Life

Jake with me at the vet's office on Friday, waiting for the cone of shame for Gracie

Cone of shame, as attached by the vet assistant

State of my mind this weekend

Double page spread in my small Dylusions journal

Halloween tag

Removed the cone and put one of my socks on her right hand paw so she can't scratch her ear

New and improved cone of shame. I cut 2 inches off on the outside, duct taped it together. Tied loosely.

This week has been a fiasco from the start, and it's only Tuesday morning. Wow.

Gracie is healing nicely, now that I am keeping her hind leg away from her ear that had surgery. The vet has advised me to apply Neosporin to the site, to ease the itches and help promote healing. The fur is growing back, and that adds to discomfort. But I have stopped the pain meds for Grace. I need a ton of something right now, but that is a different story entirely.

The mass that was removed was a fibrous sarcoma, which is malignant. It was small, low grade, with clean margins. All of that is good news within the bad news that my dog had cancer. At this point we wait, constantly checking any new lumps, bumps, growths immediately. I found this one by petting Gracie, so this practice continues on a daily basis as it should.

Along with this news, I had several small bumps in life. Stepping over the piles and moving on. Ya know? Not much else you can do. Some people will never change, and I no longer play games.

I was watching YouTube videos this past weekend, and saw someone (I honestly don't remember who) do a collage on top of gesso pages in a journal, and then start to add stamping, drops of paint, embossed black , and more. Looked really neat, so that is where the double page spread came from.  I didn't do any embossing.

Time to calm down, take deep cleansing breaths, and learn to relax more. It most certainly is. Have a good one.
Linda

Canine Flu

Looks like a little angel, doesn't he?

There is a vicious canine flu outbreak in Chicago, with over 1,000 dogs affected. Some have died. Because of the proximity to that area, Indianapolis has had this on the news. I have read conflicting reports about the vaccine. First, there isn't one, and second, it is now out of stock. So not sure what to believe.

Going to do what I always do: ask questions. Your dog(s) is at risk if you use a dog park or doggie day care, and we use both. If there is something I can do to keep my two dogs healthy, then I will do it. The vet will be called, and I will pass along whatever information I get. A word of caution. The vets are not always up to date on what is actually happening with the dogs in your area. When I insisted on a blood test for Lyme's disease 18 months ago, and that both dogs be vaccinated (this is expensive if you are considering), the vet was surprised. She had not heard of Lyme's in the area or in the state. It was rare at that time for the test to be done, or the vaccine to be administered. The best way to stay informed is to network with other pet owners. I explained to the vet that a friend had lost her Newfie to Lyme's. (see any tags for Coal). As a result there were about 10 of us from the dog park that started with the Lyme's vaccine.

Look at that face. Dogs trust us to lead them, to love them, take care of their needs. In return, we get nothing but loyalty and love.
Linda

Mom, we don't feel good

We all know when our pets feel in top form, and when they are under the weather. They have moods just like we do. But the past few days had me scratching my head and trying to decipher the signals.

Jake stopped eating on Wednesday. The Little Shit, his official nick name or LS for short, would not touch his dinner. Then he stopped taking treats. So I tried a different food, eggs, and that didn't work either. By Friday morning, Gracie wouldn't eat and a giant red flag was waving in front of my eyes. The Diva never, ever refuses food. She is a food hog. I've explained to her that she is going to lose her girlish figure, but that doesn't stop her from eating whatever she can get. When Gracie wouldn't accept a favorite treat, I knew we had a problem.

I googled the problem, and found four possible answers, the first being "take the dog to the vet to make sure there is no acute or chronic illness". So I made an appointment. One of the other answers was boredom with the food. In retrospect, I think I have 3 issues in force: Jake at times will let Gracie be completely dominant and this affects his appetite. I think he did indeed have some type of mild bug that passed to Gracie (the vet says this is rare, but hey, why not?). The third reason is they were bored with dog food that I pay $62 for a 32 pound bag. Say what? Do you not know how good this is for you?

The recommendation from the vet was to switch to either rice and cottage cheese (Jake doesn't like cottage cheese, tried that in the past), or sweet potato and baked chicken breast, no skin, no fat. Off I go to the store to buy chicken breasts ($4.98 for a pack of 3), and sweet potatos (fresh, $.88 a pound, resulting in $2.82 for 4). But of course they both dived right into this mix, butts wiggling, smiles on their little faces. The vet visit was $73.

Love and companionship from my two furry kids: priceless.
Linda

You Never Know

We had to get up early this morning, because I had a class to teach at 8am. So the dogs were fed and in the yard by 5:45am. Gracie wanted to stay outside when Jake came in, and I let her. It's chilly, overcast, and spitting rain here and there. My Aussie loves this weather, and unless she goes into barking mode, I will allow her to sit on the deck and survey her domain.

When she came in, her head was down. Didn't think anything of it, until about 15 minutes later she came up to me, lifted her head, and her right eye was swollen shut. Total panic. I had her jump up on my bed, and applied a warm compress. It appeared she had been bit by something right next to the eye. Leaving the compress on for about 15 seconds seemed to help, so I did this several times. By 7am the swelling had gone down, so I made the decision to wait and take her to a vet after 9. It's so hard with your animals, you just don't know.

The vet was very kind, and after a general exam including taking Gracie's temperature (not one of my dog's favorite things in this world), the doctor felt it was some type of bite on the eyelid. She did check for eyeball scratches and there were none. The Diva is home with eye drops, and I must run to the store for some Benedryl. Today's little adventure was $88. It truly is like having kids, isn't it?

Have a great day, hug your pets.
Linda

Boo Boo

Jake and Gracie at play in the backyard

Dogs are our companions. They greet us when we've been away, follow us around the home, and lower our blood pressure when we, the two legged ones, are allowed to stroke their fur. So when one gets hurt, it is traumatic not only for the dog, but the owner.

I was at the dog park last night with my two, and there were several people and dogs there that we know. One was Dega, a Wheaton Terrier, who is one of Gracie's boyfriends. My beautiful Aussie has many. She is known as the Park Slut. But that is another story.... The dogs had all been chasing a beagle, having fun, running around in the beautiful late day sun, when Dega returned to his mom. Melissa looked down and there was blood all over his front leg. I happened to be holding a squirt bottle filled with water, which is used to remind Jake who is the pack leader (me, in case you were wondering). Melissa asked for it to wash off his paw. At first we couldn't see anything, and the poor baby kept curling his paw under his body. Being a good mom, Melissa didn't like the looks of that bleeding paw, and took him immediately to the Airport Emergency Vet.

This facility is run by vets from all over the Indianapolis area, and is only open when regular veterinary clinics aren't. It's expensive to walk in the door, as you are paying for the convenience, but let me say, I've used them on a Sunday night, and these people are wonderful. Compassionate to a fault, caring, and very good veterinarians. We like them a lot.

Turns out Dega had to be sedated just for the paw to be examined. Somehow, he had bent the middle nail back and it was caught in his fur. The nail was loose, and had to be removed. I can't even imagine how much pain that poor baby was in, but he is now all better. The leg is wrapped in gauze, and he has antibiotics and pain meds. Melissa called me on her way home. I had sent her a text wanting to know what was going on. She borrowed one of my cones (the CONE of SHAME, if you've ever seen the movie, UP), so Dega won't chew off the gauze.

I have met so many people through my dogs. We are here for each other, we socialize outside of the dog park, and reach out to one another in times of need. It is a very good feeling.
Linda