What you need to know about dog food.

I don't know what it is about today, but suddenly several of my facebook friends are very concerned about their dogfood.
It could be the weather, or the moon, or something, but clearly we need to have a chat. So lets tackle this quick and easy like..


"My dog is [pick one: gassy, itchy, smelly, constantly getting ear or yeast infections, fat, etc]"
- The first answer is food. These are all symptoms of poor quality dog food, some are signs of even high quality dog food that your dog is allergic to.
Side note: I can help you isolate allergens. I've done it successfully for several of my friends. Your vet may or may not be able to do this, but it will cost an arm and a leg and will take at least 6 months to a year. I'm better.. and currently free.

"So I'm unhappy with my dog's food - what food should I choose?"Part 1: Yay! You should be. Most dogfood is garbage. Need proof? check out: http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/
Part 2: Well that's tricky.. because the availability of certain foods depends on where you live. In addition, even if you buy the "BEST" dog food on the market, it's completely useless to you if it contains an ingredient that your dog is allergic/sensitive to. But let's assume your lucky dog doesn't have any allergies. Here's what you should do:

Stay away from the grocery store. When I first started out on the dog food discovery tour, I spent HOURS and HOURS in the grocery store reading ingredient lists. It was all garbage. Every bit of it. I never bought dogfood from a grocery store again. Don't believe me? Go look for yourself. Here's a handy dandy guide you can use for reference when you don't know what all those gross words mean:
http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=badingredients

Also - Avoid pet food corporations. They're expensive. The markup is stupid.. and the markup on any real quality food that you find there is even stupider. Save your dollars. Expensive does not = better. Yes, you'll have to pay more for quality dog food than the sawdust and animal waste you've been buying.. but that doesn't mean you have to sell your soul to do it.

Most importantly - spend some time learning about dog food. Here's a great place to start.
http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=labelinfo101

And finally an answer to the question: Taste of the Wild.
http://www.tasteofthewildpetfood.com/
Here's why: Taste of the Wild is good quality, but does not break the bank. It can be found fairly easily - use the locator if you have to, and is at the same price point as some crappy foods like Eukanuba. (Oh that's right, that "premium" dog food you thought was worth paying gold bricks for is not so good after all)
Also - It's grain free! Yay!
If you can't find TOTW near you, just try to find an ingredient list comparable to it.

Another fave - The Honest Kitchen. It's dehydrated raw food. It's not cheap - but if I wasn't worried about money, I would pick this.. just be careful to rehydrate it fully before feeding.. or that could be dangerous.

"Why do I care if it's grain free?"Because your dog is a carnivore, and is incapable of really digesting grains. Grains are just filler in dog food, and throw off the calorie:protein ratio, which gets really scientific and technical, but they're a waste of space, and they make your dog poo more, and since they're not digested properly, they make your dog's poo smell worse. When you switch to grain free, the dogs poo less because they are using a higher percentage of their food for ACTUAL nutrition. If you stopped eating fillers and garbage, you would poo less too. There are tons of other benefits, but I'll save that for another post.

"This is like twice as much money as [whatever garbage] I WAS feeding my dog"Well, duh.
That's because this has ACTUAL meat in it. The same thing happens when you eat an ACTUAL cheeseburger compared to the dollar double at the fast food place.
But your vet bills will be cheaper, your dog will live longer, and you don't have to feel guilty about cheaping out on your most loyal and unconditionally loving family member.. and depending on your family, quite possibly your most well behaved family member.

"But, it's just a dog"
I. hate. you.

~T

If you'd like to check out some options for all natural ped foods and other stuff, this website has a pretty sweet spring deal happening now:

Taking the plunge & Transition - Prey model

Its certainly been no secret that I've wanted better food for my dogs. I've been researching it off and on for years, and especially since deciding that we want to start showing dogs in the future.
Well we finally took the plunge 12 days ago into what is called "Prey Model" raw feeding.
The idea here is that Dogs are naturally carnivores, and therefore we should feed them as such.

I won't get into the details, but I will provide links for more information, should you be interested.
http://www.mypetcarnivore.com/learn-about-rawfeeding
http://preymodelraw.com/how-to-get-started/
Calculator to determine how much/what to feed.
Anyway - here's the results of almost two weeks of raw feeding:

We started them out on dark-meat chicken quarters, with skin removed. The skin/fat is pretty hard to digest if they're not used to it, and its already a big change, so I removed it. They were admittedly confused by the new meal, and it took a while for them to get the hang of it, but once they did - they loved it.

Day 3 we had a bit of a mishap overnight. I think I left too much skin on the chicken, and someone had some tummy trouble upstairs. I made sure afterwards to be more careful - and things have gone well.

Day 8, I added a heart & gizzards to the regular meal. While this was received eagerly, it did seem to cause some digestive upset because I didn't provide any bone to counteract the amount of protein/phosphorous. (in other words, it wasn't a balanced meal)

Day 11 - We've noticed that they look thin, but this is likely because i've been removing the skin from the chicken, which in turn removes a lot of calories. I've begun (slowly) adding the skin back in, and they seem to be handling it fairly well, and will hopefully regain some of the lost weight.
I've also noticed Boston being more playful in the daytime.
Everyone seems to smell less like a dog, and the backyard is surprizingly clean.
I'm not thrilled with their coat texture at the moment, but from what I understand this is a normal "detox" situation, and they often shed some rough unpleasant fur while they're getting bad stuff out of their bodies, and that it will go away as the diet gets more established. They may also need the oils from the chicken skin they haven't been getting until now.

Their meals do not currently include organ meat, which will increase their nutrient and caloric intake considerably.

This week - I'm hoping to add ground beef to the menu - but need to stock up on bones to balance it out. Ground beef is fattier and higher calories, as well as being better for Boston's heart condition, so i'm excited to see those improvements.

We were also brought some "offal" from a local hunter, and are very appreciative. Shane is going hunting this weekend, so hoping that goes well too!

Pinky Mice & Other Expiements...

So a couple days ago i (finally) convinced my husband to take the raw plunge,

and I've been "testing" the waters a little bit with the dogs.
We used to own a snake that ate pinky mice, and although the snake has been gone
for a while, we still have several packages of pinky mice in the freezer. So I
thought I'd make use of them.
Our 2 GSDs are used to catching and crunching an ice cube from the freezer every
time we open it. So, I just tossed them a frozen mouse instead. It was eagerly
consumed like it was nothing new. The Great Dane, however, spit it right back
out like it was an alien.
So then I thought maybe if it wasn't so cold he'd be more open to it. So I
thought the mouse out, and gave it to him. He took it, but was clearly uncertain
what he should do once it reached his mouth.
Then, he punctured it's abdomen and I assume whatever unpleasantries might be in
a mouse gut, promptly got in my dogs mouth. He spit it out immediately, and
started foaming and drooling to get the mess out.
He wont try mouse anymore.

However, I also have some venison meat in the freezer, so I thawed a pound or so
of that. it's small steaks probably no more than a couple ounces each. I put
them the GD's bowl, and he immediately started licking.. and licking.. and
licking.. I tried to praise and encourage, but it took forever before he finally
picked one up, and plopped it down onto my kitchen floor, sniffed it, and
returned to licking what was in his bowl.
Eventually, when all of the steaks had been plopped on the floor, he picked them
up one at the time and began to slowly eat them. I witnessed for the first time
what I've read about dogs not knowing how to chew their food, because it was
obvious he couldn't quite get the hang of it. Fortunately he's a big dog with a
big throat, and they were fairly small pieces, so he was able to scarf them
down, however ungracefully. Except the last piece, which he chewed a few times
and returned to the floor, then lost interest. I gave up on him and split it
between the other dogs who are apparently way less picky.

Anyway - We're not going to start the raw diet for another week, for multiple
reasons I won't get into here, but I'm definitely glad we decided to start with
the chicken quarters, as clearly at least one dog needs some chewing lessons.
The mice are getting dumped occasionally a few at a time into the cat bowl, and that seems to be going well.

Basic Dog Food Recipe preface:

My opinion on dog food is no secret, but its certainly not widely accepted either. I can only hope that somewhere out in the internet world, someone will decide to hear me out, and give this recipe a try, or at least be open minded enough to try to improve their dog's nutrition.

Before you get the recipe, there's some basic background that you need to know.
For starters, although we consider them carnivores, the domesticated dog should by slightly more omnivorous than their wild counterparts, the wolf.
Why? Consider this: in the wild, wolves are opportunistic hunters and scavengers. They will often survive by hunting small game, such as rabbits, or by "cleaning up" the leftovers of some other animal's dinner, or by picking the weak from a herd of large game, particularly if one is isolated, injured, or ill.
Now that sounds fairly carnivorous to me, and it is, but theres two factors usually left unmentioned; Variety, and Source.

Variety is about the range of food in the diet. While there may be a favorite, or a most common meal, a wolf will often have multiple protein sources. Perhaps rabbit one day, goose the next, perhaps deer after that. Part of being in the wild means there is very little regularity, and therefore a significant variety in the diet. When comparing this to the domesticated dog's diet, there is a single source. In fact, most people stick to a particular brand of dog food. But different protein sources have different vitamin and mineral content, and so by sticking to one variety of dog food, you're sticking to one level of vitamin/minerals.
To be fair, chicken is usually a pretty well-balanced option.

Which brings us to Source. Wild wolves, with the exception of an occasional raid on a human neighborhood, eat wild animals. Wild animals also enjoy the benefits of variety in their diet. Therefore the wolves eat the wild animals that have grown up eating a variety of things and the wild version of, for example, a rabbit, would have significantly improved nutritional quality compared to a captive rabbit that gets fed rabbit chow. In addition, the source of the prey determined physical fitness, which effects it's fat level. This is where the chicken that was a decent option for Variety becomes a less desirable one. The chicken commonly used to make dog food is pretty much always the bottom of the barrel. commercially raised with less than ideal nutrition, then processed and poor enough quality that the FDA or USDA won't approve it for human consumption. Thus, while the free range garden fed chicken might have been an excellent option for dog food.. the actual chicken that gets used to make the dog food is far from ideal.

To offset this effect, we can utilize a number of countermeasures. First, we can vary the proteins we feed our dogs. Second, we can identify better sources for that protein.

Please don't misunderstand, unless you have a truly impressive grocery store, you're not going to be able to call them and recommend that they find a better source for their in-house brand of dog food.  The only way to really do this is to stop using the poorly sourced dog foods.

So you can switch to a better dog food, but "more expensive" does not always equal "better".. and beyond that, the best quality dog food in the world isn't worth much at all when your dog has an allergy to one of the ingredients.

To start, you'll have to do some research, but, fortunately, a lot of it has been done for you already by scientists and breeders alike. This website is a great start, and any good breeder will tell you to stick to the "premium" dog foods, and most show breeders will tell you to stick to 5 and 6 star foods only.
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/

Which brings me to a new subject:
"I'm not planning on showing my dog, He's just a yard dog, so I don't have to feed him this fancy mess"
This sentence makes me cringe. But, for now, suffice it to say, yes you do. I'll save the rant for another day.

Now back to the task at hand.
The best way to know for a fact that you're providing variety from a good source is to make your dogs food yourself. In fact, many show dog owners feed a "BARF (Bones And Raw Food) diet", and I would strongly reccomend that as well. Again, the "why" will be saved for another post.

So, we've finally reached the point.
Dog food needs to be better. Your dog deserves better. If you want something done right, do it yourself.
Every dog is different, and this recipe should be tweaked according to your dogs breed, activity level, and specific health requirements. If you'd like to see how to tweak this recipe for your dog, feel free to contact me and i'd be happy to work with you to figure it out.


Basic Dog Food Recipe:
3 parts Whole, Raw Bone-in chicken thighs
1 part Vegetables
Supplements

Mix and Serve.


Yes. That's it.

It's really that easy.

Then, you vary according to what's in season, what's on sale, and what your dog needs. In deer season, throw in some venison. Went fishing? Throw in some fish. Chickens laid extra eggs? Soft boil them, then throw them in. Zucchini on sale? go for it. Having turkey for thanksgiving? That bag full of yuckies is perfect for the dogs.
It's that simple, and it's still better than dog food.

Of course, you'll want to read up on the foods you can't feed your dog, but it's a relatively short list.



BUT WAIT!
Before you go feeding this every day, please be aware than just like a human, changes in diet can lead to tummy trouble. Particularly since this is raw food, your dog has likely never had raw food before, and therefore lacks the enzymes required to digest it. The result is a very unhappy pup, and probably an unhappy owner. You can add some of these enzymes back into the diet in the form of supplements.
The Great Dane Lady is a great resource for picking out supplements and you can find her here:http://www.greatdanelady.com/articles/core_4.htm

Even with supplements, there will be a transition period, especially if you feed grocery store dry food now. I would strongly reccommend gradually switching to a super-premium dry dog food, then using that exclusively, then gradually switching to the homemade diet. The entire switch should take a month or so, depending on the dog.
Still, I volunteered to create a recipe, and while most variations on the ratio above will suffice, a recipe it is not.
So, bearing in mind that the dog I make this for is significantly larger than most, this is my recipe, I encourage you to make smaller batches.

6 Raw, Bone in, Skin on Chicken Thighs
1 Raw chicken back with livers attached
1 cup green beans par-boiled
1 cup chopped cooked carrots
2 soft boiled eggs, still in shell.

mixed with the following to make a gravy:
1 can Low sodium chicken broth,
a pinch each of rosemary, thyme, oregano, parsley
1/4cup frozen, thawed blueberries
1/4 cup plain yogurt
4 dog multivatamins, crushed.


This recipe is based off of what I had in the fridge at the time, and what I was planning to eat for dinner that night. Being the frugal not-quite-housewife that I am, I like to buy whole chickens, and cut them up for meals, especially when they're on sale. I also like to stock up on thighs and legs because we prefer dark meat, and it's also pretty cheap on sale. I think I got these thighs for 69cents/lb..
The rosemary, thyme, oregano, and parsley are all herbs from my own garden, and each have health benefits, especially parsley. Green beans and carrots are pretty much the easiest veggies to find, and pretty cheap too, so I try to keep them on hand as much as possible. The 4 multivitamins is actually the recommended dose for my huge dog, so please dont feed that to yours because you'll probably make him sick with vitamin toxicity.

You'll notice there are no grains in my recipe, and that's because i'm pretty strongly against them. The only reason to feed a dog grains is to keep costs low, which is not a good enough reason for me, especially when the largest portion of the recipe is only 69c/lb. In the winter, and for some cases, i would recommend adding peeled potatos or pasta to the mix, but in general, why bother?

The Dog Food Pyramid doesn't exist.

Finding a good Homemade recipe for dog food is something I've looked into quite a bit since becoming a dog owner. As part of my perspective that nutrition is the future of preventative medicine and the key to efficiency in the home, nutrition for my dogs becomes increasingly more important.

Boston's recent diagnosis of heart disease and immenent heart failure has reinvigorated my search for something better. While the disease is not caused by insufficient diet, a better diet can help keep the symptoms at bay.

In the past, my main goal when searching for dog food is to find something as close as possible to what a dog would eat in nature. Finding ingredients with real words that I recognize is step 1.
Heart disease has forced me to take it a step further.

One of the side effects/ symptoms/ signs of heard disease is Pulmonary Adema. More commonly known as fluid in the lungs, it's caused by the heart not pumping efficiently enough to clear out the lungs. You may have also heard the term "Congestive Heart Failure", and the word "Congestive" refers to the "Congestion" in the lungs or heart (sometimes in other places, too).

As with Congestive Heart Failure in humans, one of the primary dietary concerns is the amount sodium the patient eats. For Boston, the cardiologist recommended less than .25% dry matter. (I think i'm gonna do another blog post in the not-too-distant future about food label terminology, but for now, just focus on the number)

So I excitedly went to my local pet food retail center. I was on a mission armed with one of my favorite weapons, a number! I love a number because its easy to tell when it's right or wrong. I hate it when a vet gives me terms like "lethargic" because I can't measure it, and I can't tell if my dog is lethargic or just a lazy couch potato like every other great dane i've ever heard about. But I can tell when a number is less than or greater than .25!

Except that sodium content is not listed on the ingredient list of dog foods. Awesome.

So I did what I had to do, and found the 1-800 number on the bottom of the bag, and called to find out sodium content.

Boston is also allergic to rice, so the dry bagged dog food options are limited already, which was probably a good thing because otherwise I would have had to call every 1-800 number in the store. Instead, I was able to skip quite a few that I knew from previous investigations did not have a rice-free formula. I ended up calling 10 companies.
Of those, 2 had low sodium rice-free options, neither of which were sold in my particular location.
Fantastic. Reason number 759 I hate living in a small town.

I had to buy something, the dogs have to eat, so I went with the same dog food I normally buy, high sodium and all. But I got home and started my search for a homemade recipe again.

Every time I search for  dog food recipes online, I just get mad. There is an emmense void of understanding about canine nutrition, and the internet proves that tenfold.  If you do a search for "canine nutritional requirements", one of the first results is a website that says how awful it is to give your dog bones and specifically says "cooked or uncooked" bones are bad. Then on the SAME page is a link for a BARF recipe (stands for Bones And Raw Food), of which a primary ingredient is raw animal bones. It's just one example of the internet as a whole.

The truth is, we just don't know that much about canine nutrition, and there is no official guideline for dogs like there is for humans. I think it sucks, but it's the truth, and just like always, we have to do the best we can.

I've been invited to guest-post my resulting recipe on a friend's blog, and hope to have it up for the Reckless Culinarian by next weekend. The recipe won't be perfect, and I'll do my best to identify the areas for improvement, so that hopefully if you know of , or can find a better solution, you can make it happen.

The meal is something that will look very similar to one you might cook for yourself.  A main entree, vegetables, and a "filler". The term filler getsa bad rap, and most of the time when it comes to dog food, it probably should.  But we all use filler in our diets, and in fact it is an important part of our nutritional requirements. You know this as your pasta, your bread, your rice, or your potato dish. It's the inexpensive part of the meal that makes the more expensive parts be enough to fill you up. The only thing that really changes to make it a dog food recipe, is the ratio of these different categories. Although, if you eat like a lot of Americans, you might not be changing the ratio at all.

So why can I make dog food out of "people" food, but I'm so against feeding dogs leftovers?
Most of it is preparation. When I cook food for my family of two, I pan sear in oil, I saute in oil, I fry in oil. None of that is acceptable for dog food.
I also add onion, butter, season with garlic and salt.. sometimes I take shortcuts with premade sauces or seasoning which are loaded with more salt and hidden sugar, not to mention more ingredients that are toxic for dogs.
But the gist of it is, if you eat steamed foods, and don't add fats and oils, and don't season with salt, and don't eat anything that is toxic to dogs, then I have no problem with you sharing your leftovers with your dog, in fact, I highly recommend it, because you probably will be doing fido a favor. Do your homework first, of course, but afterwards, go for it.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to my recipe unvealing on The Reckless Culinarian, and hope you'll at least consider it for your dog!

Lord Boston Eber Jager - and living on credit

Boston "Boss" is almost 3 years old. He's a male, AKC registered Great Dane. He's black with white paws, white chest, white muzzle, and a little white tip on his whip-like tail. He came to us in March of 2009, severely underweight, food aggressive, dehydrated, with a urinary tract infection and a strong fear of sticks.
He was brought to us by a friend of a friend, who had an acquaintance that could no longer afford to feed him or her two other dogs (both Boxers).
First I'd like to digress by saying this is one ridiculously common situation that makes me mad as fire. These are not small breeds of dog. They are not light eaters, if that even exists in dogs. When you buy a puppy, it's going to grow into a dog. In fact, it only takes a year or so. PLAN AHEAD PEOPLE. That said, I'm glad this one decided to find the dogs new homes before much longer, because I wonder if the dogs could have survived. I know that one of the dogs didn't.
Boston is my second Dane, and I have always loved the breed, and even though we already had two dogs, I am honored that our friends thought we were the best forever home for him. Over the last year and half (almost) we have isolated his food allergies, brought him back up to a healthy weight, improved on the food aggression, and are slowly getting over the fear of sticks. We have had a few set backs. Namely, he has had several bouts of colitis, which are incredibly unpleasant to wake up to, but which we are beginning to recognize earlier symptoms of, and are learning how to nip in the bud. And he is still protective over food, only now instead of his own, he will growl when someone gets too close to my food, which I don't quite understand yet.
More importantly, Boston has become an integral part of our little multi-species family. For those of you unfamiliar with Great Danes, they are a very family-oriented breed. Our other dogs (German Shepherds) like to go play in our back yard for hours together. Boston, like most Danes, prefers to stay with his humans. He follows us inside, he follows us outside, he follows us to the kitchen, to the office, to the bedrooms, and sometimes even to the bathroom (which he doesn't fit in, by the way!). When we're doing errands around the house, he stays with us while we do it. When we're watching a movie on the couch, so is he. Danes are the epitome of companion animals, and should never be expected to behave otherwise, because they probably wont!
He has earned a very special place in our hearts, on our living room sofa, and in our home.

Last month, at a routine vet appointment for a booster shot, our Vet noticed a very irregular heartbeat in Boston. As a measure of precaution, she listened again a few minutes later. Still, she was very concerned. She referred us to the North Carolina Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), the same one I hope to be applying to in a few years, for a consultation.
The reason for the concern is a disease called Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM). The name literally means "enlargement of the heart". Essentially, there is some stress on the heart, and with giant breeds that could simply be that he's so big it's hard to pump the blood to all those far away places, and the heart attempts to compensate for the stress by growing larger. This will allow the heart to pump a larger volume of blood at a time, and this mechanism works incredibly well for a while, sometimes for years. The problem is, it's not supposed to have to work for years.
Being from an Economics background, I like to think of this like living on credit cards. If you have a good job and available credit, and you lose your job, you could, in theory, survive off of your credit cards for a few weeks with just the bare minimum purchases until you got back on your feet, and then you could pay those credit cards back down, and it would be like it never happened. But if the job hunt takes longer than a few weeks, and if your car suddenly craps out and you have to buy a new transmission in order to get to interviews, and so on and so forth... Well obviously your credit is not going to support you indefinitely, and even when you do eventually get some income, it's going to be incredibly difficult to pay down the balance.

At some point, there's no credit left, and depending on how finances were managed before the job loss, some people will be able to support themselves longer than others.
When you extrapolate this scenario in terms of an enlarged heart, knowing that Boston's most critical developmental & physical growth period was riddled with poor diet, limited exercise, and possible mistreatment, not to mention just general instability and not great genes to begin with, it's easy to assume that Boston would not be able to live on credit for a particularly long time.

So the bill collectors begin to call. This is when the first symptom might be noticed. That irregular heartbeat our Vet. heard. This is the sound of a valve not doing it's job or a wall getting loose. Something in the engine stops working properly, and starts getting in the way. The Vet likened it to the sound of shoes in the clothes dryer. When I got to hear it for myself, she was absolutely right.

I asked her if I could do anything in the mean time, or what symptoms I should look out for.I was instructed to keep his regular schedule exactly the same, and the only other thing to look out for is sudden collapse. After doing some additional reading on my own, I've discovered that in some dogs, they get pulmonary edema as a secondary issue because of the heart not pumping the blood efficiently through the lungs. This is basically fluid in the lungs that causes difficulty breathing, and prompts a pretty distinctive cough. It may or may not occur in DCM patients.

So we set up the appointment with CVM, and it's tomorrow, July 14th.
Boston will begin preparing tonight at 9:30, when we put away the food bowl for the 12 hours before consultation. Then, tomorrow we'll leave for Raleigh at 8:30am with the folder I keep his medical history in, as well as his pet insurance policy information (which I HIGHLY recommend, by the way!)
We should arrive at CVM at 9:30 and fill out a few forms, then go over his medical history (or as complete as possible) and get the basic physical, and they'll give me the walk-through of what the tests are like, and what they do, and why we need them.
The most common tests for this disease are a chest Xray, an EKC, and an Echocardiogram (Ultrasound). The Vet may choose to do one or all of these tests, or may have another test they would like to try also.
After about an hour of that, I'll be excused, and they'll take Boss back to get him ready.
5 - 7 hours later, I'll get a phone call informing me that I can come get him. I have the option of waiting in the lobby during that time, or leaving. I'll probably leave though because I'll need to get my mind off of it.
When I get there to pick him up, I'll spend another hour going over the tests, and discussing a plan of action with the Vet.

The truth of the matter is, even if it's not actually DCM, it is something that needs to be taken seriously. The strange rhythm is bad, and will need to be treated, either surgically or pharmaceutically, depending on the cause.

The reason I brought this up is because I believe that there is a real person to blame for this. Maybe one could argue it's several people to blame. Honestly, we are facing a very real and very devastating loss. Financially, we are facing huge expenses. We are facing these because of human irresponsibility.
To clarify, I acknowledge that organs fail, and that all creatures pass away, even my own. But the irresponsibility of humans in Boston's past have expedited the process.
His previous owner did so by being at best a generally bad owner, and at worst being a neglectful or abusive owner. I don't have proof of the latter, but have no doubt about the former.
His breeder did so by:
a) pairing 2 dogs to sell puppies, instead of doing lineage research to find out about the genetic health problems of the resulting litter. I don't know the breeder, and although I've only looked a little bit, I haven't been able to find her. It may be the that this is just an incredibly unfortunate coincidence, but the likelihood is quite small that this would happen to offspring so young, if the breeder had been more responsible.
b) by finding a truly horrible home for her puppy. A responsible breeder should find a stable environment for the puppies in a litter, and from what I know of Boston's owner (which is more than I will put on the internet), she hadn't been stable in quite a while. This breeder, and gajillions like her, is the reason rescue groups and animal shelters are overflowing. She is the reason PETA thinks the AKC is a evil company, which it's not (I'll save the rest of that rant for another time). She is the reason people think dog breeders are horrible neglectful animal mis-treaters.

There are good, honest, people in the world that truly want to build better breeds, myself included. Stronger, healthier dogs without genetic predispositions to life-threatening illnesses. Or even those that have a predisposition for survival and to thrive. They really do exist! Unfortunately they get overshadowed by those that are irresponsible and focused on making money. Or maybe they're focused on something else, I don't really know because I don't understand. Suffice it to say they are not focused on the dogs or on improving the breed.

Anyway, tonight and tomorrow are going to be a challenge. I already have rocks in my stomach and have lost my appetite. I'm so ready to get it over with, but so not looking forward to bad news. I'll be saying my prayers, crossing my fingers, and making sure my babydog gets a very tasty dinner tonight, and knows how much we love him. That's the best we can do for now.