Any truth to this?

 

Hi Tuff,

I don’t know anything about that story, but ever since one of our dogs died in July, I have spent considerable time researching dog food, and I was shocked when I learned what goes inside average food, and so called “premium brands”.

We took our 3 boneheads in for their annual vet visit a week before he died, and at that time they were all in perfect health. It still tears me up to this day.

Pet food is big business, and most of the stuff sold is utter garbage made from rotting carcasses, beaks, feathers, and any other crap they sweep up from the floor.

One week in July, we were spending a nice week at home, pretty much living in the pool the entire time, BBQing, and getting loaded on Coronas.
One night, one of our dogs doesn’t look right, he’s throwing up a clear-greenish liquid, and he’s not himself. We figure he may have gotten a touch of heatstroke, so we keep him cool, give him lots of water, and monitor him for the night.

In the morning when his condition remained unchanged, I took him to our vet for blood work and an evaluation. All his levels were off the charts, so they put him on an IV, took blood tests, and they decided to keep him there. (This was Tue)

On Thu the doc said his organs were going into failure, and he was jaundiced
He tells us he has a 50% chance of survival, and we will know by Saturday, after he reviews Friday’s blood sample.

We went every night to visit our little guy, and hoped like hell he would come out of this.
I told the vet, whatever it takes (money), just do it, I would’ve spent whatever. Some people might not agree with that, but that’s a personal decision, I would’ve spent 10k to fix him… whatever.

Sat morning we go to the vet’s office, and he tells us the news we were dreading.
All his organs are shutting down, he is jaundiced, and at most he has 2 days left to live, then he will die. No treatment available.

So I ask the vet to leave the room, we say our last good-byes, and then he returned with the needle and put him to sleep. I don’t recall crying that much when my own father died, it’s hard to explain to people who have never experienced it.
Even uploading the pics choked me up; I have a hard time looking at them.

So you live with it, and you suck it up.
We had him cremated, and now he rests on my wife’s nightstand.
Nice $1,400 vet bill to boot, you don’t mind paying if they live, but it’s a double kick in the nuts getting the huge bill after your dog dies!

Now we feed our guys food made from human grade ingredients, no bi-products, fills, and all this other BS they cram in the feed bag.
I don’t feed them anything made by a large, publicly traded company because all that means is cheapest, crappiest ingredients = maximum profits.

We will never know for sure exactly why he died, but I don’t take chances anymore. I look carefully at the ingredients, and try to choose the best possible stuff for them. I avoid anything that contains Ethoxyquin, BHA, or BHT.

We feed them this stuff called “Fromms”, give them RO filtered water, and avoid the bulk cookies.

Man I miss that little bastard.
His name on the CKC registration papers was “The Hobbit”, we called him Hobbs, or “dink”. I bought him 9 years ago when he was 12 weeks old as a Christmas present for my wife.

He’s on the far left, his full brother is in the middle.


Far left again, his brother in the middle, half brother on right.


Far left again, wow this is weird, first time I noticed they have the same positions in all the photos, and that’s not me in the Santa suit, it’s some dik from the pet store who shoulda smiled for the picture.

 

These last 2 photos were taken at the vet, 5 minutes before he was put to sleep.

 

First I've heard of that story TUFF. I have no idea if there is truth to it or not. There are a lot of things out there that people give their dogs that aren't necessarily good for them. Did you know that rawhide chews aren't really good for your dog? Not only is it hard for dogs to digest big chunks that they bite off and swallow whole but many of them (especially those manufactured in foreign countries) can contain bacteria that can make you (from handling) and your dog sick. Try pork rawhide instead of beef, its easier for them to digest. Another, people food is really not good for dogs. They have a sensitive digestive tract and much of the human food upsets their stomachs. One other thing to keep in mind for any of you with houseplants, many of the plants that we keep in our homes are poisonous to both animals and humans. . .Anyhow. . .

Habibi, your story and pictures made me cry. It's always hard to lose a beloved pet. Rest in eternal peace Hobbs.

 

Diamond brand dog food just recently killed 30-40 dogs in the Southeast US. We have been feeding the high performance formula to my birdogs for about a year. It seems to be very high quality and the dogs do great on it but about 2 weeks ago our feed supplier called freakin out and told me to go check my bags batch numbers. He told me the whole story on the contaminated feed. The company used contaminated corn meal and its started intestinal infections and killed the dogs. My bags weren't in the affected batch but he dropped Diamond and I'm feeding Maxximum Nutrition Lamb and Rice. Best I've found, lots of people wont pay that much for it but I dont care, I'd like to see a person go out and run for 6-8 hours straight, only stoppin when they came on point, crawling through thorns, briar, brushpiles, or swimming out into a pond crusted over with ice just to retreive a quail or grouse I shot down. My 9 month old female pup has more grit and determination than any grown man I know and the only payment she ever gets is a pat on the head and a "good girl!".

 

Habibi,

I understand you completely on the emotional ties or feelings towards dogs. They are like babies, human babies, which never really grow up in that they completely rely on us humans for their survival, at least for domestic dogs.

If you let a domestic cat lose in a forest somewhere chances are very good they would survive. Let a dog lose in the forest and they have a very slim to no chance at surviving and thus, in my opinion, the reason most humans have a much greater emotional tie to dogs. Another reason, in my opinion, is that dogs are like human babies because they love you back unconditional…

The pictures of your puppy just tear me apart, but the one with your wife in the picture is just absolutely heartbreaking...

So, I completely understand where you are coming from buddy...

 

Habibi,

I understand exactly how you feel. My last dog developed cancer. I told the vet I'd do anything and pay anything if there was a chance. There wasnt. We treated him for his discomforted for a few weeks and the steroids seemed to have cured him. The vet said he would act great and take a quick downturn. Well he did. I got up on morning and I knew it was time. I picked my big lug up and carried him to the vet. We got there and they confirmed it was time.

I ain't a man to show his emotions in public. I cried like a baby and held him while they put him down, eye to eye. I carried him out of there and took him home. I buried him in my back yard. Constructed a concrete vault,etc. I'm a goof I know. Here is his coffin.



Sorry to hijack....just nice to see someone else as goofy as I am.

 

Habbi and every one else I feel for you guys and as I have not been thought it yet I dread the day I loose my little one (Boston Terrier Petrie 9 years old). Your stories and pictures have brought tears to my eyes. May all RIP

Tuff Ford thanks for the article on the Greenies, vary interesting also considering that me and my wife feed our dog on occison a Greenie. Did not relize untill I read the article that about a week ago or so he got sick and threw up after eating a Greenie, here we just thought he ate too much or too fast. No more

 

Karen, “Burt”, Vader, MJ, thanks for the kind words you guys, you wouldn’t know it, but it means a lot.

Vader, you’re not goofy buddy, just an extraordinary human with a big heart, tremendous kindness and a fierce loyalty to the big galoot you shared your life and your heart with.

You know how many times I’ve heard of people who take their sick pooch to the vet, and when they are presented with a $300 “estimate” to cure their dog, they ask “well how much to have him put down?” “Oh, $100? Well, put him down then, I’ll just get a new one”
It makes me want to bash their skull in with my bare hands.
When my wife & I were starting out (18 years ago), we lived in a rental row house.
The family next door got a new dog every year (no joke)
Their kids always wanted a puppy, so they would pick one up from the humane society, the dog had attention for 2 weeks until the novelty wore off, and then it was always chained up in the basement, or tethered outside in the freezing cold on a 4 foot leash.
Every year their dog would die from “natural causes”, and they would get a new one.

They would put the pooch in a garbage bag, and drop him into the dumpster.

Clearly these were people who looked at their pet as “oh, it’s just the dog”
It makes me wonder why these people even bother getting one.

Ok, enough of the doom and gloom, how about a happy story?

I’ve been a member here for about 4 years, and when Hobbs died, I was going to post it, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it, I needed healing time. Not that I’m healed, but at least now I can come to terms with it and talk about it without breaking down.

So when I wrote our breeder in Brussels to tell her the news, she wrote me back a beautiful note of condolences, because there is no doubt she was choked up about it also.

She told me that Hobbs’s sister (from the same litter) just had her last litter in Ottawa, and there was a puppy available if we wanted one.
Now we both didn’t want a “replacement” because it was much too soon, but under the circumstances, because the new pup was from the same blood line, we decided to go for it.
On Nov 11th at 12 weeks of age, we picked up “Gracie” from Ottawa, and brought her home.


The other 2 boys were such aholes about it; they shunned her for about a month.
Jealous little critters, it was a sight to see.
This picture says it all:


Now they are all good buddies, and Gracie lays a beating on the other 2 on a regular basis. I guess they had it coming, haha.
I took this photo on New Years Eve; she’s growing like a bad weed:



Tuff, I hope you forgive me, didn’t intend to hijack your thread.

Regards all

 

Habbi,
That second picture from the vets office was the sadest picture that I have ever seen in my life.
Warn us before you do that!
Now I'm teared up!

I had to put my 11 year old Siberian Husky down 5 years ago.
I can't remember what it was called, but basically he died on the inside. He layed paralyzed for a week before we know what was wrong. We thought that it was his arthritis (sp?) so we were giving him the pain pills the vet had perscribed for him. I wont go into detail becasue it is gross, but one day it became painfully obvious what was actually wrong and it was to late. If we'd caught it with in the first 12 hours vet said that he might have had a slim chance.

I'm a little old fashined so a firm beliver that if a man can't shoe his own horse or shoot his own dog then he shouldn't have either. Nothing against anyone having thier dog put down. But for me I feel I should beable to do it myself. So I stuck a pistol in my pocket, carried him outside under his favorite tree (for the 9 years since we got him it had been called the Smokey Tree because that's where you were most likely to find him.) Then I layed on the ground next to him, huggin him for I don't know how long. He started moaning and howling from the pain or telling me he was ready. Either way I knew it was time. I don't know how long it took me to pull the trigger, seemed like forever. Then I dropped the gun on the ground and held him for the 30 seconds it took. Then continued to hold him til he was cold. Then I got up and went in the house still balling. Got calmed down and buried him under that 36 year old Elm, "The Smokey Tree" in his favorite spot to lay.

Dang it! We have been talking about selling this place and moving. We need more room and would like something nicer, further out, or closer to a lake. Now I'm thinking that I don't want to leave the Smokey Tree.

 

Matt, I dont know that I could have done it. (Well legally I know I couldnt)

I held Shadow while the needle was administered. I miss him terribly and want another but I'm not sure I'm ready to handle that pain again plus at this point my two cats would commit hari-kari. I've had two dogs (lab and siberian husky) and both ripped my heart out when I lost them.

Habibi, they are good looking little runts....


Dang you guys this thread is choking me up (if Dzervit ever sees it he'll never let me live it down)

Jim.

 

*sob* *sniffle* ******! *sniffle*

 

PSS-MAG,

We are even now!
THat was some heart wrenching story, it choked me up pretty good.

A fine bunch we are, a big tough bunch of strappin' lads, all cryin about our doggies, lol

Thanks Vader.

Here's a happy photo from the summer.
This is Mikey, (AKA "the garbage picker") he likes sports:

 

I'm afraid I'll have another one soon.
Wifes Pomeranian is not in good health. He is only 5 years old, we've had him for 2. But he has diabeties (sp?) and the previous owners didn't know, we didn't find out til about a year ago when he started having siezures and peeing every where uncontrolably. Now he's on a special diet and an insulin shot everyday. He's stil not doing good you can tell it's taken a toll on him. I give him 2 more years tops. After growing up with a kennel you just kind of know these things. But sometimes "always my favorites" take me by surprise. I've already had time to prepare for this one and I've never really been attached to him anyway. He gets on my nerves ALOT. But I do feel sorry for the little guy.

 

Sad stories guys.

Matt sorry to hear about your wife's Pom. We had a dog with diabetes also. Harley was a member of our family for 9 years when the diabetes finally took its toll and we had to have him put to sleep. That was in 1997, his ashes are in an urn on my husbands dresser. When he was put to sleep, it was the very first time I'd ever seen my husband cry.

The next dog we had became epileptic and eventually died from a major seizure, he was with us for 5 years. We buried him in one of his favorite places, near a glacier in Alaska. His grave was left behind when we moved but what was left wasn't really Jake, he is in our hearts and can never be left behind.

Casey is now 5 years old. We've had her for 4. She was a shelter dog, was found abandoned and extremely emaciated. She was at the shelter for 6 months before we adopted her and she was still pathetically thin when we got her. She's fat, sassy and very spoiled now and I love her to pieces.



It is so very hard to lose a pet but life just doesn't have the same quality without them. I don't think of it as "replacing" when you get a new puppy after the death of a dog, I think of it as filling a huge hole that has been left in my life.