I am a bad doggy mother ......

[Raglet]

Tuesday was the day to take Rachel (the doberman) to the vet for her nail trim and sore paw. Well, between the three of us (me, the vet, the vet's nurse) we got the job done, and Rachel doesn't hate us TOOOO much. She was also given an antibiotic injection and a anti-inflam injection for the sore paw (grazed pad, nothing too serious).

I mentioned that my other dog had been vomiting that day - nothing serious, Tommy has a totally depraved appetite and will eat ANYTHING he can find, so he does have occaisional bouts of vomiting. The vet said to feed him boiled rice and chicken, and bring him in if the vomiting continues.

Well, I went home and boiled up Tommy's chicken and rice, and he wolfed it down and looked for more. By the by, we had to stop feeding him out of a plastic bowl as he would eat his dinner then eat his bowl, but that is neither here nor there. Tommy spent the next two days eating like a king, until we realised that it was infact Rachel who was vomiting, not Tommy (who was scoffing the special diet). Poor old Rachel, it reminded me of the time I ran over Sammy the kitten then took Daisy the adult cat to the vet (another story I won't bore you with).

Anyway, poor old Rachel's foot wasn't getting any better - then suddenly on Friday night it was much worse. I was lucky to get an appointment with my vet the next morning. We argued for a while about what foot had the problem - the notes said the right foot, but by this stage Rachel is limping on her left, and we finally decided that both were infected, so that solved that one. Somehow she has swapped the foot she was limping on without me noticing, but then I have never known left from right anyway. But it also meant that i had been putting the cream on the wrong foot for some days ......... doh! Poor old Rachie has a nasty high temp, infected front feet, and that was all we thought was wrong.

Until I got her home and I happened to see the pads on her back feet and ouchie they were all infected too. But the antibiotics and cream will fix it all up, and hopefully she will be back in action very soon. She has an underlying allergic skin condition (severe atopia) so she is very prone to skin infection, but this is the first time she has had infected feet. I will have to let her skin specialist know, it was our local vet who treated her for this.

anyway, I THINK (hope, pray) that I am finally treating the right dog for the right thing and i am annointing ALL her feet just incase ..... it is DEFINITELY Rachel who is getting the oral antibiotics, and that is the main thing.

Geesh, sometimes I think maybe it wasn't such a good idea to go getting a second dog, but then we would be lost without our Tommy who was dog #2

love ya

raglet

[LoopyLoo]

I know I shouldn't laugh as I am such a dog lover but I think it's just the way you write Raglet.

Have you ever thought about writing a journal about your daily life? Trust me, you have a real talent for it.

I hope all pooches in your household recover from whatever soon :)

Hugs,

Pam xxx

[Maia]

Hope you can post an update to this soon that all is back to normal in your doggy household ;) Tommy is probably quite happy you thought it was him throwing up! And hope you get to feeling better yourself soon too of course.

This reminds me of a friend of mine that had two golden retrievers, and she would come home and find that one dog had an accident occasionally. The old dog always LOOKED so guilty that she always blamed him until one day she saw the younger dog actually doing the deed and then she felt horribly guilty for all those years where she gave the old dog some dirty looks! Even though he looked horribly guilty it wasn't him.

[Raglet]

Rachie woke up this morning (or rather I woke up this morning to discover) that her paws are bleeding. I found little droplets of blood on the floor, and tracked them back to Rachel.

So, I dug out the elizabethan collar (bucket thing) that Tommy had on his head when he hurt his foot, and stuck it on her head so she can't keep chewing on her feet. She is very depressed, looks absolutely miserable (she HATES these things, but her feet won't heal with all her chewing on them) and is hiding out under the house.

The collar is a size too big, I will get her a Rachel size one tomorrow, but meanwhile she will have to make do.

I am taking Tommy for a walk on his own tonight, which will feel very strange. I am used to having my two dogs with me. Actually I am just driving him to the dog park and letting him run, which is not very energetic for me.

I am doing better today, I think the antibiotics are helping finally. I just HAVE to get better, I really want to go to Wellington on Saturday (1 hours flight, just a short trip) for my friends birthday party and two days work). Fingers crossed it all works out.

Edited to add: I found some metacam (painkiller) that was rx-ed for Rachel for something else, and have dosed her up on that. She is looking a lot happier, and has eaten her dinner. Her poor sore paws hurt too much for me to put the cream on but she is getting the oral anti-b so I hope that will all be fine.

[Weese]

Raglet,

so how are the paws by now?

If my feet were infected and I had a cone around my neck I think I would appreciate the pain pills too :rotfl: If nothing else she wont mind all the other dogs laughing at her.

we are cat people but I understand the situation. More than once I had to soak fred's , my cat, foot in epsion salts after he got in fight with another furry guy. Have you ever tried to soak a cat's foot?:rotfl: :rotfl:
Needless to say we were both soaked everytime :rotfl:
Lisa

[Raglet]

omg, how on earth do you soak a cat's foot ? Geesh, I can just imagine the fuss and yowling my guys would make if I tried to soak their feet (I have three cats as well as a dog).

Rachel's feet are much better - thanks so much for asking. She herself would rather her afflictions are ignored, as she is always worried that I am about to put cream on her or give her an injection, she is such a worry wart. I am looking forward to taking both dogs out for a good run tomorrow night - i have just got back home from 4 days away, and i miss our nightly shenanigans (sp?)

cheers

Raglet