[Peggy]

Hi C4C! LadyBug weighs a good 45-50 lbs and should weigh 35-40 lbs (I think?). She’s an 8 yr old lab/shepherd mix.

Tebow is a 5 yr old JRT. He weighs approx 28 lbs and should weigh between 18-20 lbs. The weight is way more noticeable on him.

Lady gets 1/2 to 3/4 of a 13.5 oz can mixed with a 1/2 cup of kibble.
Tebow get’s the rest of the can (approx 1/4 or whatever is left after Lady gets hers), mixed with 1/4 cup of kibble. They get this around 8 am, and by noon you’d think they’re starving slap to death!

But I hold out until around 4-4:30 for their dinner.

They get the same amount of kibble mixed with the small tubs of PB wet food. Of course they don’t act like they’re hungry between 5 pm and morning because they’re sleeping. But from noon until 4 pm, they’re getting on my very last nerve.

[Peggy]

Thanks for the link DF. My dogs don’t have the ‘normal’ environmental allergy symptoms of sinus drainage, coughing, runny eyes, etc. But the dermatologist that saw them at the vet said that the symptoms of EA’s also include dry skin, excessive itching and scratching, etc. But blood tests came back negative to EA’s, so next on the list is food sensitivities, which they’ve experienced before. My son’s dad last night mentioned that “now that I think about it” (you know how men are) – the itching seemed to begin when I introduced other can foods into their diet – Wellness, Nature’s Variety, etc. I did that because Pure Balance didn’t offer much variety in their recipes. Now that they’re producing a new LID line in addition to their original grain free recipes, I’m going to forget the other products and stick with PB. They love it, and it’s a lot more economical for me. Whew.

[Peggy]

Pure Balance is a very good, quality food. This site rates it 4 – 4.5 stars for cans and 4+ starts for dry. My two love it.

[Peggy]

Well ladies, when I went shopping on Friday for dog food, I was ecstatic to learn that Pure Balance has produced a LID line of their grain free can food!
Turkey & Potato, and Turkey & Sweet Potato; Salmon & Potato and Salmon & Sweet Potato.

Their Turkey & Potato LID dry has been out for about 9 months, and I’ve been rotating it with the PB Bison & Pea grain free. My dogs love these.

Friday night I fed them the Turkey & potato can with the T&P dry and they loved it.
So I think I’m going to stick with Pure Balance’s LID recipe’s, plus what I cook for them.

A side note: Their scratching has decreased dramatically since using this shampoo twice. that we got from the vet.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 6 months ago by Peggy.

[Peggy]

Hi Bobby_dog! Good to be posting with you again.
Yes this issue popped up for both Tebow and Lady at the same time. I actually noticed it on Tebow first, as he was scratchng more intensely, rubbing his back on the carpet and scooting around on his butt.
Lady was scratching too but being sooooo laid back, not as bad. Of course first thought is FLEAS. I checked, combed, brushed and bathed them. Not a single sign of fleas anywhere. PLUS the fact that I myself am a flea magnet. If we ever have fleas (which we have not had in years), they are all over me. Yet the scratching has continued.

At the vet, after their examination, which included a search for fleas, flea dirt, etc., we talked to the board certified dermatologist who is on staff there. LOTS of questions about changes in environment, cleaning products, etc. He did quite a bit of testing, skin scrapings were taken to test for mites, mange, yeast infection, etc. Blood test for worms, and I don’t know what all else.

Since everything came back negative, the dermatologist narrowed it down to 2 things – either food sensitivities, or ragweed allergy. It is BAD here this year.

We’ve had issues with food allergies before, a couple of years or so ago, they were diagnosed with food sensitivities, We switched to grain-free Pure Balance, and the symptoms disappeared for almost 2 years. Yet here we are again. I’ve been wracking my brain about their food, and realized I have gotten a bit lazy about what I feed them. A couple of times I have veered off the grain-free food. I don’t know if that’s it or not.

Thank you for the information, Shawna.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 6 months ago by Peggy.

[Peggy]

C4D, that’s what the vet said too!
She said to find a brand, use their LID diet, and make sure everything – kibble, can and treats – are the same brand and LID diet.
Fortunately I don’t feed treats often, so that part should be easy.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and advice.

[Peggy]

Susan, thanks. The vet did say to try a LID kibble, so I picked up a bag of Pure Balance Turkey & Potato LID. I feed them broiled ground turkey a couple of times a week with sweet potato or green beans, so I’m going to do that more frequently, along with their normal canned salmon meals, etc. Laying off the cans for a few days.

I will say though that after that medicated shampoo bath yesterday, they both rested well last night. A marked decrease in the itching/scratching. It is HexaChlor-K Medicated, Anti-fungal Shampoo. The prescription says to use it 2x per week for 3 weeks, then once weekly for 1 month. Then, as needed.

[Peggy]

Red, these symptoms – the raw areas on the skin – are new. Only a couple of weeks.
As I said above, the vet has a dermatologist on staff. He is Board Certified. At least that’s what it says on the wall.

[Peggy]

The vet recommended a medicated, anti-itch shampoo. You have to lather her up really good, leave it on for up to 10 minutes, then rinse thoroughly.

I must say, since doing so this afternoon, they haven’t been scratching much at all. (I used it on Tebow, as well). I have to do this twice per week until the raw areas have cleared up.

[Peggy]

Thanks Susan and Red.

[Peggy]

The vet has a dermatologist on staff. That is who came in for the skin scrapes and analyzed the blood samples. We are going back next week for another test which takes 2 weeks for results. But as of now, there is no sign of any type of mange, mites, fleas, poisons, etc.

We came home with a medicated shampoo to use twice per week, and a bottle of low dose Hydroxyzine for itching. I have a bottle of Pet Calm which I use to calm them a bit, because I’ve noticed that my JRT gets really anxious which makes his itching worse. When he is calm, he doesn’t itch nearly as much.

[Peggy]

Thanks C4c!

[Peggy]

Hi y’all! I haven’t been here in a while. Life happens. 🙂

My loverdogs and I have kind of gotten into a routine (finally).
For breakfast, I cook them either ground turkey or chicken, green beans or carrots, and add a bit of rice, served over Pure Balance grain-free kibble (moistened with warm water).

Evenings are a tub each of Pure Balance – either chicken & peas, or beef w/carrots & sun-dried tomatoes, or Lamb Pate’, or Turkey w/ peas & carrots – over one of the PB kibbles. I’m having NO more problems with them eating. Tebow’s weight seems to have stabilized. I know he has at least 5 or 6 more lbs to go. But as soon as this weather breaks we’ll be back to walking daily, so I’m sure that’ll do the trick.

I have a small bag of 3 of the 4 varieties of Pure Balance kibble – Salmon & Peas grain-free, Bison & Peas grain-free, Lamb & Brown Rice. Neither of them likes the Chicken & Brown Rice kibble.

OH, Sunday is Salmon day. Breakfast is Canned salmon with carrots & pasta.
Dinner is the other half the can of Salmon over Salmon & Peas kibble.

[Peggy]

Hi everyone, I haven’t been here in a little while. Life happens.

Anyway, Yesterday morning, my fur sweeties had Pure Balance Salmon & Pea grain free kibble, diced green beans, canned Salmon and a bit of Salmon ‘juice’ on their kibble.

For dinner they had a mix of Pure Balance Salmon & Peas grain-free and PB Bison & Peas grain free kibble, with PB Chicken & Carrots in light gravy. I put a bit of warm water on LadyBug’s kibble because she really does not like the larger Bison & Peas kibble chunks. Even though she’s a larger dog, she favors small kibble for whatever reason.

This morning, they had Lamb and Brown Rice kibble with broiled ground pork, diced cooked carrots, and ground flax seed.

Tonight they will have the PB Lamb & Brown Rice kibble again, with PB Lamb Pate’ in the tubs.

[Peggy]

Lady loves Christmas!

And her daddy.

[Peggy]

Here are the two of them together. LadyBug was about 4 yrs old, and Tebow about 1 yr.

[Peggy]

hmmm posting from photobucket is not working for me.

[Peggy]

TOO cute! Well, their faces are not tos similar but the rest of them is!

Your way of posting pics is much easier than mine, I upload them to my website and type the html code here. I completely forgot that I have a photobucket account, duh!

[Peggy]

My little sweetheart, Tebow. He’s gained about 8 lbs since these pics last year. Trying to get him back to that weight.

And sweet LadyBug – 10 lbs lighter.

[Peggy]

Naturella the black/white dog in the middle (from your post on Feb 7th) looks JUST LIKE my Tebow!

[Peggy]

I’ve googled several vet websites in the past hour or so, and there seems to be a general consensus, especially for high-strung terrier breeds like a Jack Russell –

“1 – Dogs that begin paw-licking later in life are more than likely responding to environmental, life style, and/or dietary adjustments.

2 – High-strung, normally active dogs that are inactive for any reason tend to spend more time grooming themselves. In most cases, that grooming instinct tends is focus itself on the paws. “

[Peggy]

I mentioned it in another post – somewhere. hehe
I don’t take them for walks in the winter. I don’t have good balance (vertigo) and don’t walk well on snow or ice. So the back yard is their winter playground. I don’t put anything down back there.

Um he started this right about the same time they started licking their lips and drinking more water. Of course, he usually does it in the middle of the night while laying on my bed, while I am TRYING to sleep. 🙂

• This reply was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by Peggy.
• This reply was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by Peggy.

[Peggy]

Dori I started to notice the difference in water intake about 5 or 6 weeks ago. Which is about the same time I had to start leaving the furnace on 24/7.

As for the food, I have noticed that they do not seem as thirsty when I feed them the PB wet food from the tub. The beef dinner has noticeably less gravy and the first ingredient is beef. The lamb is a pate’ with no gravy at all. I’ve all but stopped feeding them the stews because they don’t like the gravy at all. The last stew they ate was maybe 3 days ago.

Something I noticed tonight: I fed them their kibble with canned salmon and added canned carrots, warmed & diced. They seem perfectly comfortable now. No licking their lips at all.

I do notice Tebow licking his paws a lot. But I attribute that to the dry air. My feet are dry and itchy too. I’ve been through 2 bottles of lotion so far this winter. ugh.

[Peggy]

So for breakfast this morning, my poochies had their usual amount of PB kibble with a few pieces of Bison & Peas kibble added, and a PB tub of beef in gravy w/carrots & sun-dried tomatoes. They loved it and ate it all. However, my son’s dad later gave them some Jimmy Dean’s sausage, egg & cheese croissant, which made LadyBug vomit everything. UGH!

For dinner tonight, they had their Pure Balance Salmon & Peas kibble (1/3 c for Tebow and 3/4 c for Lady Bug), fresh carrots cooked and diced, and canned salmon. I poured a bit of salmon “juice” over their dinners and mixed it all up. They ate it all. Even came begging for more, lol. They did not get it, of course! 🙂

The remainder of the can is in a plastic container in the fridge for either Thursday or Friday.

[Peggy]

I will definitely get boneless salmon next time, too much work ha.
They loved it though.

[Peggy]

I just opened a can of Pink Salmon and it was FULL of bones!
I couldn’t feed my dog these bones, so will go through it and get out as many as I can.

Is there such a think as de-boned salmon?
Google, here I come!

[Peggy]

Anyone?

[Peggy]

LOL. I know all about those signs…

[Peggy]

haha, ok just wanted that to be clear, because you’ve been saying Pro Balance. 🙂

[Peggy]

Ronald, did you get Pro Balance, or Pure Balance. 🙂

[Peggy]

Ok so I called my vet about this and here’s what he told me –

Too much protein will make your dog thirsty because the kidneys have to work harder to process higher protein levels.

He asked how much protein is in both of their kibbles and I told him that the Salmon & Pea is 27% and the Bison & Peas is 30%. He said if I’m going to put both recipes in the meal, I need to decrease the salmon/pea recipe by however much Bison I add. And if I’m adding fresh meat, to decrease the dry food by 2 tbsp each, because that is more protein. He also advised adding plenty of veggies, and a tbsp of warm water to their food.

Any thoughts on this?

[Peggy]

Naturella, they do seem to go through this every once in a while, no matter what brand of food they’ve been on. It gets frustrating.

This morning they had the usual amt of PB Salmon & Peas grain-free kibble, (plus I added a few pieces of the Bison & Peas grain free kibble), 1/2 c of PB canned Chicken stew for Lady, and a little less than 1/4 c of PB Chicken stew for Tebow, a few pieces of broiled fresh chicken for each, and a tsp of THK PF for Lady and 1/2 tsp for Tebow, as per directions.
Lady ate most of her food! What she did not eat was the pieces of Bison kibble. ugh! Tebow did the same exact thing.

Something I am seeing lately is increased thirst for both. I’ve assumed that with it being winter and the furnace going non-stop it could be just the dry air. I know I drink more in the winter, as does my son. But I wake up in the night hearing them licking their lips like someone does who has a dry mouth. This is every night. I limit their access to water at night because Tebow has “accidents” on the livingroom carpet at night. I do know that during the day, they are drinking more water than usual. But then, so do I.

Any thoughts?

• This reply was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by Peggy.

[Peggy]

Sorry Bobby_d, I didn’t get a notification for your post, so just saw it.

No we do not have any of those stores near us.

[Peggy]

I didn’t do the canned salmon yet.

Yesterday for breakfast, my two had the usual PB kibble, with a tub of PB Beef w/carrots & sun-dried tomatoes, to which I added diced cooked green beans and scrambled egg, divided. Neither of them touched it. At all. I picked it up after 1 hour.

For dinner they had PB kibble with a tub of PB Turkey & sweet potatoes, diced cooked carrots, and a bit of shredded cheese on top. Tebow are a little bit out of his bowl, and left the rest. LadyBug ate NADA.

I’m hoping they’re just going through a phase. 🙁

[Peggy]

ugh hate that yucky butt stuff. 😛

My dogs got the usual PB dry kibble with PB lamb pate, diced cooked carrots.
They did not eat a bit. nada.

Tonight, they got their usual dry PB kibble moistened with warm water, broiled ground turkey, diced cooked carrots, and a small sprinkle of ground flax seed. Ate every bit.
I can’t tell if that’s because they were starving, or they really liked the meal, ha.

Tomorrow morning I believe I’m going to take the plunge and try them on canned Salmon.

[Peggy]

This morning, the kids had their usual Pure Balance Salmon & Pea grain-free dry food with –
1/4 can of PB Beef stew w/ carrots and brown rice, LadyBug had the other 3/4 of the can. I added a bit of ground flax seed because they love the taste.

Tonight, I baked a large pork loin steak (unseasoned), cut it up into tiny pieces, and gave Tebow 1/4 of it and LadyBug the rest, added diced cooked carrots, and mixed it with their 1/4 c and 3/4 c of PB Salmon & Pea kibble.

Had two happy canine campers today! ♥

[Peggy]

I bought our spray attachment at our local walmart. It attaches to the shower arm, and has 3 settings – Spray, spray/pulsate, and pulsate.
I use the spray/pulsate setting. I lile the spray of course for getting the shampoo off, and my dogs like the mild pulsate. It’s a win/win.

I bathe my pooches every 2 weeks.

[Peggy]

c4c – if I was a football fan, I’d have been right in there with y’all. lol.

This morning my Tebow and LadyBug had 1/4 c and 3/4 c of PB Salmon & Pea grain-free kibble (respectively) moistened, 2 tubs (3.5 oz each) of PB grain-free Beef dinner w/ carrots and sun-dried tomatoes (3/4 tub for Tebow and 1 1/4 tub for LadyBug), and 1 scrambled egg divided between them.
Each cleaned their bowl up!

If anyone wonders why I always mention my kids cleaning their bowl, it’s because LadyBug has a serious food sensitivity, in addition to being a very picky eater, and she’s never eaten all of her food, and in fact, depending on what I fed them, didn’t eat it at all. She is what I call a “sniffy eater”. She sniffs everything and if she doesn’t like the smell, she’s not eating. I’m sure the sniffing has to do with the breeds – she is a Shepherd/Lab mix. BUT, since switching to Pure Balance, she rarely leaves anything at all in her bowl.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by Peggy.

[Peggy]

I have been. 😀

[Peggy]

D_O. meeee too, no football here. We are baseball and hockey fans.

[Peggy]

Marie I’m so sorry for your loss. 🙁

[Peggy]

Sooo I went to the store yesterday and purchased a few tubs (3.5 oz each) of Pure Balance cat food. They have a wider variety of flavors than the dog food does. I got Turkey & Sweet potatoes, Salmon & Sweet potatoes, and Turkey & Peas. They won’t be eating it all the time of course, only to give them a change from their regular dog food flavors.

Anyway, this morning they had their Salmon & Pea dry with Salmon & Sweet potatoes cat food. ALL gone! 😀

[Peggy]

Fed my dogs PB Salmon & Pea recipe dry – 1/2 cup for Tebow and 1 cup for Ladybug, plus 1 tub each of PB Chicken dinner (3.5 ounces each).
Waste of time. Neither of them ate more than a bite or two. Just enough to know it was chicken, and walk away. ugh!

Tonight they were fed the same dry food, 1/2 c for Tebow and 1 c for LadyBug, broiled ground turkey, 2 Tbsp white rice for Tebow and 4 Tbsp rice for Lady, about 10 green beans each, diced.

They ate the entire contents of their bowl. In fact, they licked them so clean, I don’t even have to wash them, ha. 🙂

[Peggy]

Awesome news Dori, so glad to be reading this!

[Peggy]

I’ll have to look that up, never heard of taurine ha.

WOO HOO! My dogs are going to love me forever when they get the Salmon recipes and Turkey & Sweet Potatoes. 😀

Thank you!

Oh and here’s a link for you –
http://www.walmart.com/search/?query=Pure%20Balance%20Pet%20food&page=2&cat_id=5440

• This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by Peggy.

[Peggy]

Thank you very much Jennifer. My dogs love fish.
I do believe I will go through it and get the bones out though.

[Peggy]

Well I’m a bit ticked off.

While browsing through the Pure Balance dog food recipes on Walmart.com, PB cat food recipes in the tubs also came up. The cats have a larger variety of flavors than the dogs do! 🙁

The cats have Salmon grain-free, Salmon & Sweet Potatoes, Turkey & sweet potatoes, Turkey grain-free, and Beef.

The dogs have Chicken dinner, Beef dinner, Lamb Pate’ in the tubs, and Chicken stew and Beef stew dinners in the can, plus the two 95% cans that both have chicken in them.

Is it relatively safe to feed my dogs some cat food occasionally? Like once per week? I know they would LOVE that salmon & sweet potatoes and the turkey & sweet potatoes.

I’m reaching I know, but still……….

[Peggy]

No it does not c4c. Today I received a couple of other items that I ordered from THK, but did not receive the PF. Hopefully it will come tomorrow.

[Peggy]

HMM, I’m sorry but I never got a notification that you replied to my topic. Thank you for doing so.

How do you prepare the can salmon? Is it already cooked and just put it in their bowl? Or does it need to be cooked?

[Peggy]

Thanks for the suggestion Bobby dog, I will do that. 🙂

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