6 Month Check Up

Wahoo! Last month we took chest x-rays and did blood work to see how Cody is doing. No obvious evidence of any cancer. Yay!
The anti-cancer regimen has morphed and changed over time. I am now cooking for Cody sporadically as time allows and I tend to keep it really simple. I'll boil chicken and steam veggies. Now and then I will throw a bunch of green stuff (parsley, kale, brussels sprouts, etc.) into the food processor and sprinkle it on the food. The consistent base of his diet is Wellness 95% canned meat, and Wellness Core, Reduced Fat kibble. I usually will mix some kibble in with the homemade diet, just to keep his tummy from getting upset. Because I travel a lot and sometimes he comes with me or sometimes I have someone else taking care of him I've opted to keep an easy feeding option like kibble and canned food on hand.

I've also recently changed his supplements. I've gone back to giving him the Veterinary Immune Tabs from Ramaekers Nutrition. In a previous post I mentioned that there was some concern over the anti-oxidant super oxide dismutase. I think that the amount is not very much, so I'm not going to worry about it. For the last few months I've been buying Transfer Factor and K9 Immunity separately. The Veterinary Immune Tabs contain both of these plus vitamins, minerals, amino acids, probiotics, some essential fatty acids, joint supplements, and tumeric. This supplement is costing me about $174 a bottle and it lasts Cody about 1 month (the recommended dose is 1 tablet per 20 lbs). That is my cost plus shipping. If you purchase this product through a veterinarian it will probably be about $200+ a bottle. You can also contact Ramaekers directly and order it directly from them which may save you a little money.
I am still adding in the Apocaps - Dr. Dressler's product. I've weaned Cody off of some of the other pain and joint supplements to see how he does. I've stopped the Dasuquin and Pain Plus, but have continued to give him Lubrisyn (an oral high molecular weight hyaluronic acid). He still gets Previcox, a NSAID, every other day. I make sure he is getting digestive enzymes and probiotics to help with digestion and keep his gut healthy. So far we haven't had any bad bouts of diarrhea in a while (probably because I haven't gone crazy with home cooking!).
Tonight he got a treat. I decided that buying a whole Rocky organic chicken would be the least expensive option for chicken. I roasted the chicken with broccoli and zucchini. The easy part is cooking it, now the fun will be deboning it all!!
Instructions: Pre-heat over to 400 degrees. Wash the chicken, pat dry. Put chicken in roasting pan, spread veggies (in this case broccoli and zucchini) around the edges and stuffed inside. I also kept the livers and neck and placed them in the roasting pan along with the vegetables. Add approximately 1/2 cup water. Cover and roast for approximately 1 & 1/2 hours or until the internal temperature of the chicken is 170 degrees. Remove skin and debone. Serve! Cody says thanks! Yummy!