Update on Red Eyes

Oh, so, I was bothered by Ruki's red eyes. I first thought, oh, just over-tiredness, but the red eyes persisted. So then I thought, oh no! Dry eye! So I bought some over-the-counter eye drops: Just generic, CVS dry eye relief drops. (The active ingredients I looked for, to compare with brand name eye drops, were some mixture of glycerin, hypromellose, and polyethylene glycol.) 

About two or three days of daily treatment, and her eyes are pretty much back to normal. It might have just been a bout of dry eye, but she's doing well!

Questionable Bulldogs at a Puppy Farm

I looked at the Google ads on our blog, and I noticed one from a local kennel called Laughlin Kennel in Oxford, MA. I initially though, cool, a local spot for bulldog puppies! But then I clicked on the link...

First clue that this is a puppy farm: They claim to offer over 30 different breeds. These aren't breeders. They are animal wholesalers. Breeders will specialize in certain types of breeds and know the breed characteristics and idiosyncracies. For example, our wonderful breeder breeds a handful of bulldogs, boston terriers, and bull terriers in her super nice, really clean home-based kennel. 

Most important clue that this might not be a place for you to get a bulldog: The puppies don't look like bulldogs. They all look like mixes. 

So watch out for these types of "breeders," unless this is the kind of bulldog you want! 

The Pampers Pee Conspiracy

I'm convinced now that Pampers newborn diapers are tinted yellow so you can't tell whether your tot has actually peed or not. So instead of feeling the actual diaper for wetness, it's easier just to pop on a new one, replacing a potentially clean one. 

If they actually *weren't* tinting their diaper yellowish on purpose, then they're just being stupid. But I don't trust large companies to be un-savvy. Conspiracy, I tell you.  

Update: Now I think the better way of testing the presence of pee is not by looking for color, but feeling the heaviness of the diaper and with a little sniff. This may only pertain to infants a week or so or older, as newborns don't really pee all that much and their pee don't stink. 

Acclimating Our Dog to the New Baby

So last Friday, my wife gave birth to our first child, Felix. Fortunately, we were preparing for this occurrence. Our preparations included letting our wonderful dog walker, Mike of Happy Dog, know that we might need him to pick up and board Ruki at a last minute's notice. With his birthday and Christmas looming, he agreed, and Friday night I tossed him off an e-mail that we were heading to the hospital. 

Sunday, we came home newborn baby in tow. I had talked to Mike, and Ruki was at home waiting for us. When we got home, she was predictably excited, shivering and shaking her stubby tail. But how would she greet the baby? Well, she didn't really. She seemed kind of aloof. Which kind of makes sense: She was completely exhausted from running around crazy with five other dogs.

Well, we figured that aloof was better than too excited--or angry. It eventually took Ruki about two or so days to work up the energy/curiosity to greet Felix. Still, it's been about a week, and she's not super excited about Felix. She's curious. She'll sniff at him when we bring him to her or when he's curled up on his bouncer. And she's beginning to express alertness and concern when she hears him cry. 

But at night, she gets a little cranky with the crying. She curls up and scrunches her face into her bed at 3 a.m. when we're up consoling and coddling Felix. 

We try to acclimate her by giving her at least a little attention most times we pass her. And I throw her up on my lap at least once a late night. So hopefully this will progress smoothly until  Felix and Ruki are best friends. 

Bulldog Red Eyes

Recently, Ruki's eyes have been more and more red. In the past, her eyes would get red when she's tired--and then she get crazy and run around a lot. Just like any baby, she just needed to be controlled and forced to rest and then sleep. 

I'm wondering now if her more recent red eyes might be something else. Maybe the cold? Maybe dryness? I'm thinking maybe it's dry eye... 

Updated Post on Warts with Pictures

In case you were wondering, I finally added old pictures of Ruki's lip warts that she got when she was about 7 months old. Gross, but anything for the sake of science. :)

The Value of VPI Pet Insurance

Shortly after we brought Ruki home, I decided that it might be worth it to get pet insurance. I didn't do much research, but ended up choosing the VPI Pet Insurance Superior Plan. The yearly premium ended up being $388 a year. 

Pricey, yes, but bulldogs are pricey. Over the 16 months that we've had Ruki, we've spent nearly $2,000 on vet visits. But we've received $567 back from VPI. Maybe it doesn't sound like much, but we've gotten our premium back and have the peace of mind that if something serious happens, we'll get help in the costs. And, going forward, we hope to have less vet visits as we learn more about Ruki's needs and problems and more about what we can do *before* heading to the vet. 

We spent $600 on our initial visits to the vet: the first one robbed us for $440--we just didn't know better, so afterwards we switched vets (to Fresh Pond Animal Hospital, which has been great). These were before we got insurance, so we got no help on those. 

We had Ruki spayed at 6 months--that cost us $227. VPI only covered $32 of that.  

But then Ruki had a brief seizure, had pyoderma (bumps), caught pneumonia, and then had allergies (more bumps!). Over those four visits, VPI covered about 30% of the total costs. 

Again, I don't know if this is highway robbery--I've heard that VPI is supposed to cover about 90% of your costs, but I haven't yet called and inquired about why we're not getting that much. It's just a consequence of being busy. 

The take-home? I think the VPI Insurance Superior Plan is worth it. Bulldogs are expensive, and they will have health problems.  Every little bit of help counts--especially with the added comfort that if something really serious happens, you're going to get some coverage. I'd consider maybe switching to a cheaper plan once she's "stabilized" and we understand her medical needs, but for maybe the next year or two we'll stick with this one. 

(Ruki's thanking me right now for all her vet visits; she's underneath my desk leaning on my legs.)

Bulldog Food Recommendation: California Natural's Lamb and Rice

Ruki started on Eukanuba Puppy from the breeder. Shortly after we got her, we switched her to Innova Puppy, and when she was about 9 months we switched her to Innova Adult. Then at about 14 months, she started developing allergies (and a whole host of other problems). We calmed down the allergies (with a rice and water bland diet), and then switched her to California Natural's Lamb and Rice formula.

With the Innova, one of the problems might have been exacerbated by the fact that she was wolfing down her food, with no chewing. She'd swallow the food, and then spend some time snorting and snuffling food that might have gotten caught in her trachea or nose. So it might have had something to do with the small pellet size. I looked around for larger pellet sizes, and eventually gave up. (I didn't want to switch to Royal Canin Bulldog formula--even though it has a specially shaped pellet (curved like an "s"), I wanted to stick with the Natura brand and its reputation and quality.) 

But Ruki chews her California Natural's. So it may be that the pellet size is just big enough to encourage her to do that. Or it's so tasty that she has to chew and relish the flavor. :)

And no allergies! The Innova Adult was mostly chicken and turkey. The prevailing theory seems to be that baby animals don't have a well-developed immune system, and therefore can develop allergies in the confusion of fighting off disagreeable foods. So if you expose baby animals to a wide variety of foods when they're young, they might develop allergies when they're little--as opposed to encountering these foods when they're older and can fight off any disagreeability and not develop allergies.

That's why after dogs develop allergies, you look to "novel protein" diets--meats that they might not have encountered when younger, like lamb, duck, ostrich, and buffalo. 

So the takehome: Stick with one or two proteins when they're puppies so they don't develop allergies, and consider switching to California Natural's to encourage them to chew their food.

(I have to note that Ruki's 16 months, 40 lbs, and her head's not totally grown in yet. So YMMV if you have a bigger bulldog.)

Ruki at 16 Months

Just some pictures with the new camera of Ruki at 16 months.

The Real Deal on Home Lead-Testing Kits

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission released an October 2007 report that Home Lead Test Kits are Unreliable. (Link to the full report.) The CPSC conducted these tests in light of recent reports of lead in toys. I, however, am interested in them in the context of testing for surface lead in our apartment to protect my family from eating lead paint chips. (I hear lead paint tastes sweet! Mmmm...)

The take-home: My opinion is that these lead test kits are still useful in testing for exposed lead paint on your walls, doors, and sills. If you do find lead, then you have to thoroughly clean nearby surfaces and prophylactically paint over the exposed lead and keep your kids away from these areas. (See Lead-Safe Cambridge's practical recommendations on protecting your kids from lead exposure.) Here's a post from Thingamababy recommending the Homax, Hybrivet, and Abotex lead test kits from a Consumer Reports study.

Living in Massachusetts, particularly around Boston, it's nearly impossible for the average family to rent (or buy) a place that *doesn't* have lead. The rule of thumb is that if your building was built before 1978, then there's going to be lead paint on your walls. Since then, the lead paint may have been painted over multiple times. But you have to worry about places where the paint may be chipping--where windows or door jams rub, anywhere where paint is cracking. This might cause lead paint to chip and be accessible on the floor, or to turn to dust and then float around your apartment.

In September 2007, the CPSC tested four lead test kits on surfaces (1) painted with lead paint, and (2) with a coat of lead paint covered by a coat of non-leaded paint. (There was also a control with a coat of non-leaded paint.)

All of test kits detected lead in the single coat of leaded paint (0.5% lead carbonate). (The HUD threshold for lead paint is 0.5% lead.) None of the test kits "consistently" detected lead which was painted over with non-leaded paint.

The study reports that of 104 tests, 56 were false negatives--i.e., they didn't find lead when lead was there. But it's unclear as to whether the CPSC considered tests that didn't detect paint over lead paint a false negative. It sounds like this might be the case, but again it's unclear.

In that case, I'm not so worried about false negatives--so long as I can prevent my kid from chewing on the sills or picking up paint chips off the floor. The concern of the CPSC is different, however--kids are more prone to chew on toys and thus a coat of non-lead paint isn't much protection.

And so while there's always a theoretical risk for my soon-to-be infant (and my puppy), I have to calculate the practical risk: Can I find a non-leaded apartment? Can I afford a new, non-leaded apartment? Do I ask my landlord to de-lead the apartment? (They have to by law pay to move me out, pay for alternate housing, and then pay the $10-20K to de-lead the apartment. Come on. Instead, they'll evict us, and we'll spend the next months homeless and in court.)

Instead, I'm going to test doors, windows, and any cracked or chipping surfaces for lead paint. Then I'm going to thoroughly clean all these areas with wet detergents and paper towels (not cloths or sponges: read this great guide to preventing lead poisoning), and then paint or caulk over any cracked or chipping areas. And then I'm going to sleep easy--as much as I possibly can--when the baby finally comes.

On the risks of lead exposure: We spoke with a pediatrician who is extremely concerned about lead dust in the air and the risk of "mental retardation" in children. She strongly encouraged us to immediately find a de-leaded apartment, ignoring the reality of living in Cambridge/Boston. I've spoken to a pediatric cardiologist--so not specifically concentrating on lead in kids--who said the kid's gotta be eating lead chips and then you're talking a statistical drop in 1-2 IQ points. So it's all over the place.

More Bumpiness -- Food Allergies?

So yesterday morning I noticed that Ruki was looking particularly angry. And then I realized the fold above her left eye was particularly bulging. Was it a bump? It was. A huge one.

What happened? Did she hit her head? Was it from playing rough with another dog? No idea. So we watched it. And when I took her out for her walk, I noticed that she was bumpy on her legs. It's not that you can see the bumps; it's just that her fur is raised in small dots.

Through the past few days, the bumps have come and gone. First on her legs; now on her sides; now on her face, around her lips. Sometimes they seem to subside; sometimes they seem to spread.

We've been giving her Benadryl since yesterday. One and a half pills--that's 25 mg + 12.5 mgs. She's 37 lbs, so the dosage is right: 1 mg per lb. And then give her this dosage 2-3 times a day for a few days to see if she clears up. The big bump above her eye has gone down since then. But there are more bumps everywhere.

I noticed a new thing last night: She dove into her food with the same gusto as usual, but then about halfway through, she stopped, and walked away. Crazy!!! I then held the bowl for her, and she re-approached and finished most of it up. But not all! Crazy!!!

The same thing this morning. I wonder if it's a food allergy.

I initially thought that maybe she had eaten something when we took her to Harvard Square's Oktoberfest (which was fantastic, by the way). But then after doing some reading, her allergic reactions would have started much earlier. They say that sometimes allergic reactions would occur within 20 minutes of contact with the allergen.

So the best--in the worst kind of way--diagnosis might be a food allergy. I'm going to give her some more Benadryl this afternoon. And then maybe just feed her rice and water over the next few meals to see if her bumps go down.

The theory on food allergies is that exposure to some things too early creates these allergies. That's why often the foods recommended for allergy treatment are lamb or fish-based: most puppies have limited or no exposure to lamb or fish until their allergies develop (by 2 years of age), and then they can eat lamb or fish for the rest of their lives. The same theory goes for grain or starch allergies, and new foods containing more barley or potato than wheat or soy.

In retrospect, then maybe we should have limited the types of proteins and grains we fed Ruki as a puppy. Her Innova has turkey, chicken, herring, barley, rice, and potatoes. So what's left to try to eliminate? I'll keep updating on our journey for Ruki to some day be stable and healthy...

Update (12/03/07): We ended up switching her food to California Natural's Lamb and Rice formula. Since, she's been fine.

Her Innova Adult was chicken and turkey based. So we suspected a chicken or turkey allergy. This Thanksgiving, we fed her some turkey, and I noticed a bump or two show up, so we know it's at least turkey. But now we just avoid both.

Reverse Sneezing... Or Worse? (Update!)

Update from:

http://rukimonster.blogspot.com/2007/09/reverse-sneezing-or-worse.html

So, I ended up taking her to the vet... And the vet said that Ruki has mild pneumonia. Her "reverse sneezing" is actually just coughing, and her licking up in her mouth was her licking up phlegm. Then her coughs would get so violent, they'd make her regurgitate. (Not "vomit"--vomiting comes from the stomach, regurgitating comes from other causes. Well-noted, Dr. Vet.) They confirmed this with x-rays.

So they gave us Clavamox--she just got off Clavamox for her pyoderma!--and the vet made some suggestions that have so far proved brilliant:

Raise Ruki's food and water bowls off the ground, about chin-height.

The thing is that bulldog's throats and airways are so short, that straining down and wolfing down food can mess with their breathing.

So I took an old Amazon.com shipping box, wrapped it in a plastic bag, and put her food and water up there. And amazingly she doesn't choke any more when she gobbles up her food! And she hasn't puked from coughing since! (But that could be just because she's getting better.)

I have to get her a new bowl since she eats with such gusto she knocks food and water all over the place--right now, I just hold the bowl while she eats. But this is great.

Now, the next step, is to look into changing her food and see if some day I can get her to actually *chew* her food!

Also, here's a link to a Yahoo! Answers post that gives some insight into too fast eating and the risk of bloat:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070329080847AAFNk1I

Reverse Sneezing... Or Worse?

Three nights ago, Ruki woke us up with a loud COUGH! We didn't think much of it, but then the next day she had a short fit of what I now think is reverse sneezing. That night, I took her for a walk, and she started the coughing, retching, reverse sneezing, which ended up with her vomiting repeatedly on the sidewalk. While we worked our way home, her hacking stopped, and she was OK.

Last night, around 2 a.m., we heard her hacking/coughing again, and then she started a puking session all over the apartment again. This morning and afternoon she's been hacking/coughing, but has been holding her puke down.

I've watched videos, and it looks like reverse sneezing. I'm just worried about the vomiting. Does anyone else's bulldog reverse sneeze and then vomit, too?

I don't want to have to go to the vet, and have them not know what it is and then charge us $100 for tests if it's something that's fairly common. She doesn't have a fever, isn't listless or lethargic, no runny nose, no extraordinary eye discharge, and the poo's fine.

Here's a video of her:

Sanitizing Properties of Eco-Friendly Household Cleaners?

So I recently started to buy eco-friendly cleaning fluids for the house. But then when you look at the ingredients, what's in there? There's usually a surfactant, a preservative, and maybe a natural fragrance.

There are (at least) two ways to think about cleaning: (1) I want to kill absolutely everything that's on my countertop, and even if I eat those nasties, then they'll be dead and of no danger to me and my loved ones, or (2) I just want to "wash" off any nasties and flush them away.

Products like Lysol and bleach do the former. This is often done through "lysis"--or a reverse osmosis where by sucking away the water outside of bacteria, the water inside the bacteria is drawn out, imploding the bacterial nasty. Or just through putting a lot of harsh, toxic stuff in the sprays that kill some other nasty way.

But the other way, while seeming not as "safe," might be just as good. Doctor's don't use crazy chemicals to wash their hands. They usually soap (though they'll sometimes use alcohol-based hand cleansers). I remember reading somewhere that just using water--no soap--is pretty effective, too. You don't have to kill the nasties, you just have to wipe them away.

Surfactants generally operate on oil allowing you to lift oil off of services. Oils are usually what traps the nasties and makes them stick to our counter-tops, etc. It does the same thing that soap does, without actually being soap.

Another option for sanitizing is to use products with bleach, vinegar, citrus, or hydrogen peroxide. Bleach degrades into salt and water. Hydrogen peroxide is an acid that kills bacteria, but also bubbles when reacting with organic substances, lifting dirt out of oil, the same way detergents work--or how peroxide cleans out cuts by bubbling up the dirt out of your cuts. Vinegar and citrus, similarly, are acids that can help to kill nasties.

Stinky Dog and Baking Soda Carpet Cleaner

There's no shying away from it--Ruki's a stinky dog. Her fur and her food gets in the rugs, and it just gets musty. I've tried candles, sprays, etc., but they don't seem to work for more than a few minutes.

The best thing so far has been to vacuum our floors, and use Arm & Hammer Pet Fresh Odor Eliminator. It's fragrance and baking soda. You sprinkle it on your rugs/carpets, let it sit there for 15 minutes (or more) and then vacuum it all up. It definitely smells good for a day or two (or three), but even after that the mustiness is nearly gone.

I believe the claims behind it are that the baking soda absorbs the biological nasties--proteins, enzymes, fluids--that cause odors. Then it also gets into the carpet fibers and breaks the static there--the static which makes it more difficult to vacuum out the pet hair. And of course the strong fragrance covers anything else up.

I also appreciate the fact that it's "more" natural than other things. I know Febreeze is supposed to be based on corn products, but I don't know what else is in there. The Pet Fresh is mostly baking soda. I can deal with that.

Micro-Chip Implants Linked to Animal Cancer

From AP News, via Yahoo!:

http://thnlnk.com/yahoo/Chip.implants.linked.to.animal.tumors/890

Published in veterinary and toxicology journals between 1996 and 2006, the studies found that lab mice and rats injected with microchips sometimes developed subcutaneous "sarcomas" — malignant tumors, most of them encasing the implants.

We got Ruki micro-chipped. This is disturbing because if every vet should have known TEN YEARS AGO that these microchips are causing cancer.

Understand, though, that the experiments were done on lab mice and not on dogs. Lab mice might be more prone to cancer than other animals, and some of the tests found the cancer incidental to other tests--so they don't know whether the mice were going to develop the cancerous growths anyways.

But this is definitely something to ask your vets about when considering micro-chipping in the future.

More from the article:

• A 1998 study in Ridgefield, Conn., of 177 mice reported cancer incidence to be slightly higher than 10 percent — a result the researchers described as "surprising."

• A 2006 study in France detected tumors in 4.1 percent of 1,260 microchipped mice. This was one of six studies in which the scientists did not set out to find microchip-induced cancer but noticed the growths incidentally. They were testing compounds on behalf of chemical and pharmaceutical companies; but they ruled out the compounds as the tumors' cause. Because researchers only noted the most obvious tumors, the French study said, "These incidences may therefore slightly underestimate the true occurrence" of cancer.

• In 1997, a study in Germany found cancers in 1 percent of 4,279 chipped mice. The tumors "are clearly due to the implanted microchips," the authors wrote.

Caveats accompanied the findings. "Blind leaps from the detection of tumors to the prediction of human health risk should be avoided," one study cautioned. Also, because none of the studies had a control group of animals that did not get chips, the normal rate of tumors cannot be determined and compared to the rate with chips implanted.

Still, after reviewing the research, specialists at some pre-eminent cancer institutions said the findings raised red flags.

Permethrin: Bio Spot and Zodiac Spot On

So I got fed up with paying $15 a pop for Frontline--and additionally am still worried about putting that toxic stuff on my puppy! So I looked into alternatives. The Petco carries Bio Spot, which has permethrin in it, and that's like $6 a pop. I then checked out the store where I buy Ruki's Innova, and they also only carried Zodiac, which also is made of permethrin.

Permethrin is an insect repellant. For humans, we used to use DEET. Now, you can buy permethrin as a clothing treatment. It's an insecticide, whereas DEET is a repellant. Permethrin kills insects on contact. But you don't want to get too much on your skin.

So I thought: Permethrin is safe enough for some kind of human use, and it's a *lot* cheaper than Frontline. I should give it a shot.

Until I did some research:

"Farnam's Bio Spot Flea & Tick Almost Killed Our Dog."

Apparently, a substantial number of dogs experience severe allergic or harmful reactions to permethrin, some of them experiences seizures from exposure.

Now, I know this isn't all dogs--and there are a lot of dogs out there. And my food vendor uses it and recommends the product. But is it really worth the risk? I decided no, and have been sticking with Frontline. I have decided, though, to use a lower dosage. Ruki's 37 lbs, but she's a bulldog, so has less surface area than your typical 22+ lb dog. So I use the "up to 22 lbs" dosage, which is half the dose of the 22+ lb product. And we won't use it at all during the winter.

I can see that we probably took the same chance when we first applied Frontline, but it appears to be the best of the pack. I wish there were a safer product, but it looks like there just isn't. If you want your pets free from fleas, ticks, and the problems and diseases associated with them, you need to use these chemicals, and it looks like Frontline's the safest (but most expensive) one out there.

Here's another article from the National Resource Defense Council, generally about flea/tick treatments, and the kinds that are being banned from the market:

Pet Products May Harm Both Pets and Humans

The simple truth, however, is that the poisons in many of these products are not safe, either for pets or humans. Government regulation of these products has been sketchy, and testing of their impact in the home has been inadequate. The result is that many of the products sold by the millions in grocery, drug and pet supply stores, even when applied as instructed on the box, can cause serious health consequences to pets and humans.

The main culprits are products that rely on a family of chemicals called organophosphates. One of these, tetrachlorvinphos, is still found in stores. Six others were removed from the market, one by one, from 2000 through 2006: chlorpyrifos, dichlorvos, phosmet, naled, diazinon and malathion. Many pet owners may still have leftover supplies of products containing these chemicals in their homes. They were used in brands marketed under a variety of names, including Alco, Americare, Beaphar, Double Duty, Ford's, Freedom Five, Happy Jack, Hartz, Hopkins, Kill-Ko, Protection, Rabon, Riverdale, Sergeant, Unicorn, Vet-Kem, Victory and Zema. Another family of chemicals, called carbamates, is also of potential concern. The two most common carbamate chemicals used in pet products are called carbaryl and propoxur.

Out of the Crate

Other interesting news: A week or two ago, soon after Ruki's 1-year birthday, we decided to give something new a try. We decided to let her sleep the night outside of the crate.

And you know what? No problems at all. I was, as I am prone to be, nervous and could barely sleep that night, listening for her every move. But she did nothing. She got up once and finished her bowl of water. (I call her Night Drinker because she barely drinks during the day, never in the morning, but at night she goes to town on the water.) The next morning, she roused when we started walking around, and it was good times for all.

So a day or two after that we graduated her to spending the day out of the crate. And you know what? She was fine. The day before, I was at home, so I kept an eye on her to see what she did during the day. And now I can tell you--insight into the life of a bulldog:

She sleeps.

And so nowadays, she sleeps all day, but on her bed, not in the crate. She also doesn't need to pee during lunchtime, which saves us on a dog-walker while I'm at school--though I'm at home 2-3 times during the work-week.

And she still *shivers* when we get home around 5 p.m.--she stands there in the middle of the living room staring at us, looks like she's not moving, then you realize she's shaking all over, like she's about to explode. That's her greeting to us. Shivery, ready to explode with excitement and joy. That's our Ruki.

Pyoderma

A few days ago, all of a sudden, we noticed that Ruki's fur looked... Bumpy. It looked like maybe she slept on it wrong. So when I reached down to smooth out her fur, I felt bumps. And I freaked. I dug around under the fur, but couldn't really see anything. I eventually found very small, pinkish bumps--all in all maybe 20 of them, each maybe 1/2 a centimeter in diameter, about an inch or so apart from each other.

I figured that maybe it's just an allergy, and so decided not to worry about it. But then we couldn't sleep because we *were* worried about it. We wondered: What might she be allergic to? We fed her some table scraps recently... Was it the soy in the soy sauce? I just Swiftered... Was it that? Were they fleas? We've been having centipede problems... Was she being bitten by centipedes?

After a day or so, I then noticed that some of the bumps were turning into scabs. I never saw her scratch them--they don't seem itchy--and she doesn't seem to mind when we root around, looking for them. So it doesn't look like she's bothered by these bumps under her fur, nor the scabs.

So we took her to the vet, Fresh Pond Animal Hospital. The vet said they weren't fleas or bug bites, and probably not allergies. Just "pyoderma"--a generic term for bacterial skin infections. Might be allergy-related, but who knows? He said it might be seasonal, too. And that we should watch out next fall and see if it re-occurs.

So then he charged us an arm and a leg for some antibiotic pills, some oatmeal-based shampoo, and some non-smelly fish oil to help with her "dry fur." Thieves praying on the ignorant, I tell you. But what can we do? We're at the mercy of their expertise.

Now, it appears that all's well. She's fine--she always has been. It's more that we were worried that she was dying. Hopefully it will all go away soon.

Slow Steps for Greening Our Lives

So we've been in the slow process of greening our lives. One of the big problems stems from our living in an old apartment in an old city: there's already so much built-in inefficiency that we can't do anything about.

Maybe this then gives us greater imperative to do what little we can to reduce our impact. And so here I'll catalog the steps that we've found to be feasible given our lifestyles and housing circumstances.

Install CFLs. CFLs are cheap enough these days and easy to get. We even get brighter light with a lower wattage. For example, I replaced the 60 W incandescents in our standing lamps with 23 W or 25 W CFLs--equivalent to 100 W incandescents. They're brighter and now use less than half the electricity.

Insulate, weatherstrip. Insulate for all seasons. In the summer, it keeps the cool in; in the winter, it keeps the cold out.

Use less water. I filled three 20 oz. plastic Diet Coke bottles with water and placed them in the toilet tank. This reduces my water usage with each flush by half a gallon. Not so bad. We also follow the "if it's yellow (but not too yellow), let it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down" rule. Turn off the faucet while your soaping your face or brushing your teeth. When doing dishes, I wet all the dishes, turn off the water, soap everything up, then rinse all the dishes at once.

Use more green cleaning products. I'm stil a bit wary of using non-Lysol-type cleaning products when cleaning up after cutting meats, etc. But for everything else, I use green cleaning spray.

Use dish rags instead of paper towels. Honestly, I use paper towels when I want, but I at least try to use the washable dish rags when I can--and when they're hygienic.

Use corn-based biodegradable poop bags. I know there are a lot of biodegradable poop bags out there--but when they all go into the landfill, there's not enough sun and water for the darn things to actually decompose. So I buy the corn-based ones: at least I'm not using oil to make plastic, and I'm supporting a company that implements eco-friendly production methods.

Unplug all power cords and switch off power strips when we leave for vacation.

Re-use paper. I always bring home and re-use any paper that's only printed on one side. I have an ink-jet, and that lets me use used paper. (Laser jets tend to have lots of trouble with used paper.) I also make little notepads by cutting used paper in quarters and eights and then stapling them into pads of 10-odd sheets for notes and to-do lists.

Use rechargeable batteries. I also have a Tivoli radio which runs on an internal rechargeable.

Buy organic and fair trade. Honestly, right now we only regularly buy organic eggs and coffee. When we can--financially--we'll buy other things organic and fair trade, but honestly it's tough when they're so much pricier.

Don't buy bottled water. Occasionally, we'll buy it out of convenience--for carrying, etc. But at home, we just use tap water, through a Brita filter.

Replace your shower head. I screwed off the old shower head and replaced it with a more efficient shower head that uses less water. Not a big deal. And then when we move out, I take it with me. Neat.

Ideas for Things to Do:

Have more house plants. These clean the air. Then I can also collect rain water or gray water to water them. Occasionally, throw used coffee grounds in for fertilizer.

The Towel Burrito

The great book "The Dog Bible" by Tracie Hotchner made a recommendation of a home-made dog toy: the towel burrito. I actually made one out of an old t-shirt, folded in half long-ways, and then rolled up and duct-taped tight. Ruki loves it. She can play tug, chews on it, throws it around, and plays chase with it. Best toy money can't buy!

Links for First-Time Home-Buying in Cambridge

So we're also looking to buy a place in Cambridge. Here's where I'm going to put a list of useful links for the process.

• First-Time Buyer Education Programs from the City of Cambridge


• First-Time Home Buyers' Guide to Taxes - From Boston.com and Bankrate


• First-Time Home Buyers Blog - from Move.com and Realtors.com


• How Much of a Mortgage Can You Afford? - from Fannie Mae.


• How much house can I afford? - from Yahoo! Real Estate and LendingTree.com.

Dog-Friendly Stores in Cambridge

I just figured that I'd start making a list of dog-friendly stores in Cambridge.

If a store sells food, then I believe by law pets aren't allowed. Otherwise, I won't enter a store with Ruki unless they welcome her in, or I see dog biscuits or water bowls inside. Also, if they sell dog items, they're *probably* dog-friendly.

I've excluded from this list the obvious pet stores.

Confirmed

• Tags, Porter Square. Doggie biscuits at the customer service counter.


• Porter Square Books, Porter Square. Caveat: Pets shouldn't go into the coffee bar area.


• Greenward, Mass Ave.


• Mint Julep, Harvard Square.


• American Apparel, Harvard Square.


• Black Ink, Harvard Square.


• Evergreen Cleaners, Mass Ave.


• Harvard Wine Shop, Mass Ave. But it may depend upon who's in the shop.


• Joie de Vivre, Mass Ave.

Seems Not

• Nomad, Mass Ave.

Infant Day Care in Cambridge

Haven't had much change on the Ruki-front. She's just great as always. But there's new news on the family front: We're having a baby. So, yeah, I'm researching infant day care in Cambridge. And since it took me so damn long to find these places, I figure I'll post my results on the Internets.

Here's a Google map with all the day care agencies that provide infant care in Cambridge:


View Larger Map

I also compiled a list with more information of all these day care center:

Associated Early Care & Education - Central School

43 ESSEX ST,CAMBRIDGE,MA 02139-2647

Capacity:67

Infant:Yes
Toddler:Yes
Pre-School:Yes

Associated Early Care and Education /Children's of Cambridge

243 HARVARD ST,CAMBRIDGE,MA 02139-2640

Capacity:68

Infant:Yes
Toddler:Yes
Pre-School:Yes

Bigelow Cooperative Day Care Center

ZERO GARDEN ST,CAMBRIDGE,MA 02138

Capacity:32

Infant:Yes
Toddler:Yes
Pre-School:Yes

Botanic Gardens Children's Center

26 ROBINSON ST,CAMBRIDGE,MA 02138-1404

Capacity:59

Infant:Yes
Toddler:Yes
Pre-School:Yes

Bright Horizons @ One Rogers Street

1 ROGERS ST,CAMBRIDGE,MA 02142-1209

Capacity:62

Infant:Yes
Toddler:Yes
Pre-School:Yes

Bright Horizons Children's Center University Park

129 FRANKLIN ST,CAMBRIDGE,MA 02139-4160

Capacity:61

Infant:Yes
Toddler:Yes
Pre-School:Yes

Bright Horizons Childrens Center- OKS

ONE KENDALL SQ BUILDING 1500,CAMBRIDGE,MA 02139

Capacity:97

Infant:Yes
Toddler:Yes
Pre-School:Yes

Children's Village

55 WHEELER ST,CAMBRIDGE,MA 02138-1192

Capacity:75

Infant:Yes
Toddler:Yes
Pre-School:Yes

Harvard Yard Child Care Center

25 FRANCIS AVE,CAMBRIDGE,MA 02138-2009

Capacity:58

Infant:Yes
Toddler:Yes
Pre-School:Yes

Moppets

7 CAMBRIDGEPARK DR,CAMBRIDGE,MA 02140-2309

Capacity:170

Infant:Yes
Toddler:Yes
Pre-School:Yes

Mulberry Child Care Center

725 CONCORD AVE,CAMBRIDGE,MA 02138-1040

Capacity:86

Infant:Yes
Toddler:Yes
Pre-School:Yes

Our Place

402 MASSACHUSETTS AVE,CAMBRIDGE,MA 02139-4132

Capacity:38

Infant:Yes
Toddler:Yes
Pre-School:Yes

Oxford Street Day Care Cooperative

25 FRANCIS AVE,CAMBRIDGE,MA 02138-2009

Capacity:39

Infant:Yes
Toddler:Yes
Pre-School:Yes

Peabody Terrace Children's Center

900 MEMORIAL DR,CAMBRIDGE,MA 02138-6237

Capacity:83

Infant:Yes
Toddler:Yes
Pre-School:Yes

Radcliffe Child Care Center

10 DEWOLF ST,CAMBRIDGE,MA 02138-6098

Capacity:60

Infant:Yes
Toddler:Yes
Pre-School:Yes

Technology Children's Center - Eastgate

60 WADSWORTH ST,CAMBRIDGE,MA 02142-1317

Capacity:43

Infant:Yes
Toddler:Yes
Pre-School:Yes

Technology Children's Center at Stata

32 VASSAR ST,CAMBRIDGE,MA 02139-4309

Capacity:82

Infant:Yes
Toddler:Yes
Pre-School:Yes

The Henry Buckner School

85 BISHOP ALLEN DR,CAMBRIDGE,MA 02139-3407

Capacity:79

Infant:Yes
Toddler:Yes
Pre-School:Yes

TSC Tot Child Care Center

55 BROADWAY DTS 94,CAMBRIDGE,MA 02142

Capacity:56

Infant:Yes
Toddler:Yes
Pre-School:Yes

Ten Important Things Your Dog Wants You To Know

I got this from the Bulldog Domain, and even though it's cheesy it rings so true:

"If your dog could talk, these are some of most important things she would like to tell you...

1 - My life will probably only last 7 to 14 years. It will hurt me more than you know if I have to be away from you for longer than a day or two.

2 - If you have patience with me and give me time to learn what you would like from me, I can promise you, you will never be disappointed.

3 - Trust me with your life and have faith in our future together. If I don't feel that you honestly believe in me, I will suffer great emotional stress. My sense of self-worth is totally dependent upon your confidence in me.

4 - Don't stay mad at me for long or confine me to a cage to punish me. You have your friends, your job, and your recreation. I HAVE ONLY YOU!

5 - Talk to me about anything you want as frequently as possible. Even if I can't comprehend your precise words, I can understand the meaning of what you're telling me by the tone of your voice.

6 - Remember no matter how you treat me, I will NEVER forget it.

7 - When you consider raising your hand to hit me, remember I have teeth that could break the bones in your hand, but I choose not to bite you.

8 - Before you scream at me for failing to respond to your commands as I usually do, take time to think about what might be wrong with me that would cause me to treat you differently. Maybe I haven't been eating right or drinking enough water. Or maybe my age is catching up with me and I just can't do what I used to do.

9 - Take good care of me when I get old. Someday you will be as old as me and you will see how it feels.

10 - Be there for me through good times and bad. Never say you can't handle taking me to the vets for stitches or surgery. Nothing could make me feel worse. Everything in my life is easier for me to deal with when I have you standing by my side. Remember my love for you is unconditional and it will last for your entire life.

Judith Howard Toronto Ontario CA"

Switching to Adult Food

So Ruki's 9-months... And we just started switching her to adult food! Apparently, you're supposed to start switching bulldog puppies to adult food between 6 and 8 months. I think she's fine.

We used to use Innova Puppy Dry, and so naturally we are trying a switch to Innova Adult Dry. But I'm worried about two things: the adult formula has less fiber than the puppy formula, and I'm wondering whether to put her on a large breed diet to get glucosamine and chondroitin for her joints (Innova Adult Dry has none).

I want her to have some fiber because I'm worried about the anal glands. We toss her a shredded wheat cereal biscuit every once in awhile, but I'd rather have the fiber in her food, so it's consistently there.

Some people recommend feeding bulldogs large breed formulas because they're "large breeds packed into a medium breed body." Also, they tend to have joint and hip problems, and the large breed formulas are made to reduce mass and be gentler on the joints--hence the glucosamine and chondroitin.

Furthermore, I'm starting to reconsider Innova. The one store in my area that stocks it doesn't consistently have the food we need in stock. I went there, juggling between Adult Dry, Large Breed Adult Dry, and one of the EVO brands, but they only had Adult Dry and EVO Senior. Screw them, then. Maybe I'll switch to a different store that will stock more Wellness, Royal Canidae Bulldog, etc. Maybe Wyosong (to add to their rivalry)?

The other thing, then, is to supplement Ruki with glucosamine and chondroitin and fiber treats. I'll keep the blog updated on our decisions.

Charlee Bear Liver Treats

We've been using Charlee Bear liver treats with Ruki for quite some time. We mix them up with Old Mother Hubbard biscuits (the small ones in assorted flavors) and Merrick Breath Biscuits. But the Charlee Bears were her least favorite until I discovered this trick.

If I offered her a Charlee Bear, she'd just swallow them. Not much fun, not much pleasure. But then I realized, maybe she'd get more taste if I snapped them into pieces before giving them to her--a flavor explosion is how I term it.

And it worked. She loves them now. So if I need her to do something, I'll take a Charlee Bear between my thumb and my index and middle finger, and "snap" it into pieces and then offer it to her.

Just a little hint for using these low-calorie, super-simple, little treats for training.

Over-Tired Puppy

So over time we've kind of figured out how and why Ruki has her crazy times. She's now at the age where she'll have one crazy time a day, a few times a week. (She's almost 9 months.) Crazy time means that she's running around in circles, grabbing at things, play-stancing all over the place, picking things up and tossing them about. Usually lasts for a minute or two. It's cute, but she's crazy.

When it's in the afternoon or early evening, I figure, well, that's just her crazy time. But when it happens in the morning or later at night, we've realized that it's because she's over-tired.

The biggest sign is when I look at her eyes, and they whites aren't clear white--they're more reddish. And there are some bright red veins that run across the whites. It's kind of like when people get tired and their eyes get red and bloodshot. So when this is the case, even though she wants to be crazy, we crate her and let her sleep it off. Then her eyes clear up and she's back to being a teddy dog for the rest of the night.

Update on Tail Pocket and Scooting, Warts

As I mentioned before, Ruki's been scooting in the mornings. It's gotten a lot better since we've been cleaning out her tail pocket about once a week or so with pet wipes.

I also never updated, but about week after the last update about the warts shriveling up, they were totally gone. So really it only took her about a month to grow out of the warts. Whew!

Scooting and the Tail Pocket

Just another update. Since we dug out a ton of gunk from her tail pocket, and cleaned for a day or two afterwards, the scooting is over. I checked out her spot, and the redness is gone and the sores are gone. Just needed a little cleaning.

Wart Update - One Month, Almost Gone!

The past few days, Ruki's warts started shriveling up. The one on the inside is just a sliver. The one on the outside is just smaller, but it looks like it might be gone soon. From Feb. 22 to March 20, about a month, and they're gone. So far.

Cleaning Out the Tail Pocket

So as an update to the last post--about anal glands--I dug around her business with a pet wipe. We used to just wipe around her anus, but this time I tucked up closer to where the tail meets her behind.

It was a bit--nasty. There was some reddish-brown caked hair up there, that I finally cleaned out with four wipes. Out came some tufts of gunky hair, and the area was soon cleaned up. The skin around there looked a bit red, but nothing too bad. Looks like we might have caught it just in time.

I then searched around for her anal glands. You can feel them, but I won't say they feel "swollen." I'm just going to keep up on cleaning her, watching her scooting, and seeing if her anal glands feel any bigger. (I think the anal glands are on the inside of the anus--or the rectum--at about 2 and 10 o'clock. They feel about the size of raisins on our bulldog puppy.)

Scooting? Anal Gland Expression?

Ruki started scooting a few days ago. Nothing that was too noticeable. I first noticed it when she was playing in the snow and then just started scooting in the snow. And then I noticed that in the morning she might do a few scoots--three or four scoots on the carpet.

Here's a thread from the Bulldog Domain on scooting and anal glands/tail pockets:

http://thnlnk.com/bulldogdomain/Anal.Glands/907

So we're not sure if it's an anal gland issue just yet. We're going to keep on it. Keep her area clean with baby wipes. Watch the scooting. Check for the poo/fishy oil smell. And feed her a wheat biscuit or two every day. And give her some real good play and exercise and maybe her anal glands will express themselves.

Ruki Loves the Snow

Today we got a nice thick powder of snow. When Ruki first was introduced to snow, she just jumped around trying to eat the flakes. Then when the snow collected, she loved eating it. I worried initially that maybe it'd make her sick--no real reason why I thought this, I just did.

It hasn't made her sick. But she does love it. We let her run around free in the snow, and she loves plowing around in it, and she loves burying her face into the soft stuff and chomping away.

Who am I to rob her of pure joy?

Bananas and Poo

So since I've been eating more bananas for breakfast, we've occasionally been feeding Ruki bananas because... Well, she loves 'em. But then I worried if they'd mess with her digestive system. Most people seem to think that they constipate dogs, just like with people. I don't know if that's what they do to Ruki, but I do know that while we were feeding her bananas, her poo was a little looser than usual.

So from our one-time experiment, if you feed your dog bananas, expect at least that her poo might be a little looser. Thinner--and not the nice meaty ones she usually throws out there--and wetter.

Another Wart Update

So Monsterface's warts started showing up around Feb. 22. It's now March 16, and they've been starting to shrink. The one on the inside--the one that showed up first--started to shrivel and looks like it might fall off! (It's the one that looks more like a cauliflower, but even more like a whitish artichoke.) The one of the outside--that looks like a pink sea anenome, or a traditional wart--has gotten shorter and thinner. Maybe it'll go soon!

The Interplay from Joy to Responsibility

I've been real busy the past week or so--and for the next week or so. Like today, I left home early, waking Ruki up before 8 a.m. and leaving by 8.40 a.m. And I got back late, a bit after 1 p.m. My plan was to try and make it to work by 2 - 2.15 p.m. That left me about half an hour with the Monsterface.

I love playing with Ruki. She's a joy and a pleasure. It's fun taking her for walks, or to the park to play. But this isn't all the time. Today, it was a responsibility. I admit, that it was fun, but that wasn't the main purpose. The main purpose is that she needs exercise, she needs some discipline--we did some training, and then she needs some time with me.

The key point here is my motivation. If my motivation was my own joy--which also comes from Ruki's joy, then, sure, I received joy. But joy is inconstant and joy has many methods of fulfillment and denial. On the other hand, responsibility has a framework. With discipline, it is constant and the inputs and outputs are predictable.

I think that the prime motivation should be responsibility. And then try to attain joy in every moment of that responsibility. That way it's about Ruki, and not about me. And in the end I think that a puppy trained and structured through responsibility will be better able to deal with life than one that tries to adjust to and figure out how you can be motivated through joy.

Right now, she's just chilling out, laying down, chewing on a toy nearby. My joy might be to play with her. Right now, the joy would be forced because I want to write this and it might not be so fun. My responsibility might be to play with her. Right now, I think my responsibility is to make sure I'm here, just around, with Ruki nearby, and so that's what I'll do.

Wart's Still There!

It's March 5, 2007, and the wart's still there! Almost two weeks...

On another note, Ruki's totally going crazy right now and running all over the apartment.

Dog Mouth Warts

Update: Added gross pictures of Ruki's warts. 

So Ruki developed some warts on her lips a few days ago. I found the one on the inside of her lip first. It looked like a weird, white mushroom--not the bumpy, sea anenome type that you expect. I thought that maybe it was a cyst or something weird, like a tumor. I worried a bit, thinking it would just go away.

Then, almost directly through the skin, on the outside of her lip, she got the typical wart: pink and bumpy. I bet if you stuck a pin through the outside wart it would go right into the inside wart, like they're the same thing.

I then found some pictures to confirm that the weird-looking inside-the-lip white, mushroomy thing might also just be another kind of wart:

http://thnlnk.com/crvetcenter/Oral.papillomas.warts.in.a.dog/670

So, OK, a wart. It should just go away over time. Apparently, they're also pretty typical in older puppies. I might try the recommendation on the above page ("Viroplex contains lysine, an amino acid; copper, zinc, calcium citrate, vitamins A, C, B1, B2, niacin, and periwinkle, mustard, and broccoli. The latter 3 ingredients contain natural anti-neoplastic (tumor inhibiting) compounds.") to see if that'll help things improve more quickly.

Part of me hopes that when she's playing with other dogs, maybe one of the dogs will bite them off. Maybe!

Update on the Cherry Eye - Almost All Better!

So last I posted on the cherry eye, the part that wasn't snipped out was getting swollen and was all ucky. We were getting worried, so we asked about it when we took her to the vet to get spayed. They said that it should go away, and it didn't look too bad, scolding us on the removal--recommending the tacking. (Whatever.)

So then got spayed. I think that her regimen of pain medication helped bring down the swelling of her cherry eye, and since then--it's been four weeks since her spaying, her eye has been fine! So maybe just constant, regular medication like that to bring down the swelling is all we need!

Also, on the other eye, her cherry eye popped out again after some rough playing. I pushed it back in for a few seconds, and it's been back in for about a week.

Cracked Paws

Recently, Ruki's paws have been cracking. I don't know if it's bad cracking, or just normal cracking. But they seem pretty rough, and I'm worried. We've recently had an ice storm up here, and since people don't shovel their sidewalks in the city, she's been doing a lot of walking on all ice and then lots of salt. I try to clean her paws daily, but they're still cracking.

The past few days I've been putting Bag Balm on her paws, and she's been complying, which perhaps tells me that it's helping... Maybe helping her feel a little better.

I'll let you know if her cracked paws heal after some time with the Bag Balm.

Update (02/22/07): Using the Bag Balm, twice a day for two days pretty much healed the cracked paws. But then I stopped with the Bag Balm treatment, and her paws cracked again. I think I'm going to leave them be and just see if they bother her more. Maybe she has to build up some "paw toughness."

Bananas, Baby Carrots, and Blueberries

Recently, Ruki's been loving the bananas. I'll have a banana for breakfast and give her two or three bites--not that she'll bite them, but I'll take a bite off for her and make her do some tricks for the treat.

Her only tricks right now are sit, shake, high-five, down, and stay. I'm not sure how much further we can get from here.

So I read up on bananas, and some people think that bananas may constipate dogs. No proof, though. But otherwise they seem fine. Plus she loves them. Everything in moderation, I suppose.

She also loves baby carrots. Sometimes I freeze them, but usually just right out of the fridge. I'm not sure if she really digests them, though. I see the chunks in her poo the next day.

And then dried blueberries. She's a big fan. Problem is they're pretty expensive. So for every 10 or so I have she gets a few. I figure the vitamins and anti-oxidants I get will have the same benefit for her.

Update on Booda Velvet Chew Bones

So I've really enjoyed--and Ruki enjoys, too--the Booda Velvet chew bones. They last longer than any other edible chew--except for the Nylabone she's chewing on now (original flavor seems to be the kind she likes).

But a few days ago, kind of out of the blue, she started sounding like she was choking on something. She's had a cold for the past week or so, so I though, oh, she's just still sick. But then it got bad--her hacking and her looking miserable--and I started freaking out, reading up on a dog Heimlich maneuver. (Apparently, you can give them the Heimlich.)

But she seemed to work it out in a few minutes, and then she was OK.

The next morning, she puked up some yellow foamy stuff and then a chunk about half the size of my thumb. So that was it.

At first, I had no idea what it was--it looked like cubed chicken. I wracked my brain to figure out what it could be... No idea. So I let it dry out overnight to see if I could recognize it later.

I'm 95% sure it was from the Booda Velvet. She just managed to bite off a big chunk and then swallow it whole. So watch your puppy as they chew on these. You can usually tell if she's chewing or biting, and if you hear that biting take a look to see what they got. And hopefully you won't have to do any dog Heimlich in the future.

Post-Spaying Housetraining Regression

So Ruki's 6 1/2 months, and we had her spayed about three weeks ago. The night we brought her home, she was out of it--drugged up and miserable, scared of open spaces. The next day she was in pain--whining and crying non-stop. The day after that she seemed better, but then tried to run around a bit, and then I think she hurt herself again, and she was back to crying.

For a week, we limited her exercise--carrying her up and down stairs to go outside just to pee, and then right back inside. By the 6th day, I think she was ready to go. I took her for short walks to the end of the block and back. By day 10, we were back to normal. And that's when she walked into the hallway for a bit and came back and when I walked to the bathroom, there was a pool of pee waiting for me.

Over about a week, she peed in the house four times. Once on a rug, once in our bedroom on the floor, and twice, one after another, right in front of me. I thought, oh no! Incontinence due to spaying! Or urinary tract infection! Or she's challenging me!

But I think it's that she was back to drinking lots of water at night, and so I went back to taking her out to pee first thing in the morning. I don't have to "start all over," I just have to be better about taking her out first thing in the morning and trying to take her out at least once late at night, like 8.30 p.m. or 9.30 p.m.

So my thinking, "All is lost!" is not true. I just can't afford to be too lazy just yet.

(On a side note, people who think that bulldogs are a lazy breed... They don't need as much exercise as other breeds, but Ruki's in no couch potato!)

Ruki Adoration

This is just a moment for me to be cheesy about my puppy: I think that the world is a better place now that she's in it.

If just for the moment when we pass people on the streets, and they smile, doesn't that make the world a better place? If for the five or so minutes from when she runs up to and then loves the tired woman downstairs and makes her day, doesn't that make the world a better place?

I look at her sometimes, and I tell her that she's a blessing to the world.

OK. I'm done now. Now I have to interrupt her snoring and clean her stinky monster-face.

Innova (and Nutro Ultra) Dog Food

So our breeder started us out on Eukanuba Puppy, and we stuck with that for a few weeks. Seemed fine. But then I started reading up on the different kinds of food out there. It makes sense--feed your puppy better food! I mean, I eat hotdogs and other barely-human-grade meats, but I also make sure I eat healthy and go out for sushi when I can, etc. Why not the same for your puppy--especially if she's going to eat the same stuff every day?

But the I also was reading in the Dog Bible about the increasing rates of cancer in dogs these days--and they pretty much narrowly speculate that it has to do with food. Nothing else has really changed in the way people care for animals--except that people have pretty much all switched to processed food diets. Even high end foods, e.g., Eukanuba, have switched their recipes over to lower-grade ingredients.

So upon recommendations and grading dog food brands, we've been feeding her Innova Puppy, which ranks A+ and is one of the highest graded foods out there.

Since, I don't know how much of her improvements are attributable just for the food. She's gotten older. She's more used to the environment. We're feeding her a lot of different things: a lot of natural treats, all meat treats, fish oil, yogurt, etc. But all in all caring about what she eats I think counts. Her coat is shiny and super-soft. Her eyes have gotten better--less gunk and swelling. Her paws feel great, etc.

But this isn't all just about Innova. I clicked on an add for Nutro Ultra--I've been considering it since it's available at Petco, but Innova is only available at a small, local store. If that store ever goes out of business, I might switch to something like Nutro Ultra (or Newman's Own). I haven't graded it yet, but on the web site, I noticed that in all its super-biased comparison charts, it ranked Innova closest to itself while, of course, Ultra blows everyone else away. (Also, I'll note that after Ultra, Innova was the best-tasting, too!)

http://www.ultraholistic.com/performance.shtml

I also noticed that usually when I see food comparisons, I rarely see Innova compared--and I wonder if that's because Innova is high enough quality that any brand-by-brand comparison would lose to Innova. But this is pure speculation--almost fan frenzy, I suppose.

So takehome, Nutro Ultra looks potentially interesting, but it was really a confirmation that Innova's still pretty damn good.

No-Word Walking

Every once in awhile, I walk Monster Face without saying anything. I control her with my movements and sharp tugs of the leash. I kind of came to this after reading somewhere how dogs may care less about *what* you say, than *how* you say it, or more importantly *what you do* after you say it.

They read your motions, the way you are standing; they read gestures made by your face.

But for me, trying to walk a "stubborn" bulldog, it's more about me than my puppy. When I use words, I express to her, me, and the world what I want, and then when she doesn't comply, there's only frustration. And then I use more words and get more anxious and then I get more frustration, which ultimately leads to anger.

In teaching, it's many times helpful to start a class with a short written assignment. This quiet, reflective period brings down the "tone" and the energy of the class, and gets the students ready to learn and the teacher ready to teach. The thing is, people get excited when they talk, it takes effort, their breathing rate increases, etc. And so sometimes the best thing to do to calm oneself (and others) down is not say anything.

So if you find yourself frustrated with trying to walk a "stubborn" dog try this. I think it's more people than dogs who get angry or "stubborn," and we have to learn to control ourselves sometimes more than the other way around.

Another Walking Trick - Leash Behind the Back

Sometimes I forget this, but another weird trick when Ruki is being stubborn and pulling all over the place while walking is to hold the leash behind my back.

It works like magic. I think that maybe when I hold the lead in front of me and across my body (holding it in my right hand while she's on my left), she feels a little too close and sees the lead, which she doesn't like.

When the leash is behind me, she has some more slack in the lead, and I think it feels more that she's following me rather than the lead pulling her.

Cherry Eye Update

So a few months ago we had Ruki's cherry eye cut out by the breeder. Apparently, she didn't do such a great job. There's still part of the cherry eye in the far corner (away from the nose).

It's up and down on the swelling and infection. Sometimes it looks fine, just a bit of extra pink flesh. But most of the time it's swollen, and occasionally it's way gunky--yellow and green. We apply a hydrocortisone and antibiotic ointment, and that brings down the swelling and the pus. But I'd like a more final solution.

Her other eye had a cherry eye pop out three times already. But the key--and this is the key--is to immediately close her eye, and push in on the bottom lid, and "pop" the cherry eye in back in. So far, this has worked, and her un-cut eye looks great!

Chewing on Feet - Allergies?

So Ruki's been in the habit of chewing on her feet after she wakes up from naps. At first, I just thought it was weird, but then I decided to Google it just to figure out what's going on...

And apparently dogs chew on their feet because they get itchy from allergic reactions. Crap. Another thing to worry about.

I talked to the vet technician on the phone--again, the Merwin Free Clinic--and she said that it's probably allergies, but I shouldn't worry about it unless it starts bleeding. So for now the 10 or so seconds that Ruki spends chewing at her feet isn't such a bad thing.

I also noticed some cracks on her pads. I'm going to put Bag Balm on them 2-3 times a day for the next few days and see if that helps.

012506 Update: Since I started worrying about it, Ruki pretty much stopped chewing on her feet. My suspicion is maybe the fabric softener or detergent in the towel we use to line her crate is the culprit. I'll check to see if she chews after the next time I wash that towel.