Dog tired.
It's been a tough week at work. Eight nights in a row, 'cause Dan is out in Burbank California getting his daughter settled into her new job there. Three nights in a row I had three flights, and one night
I had four. Work like this means I normally come home, check my email, then quickly roll over to get my mandatory 10 hours of rest. But Monday was special...
Yogi was still "whole". A little internet study suggested the best time to get him "snipped" might be before he reached puberty... around 5 months of age, and that meant getting it done like... NOW.
We scheduled his procedure on Monday. I was to drop him off at the Vet at 0830 hours.
Backstory:
Our neighbor two doors down had taken his Newfoundland/Labrador mix to this same Vet for this same procedure six months ago.
Later in the day he got the "I'm sorry, something terrible has happened" phone call. I'm sure that with dogs, like people, administering general anesthetic is serious business. When I handed Yogi over to the Vet's assistant my neighbor's experience weighed heavily on my mind, and I was a little misty-eyed watching him disappear through the door, head craned around to watch me 'til he disappeared.
I went home and slept fitfully.
Thankfully, all went well and by the time I was ready for work that evening Yogi was home, already irritating Lucy.
Two days later I'm home from work and ready to hit the hay with no worries of having to get up for work later. Yogi is back to normal. Both dogs watch and follow as I head upstairs to bed.
I wake an hour later to-
Yeeup... YeeeUP... YEEEEUPPP!
Lucy is retching.
I grab her, sleepily leap from the bed, and deposit her in the bathtub where she vomits a four inch circle of coral colored liquid. She has a weak stomach and this is not out of the ordinary for her. I pick her up to keep her from re-ingesting the mess... (WHY DO DOGS DO THAT?!), rinse it down the drain and return to bed.
I'm no sooner back to sleep than I get a rerun...
Yeeup... YeeeUP! Feet hit the floor, grab her, race to the tub.
Once again she vomits. This time it is BLOOD RED.
DAMN! Now what?
My mind races... what could cause this?
Poison?
Something else she ate?
A medical problem?
I call Sara Jean and inquire... "Do you have any idea why?"
"No. But you get to sleep and if she does it again call me and I'll come home and take her to the Vet."
Thankfully Lucy settles in. She's acting normal now... no more vomiting.
I think I have it figured out...
Two weeks ago I bought some special treats...
Rawhide chews with a marrow-like filling that is bright red. Lucy loves the things and attacks them with vigor. But apparently they don't sit well with her. We'll have to watch her more closely with them.
I woke yesterday afternoon to find I had left the bathroom door open and Yogi had entertained himself with the toilet paper roll.
Do you have any idea how much floor space a full roll of "Charmin Ultra" can cover if it's shredded into bite-sized pieces?
It was like it had snowed in the bedroom.
6 comments:
Unfortunately, I've found out the hard way exactly how much area a roll (or 2 or 3 or 4) cover.
We've had to move our roll storage to a high place so that our Wiemaraner, Rachel, can't get to them!
Greybeard . . You're going to get a lot of dog stories. Everybody's had some kind of gut wrenching experience over a favored dog. An they're all true. The wife and I have two long haired weiner dogs. One calm and beautiful. The other a 100% agitated untrainable twit with a big mouth. The darn twit unrolled the charmin last night. And proceeded to tear it piece by piece. Sound familiar?
Rudy got mad at us one night because we came home, let him out to potty, then went out to eat. He tore up the seats of one of my new recliners. That dinner cost me $395, plus tip.
Ah, yes. Toilet paper snow. I remember those days. Now, the one with the problem with the TP is my Siamese cat, Max. No holder for it in my bathroom so it normal sits on the edge of the tub. Max, however takes that as a personal affront. He jumps into the tub, crouches down and glares at it, and then, quick as lightening, bats it off. It's funny too watch.
As for the rawhide chews - I don't give them to my dog because they can cause digestion problems. They can actually swell and cause blockage. Just FYI.
cjh
Sounds like a normal household with pets GB. What a day for you.
It brings up so many memories.
After spending almost 7 years working for vets, I have found when it comes to chews. Several breeds, especially small breeds, have to have a time limit on access to them. Too much chewing tends to over stimulate them and thus the puking begins.
As for the Toliet paper, well, that is just too much fun for them. Animals due tend to entertain themselves when left alone and TP is just too much of a temptation.
The TP issue has two aspects - is the chewing and playing mostly mouth time? Learn to keep the door closed. Is it, instead, a case of paw work? Run the paper over the top and down the back side - no matter how much pawing goes on, it stays on the roll.
But, if the chewing is directly on the roll, then the door needs to stay shut.
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