On our last trip together, I learned
a few tips for keeping Glindy in better health when we travel. Just
like people, travel can be stressful for dogs, and changes in food
or water can combine with stress to cause diarrhea.
When we went to Los Angeles last summer, Glindy ended up at the vet
because of a
long
bout of chronic diarrhea. In that instance, it was likely due
to eating a rotten piece of Kentucky Fried Chicken she found under
a bush while on a potty break, but ever since then I've been a
little hypersensitive about her intestinal health while
traveling.
I often bring along freeze-dried raw diets such as Nature's Variety
or Wysong Archetype Buffet, but was noticing that a steady diet of
this stuff was still giving her tummy trouble. In fact, while we
were in Denver, three days of stress and Archetype Buffet were
giving her mushy, greenish poop, which is what made me switch gears
even though I consider these quality foods.
When at home, Glindy rotates between frozen and freeze-dried raw
foods in the mornings, but also gets a raw meaty bone every night.
It occurred to me that when we travel, she was getting only the
freeze-dried raw, and that this was probably upsetting her internal
balance.
The biggest problem with raw meaty bones is that they're
inconvenient to feed in a hotel room. No one wants to see their dog
dragging a bloody lamb shank across the carpet, but Glindy really
needed the fresh meat and (more importantly) the stool-firming
fresh bone, so I experimented a bit with some alternative feeding
strategies.
First, I tried feeding her raw meaty bones on the tile in the
bathroom, but that didn't really suit either one of us. For my
part, I still ended up having to wipe up blood and grease from the
floor. Glindy, on the other hand, didn't want to be shut away from
me while she ate, and many hotel bathrooms simply aren't big enough
(or interesting enough) for me to wait in there with her while she
eats.
Next, I tried feeding her on the balcony outside my room. That
worked fine when I stood outside with her, but this really wasn't
any better than the bathroom idea. She became anxious and
uninterested in her food if I went back inside, even if she could
see me through the sliding glass door. For my part, I had no
interest in standing outside in bitter weather while she ate, so
that idea became unworkable, too.
The ideal solution turned out to be bite-sized pieces of raw
chicken. Because of Glindy's size (she's about 60 pounds), chicken
drummettes turned out to be ideal hotel food. They're small enough
that she can eat out of a bowl without dragging the food around,
and yet large enough that she still has to chew each piece rather
than swallowing it whole. In addition, they're easy to find at
grocery stores, and come in packages small enough to keep in a
hotel mini-fridge. What more could you ask for?
Once I began rotating in the chicken drummettes, Glindy's system
seemed to stabilize. I still gave her a bowl of Archetype Buffet
every few days, along with raw eggs and various table scraps to
give her a little variety, but the chicken became the staple in her
diet.
According to Tom Lonsdale, a dog can thrive solely on raw meaty
bones, although I tend to err on the side of full-spectrum
nutrition whenever possible. But since it worked so well on our
last trip, I'm going to continue feeding her this way on future
trips as long as her health remains good.
Note: Chicken drummettes look like small
drumsticks, but they're actually the part of the wing between the
shoulder and the elbow. If your store doesn't carry them, you can
also look for "party wings," which are really just wing
mid-sections. I've had equal success with both cuts, although I
prefer feeding the whole wing when we're not traveling.