Thursday, October 17, 2013

REALLY, ....is Pet Ownership Really Worth the Price?

WHOOOO WHOOOO, I have decided to employ the power of positive thinking and I'm choosing to believe that our month of vet visits is nearing its end.  It all started when Lizzie ate a bottle of gummie calcium, and a bottle of gummie multi vitamins-$700.  Then the sheltie Chloe has a row of some lipomas along her mammory glands-they needed to be removed, so that was scary and pricey at $750-but the lipomas are gone and her teeth are shiny, so thats all good.  Then Breeze got hurt and needed some laser and adjustments, that was small fry in the bill department.  Skyler our old sheltie is dripping bloody urine ;-( he is almost 12 and we are still investigating that-bill to date is $400.  Then our kittie Ashe somehow tore a nail that would not quit bleeding, so add a $100 to the bill.

I have to admit there was a few times as I was writing checks that I wondered if pet ownership was worth all the bills, the worry, the extra work, the hair balls blowing across the floor, the hair all over my  clothes, the nights when I cant spread out in bed because someone is pressing on my feet......

But then I went to play agility, I can't run really well and my dogs are wicked fast, I was just doing some alphabet drills--but the feeling of working with my dogs and watching their joy made me smile and all excited inside.  I went to practice rally with Cricket and she is such a nut, she tries so hard-its not looking like real rally yet, but she works so well with me and she tries so hard that it just feels like we are a team and that is such a great feeling.  Later I let all the dogs out Skyler,  Breeze, Cricket, Liz, and Glee- (Ill tell you about her tomorrow, she's a visitor border collie girl), anyway, it was better then going to a movie watching them play together.  There are the mornings when I wake up and Cricket lays next to me and wants nothing more then to cuddle next to me.  You know where this is going- this whole month has reminded me that I am very lucky to be spending my life with these interesting creatures.  Those little simple moments during the day that the animals make me forget everything and just concentrate on simply enjoying the moment, that has to be what makes pet owners healthier and live longer then people who don't get to experience that escape.  Hopefully we can have a little quieter time, but looks like everyone is doing ok, well except poor Skyler.

As for Skyler we are running culture and sensitivities, and he is on another antibiotic, and some supplements, his xray showed some problems in his back so his tail doesn't work, and he is not getting great control of his bowel and bladder, which might be helping him get the urinary tract infections, but there was also some sort of mass that the vet couldn't palpate but we can see, that could be causing the blood he is still leaking, so any good thoughts for poor Skyler would be appreciated ;-).  


Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Lizzie my Nomination for the Naughtiest Dog of September

....sigh....I figured I would share the latest adventures of my little girl with the squirrely attitude....

You have to understand Lizzie is a special child, she has the best heart, and she is extremely well built, she is very healthy but as much as I adore her I have to admit she really is missing some screws.  Lizzie is 7 1/2 yrs old but she is like a puppy and I always have to keep in mind she needs protecting.  She is the only dog of mine that ABSOLUTELY can not be trusted loose when we are gone, in fact she can not be trusted in my room if the rest of the family is home but I am gone.  She has never been off leash reliable after MANY recall classes and almost daily recall work her whole life.  She just stresses and will run and I swear she doesn't hear anything except the little voices telling her to run.  She is a nut and panics a bit when I leave and will go wild getting into things and tearing things up-she really is like a naughty pup that has never really grown up.

During her latest adventures, I left for the gym, had a nice workout and got home and discovered a yellow cap on my bed, hummmm.  It hit me it looked like the cap from the HUGE COSTCO size vitamins that I had bought and left on the counter to be put away....my heart sank.  I looked and found an empty bottle in her bed, so I grabbed the little Lizard and Shoved some hydrogen peroxide and water down her throat to make her throw up while I was calling the emergency vet.  I have never been more scared especially when Lizzie started to throw up then started falling over and couldn't stand.  The vomit had some vitamins but I knew it was too clear and she had to have digested most of them, so off to the ER vet we went.

I had found another empty bottle of vitamins, seems my hubby had seen Lizzie walk out with an empty bottle and so just took the bottle and threw it away. The bad doggie had eaten a GIANT bottle of Calcium with vitamin D tummies, and a GIANT Costco bottle of gummie multivitamins with bone and mineral support-yep she was making sure her bones had plenty of calcium.  I can not believe I didn't think more about the bottle of vitamins before I left, but they were new, unopened, on the counter because I just had not put them away yet.

Anyway, her little gummy snack got her four 240 ml bottles of charcoal, one every eight hours to try to absorb some of the vitamin D in her system....and she got her blood tested to check the calcium level every 12 hours.  Not exactly as much fun as she had imagined I am sure.

Her little stunt cost me $500, a few sleepless nights, several trips back to the emergency vet, a rug that had to be thrown out when Lizzie threw up 200 cc of black charcoal that was never going to come out of the carpet, and of course I was the one that got to get all that charcoal down her.  Oh yea, then I did go down and invest in some really nice white steel boxes with keyed locks which is where all vitamins and medicines are now kept in the house-so we can add another $80 to the cost of the incident ;-).   The other consequence for poor Lizzie is that I put up an xpen in the kitchen and when I am out of the house and my hubby Bill is there she gets to go in the xpen with an open crate inside, the same set up I usually have for puppies-Oh Liz!

 The one thing that I was impressed with is that during the blood draws, and when the tech had to shove charcoal down her throat, during everything they did Lizzie was giving the vet and techs kisses and was the best behaved dog, the ER staff loved her.  Its a good thing Lizzie is such an awesome dog who loves everyone, that is definitely something she has going for her.


As if I had enough stress two days later Bill my hubby was standing in the open front door talking to a neighbor, I said three times, close the door, then of course bad Lizzie returned and bolted out the front door and took off down the street.  She was like the gingerbread man yelling you cant catch me.  It was awful....sigh.....it can be a full time job keeping a little Lizard type of dog safe.