Taking your Westie along can make the family vacation more fun for everyone, but only if you plan carefully. Here are some tips to make traveling with your West Highland White Terrier more enjoyable.

Health and Safety

No 1: - Bring your Westie to the vet for a check up before going on a long trip.

No 2: - To keep your Westie healthy as you travel, bring along a supply of his regular food and some local, or bottled, water.

No 3: - Make sure all his vaccinations are up to date. Also take vaccination records with you. Health certifications are required for airline travel.

No 4: - Be sure to bring any medications your Westie needs. These have to be prescribed by your vet.

A crate is an excellent way to keep your Westie safe in the car and is required for airline travel. It can also keep your pet from getting into trouble in a hotel or at your host's home. Crates are available from most pet supply stores.

Look for these features when purchasing:

No 5: - Large enough to allow the dog to stand, turn and lie down.

No 6: - Ventilation on opposing sides, with exterior rims or knobs to prevent blocked airflow.

No 7: - Strong, with handles and grips, and free of interior protrusions. Leak-proof bottom covered with absorbent material.

For much more info on raising westies, go to:

MAD ABOUT WESTIES

Irritable Bowel Disease

I have just about lost my patience with this disease. The vets aren't sure what triggers it but when it strikes, it is bad.

Last October ('07), Riley began to have diarrhea. Just about every time he went outside to do his business, the bowel movement was very soft. Then over a few weeks, it became like pudding.

I took Riley to the vet. He asked me the normal questions about his diet; had he eaten anything outside or table food, etc. I stated no, that I am very particular with what my kiddos eat.

The vet drew blood, and gave me some anti-diarrhea pills. He also gave me antibiotics for an intestine bacterial infection.

Okay, all was better for a few weeks. At this point I did not change Riley's diet.

After a few more weeks, the diarrhea returned and Riley didn't want to eat at all. It was horrible to watch him go outside and strain to go poop. When he did go poop, it was just mush.

I took him back to the vet and he said to change his diet to rice and chicken or beef. Also, he told me to put pumpkin in his food to control the diarrhea. (I had never heard of putting pumpkin in their food but it works!)

That change in diet did help for a few more weeks. But once again the diarrhea returned.

Now it's time for a specialist. I am referred to a gastro-intestinal specialist. He checks out Riley and tells me we need to do several tests. The tests performed were endoscopy, colonoscopy, and a chest x-ray, plus blood work. I was told by the specialist we may be looking at cancer.

I was now sick myself. Riley had had a healthy life so far(14 yrs), no major illnesses or injuries. How could this be happening to my precious boy?

The vet kept Riley all day. When I returned that evening to pick him up, the vet was eager to tell me that there was NO cancer. However, Riley did have IBD.

What the heck is IBD? Irritable Bowel Disease is chronic vomiting and diarrhea due to...nobody knows for sure.

It is somewhat controllable. SOMEWHAT is the operative word here, because you will never know what triggers an event.

An event is when the dog will be doing okay and suddenly the vomiting and diarrhea start again. That's the frustrating and devastating part. It is frustrating because as an owner/parent you feel helpless. It is devastating to the dog because of cramping, weight loss, loss of energy and appetite.

The vet said to change Riley's diet to a "novel protein", meaning a protein source he has never had i.e. duck, rabbit, fish, venison, kangaroo. Also, to manage this outbreak, I had to start him on the drugs prednisone and cyclosporine.

So the diet was changed to rabbit and we started giving him daily meds. I hate the drugs because they make Riley dopey and lethargic. However, the combination of the novel diet and the drugs did help Riley to improve.

We rocked along for 4 months thinking all was better when suddenly Riley doesn't want to eat. The diarrhea starts again and he begins to lose weight.

I had been able to reduce Riley's Prednisone dosage to 1 pill every third day. That was working okay, at least I thought it was, when this latest event began.

I called the specialty vet and he said to increase the Prednisone to 1 per day and change his protein source again.

Currently, Riley is eating again, duck this time and doing "okay". The diarrhea has stopped and he is eating and drinking normally. The drug makes him dopey and lethargic which makes me more frustrated.

UPDATE: Here we are, it's September 08 and we have just been through a 3rd major flare up of IBD.

The website I mention below has tons of information that has helped Riley recover this time. At the recommendation of the folks who have been dealing with this disease in their dogs for alot longer than I have, I have added an herb as a digestive ingrediant and a probiotic to to Riley's daily routine. The herb is called Slippery Elm.

Also, I have changed his protein source to white fish and sweet potato.

Riley still receives 1 5mg Prednisone and 2 25mg Cyclosporine each day.

I hope to reduce the drugs after a few more weeks of normal eating, drinking and bowel movements.

For now Riley is stable, keep fingers crossed and the prayers coming as we continue to manage the disease.

This website is awesome. If you have a dog with IBD, this is the place you need to go for information, recipes, help and support.

These fine folks have been of great help and support for Riley and me.

Checkout this site and Yahoo group for IBD help.

IBD INFORMATION

This website is one that I frequent often due to the fact they are all about "natural products" for our furry kids. Check them out.

In the late summer of 2007, I submitted my application to adopt a westie. I had two seniors and I wanted to add a younger male to my family. My requirements were simple, a male, 3-5 years old. No other specifics. I was sitting at work about a week later when I receive an email with this picture of a little 4 month old westie boy. Pierce was the name that the foster mom had given him. Little Pierce was in need of a new home and a bath. He was one of five westie puppies a man in east Texas had decided he did not want. He dropped off all five puppies at the local westie rescue. Thank God this person had the wherewithal to do that! All the puppies were under fed and scared.

This story has a very happy ending, however. I arranged to adopt Pierce, now called Whalen Conner(that was the name "he" chose...more about that later!). He is a happy and healthy one year old today.

I have many stories about Whalen. Stay tuned.

I'm serious when I tell you Whalen chose his own name. Whalen was named Pierce by his foster Mom...and here's how the changing his name story goes!

When I received the email stating that there was a little 4 month old boy puppy in need of a good home, I got busy finding a name for him. I didn't want just any name, I wanted a unique name. I did consider the name his foster Mom gave him, but when I met the little puppy, the name Pierce just didn't fit his personality.

So, I went to the internet to find a name for my newest family member. I searched for Irish/Scottish boys names. I found names like Banner, Connor, Logan, Kelan, Riley (which as you can see, I had used that name for my other boy) MacKensie, Mack, Maitland, Maxwell, Ramsay, Redmon, and Weston. All of these names were very unique and interesting. I finally ran across the name Whalen. So I added that name to the list of about 100 possible names. A day or two after my new family member came home with me; I sat down on the floor, while he was playing with his toys, and began reading through the list of names I had prepared. Each name I said two or three times, as if I was calling him. He did not respond at all, not even a turn of his head when he would hear my voice. So I kept going down the list and honestly was beginning to think I was going to have to search out more names! I even went back to a few of the names I liked to see if I got any indication from the puppy that I was on the right track!! I liked Connor the best so as I said, I kept repeating that name in between other names to see if I could get him to respond.

I finally got to the "W's". When I said the name Whalen, he turned his head and looked at me. I was shocked, so I said it again and he wagged his tail. Suffices to say; he responded to the "sound" of his name, so from that point forward, he has been called Whalen.

Remember I told you I liked the name Connor too? Well, Whalen had to have a second name so guess what it was...yepper...Connor. So here is the most recent picture of Whalen Connor. Enjoy;)

Did you think I just had the boys? Absolutely NOT! Shobahn is my little sweetheart girl. She owns the boys and tries to own everyone and everything else!! She is definitely the "alpha" dog in my house.

If you are a westie owner you know that they love to eat things they shouldn't. That's the terrier way. Well do I have a story for you about something Shobie (we call her Shobie for short) ate while outside one day.

Heads up...this could happen to you!

A few years ago I lived in a house that had huge pecan trees all around the house. Yep, fruit bearing trees, they were. Every October I had hundreds of pecans hit the ground and yes, I frantically picked them all up so Shobie and Riley (pictured above) didn't eat them. These pecans were the big ones, you know, Texas size!

Shobie was about 6 months old at the time. One day I came home from work, let the kiddos outside to do their business, fed them and sat down to relax for a while. Shobie ate her dinner as she always had. As the evening went on, she played with her brother and followed me around the house. All normal stuff.

Late in the evening, she vomited all her dinner. I thought WOW that is unusual for Shobie. She didn't even slow down, just continued to act normal and harassed her brother.

The next morning, she wouldn't eat. Okay, this is very unusual, I thought. She still was not giving me any sign of illness. So I go on to work.

I come home from work and she is very lethargic. She goes outside to do her business and vomits again, nothing but bile. She will not eat or drink water. I call my vet. Luckily, he is five minutes from the house and he tells me to bring her in.
He examines her, tells me she is running a fever, and he wants to do some tests. Okay, so he draws blood, does a chest x-ray and sonogram. He doesn't see anything on the x-rays, which is good I'm thinking. He gives me some antibiotics and sends us home.

Shobie continues to not want eat or drink. I buy a syringe and begin feeding her and giving her water and pedialyte via the syringe. She vomits every time.

Back to the vet, more blood work and now she has to be put on IVs. Oh my god, she is going to die, I'm thinking. The vet tells me she has pancreatitis and probably will not survive. She stays 3 days in ICU. I'm panicked. She stabilizes to some degree so the vet says I can take her home. He tells me she won't live long.

How could this be, I'm thinking! My little girl, this just can't be.

Two days go by; I am still feeding her and giving her pedialyte via the syringe. On the third day, she suddenly vomits poop! Oh my god, what is this??!!

I call the vet and he says bring her in immediately. He does another sonogram and finds, you guessed it, a whole pecan logged in her lower intestine. He gave her an enema and she passed the pecan!

The story ends happily. I brought her home a few hours later, happy and recovering.

Today, Shobie is 14 years old. Eats like there is no tomorrow and other than grass allergies and being a pain in the butt to her brothers, she is great.

Moral of the story is watch out, westies will eat ANYTHING:)

The Animal Rescue Site is a fantastic site for pet supplies, rescue stories, pet care information and a lot more. Check it out.