Thanksgiving day

[mandy15]

Well Thanksgiving is almost here. I was wondering what everybody does with there furbabies on Thanksgiving. Are you allowed to take your furbaby  along or does the place where you go don't want them along. Thursday were going to Mom's and Dad's house and Angel's going too. But Saturday my husband's brother is having it and Angel's not invited. Apparantly his wife had a bad experience with urine in her big house and doesn't want any in there. She's not having it until around 6pm and were probably just stay a couple of hours because its so late so Angel probably only be alone around three hours or so. We would hold Angel but I guess she thinks it's unhealthy. So I was wondering what you're going to do?

[ellietoo]

I'm going to one of my son's house. Gracie will stay home mainly because it takes an hour to get there and she does not do well in the car. I really don't want her there anyway because she is so small I would be concerned about her getting underfoot and someone stepping on her by accident. She would want me to hold her the whole time and I have to be able to help prepare dinner. She is not left alone very often and she does not like it either but for safety's sake she will be better off at home.The last time I went there for the day she was about hysterical when we got home. She just cried and shook for about 15 minutes. I hate to leave her for that long but I don't do it that often and I'll remember to leave a light on for her this time.

[Mai Tai]

My whole family comes to my house, so I am lucky my dogs get to be with all of us.  My sister even brings her dog, so mine have a playmate for the day.  It does get a little crazy and Mo does hide in his crate after a while, but they all do pretty well.  Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.

[raleysmom]

Between tomorrow and Sunday afternoon our house will be full of furbabies!!  Our kids will be here with there furbabies and we can't wait!!

[Michele]

We're spending the day quietly at my boyfriend's house - him, me and Chewy...   We do plan to take a good hike later this morning - if we do the beach we'll bring Chewy. She loves it - we took her there for the first time last month and between running across the small sand dunes, tasting the salt water, and chasing the seagulls - she's totally zonked out for the rest of the day!

[ellietoo]

Well, Gracie is going to Thanksgiving dinner after all. I gave her a bath last night and I have to do her top knot this morning and pack all her things. Should be interesting!

[Mai Tai]

Let us know how it went.

[ellietoo]

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and a fruitful Black Friday!
Gracie traveled pretty well to my son's house. She rode in her carrier in the back seat. He eyes were big as saucers the whole way there but she did not make a peep. She did well at the house but wanted to be held a good deal of the time. She did go around and greet everyone and of course almost everyone loved her. (The X husband was there) My other son brought his Lab. Bear is a really big dog and Gracie is afraid of him. He is good with Gracie inside but outside he thinks she is something to play with and I can't let him near her. She didn't pee the whole time because Bear was outside every time I took her out. She was so tired when she got home she went right to sleep after she took care of going potty. She wore her harness and her sweater and socks. My kids are used to what they consider to be my idiosyncrasies. I just see Gracie as someone with a few special needs

[ktmac1997]

Nova stayed home when we went to my mom's. She is use to staying home and she is such a good girl that we don't have to crate her. We have an open floor plan, so she gets the living room, dining room, kitchen to roam around and her crat is in the living room with her toys and blanket. She also has the cat to play with (crazy yes, but her bestie is Lily, our calico) We have found Lily curled around Nova in the crate many times!
In hindsight, I should have put her up when my inlaws came over. My nephew was sneaking her food and she got horribly sick most of the night

[ellietoo]

I had read something about not feeding Thanksgiving stuff to the dogs. It effects their pancreas and can make them really sick (as Nova found out).
Gracie has free run of the house, too. She likes to play with a couple of the cats and will sleep right on top of them when she is cold!

[mandy15]

Well your right Ellie. I had a horrible scare yesterday. Angel hasn't been feeling good since tuesday evening. She has poop with lots of slime in it. She gets this every once in awile but only lasts about a day. But this time it was bad and lasted till yesterday. I didn't know if I should take her in Wednesday or wait till Friday and see if she still had it. I called the vet and made sure thet would be in Friday so I decided to wait to see if she would get over it. She didn't and was weak and tired. My son and I took her to the vet yesterday and they did tests on her pancreatis. He tests were very high. She wanted to one more test and see if it was acute pancreaitis or if she was sick from probably fatting foods. She said it wasn't acute pancreaitis but she was having a attack. I guess I'm explaining it right. They put her on a prescription ID Science hill diet of first soft dog food then in a few days mix hard food with it. She might have to be on this the rest of her life. I feel so guilty and sad because I caused this and could almost have killed her. Just like she was since she was little she don't want to eat this food and wants other food. But this is all she's getting and not even snacks. She's really going to miss her bully sticks. But its for her health. I'm glad Gracie got to go along for Thanksgiving. I bet she loved that.

[Mai Tai]

Mandy, so sorry that happened to Angel.  I hope she is better very soon, and does not have to be on that food her whole life.  It is so difficult to feed picky eaters.  Thinking of you.

[ellietoo]

I know I have mentioned on her several time before what a picky eater Gracie is. Well, really she is only picky about one thing....dog food! She refused all dog food and I cooked for her the first year of her life and she was not all that pleased about what I cooked for her because I was putting grain in it. Once I switched from brown rice and oatmeal to sweet potato she loved what I gave her but I knew she was not getting all the nutrients she should have so I still searched for a dog food.
What all this come down to is a dog's body was made to assimilate only certain foods. When you give a dog foods that the body was not meant to eat it stresses the body. Fatty foods in particular are stressful to the pancreas and may cause a reaction much faster than other non-dog foods. We learned this years ago when we fed a dog some chicken skin. Set the poor thing into an acute attack of the pancreas. The poor thing was so sick and ended up on an IV. He did recover and did go back on his regular food but it was an awful thing to see how that dog suffered.
I would think your little one should be able to have bully sticks again once she is fully recovered. They have no fat content since they are made of muscle. Poor baby must have been feeling awful. Gracie had to be really hungry before she would eat regular kibble. You can starve a dog into eating something it does not want. If she is used to getting people food as treats it may be a hard habit to break. I don't much agree with some of these prescription diets. They are usually made up of grain and other non meat products with synthetic vitamins added to make up for what is not in there. On the other hand regular dog food is pretty unhealthy also. Hope she feels better soon.

[mandy15]

I feel so horrible. This food is horrible that they expect Angel to eat. She's trying to eat it and it is like a paste and gets stuck in her mouth. She is so hungry. I agree she could starve if she has to eat this food all of the time. She looks at me so sad it is breaking my heart. I'm trying to look up other diet foods. They're making her eat this one because that's what they promote. They get paid for selling this one. Do you think this is the only one she has to eat or surely there are others that are a little better. They tried putting her on the regular science diet soft food when I first went there because they said to go also on canned food. She hated it but she liked evangers soft dog food that is what she was eating some before this. I can't let her starve. But will they let me change dog foods and still treat her? My husband just came in the room and said the soft food is called Hills soft food. I think the hard will be Science diet. Do you know any other dog food for this? Does anybody else know?  What is Mo on Mai Tai? He probably doesn't like it either does he? These poor furbabies.

[Michele]

Just catching up on posts.. how is Angel feeling?? I hope she's ok.. she'll eat when she's ready.. I wonder why she cannot eat some boiled chicken from a chinese restaurant.. isn't that good for them when they're sick?... I "almost" gave chewy a dish to lick up from leftover turkey and gravy.. but I have a voice in my head that I don't want to start bad habits... Anyways, I'm thinking of Angel, hope she feels better!