Scary Caturday Blog Hop

 

This is my scary face for the Scary Caturday Blog Hop.

Bat dog

For comparison, here’s a real bat…

(bat photo source:http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/common-vampire-bat/)

You need to understand WHY I would even try to look like a bat. (Ok, you have to remember I was just a little immature puppy when I did this)

When I was little, I got into EVERY THING. E.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g!

For Mom and Dad to eat dinner in peace, they would put me in my crate and shut the door.

I would do my bat imitation to get their attention. It worked every time. They would laugh so hard they couldn’t eat. 🙂 

♥ Behr Behr the Bat Dog

 

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Quick Healthy Dog Snacks

Here’s a yummy snack that Mom started giving me to help me become and stay healthy. It is EASY PEASY!!

Here’s all you need:

The jar contains Mom’s homemade bone broth, but you can also  buy pre-made. If you’ve never made broth, it’s super easy. Mom just throws bones in a crock pot for about 24 hours (or more if she’s busy), strains the broth so I only get the yummy liquid (NO BONES!!!). Everyone in our family knows my favorite kitchen appliance is the crock pot. 🙂

Mix equal parts bone broth and raw goat’s milk and pour into cute molds, like these:

And here’s the finished treat…

Hey, enough with the pictures. Just give me the popsicle before it melts!!

Nom Nom 🙂 

♥♥ Behr Behr, the Queen of Hearts

Note from Behr’s mom: If you still feel intimidated about making bone broth, here’s a veterinarian showing you how she makes it and why she gives it to her dogs: (Dr Karen Becker)

She goes through more steps than I do, and I prefer to not leave a pot on the stove that I’m not watching. (thus the crock pot)  Bone broth is full of minerals and also collagen and glycine that help with detoxifying AND rebuilding health. Glycine (highest food source is bone broth) also helps with liver repair.

To keep from adding more toxins, I would use the purest water you can obtain (not tap water) and if you can afford it, organic bones (+ grass fed if beef or lamb bones).

I also used raw goat’s milk, which is sold in most states for pets. It is sold in frozen form. The brand I used also has turmeric (anti-inflammatory and detoxifier) and probiotics. It is tested for pathogens before being sold. You can read about it here: https://primalpetfoods.com/products/raw-goat-milk#variant=36507811666. You could also buy other brands that are local to your area, or even dehydrated if none is available. A special thank you to Krisser’s Natural Pet store for introducing me to this recipe.

Wordless Wednesday – Field of (my) Dreams

Why I had Shiny Poop

Note: This is part 3 of my poisoning story. To understand this part, you should read part 1 and part 2 first)

Some GOOD things happened after my yummy snack poisoning incident too. Mom said that humans say “Every cloud has a silver lining”, meaning finding good in a very bad situation. I’ve never seen a shiny silver cloud, but I DID see my poop get shiny. Does that count?

The Day I Was Poisoned, Part 2

(If you haven’t read part 1 of this story, please do so here :Poisoned part 1 )

Boy was I SCARED being in that hospital all by myself! I was super sick and Mom and Dad were nowhere around to hold me and tell me it would be ok. 😦 I just wanted to go home to my own bed and family.

The hospital place did all kinds of scary things to me and they didn’t even remember to feed me. Totally mean!! Sometimes I would cough and choke until I couldn’t breathe.

FINALLY Mom came for me and we went home. Unfortunately, I had to go back again because my lips and gums were turning blue. Is blue really a bad thing?

I had to take some yucky medicine to help heal my throat and I couldn’t run anymore without trouble breathing. Since I LOVE to run (even zoomie runs in our house), this was depressing. It was almost a year before I could run more than about 1 minute without the coughing and choking thing.

so depressed 😦

You can see the spot on my leg where I had something called ivy. (I.V.)

IVY marks

At least Mom and Dad took turns sleeping on the floor close by me, which was comforting. When I got really scared from they would pet me and calm me down!!

Mom did everything she could to help me get better and to live, and it worked. I’m really glad she did, and that I lived to tell you all about it! 

♥ The (Phoenix) Behr Behr

Mom’s side of the story.. Behr’s difficulty breathing was such a concern that we took turns sleeping by her so we could listen in case she stopped breathing. We never knew when she would have to be rushed back to the vet again, and were on edge for WEEKS after this crazy incident. We also didn’t know if she would EVER be her normal self again,  and we felt so sad for her. It was obvious that the the choking scared her a lot. (us too)

During this whole ordeal, Behr apparently damaged her esophagus, causing ulcers on it. She was put on a medication called Sucralfate that helped her heal, but had it’s own set of complications. (Most medications side effects of some sort) The medication itself can cause difficulty breathing and vomiting, which only added to the problem. Besides that, I was concerned about the fact that this medicine is 21 % aluminum by weight, which is also a neurotoxin (as was the insecticide).

When she was done with this whole episode, my next project was to find out how to DETOX all of the chemicals used during the event and to restore her health. I’ll tell you more about what I did in the next post, since some of it applies to things our dogs are exposed to in their daily lives.

Behr’s mom 🙂

 

The Day I was Poisoned

It all started out as a fun hike with mom on a lovely spring morning. She took me to one of MY favorite trails.

I like it because a big part of it is on private land and the owner said I can run around without being tied to Mom with that silly leash thing.

Mom took me to the field where she finally un-hooked me so I could run and play. Yippee!! I LOVE deep grass!! I stopped to rest for a minute and then we were off to the top of the mountains.

I got to run free ahead of Mom at the distance I’m allowed. We stopped for water and snacks at the top like we usually do. You can see part of the trail we came up in the photo.

On the way down, I was running ahead on the trail. This was the last photo Mom took because “the incident” happened right after she took this photo.

So, as I was leading Mom on the trail, I spied a yummy green snack lying on the ground. Perfect! Mom didn’t give me any greens today. Just in case Mom didn’t want me finding my own snacks (sometimes she doesn’t appreciate my help), I glanced to make sure she was too far away to stop me and grabbed the snack.

Sure enough, she ran toward me and tried to get the snack out of my mouth. Ha! I still got a bunch of it anyhow 🙂 

We were almost back to our car when I started to feel super SUPER sick.. I had trouble breathing, was trembling, stumbling, and vomiting and drooling a lot with my now blue lips. Everything after that is just a blur. All I remember is having to go to the animal hospital. 😦 I guess Mom will have to tell you what happened next. 

We’ll finish the story tomorrow, so stay tuned.

♥ Behr Behr, the (Phoenix) Dane

Wow! What a scare! One minute Behr Behr was a happy puppy running free on the hills, the next, a terrified and desperately sick girl. The yummy green “treat” that she helped herself too was horse poop. Normally gross, but not dangerous.

It turns out that this particular horse had been given what’s called a “pass- through” insecticide to cause it’s poop to be a neurotoxin for flies attracted to it. The vet ultimately said the dose for a 1500 pound horse ended up in a 105 pound dog. NOT GOOD!!

When I arrived at the animal hospital, they took one look at her and ran toward her, scooped her up, and dashed off to a treatment room with her. (weird hospital didn’t even let me go with her…!) They said she looked poisoned. I was honestly scared at this point, and didn’t know if she would make it. They finally sent me home and said they would keep me posted. (ugh. They saved her life, but I won’t return to THAT hospital again!!)

I didn’t even get to hug her goodbye or comfort her or anything.

Needless to say, I didn’t sleep much at all while she was gone because they said they weren’t sure she would live through this.

Stay tuned for part 2 Saturday …

Phoenix Rising!

I’ve asked Mom to help me write my blog again because I miss all of my friends in the blogosphere. I HAD to ask for help because it’s too hard for me to type with my paws 🙂 Could somebody please invent a keyboard for dogs!?

Mom and I went through some REALLY scary and difficult things since I last wrote to you. BUT…we’re still here together! So, it was only natural that we come back as a team this time.

I have survived being poisoned, partially paralyzed, major toxins and more. Whew! I told you it’s been “RUFF.” Amazingly, Mom had similar things happen. Since it’s my blog, though, we’ll mainly talk about HOW I survived all of these. Mom can start her own blog if she wants to talk about her stuff in detail.…

Hey, have you ever realized what a scary word “detail” is?? I’d sure be scared to lose MY tail!!?? Nothing like a de-tailed dog.

I also have GOOD things to tell you about!!! In spite of all of the above, I’ve won LOTS of titles in a dog competition called “nosework”, and I’m the 1st Great Dane to do so. WooHoo!!! I showed them just how SMART Great Danes can be!!!

As for my age, I’m going to be >>> 11 <<< in a few weeks. People stop us where ever we go and are absolutely STUNNED when they hear my age. One vet we saw said he had never even seen a Dane my age before. It’s even more amazing that I’m this healthy and active after my little… um…calamities.

Mom suggested our comeback title be “Team Phoenix” to describe us.

Hmmm.We’ve been to Phoenix before, and I don’t see anything that resembles us there.

(Photo by DGustafson Photo via Good Free Photos)

Oh, wait! Maybe she’s talking about her favorite flashlight in the whole world…a Fenix PD35. Of course! The flashlight that saved us from the mountain lion! (but that’s a different story for later) My mom is a bit of a flashlight geek. She always has to have the best,newest, brightest and so on. {Note from Behr’s mom to FENIX- if you’re reading this, please feel free to send me prototypes to test!!}

They ARE really handy when we’re camping or hiking. Helps her find my toys and snacks in the dark, and important things like that

Even though that sounded like it fit, she said we are “team phoenix” because of some silly bird that rises from the ashes of a fire.

(https://pixabay.com/en/phoenix-bird-fire-bright-red-swing-1440452/ Creative Commons photos)

That sounds pretty goofy to me. I wouldn’t ever even lie down in ashes because they are messy and I don’t like the heat at all. I guess if I were a phoenix bird, I’d be happy to fly away from the ashes too.

So, we’re back and telling you all about our adventures AND about the things we’ve learned that have kept me healthy through everything. I’ll write about the adventures (or misadventures…) and Mom about the health stuff.

♥ Behr Behr, the (Phoenix) Bird Dog (not)

 

Hi. Behr Behr’s mom here. So glad you’ve joined us on the blog. I’ll be writing about how I’ve had to abandon my criticism of alternative medicine (after spending my whole career working in standard Western medicine), and admit that alternative can actually work. How humbling and eye-opening that has been for me.

Yet, it is because of Behr Behr that I have been sent on a major research journey discovering what I can do to save her live and maintain her health. I only wish I had learned earlier what I now know. 

I’ll be adding in the health, detox, and mountains of research comments during our comeback. Hope you’ll join us, even if that’s not your current interest.