illness

The last week of July, both my dogs were sick.

We had been in Guelph on the weekend, visiting with Karen (Spark), Brooke (Canyon, Cessna, Rogue, and baby Arizona), and Karol (Winston). Monday morning I took them to a nearby park to run around for a few minutes. There was nobody around, so they had fun chasing each other around. I looked away for only a few minutes, to pick up after them.

Ace is crated (due to his gluttonous tendencies) but Piper was left loose while I was at work. I came home at lunch to let them out for a pee, and found Piper had puked up all her breakfast in my bedroom. Annoying, but sometimes dogs just puke. I didn't really worry about it too much. Cleaned it up and went back to work.

When I came home from work, I found bloody vomit and diahrrea on my front mat. Somethinthing was definitely wrong. I cleaned up and took her outside. She was definitely lethargic. Once the hallway was reasonably clear, I went to get Ace out of his crate, and found his crate full of the same - bloody vomit and diahrrea. I immediately started making vet calls. After a few tries, I found a vet able to see us. When I took them outside, I snagged a stool sample to take with us - we loaded into the car and saw the vet within about 15 minutes.

The vet looked them over, determined that yes they were lethargic, yes blood coming out both ends was not good, and was able to rule out poison. Not able to rule out something communicable, or some kind of poisonous plant. It was very scary. She was kind enough to spend about an hour and a half with us, and went through the options very thoroughly. She gave them an injection to stop the vomiting and sent us home with antibiotics.

It took both dogs nearly a week to recover their energy, and I never really found out what cause the illness. None of the other dogs we were in contact with ever got sick. And because they were both sick within a few hours of each other, I suspected they perhaps ate a plant of some kind at the park that morning. Even though I only had my back turned for a few seconds, and even though Piper NEVER grazes. 

It was a very scary experience for me and my normally healthy dogs.

academics, puppy visits, vet visits, and agility class!

Wednesday was a great day for me, I was able to present my research at the Campbell Centre for Studies in Animal Welfare annual Symposium and Research Day. There were about 100 people in the audience (scary!!!), including a number of professors, students, and public interested in animal welfare. I think I did pretty well, although I did loose my place a few times. It was nice to be one of only two social science majors, out of 22 presenters.

On Thursday I had lunch with a good friend from Guelph, and visited Wendy (Piper's breeder). Piper and I got to meet another of Piper's littermates, Ryder (who she adored).

All four of my animals also had vet appointments in the afternoon, so we spent about two hours with Dr. Paula. Piper and Percy were both in perfect health, which was good news (although I was expecting it). The vet heard a grade one heart murmur in Archie, although it went away as he relaxed. Something to watch, however it seemed to only be an issue when he was stressed, and he's generally a pretty laid back cat. Ace is my poor, unhealthy soul, unfortunately. The vet now suspects his elbow dysplasia is causing him chronic pain, so she prescribed some painkillers. It breaks my heart, since he's only five years old, but she said he has almost no muscle around his elbows, and quite severe arthritis in his joints. He is to receive minimal exercise, except as much swimming as we can handle! She told me its ok to not exercise him every day, and I was correct to also cut back his food (which I had already done - my 74 lb dog now eats the same amount as my 42 lb dog). We are going to start a painkiller trial next week, he is to be medicated for a solid week, to see if I notice any differences. It's the easiest way to find out if he really is in chronic pain. I had suspected something along those lines, so I was not surprised by her evaluation.

We had a good time visiting my friend Karen, and her super-adorable Turveurn puppy Spark. Spark and Piper are like two peas in a pod, they got along fantastically :) We spent several nights watching agility videos.

Tonight was my last agility class with Piper for a while. We had a pretty good class, only screwing up a couple time in a course that was masters level (and harder than anything that would be seen at a regional level event). I was pretty happy with that! What I was not happy with was that Piper BARKED the entire time she was not working. My instructor told me to step on the leash and ignore her, quietly rewarding anytime she was quiet. The result was an hour and a half of barking. It was brutal. Definitely something we are going to have to work on.