Finding Flea Control That Won't Cause Cancer

I just recently returned from the vet (a major chain) and after Gohan was given a clean bill of health, the vet advised that I immediately put him on monthly heart worm and spot flea control. I have always had a problem with spot flea control - every month? It goes on the skin but doesn't effect any other organ? That's a bit unbelievable even for the most naive of us.

In Mookie, Nikki, and Squeekie's 17 years of life, we only had 3 major flea out breaks:

1) Early nineties, Never made it to my house - I took the dogs on a trip to New Jersey and walked them at a rest stop. Ugh! Their feet were covered in five minutes! We traveled on the turnpike until we found a pet store and sprayed the car down and them. When we reached our destination, everyone got a flea bath.

2) 1997 - when we housed a friend's dog that had a mild infestation. This was the worst because it is the time I accidently used puppy spot treatment on the cat. I nearly killed her: her fur fell out at the point of contact, she meowed incessantly and was extremely lethargic. The only advice I received from the pet poison control number on the box was to wait it out. It was the worse 24 hours of our lives up until then and Squeekie (8 years old at the time) never forgot it.

3) Last November - 2007 Nikki (then 17 years old) had been nosing around on a neighbor's lawn. I don't have fleas in my back or front yards since I use natural pest controls. She came home with the worst infestation on her face and head. I immediately bathed her and all of her bedding, vacuumed all of the rugs and furniture, sprayed down the house and we all left for the day. Gohan had no signs of infestation, but he got the same treatment. I gave them both a spot treatment later that week. Nikki died a month later of old age issues. I'll never know if it was exacerbated by the treatment.

Anyway, I'm not a real fan of monthly pesticide treatments for living things. Chemicals change the make up of cells and that's not always good. As you can see from above, I only used the treatments after infestations - usually for 3 to 6 months, and otherwise used IPM (Integrated Pest Management) systems and treatments the rest of the time. Here's a bit of ironic craziness: Spot Drop manufacturers admit that the products may cause pets 25% life span reduction.

So now that it's spring in Washington, DC I'm looking for an effective way to keep 'big head' dawgie flealess. Being a larger dog, he is more apt to get into trouble (slip out the fence and run the neighborhood, eating other dog's food - what a clown).

I found this cedar based treatment on the 'net today. Called CedarCide, it was supposedly developed for the U.S. Army to combat desert sand fleas. I might just give it a try (and Gohan will smell like a felled tree in the forest). BEST YET KIT

Whole Dog Journal article: Spot-On Pesticides Are Not Safe

Nikki's last days

She made out that she hated that new big ol' pup, but when Mookie passed away in March 2007, try as she might not to do it - they got closer. He was still trying to get her to play with squeaky toys that were larger than her head. She would avoid him on the steps, but we would still find them sleeping together on the landing. One time I thought Gohan would squish her, but she never moved.

She took up the old Mookie pasttime of stealing Gohan's richer, non-senior food. However when Mookie left, there was a blankness in her eyes that never went away. Rarely could I get her to play the silly puppy games that until recently she still enjoyed - running around in circles, dancing on hind legs for treats. I assumed it was old age. Her hearing was still fine and she had a good appetite, although she had long since stopped walking her daily mile and would only walk just a few houses away from home. Yet she still would come running home at three sharp claps of my hands.

In early December 2007, we took a trip to accompany our daughter Stephanie to her first professional conference - the American Society of Hematology (ASH) in Atlanta. While away, the dogs stayed with Melanie of Spirit of Phoenix, and received the best of care. When we returned, Melanie informed us that Nikki was up to her old "stealing Gohan's food" tricks again. We laughed and took them home.

Two weeks later, she was listless and seemed to lose her way when I clapped for her to come home. Confused, she went to several homes doors. I had to pick her up and bring her home. I would find her staring at me when I would enter the house - I came to realize that she didn't always recognize me. Her hearing faded quickly. That week I began facing the inevitable - that at 16 and a half years old, my 'baby girl' Pommie was dying. It was an end of the best time of my life with those dogs and I was not looking forward to it. Gohan began moping around the house and Nikki avoided us all. Often hiding under a desk or bed.

On the Friday before Christmas I woke up extremely disturbed. I could see Nikki from my bed and she wasn't moving. I knew she wasn't dead, but I dreaded what I might have to do. She hadn't been exhibiting pain and my husband said there will come a time when we would know that there was nothing else to be done. When I finally pulled myself from the bed three hours later, Nikki woke up. I carried her outside and she carried on her ritual as if in a doggie mime act - nothing really happened. I carried her into the house and placed her by her food. She made like she was eating and drinking, but actually did neither. After her little act to satisfy me, she walked upstairs and plopped in her bed. She promptly began to whine.

I picked her up to comfort her, but that didn't last long. She wanted to get down and take her regular place under my desk as I worked. However, she didn't stop whining. Gohan looked helpless and that was the way I felt. I called my husband and told him "I think Nikki is dying." I tried to be matter of fact, but it was one of the absolute worse things I've been through in a while. I realized later that I had cried the entire day. She walked around for a while and Gohan kept his distance. At about 4 pm she bumped into the bookcase and stood there, probably realizing she was blind. She tried to make her way under the bed, but I wouldn't let her go. I placed her in her bed. She got up. Finally, she just laid down next to it.

I placed my hand on her head and told her it was okay to leave. It would be okay and she would be with Robin, Mommie, Winky Dinky Dawg, Squeeky Kitty, and her pal Mookie again. It was 4:57pm. Gohan sniffed her and followed me into the office. At 5 my husband walked in the door and said Nikki is gone. I think she waited for him to come home. As I said, it was a great era.

This is why I Have to Watch Big Dawg Like a Hawk!

Just like a toddler, that clown touches everything with his mouth. I constantly find bills and other papers with his signature nibble. We started to call him "The Nibbler". Nothing is safe within his reach (and believe me, this dog can reach anything) - paper, plastic, venetian blinds, jeans, ipod wires, laptops, flower pots, file cabinets, slippers, ottomans, duvets - just to mention his first course!

I'm so afraid he's going to swallow something really dangerous like this St. Bernard puppy.
3.jpg (image)
Elsie, a 6-month-old Saint Bernard, swallowed a 13-inch serrated knife. After an operation, the pup had an 8-inch scar but was otherwise fine.

No amount of bones, toys or diversions keep my 'nibbler' away from experimentation. I'm just hoping he grows out of it.

The Many Myths of Raw Feeding

I am considering upping Gohan's raw food diet. His teeth are becoming a bit dingy and homedawg can't stand the stupid brushing we humans think is the answer.

I worry about this since my Pomies had (have) such wretched teeth and now it's just too late to do anything. Nikki is 16 years old and it hardly seems right to put her under just to remove scale and teeth. Mookie just passed away 2 months ago at age 17, but he was a chewer to the end. Even when it looked like it pained him, he would tear up a bone. For that, his teeth were just a tiny bit better than Nikki & Winky Dinky Dawg.

Winky would never ever chew, even as a puppy. Put a bone in front of her and she looked at you as if to say "Please put that in the food processor first."

So for my big boy, I'm considering more raw food and bones which he has to beat up, drag, and gnaw. This naturally takes care of that doggy flossing.
The Many Myths of Raw Feeding

What are the Opportunities: The Dog and the Polar Bear

I love this slide sequence. It reminds me of my super-playful puppyhead.

What are the Opportunities: The Dog and the Polar Bear

Gohan's buddies Go Big Time!

Big Dawg is only 2 years old, but the ol' dawg crew is pushing past 15 and 16. It's taken quite a bit to get used to my buds and their new challenges, but it's worth it. Heck, they never complain about me!

Well . . . not in front of me at least.
How to Care for Your Older Dog - WikiHow

Why is this dog EATING MY GLOVES?!???

No glove is safe around this digit hunter. At the tender age of 6 months, he devoured my favorite suede gardening gloves and now he specifically looks for the five fingered treats. He is definitely my insane clown dawg. He hid several pair of cotton garden gloves. But he didn't stop there - he stashed a red fuzzy mitten under the bed!

I've smacked him on the nose with my glove and he just laughs at me (yes, Akita's do laugh - loudly I might add). Just last week he found my new husband's work glove and did the shaky head thing with it in front of my face. After that he just puts his head down and goes into his crate (he assumes that I'm going to burst an artery yelling at him) and smiles like "Oh. Was that YOUR glove? Forgive me. I lost my big meat head for a minute. I won't do it again . . . until the next time."

Akitas - Gotta love 'em.

Big Puppy-head makes it to 2

My big fat puppy-head at a year old - a year ago today. It's his birthday and we just found him immobile on his crate floor after snatching an unopened jar of peanut butter treats and scarfing them all down. Looks like he had the mother of all stomach aches. Greedy little meathead.

Sometimes a great notion . . .

"I've seen a look in dogs' eyes...a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that dogs think humans are nuts." - John Steinbeck

Why Is This Dang Dawg Shedding In February?

I cannot BELIEVE the amount of hair that falls off of Baby B. Unreal. It's changed the color of my dining room rug! What makes it worse is all of this static electricity in this house - dry, electric heat.

I got that big loopy combing thingy from my vets' (All Paws in Upper Marlboro, MD) onsite groomer. Big dawg can't stand that thing. He's already eaten that brush that had the little balls on the end (he seems to love the residual cat flavor).

Between Gohan and my two Pomies, I have to keep one of those Pet Hair Adhesive Rollers in every room. I even have one in my car now.

I'm seriously thinking about saving all of this fur for spinning and knitting . . . but that's another blog. :)

Who's my cutesy wootsy dawg?

Yeah, that one got him running. It was like "What's up with the Di-ster? Is she wigging out or what?" Puppy wuppy is just so cute. He tried to sit on my lap yesterday and I fell over onto the floor. Dumb dawg wrestling ensued.

Man. Akitas rock! Thank you Melissa.

Oops! I forgot to feed him

No wonder he's on a barking rampage. I just let him in and noticed that his food was still in the dish. Doesn't matter. He didn't even go to the dish right away. He immediately ran over to 'Mr.Monkeyman' and tried to take even more stuffing out of him.

My dining room is constantly littered with headless toys and white puffs of stuffing. He especially likes to 'kill' the squeaker - he always pulls that out.

Now he's crouching down in that play mode and wants me to chase him to save 'Mr.Monkeyman'. I do it once, but then tell him he's got to eat.

Hey! Did he just roll his eyes at me?

Wow! My baby has learned to bark!!!!!

I can't believe it! He's gone from a little "worl worl" to a mini growl, but now he's outside in 40 degree weather cussin' me out! I'm so proud.

Of course, he never has a reason to bark and naturally chooses not to, but, well . . . I put him in the back yard while I checked my email and he is soooooooo not having it.

And he sounds like a grown up doggy too! I'm so excited.

3 reasons you shouldn't let the dogs sleep in your bedroom

1. Mookie
2. Nikki
3. Gohan

Man, these dawgs snore loud!

Oh, I Wasn't Supposed to Chew That?

Needless to say, Baby B. has been teething for over a year now. Nothing is safe: flower pots, chairs, laptop power supplies, cute little velvet gift boxes, Velvet ottoman, wood trim around the patio door, solar garden lights, ipod cable, new pair of Merrills SCREEEEEEEEEECH!!!!!!!!!

Oh No My Fuzzy Brother! Don't even get a taste for shoes. Your life is in serious danger now! You do not EVEN look into the closet of a non-recovering 'shoeaholic'. Sure, I let you chew up my 'garden only' sneakers. I thought that was a good example of reuse and recycling. But you actually went into the closet, opened a shoe box, and commenced to chow down on a new pair of shoes that I had only worn once. Then you tried to hide it under my bed and your big head got stuck. Did you really think I wasn't going to notice?

Sorry about the apoplectic fit. However, you don't go within 4 feet of my closets now. Smart dog.
I wuv my 100 lb. meathead.

He's the smartest, dumb dog in the world!

Well, maybe next to my Mookie. He's the fuzzy numnut on the right. That's Nikki next to him wondering why this woman keeps flashing this stupid light in her eyes.

Baby B. was totally housetrained in only 6 days! He still hated the leash, but he hates messes even more. I so looooooooooooooooooovvvveeeeeeeeeeeee this dawg!

I'm just a cutey wootey puppy

It's really difficult to deny this face anything. Little does he know, a trip to the vet for shots is coming in 5 minutes. 

Announcing Baby B!

12 weeks and 27 pounds. A dawg like no other. pisses off the cat, but we lub him. Brought him to his new home on dec. 18th. hates the crate. luvs getting his belly rubbed.