Keely had semi-loose stool yesterday afternoon. Then she has a definite loose stool this morning. I'm giving metronidazole at 7 AM and 7 PM, and then slippery elm powder at 12 AM and 12 PM. I'm so glad that the drugs are working. Also, I've decided to keep Keely on half Nutro Ultra and half Wellness from now on, so I won't have to ever worry about if one of them runs out, and then her adopter can decide how they want to do it. Just ordered some Wellness from catalog company. Will definitely get more next time I go to Atlanta.
Keely is also doing well with home alone in the bedroom/hallway area during the day. I just leave the DAP Comfort Zone on all day, and also I wait to give her breakfast until right before I was about to leave for school. My thinking is that if the blood rushes to her stomach, then she would have less blood to her brain, which would make her sleepy, and not think too much about clawing her way out of the bedroom. Then I feed her half of her dinner when I come home around lunch time so she would be sleepy again for the afternoon. And I feed her the rest of her dinner during regular dinner time. Actually I just got an automatic feeder for Anastasia in case I have to go on another weekend trip again. But since Keely's not eating a lot (smaller amount than the bigger dogs), I can probably use the cat feeder for her if needed, so she would have meals throughout the day to keep her "drowsy". Then next week I'm going to start not plugging in the DAP and see how she does.
I have a suspicion that Keely is lightly sensitive to both lamb and beef. That's why she got loose stool at first, then I started feeding her both, that's how she got diarrhea. And also she's been on heavy doses of slippery elm powder since Sunday and also on metronidazole since Tuesday, both twice a day. Normally these would make a dog constipated after a few days, but Keely is still having loose stool, so I'm thinking she's still sensitive to one of the ingredients in whatever I'm feeding her. But I can't test my theory until the big bag of Wellness Chicken is delivered. So for now she has to stay on Nutro Ultra mix (which contains lamb meat). I will keep her on Wellness Chicken and mix in other foods to see exactly what she's sensitive to.
Keely was scooting on the carpet on Tuesday, so on Thursday, I took her to the pet supply store to have her anal glands emptied. Rebekah met Keely for the first time, and she also says Keely is so small. Rebekah thinks she's so cute and just picked her up and carried her in her arms to the grooming area. She said the glands were huge, but Keely was very good while they were emptying them, the dog just stood there frozen (like "stacking" in the show ring). When we were waiting to pay, a Lab mix came to the front to be picked up. He sniffed Keely's behind, and since I didn't have treats with me, I kept her distracted by calling her name and by leading her away slowly, so her wouldn't have time and couldn't turn her head to bark or growl at the Lab mix. Anyways, she seemed perfectly fine with the Lab mix, except everybody could tell she was a little nervous, and then she urinated on the floor. I knew Keely marks like male dogs, but I thought I wouldn't have to worry about her in the store like I did with Jake. I don't know she urinated because she was marking or because she was scared.
Keely had urine and poop stuck on her behind often, because of her furry butt and long fringes on her tail, and I just couldn't stand it anymore. So I trimmed off some hair off her behind. Heather said, �I would leave the feathering on the end of her tail. It's perfectly normal to groom the underside of her tail back maybe 6 inches or so and then let the feathering be on the rest of the tail. It's also a good idea to trim the feathering on the back half.� So this is exactly what I did with Keely�s tail feathering.
