Everything we need to
take care of Max
Max broke his leg, and he's getting older. This handbook keeps all of us — every sibling, tita, tito, and cousin who helps out — feeding him the same food, giving the same medicine, and watching for the same warning signs. No more group-chat guessing.
Meet Max
Fill in the blanks once and everyone has the same details at hand. Great for whoever ends up taking him to his next check-up.
Max
Shih Tzu · 8 years old · Philippines
Copy the labels word for word. Never guess a dose, and never give human painkillers.
Recovery plan
Broken bones heal on their own schedule. These are the usual stages — tap the one Max is in now so the whole family knows how much he's allowed to move. Ask the vet which stage he's actually in; only they can see the X-rays.
- Put rugs or mats on tiles. Slippery floors are the number one way a healing leg gets re-injured.
- Block the stairs. A gate, a chair, a stack of boxes — whatever works.
- Lift him properly. Support his chest and bottom together, like a loaf of bread. Never lift by the front legs.
- Use a towel sling under his belly for potty trips if he's wobbly.
- Move his bowls and bed to one floor so he never needs to travel far.
- Keep it bone dry. Cover it with a plastic bag for potty trips outside, then take the bag off straight away.
- Check the toes twice a day for swelling, coldness, or a bad smell — call the vet if you see any.
- Don't let him chew it. A soft collar or cone helps. Chewing is often a sign something hurts or itches underneath.
- If it slips, gets wet, or smells — that's a vet visit, not a home fix.
- Never cut or re-wrap it yourself.
Today's checklist
Whoever is on Max duty works through this. Ticks are saved on your own device and reset with the button below when the next person takes over.
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Weekly tracker
Print one of these each week and keep it on the fridge with a pen. Written notes are what the vet actually wants to see at the next visit — much better than trying to remember.
| Week of ______________ | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breakfast — how much eaten | |||||||
| Dinner — how much eaten | |||||||
| Appetite (good / picky / refused) | |||||||
| Water (low / normal / lots) | |||||||
| Medicine — morning ✓ | |||||||
| Medicine — evening ✓ | |||||||
| Pee ✓ / Poo ✓ (and how it looked) | |||||||
| Using the leg? (not at all → normal) | |||||||
| Mood & energy | |||||||
| Bandage dry & clean ✓ | |||||||
| Notes for the vet | |||||||
| Who was on duty |
Nutrition basics
Six ideas behind everything else in this handbook. If you only read one section, read this one.
Healing bone and muscle needs good protein. Lean chicken, fish, and eggs should be the biggest part of his bowl — not rice.
Every extra gram presses on a healing leg and on old joints. You should be able to feel his ribs easily under a thin layer, and see a waist from above. Ask the vet for his target weight.
Fresh water within a few steps of wherever he's resting. Home-cooked food is wet, which helps — but he still needs a full bowl. A splash of unsalted broth encourages fussy drinkers.
Two meals a day, roughly twelve hours apart, measured with a cup or kitchen scale. Same amount every time, no matter who's serving.
Meals we cook ourselves usually miss some vitamins and minerals over the long run. Ask the vet which balancer or supplement to add — and don't add calcium on your own. Too much can do harm, especially while a bone is healing.
Switching overnight causes upset stomachs. Move over across a week or so, and stop if his poo goes loose.
Food guide
Everyday ingredients from the local palengke and supermarket, sorted three ways. When in doubt, don't give it — ask in the group chat first.
Skinless, boneless, boiled. The best everyday protein for healing. No skin, no fried parts.
Boiled or scrambled with no salt or butter. Excellent protein. Roughly 3–4 a week for a small dog.
Steamed, completely deboned. Light, cheap, easy on the stomach. Check for bones twice.
Good fats that support skin and joints. Very bony — debone with real care, or use boneless belly.
Boiled and mashed. Gentle on the gut, filling without many calories, and most dogs love it.
Cooked soft and diced small. A raw stick makes a fine low-calorie chew for a bored dog.
Chopped small and lightly cooked. Adds greens and bulk without adding weight.
A small handful of leaves stirred in, cooked. Nutritious and everywhere in the Philippines.
Boiled and mashed. A better everyday carbohydrate than white rice — more fibre, steadier energy.
Peeled and boiled soft. Mild, watery, and useful for filling the bowl on a diet.
Cooked and cut into small pieces. Low calorie, good fibre, easy to add to any recipe here.
Cooked in water, no sugar or milk. Kind to older stomachs. Small portions only.
Fresh, unsweetened, no syrup or bits. Frozen into cubes it's a lovely hot-day treat.
Small ripe cubes, no seeds or skin. Sweet enough to work as a treat. A few pieces, not a bowl.
Fine in small amounts, but Filipino dog bowls are usually mostly rice. That's how dogs get heavy. Keep it to roughly a quarter of the bowl.
Sweet and high in sugar. Two or three thin slices as a treat, not a portion.
A tiny piece of flesh only. Never the pit — it can block his gut, and it's a choking risk.
Very nutritious but too much causes vitamin A problems. A small piece once a week at most.
Only the kind packed in water with no salt added, rinsed well. Tomato-sauce and oil versions are too salty and fatty.
A pea-sized bit to hide a tablet is fine. Beyond that it's salt and fat he doesn't need.
A teaspoon of unsweetened plain yogurt is usually fine. Many dogs can't handle milk at all — skip fresh milk.
Only if the label has no xylitol and no sweetener — read it every time. Then just a smear, it's very fatty.
Only lean, plain, well-cooked pieces, rarely. Fatty pork can trigger a painful pancreas problem.
Half a teaspoon stirred in per meal helps his coat. More than that is just extra calories.
Damages a dog's red blood cells, even cooked or in small amounts. This rules out most of our home cooking.
Almost all of it has garlic, onion, soy sauce, or patis. Delicious for us, genuinely bad for him.
Loaded with salt, sugar, and preservatives. Nothing here helps a senior dog.
Chicken and fish bones splinter and can tear his insides. Debone everything, every single time.
Very high fat can cause a painful, sometimes serious pancreas inflammation.
Poisonous to dogs. Keep it off low tables — he can't run away from it but he can still reach it.
Can cause sudden kidney failure. Even a few. No exceptions.
Hidden in sugar-free gum, candy, and some peanut butters. Extremely dangerous in tiny amounts.
Macadamia is toxic to dogs. Other nuts are too fatty and salty to be worth it.
Cook his food completely unseasoned. It tastes plain to us; it tastes like meat to him.
The pit is a choking and blockage risk, and the skin doesn't agree with dogs. Just skip it.
Caffeine affects a small dog's heart badly. Keep mugs out of reach of a curious nose.
Toxic even in small sips. Watch him at family parties — this is when accidents happen.
Never. Paracetamol, ibuprofen, mefenamic acid and aspirin can kill a dog. If he seems in pain, call the vet.
It feels helpful for a broken bone, but the wrong amount can do harm. Only give supplements the vet prescribed.
Sugar, dairy, and sometimes chocolate. Give a frozen buko cube instead — he won't know the difference.
Recipes
Five simple things anyone in the house can cook. One rule for all of them: no salt, no garlic, no onion, no seasoning of any kind. Tap a recipe to open it.
Everyday chicken & kalabasa bowlMain
- 500 g chicken thigh or breast — skinless, boneless
- 300 g kalabasa, peeled and cubed
- 1 medium carrot, diced small
- 1 cup chopped pechay
- ½ cup cooked white rice
- 1 tsp cooking oil
- 4 cups water
- Simmer the chicken in the water for about 15 minutes, until fully cooked through.
- Add kalabasa and carrot. Cook 10 more minutes until fork-soft.
- Stir in the pechay for the last 2 minutes.
- Lift out the chicken, chop it small, and check for any bone.
- Add the rice, mash everything lightly, and keep some of the cooking water — that's free flavour and hydration.
- Cool completely, then stir in the oil.
Serve: Two measured meals a day, at room temperature. Use the daily amount the vet gave you — write it on the fridge so nobody guesses.
Store: Airtight in the fridge for up to 3 days, or freeze in daily portions for up to a month. Thaw in the fridge overnight. Never serve it hot — warm it slightly and test it on your wrist.
Fish & kamote plateMain
- 400 g bangus or tilapia fillet — every bone removed
- 300 g kamote, peeled and cubed
- 1 cup chopped pechay or a handful of malunggay leaves
- ½ tsp cooking oil
- Steam or poach the fish for about 10 minutes until it flakes easily.
- Boil the kamote separately until a fork slides in with no resistance.
- Wilt the greens in a little water for 2 minutes.
- Flake the fish with your fingers and run through it twice looking for bones. Bangus is very bony — take your time here.
- Mash the kamote, fold everything together, cool, then add the oil.
Serve: Swap this in for the chicken bowl two or three times a week. The good fats in fish are kind to old joints and dry skin.
Store: Fridge, airtight, 2 days maximum — fish spoils faster than chicken. Freeze in portions if you cooked extra.
Egg & malunggay topperAdd-on
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp malunggay leaves, stripped from the stem
- A few drops of oil for the pan
- Scramble the egg over low heat with no salt and no butter.
- Stir the malunggay in at the very end so it just wilts.
- Let it cool to room temperature before it goes anywhere near his bowl.
Serve: Half an egg stirred through a meal he's ignoring. Usually enough to get a picky senior interested. Around 3–4 eggs a week total.
Store: Cook this one fresh. Scrambled egg goes off quickly and isn't worth the risk.
Gentle lugaw for off daysShort-term
- ¼ cup white rice
- 100 g chicken breast
- 3 cups water
- Nothing else. No ginger, no salt, no patis.
- Boil the rice in all the water until it breaks down into a thin porridge.
- Poach the chicken separately, then shred it very fine.
- Combine, cool to lukewarm, and offer small amounts often rather than one big bowl.
Serve: For a mildly upset tummy or a day of poor appetite. Small servings, several times a day.
Important: This is a bridge, not a diet — it isn't balanced enough for regular meals. If he still won't eat properly after a day, or there's vomiting or diarrhoea, call the vet.
Three guilt-free treatsTreats
Pour plain unsweetened buko water into an ice tray and freeze. One cube on a hot afternoon. Cooling, almost no calories, and very popular.
Mash boiled kalabasa, spoon small dots onto a tray, and freeze. Perfect for hiding a tablet, or for a lick mat when he's restless.
Simmer plain chicken and carrot in water for 30 minutes, strain out every solid piece, and cool. Drizzle a tablespoon over his food to get a fussy dog eating and drinking. Fridge 3 days, or freeze in cubes.
Week at a glance
A sample week so nobody has to think about it. Swap days around freely — just keep fish to two or three days and don't stack the extras.
| Day | Breakfast | Dinner | Extra |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Chicken & kalabasa bowl | Chicken & kalabasa bowl | Raw carrot stick to chew on |
| Tuesday | Chicken & kalabasa bowl | Fish & kamote plate | Buko ice cube |
| Wednesday | Chicken bowl + ½ egg | Chicken & kalabasa bowl | — |
| Thursday | Chicken & kalabasa bowl | Fish & kamote plate | Few cubes of papaya |
| Friday | Chicken bowl + ½ egg | Chicken & kalabasa bowl | Kalabasa bite |
| Saturday | Chicken & kalabasa bowl | Fish & kamote plate | Small piece of liver once a week only |
| Sunday | Chicken bowl + ½ egg | Chicken & kalabasa bowl | Broth over dinner cooking day — batch for the week |
Feeding routine
Dogs settle when the day is predictable. Adjust the clock times to suit the household — just keep them the same every day, and keep the gaps even.
- 7:00 amFresh water. Breakfast — half his daily amount. Morning medicine.
- 7:30 amPotty break. Eyes and face wiped. Bandage checked.
- 12:00 pmWater topped up. Potty break. Quiet company or a lick mat.
- 3:00 pmOptional small treat — taken out of his meal, not added to it.
- 7:00 pmDinner — the other half. Evening medicine.
- 9:00 pmLast potty break. Fill in the tracker. Lights out.
- Shallow, wide bowl. A flat-faced dog struggles to reach the bottom of a deep one.
- Room temperature, never hot. Straight from the fridge is too cold for a senior stomach.
- Measure, don't scoop by feel. A cheap kitchen scale ends all disagreements.
- Feed him where he rests so he isn't walking to his bowl on a healing leg.
- Take the bowl away after 20 minutes and note what he left.
- No table scraps. Not one piece. He'll ask; he's very good at asking.
- Say it in the chat when you've fed him or given medicine.
- Tell visitors and kids before they arrive, not after the hotdog.
- When unsure, don't. Ask first — it's always the right call.
Grocery list
Roughly a week of Max's food. Tick as you shop — it saves on your device, so you can close the tab at the palengke and come back to it.
Proteins
Vegetables & fruit
Pantry
Treats
Supplies
Ask the vet first
Questions for the vet
Print this and bring it. Ten minutes in the clinic goes fast, and it's always the way home when you remember the thing you meant to ask.
The leg & how much he can move6 questions
- Which stage of healing is Max in right now, and what does that allow?
- Exactly how much walking is safe today — minutes, and how many times a day?
- Should he be in a pen or crate? For how long each day?
- When is the next X-ray, and what are you hoping to see?
- Are there gentle exercises or massage we should be doing at home? Can you show us?
- What would make you want to see him immediately?
Food, portions & weight6 questions
- What is Max's ideal weight, and how far off is he?
- How many grams of food per day, split how?
- Is home-cooked food fine for him long term? Which supplement or balancer should we add, and at what dose?
- Does he need extra calcium, or is that a bad idea while the bone heals?
- Would a joint or omega-3 supplement help a dog his age?
- Do his blood or urine results mean we should avoid any particular food?
Medicine6 questions
- Can you write down each medicine, the dose, and the exact times?
- With food or on an empty stomach?
- How many more days or weeks for each one?
- What side effects are normal, and which ones mean we should call?
- What do we do if we miss a dose, or if he spits it out?
- Is there anything safe we can give at home if he seems to be in pain?
Growing older5 questions
- How often should a senior dog like Max come in for a check-up?
- Is he due for a dental check? Is anaesthesia safe for him right now?
- Are his vaccines and deworming up to date?
- Should we do routine blood work, and how often?
- Now that he's eight, what should we be watching for that we might otherwise miss?
Warning signs
If you see anything on this list, don't wait for a second opinion in the group chat. Call the vet.