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Sometime
during the earlier years of raising Pomeranians, I learned about
the sudden and rapid growth spurt some puppies go through.
Their bodies are growing so fast, their system robs calcium from
their bones on which to grow. It is during this time (3 to 9
months of age) that some pretty strange things can happen in these
rapid growth spurts. Some can’t hold their tails up flat
on their backs, some can only hold their tails straight up to the
sky, some ears droop, some break down in the pasterns and some
splay their legs. They make the term “falling apart” true.
Since
I have been working with a bloodline for the past 12 years that
are slow growers and smaller at birth, I had forgotten something
I’d learned years before. Now I have been working with
other bloodlines that the pups are larger when born and rapid
growers but top out at the average show pom size. Just
recently I had two reminders that I need to use OsteoForm
on my puppies. OsteoForm is a supplement that
balances calcium/phosphorus – add this to their diet so their
bodies don’t need to rob their bones (it typically shows up in
extremities and teeth) to get the calcium they need for these
growth spurts. And please note that any supplement used for
this purpose needs to have a balance of calcium and phosphorus.
I
recently had a show prospect puppy, but was growing him out a
little before sending him to the handler. Thank goodness he
was still with me or I’m certain he would have been another
“fallen apart” puppy! I noticed his ears were drooping
and he was down in his pasterns and splay footed! This puppy
was none of these previously and now suddenly he was pathetic.
I started supplementing him with OsteoForm and three weeks
later, I was seeing the puppy he used to be. I told my
friends about this incident and recommended OsteoForm for
all growing puppies (knowing they were working with these
bloodlines).
Then,
as if that wasn’t enough of a reminder, a puppy I’d previously
placed as a show prospect with a correct tailset was returned to
me with the owner saying this puppy had her tail pointing straight
up to the sky. I cared for the puppy for two months giving
her my usual supplements including the OsteoForm.
Within a month the puppy’s tail was flat on its back. Now
I am convinced that some of these puppies that “fall apart”
can be saved by giving them OsteoForm when they needed it.
The owners of the puppy didn’t recognize her when I said she was
ready to return home.
Incidentally,
this same puppy was presented to me with a “parrot bite.”
And this gets into another area of information I don’t think
everyone is aware of. And I suspect, as does my vet, that
this “parrot bite” appearance may also have had something to
do with the calcium depletion. If something really funky is
going on at this straggly stage, it may very well be this calcium
leeching. And those were pretty strange looking teeth –
the only place I’d ever seen this bite was on a horse once.
I had the puppy for 5 days (she was 5 months old and I believe the
owners had noticed this for a month or more) when I was able to
get my vet to pull all the baby teeth. Now the bite is as
good a scissor bite as I’ve seen on poms. My vet has
talked with one of six canine dental experts in this country (with
board certified canine dentistry credentials) and I have posted
information on my website www.finchspoms.com
about what she learned from him concerning when is the correct
time to pull baby teeth and which ones to pull for certain types
of incorrect bites. The key is to pull these baby teeth at
10 to 12 weeks of age or whenever, after that age, the bite starts
to go off. Pulling baby teeth at 6 months of age may not be
soon enough.
This
is the second (of two) success stories I’ve had since learning
this about the teeth. My writing explains what teeth to pull
for whatever bite problem the dog has. The canine dental
expert also says we have created our bite problems because a
scissor bite is a man-made bite, not a natural bite – an even
bite is the way these dogs should be. A friend of mine
recently told me her vet knew all about these theories/practices
of pulling certain teeth to correct a bite and that it was covered
in her vet course and she knew exactly what my friend was asking
her to do. My personal experience has been that this is an
exceptional vet because I’ve found most didn’t learn this in
vet school even with some of the younger vets. Most say just
“wait and see.” If you “wait and see,” you may be
sorry if you have a messed up bite. In this case doing
something is better than doing nothing.
Zinc
is deficient in our poms diets and these coated northern breeds
need more zinc than other breeds. I’ve added this to my
poms’ diets (but please if you add this to your poms’ diets,
make sure each pom gets an exact measured dose and do not
overdose!). My co-breeder and I feel this has been very
beneficial.
From
everything I have seen, raw meat fed to poms (at least a rounded
tablespoon per day) seems to put the best coats on poms and, in
some cases, have prevented them from losing their coats. Raw
poultry and raw hamburger and pork are the most likely to have
E.coli and salmonella and other bad things in or on the meat so I
don’t feed those raw (I cook those meats).
Poms
who have luxating patellas can benefit greatly from using any of
the joint formulas, but I like MSM the best for most dogs. MSM
is good for overall body health, not just the joints. It can
be purchased in a powder form from a health food store and given
daily in a meat or cheese ball. It needs to be human grade.
Most will travel sound in 3 to 6 weeks after starting on it.
In most cases it will spare the dog from surgery which
isn’t always successful or safe and will give the dog a 50%
chance of not going arthritic in that area as it ages and
certainly is less costly than surgery. I have yet to see a
pom affected with a gimp from a patella luxation not travel sound
after this MSM treatment.
~
Diane Finch
Finches
Pomeranians
http://www.finchspoms.com/ |
