Baby Wipes For Clean Ears

Homemade meals are one way to keep a dog healthy. However, good Doggie Chefs know keeping a dog reasonably clean and well groomed is important too.

The first year I had Gracie her ears smelled pretty bad for several months. The vet said she had an ear infection and recommended I clean Gracie's ears with a liquid solution made to swish into a dog's ear with a squeeze-bottle. Well, Gracie would have none of that and I couldn't blame her. Who wants chilly liquid squeezed into their ears?

I bought some doggie ear pad wipes but they were saturated with liquid and unpleasant to use. I started carefully wiping out Gracie's ears with cotton balls dampened with witch hazel. Then I used tissues dampened with witch hazel, which helped me to do a better job.

One evening when I was removing eye make-up from my face with a baby wipe I realized baby wipes would be great for cleaning a dog's ears!

I buy the unscented, gentle kind of baby wipe and use one for each ear (sometimes two if Gracie has a lot of ear wax). I clean Gracie's ears thoroughly about once a week. I wrap the wipe around my finger and clean her outer ear and the outer part of her inner ear (if that makes sense). I try not to clean too deeply into her ear canal but I think it is important to clean out much of the excess wax. I know ear wax serves a function but clean ears smell a lot nicer. On other days of the week when I'm brushing Gracie I'll sometimes quickly clean just her outer ear, under her ear flap.

Egg Whites & Rice Dinner 4-14-09

Egg whites cooked in corn oil

Rice

Whole wheat bread

Cooked sweet potato

Cooked peas

Bone meal powder

Canned Salmon Breakfast 4-7-09

Canned salmon (Rinsed briefly in water to remove excess salt. Most of the skin removed. The bones are safe, as they're very soft)

Oatmeal cooked in milk

Whole wheat bread

Egg noodles

Cooked carrots

Yogurt

Ground Beef Dinner 4-1-09

Ground beef cooked in corn oil

Oatmeal cooked in milk

Homemade wheat bread

Cooked carrots

Plain yogurt

Ground Beef Breakfast 3-24-09

Lean ground beef

Whole wheat bread

Oatmeal cooked in milk

Baked sweet potato, with skin

Cheddar cheese

Sunflower oil

Playing Fetch In The Snow

Gracie had fun playing in the snow this past week. She's definitely a cool-weather dog. She loves playing outside when there's snow on the ground. Here she's offering me her tennis ball to start a game of fetch.

Oops! Where did the ball go after I threw it? Gracie's nose knows. It's always amazing to watch her find her ball with her nose --- even when it's under several inches of snow.

Gracie is very persistent. When the snow is deep she'll spend several minutes sniffing and digging until she finds her ball.

                                                               

She's found it and she's ready to keep playing!

Nail Clippers

It's important to keep a dog's nails trimmed but it's really hard to do it right if your dog has black nails, like Gracie does.

On dog's with white nails it's easy to see "the quick;" the soft, interior tissue of the nail that bleeds and hurts like holy heck if you cut it.

Think how much it hurts if you cut your own nails too short. If you have a lot of trouble cutting your dog's nails without hurting him (or her) it's best to let the vet or a dog groomer do it.

I cut Gracie's nails myself. I take my time and try to be super careful. I cut a nail too short only once; the first year I adopted Gracie, when I was new at nail-cutting. She yelped and it bled and the styptic powder I had on hand didn't help at all. I tried using a styptic pencil but that seemed to hurt her.

Gracie never was comfortable getting her nails cut, even before I accidentally cut that one nail too short. To make nail trimming easier on her I give Gracie a small biscuit treat before I start and after each cut. To avoid overly stressing her, I try to cut a maximum of three nails at one time. If more need clipping, I leave them for another day. I make sure the room is brightly lit so I can see her nails clearly and spot "the quick" under each nail.

I find the clippers shown above work best on Gracie's thick nails. In the past I tried a different kind of nail clipper; the kind that has a sort of hole-opening into which you position each nail before cutting it. I think that type is called a guillotine style clipper. It did not work well for Gracie, as it crushed and split her nails. The clipper shown above works much better. The brand is Millers Forge and the case is marked, "Italy."