Kiro, the Husky

Kiro, say "cheese" XD

Name: Kiro, Pang

Gender: Male

Breed: Siberian Husky

DOB: 05-October-2006

Kiro, is the first husky I ever have. I really should write a blog for him as he is my son, my love, my attention, one that I will constantly think of whenever he is not with me. I miss him so much! Too bad, I can only look at all the pictures of him whenever I miss him. Making phone calls to him, I will get him barking at the other side of phone, at me! ha.

Why a husky? The first time I approached a real husky was during the first Dogathon that I've involved in the school (year 2004). It was lovely, I've always been a fan of husky, that first time really had set me on the path of seeking a husky for myself. I told myself, I must get a husky. And so, I started saving money, to buy a husky for my own.

Then, one day, I read from the advertisement on the newspaper that a petshop is selling a husky. So I called, and I went to the petshop, with my family. Initially we planned to go to a several more shops to compare prices and choose a right husky for our own. Heaven knows, we bought it the minute we saw him, without and before going else where to do our planned survey...


Kiro, my sky-blue-eyed husky...

He is a 2 months old, male husky puppy, all white in color, so uniquely white coated. Usually husky has the special coat color that we can owiz see. He is so playful. And he really did know who to bootlick with,haha, my mum; he kept chasing after my mum's feet!! He was clever I bet, showing all his might to win my mum's favor!

After having some basic physical examination to make sure he is healthy, in good body conformation, and of course have a bargain of price with the salesman, we agreed to buy him.

Kiro and me, on the way back home, in the car.

Kiro sure is a lucky fella, being the first and only dog in the house to have the opportunity to have a seat on my dad's new bought car. haha.... He was so quiet in the car! I was holding him like hugging a teddy bear!

And that was when he learned his first skill, "kiss kiss", what a clever boy he is!, all I did was holding his face close to my face and then he started licking while I calling the command. Whenever he did what I wanted, I would give him a good praise -- "good boy!", "clever boy!". In just 5 tries, he got the skill without me holding his head close to me. However, I'm the only he will be kissing up to now. He never kiss the other members of the family. Anyway, they don't like his kiss, they think is disgusting, haha. I'm the only who is enjoying.

His soft fluffy hair was so tender to touch. He just lied down, resting on my laps all the way back home.

He really likes to drink alot. And spilt all over the floor.

Come naughty, grandma huggies.

The first day at home, lying on the sofa.

Such a bear-ish

A husky does bark, and he howls too. The howl is very unique, and it resembles the howl of a wolf. That makes one frightened to listen to his howl at night. And we had a fren commented this kind of howl as, "is it the dog is seeing DIRTY things???"

Some funny looks I captured

It was really been a very hard experience for us having this incredible naughty puppy at home. So many dogs we associated with before, and yet we've never encounter such a playful and energertic dog before. He always bark at us to play with him! And it can never stop howling whenever he is unhappy! He is spoilt, I think.

The first few months of having him in the house has been a hard time for us. Ah ha, we nearly quarrels among each other because of this dog. We have different opinions on how to teach him and feed him and so on.

And I will never forget how I have to coax him to sleep every night..... for almost weeks before he stopped howling before sleep. Husky really needs alot of attention that he can't stand being left behind by his owner in his cage for sleep. He would rather skip his sleep to play! And we actually have to play with him for some minutes of time to make him tired. Then came the next big task, putting him back to his cage. I have to switch off all the lights, standing beside his cage, coaxing him to lie down and slowly to sleep. Then I had to make sure my movements were swift and fast and quietly.... so that no noice can wake him up until he wake up and found nobody was around anymore then he would be crying like piglet, and the same procedure repeated again....

This miserable period had driven my mum mad! So scary. And finally we found a solution, by putting Kiro's cage beside Vico's cage as his companion during the night. And so we're freed.

The 1st X'mas, 2 weeks after Kiro landed in our house, I made him a X'mas hat, well, he did not seem like very comfortable in it, he only saw it as his new toy to play with.

Kiro, 3 months old.

Kiro likes to run around, especially on the grass pound. Yeah, posing for a good shot

Chasing at his toy -- fruit Jambu, funny expression as he was hesitating to pick it up or not

Resting after getting tired of playing

A husky really can never get tired of playing and activities. All he likes to do is companion by his owners, to play with him. He gets bored easily anyway, so we have to find various toys for him get him attracted constantly. Otherwise, he will be running around like crazy, don't care about you and ruin all the plants in the garden.

To maintain a good body condition, for a large breed dog like husky, adequate exercise is required to keep it fit and muscular. People say exercise equilibrium to 4km runs will be adequate for a husky. Whew, we can't afford the stamina to run with him! And so we just play the "throw-and-fetch" game with him everyday. Let him lead the run alone! And we just stand at the same spot watching him running back and forth, haha.

That's not all the trouble he brought us yet! He is truely a troublemaker of the family. He will occasionally surprise you with his unpredictable acts that can nearly cause you a heart attack. He likes to bite shoes, countless pairs of shoes had been chewed into pieces and even swallowed by him! Many of the herb plants and flowers that emitted fragrance had also been eaten by him. He even ruined the plants from branches to stem and to its root! It is not because that he had not enough food but he has really got an itchy mouth, I think.

I even remember once that he digged a big hole out of our lychee tree, the tree was pulled out from its root, by Kiro, a dog. And it was after the rain so the land was wet. He immediately became a muddy dog that I could not recognise him. He was totally different! His face, his 4 legs, his body, mud was all over! Turning him into a blackie. And that spent me hours to bath him.

Kiro, 4 months old

A very naughty puppy without a brain, always get injured after some runnings. He really runs like a wolf, uncontrollable.... then there had been a few times that he fell into the drain and sprained himself. This was the most serious experience he got sprained, he was so painful and can hardly walk properly (limping), and so he lied down all day looking so pitifully, and his grandma bandaged him with traditional herbs. The next day he was recovered! And since then, he had been very cautious in where he is heading.

After bathing kiro, taking pictures of him has been regular routine as a way of keeping his record of growth.

Kiro, 5 months old.

So what do we feed him with??? During the 1st month, we fed him with Eaglepack Puppy formula, he didn't seem to be putting alot of weight during his rapid growing stage. And the next month, we had Eukanuba Puppy Large Breed formula for him. At his 3rd to 4th month of age, he had some macules that would later develop into pustules all over his lower abdomen, where his pee always stained onto. And according to the vet, these might be due to the skin sensitivity towards the acidity of the urine which could be improved by changing of food. So we bought Blackwood's Lamb and Rice for him. He liked the taste so much that he could always swipe away his meal in just minutes. And his skin really improved alot on it.

One day, my big sis had a visit at a petshop in Singapore near her office. There were many brands of dog food that we don't usually see in Malaysia, which price can be really high, but so do the quality wise. And she learnt that Acana is cheaper and good in quality. She brought a sample home, and all the dogs in the house just can't resist the fragrance of the biscuits, drooling.....

Getting Acana in Johor Bahru has been really a difficult task. One never knows that we actually gone online and search for the contact of the suppliers of Acana in Malaysia. Finally, we got the contact of JB supplier. And that's how we got our supply of dog biscuit at much cheaper price than the petshop's. The supplier initially thought we were selling pet food!

Guaranteed Analysis
Protein (min.) --- 29.0%
Glucosamine (min.) --- 200 mg/kg
Fat (min.) --- 17.0%
Chondroitin (min.) --- 50 mg/kg
Fiber (max.) --- 2.5 %
Vitamin E (min.) --- 250 IU/kg
Moisture (max.) --- 10.0%
Lutein (min.) --- 50 mg/kg *
Calcium (min.) --- 1.4 %
Carbohydrate --- 28.0 %
Phosphorus (min.) --- 1.1%
ME --- 4,400 kcal/kg
Omega-6 (min.) --- 3.0 % *
Omega-3 (min.) --- 1.0 % *
* Not recognized as essential by AAFCO

Other snacks that we feed Kiro ==> Chesdale cheddar cheese, Greenies chewy bone, bread, etc.

And he likes to eat human food. Meaning that, any food that we hold in our hand, he will think it is definitely a delicious one. He owiz jealous to Dino and Vico who can freely eat human food while he cannot. Because he is the kind of a sensitive dog! Wat others can tolerant, he might not be! He really like to eat rice alot. Guess wat, whenever he doesn't feel like eating, we will just need to mix his Acana biscuit with a spoonful of rice and he will finish all at once. How great the power can rice be for Kiro??

History of Health problem:

1. At around his 5th month, Kiro was having reddish spots and lossing of hairs on his front paws. This later spread on to his mouth and the hind paws and later also the upper part of all 4 limbs. He was then diagnosed of having demodecosis, which is a skin disease infested by mites -- demodex. This kind of parasites are commonly found in environment. However, signs only show up in dogs suffering from stress, or poor in stress management, or immune deficient, or genetically inherited. We don't know which one does he belong to. It might be due to multiple factors also. That was a tough period for us too. What a headache! He went on medication for at least 2 months before he actually fully recovered from it. Every once and a while, we will have to send him for further check up. And I went around and seek for opinions from many veterinarians on how to treat him. As many cases of demodecosis had been of long-term persisting problems, we afraid that our dog will have to suffer from this disease on and off all the while! Even though he has recovered from it now, we do still be very careful in observing his skin condition. One of the effort we made beside medication is to provide supplements such as vitamin C, DMG to help in release stress and boost immunity. Try not to stress him.... this can be a broad spectrum, stress can be due to changes in feed, environment, people, weather, activities, and so on... crazy.....

2. Then, one day during his 8th month, he had a few times of pasty, smelly, bloody diarrhoea in the morning. I was scared to death! I was working in the pet clinic that time, and I was thinking if it was because of the contaminants that I brought home without realising??!! I might be bringing harm to my own dog! I had already restraining myself from touching him right after back from work everyday, not before I have my bath. And I make sure that I disinfect myself before I go home. What happen??? He had has his full program of vaccination, contagious diseases were likely to be ruled out. Symptomatic treatment were given to Kiro --> Anti-diarrhea, Vitamin K (help in blood clotting), antibiotics, and isotonic drink and glucose. We were so heartache to see him lost of weight without eating food for 2 days as he has to be fasted to prevent diarhoea. As soon as he stopped having diarrhoea, I cooked mutton and chicken soup for him to gain some nutrient, solid food can't help much at all. Then he had intensive care for 3 days. And he gained alot of weight right after he recovered, as energertic as ever, and even eat more than before.....

Later we found out that it was most probably because of the herbicide my mum applied onto the plants in the garden. And this stupid dog owiz like to eat plants, this became toxic and cause his intestinal damages.... since then, we have been very careful with herbicide.....

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