I believe "shaved" is the expression.

[Adam]

Unfortunately, I didn't experience my very own American Pie moment with a hot foreign exhange student. Not even with the crazy lady who lives one block over. No, I am referring to my poor pooch. The little lady seemed to be having an issue with her...ummm...personal area, so I took her to the vet today. Turns out, it was an infection that required her to get shaved...down there. "Sanitary clip," they call it. Poor girl. Doesn't seem to happy about it, and I can't blame her! She got the infection because she's a plus-sized model (a small roll of fat was causing the problem), so that diet that keeps getting put off is now going to get enforced. Talk about adding insult to injury. "Wait a minute. First, you shave my privates, and then you won't even give me a biscuit?!? It's go time, little man."

Of course, I can't explain to her why she's on a diet - so I'll be sleeping with one eye open for a while. After all, I'm the only easily available source of meat in the house.

 

[jamie2112]

Lol Adam, Watch yourself she seems upset. Shave and a diet? Oh boy she is probably going to be in a mood for a few days. Just give her the love she deserves and your girl will be back to herself in no time.....

 

[Adam]

Thanks, Jamie. I'm looking forward to her having lost some weight, just not looking forward to the time it takes to lose it. She should be about 50-55 pounds, and she's at 64 right now. I think that she'll be a lot happier once she drops the weight, especially with how hot it gets here in the summer. She used to drag me around for walks that lasted over two hours, and that's when it was 95 degrees or more. Now, she's more into spending about an hour on a walk in the summer, and she hates the heat. That, and it'll be better on her joints and such once she's lighter.

 

[markw]

Which reminds me of a joke.

A lady found out her dog could hardly hear so she took it to the veterinarian. He found the problem was hair in its ears and cleaned both ears and the dog could hear fine. The veterinarian told the lady if she wanted to keep this from recurring, she should go to the store, pick up some Nair hair remover, and rub it in the dogs ears once a month.

The lady goes to the drugstore and gets some Nair. At the register, the druggist tells her "If you're going to use this under your arms, don't use deodorant for a few days." The lady responds: "I'm not using it under my arms."

The druggist says: "If you're using it on your legs, don't shave for a couple of days." The lady answers: "I'm not using it on my legs either, and if you must know, I'm using it on my schnauzer."

The druggist says: "In that case, stay off your bicycle for a week.

ba-da-boom!

(I honestly forget where I first heard this)

 

[Adam]

Hee, hee, hee!

 

[jamie2112]

Good one lol.....

 

[darien87]

I'm almost afraid to ask this, but how did you even know your dog had a problem with her hoo-hoo?

 

[Adam]

I'm almost afraid to ask this, but how did you even know your dog had a problem with her hoo-hoo?

I'll spare you the almost-surely-inappropriate jokes.

She's a white dog, and a dark color in that area had been spreading. When I went to clean her, the rag came away dark red, so I was afraid that she was bleeding. She's spade, so that would normally be an infection or kidney problem. Luckily, it appears that the red color was actually just a dark-colored yeast.

Took me a while before I'd get in there to really clean it, as that's a zone that I try to stay away from...well, at least when other species are involved.

 

[MinusTheBear]

What is your dog suffering from, is it a urinary tract infection? Is she on any antibiotics.

 

[Adam]

What is your dog suffering from, is it a urinary tract infection? Is she on any antibiotics.

Nope, just a yeast infection, I believe. My job is to clean the area and put some powder on her twice a day. I think the powder just keeps that area dry.

 

[jliedeka]

I hope your dog gets better. We had a situation with an overweight cat when I was a kid. She had longish hair so we gave her laxatives to pass the hairballs. Then she had loose excrement sticking to her back end which led to urinary infections. She eventually died of one of those infections.

The cats I have now also have long hair. That wasn't my first choice but when I saw them at the humane society, I had to adopt them. I don't mess around if I see any hygiene problems, they go right to the bathroom sink and get cleaned.

Jim

 

[j_garcia]

Ugh. One of our cats is a Manx and he has medium hair. We have to shave (trim, not bald) his butt about once a month or things start to stick to his hair too.

The other one had been really sick for a while - he had an infection in one of his eyes to the point where you couldn't even see his eye anymore. Oddly, the infection also made his (rear) glands swell too, so he was constantly licking his butt to the point that it was red a bald (awful). The vet finally got the right combination of antibiotics and steroids and he is doing very well now.

Here he is with a cone to stop the licking, before his eye got worse:

His eye is still a little cloudy from the whole incident, but at least it is functioning normally.

 

[Matt34]

What kind of dog food are you feeding her? How much per day did the vet recommend? I'm guessing 3/4cups to 1.5c twice daily based on her ideal weight. I can recommend to you some dog food that is much better than the majority of other commerically available brands based on the Army's Vetenarian Services research.

 

[j_garcia]

Food is often a factor in urinary tract infections in animals.

 

[Adam]

What kind of dog food are you feeding her? How much per day did the vet recommend? I'm guessing 3/4cups to 1.5c twice daily based on her ideal weight. I can recommend to you some dog food that is much better than the majority of other commerically available brands based on the Army's Vetenarian Services research.

Thanks, Matt! The biggest problem, IMO, are the treats that I give her. She was getting 1.5 cups/day of Iams dry food. However, she was also getting scraps, dog treats, 95-100% meat wet food from time to time, and so on. The vet recommended 1 cup/day and no treats. I've started the 1 cup/day and will phase out the treats, but she's getting fewer than before for sure.

What dog foods do you recommend?

 

[Matt34]

We feed our working dogs Science Diet Active based on the needed increase in calories our dogs require but there are a couple other brands that I would recommend for a more sedative lifestyle that most pets fall under.

Innova EVO- probably the best out there; doesn't rely on grains as filler, substitute’s potatoes for carbs. Somewhat expensive at $21 for a 13lb bag.

Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul- I've never used this personally but probably the "best for the buck" in the dog food business.

Nutro MAX or Nutro Natural Choice- Many different types, this is what I feed my own dogs due to its availability.

 

[MinusTheBear]

Canidae, Innova EVo, Solid Gold Barking At The Moon, Merrick, Artemis, **** Van Patten's Natural Balance. These are few off the top of my head that are really good. I read the Whole Dog Journal once in a while, this where I get the information. I can probably list you 20 other brands from the Whole Dog Journal that they recommend and probably even more that they hate. Dogs foods they did not reccommend were the popular brands like Eukenuba, Sciene Diet, Pedigree, Ol'roy (one of the worst foods to feed your dog), Iams (not the worst, not the best either)

 

[MinusTheBear]

Here it is, the Whole-Dog Journal's Recommended Dry Dog Foods

Artemis Pet Goods Fresh Mix, Natural 6 Mix, Azmira Holistic Animal Care, Bench & Field Pet Foods Bench & Field Holistic Natural Canine, Beowulf Natural Foods Back to Basics, Breeder's Choice Pet Foods, Burns Pet Health, By Nature BrightLife, Canidae Corp, Canine Caviar Canine Caviar Pet Foods, Castor & Pollux Pet Work, Della Natura Commodities Wenaewe, Diamond Pet Products Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul, Premium Edge, **** Van Patten's Nural Balance/Organic/Ultra Premium, Drs. Foster &Smith, Eagle Pet Products, Evanger's Super Premium, Fromm FAmily Foods Fromm Four Star Nutrionals, Healthy Pet Foods, Inc. Lick Your Chops Showbound Naturals, KLN Enterprsies Natural Planet Organics, Life4k9 Pet Food Corp, Merrick Pet Care, Natura Pet Products California Natura Evo, Innova, Nature's Variety Nature's Instinct, Newmans's Own Organics, Perfect Health Diet Products, Petcurean Pet Nutrtion Foundations, Go!Natural, Now!, Peton Distributors Peformatrin Ultra, Precise Pet Products Precise Plus, SmartPak LiveSmart, Solid Gold Heatlh Products Hund-NFlocken, MMillennia, Barking at the Moon, Taplow Feeds Firstmate Dog Food, Verus Pet Foods, Inc. Verus, Wellness, Wellness Simple Foods Solutions.

Whole-Dog Journal Not Recommended Dry Dog Foods

Beneful, Dads Bit Sized Meal, Diamond Original Formula, The Foodlife Recipe, Beef Formula, Gravy Train Dog Food, Hi-Pro Dog Food, Iams ProActive Health Adult Lamb Meal & Rice Formula, Kibbles`n` Bits Original Chicken & Beef, Max Adult, Nutro Natural Choice Adult Lamb & Rice, Nature's Recipe Adult Lamb Meal & Rice, Nutra Nuggets, Ol`Roy Gourmet Balance, Ol`Roy Dinner Rounds, Pedigree Complete, Purina Dog Chow Complete & Balanced, Purina One Total, Science Diet Adult Original.

 

[Adam]

John,

Very happy to hear that your cat is doing well now. Never fun when one of our friends is sick. At least with me, I get anxious because I often don't know what to do, and I can't ask my pooch what hurts or what is wrong.

 

[Adam]

Thanks to Matt and MTB for the food info!

The 95% meat food that I get is Evo (normally rabbit, but I got a variety pack last time). Very good stuff. I haven't tried their dry food, yet. Petfooddirect.com ran out of the Evo 95% Rabbit, so I tried Evanger's Super Premium (100% rabbit, 100% pheasant, 100% buffalo, and vegetarian) and think that it's a high quality food.

The dry food that I bought last (and will open once the current bag of Iams is gone in a few days) is By Nature organic food from Petsmart - about the same price as the Evo that Matt quoted. I've read quite a bit about Canidae but haven't driven out to the feed store in the neighboring town, which is the closest place to me that carries it.

Thanks again, guys!