There’s been another new development in Rufus’s “tummy trouble” ordeal.

I just knew I’d jinx things when I posted on Thursday.  We had yet another bout of low grade fever, lethargy, no appetite, sad eyes and general malaise Friday evening.  He even spit out the treat I tried to give him.  I can not believe we are going through this again.

After a good night sleep, Rufus is up Saturday morning hungry, no fever and feeling better.  I take him out to potty and he doesnt poop, he strains a little, but nothing comes out and he quickly gives up. I find this odd, but dismiss it since he didnt eat his dinner the night before.  At this point I decide I am going to call the internist on Tuesday (holiday weekend) and make an appointment for him to have an ultrasound of his belly to hopefully get to the bottom of things once and for all or get some peace of mind.

Around 1:30 (30 min after my vet’s office closed) he goes back outside and has success… Yey for poop.  The poop is sort of orangeish and something green catches my eye so I take a closer look.  OMG there’s something in there!

What comes next is gross…. but if you are reading this, most likely you have a dog AND YOU KNOW you’ve done it at some point yourself so dont point fingers and judge…lol

I dig away a bit of the poop and OMG its a T. Marzetti’s Ranch dressing packet.  Are you kidding me?!  I immediately started wracking my brain trying to figure out when and how he could have gotten a hold of the dressing packet and eaten.  The only thing I could remember was a chicken sandwich I had from Wendy’s two weeks earlier!  OMG it was in there for two weeks! I remember they knocked the can off the counter when we were out one night, but never in a million years would I have thought they ate anything non-edible out of it.  That is not Rufus’s style to eat non-edibles… he’ll lick a package clean, but never would I have imagined he would have EATEN the entire thing!

Rufus has been absolutely fine since he pooped out the dressing packet. I spoke at length with his vet and she strongly believes this was the root of his issues and the limping (he only limped a few times) was a result of a soft tissue injury and coincidental to the foreign body. The symptoms fit with that diagnosis and she feels there is nothing sinister around the corner.

When we were first seen in the clinic her initial thought was a foreign body but it was dismissed when I was adamant there was no way he could have gotten something… boy was I wrong.

He was lucky he passed the packet and did not need surgery to remove it. It took about two weeks to pass.

I am trying not to jinx it, but I think we are now out of the woods.  Rufus has been completely fine for two days and I think I can breathe again.  Such drama.. It was hard to even write about it because I was so worried. Having said that, I didn’t want to detract from the celebration of Eris’s birthday, nor did I have a whole lot of answers.  I knew anything that I posted would be full of doom and gloom and probably just scare me more with the questions.  So here’s the skinny of last weekend’s roller coaster drama.

Thursday afternoon I went to the grocery store to pick up a few items for dinner with the family.  The girls were in their crates and they boys were left to their own devices freely roaming in the house.  First off, I left the blinds open in the front of the house which is a total no-no.  I came home to find Rufus limping a little, very guarded and looking pretty sad. So I assume that he has seen a dog walk by the window while I was gone, went nutters and wrenched his holder/elbow/leg sliding across the hardwood floors. He isn’t even interested in the birthday cake I am photographing and cutting slices of.  He just lays in the doorway looking pathetic.  He does eat cake and his dinner ok, but doesn’t want to come upstairs for bed and it takes my son quite a bit of coaxing to finally get him to come up to bed. He gets up on the bed to snuggle and I notice his ears feel a little warm but don’t really think anything of it, just figure its warm upstairs.

Fast forward to Friday morning… I have to wake him up and when he gets up he stumbles, hesitates to go downstairs, refuses to eat and looks generally miserable.  I have to take the girls out on an errand and by the time I get back he is looking horrible.  He wont go outside and wont eat his breakfast.  I do get him to eat some cake though.. lol.  SO I call the vet and make an appointment to be seen at 3pm.  I need to wait til my son is home from school so he can help me get Rufus in and out of the dog mobile.

At the vet he was not limping and his spirits seemed much better so it was difficult for the vet to figure out what was going on with him.  At first she didnt seem too concerned and figured he’d just wrenched something until the tech reported he had a 104°F fever and no apparent source of infection.  She gave him a complete and thorough exam including an internal rectal exam… ick - poor baby.  No lymph nodes enlarged, he has some arthritis and and his abdomen felt fine but still no idea why he was sick.  Her first thoughts went to bone cancer and she ordered a complete blood panel and urinalysis. She sent me home with no meds and expecting the worst (the dreaded “c” word was tossed around way too much for my liking).  She didn’t want to give him anything in case his liver or kidneys were failing and would not tolerate the meds she wanted to prescribe.  We go home, he seems in better spirits for a bit then goes down hill again.  Fever stays at 104° and he doesn’t want dinner. He refuses to get up off his bed and stays there most of the night looking pathetic.

He had a pretty miserable night, was very hot and panting - fever was still 104°. I cranked up the AC and cooled things down and made sure he had a bowl of water in my bathroom. This morning he was still absolutely pathetic looking. He stumbled a little getting up and was still favoring his leg a little, but his temp has come down a bit, he went outside and did both his business, but not interested in food at all - is drinking water though.

First thing Saturday morning the vet calls and reports all his bloods came back normal WHOO HOO! She says at this point she says she is not concerned about cancer since all readings are completely normal, including the urinalysis… so no infection at all either??? She thinks its a virus and we have just caught it mid course.  She says she’ll leave some meds for me at the front counter and he can have some pepsid for his tummy. (he can have 1.5 20mg non-chewable tablet 1xday).  I am to monitor his temp and if it goes back up again he will need to be seen for IV fluids and she will start an antibiotic to prevent any secondary infection that may arise. At this point his temp has come down to 103.2°F  WHEW… I am really relieved!

We head over to the vet to pick up the meds and stop at Tim Hortons for timbits (Rufus’s favorite) and he wouldn’t touch them.  His fever is still high and he looks pitiful.  We get back home and he heads back over to his pillow and lays down.  The morning progresses and he gets worse and worse. His eyes are sunken in, his fever spikes back up to 103.9 and looks basically like death warmed over.  He didnt want to eat, drink or get up. He was still running a fever.

Since the vet had told me that if he isnt feeling any better to call her before 1:00 to discuss. At 12:45 I called because his fever had spiked again, he was panting so hard and couldn’t cool down. He was very lethargic and refused food, water and basically wouldn’t move. She starts in with the “C” word again…. “we dont know why his fever is… take him to the internist on Monday or to the emergency vet for an ultrasound of his abdomen” whwhwhwhat?! At that point I am totally freaking out again.

So she calls in an antibiotic prescription to Kroger and tells me to put rubbing alcohol on his pads (dogs sweat through their feet, the only place they sweat, and the evaporation of the alcohol will cool him down quicker) give him the pepsid and continue to monitor his temp.

Fast forward 40 min at Kroger… he is standing by the door waiting on me when I get home, wagging his tail - no limping or favoring. I take his temp, its down to 101.0° and hes up moving looking a little less pathetic. They anti inflammatory must be working. He eats with a little coaxing and actually wrestles with Brutus for a few minutes then goes and lays down on his Karma Charms bed. By 6:00 his fever is back up to 102.3° and bed time it’s 102.9° hes a little lethargic and his eyes still look bad. He eats dinner after i put a few spoon fulls of veggie soup on it and mix it up. He goes up stairs with out coaxing and isnt hesitant on the stairs at all.

Sunday morning he looks normal. I gave him rimadyl just a a precaution.  His eyes are bright, wagging tail, normal temp, ate breakfast with out any coaxing, ran outside and danced around for belly rubs from the neighbor kids, just happy oh AND THE BIG ONE… he barked and whined at the door when I took Brutus out. He felt too bad to care whether B was outside with me or not… At that point we are over the worst of it. THEN… Tuesday he isnt real interested in food and his fever spikes up to 103.0°F again.  His eyes looked bad and he’s lethargic. UGGG - not again!

He has been fine since, eating, drinking and just being Rufus.  And in a nutshell, that’s the ups and downs of my roller coaster weekend!

Paws crossed we are done with this nasty virus.

Wordless Wednesday Hera Style

My chocolate girly turned 8 years old on the 14th.  Happy “belated” Birthday Fatty Fat-Fat!  While we actually celebrated on her birthday its been a really rough week at the Dogs’ Life and apologize for not sharing the festivities.  I’ll save the drama for the next post and just focus on Eris’s birthday in this one.

So my girly turned 8 and we decided to celebrate with a bone cake from the Three Dog Bakery in the short north.  It just opened a few months ago and we got the heads up when we went to the Columbus Pet Expo.  They had a booth and were handing out fliers.  They make the most fabulous birthday cakes for dogs in several flavors.  We went with a traditional Large peanut butter bone cake.

There was plenty of cake for all the dogs to have a good sized slab and plenty left over for treats.  We even took Eris’s new Aussie pal Tucker a piece.  Eris is so thoughtful and generous… lol.

I would like to thank Gene M and Linda P for being Eris’s guardian angels and helping her out of her puppy mill hell and guiding her to me.  Thank goodness that chapter of her life was closed and she has never had to look back.  Happy birthday Eris!

First off, I hope everyone had a wonderful mother’s day. Most people forget that those of us with four legged critters deserve mother’s day swag for all the energy we invest raising our fur babies too.  My husband has been really good about getting me cards and misc. gifts for my birthday and Christmas from the dogs. But this year… I bought my own mother’s day gift for from the dogs.  I bought a “green” dog bed from Karma Charms!

Saturday the eagerly awaited new bed Duvet came! I chose the red “Bird on a Wire” because I thought it would liven up the room a little. I wasn’t expecting it to be so big, even though I saw one at the expo…. love it! I went through the closets and pulled out all the old clothes that didn’t fit and some old bedding, but its still not full!

So far they have all tried it out and have given it a two paws up. The fabric is really thick and heavy duty. I also got the stuff sack so I could fill it up and the stuff would stay in place. There are SEVERAL tshirts, old pillow cases, a couple sweat shirts and an old comforter in there now. With the gusseted sides it has the ability to really expand and hold alot of hand me downs. I am going to have to hit the thrift stores or yard sales for old comforters… lol  Its an awesome GREEN buy!

You know that black plastic garbage bag you have in the back of your closet - The one that is full of old clothes you have been meaning to take to Good Will for two years.  The one full of the clothes that are too stained and torn and worn for the Salvation Army to even put out on the racks and will most likely make a beeline straight to the landfill…  Why not Recycle those old clothes and fill your next dog bed with them.  Not only are you keeping the extra rubbish out of the dump but you are able to Reuse it.

Still on the fence? Here’s yet another excellent reason to buy a fillable duvet - dog beds get stinky and dirty pretty quickly and they are darn near impossible to clean.  And what if the dog has an accident on it?  You are left pretty much tossing it in the trash creating more waste.  Since the Molly Mutts Duvet is filled with your clothing and blankets, you can easily remove the “stuffing”, toss it in the washing machine and restuff it -  viola! To be honest, that was the clincher for me.  I cant tell you how many bed I have tossed over the years because they get so icky and were too big to put in the washing machine or it was full of wood chips and fluff that wouldn’t hold up in the wash.

The beds come in 4 patterns (Karma Charms owner advises a 5th pattern will be launching shortly) and three sizes.  The Small (available by special order) is 22″x27″x5″, the medium size is 27″x36″x5″ and costs $30.00 for the duvet only, The large size (what I bought) is 36″x45″x5″ and costs $40.00.  The stuff sack is $13.00 for the medium and $15.00 for the large, small available by special order.  While the stuff sack is not an absolute necessity, it keeps the items “neat and easy to handle”.  I have the stuff sack with mine and certainly recommend it, it does prevent the clothes from getting bunched up inside the duvet.

Remember our Bark Park Buddies Courtney (the owner of Big Baroo) with Jack and Greta? Here’s a picture of Jack the Great Pyrenees on his “Large” Molly Mutts Duvet in the “Your Hand in Mine” pattern.  I think I’m going for this pattern next.

Tomorrow is Eris’s 8th Birthday.  I just ordered her a cake from Three Dog Bakery.  They now have one in town - how exciting.

Yesterday I had to photograph a house for a Realtor.  They were putting it back on the market and the pictures in the brochure from last time were pretty bad so the Realtor hired me to get some shots.  While I was there I was greeted by their adorable Iggy (Italian Greyhound), Cracker.  A first she was a little skittish and wasn’t sure why on earth I was in her house moving around her things.  The owners asked me to take a few shots of Cracker.  By the end she even came up and gave me a kiss. I hope she likes them.

¡Olé! ¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Growing up in the desert southwest, I celebrated Cinco de Mayo every year… but is not just an excuse to eat Mexican food and drink beer or margaritas.  Cinco de Mayo is referred to as Mexican Independence Day here in the states, but this is not the case.  Mexican Independence (the countries most important patriotic holiday) is actually September 16th…. so what is Cinco de Mayo then?

The actual significance of Cinco de Mayo, or the 5th of May, is the commemoration of the out numbered and ill equipped Mexican army defeating the French army (who had not been defeated in 50 years) at the Battle of Puebla on May 5th, 1862. Cinco de Mayo is not an obligatory Mexican National holiday and celebrated regionally in Puebla, Mexico and various other locations.  It is celebrated in the US and other parts of the world as a Mexican heritage/pride day… with margarita drinking and tacos.

Although I am not of Mexican decent, I grew up 40 miles from the border of Mexico in Arizona where there is a great deal of Mexican cultural influence (remember Arizona did not become a state until 1912).  I consider myself a cactus flower transplanted in the Midwest.. I miss home, alot!

So for a little piece of home the boys and I have decided to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, Saint Bernard style. ¡Olé!

Rufus looks like he is plotting his revenge and Brutus, the indignity… lol

I’m really excited about the boy’s Cinco de Mayo Collars, I had them made by none other than the fabulous Sew Crazy Dog Lady.  They are black sporting red and green chili’s with a festive southwest flair.  They have been wearing them for a week or so now, I was just too excited about them to let them sit in their collar drawer any longer.  Their drawer is full… I think they need their own armoire for their fashion accessorries and shoes… yes, they have shoes!

They even had a cute little Puppy Piñata!  I should have gotten the larger 8″ plush size, but the company sent me the small 4″ plush size.  The tiny one actually worked out pretty good.  I had my doubts at first, but they were able to get the treats out with out tearing it up, which is good.

The puppy piñata, Poncho, is a plush blue dog wearing a cute little sombrero.  He comes in two sizes, 4″ (small/medium dogs) and 8″ (dogs over 25 pounds) and instead of stuffing, it is filled with beef jerky treats.  The back has a velcro strip so you can refill the pinata with your dogs favorite treats over and over.  My Saints we dumbfounded and couldn’t quite figure out how to get the treats out and lost interest pretty quickly.  But the labradors… they LOVE it!  I cant even tell you how many times I have refilled them (I have 2 pinatas).  I was a little surprised to find one in my bed last night.  Apparently Apollo decided he was going to hide in my bedroom and enjoy his treasure in the peace and comfort of my bed! I am definitely going to try out the bigger size next time.

Now I can safely say “I’ve seen it all” thanks to an online site one of my readers, Peter, forwarded to me - Thanks Peter! I must say that I got a good chuckle!

Tails and Company is an online upscale boutique catering to the posh dog and cat.  The color scheme and design is reminiscent of Tiffany and Company, and so are some of the prices…. While the majority of the items are reasonably priced there are a few that are out of this world. I wonder if they even sell the outrageously expensive items or if they are conversation starters.  And if they do sell them, who in the heck buys them? I am always looking for novel and fun things for my dogs, and yes I spoil them more than I should.  BUT…. I cant imagine spending $1,700.00 (yes that’s american and dollars) on a chinchilla fur coat, yet there it is available for purchase along with a $1,000.00 Swarovski crystal dog bowl and $15,000.00 dog mansion.  I cant say much about the $170.00 dog collar because it does seem within reason .

At first I wasn’t sure if it was real… the advertisements that is.  A photoshopping job?  Marketing ploy?  I cant imagine the billboards can be real, but hey if they are, they sure are clever and I bet they do their job and will get noticed. Photos from their site:

Crystal bowls and fur coats aside… they do have some really cute and novel products on their site that are reasonably priced.  I really like the awesome collar of the month idea… for $220 they will send you a brand new fancy collar every month here

And this is absolutely adorable!  I am going to order one for my gang… A detachable roast chicken, brilliant - here

Yey! They carry my favorite bumpers ever - Katie’s Bumpers and at a great price too.  Apollo LOVES these - here

They even have a wide selection of Ruffwear items for sale.  Happy Shopping!