The time really is flying... I can’t believe the summer is gone and people are rushing around doing their Christmas shopping!

 

Miihkali is three years old now. He had a lovely birthday party in August and I took him shopping to the Pets at Home. He picked up a rubber chicken and a new “brain toy” which was supposed to last forever. Well it didn’t, surprisingly! The idea was to fill this strong plastic bottle with treats and then let him fish them out from the other end  by using a rope attached to the top. Instead of using the rope he learnt to unscrew the bottom! Obviously he had been watching me when I filled it up, so it didn’t take too long for him to figure out the easier way to get the treats!

 

Miihkali has had this ongoing problem with his coat and skin this year. He started shedding his coat earlier this year and it wouldn’t stop. He developed really bad dandruff and flaky skin as well, however sometimes the symptoms were clearly more obvious and a couple of times all problems disappeared almost completely with no apparent reason. I realized he must be allergic to something, but what??

 I changed his diet, gave him oils and fats and tried everything imaginable, but things wouldn’t change. Then suddenly the situation got so bad that he ended up with a severe skin inflammation caused by continuous scratching. His underarms, neck and the base of his tail were completely hairless and skin got really sore and bright red literally overnight. I took him to the vets and he was given antibiotics and medical shampoo, which helped for a while but didn’t cure anything. Later on he had another similar flare up and I had to rush him to the vets again. They took blood tests, scraped his skin and investigated as best they could - and found nothing.

 

I washed him daily and gave him a longer caurse of two different types of medication. His symptoms cleared again. I was puzzled, and started to write down everything we did, he ate, he played with and so on.

It took me about 6 months to found out what was causing the trouble. You would NEVER believe what he is allergic to... Birds!!!

 

His symptoms got really bad when we looked after Noora’s parrott, Poppy. He also started shedding and scrathing every time he was being looked after by her and spent a long time with Poppy.  He also reacted to the water in Chantry park - a small pond full of birds and very likely their faeces. He doesn’t have a reaction when he swims in rivers as the water is cleaner.

 

I stopped taking him to the Chantry park altogether and he was symptom-free for a couple of months - until Poppy came to stay for a week. On the second day he started scratching again and I gave him some anti-histamin that helped immediately.

 

Now he has grown a fabulous thick winter coat and has not been scratching since. I also decided to change his diet to BARF (Bones and Raw Food), and he really loves that. He has been on raw diet for 2 months now and we haven’t looked back once! His eyes are not runny anymore, his coat is thick and curly and his ears clean. I also noticed his teeth have turn much whiter. Another plus side is that he only goes to poo twice a day - on a complete food he did about 5 times a day and the amount of it was just ridiculous!

 

I feed him chicken wings and meaty bones of pork, lamb or beef, all vegetables, fish and liver, heart, kidney or what ever I can get hold of really. I never measure anything but have rough guidelines based on more experienced people’s advice. It really is not hard, as long as you keep things balanced.

 

Otherwise things are good, I have a terrible puppy-fever and really wanted to get another dog next year... See what happens!