Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Boring Update

As Bella would say, this post is boooorrriiiingggg (because there are no pictures of her), but we wanted to give you all a quick update on our big girl.

For the last few months, Bella's food hadn't been agreeing with her tummy. We'd had her on Eagle Pack Holisitic Select Large Breed all her life, then at around 7 months or so, she stopped putting on weight (and even lost a little) and we noticed some, um, adverse effects on her digestive system (you can all use your imaginations there). After doing tons of research, we changed her food to Nature's Recipe Large Breed (no corn, wheat, beef or other ingredients that dogs may develop sensitivities to over time). For a few days, things seemed better...then we went back downhill again. We were pretty perplexed, and thought we'd try one more dry food before we seriously contemplated an all-raw diet. After more research, and reading how Willow over at the Zoo Crew had been having the same problems (and ultimately the same solution), we found success with Innova Large Breed Puppy formula. What an change - a total 180! We're almost through with her first big bag of the Innova, and Bella is back to a healthy weight, has her soft & shiny coat back, has good breath again (well, most of the time) and most importantly for all of us, a very happy tummy.

As of her 10-month birthday on Sunday, she's 33 1/2" tall and somewhere between 105-110 pounds (we had a little trouble getting an accurate weight with me, mom, holding Big Bertha on our bathroom scale...I work out, but come on - that's a lot of dog to hold!).

Enough of the boring stuff - more pictures of Bella soon!

7 comments:

Gus, Louie and Callie said...

Thanks for stopping by. It is so nice to meet another new friend.. So did your Mom's blue heeler herd too? Our Mom had a heeler when she was on the farm. His name was Okie and he loved to help Grandpa get the cows into the barn for milking... Mom said he had better manners than I do. He knew when to listen and stop chasing!! I am working on that..
Stop by again real soon..


Big Sloppy Kisses
Gus and Louie

The Zoo Crew said...

Woohooo!!! So happy to read that you are doing so well on the Innova. It really did the trick for me. And I actually like it too :)

Willow

HawaiianDane said...

Great blog! Thanks for stopping by ours! Sure, you can link up to Huey's blog. Glad you guys found a food that works. We had similar issues to, starting out with Nutro and ending up with Solid Gold. Your pup is a cutie!

Sames Blogs said...

BARK! Glad to hear your tummy is better. My brother and I have been eating Gentle Giants Food and we havent had ANY problems, except for some good smelling air that makes mommy spray some stuff that she like, but I think stinks. If you are interested, the food is featured at gentlegiantsrescue.com. We LIKE it, and all natural with stuff for big doggies like us.
BARK- Sasha the Princess

Unknown said...

Thanks for stopping by.. you are quite photogenic - I looked at all the pictures on your blog and am really impressed with how pretty you are. I love danes - my son is begging me for a blue one too.

Bianca's mom said...

Hi Blue Gal!

Greetings from Bianca's Mom of Bianca's blog. We had similar issues with Bianca's tummy - we moved from BARF to Wellness to Volhardt diet - finally ended up with Innova EVO. We're happy with it and (frankly) don't miss the effort of making her food. It didn't help that our high energy gal was taking 12-14 cups of food a day for the last 4 months (thank god, she is finally leveling off to 9 or so).

Anonymous said...

Glad you got all your food issues sorted out Bella! You are getting to be a big girl aren't you! By the way, there is an award for you on our blog, stop by to collect it!