After Raw

Well, it's been a couple weeks on raw now.  We've been having great success transitioning to half/half raw/kibble.  The girls get raw (chicken wings, thighs, turkey necks) for dinner and kibble (chicken soup/NB venison & sweet potato) for breakfast.  This is the result...

JoJo

You can clearly see the scraped off tartar & plaque, especially in her receded gums, and I do believe her gingivitis redness/swelling has gone down.

Kibeth

Here's the link to see their before photos blog:

http://grantedwishesgreyhounds.blogspot.com/2009/12/before.html

Now at the time of this photo, Kibeth was lying on the couch.  Her highness is not to be disturbed in such times, so this is the OTHER side of her mouth, which is her worst side because it's not her dominant side for chewing.  So before/after not quite as useful, but you can see where her teeth are turning white, and that all of her gingivitis is gone.  This should be Kibeth's FIRST routine dental since coming off the track.

Both girls will have what I truly hope to be their last dental January 5th.  JoJo's mouth was in such bad shape last time, her first dental cost $510 (with discounts!).  Hopefully this one won't be so bad.  While she's under, JoJo's hips/knees will be X-rayed to clear her for agility training, which will commence this Spring.  She trembles when she sits, so I'm really hoping all is OK back there.

Her royal highness, Kibeth, wants nothing to do with circus tricks such as jumping and tunnels.  However, she finds performing commands to demonstrate her prestigious knowledge of the English language most satisfying.  She'll be my obedience queen. ;-)

Health Check

We went to the vet today for our annual appointment.  The girls got their updated shots, I renewed JoJo's Wellness Plan, talked to Hutch (Dr. Hutchinson) about raw, the and I got to ask a couple questions about JoJo's shaky back legs when sitting.

Kibeth & JoJo are in excellent health (except for their teeth, but more on that later) and at 60 pounds each.  They were 59 off the track, but they've lost some muscle mass, so that's OK.  Usually we'd expect them to be at 64 pounds.  Their teeth (even though I've stopped brushing) are BETTER than when he saw them about 5 months ago... YES!  2 weeks of raw RMBs for dinner reversed a higher exponential deterioration!

JoJo's scar may well be from barbed wire.  The other theory is that it's from being hit by a car, and that's also why her back end is trembling when she sits, and why she bows before going into a down.  There's also the possibility that she was injured on the track (though records only indicate 2 less than successful races) or something to do with being bred (her nipples are larger than Kibeth's).  I'll probably have X-Rays done of her hips while she's under for the dental coming up January 5th for both girls. Hopefully, with raw diet, this will be the last.

I have pictures from when Kibeth was 3.  I'm going to post them so you can see how black her face was back then.