Rice and Water
3 meals of Rice and beef broth (breakfast, dinner, late night snack); his coat looks good, he’s drinking enough water, urinating clear (dark yellow this AM), hasn’t lost weight (39 lbs), not lethargic, and he’s maintaining weight.
Isaac had a touch of loose stool still this AM (not horrible) so I’ve kept him on rice. Seems that everything I’ve read says to either fast him for 24 hours or put him on a bland diet. If I didn’t give him ANY food I think he’d eat Noah and/or Bethany. Since the stool is loose (not constant out of control liquid), he’s hydrated, not lethargic, and his fecal flotation came back clean I’m going to stick with bland over complete fast.
There will be no Schutzhund training Sunday morning and hope to have him on half rice half Canidae by lunch tomorrow (we’ll see). If he’s not cleaned up by Monday evening I suppose I need to go back to the Vet (though I think their diagnosis of Colitis is broad enough that they are guessing just like I am (other than the fecal float). OK maybe not guessing, but just like people doctors I this it’s a lot closer to voodoo than actual science. I mean we aren’t talking E=MC^2 or F=MA!
Here’s a pic of Isaac chowing some white rice cooked in beef broth. Oh and no exercise when he gets the rice…seems like with a heavy sticky substance sitting in his belly the last thing we need to deal with right now is bloat…..
Frog rhymes with Dog
Since frog rhymes with dog, this thing is giant, and it was caught in our backyard I figured I’d post a picture for your viewing pleasure.
Here are the rest of the frogs, small, medium, and extra large! The rest of the frog pictures can be found here.
Diarrhea ‘Part deux’
A 2:20 AM this morning in the county of Kane there was a substantial explosion. There were no injuries reported, but the dog room was evacuated due to contaminants in the atmosphere. Again at 7:20 there was an aftershock reported in the backyard of the Duffey residence.
Rescue workers prepared a breakfast of boiled hamburger and rice (there was enough left for dinner). After the initial aftershock there has been no activity. It appears the flow in the sewer has slowed to a crawl.
UPDATE: 24 hours since it last flowed at 10:15 AM on the Forth of July the sewer spewed forth a little waste. Brown gold rolled out in decent form and shape, not 14K but we’ll take what we can get.
Diarrhea 'Part deux'
A 2:20 AM this morning in the county of Kane there was a substantial explosion. There were no injuries reported, but the dog room was evacuated due to contaminants in the atmosphere. Again at 7:20 there was an aftershock reported in the backyard of the Duffey residence.
Rescue workers prepared a breakfast of boiled hamburger and rice (there was enough left for dinner). After the initial aftershock there has been no activity. It appears the flow in the sewer has slowed to a crawl.
UPDATE: 24 hours since it last flowed at 10:15 AM on the Forth of July the sewer spewed forth a little waste. Brown gold rolled out in decent form and shape, not 14K but we’ll take what we can get.
In the red corner weighing in at…..
According to Kerry (who weighed Isaac today) the pooch is sitting right at 40 lbs. Last time we checked he was 31 lbs, for a while it was all height and no weight. That trend seems to have changed.
WordPress Themes
In an effort to get a better understanding of the way WordPress uses themes I’ve changed the look of the blog. I’m not sure I like the design too much, but I’ve at least figured out what CSS tags and chunks of PHP code control what.
Maybe if I muster up the energy I’ll work on actually making it look nice. Currently I was mainly concerned with figuring out what controlled what. Fairly intuitive, but I do wonder how easy it would be to hack…there is a lot of php strings being passed around. PHPNuke was worse, but WordPress seems accessible to a dedicated anti-social guy lacking female companionship.
I do have an e-x-ploi-t sc**n3r installed as a widget so that may help with security.
New Wordpress Plugin
I found a pretty useful WordPress plugin that allows you to have pop-up images in your posts. Here is a nice little picture of Isaac that Jen sent me from when he was still living at the breeders.
The FlickrTips plugin seems to be rather quick and not too terribly annoying like some pop-ups that seem to hang around too long or are hard to get rid of. I am going to look to see if I can change the color of the underline that shows up when the link is to an image. Also it doesn’t seem to like images with ?POST data.
I also found this picture which I thought was quite amusing. This is classic helper attire (shorts, sandals, bandanna, and sunglasses). Is that a cigarette or some type of training aid I’m not familiar with?
Moving away from Fecal matters
In an effort to move away from all things fecal here are a couple pictures of Isaac and the boy. The only training that has takingen place this week has been tug-o-war and chase things. Yes, I know that these fly in the face of my no dogs in bed rule……
“Dad, he just had solid logs”
The phone at work rang at around 12:30 and Noah said, “dad, he just had solid logs”.
So in the AM, mid-day, and evening Isaac had some nice solid turds. I’ll just put a link to the picture this time in an effort to clean up the blog! To see what we were battling check this post.
"Dad, he just had solid logs"
The phone at work rang at around 12:30 and Noah said, “dad, he just had solid logs”.
So in the AM, mid-day, and evening Isaac had some nice solid turds. I’ll just put a link to the picture this time in an effort to clean up the blog! To see what we were battling check this post.
Why do dogs dig
When I got home from work today I noticed that Isaac had started his own attempt at increasing the production of oil here in the United States. No offshore drilling for him, in an effort to lower the cost of transporting the black gold he is roughnecking right in my own front yard.
It has also become apparent that Kerry one of his favorite humans so maybe he overheard her telling me that she wanted this tree dug up and moved. He might be smarter than I give him credit for.
Maybe he was just digging because he’s a dog!
Visit to Animal House Veterinary Hospital
After having loose stool every hour on the hour last night Isaac made a trip to the vet.
They diagnosed him with Colitis which is a rather broad spectrum diagnosis. We might know more after they get the results from the fecal analysis (Fecal Flotation). For the Colitis the vet prescribed Metronidazole 250 mg tablets taken twice daily. He also got two cans of Hills WD Canine Canned which they claim will firm up his stool.
We’ve gone from diarrhea every hour on the hour to NO bowel movements since 6:00 AM (he’s had two meals).
14 Weeks Old today as well
Do rocks cause Diarrhea?
I just realized that the BLOG has turned from cute puppy pictures to complete SHIT!
So in an effort to be thorough in my analysis of Isaac’s stool I went in the yard and cleaned up the brown gold he produces. I know I claimed earlier that I thought I had stopped him from consuming rocks and wood chips, unless they are being added to the fecal matter after he poops I was wrong.
I went through the poo like a diver looking for pearls and found some wood chip fibers, he seems to chew those up fairly well. I found the occasional rock, those aren’t chewed as finely as the wood chips. I also found some red and white substance that looked like sprinkles on a chocolate ice cream cone (except the chocolate smelled bad).
So all in all today (starting at 6:00 AM) he had in this order
- Loose stool
- Breakfast (2 cups)
- Nice solid logs
- Dinner (2 cups)
- Soft logs (more like semi melted chocolate bars)
- Loose stool
- Little loose stool and a fuzz of clear mucus (which is always nice)
Don’t fear he’s going to the vet! He’s been consuming water and doesn’t seem lethargic so I’m sure he’ll make it through the night.
The Battle Rages On!
A Couple of Dogs playing
Isaac and Stella had a little play session today, Isaac was disappointed at yesterdays showing. Brodie was too tired to play!
Yes after solid stool in the AM Isaac had loose stool in the PM (I won’t share the pictures, not too pleasant). Will be following up with the vet tomorrow.
Puppy Diarrhea
Update 6-4-2009..I started feeding him Fromm and tracking his progress on this page. Here is a link to the Fromm I’m feeding him.
Last night at dinner everyone made fun of what they call my obsession, really it’s just a BLOG about my dog. Some called it a diary, but since it’s not pink and doesn’t have a key I’m confident in my endeavor. Though because of the ridicule I’m going to step it up a notch today by analyzing my dogs stool. Provide something worth reading…
Isaac has been to the vet and has had his stool professionally analyzed and it showed no signs of worms. He was given a ‘stronger’ worming medication just to be safe. Since that time Isaac has had a number of occurrences of diarrhea. He does need to go to the vet again to have his stool checked and receive a couple of shots. I’ve tried to isolate (where I can) what might be causing the digestive issues in the pooch.
He hasn’t switched off of the Canidae kibble so it doesn’t appear to be the food. I’ve slowed his habit of eating Rabbit Poop down so I don’t think that’s causing the issues. He isn’t getting any bones or chews toys that he’s digesting (put a halt to the pig ears). He also isn’t getting into the trash or anything strange like that. Unless he is sneaking rocks and wood chips when I’m not around (Kerry/Noah?) I don’t believe that’s the issue either.
All I can figure is it’s one of two things. My first thought is that it’s some type of parasite like Coccidia or Giardia, but it doesn’t seem to be consistent enough (only has it on occasion). I am now beginning to wonder if it might be exercise induced.
Yesterday Isaac had a long walk in the morning. It was cool out and he didn’t show any signs of being tired or overheated. Later in the day and most of the night he had brown pudding stool (not liquid and no blood), but it didn’t start until very late afternoon (the walk was at 7:00 AM). He didn’t have any strange food or get into anything else weird. Then this morning he laid some nice solid logs (about 45 minutes after eating 2 cups of Canidae). So though the exercise was far earlier in the day it seems to be the one common denominator in the equation (unless it’s Coccidia). It seems on days where he’s had longer or more frequent walks he’s more prone to have loose stool.
Here are some images for your viewing pleasure. The first one is of a dump he took last night, the second is from this mornings duker, and the third he just laid 5 minutes ago shortly after his evening meal. (click to enlarge)
Today’s Training Schedule
Today the only training that occurred was sitz before you go out any door and get in your crate. Was hoping to track, but it just never happened. In reality Isaac crashed in the crate the majority of the day except when he played soccer with Noah. I think Sunday’s trip to the Schutzhund Club and yesterdays walk zapped him.
The beast is still afraid of the lawnmower which is strange because nothing else he has encountered has phased him. The crazy dog even stands on sewer grates (see through) and walks on the bouncy bridge at the park. The shotguns at the gun club didn’t phase him. Maybe he’s afraid I’m going to make him mow.
Today's Training Schedule
Today the only training that occurred was sitz before you go out any door and get in your crate. Was hoping to track, but it just never happened. In reality Isaac crashed in the crate the majority of the day except when he played soccer with Noah. I think Sunday’s trip to the Schutzhund Club and yesterdays walk zapped him.
The beast is still afraid of the lawnmower which is strange because nothing else he has encountered has phased him. The crazy dog even stands on sewer grates (see through) and walks on the bouncy bridge at the park. The shotguns at the gun club didn’t phase him. Maybe he’s afraid I’m going to make him mow.
Puppy Tug
I made my own puppy tug, you can go here to see how and why!
The quick version is I used a t-shirt and I did it because Isaac didn’t like anything else I had tried (for this purpose). He likes a lot of other stuff but nothing that could be construed as a two handed tug.
12 Weeks
Isaac is 12 weeks old today and I posted new pictures of the German Shepherd Dog at www.duffeyclan.com.
Yesterday Isaac paid his first visit to the Indian Creek Schutzhund Club for a little tracking, obedience, and socialization. He saw two of his brothers and sat out a wicked storm crated in the car (not trauma). Tracking went well and he’s doing fine, most of the issues are mine. I thought he did well in obedience considering the distractions, we were in a metal roof building filled with people with rain pounding down. He did his fuss, sitz, platz. He still struggles with going from platz to sitz.
Was heavy rain this AM so there was no tracking going on, might try and get something in right before lunch if the grass is still damp.
Was able to track in the afternoon (did well). Moved forward and he got praise after moving back on track after veering off. I probably had the leash too tight (bad habit need to resolve).
Worked on Platz (isolated from any other commands). Not sure if he doesn’t understand the command or is just blowing me off. When he does Platz he jumps to the ground.
Taking a dip
Isaac took a dip in the pool today! It didn’t take much coaxing to get all four legs in the water (straight from the hose). At on point he even stuck his head in the water for a hot dog. Maybe after some more pool play he’ll be ready to venture in to the pond. Though the pool water doesn’t leave the stink I imagine the pond would.
He also received a new collar (thinker). I had to modify because it seems people put only razor thin collars on puppies. Though it looks beefy I have a feeling it will be more comfortable when on a leash.















