SUMMARY: Boost and Tika
Still trying to figure out Boost and food and her weight.
She's also getting MUCh worse about scrounging stuff. I have all these varieties of dog foods to keep Tika's interest up, and a lot of the unopened ones (or sealed shut) are on the floor. This has never been a problem. But yesterday she ripped open one of the brand-new, still sealed bags and I caught her gorging herself! Yikes. Is nothing sacred?
She is now the fastest eater i the house. After all those years of Tika sucking down her own food at twice Boost's speed, now that Tika is slow and methodical... and Chip is even slower than that!... I wonder whether Boost thinks that she's getting less food than they're getting?
She also now knows that Tika doesn't always finish her meal and lurks to dive in the instant that Tika's head moves away, and I have to catch her and drag her back from that, so maybe she feels deprived fromnot getting to eat that?
It's a puzzlement, why packages of treats and food are no longer OK around the good border collie after all these years.
A couple of people suggested adding pumpkin, in the ratio of twice whatever kibble I was taking out of her diet. I bought several cans, and what I'm doing is smearing it all around the inside of her dish and pouring the food onto it, so she has to spend time licking out every molecule, giving the other dogs time to finish eating.
Tika is mostly eating most of her meals, with only occasional meals where she won't eat the first thing that I set out for her.
I'll tell ya what's working with having Chip here, apparently: Before, she was consuming her pill pockets (containing meds) cautiously and fairly often spitting them out and refusing to eat them until I remove the pills. Since Chip has arrived, wow, does she suck down those 2 pill pockets! Doesn't want a chance for the usurper to get one, I guess.
After several days of Tika doing a lot of coughing and acting old and frail, she's back to very little coughing, more enthused play, more alertness. This cycle keeps going over and over and over.
Boost is scratching obsessively still/yet/again, after a couple of weeks off prednisone. I *SO* hate having her on pred all the time, but milder things don't work, and she's now chewing herself raw, which I really hate to see and isn't good for her, either. So I guess it's back on prednisone again. Sigh.
And that's the news from Lake Dogbegone, where all the dogs are cute AND above average.
