Vet time again & Potato Soup in a Jar

My in-laws have that cute schnauzer, Lilly, and it is time for her to get fixed, get her rabies shot and all that good stuff. She has an appointment on January 18th (since I am off work and can watch her). I am so worried about another rabies incident like what Sasha had. It has just made me a bit more cautious about how they react and what we give them.

My poor dogs probably think that they are being abused by all the fresh stuff we give them. They don't even get treats anymore. We give them fresh carrots, avocados, apples, frozen green beans. They will eat just about anything that we give them and it is much healthier for them. They don't get onions or grapes since it is bad for their system. Roxy was weighing almost 85 pounds. We were having issues with ear infections and she was going to the vet every two and a half weeks. I think that we have them under control now (with extra meds at home in case!) but now we started hitting it hard with the weight loss. We cut her food back to one rounded measuring cup in the morning and one at night with carrots and all that yummy stuff in between. She is losing the weight!

It is hard to look at the amounts but when we take into consideration that Roxy is much less active than Sasha she does need less food but it is still hard when you measure it out. Sasha gets a total of two-thirds of a cup a day at 11 pounds and Roxy gets 2 1/4 cups a day and she is now weighing 78 pounds. She has lost 7 pounds so far and it is showing. She is looking good! She goes into the vet for her normal check up in March and they will do her rabies shot then. My goal is to have her down to the 75 pounds that the vet is recommending!

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Speaking of losing weight the holidays always get to me and I seem to gain. I love the food and atmosphere of Christmas. Loving this causes me to eat more, which causes me to gain weight. Now I am back to my watching my portions again and cutting some carbs out. I am refusing to cut all carbs out just because I love them. We are just going to start eating healthier. My biggest obstacle will be having two nights a week that I will leave the day job, get on the turnpike and drive, start class at 7:20 and then hit the road some time after 10, thus not getting home until almost midnight. I ate at the cafe on campus some last semester but it got me BAD.... I would go in thinking that I was only going to get a burger, then I would see some fries, or I would see the personal pizzas that were actually more the size of a small pizza and I would lose it and over eat. I am trying to start planning now what I can take. I am a huge potato soup fan and found a recipe that is convenient and tastes good.

Potato Soup Mix in a Jar
1 3/4 cups instant mashed potatoes
1 1/2 cups dried milk
2 tablespoons instant chicken bouillon
2 teaspoons dried minced onion
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/8 teaspoon turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons seasoning salt
Combine all ingredients in a bowl; mix well. Put ingredients in a 1-quart jar. Mix 1/2 cup of mix with 1 cup boiling water and stir until smooth.

This is one of those things that I can keep in the car and mix up a small amount to eat before class or even during class. Any other ideas that could help me with easy to make meals that can be taken to school????

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We have had over 14 inches on snow since Christmas Eve and I am enjoying it, I just hope it doesn't snow like this when I am having to drive my hour and a half to and from school. This has been the first year in a long time that I have just really enjoyed the snow and what it looks like around us.

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AJ went for a two week check up and she weighs 7 pounds 2 ounces now and is 20.75 inches long. She is growing so much!!! I have been taking care of the hubby who has been sick so I haven't gotten to see her since Christmas!!! I am going through withdrawal. I can't wait until Matt is feeling better so that I can go hold her.

Spring has sprung!!!

That is my Roxy and as you can see all the green grass hasn't came in yet but it is working on it. The down side to spring for Roxy is the green grass. She is allergic to is and she has started breaking out on her belly again. She got her rabies shot today and she weighs 84.5 lbs. We are going to switch her to adult dog food even though she isn't 2 years yet. She needs to lose about 9 lbs. the vet said. I am okay with that and the adult dog food will help with the lower calories. She isn't fat, she just needs to lose that puppy fat! She will be wonderful in a couple weeks I am sure. We are outside some much that she is running a ton more!!!

Sasha, Roxy, Benedryl and Sleepless nights

Well first off, I am starting my second week of vacation and it has been super busy. I am hoping to get some more stuff that I want to do done this week!!!

I took Sasha in to have her booster shot and the vet told me that I could do her rabies at the same time after some discussing. Last year was horrible for us so let me go over it again to refresh you.

So when she was 4 months old I took her to the vet for her rabies shot. I took her at 10:30 Saturday morning. I then took her to the bank that I work at to show her off. I was going to go to Petsmart with her but she got sick 3 times at the bank. So on our way home (11:15 am) she was walking around in the front seat and shaking her head and messing with her ears alot. I pulled over to look at her and her right eye was swollen halfway shut and the other eye had started swelling. I of course turned right around and went back to the vet. She was throwing up, swelling and had bumps all over her. I went in and was upset (this is my baby) and they took her right back. They gave her a shot of Vetalog and put Tritop in her eyes for the swelling. As I was paying she was sick again so they gave her Cintrine for the vomitting. They also told me that she would be drinking lots of water and that I could give her liquid benedryl. A syringe full, which I was so worked up that I forgot to ask what size of a syringe. They also asked it she had been stung but it had been two and a half hours since she had been outside. They also said that they had never had a dog react to a rabies vaccine that they normal react to the other shots. On Thursday I was still worried. She just started eating somewhat normal again but she was still drinking lots of fluids. She was also urinating frequently which I would expect but is pooping alot, like everytime that we take her outside. It took her a couple of weeks to get over this and we had to work on the potty training again. She was well worth all the trouble but I felt bad for having to put her through it. I contacted a well know vet on the subject and then found a new vet. I spoke with him about everything and we decided to try it again with different measures and a different brand.

This time we pretreated her with Benedryl, waited 10 minutes and then gave her her rabies shot, the booster, drew some blood and did a fecal floatation to check for heartworms. she came back negative on the heartworms. Her blood work was fine. We sat in the office for 15 minutes or so and I stayed in town for another 45 just to make sure that she wasn't going to have the same reaction as last time. When I left for school at 2:30 she was fine. I have class at 4:30 and 7:20 with breaks halfway in between. I called to check on her everytime and she was doing wonderful. I left class at 10 and got home about 11:30. She was squinting at me when I walked in. I sat down on the couch and called her up to me. She jumped up and I looked at her. She was swelling around the head and neck. There were some bumps, though not as pronounced as last time. I started looking in my dog owners vetrinary handbook and it said 1 -2 mg. per lb of body weight. She weighs 13.6 lbs and I was trying to figure out the conversions since my only syringe was in mL. I decided to give her 3 mL every 5 hours. At midnight I left a message at the office of the vet. I slept on the couch with her and woke her up every couple of hours and made her get up and walk. Then at a little after 8 I called to make sure they had gotten my message. His receptionist said he normally got in at 8:20 and he would call me when he got in. At 8:20 on the dot he called and we discussed what I had done and what needed to be done now. I did the right thing by giving her the benedryl. I was giving her a weak dose and could have actually given her a full 5 mL or a single pill. We decided to give her a 25 mg pill twice a day for a couple of days. She went everywhere with me for the next two days and got super special treatment. Which meant Roxy did too!!! We decided to try a 3 year vaccine and see if it made a difference and as well as pretreating her, treating her with benedryl for up to a week after.

Roxy also got some news as well. She has been breaking out on her belly ever since we brought her home. The vet thought it was a staph infection so she was put on two rounds of antibiotics that seemed to help but she ended up breaking out again afterwards. We started watching and checking her belly every evening and after we would come in from outside. We figured out that when she would go out with us to mow that she would lay down in the grass and would start breaking out in hives and they would turn into scabs. So after making this discovery I spoke with the vet and she is on Benedryl 50 mg twice a day and seems to be doing wonderful. The breaking out doesn't seem to be happening. So hopefully this will take care of it and she won't have to go on a steriod.

I just want to let everyone know what was going on!!!! Keep my updated on everything that is going on with you!!