A Tribute to Hellon

Ebon's mother, Hellon, was put to sleep this morning. She was less than a month away from her fifteenth birthday. Hellon (full name: Hell on Ducks) was a working duck dog in her younger years, though lately as she's gotten older she's been nothing more than a pet. She was a very sweet, obedient dog and much of her temperament was passed on to Ebon. Ebon was from her last litter and spent the first five months of his life living with her and her owner's family. When I first got him he had already almost reached his mother's size. She was only about sixty pounds and it still amazes me sometimes that she produced a dog as big as Ebon.

I cannot describe how fond I've been of Hellon over the years. She was such a wonderful dog who was owned by a great family. She produced my dog, who is like my kid. I know a lot of people speak of their "heart dog," and Ebon, I would say, is mine. He's been with me through a lot of crazy times and always puts a smile on my face. He's always there for me. Since I love him so much, I have also loved his mother. The news of her death left a knot in my stomach that's still there and will take some time to fade. I'm tearing up as I write this. 

I'm going to go give Ebon some love. I hope he lives as long as his mother, but this is a reminder of how terribly brief the time we spend with our pets can be. Ebon is nearly eight and I've been worried for some time about how long his life will be. Being a larger-than-average purebred Labrador, it's possible he could only live ten years. I really would rather not think about that.

Ebon and Hellon in 2006. Ebon had not yet quite reached the size he is now

Hellon in 2009 with her Shih Tzu "sister," PC

Hellon earlier this year, age fourteen

Seizures

Ebon had a seizure late last night, the first one since October 30, 2011. This is the forth seizure I've witnessed and, unlike the last one, this one was a bit worse. Ebon was sleeping on the floor beside me and he began paddling his legs. I thought he might have been having a vivid dream, but his movement was awfully dramatic and he wasn't woofing like he usually does when dreaming. I went to check on him and noticed his eyes were open. I reached out and touched his side. If he had been dreaming this pretty reliably will wake him up, but he didn't respond. He kept kicking, the muscles in his side twitching as well. After a moment he calmed. It took him a little longer before he let out a heavy sigh and shifted off of his side. This is the first time he didn't respond to me during a seizure. This is also the first seizure where he wasn't standing up during the episode.

The more seizures of his I witness, the more I wonder if I may have missed some in the past. None of them have been particularly violent, and if more had been like this one it's possible I overlooked them. However, so far the incidence of his confirmed seizures has been nearly identical to his brothers that also have epilepsy: once every six months to a year. I was hoping the long span of seizure-free days would continue, but nope. His last three seizures have been slightly more than a year apart. The infrequence is good, and I can only hope that they continue to be this infrequent.

Ebon and I are about to head out to Texas for the holidays. We'll be hanging out with my parents and Siggy. There will be pictures.

Dog Food Review: California Natural

This is the tenth food I have reviewed so far. I have a bit of a review backlog now. Ebon has finished two different bags of food and is nearly done with a third. I'll try to space these out, but they will be a bit numerous over the next few days.

The bag

California Natural Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Adult Large Bites
Dog Food Advisor Rating: ★★★☆☆ This food is AAFCO approved for all life stages.

Ingredients: Lamb meal, brown rice, rice, sunflower oil, natural flavors, potassium chloride, ascorbic acid, beta carotene, biotin, calcium carbonate, calcium iodate, choline chloride, cobalt carbonate, cobalt proteinate, copper proteinate, d-calcium pantothenate, dicalcium pantothenate, dl-methionine, iron proteinate, manganese proteinate, niacin, potassium chloride, pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin, thiamine mononitrate, vitamin A supplement, vitamin B12 supplement, vitamin C supplement (sodium ascorbate), vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement (alpha tocopherol), zinc proteinate, taurine, rosemary extract

Items in italics will be discussed later.  

Bag's recommended daily feeding for a dog 80 lbs: ...I actually forgot to note this down. I'll write the number down the next time I'm at the store and add it in.
Crude Protein: minimum of 21.0%
Crude Fat: minimum of 11.0%
Crude Fiber: maximum of 2%
Moisture: maximum of 10.0%
Calorie content: 430 kcal/cup, 3990 kcal/kg
Calculated amount to maintain Ebon's ideal weight (82.5 lbs): 3.88 cups or 0.42 kg (0.924 lbs)
Price per pound when buying the largest bag (30 lbs at $49.99): $1.6663
Estimated cost of feeding Ebon per year on this food: $561.99 (11.242 of the 30 lb bags)
Ebon receives slightly less than the calculated feeding amount to allow for his daily treats
Ebon's overall health on this food: Good. Poop compact, energy level moderate to high. Coat and skin condition suffered

The kibble

I didn't make note of the start and end dates for this trial, but Ebon was on this food for about sixteen days. The kibble is a good size and smells somewhat like roasted chicken. A nice thing to see in this food: chelated minerals. Chelated minerals are believed to be more easily absorbed and used by the body than non-chelated minerals. This is the first food of those that I have reviewed that did not include probiotics. Probiotics/microorganisms help maintain good gut flora to provide for better digestion, so the fact that they can be found in so many foods is a good thing. However, this is not one of those foods. 

Overall, I have mixed feelings about this food. In general, Ebon did pretty good. His stool was nice and firm, which seems appropriate considering the comparatively small list of easily-digested ingredients in the food: little more than lamb, rice, and oil. Basically all of the California Natural products are like this, which I think is a good thing. If nothing else, it could be a great option for people whose pets have touchy stomachs.

My biggest issue with this food is actually a bit ironic. The bag itself says "Natural Solutions for Skin & Coat" but Ebon's coat and skin suffered while on the food. His coat became less shiny and his skin became incredibly dry. He does have a bit of a tendency to have dandruff, but it has never been anywhere near as bad as it got. He started itching so badly that I wondered if he had fleas! But no. I check him and found no flea dirt, only ubiquitous, large flakes of skin. I've been fighting that dry skin ever since. Due to the itching and chewing he started developing hot, red patches on his skin, and my attempts to remedy the situation intensified. I did not want him to develop bald spots. I bathed him thoroughly with an oatmeal shampoo and I conditioned his coat, which I never thought I would ever do. I worked at his coat with a hound glove to get rid of the flakes and to work the conditioner into his skin. He started getting lots of lipids in his diet, everything from olive oil and fish oil to bacon fat and meat trimmings. I also got a hydrocortisone spray, which I used once daily on the hot skin to try and get him to spot itching (he didn't like this part very much). Luckily, he's been getting better every day and is nearly back to normal.

This was actually the food that accompanied Ebon and I on our trip to Mississippi, during which time we were hit by hurricane Isaac. The skin symptoms that I saw appeared about the time we left and progressively worsened over the next week or two. Is it possible that he was exposed to something in Mississippi? Yes. I am definitely not ruling that possibility out. However, the fact that his dandruff was worsening slightly before we left makes me suspect that it had something to do with the food, even though the very large flakes didn't appear until a few days after we got back.. If anything, he may have been exposed to something that only made the problem worse.

My biggest suspicion about what property of the food may have lead to his dry skin is the fat content. So far, this is the lowest fat food of all the ones I have reviewed. In addition, it's very low in Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, and is significantly lower in Vitamin A than some of the foods he's done best on. All of these are good for the skin. In the future, I am going to try and stick to foods with fat contents of 15% or more, as the foods in that category have yet to cause him major problems.