How do dogs get Cancer?

How do dogs get cancer?  There are a lot of factors that we know, can cause cancer, like our environment. The air we breathe, food and water we intake. What we touch and put on our skin. We can wonder about all these issues but all we can really do is make healthier choices.  Like flea and tick control for our pets. I've read the warning label and it can cause seizures in senior dogs. We are putting an insecticide directly on our animals.  That's a poison. So I switched from the chemicals to natural flea and tick control.  I've also thought about vaccinations and if they are safe. The best answer to this is to not over vaccinate your pets. Keep records, so you will know when the last time they got their shots. In our state the rabies vaccine is mandatory and the law.  So don't avoid the vaccinations just don't over due it. Ask your vet for a titer test to see if they need more vaccinations. I've been told there is no reason the revaccinate once your dog responds to the vaccine. The titer test will check to see your dog response.

I never put any pesticides or herbicides in Daisy's play and potty area's outside. Knowing that they cause cancer. In fact lawn chemicals, weed killers and herbicides are just as toxic as flea and tick products. Studies (Abstract of environmental health 112(1):171-6 (Jan. 2012), show a link between lawn chemicals and cancer in dogs.  In this study researchers identified 263 dogs with biopsy confirmed canine malignant lymphoma (CML), 240 dogs with benign tumors, and 230 dogs undergoing surgeries unrelated to cancer.

Scientist found that dogs with malignant lymphoma were 70 percent more likely to live in a home where professionally applied lawn had been used.

 I never used a professional or personally put pesticides or herbicides in the back yard. I feed Daisy better more expensive dog food because of all the additives they put in commercial pet foods.  I have put insecticide directly on her not knowing how toxic it is, but I was told by a professional how she needs it, to keep her from getting those nasty fleas and ticks.

These are just a few causes that are important to me because of Daisy. I haven't covered household cleaners and other chemicals found around your home because I feel they didn't have much bearing on Daisy diagnosis.  With all chemicals, we should read everything before using!  Other folks are telling us there safe when they really aren't.

Next blog we'll talk about how to keep cancer away and or at bay. Stay tuned!

Dogs with Lymphoma

This is Daisy she's a 10 year old lab terrier mix. It was back in September 2016 when I felt the lumps on her neck. I knew something was wrong so I made the appointment with her vet. Her vet examined her and needed to take a sample from the lymph nodes to find out what is going on. It was confirmed that she has lymphoma. That's the most devastating news I think any pet owner can get. She was only given 2-3 months and I wouldn't have her with me by the holidays. At least that's what I was told and thought. Thankfully she is still here with me today. We take it day by day and I enjoy every minute with her. She get's to lead walks, gets fed homemade dog food and given so much love.

Dog Lymphoma is a type of cancer that originates in the lymphocyte cells of the immune system. A type of white blood cell, lymphocytes play an important role in the body's defenses.

There are two forms B and T cell. Occurring primarily in bone marrow, lymph nodes and organs. We did not get Daisy tested to find out which type she is.  The cost of surgery alone was already out of budget. Then there's the cost to see oncologist and treatment using chemo which runs in the thousands. They do offer a low cost treatment to folks that can't afford it. Daisy was prescribed Prednisone. She also wasn't given much time using this method and we beat it. I have changed her diet to high protein low carbs. I also cook for her, things like chicken, ground meat  and turkey. She is on healthy supplements to keep her immune system strong.

Since her diagnosis I have taken pictures and videos of her daily. I will share them here and your welcome to follow her and share her story with other pet owners. Next blog I'll be talking about how dogs get cancer. 

Doggy Dental Month

Help keep your dogs teeth clean the natural way. Miss Daisy love's bully sticks. We give her a 12" Braided Bully Stick once a month just to clean her teeth. But you're asking how does it work? When your dog chews on one it pulls all the plaque and tar from their teeth. I was amazed when we first tried it. You will be too.  

Dog chews are the best way to keep your dogs teeth clean. What do you give your dogs to chew on?

Dogs Get a Treat This Valentine's Day!

Don't know what to get your special loved one this Valentine's Day? Look no further. Give a gift for their dog. It would mean so much knowing that you thought of their pets. After all they are our best friends. Now you can send love to your friend and their dogs. They will always remember this Valentine's Day. So don't delay treat them today. 

Ledfoot's Pet Bakery makes these amazing heart shaped dog treats and comes in five flavors. Packaged in cute heart shaped bags.  Dog treats are handmade with love using natural ingredients. You won't find any fillers or preservatives. Made in USA. Nothing like ordering handmade dog treats to be delivered to your door. They also ship to your friends house if you request it. 

Thankful Thursday!

Wishing you and your family a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

Small Business Saturday- Tips for Success

This Saturday is Small Business Saturday, so I'm taking this opportunity to help other entrepreneurs. What's the best advice I can give?   Use all the free marketing and advertising you can find especially online, such as Small Business Saturday. It's a great program and it's free. Be sure to get your website listed on google, Yahoo,  and other free listings. Just do a web search and you will find many places to list your website for free.  Be sure to use google+ and all the social media sites.  Kabbage has some great free guides to help understand the differences between all the social media sites out there.

Budget wisely. What I mean is if you don't have the funds to purchase something, wait and see if needed or you may find it's not essential at all. So that is money saved. A dollar saved is a dollar earned.

We are having a special online sale that we are promoting on our social media sites and e-mail blasts. Shop Ledfoots Pet Bakery this Saturday November 29th and save 15% on your online order of $35.00 or more. Use Coupon Code: Small

MailChimp is an e-mail marketing service provider. If you have fewer than 2000 subscribers, you can send up to 12,000 e-mails per month for free. That is a great deal for any small business trying to survive and bring your business to the next level. 

 I hope these few tips, helps you, and I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors. 

Dogs are NFL Fans and Can Join in the Fun!

Being a football fan, we couldn't resist, when we found out they make NFL jersey for dogs.  We are Bears fans since living in the Chicago land area our whole lives. We love watching games and our dogs like to take part while we are watching. Especially when I yell and jump out of my seat when there is a good play like a touch down. Daisy and Scooby like to join in all the excitement.  Do you find your dogs or cats trying to join the excitement? 

Chicago Bears Dog Jersey- are for sale and listed on Ledfoots Pet Bakery website. You will find a number of sizes listed. So don't delay and get your dog a great Christmas gift this year. 

Green Bay Packer fans are in luck. We also have Green Bay Packer Dog Jerseys.  They have been our rivalry for years. We couldn't forget about our Packer fans. They are doing real good this year. Keep it up but just not when you play the Bears. LOL 

Homemade Dog Treats- Dog Lover Holiday Gifts

If you have pet friends and family who love their dogs. Here's your chance to give them healthy homemade holiday dog treats. Made in Christmas shapes and packaged in holiday paw print gift bags. It will please any dog lover.  Treats are all handmade with love. Packaged and shipped directly to you or have gift sent directly to your friend. 

If your pet friends have cats instead of dogs. They will be delighted to get healthy homemade cat treats. Come's in two flavors. Pumpkin or Savory Cheese cat treats. 

Ledfoots Pet Bakery provides a wide variety of safe healthy natural dog and cat treats that you can order year round. Made in holiday shapes during each holiday. Now made in Christmas shapes. Cat treats are packaged in holiday paw print gift bags. Don't want to get them a treat they have a wide selection of natural pet products for you to choose from. Such as dog toys, cat toys, bully sticks, antlers which make great stocking stuffers. 

Chilly Days make Chilly Dogs

It gets chilly around here in the fall. Last winter was especially cold. I'm very happy that we got our dogs Chilly dog sweaters last year. It made a difference on those sub zero days, I felt a lot better letting them outside to do their business. You know it's cold out when they want to come right back in. We don't normally dress our dogs up but for the frigid temps, I felt it's a must and glad I did it. Miss Daisy wears her blue monkey sweater and Scooby has the Devil hoodie which both were very popular last year.

Chilly dog sweaters are handmade from wool, they keep up with the latest trends to keep dogs fashionable as well as warm.   Pictured above is the Black skull sweater. 

Do you dress your dogs in warm clothes for the cold weather?

Dog-tober Fest 2014

I can't believe it's October. Where did summer go?  It's now time for Dog-tober Fest. This event is held once a year just for the dogs. This year the event is this Saturday October 4th.  You will find adoptable pets, games, contests, raffles and so much more. So come and enjoy a nice fall day, with your dogs in the park.

Ledfoots Pet Bakery booth will be set up, please come over and get a free treat sample for your dog to try. We will also have pet treats and natural pet products for you to shop for.

This will be on fun filled day and we hope you can make it if you live in the area. If you don't  live around here you can still order treats and natural pet products online just visit Ledfoots Pet Bakery online. 

Have you been to any dog events like this before?

CS Barks Dog Festival 2014

Join us this Sunday Sep 14, 2014, with six hours of four-legged fun, including Skydogz performances, dock diving competition, demonstrations, dozens of dog vendors including Ledfoots Pet Bakery and we will be in the fido shopping mall, an off-leash area and the Rover Rest Area for tired pups.

Entry to CSBarks is free, fees apply to some activities and services. Friendly, leashed and vaccinated dogs (and their owners) are welcome.

We hope you can make it we would love to see you. 

Tail Waggin Tuesday!

It's been a real busy summer. With the farmers markets and all the pet events we have worked. Summer has gone by way too fast. Today is Tail Waggin Tuesday in East Dundee, IL. The event is today August 19th starts at 5pm and last until 7pm. Pictured above was a training demonstration they had last month. Today they are going to have the training demo once again! Come out and enjoy your evening.

. The Frisbee demonstration was exciting to watch. 

Have you been to any events this summer? 

Keep your Dogs Teeth Clean the Natural Way!

Are you looking for a natural way to keep your dogs teeth clean?  You have come to the right place. Ledfoots Pet Bakery offers natural solutions to help keep your cost down when you visit your vet for your dogs dental care.  The easiest way is to use a oral hygiene solution.  Slurp N Fresh is all natural and effective in your pet's mouth and healthy for their digestive tract. Great to use for cats and dogs. Eliminates bad breath, reduces plaque & tartar, and is economical to use everyday. Simply add to your pet's water and in 24 hours you'll be begging for a smooch.  

Another way to help remove plaque from your dogs teeth is to give them a braided bully stick. The braid is what helps remove the plaque. It works wonders and we give them to our dogs once a month just to get their teeth clean. You have to try it to see for your self. 

Ledfoots Pet Bakery makes Bad Breath Mint Dog Treats. Made with only natural ingredients. No preservatives or anything artificial and it does work.  Parsley and mint are natural breath freshener. This has become one of Ledfoots Pet Bakery most popular dog treats. So if you haven't tried them yet, you should. 

These are three things we use to help clean our dogs teeth. We never get our dogs teeth clean by the vet. Our veterinarian tells us keep doing what we are doing. We are so proud of that and want to share with you simple natural solutions that work and help saves you money too.

What do you use to keep your dogs teeth clean?

Words on Wordless Wednesday?

With the busy Farmers Market season here. I have found no time to blog since the season started.

We have been very busy and excited to meet new friends in the pet world. Today is the day I picked to blog. No time left in the day but I made time this week. Tomorrow we will be at Dekalb Farmers Market. So if you live or in the area I would love to meet you. I am working on more informative blogs and hope to blog once again next week. Stay tuned!

Have You Been To A Pet Dog Show?

This was a fun event and we're happy to be apart of it. Rover Rescue, out of Aurora IL is a great dog rescue organization and they are the one's that put on this great fundraising event. Pet Dog Show is for all breeds mixed included and all money raised is for Rover Rescue. The dog events held were Fastest Recall,  Best Trick,  Most Catches,  Fastest Eater,  Bobbin' for Dogs. They even had a prettiest category like Best Mixed Breed,  Best Purebred,  Best Senior,  Best Puppy,  Best Costume, Best Longhair,  Best Short-hair and  Ears to You. Our favorite event is best costume contest. Below is the first place winner! 

Have you been to a dog show like this one before?

Dog Howls at Fire Truck on Wordless Wednesday!

Miss Daisy lets us know shes hearing sirens. She always howls at the sound of them. It could be a fire engine or police car it doesn't matter. She also howls at the ice cream truck. It's cute until we try to watch TV. She will hear the sirens on the television and guess what? She will howl at them too. It's just hard to watch a show that has sirens. Scooby doesn't seem to care about the noise he just reacts to Daisy howls. Do your dogs do this? 

Farmers Market

We love this time of year. Farmers Markets will be in full swing by next month. We will be working our booth in Huntley Farmers Market on Saturday and Sycamore Farmers Market on Sunday. Selling our full line of dog treats and cat treats  along with natural pet supplies. It's a great time to give us a try. All dogs that come to the market get a free sample of our homemade dog treats. We also provide a watering station so your dogs won't go thirsty. It's nice to meet everyone in person. Folks have a lot of questions and we provide the answers for living a healthy lifestyle with your pets. 

There are so many great local vendors at the markets. Like our friend Gene with South Street Coffee. He roasts all the coffee he sells. Let me tell you it's the best coffee around and doesn't compare to the coffee you buy at the local grocery store.  You will find a lot of local folks selling their home grown plants, homemade cookies and baked goods. You have a great variety to choose from and won't be disappointed. So give your local farmers market a try, you will be supporting local businesses in your area. 
Do you shop at your local farmers market? 

Natural Flea Control and Tick Repellent

It's flea and tick season once again. Folks have asked me for a natural flea and tick repellent. Upon testing  Alzoo Flea & Tick Repellents, we have  found a natural solution for everyone. We love and recommend  Alzoo repellents and would never go back to chemicals. It's effective and natural.  Alzoo flea and tick repellents are made with oils that naturally repel fleas and ticks. Alzoo products are 100% natural using plant based ingredients, geraniol, peppermint oil, cinnamon oil, lavender, almond oil & citronella. The ingredients are safe for your dog and effective at repelling fleas, ticks and mosquitoes. This products Does Not contain PVC, Bisphenol, Phthalate or Synthetic pesticides! Alzoo stands by its products and believes that repellents should not have pesticides or any unwanted and dangerous chemicals to be effective. That makes Alzoo products safe for children, pets and the environment.  Ledfoots Pet Bakery also makes Fleas Be Gone Dog Treats and should be used in conjuction with the spot on treatments. This will give your dog added protection from the inside out.

For more information go to Natural Flea & Tick Repellents 

Cat Hairball Remedies

Rascal and Ozzy (pictured above) are best friends and they are our best friends. That's why we do what we can for them. They often throw up hairballs. We don't like when they have this problem and don't want to see them get sick, but it happens. We have found a way to keep this from happening. We give them a tablespoon of Vaseline and allow them to lick it off my finger. Rascal seems to like it but Ozzy doesn't want anything to do with it. So with Ozzy I put the Vaseline on his front paw.  He will lick his paw clean. We do this once a week to help the hair from getting stuck in their intestines. Don't want to use Vaseline? You can also mix a tablespoon of olive oil in their food. It will do the same thing. Just do this once a week to be effective.

Dog Adoption or Puppies for Sale?

Looking for your next best friend? I recommend you look at your local animal shelter. There are so many good dogs and cats waiting to find their forever home.

 The best part is the low adoption fee which includes shots and clean bill of health. You can't get that from buying a dog or cat from a pet store.   A pet store will charge you a high fee just to purchase the pet. Then you have to take them to the vet for exam and shots. Which can add up real quick. The adoption fee is used to offset the expense of taking in and caring for the animal. So you will be helping, not only giving a pet a good home, but you will also help other animals that need a space at the shelter till they get adopted.

Where to find animal shelter in your area? Check out PetFinder. Here you will find shelters in your area and you can see a picture with description of each pet at the shelter. When you find a pet you like, set up a meet and greet to see if the pet is a good fit for you. You will also find answers to your adoption questions on PetFinder. It's a great tool to use. This is how we found Miss Daisy (pictured above).