Just wanted to check in about Cookie

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the chi-weenie

Barked: Mon Jan 14, '13 8:20pm PST


	Wow it's been a year now since I started feeding raw. So it took a while, but I finally even came up with the most convenient (to me) way to prepare her meals. It's actually enjoyable instead of toil. I spent a long time trying different things. So Cookie is 8 to 9 pounds and I ration her raw meals to be around 3 oz because I always end up rounding down and giving her more anyway, and she also has treats and things. She eats boneless beef.. (not grass fed), and then a chicken neck + organ cube (half liver half kidney and other) every 2 or 3 days. (the chicken necks are around 3 oz each, so I make them a meal with the organ cube.) I try to remember to top the meals with some kelp, coat, and digestion dog supplement I happen to have a big jar of. it's just a load of vitamins and minerals. I only give her a tiny bit though. If anybody has any advice towards the diet, I would appreciate it. I am a fan of feeding awesome weird finds and even whole prey, but Cookie is not.. so I don't think I'll be doing it anymore. She's extremely picky. Cookie has been itching A LOT. She had dry skin last winder too, so I assume it's the same thing, only this time, she tends to scratch herself still she tears her skin. I have to keep a Tshirt on her all day and night now or else she will scratch. I went to the store today and bought Zinc for her, and vitamin E to go with the fish oil she has. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. She also has a soap-free aloe and oatmeal shampoo that I wash her with.

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Addie CL1- CL2 NAJ

if it moves,- I'll chase it!

Barked: Tue Jan 15, '13 6:32am PST


	Has she had any reaction to the foods she was eating before? I almost suspect a chicken or beef allergy. See, perhaps if you are able to source a few other proteins and leave out either chicken or beef for 4-6 weeks and see if her skin and itchiness improves. If not, try with other ingredients. Overall sounds like a decent diet. I'm sure shes much happier

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Maxwell

I'm triple- superior MAD- now!

Barked: Tue Jan 15, '13 9:07am PST


	Does the supplement have omega 3 in it and how much? Perhaps adding more omega 3 could help. How fatty is the meat? Are you giving her the skin on the chicken neck? Perhaps she needs a bit more fat now that the weather is colder and drier. I would think a diet of mostly beef would be okay on zinc and iron. Is there beef or lamb in the organ mix you give her? Those livers are the easiest way to get copper in. What treats is she getting? Max gets such a small amount of food I make sure it fits in with a good diet.

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the chi-weenie

Barked: Tue Jan 15, '13 5:12pm PST


	Thanks guys. I can try pork instead of beef but I don't know any other boney meat that would work. However she never showed signs of being allergic to them before I'm pretty sure. and it's been over a year now. I suppose she could have developed something. But considering her dry skin last year, I think it's due more to the heater in the house. I just can't believe how itchy she is, even with the aloe and oatmeal bath. I hope to see it go away once the warm weather comes back. She gets plenty of fat in my opinion I do not trim the chicken necks or the beef, so each chicken neck has skin and some beef cuts have a thick slice of fat on them. currently the organ cubes contain, half beef and chicken liver, and half beef kidney and sweet breads. the supplement powder does contain omega 3's but I give her less than the dosage I think. She doesn't like it, so she'd probably throw a fit if I put anymore. I also have fish oil capsules I sometimes squirt on. (she's hates that too) and I just bought some vitamin E liquid. her treats aren't all that great right now, the best stuff she has is sweet potato and duck, and her cheese and antler chews. She has a jar of leftover kibble and some organic little stars treats. and a jar of 'bad' treats, I just give every now and then, but not to often. I think of them as the 'candy' cause I know they are not very healthy. I plan to replace them with healthier ones when they are gone. (suggestions welcome on what I should look into)

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Member Since
12/02/2012

Barked: Tue Jan 15, '13 8:55pm PST


	If you do give Cookie chicken neck with skin, then that could probably be the cause for the itching. I'm no vet so it would be great if you check in with your vet about Cookie's problem.

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Crash- Dynamite

Live up to your- Name!

Barked: Tue Jan 15, '13 10:22pm PST


	What about washing her less? Could be your are inadvertently drying out her skin by bathing her more often then needed. RAW Fed dogs seem to rarely Need a bath.

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the chi-weenie

Barked: Wed Jan 16, '13 7:20am PST


	Hmm, I will have to see about the chicken skin. but she always did fine with it before. I have looked at her really good again last night, and so I will give some details. She tends to scratch her side mostly, sometimes she bites her rump, and she was scratching behind her ear and below her ribs for a bit, but has not scratched those two places anymore since I healed them up. When I look under her fur, I can find very dry spots where the dry skin will flake off when you scratch it. and sometimes there are little pinkish spots and sometimes they are redder. Her skin will turn very red if she scratches it. So some of the redness is scratching wounds, but some of the spots look like they are there when she wakes up. There are not very many spots like this, except for the couple of places where she scratches, and mostly near her side/shoulder. and she has NO redness on her underside at all, not even dry spots. totally free of any irritation. So all the dryness is on her back under her fur. (she's bald on the bottom side). She has no hair loss at all. besides the usual shedding undercoat. Things I'm speculating that I've read about: She's picked up fleas out at relatives house while playing with their outside dog. I bathe her with dawn dish soap to kill any that jumped on her. I think she may be allergic to the fleas? But it's hard to tell because when I look at pictures, those dogs have VERY red spots and a lot of them, especially on their under side. and Cookie doesn't have this... but it's the only thing different that's happen recently,, besides the cold weather, which is also recent for this part of Texas. I'm sure at least half of the problem if not all is the cold dry weather and the house heater taking a toil on her skin. and then I guess she could have developed a food allergy.. I really hope not. her paws seem fine. If it is a flea allergy, I'd appreciate any info, I don't know much about it.

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the chi-weenie

Barked: Wed Jan 16, '13 7:26am PST


	Oh and yeah, I will have to take her to the vet if it doesn't stop. but I am protecting her skin for now, I keep a Tshirt on her to protect herself from her nails and. and I read about the baths, she doesn't get them everyday, it used to be every week and she thrived on that. Now it's more like, whenever she's stinky, and then a couple times whenever she was really itchy. The stuff I used claimed that it would not dry out the skin or strip the coat no matter how often I used it. So I didn't think it would be a problem. I follow the rules and let it sit in her fur for 5-10 minutes and repeat. Does anyone know exactly how a vet determines the cause? Do they just look at the symptoms of the dry skin or do they do any actual testing?

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Maxwell

I'm triple- superior MAD- now!

Barked: Wed Jan 16, '13 8:58am PST


	Sassy always had dry skin with some dandruff on her back and was allergic to fleas. Until she was a senior simply keeping flea control up to date did the trick. As she aged she started biting her rump and only developed the first hot spot after the age of 14 years whether or not she was up to date with flea drops. I had wondered if feeding her more fat would have helped but she didn't tolerate it, not even coconut oil. She got fish oil until it started to upset her tummy, no help at all and she took that stuff for a decade. You could try switching the diet up. Use rabbit instead of chicken for bone for a couple months maybe. Only give treats that are animal origin maybe. That would be cheapest to implement! I know when we are weak and Max gets his coveted pizza bones he suffers from eye boogers for a couple days. It is possible it is something that simple. Steve Brown writes in Unlocking the Canine Ancestral Diet that a prey model diet might be missing some fatty acids needed for optimal health. His 'perfect health' diet is beef and skinned chicken with some freshly ground flax seed and some coconut oil added and a whole bunch of wheat bran and veggies, ugh. Sassy did horrible with flax and disliked coconut oil but you could try a dab of one or the other for a couple months. Or get a hold of the book and try the recipe I suppose. Now I am wondering if there was some sort of mild and annoying infection going on all those years? It is your money, you can insist on a skin scraping to see if there is an overgrowth of some sort. You can ask for a referral to a specialist. My vet called it flea allergy and it was but her skin never was clean and without at least a few flakes.

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Mr. Jake the- Beagle

I am Murphy's- Law Embodied! <3- Me!

Barked: Thu Jan 17, '13 8:47pm PST


	HI Cookie, Jake has a dry skin problem. Do you use the heater a lot at your house in the winter time? If so that really dries out the skin. I started giving jake a little extra egg and fish oil and that helsp him a lot. Try feeding sardines in your mix. That may help if its preserved in olive oil then you can drizzle a little oil too. I only buy the sardines saved in olive oil since jake's allergic to soy beans/tofu/ soybean oil. if not you could do as maxwell suggested. Good luck.

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