Monday personal praxis: anyone know generic brand (ie cheaper) good stuff for dogs?
Mar 24th, 2008 by nancyzimmerman
Maggie, usually the dashund girl with the iron stomach, threw up a million times last night, poor thing.
Last time she got sick in the middle of the night (allergic reaction to bug sting) I spent 1am - 4am in pet emerg, and spent $300 only to find out really she just needed an over-the-counter antihistamine to reduce the swelling.
That got me thinking last night. I have saved a trip to europe by purchasing no-name equivalents of tylenol, asperin etc. I also like shopping at Winners.
Obviously I never want to put my ‘hounds health at risk, but this got me thinking: what are the doggy equivalents?
For example:
- I purchased an Expensive Bottle of Oil that I add to their food to keep the boy dog’s skin from itching. Recently, I heard bottles of fish-oil-pills will do the same. Anyone know if that’s true? Or other suggestions?
- I purchase raw chicken wing tips from my favourite hi-end doggy store. There’s a really inexpensive human-meat store a block away. Any reason it would be less safe to buy the same from them? And spend my savings on other stuff at the hi-end doggy store like those gorgeous pillows?
- Any suggestions of plants that are good to help the dogs throw up when they need to? (sorry to be gross on the blog)
- What about cheap toys? (they love squeeky stuff)
- And if anyone can recommend good value dog walkers that specialize in small dogs (Vancouver) let me know.
Readers: as you can see, these guys really want to know!
I can tell you from experience (and trusted vet recommendation) that human-quality fish oil will do wonders for a dog’s skin and coat - in fact, it saved me a bundle in vet fees over the years, with one dog who had had a chronic sensitivity to… well, the entire outdoors, just about. I would have to assume that human-grade meat would also be fine for dogs - but do stay away from cheap squeeky toys. Quite apart from the question of what toxins might be in the plastic/vinyl/whatever they’re made of in China, cheap toys can come apart very quickly into hazardous small bits to be swallowed. Better to get a couple of good squeaky toys and rotate them: like kids, the dogs will soon forget a toy that’s out of sight for a time, and they’ll be all surprised and delighted when you suddenly present it to them (again, weeks later) on a rainy day!
Here are my dog experiences. Much of my dog wisdom is gathered from my dog’s breeder who is always available to me for info.
My dog gets a Salmon Oil capsule once a day. I buy mine at Costco. I also give her a 2 tablespoons of canola oil in her breakfast, this is for her coat and wards off doggy dandruff.
Flaxseed is suppose to be very good for dogs, but mine is allergic to it…goes right through her. Yuck!!!
In the past I have given antihistamines, Pepto Bismol and ibuprofen to my dog on the advice of vet and breeder. I base the dosage on her weight and the recommendations for children.
My dog gets chicken necks & backs and I buy them at the butcher at Granville Island. It is the cheapest and freshest in the city .45 cents/lb. My feeling about the chicken at the dog store is that it is just more conveniently packaged, some are from organic feed, free range but that can be found at the butcher as well if you chose to go that route.
I do buy my dog’s ground food from the dog store. My dog is on the RAW diet. I attempted to make it once by food processor at home but ended up having raw meat, veggies EVERYWHERE and decided the ease and health safety of having someone else mix it all up for me was a wise use of money.
Although I have bought cheap $ store toys in the past I am hearing warnings about lead and other dangerous chemicals in the toys so I am backing away from those.
As far as something to make them throw up…not so sure about that. My dog likes to eat grass. Apparently there are some household plants that are dangerous to dogs including geraniums and poinsettias. I think if I felt my dog needed to throw up and wasn’t, I would check it out with a vet. Are dachshunds more susceptible to barfing…yours seem to do it a lot….could there be something in the environment that is making them ill? A detergent, cleaning fluid, perhaps? You may have to take things away and reintroduce to figure out what it is.
I don’t have a dog walker but need to find a good over night caregiver .
Hope this helps.
@rjleaman - thanks for dropping by! and it sounds like you and I have similar doggy issues. My guy developed pretty severe allergies to the outdoors at large too. I’m very relieved to read that fish oil has helped. I’ll start using it too.
@MJ - OK, I’ll give the chicken necks a go at my local butcher (that SaveOn Meats place on hastings by Army & Navy). And spend the sa