Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Another Year Gone By – Part 2

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What I should have tried to incorporate in the original post was how I went into my vet’s office.

I’m a worry wart, I worry about everything.  If I hear/see/read about it, I’m worried about it.  I went in armed with a list of questions for my vet.

You know all of the scary things I’ve heard about on other blogs, the news or from different people.

Vaccine Induced Meningoencephalomyelitis/meningoencephalitis 

In the State of Connecticut, Rabies is a three-year vaccine.  Once the puppy has completed the initial series, the vaccine is given at three-year intervals.  Both Sampson and Delilah had their rabies booster last year, so neither one is due until 2014.

If you are a dog lover, you probably follow Roxanne Hawn and her dog Lilly over at Champion of my Heart, if you do, you know they have been going through hell in the last six months due to Vaccine Induced Meningoencephalomyelitis/meningoencephalitis.  I cry every time I read this blog and what they are going through.

I had to ask my vet about it. She told me, it’s rare, extremely rare.  Which makes me feel slightly better. But not much.

I said, “I just worry.”

She said, “I know.”

Laryngeal Paralysis in Dogs

My friend Ann lost her lab to this not very long ago.  I had never heard of it.  (Honestly, why didn’t I find all this out BEFORE I got dogs.  Jiminy Cricket, it’s as bad as having kids!)  The first sign of this disease is a change in bark.  Since I once rushed Sampson to the emergency clinic on Sunday for what turned out to be a scab, I’m pretty sure this would be diagnosed fairly quickly.

Siriusly, I will notice a change in bark.

My vet assured me the condition is manageable, it is not necessarily a death sentence for the dog.

I said, “I just worry.”

She said, “I know.”

Bloat

This is a scary disease, in most cases if it is caught early the dog can be saved.   Sadly, a lot of people are not aware there is something wrong until it’s too late.  I know of three people who have lost dogs to bloat.

The only dog I know of that has survived bloat is Thunder from the 2BrownDawgs blog, his owners weren’t entirely sure that Thunder was bloating but they erred on the side of caution, and he got the help he needed.

I am so freaked out about bloat that I printed off the symptoms and keep them in the notebook with Sampson’s medical records.

I asked the vet, does having them on raw food make a difference?  She said, not necessarily.  It can happen with any food and generally happens because the dog has gotten a lot of air in its stomach.

I said, “I just worry.”

She said, “I know.”

Parvo

Certain areas of the country have had bad outbreaks of Parvo.  I asked if she thought the dogs should be boostered for Parvo and she said,  as long as the puppy completes the initial series, and the dog is not being boarded she feels they do not need the additional booster.  The same goes for Distemper.

I said, “I just worry.”

She said, “I know.

Water Gulping

Delilah has a tendency right before and right after she eats dinner, of hogging the water bowl.  I asked my vet about it and she suggested removing the bowl or keeping smaller amounts of water in it.

To my way of thinking if she is gulping water, she is also gulping air.  I have been keeping smaller amounts of water in her bowl and picking it up if she’s a little too interested.

I said, “I just worry.”

She said, “I know.”

I told you I went armed with a list of questions.

Are you a worrier like me?  Do you go to your vet armed with a list of questions? Or do you just roll with the flow?

Post script, we use Interceptor for our heartworm prevention.  Unfortunately Interceptor is on back order indefinitely, so we had to go with the traditional Heart Guard.   If you follow me on facebook, you will know I put a link to a blogpost up there about Proheart 6, which is a new shot that is given instead of the monthly tablet.   Please take 5 minutes to read this post, if you are even considering using this protocol.  It could be the difference between life and death.

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  1. It’s embarrassing to admit, but I worry more about my dogs than I did my kids. It was easier to tell when something was wrong with a child. I’m sure that doesn’t make me Mother of the Year.

    My greatest fear is that something will happen after office hours and I will have to take the dogs to an emergency veterinarian clinic where they don’t know us.

    • We could be sisters from different mothers. LOL. I agree, I worry the same way because they can’t talk and sometimes it’s not obvious that there is something wrong. I don’t like either of the emergency vets in our area. 🙁

  2. My Mom worries about us dogs all the time too. Today she was worried because I was “scratching too slowly”! 😉

    It’s OK if you worry.

    We love you too!

    XOXO,

    HERO

  3. Interceptor was on recall I think. Oddly enough, I think it is made in the same plant as Gas-X which is on recall too. Anyway, your vet might have been interested to know that Thunder did not have the tell tale air in his stomach. His bloat was an a-typical case. I think the theory about kinds of food is that with raw they don’t (or can’t) gulp the food down so less air. However, excessive water drinking can cause bloat too (or at least they think so).

    I worry about them getting a cheat grass seed imbedded and this:

    http://www.9and10news.com/story/16976803/rare-fungal-disease-kills-two-dogs

    But you can’t keep them under glass. 🙂

    • I couldn’t remember the specifics of Thunder’s bloat and was lazy and didn’t want to poke around your blog. 🙂

      The other thing I’ve heard about bloat is that dry food expands once it gets into the stomach with liquid, which can cause the stomach to be uncomfortable. I’m not sure how accurate that is.

      Now I will worry about this fungal disease since we walk in the woods. LOL

      Yes, it did go to spam but I check my spam folder every day so I caught it. Plus I saw your comment saying it went to spam. I don’t know why that happens, but you should be ok now. 🙂

      • The spam filter is giving me a pain on my blog. lol I believe the theory about the dry food expanding has been debunked. But we soak the brown dawgs’ food and always have. The weird thing about Thunder’s bloat is that the vet is fairly sure his spleen enlarged first and took his stomach with it when it flipped, pointing to a possible allergic reaction to something. Maybe a bee sting or bug bite.

        I tell my hibbie not to take the dogs down to the river in the summer because it seems to me that that could be prime fungus area (sandy shallow water and shady). But what do I know…lol.

  5. I go armed with a list of questions for annual exams, and like you, I run them to the vet for other stuff during the year, which often turns out to be nothing. But not always, which I was I will continue to rush over there for every lump bump misstep gagging noise etc., etc. 🙂

    • Donna, I would rather spend the money and be told, ‘it’s nothing’ then be told, ‘if you’d only come in sooner.’ If they could talk it would be different, right? But not knowing, I just said to Hubby, I’m thinking of taking Sampson to the vet he has a couple of hot spots. LOL

      Really what’s money anyway compared to our fur babies. 🙂

  6. Thx for posting this info Jodi. Esp about the Proheart 6. It sounds like such a good idea but it’s unfortunate to learn about through the loss of someone’s beloved pet 🙁

    • I was going to wait and write about it in a different post but I couldn’t bear the thought of someone not knowing the risks. I’m sure you worry about Foxy too!

  7. Oh Jodi, there must be more to a name than Shakespeare allows, because this could be me with my vet! After our regular appointment, he looks right at me and says, “So, what are you worrying about these days?” LOL and so it begins…that is one of the worst (and the best really) things about being a dog blogger. I know far, far too much about what can go wrong.

    I once to Kolchak to the vet because he was panting a lot. My vet took one look at me n the waiting room, with my non-panting dog, and sad “Its hot. You need an airconditioner, not a vet visit and sent me on my way.” LOL. I just worry.

    • I know.

      LOL My hubby just said, “that’s so you!” You are right, right, right. The best and worst of blogging. I think Jan is right, I really worry more about the dog than I ever did with the kids.

      I think we’re related. 🙂

  9. I am huge worrier about my dogs, more so than the kids. Working at the vet has made it 100 times worse. If the dogs have a rash I think MRSA. Limping=bone cancer, it’s horrible. My vet just rolls her eyes at me now when I diagnosis the dogs myself.

    I have the bloat chart hanging on my fridge so that everyone in the family knows the signs, I have even gone over it with the kids, that is how paranoid I am.

    • Oh god, I could never work in the vet’s office……I’d spend all my money there.

      I don’t think you can be too paranoid about bloat Jen, it’s horrible and so many people don’t have any idea what the symptoms are.

  10. It’s good to be well informed Jodi – it could be a life saver one day. On my walks through the neighborhood I used to come across a Caucasian Shepherd yard dog who coughed a lot. I haven’t seen or heard it for a while so maybe it succumbed to something 🙁

    • Oh Bassa, that is so sad. I hope that is not the case. Maybe he just moved away from your beautiful town.

  11. Hi Jodi – great post! My husband calls me a “dog-o-chondriac” because I worry about the dogs’ health so much! Like you, I’d rather be safe than sorry. My dogs have given me so much, that I feel that they deserve no less from me.

  12. Loved this post!!!! In this regard we are kindred spirits. I have obsessed about all of the items listed in your post (particularly bloat and conditions caused by vaccines) with the exception of “Laryngeal Paralysis in Dogs,” which I can now lose some sleep over during the course of the next few weeks. Who knew that such a thing existed?

    My latest obsession (which has being ongoing for some time) is vaccines. I’m seriously considering doing a titer test when Mazzie’s next round of shots come up in the fall, but am still in the process of educating myself re the pros and cons. I’d be curious to know your thoughts re vaccines and how you came to a decision in the case of your dogs.

    • The vet says that Laryngeal Paralysis just happens, but naturally I worry that it has to do with the collar around the neck and I worry that Sampson pulls sometimes and that collar will hurt his throat.

      As for the titers my vet says if the dog has had the initial series, she feels that unless they are being boarded, they do not need the boosters.

      Rabies is mandatory here and we have a lot of wildlife around here so I do Leptos. I’m not sure how predominate that is in the city.

      I sure don’t understand vaccines. I would think that some immunity passes through from mother to child during pregnancy, the same with a dogs. If the mother has her vaccines shouldn’t she be passing some of those onto her offspring, so then the offspring would need less of the vaccine? But that isn’t the case.

      How do you feel about microchipping? I’m on the fence about this one. The vet says there is no evidence that it can be harmful…..and yet I hesitate. 🙁

      • I like your vet! Many vets won’t even entertain a discussion about titers. Vets do suggest Lepto vaccines for city dogs given all of the rats roaming around (which apparently like wildlife, spread the Lepto bacteria through their excrement). So scary and gross.

        I don’t understand vaccines either, but am slowly and surely educating myself and am thankful that I have vet who is very open to discussing the issue and otherwise very supportive. My dog is due for boosters this coming September, so I still have some time to think about it and will let you know where I come out.

        Re the micro chipping, if I had had the choice (my dog already had a chip when I adopted her), I wouldn’t have done it. Even though the vast majority of dogs now have chips, it’s not like they’ve been around for eons. Who knows what people will learn about the chips after they’ve been around for 25 years…. And even if someone takes the risk, the scanner could be faulty and not pick up a dog’s chip or the chip could gravitate away from the injection site. And there you have my nutty 2 cents about microchips!

  13. Me, worry? Mostly just ALL THE TIME. Since I’m home with her all day, sometimes I look at her and wonder if she always breathes that hard, then I wonder if something is hurting her, then I start worrying about all kinds of ridiculous things. If they could talk, I don’t think we would worry so much! I’m right there with you!!

    • LOL Julie, I forgot to ask the vet if dogs can have sleep apnea, because I’m pretty sure Sampson has stopped breathing in his sleep a couple of times. LOL I worry if his nose is too dry or too wet….:-) well the list goes on and on.

  14. Great post!

    My first Chessie had bone cancer. She jumped out of my van one day and started limping, I figured she just jammed her leg, but after 2 days of limping I took her in to get it checked out. I figured my vet would just give her some anti inflammatory and send us on our way but the look on her face when she returned with the x-ray told me it was not good; I never dreamed cancer. Bone cancer is a very fast growing cancer and in about 14 weeks I had to say good bye to my heart dog. So yes I err on the side of caution always!

    I microchip all my dogs. I even micro-chipped and payed for the registration on Riva’s whole litter so I could make sure they may have a safe way home just in case. I asked the new owners to please put me down as a secondary contact, which I hope they did. Of course micro-chips have to be scanned in order to get the animal home so if the vet or shelter does not do that then the chip is useless, I have heard this happens when people portray the dog as being their own and not a found animal. It is not a 100% guarantee the dog will be found but it is the safest and best option out there right now. Tattooing is not safe for the animal because if someone wants to steal or keep your dog they can easily do damage to the animal to remove the tattoo. So that’s my two cents!

    • OMG that’s so awful. I worry so much. As I’ve stated many times, Sampson is my heart dog and I know I’m gonna be a basket case when I lose him. He is such a good boy and brings me so much love and joy, which is one of the reasons I work so hard to keep him healthy.

      I’m sorry you lost your girl.

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