[Dailydrool] Dirty looks from the furkids

[Vicki Kerns]

OK, so after having full anal glands expressed from not only my older girl,
Cleo, and also from my foster girl, Cleo, the vets (mine & the foster
girls) have determined that I'm definitely giving them too much chicken or
beef and not enough kibble. When it's just my two kids, I free feed, but
since adding the two foster girls (aka furry Hoover vacuums the way they
suck up food), I started cooking chicken and a few sweet potatoes and green
beans and adding to everyone's kibble in order to get everyone to clean up
their bowls and not leave anything. I have to stand guard because when my
dogs are done, they will walk away and the foster girls are like vultures
pouncing on those bowls to finish what my dogs didn't.

Well, it's done more harm than good, because they've started eating the
yummy stuff and leaving more & more of the kibble, resulting in full anal
glands on a regular basis. This time, my old Cleo really had full glands,
and her little tushy must have really been sore when she got home because
she had runny poop that had a little blood mixed in with it. And when the
vet weighed the foster girl Cleo, she said "WO" because she has gained too
much weight. Now my 2 kids haven't gained any extra weight because of it,
but the 2 foster girls have.

So what does this all mean, well, on orders from the vets, we are weaning
all the kids off of any "extras" and going back to strictly kibble, maybe
wetted down. I am also integrating a healthy weight kibble (using Nutro
right now) into the foster girls diets, cut down by 25% & the rest made up
with green beans only. For the time being, I'm also going to add a
tablespoon of pumpkin to the girls food to get these anal gland issues
fixed. Now in doing this, all 4 dogs are looking at me like, "Mama, don't
you love me anymore, what's this crap?" So we're in a mental tug of war
right now and they've missed a couple of meals because they look at me and
walk away from the their bowls. I know they can do it because they DID
finished the kibble when they've been hungry enough a couple of times.

So my question now is, has anyone else encountered this and what have you
done to help get them back on just kibble? I've always been a mama who over
spoils her babies but they need to be on kibble for their own (and my own)
good. I may try and switch them to the Blue Buffalo healthy weight food.
They don't seem to care much for the Nutro (or maybe it's just kibble in
general right now). I know someone else recently mentioned about adding
bran or oat bran to help with anal glands.

Signed, a clueless mommy who needs to be cruel and feed only kibble but now
her hounds look at her like she's Hitler!

-- 
Vicki Kerns


  ~≈≈~

  //^ ^\\
(/(_•_)\)
 _/''*''\_
(/_)^(_\)  ~  "Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole."
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