dyan
Sorry, my fault....I guess I meant by cooking the meat and trying to keep fat out. AND not even adding any fish yet or even beef now. Just trying to get a feel for how he will be using the veggies and chicken or turkey.
You still really are not cooking the way I've described it -- and it's kinda no wonder you think this is extreme work. I'm not scolding you -- just hearing what you are saying.
"cooking the meat and trying to keep fat out" -- Dyan -- they **NEED** fat. It is an energy source and it's not likely to be part of the tummy distress. It depends on **what KIND** of fat it is.
Dogs generally do really well on animal fat -- you just don't want to go over-board with it. But I just by regular ground beef -- typically not the really high fat cheap stuff but I DO NOT buy "lean" meat and I don't do anything to remove it.
HOWEVER -- it sounds to me like you are trying to measure a cup of this and a cup of that with everything separate for each meal. That will make you NUTS.
I cook the hardest veg first (hard greens like kale or cabbage, then squash, sweet potatos -- cos I tend to let some stuff cook overnight. But I use a great big crock pot type roaster oven and when a food is done I scoop it out with a big sieve type of spoon (a BIG one) and put everything into a big plastic container (like you'd store stuff in). I attack it with a potato masher. each time I add something. But it's ALL mashed together.
Then I add the next veg in the roaster/cooker and IF I need to add more water for it to cook I do. But it's the same water (deliberately so the flavors mingle AND so you get all the vitamins that are lost otherwise.
By the time I cook the meat there isn't much broth -- but I only cook the meat as much as I need to.
I don't drain anything to let juice go down the drain. Everything is incorporated into one big "stew" or thick consistency.
**WHY**???
Many reasons.
If you don't have everything incorporated you are a) making more work, b) your measurements aren't consistent one meal to the next and c) it's impossible for you to tell *quantity* that way.
A cup of fluffy cooked rice is different than a cup of sticky thick rice. But if you measure your rice BEFORE you cook it and it all goes into the pot then you divide the whole thing up by how many meals it's going to make.
But that way he gets the same amount -- day after day. Luna gets 1 1/2 c. of cooked food. Billy gets a level cup (both he and Luna weigh 30 pounds -- I can't keep weight ON her, Billy gains if he smells it *sigh*).
But essentially every week it's about 30% meat, 70% veggies - but it's ALL DIFFERENT veggies -- carby veg like potato and sweet and leafy greens, and even applesauce (which is a fruit but that's beside the point here).
But by varying the veggies all over the place I arrive at a pretty balanced variety that is quite consistent. I put about 5# of potato in every batch I make. I put about 6-7# of sweet potato. Those are pretty constant (and those are a LOT of bulky and energy rich veggies -- he burns that as energy -- not just meat). But those two are ONLY TWO of usually like 8-10 veggies per week. But those two are "constants" -- everything else varies. But those two are probably the highest *calorie* veggies.
One comment -- CALCIUM. Tums is not calcium. Yes it has some calcium but that's not nearly sufficient enough for you to be using to supplement food. Using Tums for the stomach is fine -- but it's NOT enough calcium (there is a LOT of sugar in there and other stuff too).
But your calcium needs to be in proportion to the meat. I use Natural Source -- and I put in one HEAPING teaspoon for every pound of meat. If you use NOW Caclium you have to use 1 heaping teaspoon for every 8 oz. of meat.
But the callcium will kick you in bloodwork -- that's one of the **absolute musts** of home cooking -- you gotta keep that calcium in the right proportion.
Applesauce is *not* apple cider vinegar. ACV is another whole thing particularly when used medicinally. It's not something I like to use -- nothing bad about it but the smell of it makes my rolf -- I just can't stand to smell it.
dyan
However....I just took him to get blood work to see where we are can what we can or can not rule out....and now the crystal in urine thing comes up. Not that I would't condsider the Chinese medicine route.....but I'm not confident enough to go into something possible entirely different at this point...would you?
Most people who try TCVM do so because of a problem. With me it was Muffin's cancer. And then Sock's heart problems and Foxy's arthritis. Then Polly's spinal problems, and then Billy's skin/allergies/IMHA and then Kee's seizure stuff. Because the more I've used it the more value I see in it.
"but I'm not confident enough to go into something possible entirely different at this point...would you? "
That's my point -- you tend to jump from one problem to another -- so much so that you aren't even sure at this point what was bad and what was good. The vitamins may have upset his stomach ... or was it something else?
that's the reason why I incorporate ALL the food into one soft mass -- THEN *** I MEASURE LIKE A FIEND*** -- because you don't know how much THIS dog will need. So you feed homecooked for about 2-3 weeks and weigh them -- if they are porking out you cut it back -- if they are losing you give them more food. It's honestly that simple.
BUT *Chinese medicine* will educate you about food. They're going to *tell* you what foods to give to help with crystals, what foods to add extra of, what to avoid -- I can't tell you that because it's going to be a uniquely Gibby answer.
Western medicine tends to do this simply because it is SO tests oriented. They wait until someone has a complaint, or comes in for routine work and they aren't responding to what they SEE in that dog. They respond directly to whatever test you've had done/allowed done.
The TCVM vet listens to the whole body and how one part is relating to another -- they'll ask questions and concentrate on the body to figure out what's going on.
But that's exactly how they get results -- because it's not "oh, this value is high or low -- let's treat THIS" .... but rather they treat the whole body as a whole because maybe THIS thing (that was high/low) is what is making this OTHER thing happen in the body and if you balance those two as they should be the **problem** goes away.