Co-Dog

My dog Co- had a bad case of dog arthritis. He was about 7-7.5 years old. Co- was miserable, could hardly walk, would fall of the porch in the morning... Arthritis seemed to affect him mentally too. He spend his days curled up in a ball on the floor, avoiding any kind of movement.

After the examination my vet gave me a few choices: Cortisone injections, pet Glucosamine, altering the diet. The vet told me basically that was it.

The diet change was to get off dry dog food and start buying raw meat for the dog, I was even given an address of the butcher shop, that would sell me the scraps. But over the years I've noticed that Co- doesn't really do well on with raw meat. He loves it, no question. But he would always get a diarrhea attack after having any significant amount of it. Besides I was a struggling student then. I don't think I could have afforded raw meat twice a day for the dog, even if that meat was scraps.

I also refused cortisone and glucosamine.

From what I know cortisone reduces any kind of inflammatory process in the body, but does it by wring out the poor adrenal glands, and it is not good for anyone, especially aged, weak and imuno-compromised. It increases mobility by reducing the inflammation and therefore pain and discomfort.

All in all, he is a healthy animal. When we got him 8 years ago, the only inconvenience was his tender stomach. Once in a while, he would all of a sudden develop a diarrhea, with or without vomiting. Coincidentally, this usually would happen when nobody was at home. A few cleaning sessions at 12 o'clock at night and I decided -- enough. Something had to be done about it.

I am not a great cook -- my food would not bring people back to my house begging for more -- but I'm a practicing cook. I cook a lot. In fact, it would be fair to say that, for the last say five years, I'm in a state of cooking something constantly. It could be actively boiling, baking, frying; or it could be passively soaking, overnight, for 24 hours, till it sprouts. My cooking is an obsession. I read cookbooks the way other people read novels.

Hence, the fixing of Co-'s health was going to be done through his stomach. In other words, by changing his diet.

In the beginning a strict regiment of feeding and walking was implemented. No snacking between the feedings. The dog's stomach responded favorably. I find that structured, scheduled activities, especially routine ones like waking up, feeding, walking them, done in an orderly fashion, done every day, make the dog a lot more agreeable and relaxed.

For a while we enjoyed accident-free lifestyle; and it was great.

Then, when he was about 6-7 years old, came a big one....