Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

  • Home
  • About
  • Sampson
  • Delilah
  • Contact
  • Community Page

Follow-Up Friday – November 27, 2015

November 27, 2015 By Jodi

Welcome to this week’s edition of Follow-Up Friday, the post where I highlight reader’s comments, answer questions and generally just wrap up my week.

You Make Me Laugh – November 22, 2015

Golden Labrador Pulls Stuffing Out of Bed

Emma said, “Katie and I don’t do anything but sleep on our beds, but my little monster sister Bailie rips my beds to shreds. She ruined my very favorite bed the other morning, and Mom was even home at the time! She was in the kitchen working while Bailie shredded my bed. Our office was covered in stuffing. Not good. I guess if you pups do it to their own beds it isn’t so bad. Maybe make a new cover for it?”

I think it’s time for a new bed. I’ve fixed the cover once and now the stuffing is so destroyed, that taking the cover off leaves a wicked mess. Anyone have any good recommendations for Orthopedic dog beds?

Jan K said, “Cricket scratches at the beds all the time, but luckily no holes yet. I’m sure Sheba and Luke would have a field day if there were. Cricket is often seen lying around different toys in the beds though!”

That’s so cute, I love photo of her curled up with her ball next to her. 🙂 My guys don’t typically take toys to bed.

Jan said, “That is adorable. He must have his own concept of comfort.”

He MUST because it doesn’t look comfy to me. LOL Maybe it’s the dog version of a body pillow?

Perhaps the best advice came from Lily & Edward (Two French Bulldogs) “You were suppose to hide the evidence.”

Goodness, please don’t give them ideas!

Treating Canine Arthritis with PEMF

Golden Lab Gets PEMF

Before we get to the questions, Sampson had his second PEMF treatment on Tuesday. It lasted about 1/2 an hour, the next day Sampson was full of himself. He and Delilah rough housed in the morning after he ran around with his Kong, which was AFTER we took our 25 minute walk. It seems to be a good therapy for him and apparently he feels better.

Emma said, “The chiro has really helped Katie a lot. She is a bit sore for a day or two and tired too after the adjustment, but then she feels really good. Because of her condition, she gets an adjustment about once a month, but for the first two months or so it was every two weeks.”

I put in a call to our holistic vet and he’ll be coming down to give Sampson an adjustment and possibly some acupuncture, but the appointment isn’t until Christmas Eve. One of the owners at my Vet’s practice can do the acupuncture, in the meantime, and I can always ask my vet to recommend someone for chiro if he really needs it sooner.  They do have someone that does it at the place where he gets the PEMF, but for what they wanted to charge, I’d prefer the holistic vet to do it.

Sue said, “If Jeffie had had cal surgery, we’d planned to do this treatment. He did have chiropractic care and I highly recommend it!”

I appreciate that Sue, it really does seem to be helping. 

Julie said, ”  I always gave Daisy massages to try and help her and do the same for Cocoa even though she is a pup still.”

I give Sampson some massage too, especially when those back legs start trembling. Poor little love. I think it’s beneficial to get those muscles stimulated and the blood flowing to those areas.

Jan K asked, “Why does it seem like when you find something promising, you always hear something bad about it? I’m glad you did further research and talked to your vet for reassurance.”

I think it’s the same with most things. There are always going to be people who have a negative experience with a product/company/treatment. In general I feel like when we get good service we rarely mention it, but when we get poor service or have a poor experience we tend to really let loose.

Happy Thanksgiving – Barks and Bytes

Happy Thanksgiving From HLAD

I’m glad so many of you liked the photo, it is hard for me to find a photo where both my dogs are looking at the camera. I found that photo from three years ago, originally I was trying to come up with something about Plymouth Rock, but came up with that one instead.

I’m sorry I haven’t gotten around to a lot of blogs lately, I’ve been focusing on working on that book. 🙂 This weekend I’ll be spending some time with my sister, so I’ll try and get around to them next week.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Like what you read? Please share on your social network.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

Filed Under: Follow-Up Friday Tagged With: Follow-Up Friday

Happy Thanksgiving – Barks and Bytes

November 26, 2015 By Jodi

In January of 2014 I decided to begin focusing on the good things in my life, no matter how small. I started a Facebook page called Gratitude Adjustment with the premise that if I started focusing on the things I’m grateful for, I’d find more things to be grateful for.

That first month started right off with challenges. There was Sampson’s misdiagnosis of Degenerative Myelopathy, burst pipes and health challenges for me and my husband.

I had to find a way to find the good in those things and it was challenging, but I found a way. I was so grateful the DM diagnosis was wrong, we had the money to fix the burst pipes and we had insurance to help us with the health challenges.

Since that first rocky month, I’ve worked hard at finding 10 things to be grateful for every day.

Every single day, I’m already grateful for my family, my dogs,  my friends, my home and my job.

Yes, can you believe it? I’m taking Thanksgiving Day to let you know how thankful I am to have all of you along with us for this crazy journey.

I know, I know, it’s Thanksgiving. Stop reading blog posts and go spend time with those that you love.

And if you’ve hung in there this long, here’s a little something that I hope makes it all worth while.

Happy Thanksgiving From HLAD

From all of us to all of you, Happy Thanksgiving!

Heart Like a Dog

This is the Thursday Barks and Bytes Blog Hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog. Grab the badge and the linky code and join us! Please only link up blog posts and as a courtesy to the other hoppers, please add the linky to your post and/or link back to the hosts’ blogs.



Like what you read? Please share on your social network.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

Filed Under: Blog Hops Tagged With: Heart Like A Dog, Life With Sampson And Delilah, Thursday Barks and Bytes

Treating Canine Arthritis with PEMF

November 24, 2015 By Jodi

In last Thursday’s “State of the Dog” post, I mentioned Sampson’s arthritis and his continuing struggles with Illiosoas muscles.  I shared the options we had for helping make him more comfortable.

Before I share with you the treatment we chose, I’d like to thank all of you for the wonderful suggestions. I can’t believe I didn’t think of acupuncture or chiropractic work to help him. These will definitely be added to our arsenal of treatment options.

Right now I have Sampson on a good hip and joint supplement with Glucosamine and MSM in it. He also gets an Omega oil (Omeagese) and a natural anti-inflammatory Zyflamend, as well as a good multi-vitamin and a mineral supplement.

To treat his arthritis and help ease his pain, I chose to try the Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy (PEMF). My understanding is this treatment was originally used with horses to help heal broken legs, a huge breakthrough considering in the past horses were prone to be euthanized if they broke a leg.

The technician that did Sampson’s treatment told me it is this close to being approved by the FDA (which really means shit to me, because I don’t trust those sons of bitches as far as I can throw them) and it’s also used by humans.

I was told the side-effects could be increased panting (Sampson was panting a bit when we first got there, but quickly settled in) and possibly some increased thirst, which he didn’t seem to have.

Sampson was very receptive to the treatment.

Golden Lab gets PEMF This is a fairly large machine with tubing and paddles. The tubing is used for wrapping around a limb (as shown in the photo). This helped to get both the upper part of Sampson’s thigh, as well as working on that stubborn Illiosoas muscle.

Golden Lab Gets PEMF The pad is used to place on those easier to reach places.

Since it’s an electric pulse I was concerned about a sensation, but I put my hand on the paddle and could feel absolutely nothing and Sampson laid there the whole time and wasn’t bothered by it a bit.

His treatment focused on those wrists and paws, as well as the Illiosoas and his knee.

The first treatment was only for 15 minutes, while the next two, which I have scheduled for today and next Tuesday are for half an hour. While it seemed to me that Sampson felt a bit better right away, the technician said that most people see improvement after a minimum of three treatments. (Which is why I scheduled three.) 🙂

The very next day I listened to a podcast about reversing arthritis and one of the vets stated that PEMF didn’t work on arthritis and if the dog had cancer or had the possibility of getting cancer, the PEMF could acerbate it. I did consult with Dr. Google and could find nothing to support that.

So I called my vet and talked to her. She was very reassuring. She told me she has researched it extensively and she’s found nothing to indicate it is cancer causing. She also has access to information I don’t and while she couldn’t print it off to share with me, she could tell me that research has shown PEMF treatments given daily for years showed no adverse effects, although long term whole body treatment has not been studied.

After talking with my vet (and reading all your amazing suggestions) I’ve decided to add some chiropractic adjustment and some acupuncture to his treatment. And of course, we always have the pain medication if all else fails.

Golden Labrador

Sampson just took it all in. Happy to have people paying attention to him.

All told, I’m feeling pretty good about the treatment plan we have in place for Sampson, and I’m optimistic we can get him feeling a lot more comfortable.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Like what you read? Please share on your social network.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

Filed Under: Health Related Tagged With: Health, Life With Sampson And Delilah, Sampson

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 144
  • 145
  • 146
  • 147
  • 148
  • …
  • 673
  • Next Page »

About Jodi

jodiHi, my name is Jodi. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my blog! I have all kinds of fun writing about my two crazy pups, Sampson and Delilah. Find out more!

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Let’s Stay Connected!

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Heart Like A Dog

Heart Like A Dog

Products We Love

Heart Like a Dog reader's receive a one time 25% discount when purchasing. If you do purchase, we thank you as we receive a small commission. Use code HeartOff

Creative Commons

Creative Commons License
Heart Like A Dog by Jodi E. Stone is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.heartlikeadog.com.

Recent Posts

  • Dearest Delilah
  • Happy 17th Birthday in Heaven, Sampson
  • My Darling Delilah
  • A Year Without You
  • Six Months of Missing You

Recent Comments

  • Madison on Dearest Delilah
  • Ducky & Bogie's Mom on Dearest Delilah
  • Sue on Dearest Delilah
  • Brian Frum on Dearest Delilah
  • Cat and DOG Chat With Caren on Dearest Delilah

Copyright © 2025 · Dynamik Website Builder on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in