Our Black Lab Katie

Nancy · Post by **Nancy** » Fri Nov 09, 2012 9:07 pm

we lost her October 1st unexpectedly to bone cancer in 3 legs. She had been limping and it was getting worse but she was 12 and we figured it was old age and arthritis. We took her camping the last week of September and her legs gave out on her and she fell out of the RV twice. We ended up carrying her in and out. She just loved to lay outside and enjoy the fresh air. On October 1st we took her to the vet to see what was going on. They took exrays and didn't see anything but were sending them to radiology to look further. They said it usually takes about 48 hours to get answers. We weren't back home an hour when they called with the bad news. We couldn't let her suffer one more minute knowing the pain she was in. We made a decision right then to help her cross The Rainbow Bridge. Katie has been everywhere you could imagine in our BornFree. She lived to RV and never met a stranger where ever we were. I miss her so much, the best $5.00 you could have spent for a rescue. My only piece of mind is that she is back with Bailey who dropped dead of a heart attack July of last year. We only had Bailey 19 months but they were wonderful 19 months with him.

Together again.....Bailey and Katie

jobrien · Post by **jobrien** » Fri Nov 09, 2012 9:19 pm

Nancy;

We are sorry to hear about your loss. You bet Katie is romping around with Bailey and all the other good doggies that have crossed the bridge.

I work p/t in a veterinary office and see all too frequently how sneaky and nasty cancer can be in animals.

You did the right thing at the right time for her.

John, Maureen, Misty and Heidi

mockturtle · Post by **mockturtle** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 12:18 am

Nancy · Post by **Nancy** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 5:03 pm

Thanks John, it was fast. That is the problem with bone cancer it is fast and furious. I wasn't going to be selfish and keep her around for ME....I loved her too much and had to help her and hold her in her final journey.

jeleuen · Post by **jeleuen** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 11:40 pm

The loss of such great pets as you had is tough. We lost our beloved Maxwell, mostly German Shepard, two years ago to the same thing. His back leg hurt him. The first XRay was inconclusive. Five months later the bone was cracked due to cancer. He was 11 and in great health otherwise. Amputation did not seem to be a good option.
Sorry to go on so long but it is evident that the human - animal bond is an amazing thing. They add to the richness of life and ask little in return. So condolences to you and both dogs certainly had a great life in their time with you. The picture is proof.
John

Nancy · Post by **Nancy** » Sun Nov 11, 2012 6:24 am

Thanks everyone. I am beginning to truly believe it has to do with the dog food and vaccinations we give them. Who ever heard of this stuff happening to our pets years ago? I am so sick of the dog food and treat recalls every week because of salmonella and e-coli and foreign objects in their food. I won't feed them dog food anymore. Katie had been switch to RAW about 4 years ago (but the damage was already done since we was 12), Bailey the day he was rescued was switched to RAW (but has health issues include HW+) and Augie is on RAW and hasn't had any issues (except he too is HW+ although a low reading). I make sure their treats are made in USA and I do the minimum vaccines that the law allows.

I am so sorry for everyone's losses too. We never have them long enough.

rpc · Post by **rpc** » Sun Nov 11, 2012 8:09 am

So sorry to hear about your dear pup. I believe dogs are a special gift from God and must be among his most beloved creatures.

Renee

jlef123 · Post by **jlef123** » Sun Nov 11, 2012 12:20 pm

Nancy, I was sorry to hear about Katie's passing. I do, however, want to comment on your observations about Dog Food, Vaccinations and especially heartworms. Yes there are some seriously bad dog foods out there. You can almost guarantee getting one of them if you shop in a big box store and buy the lowest priced food available. As a consumer, if you don't have time to prepare food yourself for your pet, you should educate yourself on what the words on the label mean and what constitutes a good nutritional value. There is plenty of information on the web on this subject and many excellent prepared dog foods. As to vaccinations you have touched on another controversial subject. Mindlessly giving every vaccination possible to your pet every year doesnâ€™t make sense to me. However just giving a rabies vaccine once a year because it is required by law is likewise not a good idea. Vaccines save lives and are responsible for having increased the life span and prevented disease in pets as well as humans. The benefits far exceed the side effects. Find a veterinarian who can guide you. I realize that those living in small town America do not always have a choice so once again you might have to resort to the internet for conservative vaccination schedules. As a retired Pharmacist who specialized in Veterinary medicine I can't begin to count the number of times I have spoken to pet owners who were grieving over the loss of a pet from Heartworm Disease. This is a killer disease and the course is not pretty. I realize that as a rescue you had no control over the early years of your dogs and their heartworm prevention but I wanted to take this opportunity to urge everyone out there not to neglect Heartworm prevention therapy. Treatment of the severe form of this disease is neither easy nor pleasant and it is expensive. More moderate forms can be treated using some heartworm preventives on an "off-label" basis. Check with your Veterinarian about this and by all means be sure to have your pet checked periodically. An excellent source for information on heartworms can be found here, http://www.heartwormsociety.org/pet-own ... tworm.html.

Nancy · Post by **Nancy** » Sun Nov 11, 2012 3:45 pm

Oh I totally get it..I am just cautious to not over vaccinate or medicate. I did the slow kill form for heartworm for Bailey and am doing the same for Augie. Katie was always on heartworm prevention. I prefer to do the 3 year rabies since the dose is not that different and why put more into their bodies then they need. We went to the end of the earth to make Katie comfy thinking it was old age, arthritis and hip dysplasia. I spent a fortune for stem cell regeneration on her hips the beginning of the year. I was tired of her being on pain meds because she was hurting and wanted answers instead of throwing another pill down her throat. We were just starting accupuncture and laser therapy when we got the bad news that it was bone cancer in 3 legs trying to find the answer for her pain and lameness. Unfortunately it wasn't the answer we were looking for. Even the dog foods. They were always on the best out there. I had 3 different foods they were on get recalled for something that was killing pets....unfortunately my son lost his before we knew there was a recall at the very beginning. You can ask Mel and Connie...they lived near us in FL and Katie was the most spoiled brat ever. My animals are my babies and I will die for them. I finally gave up on the dog foods and now do RAW. If it is good enough for the wolfs and others in the wild it is fine for mine. Back to the basics. I did a lot of research on RAW before starting it and I haven't had an ounce of problems with their health....besides coming to me HW+ when rescued.

CHARLOTTE · Post by **CHARLOTTE** » Sun Nov 11, 2012 6:18 pm

I am definitely interested in all this information, as we also lost our pet to cancer about a yr. & a half ago. I now have a little Rescue pup & I'm very concerned about her diet. She gets no table food & no treats or foods made in China, but other than that I don't know one dog food from another. She's eating Halo Puppy food as suggested by the gal at Petco. So what is this RAW food? When I looked it up on the web I became more confused. Some are dehydrated mixes, some are frozen & delivered to your house.....What are you referring to here in your post...? I'd really like to give her the best diet I can....Does RAW mean raw meat, raw chicken, etc. as in 'uncooked'??????????

shilohdad · Post by **shilohdad** » Mon Nov 12, 2012 8:51 am

We feed our 3 boys (papillons) a commercial raw diet. The brand we use is Nature's Variety Instinct. It comes in either 1/2 pound patties or in nuggets. We supplement this with a product called NuPro which contains many vitamins and minerals. All three boys seem to do well on this. Both products are available at many non-chain pet shops and also on the web. Don't expect to find these at the big box pet stores. WARNING: This ain't cheap! There are several other raw brands out there that seem to get good reviews: Steve's Real Food, Bravo and Oma's Pride.

Here is a link to the Nature's Variety site: http://www.naturesvariety.com
Here is a link to their dealer locator: http://www.naturesvariety.com/locator

We have no commercial interest in Nature's Variety, we just feed their product.

Some people make up their own raw diets using meats from the grocery. The problem here is trying to get a truly balanced diet. The raw products mentioned above use a mix of muscle meat, organ meat, bone and a little vegetable material (to mimic the stomach contents of prey animals). There is information on the web on making up your own diet, but we just found it easier to go with a commercial brand. Also, interestingly, our vet read a study of the bacterial load of a commercial raw product (Steve's Real Food in that study) and meat from the grocery store. The bacterial load on the grocery store meat was far greater than that in the Steve's! Of course, grocery stores expect us to cook our meat. This was another reason we opted for commercial

For a while, we also would give the boys a meal of raw chicken neck twice a week. This is a bit messy, and can freak out some people. They loved it. It is supposed to be good for dental hygiene, but we never noticed any real difference in the state of their teeth. We eventually stopped this when it became really hard to find chicken necks in the stores. With larger dogs, you can use larger pieces, so you wouldn't have the problem of finding raw chicken to feed them.

We tried a couple of the dehydrated raw diets, but the boys did not like them, so we stopped. Therefore we have no real experience on how a dog would do on them.

With any raw product, you must practice good hygiene principles. We never leave a raw product out. If the dog doesn't eat it immediately, the remainder goes back in the refrigerator. We never let a thawed patty stay in the refrigerator more than a day and a half. If we spill some raw product on the counter, it gets cleaned up immediately with warm soapy water, rinsed and dried. We wash our hands after handling the food.

Nancy · Post by **Nancy** » Mon Nov 12, 2012 9:58 am

I do total RAW on my own. I buy in bulk and spend a good part of a Sunday putting the meals together and freezing them in ziplock freezer bags. Katie was on RAW for 3 years and the first thing that disappeared were her fatty tumors. The vet was amazed because she had a ton of them and they were COMPLETELY GONE. The next best thing is their poop. More of the food stays with them not running right thru their bodies because of fillers, they are smaller and because of the bone it turns to ash in a day or 2 if I miss one being picked up in the yard. Their coats a shinier and seriously less shedding. Once you get the hang of putting their meals together it is a breeze. With Bailey I had gone thru so many dog foods that he walked away from. I was also dealing with really bad allergies in him where his neck was raw, oozing and disgusting. I ended up taking him to a specialist in Columbia SC because we couldn't get a grip on it. First thing she asked me was what we he eating. When I told her RAW she was thrilled. Bailey got so excited every day when he saw this food coming that he would shake and cry. Jim said it a million times that he was going to have a heart attack from being so damn excited. Unfortunately that is exactly what happened. We were putting his food down, he was shaking with excitement and sat down and keeled over. He was dead before he hit the floor. Of course the heart damage was already there because he was HW+.

The best thing I have ever done was switch them to RAW. Yes it is raw uncooked, chicken, turkey, liver, beef heart, pork chops or anything that I see in the grocery store marked down for quick sale I grab and freeze until making up there meals again. Every Sunday is Salmon Sunday so they get the oils they need too. AND I can tell you I have saved on vet bills too. They are not there as often because of the food, allergies, gas, the runs....so the food is more, but I save because the vet bill isn't there, and they eat less because the are FULL when they eat because there are not fillers to come back out and make them hungry again. AND because there are no fillers or salt they drink less too. The dry food makes them thirsty as hell and it doesn't happen anymore with what they eat.

Nancy · Post by **Nancy** » Mon Nov 12, 2012 10:12 am

here are a few a good links that I used when starting out

http://preymodelraw.com/how-to-get-started/

http://dogfoodchat.com/forum/raw-feeding/

rpc · Post by **rpc** » Mon Nov 26, 2012 9:32 pm

Before I sold my house and began traveling full time in the BF, I gave my dogs (border collie & greyhound) raw chicken/turkey necks, wings, and backs. These came from a poultry farmer who sold at the local farmers' maker (Roots in Lancaster County PA). It was always very fresh. Also gave them beef bones.

However, when on the road and purchasing chicken parts from a grocery store, the dogs always got the diarrhea. So after multiple incidents, I stopped giving raw chicken.

Renee