When London came home from the vet we were under the impression that she now has Addion’s Disease, a disease where her Adrenal glands have or are in the process of dying and they don’t produce the right hormones any longer. She was on her way to an Addisonian Crisis when the doctor thought to give her a steroid, I’m convinced that Dr. Jones saved her life right then. I have read that an Addisonian Crisis is terrible and can kill it’s victim within hours without the right Percotin shot and steroids. My poor baby will have to be on pills and shots the rest of her life, but she will have a normal life other than that if we keep a close eye on her.
I had such good hopes when we brought her home, she even wagged her a tail a little, which she hadn’t done since I took her in 5 days ago. When she got home she kept refusing to eat. She was probably down to 75 pounds (her normal is in the low 100’s) and her eyes were starting to sink into her skull. I was so stressed out that I spent all afternoon researching ways to get her to eat. One of the best resources to owning a Great Dane is the danesonline.com forum. There are some major dane owners/breeders/behaviorists on this website daily answering questions/reproving new owners of their mistakes and the daily debate about feeding absolutely RAW or regular kibble dog food. Check it out if you have a Dane. I have been a member since I bought Meridian 6 years ago.
While reading the searches on the forum I came across what people called Satin Balls. Sounds pretty strange and when I looked up the recipe it looked nasty! There were a ton of breeders and show dog owners who swore that it made them put weight on and have the shiniest coat ever. The scary thing to me was that it had raw eggs and uncooked beef in it. I thought I would give it a try since the fanatic dane owners had been doing it for years without any problems. I took off to United Supermarket with my long list of strange organic products and came home after exchanging them for $50! Wow, that was an expensive dog treat, but hey, I was already spending $986 on her treatment, so what’s $50?
I mixed the nasty ingredients and offered her some. She quickly licked it and the spit it out. Josh had an “I told you so” moment, but we gave her some time. Meridian on the other hand, “fatty” as we are calling her lately since she has probably put on 15-20 pounds since London has been declining to eat, was drooling for them. Seriously Meridian, you have got to go on a diet and quit eating London’s portion.
Anyway, I was still stressed all day until I was eating some Life cereal, I thought London would surely eat sugary kid cereal, and she did! It wet her appetite and she has been scarfing down wet dog food and Satin Balls anytime I am willing to feed her. I’m sure she will be back to being sleek and healthy in no time.
I thought I would share the nasty recipe with all of you dog lovers who are willing to try feeding RAW nastiness to your dogs as a good treat or to put a bit of weight back on them.
10 pounds of the cheapest hamburger meat, raw
1 jar wheat germ (I couldn’t find this so I left it out)
1 large box of oatmeal (uncooked, not the instant either)
1 1/4 Cup vegetable oil or olive oil
10 raw eggs
10 small package of flavorless gelatin
1 1/4 Cup flavorless unsulphored molasses
A pinch of salt
1 large box Total cereal (2 lb)
Mix it all by hand and make into golf ball sized treats, bag and freeze them. I leave one bag thawed in the fridge and feed London a few at each meal. If you just want to give them as a treat only give up to 2 per day. I have read that it is so healthy that they won’t even go number two as much because their body absorbs all of the nutrients from them.
by Lauren Clark
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