It’s that time of year again! For many people the holiday season means food. Festivities with food, brunches, lunches, dinners with friends and family. It means food for us too, but in a slightly different way. To us, it means dog food. Food that is made precisely for the canines. Species specific, weird smelling food. Mmmmm! We love it because we know it gives life to those we cherish the most. It is time for our annual FOOD DRIVE! If you are new to our Pekingese family, let us explain…
Every November is Adopt a Senior Dog month. We love a senior dog; we specialize in senior dogs. We know they are wise and we know just being in their presence is a gift. While walking Fionna one day, a stranger said in passing, “We do not deserve dogs.” I cannot tell you how many times that rang through my head. He was right. We are so lucky to have them in our lives. The loyalty, the joy, the sadness, the companionship, the emotions that we never realized we had deep in our souls. All because of a D O G.
When we started the rescue, no matter how hard we tried to go at it alone, we needed help along the way (and we still do!). Our biggest fundraiser was and still is our food drive. To us, the month of November is our holiday. We post an annual event, “Adopt a Senior Dog Food Drive,” here at Liz E.’s. Our goal for the last few years has been $5,000. We have felt like if we could take $5,000 and spend it on nothing but food for the upcoming year, then we could buy exactly what they needed to eat. Most eat non-prescription dog food. We can buy that in a 60-pound bag. Some eat non-prescription canned food. We buy that by the cases. Either way, we have done our research and we buy what has worked the best for the dogs, their digestive systems, their coats, their eyes, their joints and their hearts. We have seen good results from decent food but it comes at a price. I, however, am not going to eat it…. Well, unless desperation sets in.
On the other hand, there are dogs who need special food. They can’t be without it or they live a miserable existence. So we have different varieties at different times. The three most common prescription foods we keep on hand are Royal Canin Ultamino and Royal Canin Urinary and Royal Canin Renal. I don’t get a kickback from Royal Canin, but I should check into that! This company makes some of the best food on the market. Their facility is one of the cleanest and one of their hypoallergenic foods, Ultamino, is exactly that. It’s been tested for traces of foods and ingredients and every time it wins. Nothing is found. This is a food that helped Lola Cabana (pictured before Ultamino). This food is one that we use for not only skin issues, but wow, the wonders it works on GI issues, allergies or nerves! If someone temporarily gets runny stools, we get them on Ultamino. Now it’s not a fix for something bigger going on but it is the first “go-to.” Say we just took a little three-day weekend and someone got their belly upset over it. Or a new dog comes in and they don’t know where they are, or why they are here and their nerves are getting the best of them. Ultamino to the rescue! And then the ones who have chronic ear infections, skin issues, allergies that present as GI symptoms, we always start with Ultamino. It seems Ultamino is the wonder food. Do you know what the worst part about Ultamino is? It’s about $100 per 19 pounds. That’s correct. Do you know how long 19 pounds lasts when you have 5 or more eating it? Is it worth it? Yes. It is. It’s what they need, it’s what we have to do. Period. It has literally saved some of the little lives that have come through here. I’m still not going to eat it. It costs too much!
Another common food that has become a staple prescription food at our house is Royal Canin Urinary. Canned and dry. Add water. A large majority of bladder stones in dogs (I can’t address cats!) are struvite or calcium oxalate. Royal Canin Urinary SO can dissolution these stones. That means it helps dissolve them or break them apart, thus preventing the stones from getting big and maybe from getting stuck in the bladder or the urethra (the little tube urine flows through to leave the body). Stones can get big before a dog starts showing symptoms. Breaking down the stones helps the dogs excrete them, and then hopefully we don’t wind up with a basketful of urinary stones (or a bladder full as the case may be, but on the radiographs, it looks like a little basket). These pictures are of dogs who have had LARGE stones! Even though these have to be removed, Urinary SO is now their food for life!
Sometimes when a dog comes to us and looks like a wet noodle hung out to dry, the biggest cause may be diet. Good nutrition, which is food made for a dog’s nutritional needs and TLC can go a long way. Did you read Harvey’s story? It’s in Favorite Stories, called Dear Nita, It’s me, Leasha. He’s an easy example. He just needed what dogs need in their system. Chicken, milk and pound cake are not exactly formulated for a dog’s total diet. That’s why dogs and people food don’t always mix. Take pancreatitis in dogs. A common reason? The dogs are eating/being fed human food. And guess who cat food is made for? Yep. The felines. Cats can eat dog food in the short run, but they need food developed for cats to get the right nutrition. Dogs need food developed for dogs. The next three pictures are of Bunny BunBun. She went from nearly naked to a fluffy caterpillar! All because she had the right food!
The next most common food that we use is Royal Canin Renal Support. If we have a little brother or sister that comes to us and their bloodwork demonstrates that they are showing signs of kidney disease/renal failure, first on the task list is to feed them renal support food. Kidney disease can go from two weeks to three years. So we give love, comfort and renal food. Typically with renal food, we offer the canned food. It’s more common to see an elderly dog in renal failure, so canned food is the tasty luxury and they love it! It’s about $80 a case which will last about three weeks per dog. If we have 4 dogs eating it, that could easily be $400 per month, just for the renal food.
Oh and before we start in the topic of making human food for dogs and vegan food for dogs…Like most people, I do not have formal training in dog nutrition. I can’t speak to any of that. But I do know, there is a lot of research, A LOT, that goes into the nutritional needs of animals. Can animals or people survive on less? Yes. The companies that manufacture the better brands of dog food hire experts. They have people who study dog’s nutritional needs. They KNOW what they are doing. Purina Pro Plan pays a lot of experts big money to determine what is best for our furry loves. And guess what? They are on to something. We know. We see the difference in their heart health, their eye health, their skin, the list goes on….(I’m not getting kickbacks from them either!).
Ultimately (Ultamino-ly), we hope you will help us feed the dogs that come to Liz E.’s. This is our annual event. This is what keeps the “bark” in barking and the Peke in Pekingese! Let’s keep the itch at bay, the naked necks covered in a coat of healthy hair, and all of the bellies full of food and love. You can DONATE here! To a dog, food IS love! And to us, food is an annual gift! Thank you for your love of dog food!
