Successful Amputation

This little guy named "Pinkie" is an all-time favorite, picked up at the Houston shows almost 2 years ago. He was invaluable in keeping a then 7 month old Sydney occupied and happy during a very busy show. I was working about 13 hour days all three days of that show. Thank goodness for Pinkie and his 8 legs, each with a squeaker, his rattle and squeaker head, and his crinkle-filled body.

Pinkie is a special guy (and washable too), not to be taken into the corner and chewed on. He's brought out for special bonding time and training and games of fetch. Last night, apparently Big Nick was able to retrieve Pinkie from the top of the kitchen counter, and within 5 minutes (it's always a matter of "Where's Nick? If I don't see him, he's likely up to no good!), I found a gory mess of fuzz and squeaker.

Quickly, I determined that Pinkie would require an emergency amputation to stop the loss of fuzz and squeak. It was the only option, lose the leg, or lose Pinkie altogether. What's a mother to do? Well, I performed the emergency amputation on the spot, and was able to stem the fuzz loss. Sadly, the squeaker from that leg could not be saved, it had squeaked it's last squeak at the mercy of Nick's strong teeth.

I am happy to report that Pinkie's smile looks just as happy today, with only 7 1/2 legs, as it did before the "accident." I just hope his octupus friends don't make fun of him. Syd was quite relieved at the positive outcome for her special friend, and I think she'll forgive Nick in time.

Wordless Wednesday

2nd Trial-NOT the Charm

Oh dear. Friday Kane was a zippy Cardigan, enjoying his time in the limelight on the Jumpers course. I'm not sure what happened between Friday and Sunday, but Sunday we were in Carthage, MO for Syd and Kane to run a Jumpers run. Kane was up first, and well, he finished the course with zero faults, but there was that little problem of him being 20 seconds OVER course time. ARGH! It was painful, and it all seemed like slow motion. Well, it was slow motion. haa. We got to the weave poles and he would go through one and look up at me, smiling his mesmerizing smile, oblivious to the clock I could practically hear ticking in my head! I finally said to him, "Kane, we're going to run out of time, buddy!" and I heard people laugh from the sidelines. Well, good, at least we provided about 110 seconds of quality entertainment for the crowd!

There were only THREE dogs in 8 inch class, and surprisingly, they were all Cardigans! (Hi Ned, the blue merle, if you're out there) So, I moved Kane to the front, and had to run to get Syd while Ned ran the course. Syd, as opposite as possible from Kane, ran that course faster than I've ever seen her run a course. I don't know who that dog was, but she worked well out from me, she seemed to know the course without me even telling her, and even when she popped out of the weaves twice and burned LOADS of time because I had to figure out what direction she needed to go through, she STILL finished a full 8 seconds under course time. I thought I saw smoke rising from her path. Unfortunately, with a jump, tunnel, jump to go, Syd took a nasty spill coming over the back of a jump after a very tight turn. She tried her best, but couldn't correct in time and took the jump more than late. She took out the jump and herself, which got a gasp from the spectators, but without blinking, she was up and in the tunnel, and finished the course to huge applause from those watching. After our run, people came up to me and said things like, "Neat dog!" and "Wow, she's fast, that's pretty cool!" So I wasn't imagining her performance on Sunday, she was running like a fast, seasoned pro! Too bad for the bars down, but I have no complaints, I was thrilled with her performance and very relieved to know she didn't hurt herself during her less-than-graceful crash! More about Syd's Friday in Des Moines over on her blog later.... and my course maps scanned as pdf files this time, so operator error with the scanner, I'll upload them as jpg images tonight. :-) I really liked the Novice JWW from Carthage on Sunday. And obviously Syd loved it too!

Not To Be Outdone By Sister Syd...

Not to be outdone by PS (Pesky Sister, or Pesky Syd, take your pick) and her 2nd place Q in her first Jumpers trial, Kane entered the agility ring for the first time in at least 6 years. I entered him in Novice Jumpers, and he qualified with zero faults, a perfect 100, and 1st place in his class. Congratulations, Senior Sassy Pants! First trial, first leg. :-) He did his very best to run fast, keep the bars up, and weave like he remembered them from all those years ago. Gosh I love this dog! So Kane says, "Take that Syd. You only got 2nd place in your first trial. I'll always be the Superstar in THIS family."
P.S. The second photo is from my phone. Until I uploaded it, I didn't realize Kane was all squinty-eyed. Um, it was nothing but grey and dreary outside, so I have no idea why kane looks like the sun was beaming into his eyes! Perhaps he's just a little dramatic. :-)

Gizmo's Plea...

"Carly, Come Back!!!"

Poor Gizzer, he never gets a moment of peace anymore. The puppy just loves him, and he does like to play with the youngsters, but at almost 13 years old, Uncle Gizzer needs a nap every now and then.

Tolerance

Nick and Gizzer had just settled in for a Sunday morning nap after a romp in the new snow. And along came THIS.

We Are Thankful for Great Veterinarians!

I just have to give a shout out and yet another THANK YOU to our favorite vets, Dr. Wingert (shown here with our buddy Bitsy) and Dr. Becker (below) at Independence Animal Hospital. I've been to several vet clinics over the years, and some I've liked, some I will never go back to. I started using Independence Animal Hospital about 6-7 years ago, and I can't imagine going anywhere else.

Our most recent visit to the clinic was last night. At about 10:30 last night, Kane all of a sudden looked like he swallowed a watermelon. No kidding, he looked like he had 10 puppies. He even had the skinny waistline because all the weight was dragging down to a bloated belly look. His gums were OK, his tummy squeaked a bit when I listened to it, and his temp was fine. He did not want to go outside, he just wanted to lay down. I thought he might be bloating, so I squeezed a phazyme onto his gums to see if that would help.

By 11:15, I knew I needed professional advice. I called the clinic, knowing there would be an on-call number posted on the machine. Dr. Wingert was on call last night, and he answered his phone on the second ring. I gave him the rundown, apologizing for the late call at the end of each sentence. He asked questions, and said he was concerned about the distended belly. I asked him if I should take Kane to one of the local emergency clinics. His response? "No, meet me at the clinic in 20 minutes so I can take a look at him myself." Most of the vet clinics in this area have an answering machine that directs people to one of the emergency clinics in town. There isn't a pager number or an on-call vet who knows you and your dog. It's only a voicemail referral to the high-dollar emergency clinic. Dr. Wingert appeared at the clinic, examined Kane, and he decided to snap a couple of xrays just to be sure everything was OK. His exam did not unearth anything terribly wrong with Kane, such as heart or kidney failure, fluid in the abdomen, or blockage. He didn't want to overlook something, and the xrays showed Kane with a ton of gas in his belly, but all else looked normal.

A shot of meds to help ease his discomfort was the total of the treatment required. I apologized profusely for not waiting until morning. Dr. Wingert said it was completely fine, and with the symptom of a distended/bloated belly, it could have been something bad. He said he knew that HE would sleep better knowing that Kane was OK, and that he didn't want to imagine what might have happened if I waited til morning and Kane had a life-threatening problem. He told me to call the clinic in the morning to let him know if Kane was doing better, or to just bring him in if he was not better.

We headed home shortly after midnight, and when we walked out the door, Dr. Wingert was already starting to check in on the overnight patients in the clinic, so I have no idea what time he got to go home. Kane is completely normal and back to his happy self this morning, and he doesn't really acknowledge or feel sorry that his mom got about zero sleep last night!

In the last few months, I've been into the clinic on a Saturday for one reason or another, and either Dr. Becker or Dr. Wingert want me to bring a dog back on Sunday for a re-check. When I showed up at the clinic on a recent Sunday morning during the time the Dr. Becker makes his rounds and checks hospital inpatients, I walked into a waiting room that was quite busy. Several people were there with their pets, waiting to see Dr. Becker. I teased him that he had to stop answering his phone, the waiting room looked like normal business hours. He smiled and said that he just hated for people not to have a vet available when they needed one, and he also hated to see people spend hundreds of dollars just to walk in the door of one of the emergency clinics.

Sometimes I take it for granted that I have such fantastic vets. But then when one of the dogs needs care outside of normal business hours, or I hear less than flattering things from people about their own vet clinic, it reminds me that my dogs (and Tigger the cat too!) are SO lucky to have the best.