Maggie needs a haircut.

Crazy dog Maggie somehow hurt herself. We aren't sure how she did it, though we think, and so does the vet, that she hurt herself by simply being the crazy, hyperactive dog that she is. Maggie will often jump straight into the air, jumping up to three feet up.

Yesterday, at one point when my mom picked her up, she yelped. My mom thought maybe she was hurt and gave her a good look over. She couldn't find anywhere that Maggie would react to when she was touched. And last night, Maggie came inside and immediately went into her crate, something she doesn't normally do.

This morning, she didn't really want to come out of her crate, and when she did, she didn't want to go outside and instead went into Ellie's crate. After some coaxing, she finally went out. A little while later, I let Maggie and Ellie back inside and picked Maggie up. She yelped again. I had my mom help me look at Maggie, and we discovered that she tensed up whenever we messed with her back legs or her stomach. We also noticed she was coughing a little, but not too bad. She also wasn't acting like herself and was very subdued.

Because tomorrow is a holiday, our vet won't be in until Tuesday, and we didn't want to wait that long to take Maggie in, so we went to the emergency vet today. The vet noticed the pain actually seems to be coming from her back, so they did an X-ray. The vet thought it was possibly a herniated disk or just a muscle sprain. Fortunately, the X-ray looked perfectly fine. The vet prescribed some pain medicine and an anti-inflammatory for the pain, and an antibiotic for the cough.

We were also told to keep her quiet for about a week. That's way easier said than done.

We took Bella to the vet today. She has a spot on her back that hasn't healed. She also had something last fall in the same spot that took forever to heal. It came back a few weeks ago and hasn't gotten better. Her father, our first German Shepherd, had cancer. I was very worried that Bella had skin cancer, given the sore that wouldn't heal.

The vet, however, took a good look at it and assured us that it wasn't cancer. Bella has a cyst that has caused a sore. She pulled the scab off and examined the area. She shaved the hair and cleaned it up. She gave Bella a shot of an antibiotic and gave us some antibiotic pills to give to her. She told us we could put Neosporin on it if Bella leaves it alone.

We also talked to the vet about Bella's hips, asking if there was anything else we could do for her since some days she seems fine and some days they really bother her. She prescribed Deramaxx and told her to keep her on it for two weeks, and then we can give it to her every other day, give her a half a dose everyday, or give it to her as we see it being needed. Tango, Bella's father, was on a medicine towards the end of his life that really helped him; I'm pretty sure this is what it is. I really hope it helps Bella.

The vet is also doing a full blood panel so that we can put Bella on Deramaxx and for future reference. If we keep Bella on the Deramaxx, she'll have to get bloodwork done every 6 months.

Bella, like always, did great at the vet's office. When my brother decided to stay in the waiting room while we went back, Bella kept looking out the door of the room and was on very high alert, obviously bothered by the fact she couldn't see my brother. When we made him come back to the room, she relaxed. She let the vet do whatever she needed to do, as long as I held her head and reassured her. She hardly complained even when they were taking blood.

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but Bella has hip dysplasia.

For those not familiar with hip dysplasia, it is a disorder of the hips that causes the ball of the femur bone to not fit into the socket of the pelvic bone. It can cause lameness and arthritis. Big dogs, especially German Shepherds, are prone to it. It is caused by part genetics, part diet, part physical activity.

Bella started showing signs of hip dysplasia in Fall '09. Her sire, who we had until he died, also had hip displasia. Towards the end, his was pretty bad. Bella's isn't as bad as his was. She does have the characteristic "bunny hop" when she runs, moving both back legs together instead of separately. This winter, she also started whining when going up and down stairs.

She has been on glucosamine chondroitin since last spring, but I hadn't really seen any improvements. Part of the reason I hadn't seen improvements was because she wasn't getting it consistently. I was away at school during the week and only home on the weekends. During the week, my mom, dad, or an older brother would feed her and give her her medicine. In November, it started getting cold here and Dad started bringing her in at night and noticed how difficult the stairs were for her. When he realised this, he started being more consistent giving the medicine to her. We also moved her crate from my room in the basement to the main floor so that she wouldn't have to use stairs.

Since then, I've noticed a few improvements. She no longer whines when using the stairs, and will now go up them at nearly a run. Not as fast as she used to, but it's a big improvement over what she was doing. Yesterday while I had her outside, I got her running a bit and realised that her "bunny hop" wasn't as pronounced as usual.  Her back feet aren't moving completely separately, but she's not holding them together like she was.

In addition to her being on the glucosamine chondroitin, Bella has also lost some weight over the past month (a good thing--she had gotten a little fat). I think that has helped quite a bit. I plan on making her get more exercise which should also help.

It has been really upsetting seeing her in so much pain, and seeing her being more active really lifts my spirits.

I'm not afraid to admit something: My pets eat better than I do.

I am pretty picky about what my animals eat. Not crazily picky, but picky enough. I make sure they get the proper nutrition, and research any new food I give them.

The big dogs, Bella and Jax, eat Taste of the Wild. I know this isn't the best food, but I've been pretty happy with it. When we first started feeding it, I very quickly saw a huge improvement in Bella. Her coat was shinier and she had more energy. Taste of the Wild is a grain free diet with plenty of meat. It has no corn or soy. If I had things my way completely, I'd have Bella on a raw diet.

The little dogs, Maggie, Ellie, and Ricky, eat a brand called Country Naturals. This food is not grain free, but it has a higher meat content than most brands. Ellie has a very sensitive stomach and gets sick (mostly diarrhea) if she eats most dog foods. Anything with corn, wheat, or most other gains, makes her sick. We tried her on Taste of the Wild, and for a while, she was better, but she started getting sick again. When we got Ricky, he was already eating this food. We decided to try it for Ellie too, and she has done very good on it, so we keep the little dogs on this food.

Shadow and Delilah are on completely grain free diets. They get Taste of the Wild dry food, and Delilah gets Wellness canned and Taste of the Wild canned. Shadow gets canned food if she asks for it, and she eats whatever she catches. Tin Tin would be on a grain free diet if he quit going to the neighbors and eating their food. Like Bella, if it was totally up to me, the cats would be on a raw diet.

The birds, if they would just cooperate, would be getting a good diet too. I'm working on this (see other posts). My last bird got pellets, vegetables, and a small amount of seed. She had a decent diet, but I've learned more about bird nutrition since her, so the lovebirds will have an even better diet (if they would eat it).

Even the smaller animals get a high quality food. The guinea pigs get fed Oxbow pellets and timothy hay. They also get dark, leafy greens everyday, and usually another vegetable and a bit of fruit. Maxwell gets whatever greens and veggies the pigs are having and gut-loaded crickets.

Meanwhile, us humans don't eat as healthy. We eat things like McDonalds and other restaurants. I've read the book Fast Food Nation, and I've also read the book Food Pets Die For. The pet food book bothered me way more than the one about fast food. If only I made myself eat as well as I make my pets eat...

We have five dogs.

Our oldest dog is my dog, Bella. She is a six-year-old German Shepherd Dog. She is a good dog and I love her to bits. She is very goofy and quite klutzy.

Bella destroying a toy.

Our second oldest dog is Ellie, one of my mom's dogs. She is a three-year-old cockapoo. She, too, is a very good dog (probably better behaved than Bella, but don't tell her that). She is very good, but scared of almost everything.

Ellie

Next is Jax, my dad's dog. He is a German Shepherd.

(Oops...I don't have a picture of Jax. He looks a lot like Bella.)

Then there is Ricky, my little brother's Chihuahua.

Ricky as a puppy.

Finally, there is my mom's miniature schnauzer, Maggie. Maggie is crazy, and very active. She's also very smart. I plan to do agility with her when she is old enough.

Maggie

(I know I didn't write very much about the dogs. They are dogs. Their personalities are too complex to explain in one blog post. Also, I simply don't feel like writing a whole bunch right now.)