Heart Like a Dog

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

Persistence Pays Off – Just Be The Dog

By

Last week I wrote a post about Sampson and his efforts to get to the field on one of our walks so he could greet some fellow hikers.  Sampson not being a projective thinker had no idea once he reached the field the hikers would have moved on.

I let him lead us to the field, but he was disappointed that they were no longer there.

What I didn’t write about was how at the end our walk, the hikers Sampson was so eager to greet were just exiting the field as we approached.

His persistence paid off.

My topic now turns to poop.  Listen, if you are in my inner circle you talk poop.  It’s that simple.  Poop happens so you might as well talk about it, chuckle about it whatever.  It’s a fact of life.

When I’m walking the dogs I keep a good eye on them while they poop.  Since they are on the raw diet their poops can be really hard.   Sometimes I swear it looks like Sampson is pooping sand, it’s that dry.

One of my friends who feeds raw told me her dog’s poop was so hard, it hurt Lily when she pooped.  Ever since then, I’ve kept a good eye on them to make sure they aren’t uncomfortable.

Last night during our walk Delilah was trying to drop a deuce.  She has a tendency to squat, drop, walk etc.

Delilah assumed the position and I saw a little gopher pop its head out, but then it went back in.  She took a couple of steps and tried again but still nothing happened.   She looked at her backside (I’m not sure if she was trying to scare it out or what) and tried once again.

I pulled out my cell phone and called the vet.

Luckily I got right through and the gal on the end of the line was able to send a vet tech back to speak directly with the Dr.

While I was waiting for a response, Delilah kept trying.

It took her a couple of minutes but she eventually showed that turd who was the boss.  But she only passed the one.

Meanwhile the vet tech came back on the line with this juicy tidbit, Dr. Soutter said to try to run Delilah a little (it was hot as blue blazes out) and if I felt comfortable I could reach down there and pull it out.

(No thanks, I’d rather pay you $50 to do that.)

I mean if it was a matter of life and death, of course I would have done it, but she was persistent and kept at it and it paid off.

I did take her down to the field and ran for about a minute, (siriusly it was hot out) and of course I kept an eye on her to make sure she pooped. (She did this morning.)

Persistence pays off, Just Be The Dog.

Follow-Up Friday

By

For those new to the blog, my follow-up Friday provides me with an opportunity to update or revise a post from the previous week.

You know sometimes you post about something and you need an update but it doesn’t warrant a whole blog.  Or sometimes someone made a comment that really resonated with you.  Yup, Follow-Up Friday baby!

Be The Dog – Author’s Note

I think this started with Lena West’s “You can do it now or NOW.”  I sat down to write a witty blog post about how Lena had motivated me and boom!  There it was, “Be The Dog.”

I love it.  Be The Dog.

I could see the tee-shirts, bumper stickers, speaking engagements (why not, it’s my fantasy.) 🙂

Then I checked the trademark office and the saying is trademarked.

Boo.  Hiss.

I’m still working out the kinks on this one, so hold tight.

No-One Calls My Dog A Behemoth! – Author’s Note

I should have been clear in the post.  Delilah came to us from a rescue.   The vet who originally examined her said she was spayed.  The rescue took the vet’s word because….well you should trust your vet.

As soon as I realized she was in heat, I contacted the rescue.  Originally they agreed to pay $125.00 which is the normal fee they paid their vets for spaying.

Delilah’s spaying was $325.00.  They told me it was so high because she was a big dog, had already had a litter of puppies and she still had a lot of the pregnancy fat that they had to go through to spay her.

Delilah’s adoption fee was $375.00 and here we were three months later shelling out another $325.00 making her a $700.00 dog.  So much for rescuing I thought.

But the rescue ponied up the entire $325.00.  The vet’s office faxed over the bill and we had a check in hand within a matter of days.

I was not upset with the rescue, they received the wrong information and they made it right.  You can’t ask for much more than that.

As for that vet from hell, well a short time later I received a notice that the owner had sold the practice and it was under new ownership.  By this time I already had my new vet who I love.

Just like the previous owner, I left that practice and never looked back.

My blog was pretty focused on  “Just Be The Dog”  this past week, so that’s it for my Follow-Up Friday. 🙂

Have an awesome weekend.

 

No-One Calls My Dog A Behemoth!

By

Kari from Hound Girl had a post this morning entitled, “Breaking up with your vet.”  I started writing my comment and realized I had an entire post.

Once upon a time, I broke up with my vet.  Here’s how it happened.

We used the same vet for Sampson that we had used with our previous dog, Roxanne.

After Delilah joined our pack I had a bad experience with our vet.  Delilah went into heat three months after joining us.  I was stunned as the rescue group had presented her as having been spayed.

We discussed with the vet when is the best time to spay Delilah and decided to wait a couple of months after she had finished her cycle.

We were in the process of buying our current house and scheduled it so Delilah would be fixed and come home to the new house.

The day of the closing dawned and as much as it pained me, I couldn’t give Delilah any breakfast.  I was very worried about how this would affect her, since she is such a food hound, but she survived it.  I dropped her off at the vet and then Sampson off at daycare and headed back to the house to pack up our bedroom.

In short fashion the vet’s office called saying Delilah’s urine test came back indicating a urinary tract infection and they couldn’t do the surgery.

Could I come and get her.

I couldn’t.  I literally was in the middle of moving.  In retrospect there was probably something I could have done, but in that moment I couldn’t think.

After lots of yelling on my part, I finally convinced them to give her some food and water, Hubby picked her up on his way to the new house after the closing and we rescheduled the surgery for after she’d completed her round of antibiotics.

We scheduled the surgery for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  We knew the vet’s office would keep her overnight and we would be home with her for the next four days.

I remember being upset with the vet for not letting her come home the day of the surgery, the vet said she had to stay quiet so as not to tear her stitches.  I asked if someone was staying with her and they said no.   At this point I felt she would be better off with me, who would stay with her throughout the night and even share a bed with her.  But they said no.

I swear upon all that is holy that what I’m about to write is the God’s Honest Truth.  When the vet called me after the surgery she said she had to cut Delilah “from stem to stern” that there was a lot of fat in there because she’d apparently had a litter of puppies and she called her a “behemoth.”

Her poor belly. She ended up with the stitches irritating her and slightly infected.

I don’t know how you feel about this, personally I can call my dog anything I want, but NO-ONE, especially a vet calls my dog a behemoth.  I don’t care if my dog is 50 pounds overweight, YOU don’t get to call her names.

When we went for the follow-up visit the vet said to her vet tech, “This was my spay from hell.”

OMFG are you kidding me?

I didn’t say anything, I was too stunned.  But I did make sure to have the vet squeeze Delilah’s glands and Delilah let her know emphatically that she was out of line in doing so.  The vet commented on how hard Delilah was squeezing her back-end around the vet’s finger.  I can almost guarantee she was channeling my anger.

A short time later, Sampson had an appointment with the owner of the practice and I brought my concern of the unprofessional vet to his attention.

It was a while ago and I can’t remember what he said, but it didn’t appease me.  So I switched vets.

I love my current vet.  She is holistic, she answers any questions I have and is very honest with me about what vaccines she feels the dogs should have.  I have recommended her to anyone who has asked and will continue to do so.

When Delilah was having her episodes, they were very open to anything and everything and had no problem consulting with outside vets at my request.

If they hadn’t been open to alternative treatments Delilah would more than likely be on medication for epilepsy right now.

You’d change Dr.’s if you weren’t satisfied with yours, right?  Don’t be afraid to change vets if you aren’t happy with the care you are getting for your pet.

Just Be The Dog.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...