green tripe

**Important note** I'm not a vet and have had no medical training. Do not use this post as a way to treat your dog for any illness - see a vet! This is simply something that I think will work for us because of the information I have found on it and am very passionate about sharing this information with you.

I got really lucky because the butcher that I went to sells raw meat specifically for dogs. A lot of it is not quite what I want (the bone is ground into the meat instead of allowing them to chew on the bone. The downside to that is it doesn't clean their teeth the way gnawing on a bone would) but with a few modifications, I can get everything I want from them if I choose to do so. One of the things that they sell is green tripe.

Now don't be confused - there are two types of tripe. Green and white. White is what humans eat but provides no nutritional value for dogs and green is for our pups. I found a 5 pound bag for $8.50 so of course I had to take it home. It was a big hunk of frozen gunk so I had to defrost it and break it up into smaller sizes. I put them into 5 ziplock bags and put 4 back in the freezer to save for later. The last bag went into the fridge and it is what we are adding to each meal. I'm not going to lie though - to say this stuff stinks is an understatement. I opened the bag and started gagging. I portioned everything out with a candle burning beside me. It was nasty. So of course, Luna and Ares spent the entire time begging for it!  See how gross it looks?!

I've mentioned before that a lot of the raw food diet doesn't really agree with dogs who are still on a kibble diet but this is an exception. It is absolutely fine to give with your dog with the kibble and starting last night, that's exactly what I did. I've taught Ares and Luna to sit and wait for the "ok!" to start eating. Last night, however, it didn't work. Luna went straight for the tripe as soon as I set it down. This morning, she did the exact same thing with one difference - she grabbed the tripe out of her bowl and chewed it up while sitting and waiting for me to tell her that she could eat her food. Silly girl! How can you be mad at that genius?

Disclaimer: because Ginger is not my dog, she did not get to experience the joys of green tripe. Sorry, Ginger!

Now the educational stuff about green tripe:

Now I'm sure most of you are wondering: what in the world is tripe?! Simply put, it is a cow's stomach lining (specifically, the fourth chamber of the stomach where the actual digestion takes place).   Because of this, it contains partially digested plant matter, gastric juices, and digestive enzymes.  The only processing that this tripe receives is to remove the larger pieces of undigested food. Yummy, right? It's a completely different process to get white tripe, including washing and bleaching it. It is also usually from the first three stomach chambers rather than the last. Because of this, it doesn't provide any of the benefits that green tripe provides.

Now, why I put up with the disgusting smell to give it to Ares and Luna:

It's so healthy! I'm terrible with myself, but I kind of gravitate to the crunchy, organic stuff. I'll be the person who makes their own baby food instead of buying the jars of it. I've always done things to help keep Ares and Luna healthy. They get probiotics (specifically bene-bac) when they have upset tummies and now they're getting allergy medication twice daily to control their reverse sneezing (giving it to them at night keeps Luna from waking up and reverse sneezing). I've never liked a lot of medicine. I think our society over medicates. (That said, I take a small mountain of pills each morning. Pot, meet kettle). If I can get them off of medicine and provide organic and CHEAPER ways to keep them healthy, I'm all for it. 

Green tripe aids digestion, purifies and cleanses blood, removes toxins, parasites and fungus, improves metabolism, hormonal function, and boosts the immune system. Even though it is boneless, it is a great way to keep your dogs teeth clean and white which means little to no trips to the vet to get expensive teeth cleaning! 

Green tripe also contains probiotics and amino acids! These maintain a healthy belly for your pups. The naturally occurring probiotics rather than the manufactured stuff I had been buying was reason enough for me to buy the tripe! 

The specific strain of probiotics found in green tripe is lactobacillus acidophilus. It is known to prevent and treat diarrhea, yeast infections, and urinary tract infections. It also counteracts the side effects of medications such as antibiotics, improves their coat and prevents shedding, relieves the pain of arthritis, and eases the symptoms of allergies.

The last part is what really interests me. Something natural to keep the dogs from reverse sneezing during pollen season? Our pollen counts have been off the chart the past few days. It's terrible here but because Ares and Luna don't actually suffer from severe pollen allergies, I thought I would experiment a little. I stopped giving them their allergy medication a couple of days ago. They haven't had any symptoms yet but I've now given them the green tripe last night and this morning. I'm waiting to see if they will continue to have a lack of allergic reactions, or if the green tripe is enough to keep it from presenting itself in Ares and Luna.

**Important note** I am NOT a vet and do not give medical advice. I am simply compiling and relaying all of the information I have found about green tripe online. If your dog is sick, SEE A VET. This is NOT a cure-all! For example, because Ginger suffers from severe allergic reactions to pollen, I would never take her off of her medication to test the green tripe on her, nor would I recommend that her owner do so. Talk to your vet to see if this is a good fit for you - I simply find that it is a good fit for me.

pollen allergy part 2

Ever since Ginger visited the vet a week ago, I realized that Ares and Luna have been very sneeze-y and had a sudden increase in reverse sneezing. There was no doubt in my mind that they were suffering from mild pollen allergies. At the time, I knew that Ares had two weeks before he was going to go back to the vet for his mange recheck (which, by the way, he doesn't seem to have lost more hair but I haven't noticed the hair growing back so I'm curious as to what the vet will say), so I really wanted to wait until that visit to discuss allergy treatment options for Ares and Luna.

Benadryl is always an option for allergic reactions but never give animals medication without discussing it with your vet first. You don't want to give your dogs too much! (For reference, my vet said that in a pinch, Ares at 19 pounds can have one pill and Luna at 10 pounds can have half a pill.)

Unfortunately for Ares and Luna, as each day passed, they were sneezing and reverse sneezing more and more. By last night, I could hear the Ares' congestion as he was laying on me, breathing, and poor Luna would have reverse sneezing fits that would leave her literally gasping for air.

My amazing vet managed to get me in before I had to work today to see someone today to give them relief. It will take 24-48 hours for the medicine to work its magic on them but at least we've started the clock on it.

A quick note on reverse sneezing: 

it's mostly a squishy faced dog thing. One video I saw on YouTube said that it is a result of an allergic reaction to something (in Ares' and Luna's case, they were having respiratory problems from the pollen). There isn't really anything you can do to stop your dog from reverse sneezing but there are a couple of things that can help. One is to rub their throat and the other is to hold their nostrils closed. The idea behind these techniques is to make them swallow and calm down. I took a video this morning of Luna's reverse sneezing fit. She usually does it for quite awhile and like I said above, she is gasping for air when it is over. It's a scary thing to see but don't be worried if it happens.

pollen allergy

On Tuesday morning, I noticed that Ginger had been very itchy. She has the funny ability to stay standing and still use her back legs to scratch her ribs. Her owner had told me that the last time she went to the vet, the doctor wanted to test her for allergies because of her scratching but he had declined at the time. I made a mental note to tell him to get her checked out.

Early afternoon, I caught a glimpse of her side where she had been scratching and saw this:

My first thought was that she was going to scratch herself raw so I called her vet (which is also my amazing vet and got her squeezed in to see the doctor. I made sure to mention what the other vet had told her owner and that I thought that she needed to be tested for allergies.

By the time we got to the vet a few hours later, her entire body was red. The poor girl wasn't spared - her ears, face, armpits, belly - everything was even redder than the above picture. 

The vet took one look at her and declared it a pollen allergy. (She was a year old as of Wednesday, April 17 which is why it wasn't caught last year.) Ginger needed what was essentially a cortisone shot and doggie prescription benadryl. The shot worked to give her immediate relief while the pills will be part of her daily preventative to keep it from happening again. The vet said that in the future to keep an eye on the redness returning - the red splotchy skin can easily turn into raised lesions that can ooze and need antibiotics to treat.

The vet was right and within an hour or two of us being home, Ginger's redness was almost completely gone. The pills have also worked wonders at keeping the redness and scratching at bay.

Yesterday, I went to my local pet store and told the owner about my adventure with Ginger. She gave me another quick and easy way to help wirh pollen allergies: baby wipes. I now keep cheap, unscented, hypoallergenic baby wipes by the door and wipe off everyone's feet when we come inside (and faces and backs because Luna is short and Ares and Luna love smelling all of the buttercups growing in the yard.)

Anyway, the idea behind the wipes is to keep the pollen from being tracked inside on their bodies for them to inhale or ingest all day long. Surprisingly, all three pups have been very willing to let me wipe them off when they come inside. I'm hoping that this also helps with Ares and Luna's constant sneezing.

Fingers crossed that everyone's pollen allergies remain under control so that we don't have to give up the dog park for the time being!