Princess gets her fur back

Princess is my daughter's 10 month old puppy. We found her last year on Craigslist while looking for a puppy for our 12 year old for Christmas. My husband and I drove across town to a scary little area of town to see the puppies they had left after their schnauzer came home pregnant... So, we got there and they brought out the three puppies they had left, 2 fat roly poly boy puppies and then an itty bitty dirty white runt of a thing. When they came out they tried to hand my husband and I the other two, but I immediately went for the little one, she just looked like she needed a loving happy home and I knew we could give it to her. She was cold, and wet (it was raining) and shaking in my arms, and so I did what anyone would do... I stuck her down my shirt. I know you are probably thinking , eww, wet puppy, covered in mud, gross. But I HAD to, she needed me. I convinced my husband she was the puppy for us and we took her home immediately. She was supposed to be 3 months old, but she didn't look even 1 month old, since her brothers were bigger I believed them and knew that she wouldn't survive if left there much longer. Her ribs were sticking out and I had to save her... So, I had to drive home and therefore cute shivery puppy was transferred from under my shirt to under my husbands where she fell asleep and stayed contentedly all the way home.

I stopped at Petco (where the loving pet owners go) on the way home and grabbed some puppy cleaning wipes, and a little bow for her ear. We cleaned her up in the car and took her home to our daughter. Our daughter immediately fell in love with her too, and Freaky, our 9 year old Sheltie.Schnauzer warmed up to her within a couple weeks.

Anyways the night we brought her home I went back out to Petco and grabbed puppy milk, puppy calories, puppy wet food and puppy dry food. Since I wasn't sure which puppy food she was going to like I bought a couple of a few different kinds. She quickly started to gain weight. She was only 3 pounds when we got her, and within about 5 weeks she weighed 9 pounds and had so much energy she would work it off by running in circles around our dining and living room.

She was named Princess by our daughter and quickly potty trained and started learning tricks...

We had had Princess about 6 months, she had been to the vet a couple of times and was doing great. She had gained enough weight to no longer need extra puppy calories or special weight gain biscuits. All was good.

And then - she stopped eating. We couldn't figure it out . We had her tested for worms. We hadn't changed their food, there was no reason for her to not be eating. We were pretty concerned and had started to think she might need to go back to the vet so we could do blood work.

I was sitting in the living room getting ready to call the vet and had just asked our daughter to wash out the doggy water bowl when I noticed Princess slowly approaching the dog food. She would get near enough so that she could stretch her little neck as far as it would go and grab a piece of food... When I noticed this I asked Miranda to keep the water bowl at the sink and just stay there for a bit and we both watched as she got closer and closer to the food and was eating more and more. It was the special water bowl we had got her! She was afraid of it! We had recently bought a dog water bowl with the big tank on top that is filled with water and flows fresh water into their bowl all the time. Apparently the glug glug glug noise terrified her to the point that she wouldn't eat!

We put down a large fruit bowl filled with water and watched her prance over and get water with no stress!

Problem solved. Happy health puppy all over again.

In September we started to notice that Princess had a little bald spot on her hind leg. We weren't sure why, and thought at first that maybe our daughter had cut her fur in that spot. a couple weeks later the little spot was huge and she had three others. The entire back end of her was going bald. I started doing some research on Schnauzer/Westie mix puppies, since the vet had said she looked to be a Westie mix, and we knew for sure she was half Schnauzer since her mommy was. Upon googling fur loss for Schnauzer/Westie mixes I found a bunch of different health problems that Westies seem to have, most of them having to do with doggy dermatitis, and skin and food allergies. I was up until after 2 in the morning researching how to help her feel better and grow her fur back. A lot of what I read advised bathing with Nizoral shampoo and a medicated shampoo with tar twice a week. I also found a lot sites that said to beware of food allergies like wheat, corn, yeast, etc... So, with this info in hand I took off to Petco (see a trend here? Have problem go to Petco) early the next morning. I had found a lot of great reviews online for Natural Balance (L.I.D) limited ingredient allergy formula dog food so I decided this was the dog food I was going to try first. I purchased a 10 pound bag of Sweet potato and bison allergy formula dog food. Grabbed some L.I.D puppy treats and the medicated tar shampoo and headed to Walmart for the Nizoral shampoo (anti-dandruff human shampoo) and a pink onesie button up baby outfit (more on that later). Got home, read ingredients on puppy vitamins (guess what they have yeast) put away puppy vitamins, and all other dog food and treats in back of pantry. Explained to entire family that Princess and Freaky can only have special food and treats and no human food or vitamins for the time being.

Took Princess upstairs, gave her the special 2 part bath, where each part takes 5 minutes of shampoo sitting on fur. Then fit her for her new night gown. Pink button up onesie was her new night gown, this was to keep her from chewing on her fur at night. Once she was fit into her night gown we first slathered Vaseline onto the bald spots and then suited her up for bed, every single night.

We have been on the Natural Balance, no vitamins with yeast, no wheat, corn or gluten diet with special twice a week baths and nightly Vaseline and pajama ritual for three weeks and guess what? Her fur is growing back! She rarely tries to bite at her fur anymore, and she is more active. She and Freaky have more energy. Princess looks better, and Freaky lost all the rest of the weight that was keeping him in the overweight category. Neither of our dogs sneeze as much anymore and Freakys cysts ARE GONE!

What I am getting at is the Natural Balance limited ingredient allergy formula dog food (which by the way has no salt) and the new treats have made quite a difference. I know for sure now that we will only buy Natural Balance allergy formula dog food for now on. I mean really, do our dogs need food with 30 or more ingredients that can't even be pronounced? It's time for a simple, healthy natural doggy diet.

I love that Princess looks like a puppy again and not like a sewer rat...