New food

Ok, we tried the new food tonight.  So far, everyone seems ok with it.  Hopefully, this will work and I can stop cooking 3 times a week.  Time will tell.

The ongoing saga of Daisy

I have Daisy on an antihistimine twice a day and a steroid pill every other day.  My hope is to get her down to a steroid pill twice per week.  Don't know if I can do that or not but that is my goal.  I have been cooking for all of them and it is labor intensive.  I found a limited ingredient kibble made in Lubbock, Texas by Merrick.  I will be trying that starting tonight.  I really hope it works.  It is their Roasted Duck and Sweet Potato recipe.  I will keep homemade in the freezer just in case and if it works, as a treat for them.  Can't wait till I can get Hempstead watermelon.  All of them love watermelon.  And blackberries.  I have planted blackberry vines in the back.  Hopefully, I will start getting fruit this summer.  Also, I am going to try growing a couple of blueberry bushes.  Those will be grown in pots as the soil here is not  acid enough for blueberries.  If I can grow most of my ingredients, then they will be much better off. 

I was also told that Jock's problems with his anal glands was probably due to a food allergy.  So hopefully this new food will agree with him as well. 

Had to treat Duncan again for whipworms.  I just can't seem to get rid of them in him.  The others have never tested positive for them, but he had them when he came and I cannot let up on the panicure treatments or he gets really sick.  The treatment is three days, three weeks, three months.  Poor little guy.  He may have had a lousy first half of his life, but he is living like royalty now.  In the mornings, after they come inside and while I am fixing their food, he goes back to bed.  When I get it ready, I have to come and get him and carry him to the kitchen.  I should have it so easy.

Update on Daisy

I waited till my daughter came home.  We talked it over and we decided to stop the shots.  Even with the shots, I could not get Daisy off steroids.  I would take her off them and she would pop a secondary infection with huge sores on her skin and bleeding nose.  So I would  do a round of antibiotics with steroids, usually two weeks along with the shots.  Then I could keep her off the steroids about a week until the bloody nose started up again. 

So now we are trying hydroxysine and using about one to steroid pills per week.  This is an antihistimine.  The goal now is to use the antihistimine all the time and hopefully get her down to one steroid pill a week.  So far she is doing pretty good with two a week.  I hope this works.  I am still making her food.  I tried the Iams grain free.  No go.  Her nostrils swelled up and she could not breathe.  So I am making baked chicken, boiled sweet potatoes, boiled carrots, spinach and pumpkin.  She does pretty good on this.  I did try her on a cheaper food, Purina Turkey and Venison.  She loves it and tolerates it ok, but not great.  So that will be a treat on occasion.  All it has in it that she is allergic to is eggs and soy.  She along with the others gets lots of vegetables.  Every one also gets strawberries, blueberries, apples, carrots.  Now that my garden is producing, they will get fresh sweet peas.  Hopefully, I will also have blackberries.  They love those.  I can't wait until  Pearsall  watermelons hit the market.  I can deseed a bowl of watermelon and give each on a bowl and they love it. 
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Jock just had to have his anal glads cleaned out.  Within a span of about two hours they popped up swollen and before I could get through to the vet, they ruptured.  At leas they ruptured to the outside.  Anyway, that was an expensive trip.  They packed them with antibiotics and sent us home with steroids, antihistimines, and clavamax.  He is good to go now. 

Missy, at 16, is still going strong.  She bounces out the door every morning and spends most of the day when I am home playing with Daisy and Jock in the yard.  Duncan wants none of that.  He just wants to be with me.