giving her one of the "Gentle Digest" caps [they are for minor stomach upsets] each day and yesterday for the first time she took her normal daily multivitamin and other supplements that I give her before her supper as usual. Regular mealtimes do not matter now as I think it is best to give her food as and when she asks for it, and as long as she is eating and drinking I am going to stop worrying. Well I will try to stop worrying...
Tikva has decided that now she feels better she is the boss and that talking on the telephone is verboten. I have just had to apologise to someone [who does not speak any English] and try to explain why I keep telling "hope" to be quiet! Luckily she has a dog who apparently does the same when her telephone rings, so I did not feel so bad. Strange - Tikki always howls [she thinks she is singing] if my landline telephone rings as it has a jingle but stops as soon as I answer it, but this was my mobile and it just has a normal ring which she has always ignored before now. Little booga!
