Frito Feet

Do you ever smell your dog's feet?

Embarrassingly, I do. And Rusty's smell like Fritos.

I've never really thought much about it - but here's a possible explanation.

Interesting, right?

How To Spot An Ear Infection

Ear infections are awful, painful and annoying for adults. Now imagine having MUCH better hearing and an ear infection. And then other people sniffing your ear.

Double annoying, right? Yeah. So I'm going to show you pictures of Rusty's ears. He doesn't get them much anymore, but the first sign of an ear infection is the shaking of their head, which is what Rusty did this morning. So the pics of the ear infection are actually AFTER I've cleaned the ear and given him anti-biotics. We don't mess around with ear infections in this house (Bimmer just had an ear infection last week, poor guy).

So, above is a clean, healthy ear. It should smell good too (trust me, once you smell a yeasty ear, you'll NEVER forget that smell. This is Rusty's right ear, this morning as of 10 minutes ago. Healthy, white, NORMAL.

Now, here's the INFECTED ear:

Do you see how pink and NOT normal it is? There's some black gunk in it too - that's gross. It's not as white either. The picture on top is a little dark, but you can see where he might've been nipped on the ear at daycare, so I've cleaned the ear with a special solution (it's like $9 at the vet's office) to help expel all the yeasty awfulness, gunk, wax, build-up etc... He also didn't want me to touch the ear, so I couldn't get as clear of shots, sorry.

In any case, I wanted to show everyone what to look for if you notice something NOT normal with the ears.

Ear infections can get AWFUL, and I mean to the point of the ear closing up from being inflammed, pus coming out and just plain old nastiness.

Make sure you clean your dog's ears at least once a week (I know, like people really do that, right?), add in yogurt to their food to help promote GOOD bacteria and feed them grain free food to help prevent ear infections.

ALSO, JUST AN FYI: This is the FIRST ear infection that Rusty has had since being on a grain free food. Amazing, right?

So, just to let everyone know - check your dog's ears and get them cleaned! Your pet will be much happier with clean ears!

Doggie Shampoo???

Giving Rusty a bath is pretty easy - he just lays down in the tub. We have to hold him up though to rinse him off, next time I'll take pictures!

But for shampoo, it's hard to decide what to use, mainly oatmeal shampoo, but I'd also like to be more eco friendly and more natural (Note: Rusty wears a hemp collar). So far that's been easy to do with food and accessories, but now it's onto grooming supplies.

I've found a few that I've listed below, but since dog shampoo is so easy to pick up at Target, I'd like to find a brand from there. If not, oh, well. I'm ok with ordering online!


Earthbath All Natural Shampoo, 16-Ounce
This looks pretty good, comes in other scents. Definitely all natural.


SPA Lavish Your Pet Spa Colors Shampoo for White Coats
This brand is cruelty free. I'm not sure how natural that is, but I'm open for supporting cruelty free products (but I wouldn't buy the shampoo for white coats).


Sweet Petula
How cute! Ok, I shouldn't comment on the picture, but I can't help it. It's herbal, which is great and it's coconut based so it makes me feel a bit better about using it on Rusty's skin (it's geared towards more oily coats).

I wish they sent samples!