Why a Vegan Great Dane?

In 1987, I brought home a beautiful female Harlequin Great Dane whom I named Dagmar. (In Danish, it means "joy of the Danes".) My Dalmation, Sasha, immediately took over the job of potty training and other canine maternal tasks. When I took Dagmar to the vet, who also happened to be a homeopathic vet, I asked the vet if it was possible for a dog to be vegetarian. I was a bit timid about even asking the question, not wanting to impose a nutritional regimen that might not be suited to a canine digestive system, or worse, might be detrimental to the health of the dog. I was surprised when she answered, "Not only will that make your dog healthier, it will extend her life expectancy." I found two "higher quality" brands of dog food at the pet store and, with some of my own dinner menu mixed in, raised my Great Dane as a vegetarian, and switched my Dalmation over to a vegetarian diet. My Dalmation lived to 16 years, and my Great Dane, who was supposed to live 7 to 9 years, lived beyond her 11th birthday. When Dagmar died, I expected to get another Great Dane, followed by a second one, when I was ready, but life got busy and complicated and I lived 14 dogless years before I got another one. On September 23rd, 2012, after I had searched the internet for over a year for exactly the right puppy, my husband and I went to the breeder to pick up a beautiful female Harlequin Great Dane. She was a couple days shy of being seven weeks old. I named her Valentina, which means "brave protector". (It was the name I had come up with 14 years previously, in anticipation of getting another Dane puppy after Dagmar died.) I'm sure every parent thinks they have the most beautiful baby in the Universe, just as every puppy owner thinks they have the most beautiful puppy, but I must insist, this dog is beautiful and very smart. She learned her name by the second day with us, and within the week, she had learned "come", "no", how to ring the peepee bell on the door, "kisses," "sit" and "no bite", (even though teething and tempted to bite everything in sight!). After two weeks with us, Valentina understood questions like,"Do you want to go outside/inside?" (She goes to the door.) "Do you want to go upstairs?" (She runs to the foot of the stairs.) and "Go eat your food." (She would go over to her food dish, look in it, and then look up at me as a signal that I needed to put more food in the bowl.) as well as the command "shake hands." After having read so much about the atrocities contained in commercial dog food, I vowed to make her food from fresh, organic, vegan ingredients, so she could have a good shot at exceeding the current life expectancy for Great Danes. I went to my nearby PetsMart, to get a bag of "transitional vegan kibbles," and found that they no longer carried any. We were happy to find that a local specialty pet store had vegan kibbles and I began transitioning Valentina toward the vegan kibbles, and transitioning myself towards making all her food. So much has changed with the internet. I have found a wealth of knowledge, and connected with people that I never would have found in a library. I have ordered books, researched blogs and websites, and amassed a compendium of vegan canine recipes, all via the internet. And, yet, I feel I have just scratched the surface of what I need to know.

So, Vegan Great Dane will be a record of what my husband and I experience and learn about providing a nourishing diet for Valentina with more-than-minimal nutrients plus everything else involved in raising a healthy Great Dane. (And, of course, I won't be able to resist including some pictures of her.) Much has changed about the approach to puppy training -- I have been surprised to learn that I did a lot of things right in training my other dogs in the past.

One more detail: Valentina will be a bi-national dog. We split our time between Austin, Texas and Lake Chapala, Jalisco, Mexico. Like Kafka, the Dalmation that I had before Sasha, Valentina will be trained in two languages, so she will understand commands both in English and Spanish. There are requirements for taking a dog into Mexico and for taking a dog into the US, so, I'll also be sharing those experiences with you. I welcome your comments, support and any information you might offer. If you are offended by veganism/ vegetarianism, please take your criticism elsewhere. I raised two dogs as vegans, and they were extremely healthy their entire lives. I'd love to hear from you, your experiences, information, your stories, and your support. Thank you.

Companies That Sell Vegan Dog and Cat Food

Evolution Dog Food -A 100% Complete For All Life Stages Dry Dog Kibble. Human Grade Pure Vegan Ingredients. (Also sold on amazon.com)
F & O Alternative Pet Products Vegan dog and cat kibble and canned food1-877-376-9056
Harbingers ofa New Age Vegecat™, Vegekit™, Vegedog™, and digestive enzymes406-295-4944
Natural Balance Canned and Kibble Vegan dog food 1-800-829-4493
Natural Life Pet Products Canned and kibble dog food 1-800 367-2391
Nature's Recipe Canned and kibble dog food 1-800-237-3856
Newman's Own Organic vegan dog treats
Pet Guard Canned dog food and biscuits
V-Dog Vegandog foodv888-280-8364
Wow-Bow DistributorsCanned and kibble dog food and biscuits1-800-326-0230
Wysong CorporationDog and cat kibble 989-631-0009




Thursday, April 13, 2017

My Dog Has a Tick! Help!


This morning after going outside to do her business, Katya came inside and jumped up on the chaise longue covered with a cotton throw  in the master bedroom. Valentina’s favorite place to nap is on our throw-covered sofa in the livingroom, but she has no desire to jump up on the chaise. She lies down on the orthopedic dog bed right next to the chaise, though, while Katya lies down on the chaise itself. Because they are not allowed on our beds that are too high anyway, Tom or I usually sit on the chaise and pet and talk to the pupsters in the morning. While petting Katya, I discovered what first looked like a tiny skin tag on her shoulder. It bobbed back and forth from its point of connection with her skin, and it appeared to be soft, just like a skin tag would be. I showed it to Tom, and he was sure it was a tick. The little tick had a soft little belly that was filling with blood.  Katya is definitely an outdoor dog. She would rather go into the yard and explore, sniffing everything, and rolling on the grass, so she is much more prone to getting a tick than Valentina. At four years old, Valentina still loves to explore outdoors a bit, but she also loves to stand or lie on one of the cushions on the terrace and peruse her kingdom below. In Mexico, although we only own one house and its surrounding lot, that “kingdom” appears to be huge as it includes an expansive view of the lake, and all that lies below our terrace. She watches the white egrets fly towards the lake's edge in the morning and back towards the mountain in the evening. She can see the small fishing boats as they move along the water’s surface all day. In the winter months she can see the white pelicans as they cross the lake on their way to the other side, as well as the many-colored songbirds as they perch in the trees, wearing their electric red, or neon yellow, or pearlescent green feathered outfits. She can hear the burros braying, the roosters crowing, dogs barking, various noises from the village below, and the gardeners walking on their way to and from work in the morning and evening.
 
The usual suggestion for removing a tick includes readying the following items:

  • Gloves
  • Tweezers
  • Latex or rubber gloves
  • Rubbing alcohol
  • Antiseptic wipes
  • Jar or container with lid
Frequently, articles will recommend using pointed tweezers. I disagree. (Disclaimer: However, I am not a vet.) Because I make jewelry, I have various tweezers.  I brought all of my tweezers to Tom and asked which he thought were best. He agreed that a special pair of tweezers would work best: tweezers with little rounded cup ends that would normally be used to cup and hold a round bead. He was right: the tweezers would firmly hold the tick and would also be less likely to puncture the dog’s skin. He also felt it would hold the heat more effectively.

 


Katya immediately figured out that something was awry, and began to get fidgety. Tom sat with her on the chaise and tried to calm her down, while I heated the ends of the tweezers on the stove. As soon as they were red hot, I quickly walked to the bedroom and grabbed the little critter with the tweezers. The tick backed out easily and quickly. Ticks can carry diseases that can be transmitted to humans. My mistakes were: I didn’t wear gloves, and I didn’t save the tick in a little jar of alcohol. I put it on a Kleenex and, following our inspection of it, quickly flushed it down the toilet. I now understand it’s best to save the tick in alcohol because if your pet starts demonstrating signs of an infection (lethargy, swollen lymph glands, fever, loss of appetite, etc.) it is recommended to take the dog to the vet as well as to show the tick to the vet.  Articles recommend pulling the tick straight back without twisting or turning the tick to avoid a part of the tick breaking off. The articles I read did not suggest heating the end of the tweezers, but I had heard  and had used that method before.  When grasped with a hot pair of tweezers, the tick usually will disengage from the skin just to get away from the heat source. The tick came out very easily, and as far as I could tell, and upon examination by Tom, the entire tick body had come out in the tweezers. He was a little guy, but it was obvious he was no skin tag. The tweezers never touched Katya’s skin. I rubbed the area with Neosporin to protect it from infection, and I added a tablespoon of ionic colloidal silver to their two water bowls, and also rubbed a colloidal silver gel on the tick puncture site to help guard against infection. (A lot of articles recommend alcohol for disinfecting the area.) If you are interested in buying the tweezers, Amazon sells several. (You might do a search for jewelry-making tweezers, round end, bead holding). Any craft store with beading supplies most likely has them, too. There are also several tick removal tools on the market, available at pet stores and on Amazon.

In my opinion, the goal is to remove the tick safely and painlessly. Katya was tickless in a moment, and didn’t even notice that anything had been done. As soon as the tick was grasped by the heated ends of the tweezer it released its grasp...and Katya was free! We will watch her for any signs of tick-born disease.

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