We Are What We Eat

Though Westies look quite robust, they are in fact hot-house flowers. They love their creature comforts; beds, cushions, throws and laps, and though they will eat any old rubbish that they find lying on the street I do have to watch their diet pretty carefully. I was used to two very sturdy collies before who could and would eat anything, bones, skin, chocolate and all.  They were hardly ever sick and I never remember either of them choking on a bone or any such nonsense.

Their creature comforts are important

It all started with Looki. When he came to live with us not only was he filthy dirty, but was suffering with a horrible ear infection, something that Westies are prone to and, as I am finding out, especially our Looki. So in the early days, after his initial vaccinations we found ourselves traipsing back and forth to the vet for various ear washes and antibiotic ointments.

He hardly had time to get over the ear infection when another disaster struck.  He got really bad diarrhea.  I tried to ignore it at first, hoping it would just go away, but when it alarmingly turned to pure mucous with blood in it I knew it was serious.  So it was back off to the vet again, this time with a parasitic gut infection. For this new ailment the treatment involved daily injections for a week plus several tablets a day, plus a sticky syrup that I had to sort of shoot into his mouth with a syringe, which he hated.

The Vet also told me that I needed to give him special food!  She told me to boil chicken with carrots for him and boiled rice on the side if you don’t mind!  And feed him with that.  I couldn’t believe it.  I used to smirk inwardly at friends who cooked food for their dogs.  I swore I would never pamper a dog like that, but here I was, once a week, boiling a chicken and making a lovely broth, then carefully picking the meat from the bones, because as everyone knows dogs should never eat chicken bones!  EXCEPT MY COLLIE DOGS USED TO AND IT NEVER DID THEM ANY HARM!!!!!

I started researching on-line and discovered that change of ownership is very stressful for a dog and their immune system can become depressed allowing the parasite to take hold.  So I had to build up his natural immunity.  Amongst other things he got chopped garlic, parsley and celery and even cinnamon to help him fight off this horrible opportunist bug. 

At the same time I was trying to train him as well.  This involved lots of treats as positive incentive and the programme was going very well, however, with his special chicken dinner plus dry dog food plus all the fatty treats our Looki piled on the weight and very quickly burgeoned from 9.5 kilos (which I think was slightly underweight) to over 11 kilos!  That was an alarming weight gain in a very short space of time and Looki was positively porky

Something had to be done!

As soon as he got better it was off to boot camp.  I cut back drastically on his food and when Vic came home for a spell we really put him through his paces with lots of long walks up to the forest.  By the time the girls arrived he was down to a respectable 10.5 kilos.

The girls moved in with the most amazing amount of paraphernalia; cushions, soft toys, towels, blankets, food bowls and a packet of West Highland White Terrier food.  It looked delicious, but there was no way we were going to be able to afford to feed three of them on that.  So I mixed it into our own cheaper supermarket kibble to wean them off it.  Of course I was also feeding them boiled chicken and veg.

So let me break down the dogs' menu and how it works with our daily routine:

We rise early and are off out the door by 7.30am.  We walk, sniff, tangle our owner up in leads. Do poops, lift our legs and sniff out the most dreadful decomposed rubbish we can find to scarf down, even though we are not supposed to have bones.  While on the walk we have several little stop off points when each dog sits and gets a tiny piece of a doggy treat each and get told that they are very good boys and girls even if they have rolled in other doggy poop or run off to try and shag the Lord Mayor's Shi-tzu.

Back home at around 8.00 and everyone has a pro-biotic yoghurt. This began while Looki was having his tummy troubles to help build up the friendly gut flora.  We also all have a teaspoon of coconut oil as my sister recently sent me a very interesting article outlining myriad reasons why it is good food for dogs, including guarding against gut parasites, preventing fungal infections, minimizing arthritis pain etc.  Looki downs his portion in one and then hovers around the girls for any remainder.  Kerry methodically laps her yoghurt and licks and licks until her plate is spotless.  Candy sometimes wolfs hers down and other times does not fancy it at all, other days she may just take a couple of nibbles and then I usually let Looki polish hers off.

At around eleven o'clock I like to have a cup of tea.  Looki loves the cup of tea too.  When he hears the kettle going on he trots out with a newly acquired swagger.  His head is held quizzically high as if to say "Are we having a cup of tea mum?"

I sit on the couch and drink my tea, very milky and with a spoon of local honey to help keep my Hay Fever at bay.  Looki lies on my feet.  I always leave an inch or so in the cup and the minute I put it towards him he sits to attention.  I hold the cup for him while he sticks his nose in right up to his eyebrows and laps up the tea that remains.  "That was lovely mum, thanks, burp!"

There is great excitement at midday as it's dinnertime for dogs. I pick up the three bowls and place them on the counter and the dogs gather. Candy feigns indifference lying on the ground close, but with her back to me.  Looki dodges under the kitchen unit with unconcealed excitement, I hear him tapping.  Kerry lies with her nose facing me and her two little almond shaped eyes watching me intently.

They each get a good dollop of chicken with seasonal vegetables, interspersed with lumps of cooked oatmeal, very good for Westie allergies, and a carefully measured scoop of dry dog food.  Looki darts out from under the cupboard and positively bounces up and down as I put his bowl down first.  At this point Kerry gets all excited too and starts her high-pitched barking and running around on her little clippy toes.  Candy is circling now too and both of them are straight in the minute their bowls hit the floor.

After their lunch they get my left over egg shells replete with the white which I really find terribly dull.  Candy loves them and crunches her way through her share, shells and all.  Looki likes them well enough, but is very messy and does not care so much for the shell, though he chews through some of it.  Kerry isn't bothered at all, but she doesn't like being left out, so after pushing hers around the floor a bit Candy moves in and devours her leftovers.  She then walks through the kitchen hoovering up any other shells left lying around by Looki.

Then they all sleep for most of the afternoon, just getting up at intervals to follow me around the house.

They start to agitate from around six o'clock as they know that suppertime is coming.  At seven they each get a carefully measured scoop of kibble.  Sometimes they get some leftovers chopped up and put in their bowl as well.  During the height of the summer growing season Looki acquired a thing for tomatoes and he would go out to help himself to the fruit off the vines.  I would gently wrest these free from his mouth and at suppertime I would chop the tomato up and divide it between them.  However I have since stopped giving them too much tomato as I think it was a bit acidic and Looki was becoming inclined to throwing up early in the morning.  I mentioned this to the vet the last time we were there with another ear infection and she maintained that he was throwing up because his tummy was empty.

So now at around eleven o'clock they all get a biscuit before bed!

The dogs follow me out to the kitchen while I rummage for biscuits.  Then back to the living room where I sit on the couch.  I make them all sit and give each one a biscuit that looks like a marrowbone.  They have a great time munching away on these.  Looki as usual has his down in a few seconds flat, but I make him wait for Candy to finish hers, then I give them each another smaller biscuit in the shape of a bone these go down pretty quickly and by this time Kerry has eaten her marrowbone biscuit in her own nibbly fashion and I offer her a bone.  She sniffs this and usually refuses it, so I break it in two and the two gannets get half each.

I'm sure they would not turn down a mug of Cocoa either.

And then it's bed time.  They don't need to be asked twice, there is a great flurry of white fur and legs and a stampede up the stairs as soon as I say the magic words:  "Anyone for bed?"

They sleep for most of the afternoon….

Only stirring to follow me around the house