MOOvember Carnivore


#206

It’s one of those comments where I feel I should warn everyone but it contains nothing just me overthinking things and try to go over the mild shock I got after tracking (without real surprise, is that a thing?).
And why I do this, normally I have enough meat to eat so overanalyzing this abnormal day can’t help so much.

So if you don’t have time to waste on my inner chaos (and why would any of you have), don’t read. I suppose.


I tracked. Ooops. But not surprising. I lacked satiation for long, had 4 meals, not so much meat but everything was fatty… I don’t have regrets though.

Guesstimation says 2717 kcal, 227g fat, 133g protein and 27g carbs. (5g carbs from plants, ouch. My catfish spread wasn’t so great but I forgot and was desperate without meat and of course my sausages had spices too. Mostly just very much paprika, I only eat Hungarian sausages, after all. with some exceptions, I had some cute white ones in my life but I strongly prefers ours.)
Me and fat… And I am in a permanent fat minimization attitude. Sometimes I forget about it or I have circumstances though. Oh well, it’s not THAT high… That would be over 300g :slight_smile: Not like that feels much fat to me but I don’t need nearly as much.

But the fat isn’t my problem, it was a single day with difficulties.
The problem is that from my own viewpoint I ate quite little dairy. They were mostly very creamy and I was hungry, it was easy to eat… They still brought a lot of fat and 19g carbs (the latter probably doesn’t matter, I still couldn’t experiment enough to figure that out. maybe I never will as fatty low-protein dairy doesn’t satiate me and it easily have nothing to do with the carb content, I have fats and even proteins not being satiating). So I kept myself from my precious lovely dairy as much as it was possible in that day without frying meat (but I really didn’t want to bother with it) - and it still proved to be quite much. I finally have my favorite brand of sour cream, it’s awesome but 172g is simultaneously much and almost nothing. And it was one dairy item from 6… And I felt I ate little dairy… But it was surely my lack of satiating talking as normally I am very pleased with way, way less.

I already decided to keep ready to eat meat in my freezer ALL the time yesterday…

So that’s why I had 4 meals. I just didn’t get my minimal protein until midnight… Aka why I should just eat a pound of meat during the day as I can’t even remotely guess if I had enough protein. A pound of meat or more and some eggs and whatnot, that should be enough. And it probably usually is.

But today there is a new experiment! Do much non-satiating low-protein dairy mess things up even in the presence of a substantial amount of lean pork? :slight_smile: Or the proper amount of meat and calories do the trick? It’s an old question of mine. I give my body the meat and protein it apparently always wants, it gets it calories too - but a big part of the latter comes from non-satiating items. What happens then?
But much fat almost inevitably comes from non-satiating sources. Very fatty meat doesn’t seem to satiate me as well as somewhat leaner meat, that’s why I easily overate it in the past. So maybe some part of the fat may come from not satiating sources, it’s still okay… Oh indeed, there were all my days when I only ate until I went over 120g protein, no matter how much fat I had (as long as it wasn’t super low but I hardly can eat that lean. but it happened and didn’t work, unsurprisingly).
But what if much dairy still messes with my satiation?

I go and plan some nice day and tomorrow I track and see how seriously I messed it up. But it definitely helps when I see (and eat) my pound of meat. Things tend to get insanely difficult on lower-meat days and I dislike getting an overeating, hungry/not satiated, not satisfied day. I want my nice, blissfully satiated and satisfied ones. Not like I don’t have mixed combos but I very often get more satiated and satisfied on more modest days and I had seriously overeating days where I felt starving all day on low-carb (of course I blame the carbs and I am right. okay maybe non-satiating fats too. but maybe the carbs caused that too :)).

I am sorry I will try to keep my thought process to myself in the future. I won’t but I will try. (I will try not to think about this even in my own mind, actually.)


#207

Oh I get it then.
And it’s still so weird to me as I need substantial meals. If I eat 1 (or 5) eggs, I MUST eat a bunch of other food as well if I had no food in the last few hours. Alvaro is the same (actually more extreme as I can handle 1-2 little bites), it’s a decent meal (800-1000 kcal for him, macros don’t really matter except too much fat can’t work) or nothing. If we eat anything little, we accept that we probably need a proper meal in 30 minutes but maybe earlier and I keep beating myself up when I do that without having a big meal ready to eat then so I struggle for long… I can’t stand hunger and it comes, it’s inevitable.

It would be useful if I could postpone a meal eating 1-2-3 eggs, I tried but it never worked well. Maybe I get some minutes. But fasting is easier and safer. I never can get as hungry well-fasted as I can get after a tiny meal. At least after fat adaptation and especially on carnivore. It’s so great I can wait when I get borderline hungry.

I have a tiny bit of turkey fat now… Maybe I mix it with egg yolks then. I always make super eggy “mayo” anyway :slight_smile: And I don’t care about the consistency actually but turkey fat tastes different too so why not to try it?

Duck fat is quite great tasting, I have very nice memories of it. Alvaro’s Mom renders duck fat but it depends on the source of the fat tissue, it’s not always the same goodness. But when it’s good, oh that has a unique flavor I like very much. Looking at all the recipes I saw I think it’s traditional to use duck fat in pâté.

Me neither but Alvaro doesn’t understand my coffee addiction while he have his own things so each to their own. Mayo is horribly fatty to me so I never liked it. I don’t need gravy or most sauces either. But I wouldn’t give up my sour cream and other desserts for long.


#208

Massive sticker shock from store again. Prices even went up MORE high again on my usual products. OW OW OW

but my 93/7 burger was on sale from $5.99/lb to $3.99. Only 3 pks left so I grabbed all of course. bit of savings which is nice cause they rarely put the higher lean burger meat on sale, and lean burger meat is what I eat so…happy to get that into the freezer :slight_smile:

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alot of good yum is gonna come to me from this mini haul :wink:


(Karen) #209

@JJFiddle & @Fangs I haven’t felt poorly with this cough just yesterday and day before felt a bit queasy not had any fever and the icky throat over past 4 weeks haven’t amounted to much. So i guess I have done pretty well and I have listened to my body when I couldn’t manage 50 flights and stopped when I thought i was all done. Thats good for me lol.

@FrankoBear hahah barking, that dry irritable cough that sounds like a dog barking lol … then it changes when it starts getting looser when I get up and sit outside in the fresh air and becomes more like when a dog is getting pretty desperate to get its teeth into someone… I sound like I am snarling like a rabid dog :rofl: I’m doing that while writing this so I hope it will subside before going to bed.

Had a fairly good night, the irritable barking starting about 3 or 4 and then about 6 but I was only awake about 11 mins and 8 mins respectively. Fitbit ell me I was awake about 1hr 11mins and deep sleep 1hr 33mins and got a total of 9hr14m so I reckon that was pretty good… my fitbit thought it was good and gave me a score of 86… I can take that.

Got up did the stair runs and sat outside reading with my black coffee till the rain started about 10.40am

Came inside and had cold roast pork and 2 chicken eggs fried. Very nice. Had a bath then went to pick up Raymond to take him to the bank and cafe for a tea.

Home about 3.45 and put a leg of lamb in the oven. Had a small piece of cheddar and a mug of beef stock while waiting the 1hr 20m for it to roast. It was tasty and I had to eat quite a bit of it lol :rofl: I had some then some more and the some lol

After eating that lamb I finished the pork … it needed to be eaten up, thats my excuse and thats what I’m sticking with!


#210

Egg prices in the greengrocery got their price cap, no amount restriction yet! In the city one can only buy one package in a supermarket, be it 30 (super rare), 10 (the normal) or 6 (that’s a thing too, yep) eggs per package. 10 is seriously lacking to us but we can live with it easily as the egg lady gives us 30 every Friday and I seriously shifted the focus on meat and our egg consumption dropped. Good, meat is more satiating and my body seems to complain if it’s low.

Today was hungry. I was barely hungry before 3pm but I started to eat and then I only could do short, hungry, kind of starving breaks until I had enough. My body goes for OMAD now? Fine with me.
It was almost odd, I had a pound of meat and a bunch of dairy and I was so, so, so hungry afterwards… But it’s lean pork for you (rather for me :wink: ), I suppose.
It wasn’t really lean though, once piece had a wonderful fat layer, so thick that I could use it with the other, too lean parts. My pork wasn’t really tender even after 2 hours but it was fine and I was hungry. It was so beautiful but I was hungry and this gloomy wet weather didn’t do good to my mind either so no photo this time.
After some break I made my sponge cakes, ate 6 with the leftover spread (I used the wrong brand, it’s not THAT carby so only 4g plant carbs for yesterday, it seems, not 5 not like it matters much), some quark…
762 g meat (yesterday was low-meat and it was some nice warm freshly made pork roast… and I was hungry), 3.5 eggs, dairy (mascarpone, Greek yogurt, sour cream, cream and quark).
Guesstimation says I am just below 2000 kcal today and protein around 200g… IDK why, my lowish meat consumption lately or it’s a hungrier day… Doesn’t matter, I will see how these things change later when my past days will be fine as well.

I had a tiny eating window, almost one meal with a small break in the middle. Satiation didn’t came but I could wait some hours and now it’s borderline okay. I want my perfect satiation back. But I appreciate I don’t feel starving anymore, that is never easy.

I am too inactive for my food consumption, mood and energy level and muscle gaining goals alike. I skipped my first workout this week but tomorrow I do it! And go for a walk, forecast promised sunshine for tomorrow!


(Megan) #211

The duck fat I buy stays soft in the fridge and the only ingredient in it is duck fat, so it’s not an additive keeping it soft. Have a look around, you may find some that doesn’t go hard.

Good news all round!

I feel ya! Prices here keep getting more and more insane. I wonder if they will drop once all the covid supply chain issues and the effects from Russia’s war on Ukraine etc settle and the world returns to somewhat normal.


Trucking along here enjoying my food and feeling ok. Had a really great time the last 2 times I took the dogs out. Enjoyable chats with people and 2 dogs happily trotting around doing their thing. Lulu continues to be an amazing dog, can’t believe she’s 10.5 months old already. Grace is back to doing great, must have just had an icky tummy the day she refused breakfast and slept more than usual.

Popped into the supermarket last night and scored some nice fatty pork shoulder chops and some rump steak on special. I’ve always stocked up when I find something on special, and these days it’s becoming more and more important to. Bought a rotisserie chicken heavy marked down and demolished most of it for dinner. The doggos are a great help with the drier breast meat. Back in the day I often gave them the skin but no longer. The skin is mine! lol


(Megan) #212

Caught up on a bunch of posts on the boards last night and this morning. I often come away feeling so glad I’m eating carnivore the way I’m eating it. No weighing food and tracking and counting, no thinking about how much or how often I eat or what I eat, no thinking about fasting or trying to fast.

I think my wee crisis however many weeks ago would probably have only been a biggish blip if I wasn’t so sleep starved at the time. I’m being a bit more mindful of micronutrients but mostly just eating what I feel like. I did, however, buy a very comprehensive vitamin and mineral supplement and I’m happy with that decision. I also take some fish oil, Vit D and magnesium which I’ve taken for years. I tried eating some oily fish but I just don’t dig any kind of seafood, especially on its own. I guess my ancestors never lived by the sea! :crazy_face:


(Linda ) #213

I’m not sure if any of you you ever heard Dr Chaffee and his plants trying to kill us talks…My husband was home this past weekend ,he decided he was making cream cheese and sausage mini bell peppers… figuring I hardly ever step back into any type of keto one or two prob wouldn’t hurt me and since they were mini size to begin with I ate 4 halfs big mistake…Within seconds of swallowing the last piece I started with hiccups then it felt like my whole throat was blocked I started struggling to get air and so decided maybe a sip of water but that did not go down and then started getting all kinds of foaming pushing the veges back out lol…omg talk about veges trying to kill me lol…
It took about 45 mins to recover…never again lol…

And bell pepper was nothing that used to bother me lol… so its interesting how we evolve in carnivore…it was def back to meat for me and rest of the bell peppers went back to the truck…lol…


(Vic) #214

Serves you well Linda :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

Never again, specially the nightshades.

I guess if one really wants to eat toxic plants again, its nessesary to ease in to it with small bits, so hormesis can do it thing.

But as long as we trive, wy would we?


#215

@Karen18
wonder what barking bug got ya K? Hope ya get rid of it sooner than later? :slight_smile: Feel better fast!

@Shinita
why is the city restricting egg sales? just curious. luckily we don’t have any restrictions hanging on me around my location right now.

@MeganNZ
Not sure when any stabilization will come on the riser prices but one thing I do know, they won’t be coming back down LOL ugh. This type of fast big increase is gonna truly have some bad bad effects out there among all of us. yikes

the skin is mine! too funny. I have to agree, that skin would be mine also HA

nothing wrong with taking some supps if you feel ya need them cause when I started zc I took a multi vitamin but dumped it within the first 6 months cause I just felt I didn’t need it, plus most of the time I forgot to take it :wink:

So agree with your post, it is wonderful to be off a diet where one has to track or think too darn hard about what to eat. ZC is freeing :sunny:

WOW!! That sounds absolutely terrifying Azi. That type of thing is something that scares me when I read it!

I had to dump buffalo sauce and other spicy things now. For me I ate buffalo wings a good while ago on plan and enjoyed them than one day I had some and later that evening when I relaxed on the bed watching some tv, a heartburn kicked in and this acid came up into my throat and burned it and kinda cut down my air in my throat and I was shocked at what an acid burn will do to one’s throat! It scared the dickens out of me and decided I am done done done with big spicy. I wouldn’t touch a pepper now if ya paid me LOL I think one thing is our stomachs have nothing else in there with that spicy food. Not like we are eating that spicy type food with carbs that absorb and hold it down kinda ya know…well I was thinking that way on my episode.

Scary situations like that really show us alot about what our bodies want and don’t want :slight_smile: Very happy ya got thru that ok but wow on the scare factor of it!!

-----------------so I ate some of my 93/7 burger. OMG SO GOOD. taste had flavor and it was more like eating a tender steak. oh yea, me thinks I am going to say now in that 90/10 or 97/3 range on burger now and even dump my 85/15 purchases. I just did a burger so today I will make 4 mini meatloaf to eat thru the day. easy peasy zc day for me.

Seems like MOOvember is flying by. Dec is knocking on our front door for sure :slight_smile:


#216

Cripes! That’s a scary reaction to those stuffed bell peppers.

Apparently Dr. Chaffee is based in the city where I go to work.

https://lowcarbdownunder.com.au/directory/dr-anthony-chaffee-md/


#217

It’s 100% they won’t here. What a weird idea. They will rise as always.

I don’t know how it works in other parts of the world but it’s not a question here.

Money got an especially touchy object for me as I realized my aunt’s money on stock banking accounts or whatever they are called, I just mirror translated, well that actually seriously got smaller in number, OMG I don’t know enough words for it. So it’s way less HUF (Hungarian Forint) now than before and of course, the value dropped dramatically. So I wondered what to do with our money. It’s not super much but not very little and it bothers me that we spare it through skimping on even necessities - and the spared money drastically loses value all the time but especially now. Our gets more in HUF, at least but in value… OMG. I asked a few times why we can’t just keep it in gold :smiley: Foreign currency has its convert costs so that’s not a good option. Even though our currency is super weak unlike, for example, USD, there are times when it’s just not worth it, apparently. But whenever I look at it, our money gets weaker and weaker compared to it.

So now I have certain desires to SPEND money before it just loses almost all of its value. On important things and not all of it, obviously.


#218

I am a bit envious, I need to weigh zillion times a day. I can’t avoid it at all, I am super curious still. But it motivates me to eat simpler, not using 6 different dairy items every day… :smiley: I can’t do it but I do try. And I only weigh most items just once a day. I liked to see the macros of every meal but I rather not if it means more work.
At least I don’t count the food cost, that would be very much extra work with my zillion different items per day. Sometimes I do it for my simple days.

But now tracking will be somewhat off (nope, just very very unaccurate) as I got the mysteriously super fatty though allegedly pork chop from the freezer!
My tiny leanish meat, 1475g, poor thing get devoured in 2 days nowadays. It’s not convenient but what can I do? Maybe I won’t eat this much meat later. Not like it FELT much. I have this, I eat 700g meat and it doesn’t feel much. I eat 300g fat (very rarely, I trained myself to try to minimize fat and it’s a very long term thing already) and it doesn’t feel much. Possibly not even enough… I miss my carni times when I was satiated and satisfied with just my need or a bit less.

If I would be ready, I would take out some items from my diet. Like dairy. But now I would be super miserable without at least some sour cream. I eat my 600-700g meat and stay hungry but doesn’t want more meat and I am still not into eggs. My (usually) little dairy can’t give me much satiation, sure but it brings eggs and provides a break so I may eat more meat later if I need that.

But I will try 1-2 item meals. Only much fresh roast, it seems possible when I really like meat and either I am not too hungry or my meat is fatty enough. Lean pork is tricky, my protein unnecessarily shot up while I stayed unsatiated. I thought the dairy helps with the fat but it seems it doesn’t work like that. Or the break in the middle of my meal was a problem. I need so much more experiments, it’s endless. And I need OMAD but I know and say that since ages. But I still want my lunch so I sabotage myself.

I thought about eating only eggs when it’s not my (substantial) main meal… It’s an old idea and I never could do it. And may or may not be effective against overeating. Now it would be more effective as I don’t want eggs. But it has so many conditions and it goes against my habits of eating everything I have for most meals… Not like it wouldn’t be a nice goal to get rid of that…

Too much thinking but I just can’t eat even remotely okay if I just follow my desires and whatever. (And sometimes I lack desires except the desire to get satiated already. Without spending all our money on food. Cheese is banned, that’s clear. But it doesn’t help much.)

If I could eat right, I would drop the tracking I think. It will be wonderful to be out of its grasp - but I am really super curious, try to use the info I get too and it’s really easier now. I surely had a few dozens of measurements in the old days with dozens of items in my day… At least sometimes. And I did it for years with breaks. It wasn’t worth it but I still learned a few things and had some funny numbers. Still wasn’t right. But it’s my own mental health problem.

Nutrients are what I think very little about :slight_smile: I should have everything I need. Except magnesium, of course but I can supplement it if I really, really want. I hate supplementing anything so it’s not easy. And I got cramps again. Sigh. A few seconds not even pain as usual but it’s a warning I should heed before the lack of Mg causes bigger problems.
I never got cramps when I tried out carnivore, it lasted for several month. I did on/off carnivore, ate way less meat than now but when not super little, I was fine. I hoped there was a strong correlation but apparently not :frowning: .

By the way, my sodium intake is super low now, I simply don’t want salt. I mean, just very little. Lightly salted roast, unsalted sponge cakes, it’s that time. I may try to eat some separately from my meals but that’s taking supplements again and I think I have enough or else my body would desire it more.

Mine either I guess, that’s why I don’t think it’s logical to have a NEED for lots of fish and low omega6:omega3 ratio… My ratio is surely pretty high (I live mostly on pork, after all) but as long as my body is fine with it, I am just glad I can eat and even choose my food so I don’t even eat very unwell.
I do like some seafood here and there but not much. My problem is the almost complete lack of variety here if it comes to seafood. I checked out those tiny, very expensive packets in a very small supermarket last time and they contained much squid and I find that tasteless. I saw better stuff elsewhere, still expensive but I will have it for Christmas. And salmon too but that will be probably mostly for Alvaro again. I would love some mackerel again though… We will check out the hypermarket, that is my favorite place to get meat as it has such a huge variety. Still not as big as I would like but okay.

Because it has a price cap now and people would buy zillions and they would run out of it quickly.
All items with a price cap have these limits in many shops, I wrote about the one on a specific pork cut long ago, 2 kg… And they made 1.1kg packages… So I only could buy 1.1kg of my favorite leanish pork there. The one called “thigh” here and I still don’t know how to call it, leg? Fresh ham? Butt sounds good (as it’s usually that I suppose, nevermind it is called thigh) but as there are shoulder butt in English too, I am totally lost.
Bigger supermarkets have a bigger limit - or none at all. Fortunately they rarely run out of these long term “sales”. Short term sales are a different story, I often can’t buy what I planned.

But the greengrocery have very many eggs, they never bat an eye when we buy 90 and it’s in a tiny village, not in a very busy part of the city.

I love my body guides me but I prefer soft nudges instead of feeling really bad… I am curious what the future brings. Who knows, maybe I will be able to stay super close to carnivore for months soon. It must bring changes and I can’t predict them at all as extrapolation (that is already not a very good tool to figure out things in general) doesn’t work on my carnivore experiences.
I probably wouldn’t like to lose the ability to eat something but I don’t mind vegs much. I already lost interest in almost all (to the point that I take a bite and find it not enjoyable at all, even in the case of my old big favs. who would have thought?) and don’t particularly care about the rest either so if my body enters a state where I need an acclimatization period to introduce them in need, I probably can live with that. BUT I want higher energy on carnivore then :smiley: And chill and satiation. And of course, I need to stop getting bored of my carni food fist.
And I pretty much want to keep my sausages for now.
I never handled properly spicy food as I wasn’t used to them, it’s just the mild paprika I like. Maybe with a tiiny spiciness, that’s fun though quite unneeded at this point of my life. And I sooo loved black pepper and it disappeared on carnivore basically immediately. Vegs may be tasty but they needed spices while most meat is pretty good with salt only so I typically eat them so. The sausages are for variety - or fat when my meat is too lean. But they slowly lose importance too. Convenient items, though.


#219

The sunshine came back in the middle of my walk. Good. I can’t appreciate it in my current zombie state but it surely does some good to me.

I wore the pants I couldn’t before. I walked a tiny bit wearing it 1-2 weeks ago (probably 2, time flies now for reasons. maybe 3 as I am horrible with time) but I had to unbutton it, it was so very tight and uncomfortable buttoned.
It was almost completely comfortable now during my walk, buttoned of course. It’s still tight when sitting.
I don’t understand it but won’t complain. Or just complain about the past when I actually put in effort and my lifestyle was better than in the last 1-2 months (time problems again) and now I am losing fat while I didn’t before… Maybe the new stress (it doesn’t matter what changes that normally triggers, my body has its own logic), maybe my body changed its mind. (It shouldn’t even have a mind, only a brain, the mind is me, whatever, I won’t underestimate my body. Or my subconscious mind. Or any part of mine, actually. My conscious mind can’t comprehend my whole self.)

So, yay. No idea about my weight but now my pants are way more informative anyway.
(74kg, dressed and in the middle of the day, by the way. Doesn’t matter. I just got curious and my scale is in my room, 2m from me.)


(Karen) #220

Wow a really busy day which is maybe why I didn’t get much of a good night last night, probably subconscious anxiety setting in. I had set the Larm for 7am but when I realised I wasn’t going to get a great night, I cancelled the alarm Nd thought I would get up when I get up. I rescheduled my day slightly and instead of ding the gym early, sat reading then went to meet my old colleagues for breakfast. I had my usual 2 fried eggs, 2 sausages and 2 rashers of bacon… all sides as the menu’d meals had everything else i don’t eat included. As soon as it arrived at the table the others said yep thats Karen’s lol no pic but it was okay
Then went to the gym did my lower body workout and straight into spa with a friend. Spent just over N hour in there.

Came home via Lidl and got stuck into my lamb leg. Was going to just gnaw like a carnivore but it was easier to slice pieces off and the gnaw when it reduced in size.

Later had a bit of vintage cheddar, 3 rashers of bacon and just eaten some cold water prawns.


#221

Steak night last night. Cold and rainy late spring day. Excellent to finish marking and grading student assignments.

@Fangs, Why did you choose such low-fat ground beef?


#222

Hi Megan is Grace a big dog? Labrador size 40kg-ish? Does she have any Boxer heritage? Splenic haemangiomas and haemangiosarcomas are operable in many cases. Haemangiosarcoma is only deadly if it spreads from the spleen to other areas, which might be detected on an ultrasound, otherwise it can be quite benign, as a haemangioma, until it grows too big. Splenic haemangioma can be cured by removing the spleen. The expense of surgery can be a handbrake. Patients undergoing surgery will often need a blood transfusion. But the spleen removal surgery is quite straight forward.

What you described is a slight internal bleed; the abdominal pain and day of lethargy. Best treatment is a quiet day of rest for Grace. At the vets, they might consider some IV plasma proteins to help provide blood clotting building blocks. There is a curtain of tissue inside the abdomen called the omentum that seeks out internal injuries and acts as an internal bandage. Biology is awesome. It just needs some staying still time to do its job. A carnivore diet provides lots of the nutrition to help heal the bleeding episodes and rebuild any internal blood loss.

Billie, our Labrador, had surgery last week. It was to explore and repair an infected grass seed fistula under her belly. It cost $AU1500. Billie is pet insured, so we will claim some back from that. She finished her post-op medications in 5 days, and pretty much appeared healed within 3 days. She is 2.5 years old, so heals like a teenager. I have her on some pro-biotics after her antibiotics, and she is eating a carnivore diet very similar to mine but OMAD and alternating between ground beef-based meals and frozen chicken carcase frames. Yesterday, 7 days post-op, she was back at the beach catching up with human and doggy friends. Usually there would be suture removal at 10 to 14 days. But we asked for internal dissolving stitches and she look all healed up a week earlier than scheduled.


(Megan) #223

Hey @FrankoBear,

I took her to the vet 1st thing Monday morning, August the 1st, after being really not ok at times over the weekend. Her belly was full of blood, they did emergency surgery and removed her spleen when they saw it was the source of the bleeding. Vet said it looked like a ruptured splenic tumour and we’d know in a few days if it was benign or malignant. Histology came back as haemangiosarcoma. They gave a prognosis of 3-6 months, but I’ve read a smallish % of dogs can live a year.

I’ve opted for no chemo b/c the vet said it could prolong her life for a few months at best. Instead I’m raw feeding (she’s been raw fed most of her life), usually ketogenic ratios (as per petsanctuary.com) and giving her a turmeric and black pepper paste I make (which can be contraindicated for bleeding tumours but most dogs with bleeding tumours don’t have problems with it), brocolli every day for its cancer fighting properties, and I’ve doubled the dose of her usual fish oil and Bomazeal Mobilize. I also OMAD her to give her body some time each day to deal with healing repair stuff, and not be busy dealing with digesting food. Food wise she eats beef, chicken, raw eggs, oily fish (raw sardines and mackerel, whole fish), and liver, kidney, heart.

I never took out pet insurance on her, tho since getting Lulu (my rottie pup) I did take out accident cover on Grace b/c I could just see her racing around like an idiot with a puppy and pulling or breaking something in her 11 year old body lol. Should probably cancel it now tho, her crazy high energy/activity days are done and Lulu is an extremely ploddy dog most of the time, even as a puppy. Her getting cancer has been such a shock. Other than routine vet trips for vaccination type stuff she hasn’t had a sick day her entire life.

There are possibly all sorts of other things I could do but I’ve picked what I can incorporate easily and what I can afford. Trying to keep her and my quality of life good without me obsessing about her cancer and constantly trying this and that.

B/c the tumour ruptured I’ve read there’s a reasonable chance the cancer can develop in her omentum and it can cause bleeds, either small-moderate or life threatening. Her extremities were very cold pre-op and that’s something I will always check anytime she doesn’t seem ok. By the end of her off day a week or so ago her appetite was fully back and she’s been acting completely fine, so whatever was causing it seems to have resolved.

She took a few weeks to recover from surgery and the massive blood loss. It was awful watching her be so listless. I guess you could say she acts like a very healthy 11 year old now, whereas before the tumour rupture she acted like a 6 year old dog. She rests and sleeps more but the vet said to expect that as she may run a little bit anaemic without a spleen.

Breed-wise best guess is german shepherd (def), longish coated retriever, border collie. Been keeping her on the leaner side since she turned 6, to look after her joints. Currently sitting at around 26-27ish kg. She gets a bit ribby sometimes and I increase her food which resolves it. Her coat is soft and shiny, which is something else I always keep an eye on as an indicator of health.

Not sure when and how she’ll die, whether it’ll be from a bad bleed or the cancer destroying an organ or 2. Just taking it day by day. Wouldn’t wish this on anyone but a lot of people go through it. Had no idea cancer was so common in dogs.


(Michael) #224

Here is a full day of carnivore eating by Naghite.
Breakfast:

Lunch

Dinner


Snack

Total p/f/c/cal are 306/254/25/3600. A bit on low end for me, but pretty standard in general.


#225

Thanks for the full story. I hadn’t realised that she had the splenectomy. Unfortunately the haemangiosarcoma is not the better tumour to have diagnosed. That is amazing stuff that you are doing. We had a large family dog pass away with intra-abdominal haemangiosarcoma over a decade ago. His name was Max and he was a large LabxGermanShepherdDog. He had an emergency splenectomy (not by me), and had his bright and listless days. He was on commercial dry food. One day he wasn’t keen to get up. So we let him stay on his bed. He looked like he was asleep, he slipped away. And, yes, the work of Pet Sanctuary is a good reminder. I think they had something to do with Dr. Dom D’Agostino. Thanks also for the reminder of Grace’s diet. That is really top stuff. Our pets are great teachers. :heart: