Question Time, guess work?

[x.l.r.8]

Ok, i have a few new questions.
to start with we have a new mouth to feed so I need to get her on the straight and narrow, her story is sad and she coems to me at 1 year old (approx, still has shiny white teeth) and is a cross of something (chow chow and something smaller like basset hound or dauchound?, yes picture will follow , she is under weight by a good amount, I estimate her at 30lbs and for the sake of feeding extra I made it 15 kgs and I'm going with 3% rounded it up to 500 grams (because thats what I packaged the pork in for Riley) Riley has extra's like herring today to make up the 750 grams he needs (he's putting on weight nicely now, he finally has some meat on his ribs and when he lies down you have to look hard to see any bone through his short hair) I jsut need to get food into Missy so I'm going to do what ever I need to get started, lighly seared and chopped into 4 bits and she inhailed it, not interested in chicked necks other than licking them, but we have time to introduce more once I am happy with some weight gain, she has long fur like a chow but when you stroke her it's like running your fingers over a xylophone, and thats through the thick fur We also noticed tonight she has worms and she also needs spaying,
so to the questions?
1) I know this is the wrong place but will I have to retreat Riley?,
2) How do you estimate the desired weight of a dog who you have no idea what they are meant to be, like in mutts? (we don't know this dog so i guess I have to overfeed and back off is she starts getting overweight)
3) With worms will she still put weight on? (there the white tiny flat ones)
4) Initally would you feed both dogs seperate? (she is crate trained so I was going to put her in the crate while Riley has his 10 minutes to do his stuff, then hold Riley while she has her fill as she will need longer to adjust to having to chew once she starts on the bony stuff)
Were off to the vets tomorrow to start on some of the issues but I was hoping for some advice on issues she will not be able to cover.

[technodoll]

sorry i don't know anything about the worms part but for the feeding seperately at first, definite YES until the two dogs are well adjusted and used to each other and their "space". it can take one wrong look at the other,s meal and bam, fight it on.

i'd go slow at first, feeding too much can give the runs. feed a bit less than what you think your new girl needs, and if all is well, nice stools etc, then slowly increase the amount until she can eat a good quantity of food per meal. after the worms are gone and she's been spayed, she'll put the weight on, slow and steady

have you named her yet? and congratulations by the way! i'm so thrilled for you guys!

[x.l.r.8]

She came to us as Missy and she is a real Missy, so Missy it is

[erykah1310]

Weight gain prolly wont occur with worms, but dont quote me on that, however the wormers from the vet work quickly, I noticed a difference in Floyd within a few days...
Congrats and I cant wait for pictures

[Scott_B]

Yeah, I would get the worms sorted out asap.

As for amounts, like Techno said, start slowly. Id say give 3% of her current weight. if shes handling that well, and starting to put weight on, then stick with it until you feel she looks healthy. Then cut back to 2%.

Congrats on the new pup!

[x.l.r.8]

Well this morning was easy, cut hers into quarters and down in went, 40 seconds and were done, Riley showed her how to tackle a riblet after but I think she was full as she just layed down and watched him she's taken to Raw perfectly, we just need to grab a poo sample and get it to the vets this afternoon

[Scott_B]

Just a suggestion, but since she seems ok with the diet, try giveing her a large chunk and let her do the ripping and tearing. It will be great exercise for the neck and jaw muscles.

[~michelle~]

when i brought aiden in he was fluffy and furry but he was super duper skinny. the vet will tell you the desired weight based on height, length structure. however some dogs if they were skinny to begin with and never were at a proper weight while developng they will always be a little skinny, i feed aiden according to his goal weight, but i feed kibble not raw. also with skinny malnurioushed dogs may not eat as much at once (their tummies are smaller and need to adjust) so you may need to give smaller more frequent meals.
and take care of the worms asap not only will they keep the weight off but they inhibit nutrient absorption so your dog will not be getting the vitamins and minerals that they need.

[x.l.r.8]

Missy just becomes overwhelmed with a big piece, she just leaves it, so I seared small cubes last night and they went down, this morning they were the size of medalions and she had to do some serious chewing, shame, such a great set of teeth and they don't look like they have been used, my wife will continue over the weekend as she needs to go to the vets for spaying on Monday (Missy, not my wife ). Once she come back the trainging will begin in earnest. At the moment I'm just going to try and get them used to eating together. I think it will all work out but I'm jsut trying to make sure I'm using a good guess. The vet said Riley MAY grow to be 150lbs but he MAY stay the same, unless you know the breed mix and what the parents were like it's almost impossible to tell. At the moment I have so many things to think about, she had a weepy eye and Riley has green gunk coming form one of his eyes this morning, he's not bothered but thats probably because we are wiping it regularly.

[Scott_B]

Maybe try and work up to large peices. Remember, its just like a fussy pup with food. You can hold out and offer it again at the next meal. If she gets hungry enough, she should have no issues tearing into it!

[technodoll]

so how is Missy faring now with the raw diet? having fun yet?

[x.l.r.8]

Well it WAS going fine, don't worry we haven't fallen off the wagon, infact we are going to be riding that particular train real hard. She went in for spaying today (she wasn't at the rescue long enough to get her done, I didn't want to lose her by hanging around, so we told them we would get her done straight away, and as we already got Riley from them they trusted us) turns out some point in the past she was already done, our vet even called another vet to check for scars as she couldn't see anything asn we wondered if she had already been done. So she's recovering at the vets overnight :sad: I also had a concern about her gait, she looked like an arthritic old woman but I thought maybe it was because I was used to Rileys gangly movents. So she has hip displaysia (?sp), it's grade 2 whatever that means, so time to step up the glucosimine, omega's and vit E. She was loving the pork (it's what we had most of) and was using those loverly teeth before today, we got her to tackle a small riblet. She's almost as fast as Riley except Riley has more practice at attacking the boney stuff. I want her on one protein for a week before I add anything else in, but I;m not going to try to bulk her up to much, I'm going to try and keep her on the leaner side to help the hips they offered to try and feed her in the morning with medical, I told them not to bother even if it was free as I don't want to upset her stomach to much, I actually made sure they doccumented that I did not want her fed in the morning (I'm going to be there when they open to pick her up anyhow). She ate well the couple of days prior to her op so I'm not worried if she goes hungry for 1 day, she's not a pup and has probably had to endure much worse as a stray, and she has a fine piece of NZ lamb for her return (I thought I'd see once and for all if it was the lamb that set Riley off, I have pumpkin on standby so were good to go, only she will get the lions share this time.
I've got a lot of other things I want to try, stayner meat packers do a dog mix thats lungs, trachea, spleen, tripe, mixed togehter (Pork and beef, not shredded) and cut into blocks, it's $20 for 18kg and he also has chicken backs with necks attached for $15 for 18kg so I'm thinking that's at least a months feeding with the additional pork I got at 69c /lb. He has Beef hearts at $1 /lb going down when a bigger order is placed. So I'm thinking I'm pretty set, what with the herrings and trout ($1 /lb) and sardines should last quite a while, I, like you need to reduce the volume in the freezer before any more sale items can be squeezed in. I have probably a little to much organ meat as my neighbour keeps giving me stuff, along with tounges and tails, he is totally organic so I can't refuse, his meat always tastes so good. He will also be getting me tripe and lungs next time around. I don't think Missy will object to this type of therapy, and yesterday after polishing off dinner, she was looking around for more

[technodoll]

that is all great news and good to hear! i know missy will bounce right back, specially with your TLC. you might even be surprised at how manageable a grade 2 HD is on a proper raw diet with supplements. keep her lean, keep her fit and she'll be fine!

stayner meat packers do a dog mix thats lungs, trachea, spleen, tripe, mixed togehter (Pork and beef, not shredded) and cut into blocks, it's $20 for 18kg and he also has chicken backs with necks attached for $15 for 18kg so I'm thinking that's at least a months feeding with the additional pork I got at 69c /lb

ok that's it... i'm moving to where you live! so cheap!! never get such good deals here... and oh you reminded me I need to pick up some organ meats soon, the beanies haven't had any for a couple of weeks i know bad mommy... i keep forgetting.

[x.l.r.8]

If you move here you'll be pushing the population to over 1,400 and we will become metropolitan . We may even get a strip mall to go with our 1 restraunt, gas station come LCBO come postal office come grocery store come coffee shop I've only been to the one meat place, my neighbour's wife's sister-in-law (gotta love the small town) owns meathral meats so I'm waiting for her to be off the same time as me to go begging, stealing and possibly put a proposition his way that will have him turning offal into cash. I'm sure if I get another huge chest freezer (there is quite a few in supershopper.com being given away) I can freeze the stuff and get it as far as Toronto. Even if it's a nominal charge it's still beer money and where better to have beer money than in the town next to creemore speaking of which I need to make a pick up tomorrow if I'm going to be staying in to look after a poorly girl.