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| The Healthy Bark |
SadieSue was adopted by me at three months old. I swore I was not getting another dog after losing my Chow a few months earlier. I was shopping for some friends for Christmas, when I walked by the pen she was in at an adoption event. An hour later she was on her way home with me. She picked me and was not taking no for an answer. Now I know why she was meant to be in my life.
By the time Sadie was six months old she was showing terrible signs of luxating of the patellas, both knees were popping out as she walked and she would collapse. She came from a horrible start in life, was lucky to be here, and her bones especially in her legs were bad. She went in for X-rays and we found that both legs were a mess. She had her first surgery a few weeks later, the remark about her legs were that they looked like they belonged to another dog. The were both twisted and just did not line up properly. She recovered from that surgery and went on to have her second one. Both legs had pins in them and reconstructed to help align them better. Bottom line was that they expected her to maybe be able to walk with less pain and that I would most likely have to put her down by six years of age as they figured arthritis would be in her future.
I could not bare to think I would have her for such a short time, so I started her on supplements for joints, fish oils, swim therapy, and watched her weight. Over the years I could see her limps get worse as she tried to keep up with the new pups in the house.
Sadie was four when Smokey had his issue and started on raw food. This was about the time I started to feed the rest of the crew some raw as well. I did some research and decided enough with bagged food and put the entire house on Raw foods over a weekend. What I noticed over the first month changed my way of thinking about feeding my babies for life.
Sadie's starting walking a little better, her limp became less in her right leg, she had more energy, and her black coat was gorgeous. By the six month mark she was moving like a puppy, chasing squirrels in the backyard with the bassets, and even caught a few. By a year her body looked lean and she had very pronounced muscle tone. Where her bones were still not great, her muscles were making up for it. The click I was starting to hear in her right leg was gone. Over the years she kept up with the rest of the crew, exercised, went on trail walks, swimming, and continued to chase critters out of the yard.
Her blood work was always great as she aged, even the vets she had over her life would remark on what a healthy dog she was. The only time her blood work was off was because of something I did thinking I was saving money. I was having a few rough months when she was thirteen, and decided to cut corners and put them on dry food. Within a month Sadie had a bladder infections, her kidneys were not happy, and her limp returned! Off to the vet who asked me what was I thinking...I wish I knew. Her advise-get them all back on raw! Her blood panel showed her numbers off in her kidneys, which honestly did not surprise me at all. I put them back on raw and her numbers returned to normal. So my so called save some money ended up costing me the price of three months of raw food for all my babies.
The moral of the story, you cannot feed fast food to your pets and expect them to lead a healthy life and thrive.
Sadie lived to be fifteen, she chased a squirrel a week before she passed and almost caught him. She lived life to the fullest, and according to the ex vet that said she would most likely be put down at age six, she lived another whole life. She was an amazing dog that always kept the calm in a house of seven others.
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