As you will all know, my little Lolly has had a really difficult year with her health and after 9 months is still struggling with tummy ulcers. Yes, I agree, “Who knew dogs got ulcers?”. Well they do, and my wallet will attest that these ulcerated tummies need ongoing love and consideration. Our poor little girl has had all sorts of issues digesting her food so I have become a professional at creating tummy friendly dog food and syringing potions and pastes into a tiny mouth which is clamped firmly shut.
TREAT FOR LOLLY
In a previous post I shared a vet approved kangaroo and pumpkin meal which I make for Lolly. I also like to reward Lolly for asking to go out to the loo and then coming straight back intside. She trots outside and returns to the door where she waits on the mat till she hears the words, “TREAT FOR LOLLY!” and only then will she come in (the waiting on the mat helps to dry her wet feet).
NO MORE LIVER TREATS!
WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES?
For over 5 years, I have been offering The Lol all natural, additive free, liver treats at every possible occasion. I always thought I was doing the right thing but last week, after she had another dreadful bout of diarrhoea and vomiting, the vet told us that liver treats were not going to be a good thing for Lolly until she settled down again. Her kangaroo diet was good but for the next week her diet needed to be strictly cooked white chicken breast and rice to rest the stomach. Apparently liver is too fatty for her little tum. What to do for treats??
At my usual stores, I stood for ages scanning all the ingredients on the treat packets. All of them seemed to have spurious amounts of salts, fats, fillers and pharmaceuticals which I was sure she really didn’t need. Then I had a light bulb moment…. dehydrated chicken breast!
LIGHT BULB!…… JUST CHICKEN TREATS
I had a bag of diced, chemical free La Ionica chicken breast in the fridge. I diced it a little more, then spread it on two large pizza trays covered with bake paper. With the oven set at 120 C and the timer set for 3 hours, I waited.
Half way through I tossed the slightly shrunken chicken pieces about a bit and… voila! Yummy, smells delish, dried chicken treats!
You guess you could also leave the pieces bigger for larger mouths but you’d need to add extra time for drying…
VET APPROVAL
I took them to show Kim, the medical specialist vet the following day when we revisited with Lolly. Everyone was delighted to see Lolly, who hadn’t eaten in days, hoeing into my treats.
The vet was very impressed with the smell and look of the treats and said she would suggest them for other owners. The treats keep in an airtight jar too. A win!
I have since discovered that the little chicken treats also fit beautifully into Lolly’s favourite Munchy Ball or home-made Kong toy. A firm plastic ball with a hole cut in it (to hide treats inside) gives her much needed excerise as she chases it around the room. She also remembers exactly where she left Munchy and will go to look for it when asked.
