[Akari_32]

Ginger did great on her walk today! This food is really working. I honestly had my doubts, but she didn’t limp at all on the walk, and ran most of it. I’ve never seen her have such a good time on a walk before. She was running up into people’s yards to track scents, jumping over the gutters when we crossed the street, if she lagged behind, she’d run as fast as she could to catch up with us. She is feeling much better and it’s putting her in such great spirits. She’s been less grumpy when I pick her up, as well.

Tomorrow will be her first meal on 100% JM. Today she’s got little a tiny bit of Wellness mixed in, and the bag is empty and in the trash. I’m surprised to see results so quickly. I was expecting at least a month on the food before seeing any difference, but I’ve been seeing her limping less and less the last several day. I’m very happy with what I’m seeing, especially due to the fact that Ginger is so old. 14 is borderline ancient, no matter what size dog it is!

[DogFoodie]

Great news, Akari!! 🙂

[Akari_32]

I can’t tell you how happy I am that she’s feel better and this food is working. I may buy the big bag next time and put Haley and Dweezle on it, as well…. Lol I’ve got to see how Haley handles the corn in the Iams Healthy Naturals first, though. She can drop weight on too much corn. They get around pretty well, though, so maybe I won’t… Lol

[Bobby dog]

:O Yeah for Ginger!!

[Akari_32]

Another update for you guys! Ginger continues to do well even with the whiplash wheather we’re having. Hot, cold, hot, cold, hot, cold. It’s driving me crazy!! Lol But she’s been moving around great and doing a lot more running 🙂

She also recovers much more quickly when she hurts herself. Let’s face it, this dog is not at all graceful. She tumbles down the dog steps a lot. A. Lot. She’s so used to doing it that she takes in stride now LOL You’d think she’d figure out to make sure she places her paws firmly on each step, and to not try to skip the last step and night stand and just go straight for the bed. Yeah, not really LOL Anyways, she sometimes limps around after such an event, and where it would usually take her several weeks to recover from it, it now takes her just a few days.

Over all, I really am happy with this food, and can’t deny the results I’m seeing with her. I will definitely continue with it for the remainder of her life (as much as it kills me not to do rotation), and will use with any future dogs that need it.

[Akari_32]

Just popping for a bit of an observation 🙂 Ginger’s poops have been much smaller on this food than they have on any other food I’ve had her on. She really does do really well on it. I guess her body just doesn’t know how to digest the higher grade foods I was feeding her before?

Anyways, she continues to do well on it, other than the occasional self-inflicted injury. Yesterday was getting caught up in tall grass and some how hurting her knee/hip, and today was stepping in a sand spur patch *rolls eyes*

[crazy4cats]

Askari-
It’s great to hear Ginger is doing well. I guess there are times when the vet diets are appropriate. A sand spur patch sounds heavenly. We just have squishy mud patches.

[Akari_32]

This really is the only vet diet I would ever consider feeding to any animal. The protein levels are decent, the fat and carbs are lower than most other foods, and its got all that good joint stuff in it. I just wish it had slightly better filler-type ingredients. But its Purina, what are you gunna do? Corn is their thing…

Girl, I’d take mud over sand spurs any day! Those suckers get into the inside of your pant legs and shoes and hide there until the most inopportune times! And Ginger is not a happy dog when she’s in pain! It took about a minute to get her pinned down enough to where I could safely remove the sand spur from her toes with out losing a finger LOL I’m just glad that the blinds weren’t open at the house that we stopped in front of. They’d’ve probably thought I was killing her XD

[crazy4cats]

I’m sorry, I’m sure the spurs are awful. I have actually experienced them at the ocean. I’m just sick of our rain. At least it isn’t flooding so far or dumping snow like back east. I hope she continues to do well.

[Akari_32]

We’ve been getting a fair bit if rain the last several days, actually. It’s nice and cool here now :3 Too bad we don’t get snow lol

[mountainhound]

I would never feed any prescription food to a dog with joint issues, the bulk of those ingredients are highly inflammatory and will cause more harm than good. Feed a good quality raw diet (even premade raw will probably be cheaper than Hills), raw food contains natural sources of glucosamine/chondroitin from ground up cartilage. Lack of carbs will help with inflammation and pain reduction. You can also give her treats like tracheas and duck feet since those are good sources of glucosamine. I’ve had good results with a supplement called Liquid Health, its tasteless and easy to mix with ground raw food.

[Dog_Obsessed]

Hi mountainhound,
While I am not usually in favor of feeding prescription foods, I completely support Akari’s decision to do so. Since Ginger was on low-quality food for most of her life, tolerating a high-quality food was extremely hard for her, and gave her frequent bouts of loose stools. The prescription food, while better than many prescription foods, she is able to tolerate. It has also helped her joints tremendously, though I know this is not the case for all dogs. While raw food can be a great thing for some dogs, it is not the right thing for all dogs in all situations.

[Akari_32]

So I emailed Purina asking about how many cups were in a 32 pound of food, and they sent me back this crap:

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx294/Akari53/23D1FB01-EF17-422D-9861-AD88E5B14EC9_zpsqh3ok8t9.png

“Specific formula” my butt! I’ll figure it out myself, thanks. I was just being lazy… Lol

Mountainhound, when you have a dog with a list of health problems as long as Ginger has, including extremely poor dental health, let me know how raw works out. I’m 100% for raw feeding, two of my pets are raw fed, in fact, but it’s not the only answer to every situation. The best of the best, when it comes down to diet, is simply what works best for each dog. Ginger can’t handle the fat content in raw, and the bacterial content would wreak havoc on her already infected mouth and poorly adapted digestive system. I’ve spent enough nights washing dog beds, thank you very much.

[aimee]

Did you ask “about how many cups were in a 32 pound of food” or did you specifically ask about JM? Just curious. I calculated about 137 cups in a 32 lb bag of food. The formula I used was (32 lbs x 1kg/2.2lbs x 1000 grams/kg)/106grams/cup = 137 cups. I’m curious if they use a different method. If you call them report back.

[Akari_32]

I did ask specifically about the JM, yes. I’m not going to call. Ain’t no body got time for that lol I planned on seeing how many oz/pound a cup weighed and going from there. I’ll see how how it compares to your figuring! It’s my understanding that more calorie dense foods weigh more, cup for cup, than less calorie dense foods do, so I’m not sure how your formula would work out when using several different foods with different kcal/cup. We shall see what I come up with 🙂

[aimee]

I’m not following you well. I think of a calorically dense food as one that has a higher kcals/kg of food compared to another diet Caloric density is related to the fat and fiber levels in the diet. How much a cup of food weighs depends on the size, shape and density of the kibble (how puffed it is with air from extrusion). Smaller kibbles fit more compactly into a container, less “wasted” space and so more weight.

For JM the company reports 106 gram/cup, for DH, their dental diet which I’d assume has larger pieces, only 80 grms/cup and for the small bites DH 84 grams/cup.

You don’t need to weigh the food as Purina already reports the weight/cup for you on their site as 106 grams/cup. Where the difference may come in though is the shape of your measuring cup and how you level it. You may come up with a different weight.

[Akari_32]

If thats correct, Aimee, then a 32lb bag would last about 28 days. So, about $1.65 a day to feed three dogs, after shipping. If I wasn’t feeding Ginger from that, it would be about what I’m already paying to feed my two, if not a little cheaper on average. What I’m not so sure about is the up front cost, especially buying at least two bags at a time (you can only place one order a month, so it’d be best to over order). If I have mom help with the cost, it wouldn’t be so bad (Gingers estimated cost for the month is $5 LOL). I’ll have to think on it… lol

[mountainhound]

You don’t have to feed raw, there are a million brands out there that are not made of recycled waste.

[Dog_Obsessed]

Akari and I have both explained her choice in feeding this food. Yes, many Veterinary Diets are junk, but this one is slightly better and has helped Ginger enormously. Due to the fact that she was eating Royal Canin for the first ~14 years of her life, she was having trouble tolerating a high-quality food. Please try to be respectful of her decision, even if you do not agree with it.

[Akari_32]

Mountainhound, if you don’t like what I absolutely have to do to keep this dog healthy, happy, mobile, and pain free, then move along. I don’t need to explain myself to you.

[Dog_Obsessed]

^^^
What she said.

[crazy4cats]

What she said AND what she said! LOL!

[Dori]

What they all said!!!!!!! Sometimes you’ve got to do what works when nothing else does even if you don’t like it. With a dog like Ginger and her infirmities you try to keep her as comfortable as you can while she lives out the remainder of her life in a loving environment with loving people who are doing the very best that THEY can.

Let’s try and not be so judgmental when you don’t know all the facts and you have no idea the circumstances that Ginger came into their lives, the condition she was in, all the poor dog has gone through before they got her and all that the family have gone through with no relief of her mobility issues and are doing what finally worked.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 8 months ago by Dori.

[Akari_32]

LOL You guys are awesome! You all know this was absolutely a last ditch effort, and I’m glad I went with it. She’s over all much better now. Even the vet tech today, when we went in to get her pre-dental blood work, said she looked so much better just since they had started seeing her several months ago. I wish they could have seen her in September, when I first brought her home. If she wasn’t so lumpy and didn’t have such an attitude, they probably wouldn’t think she was the same dog :p I hope her blood work comes back that she’s healthy enough to have her dental thursday, and then I hope to see even more improvement in her over all health afterwards.

[Dori]

Finger’s crossed for Ginger’s blood work Akari. We who know you know all that you have done to help Ginger. As for the others, just ignore them and, hopefully, they’ll just go away.

There’s no need for you to defend yourself and your choices for your dog to anyone. Ginger’s better and that’s all that matters.

[Akari_32]

Thanks girl! 🙂 Working in retail, I’ve learned to just more or less ignore the rude people. They’ll get whats coming to them.

I’m super nervous about Thursday!!! But also happy that its finally getting done. Have to call after 10 tomorrow morning to get the results, and confirm her appointment for Thursday. $140 down, and I don’t even want to know how much more to go! >.<

[Author]

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