Health

Dr. Marty’s Potato Diet to Calm the Innards

On the night of July 4th, I heard someone throwing up. I came into the hallway, and there was Luigi standing over his mess looking dazed. His whole dinner was on the floor. I cleaned it up, and went back to sleep.

He wasn’t looking too well the night of July 5th, but he was eating fine, so we went to sleep. In the morning, he looked dazed still, so I did some acupressure (click here and scroll down to see how it’s done) on him to rev up his bowels. We’d had a peanut hunt on July 4th, which is nothing new, but I wondered if he’d had a blockage by possibly having ate a rock. I had hoped he was smarter than that, though, as he’d never swallowed a rock before even in his zealousness on the peanut hunt days. Did he find too many peanuts and was blocked by the shells? Nah. But I hadn’t noticed any doo-dee from him in a day, so all these thoughts were circulating in my head.

After the acupressure, I was relieved, though a little overtaken, by the voluminous amount of gas he was passing. Wooo doggie! When we went to the back door to go outside, I’d found he’d thrown up his dinner again. Wow. I cleaned it up and we went outside, and I kept an eye on him for signs of doo-dee making. It didn’t take long, as the acupressure kicked in, and there he was, with a puddle of doo-dee. Thank goodness he did it on the rocky soil, so I took the hose and took care of it.

So his back end was opened Yippie! But it was really loose. I searched my mind for some help with fixing his diarrhea and puking by holistic and natural ways. I had tried canned pumpkin before, but that wasn’t as good a fix as I’d thought it would be. Then a recording of Dr. Marty, who airs on channel 112 (Martha Stewart’s vet) Sirius radio, played in my head. He’d given a recipe out for fixing diarrhea many times on the radio, and for once, my memory grasped and retained new information. (It gets harder to do such things as one matures as the wine bottles on the shelf.)

Though I didn’t recollect his mentioning that the recipe would fix the puking aspect, I was going to try it. Luigi hadn’t kept down a dinner in two nights, and I couldn’t figure out why. Then it dawned on me. Though he is Mr. Cool, the Big Luigi, the steady state and pack leader on the Doberboy side of things, he had been upset by the fireworks this year. On July 4th night, when we stepped out for a potty break, the air was like foggy London town. And horrid to breathe. At one point, there was a set of squiggly air fireworks that were blasting and squiggling for so long, that I even wished they’d stop already because it was just overwhelming. At the end of that ostentatious display, I looked around me and found only three of the FDSP outside with me. The rest ran back into the house.

Ollie and Baby, cheers to us! Ollie, the 4th of July boy Ollie and Baby, patriotic buddies

Ollie was the Dober representing the boy side of the pack. He is pretty much as laid-back as they come unless it has to do with going to obedience class where he acts up like an uneducated dawg. Ollie is known as the DoberDivo because he is the second Dober who joined the FDSP, and was trained in Diva/Divo aspects by the Queen Mother Diva Superior herself, Baby. However, she has not gotten through to him that Divos are supposed to be coy and ‘fraid of big bangs. Well, so he’s only part Divo, then.

Leissl, the 4th of July tootsie!

Leissl was the Dober representing the lady side of the pack. She’s the movie star and a very steady personality with most things. She can focus unless there is something in the distance which requires her to be a vigilant Dobermann. She is also a patroler of sorts. Some Dobies patrol to extremes, but Leissl has an equality about her patrolling. Not too much, except on occasions, do I have to tell her to stop it already. Toenails on the tile, click click click, no matter how I trim them. It’s hard to sleep with that clicking going on.

Lilian, a 4th of July rock? Annie Bananio! I see the fireworks!  They’re on my head!

The third member of the FDSP in the midst of the fireworks extravaganza was not an Aussie. She is the one Dober I would never have thought in a million years is as steady under sound and stink distraction as she is because she is also a DoberDiva. The third member is Miss Lilian! She stayed out in the back yard as if it were a lovely spring evening and she was sniffing the magnolia blossoms instead of getting a snout full of noxious fireworks gasses while being bombarded with booms, bangs, and katoons!

Raven, sorta brave, sometimes.

Surprise surprise surprise, though she is a patriotic little rascal, when it came to extreme fireworks – no Raven.

Luigi on the 4th of July Peanut Hunt

Thinking back to that moment reminded me that Luigi was no where to be found. He can take a certain amount of the fireworks, but that extreme moment shook his spirit enough to cause a lot of stress. I had given the usual ones who have trouble with thunder and sounds a good dose of Rescue Remedy prior to the night’s festivities – Baby, Regis, Ginger, Bouchard and Taylor Bunny BunBun. And I did it again on July 5th due to overzealous firework displayers. Luigi was not one of them. He will be in the future, though.

After putting all these pieces together, I found that Luigi was suffering from a bout of nerves that were jangled, and decided to try Dr. Marty’s Potato diet for Luigi to see if it would stay down and get his body back to normal.

These are the ingredients:

Equal parts of sweet potato and regular potato
(Luigi gets red potatoes due to less oxalates than brown ones and he’s a calcium oxalate boy)
A slice of turnip and a slice of leak
Boil in water till done.
Cool and serve.

Luigi watched as I cut up the ingredients and put them into the crock pot. He was especially enamored with the turnip, and probably would have grabbed it and ran with it given the chance. Hours later when his diet was cooked and cooled, he ate it and it stayed down. He had another serving for breakfast, and has enough leftover from the crockpot of the Potato Diet for dinner and maybe even breakfast tomorrow.

It’s another good thing presented through the Martha Stewart radio channel. It works! Thank you, Dr. Marty.

Helen

Aromatherapy

Last night, I rushed home, fed everyone their dinner, which I made at lunch, and rushed out the door to get to an Aromatherapy class for pets. It was put on by the Whole Foods Market nearby, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially after the big rush to get there.

This WF has renovated the building next door for the purpose of having a classroom. Wow! It has a complete kitchen where they’ll offer classes on cooking, an opened floor to set up as needed, and a very friendly director of these classes/services who introduced the wholistic vet to us. The veterinarian’s name is Dr. Carol Falck, and her website’s here.

Dr. Falck had a very interesting Power Point presentation, and gave us handouts that coincided with them. After she gave her portion of the presentation, another person came up whose business card lists Essential Oil Classes as one of her specialties, and with her cat, showed us how to use the oils and what certain ones would do. The cat took it so well. She’s a senior cat and very fragrant now that she’s been oiled!

Essential oils have thousands of properties that can help everything from arthritis to insect repellanta to strengthening the immune system – and so much more. The list is extensive. These oils work through the skin, which goes into the bloodstream where the properties of the oils can work as fast as seconds to two minutes! As a novice, the best way to start is by mixing a couple drops of the essential oil with a carrier oil such as oilve, wheat germ, or almond oils. They can be put on the paw pads, or as in Baby’s case for her arthritis, rubbed in a the area of her arthritis. Through the air, they can be inhaled and have effects on the body through the brain and olfactory membranes. Amazing!

I’m going to order a few essential oils for Baby’s arthritis through my favorite site, mountainrose.com, and I’ll also purchase a diffuser, so the whole Fort Doberdale family can enjoy the effects of the oils. I used to use eucalyptus when I arrived in Florida. I couldn’t sing without coughing. Not that I am anything but a singer in the rain or in the car, but it was bothersome. The eucalyptus really helped clear out my vocal passages.

The center at WF is going to have a grand opening Thursday evening. They will be offering all sorts of classes, and if you want to see what sorts, then click here.

All in all, I had a very nice evening at the Aromatherapy class. I’d only known about it from a participant at the T-Touch seminar.

Helen

T-TOUCH DAY!

June 28, 2008
Weee…here we go again!

Here we go to the T-touch seminar. Baby is ready to take her trip. She’s the best back seat driver there is! If there is a squirrel, dog, cat, or any kind of varmint in the vicinity, she will let me know by barking. Sometimes, I get the full effect of it right in my ear if everything’s timed right. She’s a gem, I tell you. An absolute gem!

I’m here!

“We’re here! Let me out!” Baby is anxious to get started and see what’s going on in the midst of all this activity she’s seeing. “Is that a Pomeranian I see? Let me out!”

Karin from the Netherlands and Deirdre from England, our TTouch instructors

Here are the instructors, Karin and Deirdre. The stuffed dogs are their demonstration dogs. Karin is from the Netherlands and Deirdre is from England. They were both impressed with Baby’s all naturalness. Of course, Baby’s lovely personality and beautiful face were also awe inspiring (and “Ahhh” inspiring. She’s so cute!). 🙂

Baby needed to be touched in two places to be quiet.

Baby wouldn’t hush up if I wasn’t petting her, but my arms got tired. I put both of my feet around her, and that seemed to keep her quiet. One of the T-Touch principles is that you have two points with which you put pressure on the dog and that makes them feel comfortable. Maybe they have something right with that idea!

Baby meeting Deirdre

Here is Baby wearing her back leg ankle bands. One is black and one is white. They didn’t have a matching set. These are supposed to make her feel her backside again being she has pretty bad arthritis, the musculature in her back end is wearing down, and she doesn’t feel it. The ankle bands are supposed to draw attention to her that she has those back legs and needs to start using them again. We also were visited, during a break, by a participant who is a canine physical therapist. She said Baby could use her help! The PT said she was a human PT first, then took some special classes that lets her practice at a vet’s office. Ain’t that something? There isn’t a specialized field of study to be “just” a PT for pets and be able to practice without being under a vet. You have to go into human PT first, then specialize to be a solo practitioner.

Time for some good touching for Baby…ahhh. Where’s that special cookie?

Baby is very good at getting treats and here she is doing just that. Alongside of that is a T-Touch massage. “Yes, that feels pretty good,” she says.

I’ve been tweaked with little ankle bracelets.

Here Baby is taking a photo break after getting a drink of water, and shaking off her ankle bracelets. She’s very excited to be here, and really wanted to go around and explain this to each and everyone except it wasn’t allowed. There were many other dogs with big social issues. Baby doesn’t have a social issue. She enjoys schmoozing with anyone and their pets. Though with pets, she gives them about a 3-5 second introduction of niceties, then she barks at their face to back them off her bad DoberDiva self. She’s a special gal!

Snippy MinPin who doesn’t like anyone. Buster is the Beagle type on the far end and Fontleroy is the Pom next to us.  I didn’t catch the name of the Boston.

These are the dogs to the right of us. Buster is the Beagle, and there is a Boston Terrier, and a Pomeranian whose name is Fontleroy. The woman with the MinPin is trying the T-Touch wrap to settle this dog down. The MinPin is supposedly a biter and doesn’t like people or other animals. And she was originally very uncomfortable in her wrap. She got wrapped before the rest of us, during a break, to help her calm down.

What a young looking 11-year-old DoberDiva Baby is!Is that a lizard?

Baby is so cute! She may be 11 years old, but she looks like and has the curiosity of a puppy. I don’t know what she was looking for here, but maybe it was a lizard? Or an fairie? Whatever it was, Baby found it fascinating.

Karin setting up the Ttouch course

Here is Karin setting up a course that the dogs will walk through once they have their wraps on.

Baby hears the Frisbee dogs barking.  She loves to play.  She’s very social!Something’s going on down there.

It looks like there’s some sheriff activity going on here. Nothing gets by Baby! She’s ready to tend to the task at hand, if possible, running down there to get some attention from those men! She’s a bit of a hussy, Baby is.

Let’s get going!

This is the snippy little MinPin again. She’s wearing a two-snap leash to make her feel more embraced and confident. Two touching points are the key. One on each side of her little body.

What are you wearing there, dearie?

The Pom, Font, is very cute in his chair. His owner is sitting on the floor.

It’s about time to get wrapped up! This wrap is to give the dog consciousness of its whole body. Unlike people where we can see ourselves in the mirror and know we are more than a head, dogs aren’t always aware of the back end or the rest of their bodies. They think they’re just a head, according to this theory. The wrap gives them awareness of all of them. Luigi is one who crabs when he heels, and is also learning that he has to steer the back end in accordance with the front. I’ve seen numerous Dobies throughout the years who are expert crabbers. The T-Touch idea may help with this.

Another hunky looker wrapped in ACE bandages This is not my idea of funny.

Baby is really not sure about all this stuff she’s wrapped in. The Pom seems to be taking it in stride. We were hoping to find some color coordinate wraps, but they only had one color at the drug store.

There was something called a snout wrap, too. That is an idea I might use on Little Big Pants. You can use a flexible head band and put a figure 8 around the dogs head and snout. Karin tried this on the brown and blue eyed Sheltie in the class. It worked, but not sure if it was because she stopped barking because of the wrap or because she was busy trying to paw it off her snoot. The concept on the snoot wrap is that the dog isn’t aware of its mouth. We also did a snout T-touch, and I am still wondering, “Raven isn’t aware of her mouth? That big boca? Hmmm. Maybe?” Well, the whole class settled down after the first break of three segments of the class. That was noticeable because the barking was very apparent for the first section. Many dogs barked.

Before I go outside, I have to take a look-see in here.

The wrap doesn’t make a DoberDiva anymore nosy than she already is, but it does enhance her need to snoop. Before going outside, Baby needed to check out what was inside every one of Karin’s shopping bags. She even attempted a jump up with front paws to see what was inside some storage slots, but that was not to happen. Not with Baby’s arthritis, and I didn’t have the strength to lift her high enough to see. So we set our sails for the great outdoors for new adventures.

Baby in her ACE wrap - a darling new look from the rear end

When we went outside, Baby sniffed a tree, and showed off her cute rear end all wrapped up. The wrap looks so much better when one has a flowing tail to drape through it. A stub amidst a wrap like this just wouldn’t look as elegant. Though Leissl and Luigi may have something to say about that!

Ooooo! The tail lady - she wants her dog’s tail to stand in the conformation ring

This lady has a Vizsla whose tail doesn’t stand in the show ring. She is here to try to remedy that, so her dog will show better in conformation. She has put Baby’s ankle bracelets on the dog! Mon Dieu! Baby would not like to have those ankle bracelet back now, thank you very much. No way!

Everyone’s working the course Working working working

Here is the group going through some of the obstacle courses. What fun. And thank goodness there was some shade!

This dog’s tail band is the same as Baby’s leg bracelet!

The owner of the Vizsla tweaked that bunchie on that tail. I’m not sure if it was working right, or not. But maybe come clicking and treating to get that tail up would help with the bunchie idea.

Deirdre and class members

Meanwhile, Deirdre helped some of the class participants, while Baby and I were wrapping it up. The little Aussie in this picture is a youngster, and put her face in Baby’s for over 5 seconds a couple times. Her owner says she’s learning slowly. Yep. Baby is so bossy, too.

We went inside for any last minute questions. I asked about the tail touch, which evidently I missed as it was touched on outdoors. So Karin took Baby and T-touched her tail, showed us how to gently pull the tail and release, so it falls down on its own. She mentioned that Baby’s tail is tight. Poor thing.

Everyone got a certificate from the group that sponsored this event, Performance Pups, Inc., for finishing the class, and we had to be out of the facility promptly at 5 p.m. We were and headed home where Baby got sniffed and had to recuperate from her full day of activities at Sunview Park.

Even as I write this today, the day after, Baby is still recuperating. It was an intense 3-hour “workout” for a senior DoberDiva. I had feared I may have hurt her or overdid it, but she is slowly getting back to herself. Just like us mere humans, DoberDivas take longer to rebound as they mature. It’s a fact of life all over the spectrum of life. I’ve giving her some T-touches and ear rubs, and even stretched her tail. She had a bit of a sore shoulder going into this, as well, which needs rest more than anything. But tonight, she has started to look more like herself and acting like it, too. I will try the wrap again, 20 minute max every other day, once she is 100% back to herself. In the meantime, I need to find one of those haribands for a certain Tree Climber in the family. 🙂

For more information on T-Touch, click here!

Helen