just what the doctor ordered

I think we may have finally found a solution to Penny's tummy troubles. I started adding Dr. Goodpet's Digestive Enzymes to her food a little over a week ago. The i/d food was helping to put weight back on but her stools were still not consistently solid. Now that she has been on the enzymes, she is doing so much better. The first few feedings she looked and sniffed a bit before eating but now she is back to being excited for her bowl and ready to chow down. I almost can't believe how easy this was and I am sorry I did not try these sooner. I am hoping these might work with any food and I will not have to keep her on the i/d for too much longer. You can get them at Vegan Essentials with some other rad goodies from their shop.


p.s. It's my birthday and I'll talk about poop if I want to!

beegan at the beginning

For the past year Ms. Penny and I have been battling her digestive system. Ever since she came home "fixed" she hasn't been the same. She had diarrhea so often I started to call her "Scooter". The first few times I started crying as we walked because I could see how miserable she was. We did white rice/cottage cheese at first. She would do fine for a few days and it would start up again. Then she was on canned i/d diet, which helped out for a while. Then she had antibiotics and stayed on the canned i/d. That food is so ridiculously expensive. For a few months I was spending more money on hers than my own, but what are you gonna do?

After a while I was able to switch her over to the dry i/d food. I was glad to have her on dry since it should be better for her teeth and I won't lie, I was also glad to have a bit more money in my pocket. She did well on that formula for quite some time, but once again, she started having troubles. I started tracking her on my calendar and it seemed to be a regular schedule of every few days she would go "bad" again. I had been reading my own food labels for so long, I cannot believe I did not read hers. I feel horrible for feeding her that "prescription diet" for so long. Corn is the first effing ingredient. I cannot believe I dumped so much money on food that was not good for her. I remembered the vet said she might have developed a type of colitis so I dog md'd that to see what dietary changes I could make since I'd like to avoid meds where possible. One of the suggestions was to change the protein.

I started mixing Natural Balance Vegetarian with her i/d dry food a few weeks ago. She seemed to do fine for a few days, but you can guess what still happened. Over the weekend I decided to pull the i/d entirely and only give her the Natural Balance. She's also been eating the Bear Biscuits, which are veg but not vegan due to honey. She really likes them so I will keep them until I find a vegan alternative. So far she is doing much better. I haven't had any messes to clean and I have not heard her stomach gurgling away.

I've been doing more reseach on vegan dogs and I'm excited about the change. I ordered her a pound of Sam's Yams which I have read lots of wonderful things about. They should be excellent for her chewing urges and sweet potatoes are full of fiber. Hopefully this swap will stick and she can be a happier, healthier spoiled beegan dog.

p.s. The pic above is one of her first toys, an homage to "busy bee", which I think lasted at most two days.

return of the mac

I think this adapted recipe is taking the place of my first favorite vegan mac and cheese. I've made it four or five times since its Thanksgiving debut. That's almost once a month, right? Even though it's not as greasy or fatty as regular mac and cheese, I still feel like it could be a bit healthier. The recipe suggests adding spinach or green beans, but I decided to use broccoli instead since that is how they do it at Native Foods. Even though this recipe does not resemble theirs at all, I wanted to pretend I was as awesome as Chef Tanya for a few minutes.

We had the re-revised mac and cheese with boca chick'n sammiches on everything bagel thins with vegenaise and american tofutti slices. My sister bought the bagel thins about a week ago. They're not doing it for me at all, yet I am okay with the sandwich thins. Maybe because smashed bread is easier to get used to than a deflated bagel? Anyhow, we all loved the mac and I did not get to take a shot of it until it was half gone since unbeknownst to me, my camera battery died. I must have killed it taking video and pictures of Penny with her ball last week.