So here we are on the Ides of March which means it's also another important holiday--Scout's birthday!!! Our little Scouter is now officially 11 years old, which is clearly not possible, since I got her as a puppy when I started grad school. Strange how those time warps work like that. Also amazing is that Scout was only 4 when Kevin first met her, which means that Kevin and I have been connected for 8 years! How did THAT happen?!
Scout celebrated the day (so far) with a Frosty Paw (ice cream for dogs). She loves them. Digory isn't all that crazy about them, which is weird since he's not a picky eater at all, but he's willing to take one for the team when it comes to anything edible.
We also have a new addition to Scout's foodstuff--Solid Gold's Berry Balance. Scout went in for a teeth cleaning and naturally came out with a million dollar vet bill. She was overdue for a look-see and her shots, and we had them do bloodwork as well. Her urinalysis turned up with a UTI (surprise) and struvite crystals in her urine. Since these can be a sign of kidney stones, we had to do an x-ray ($$$). Luckily she doesn't have kidney stones, but crystals are not so great either. The common form of treatment is a prescription diet from Science Diet, but their food is not of the quality standards that we like (we'd prefer not to feed our dogs chicken beaks and feathers, thankyouverymuch), so we went searching for an alternative. Solid Gold is what we feed them now (human-grade ingredients and a food that doesn't list ground corn--a filler--as the #1 ingredient), and we were pleased to find a Solid Gold product that might help. Solid Gold Berry Balance is a powder of things like cranberries that raise the acidity level of Scout's urine, helping to break down any crystals. We don't know if it's working or not, but her last urinalysis seemed clear, so who knows. What's one more supplement? She does a pretty good job of eating it too, as long as it's well hidden. So Scout's birthday Frosty Paw was laced with Berry Balance--BWAHAHAHAHAAHA!
Anyway, Happy Birthday Small Dog!
Posted by Shelby at March 15, 2007 02:03 PMScience Diet actually did more harm to my doggie than good (my Koo dog has been gone for 10 years.)
Wasn't Solid Gold a dance show from the 80's?
Wonder if they make a cat food??
Posted by: Katrina at March 15, 2007 05:32 PMOH, I almost forgot....HAPPY BIRTHDAY Little Scout!!!!!
Posted by: Katrina at March 15, 2007 05:33 PMHappy Birthday to my Grandoger
Posted by: Grandpa at March 15, 2007 05:45 PMHappy belated birthday to Scout! An "arooo" and a sniff from our hound to yours.
Posted by: Annastazia at March 17, 2007 04:29 PMHappy Birthday Scout!
You know, Cobalt had struvite crystals as well... I'm glad you found out the way you did, we didn't know until Cobalt couldn't...well...go...anymore. If you think your vet bill was big...it took almost two weeks at the vet for Cobalt to recover.
Ouch!