Dog

Poor pup’s having a hard fall.  First TWO UTIs back to back (requiring a total of 3 trips to the vet), then a couple ticks which I had to have the vet tech remove cause I freaked out, then last Thursday he puked (never did determine WHY, but it appears to have been a once off so I’ll live), and in the vomit I discovered roundworms.  Yuck.  Sigh.  Friday morning I picked up a poo sample to bring to the vet for them to test, yes I probly coulda treated him myself, but I feel better having the vet double check my diagnosis, and for worms they don’t require an actual vet visit.  Friday evening I did my regular health check, handling, grooming session on him and discovered that there was an irritated patch on the inside of one of his ears.  It wasn’t huge, and he didn’t seem bothered by it, so I decided to keep an eye on it (plus getting into the vets on the weekend requires an emergency visit, which is painful).  Monday night the irritated patch had spread noticeably and he was itching at it rather vigorously.  Arg.  Called the vets Tuesday morning and they were able to fit him right in.  And now we have this goopy gell stuff to put on/in his ear. 

I guess its a good thing we put extra effort into getting him used to being handled in all sorts of ways, including his ears huh?

He doesn’t mind, its extra attention, which makes him wired all to hell no drugs required.

It was a new collar for Apollo (I know, like he doesn’t have enough right? anyway….).  I don’t normally pick UPS as the shipper of my choice.  Had some bad experiences with them while living in Syracuse, though the guys who deliver to the house here have never given us an issue.

Apollo of course alerts to the sound of the truck in the drive, and talk about an evil sounding bark (he makes the psychotic GSDs sound high pitched).  Out hops the driver, package in one hand, doggy treat in the other.  Apollo of course isn’t nearly as evil as he sounds and was perfectly happy to take said treat and lick the UPS guy as a, slobbery, thank you.  Did I mention he likes people?

Anyway, none of this is important but it reminded me of the story over at Lagniappe’s Lair about Murphy and the UPS guys treat.  Made me wonder if thats not standard now….probly not a bad idea if it isn’t!

and I shouldn’t have.  Took Apollo over to my brother-in-law’s today to play with their dogs.  I’ve posted video of him there before, though its been a while.  They’re the two dogs, one’s a 100lb mastiff/golden cross, the other is a 12lb shitz-shu.  Last time I posted video, he was about half the size of the larger dog.  We’ve been over there several times in between, but its been a month or so since the last time, and today it finally struck me how much he’s grown.  He barely weighs 100lbs himself, but he makes the large dog look small.  The difference was striking.  His size just hadn’t struck me before today, cause I’m so used to him.  But wow.  Poor Loki looked so small, and he was NOT amused at the fact that Apollo was bigger than him.  Apollo got reminded of his manners a couple times.  Rosebud, the shitz-shu, however still thinks Apollo’s the greatest playmate ever, the two of them play tag around the fenced yard at (Rosebud’s) top speed, having a blast.  Gotta remember the video camera next time!

So, Apollo has gathered an impressive collection of leashes and collars for a single dog.  1 30′ leash, 1 6′ leash, and 1 4′ leash, plus his prong collar which also needs to be stored between outdoors occasions and his spare collar for just in case.  So I went looking for a leash holder, or rack of some kind.  I knew they made them.  I wasn’t prepared for the prices on them.  $30 and up, usually very fancy, or with cute decorative carvings.  Totally not what I was looking for.

So today I went down to my local Lowes, and spent just under $19 in supplies, and then spent about an hour total between a single coat of stain on the wood (not counting dry time), and putting it all together and hanging it.

Gotta dig out the 6’leash and spare collar from wherever they wandered too, but I think I’m prepared now!

(couple of the hooks ended up not quite straight, and the whole thing ended up just a hair off level on the wall.  We’ll see how much it bugs me before I’ll bother to pull it down and fix it.)

In rut (since Tibetan Mastiffs only have one breeding season.  Techinically he’s fertile any time of the year, but breeding season is better). So far we’ve not had TO much trouble with the local bitches (though the psychotic GSD female almost got a visit the other day…..), but I HAVE noticed he’s smelling ALOT stronger than usual this past month.  As in, he got a bath early cause I couldn’t stand it any more.  It COULD just be the antibiotics he’s been on, or maybe he rolled in something extra pungent, but could it be the rut season too?  I tried Google, but since most domesticated dogs don’t have a true “breeding season” no one appeared to have an answer.  I suppose I could ask his breeder…..

Poor pup is suffering through his 2nd set of antibiotics after the UTI made a comeback.  Course, since it came back (or its sibling did anyway, different bacteria this time), the antibiotic this time is a stronger one.  We’re a bit worried by the fact that it came back, males (human or animal) are MUCH less prone to UTIs in the first place due to body structure (if you don’t get it go Google it, I’m not explaining the birds and the bees to you), and neither his line or his breed have a predisposition to them.  One happens, twice is worrysome.

Anyway, the new antibiotic is screwing with his system.  Both drying him out, and at the same time making him not hungry, and possibly mildly nauseous, so he’s drinking alot but barely eating.  Since he’s still a growing pup not eating much is extra not cool, so today I headed down to Petco and picked up a can of Puppy Gold.  His breeder recommended it to us when we first picked him up, but he’s been weaned off it for months and months now.  But he LOVED it, and it can be given as a liquid.  Picked up a package of raw boneless chicken breasts too.  Came home, chopped up a raw chicken breast into bite sizes, mixed it with a serving of Puppy Gold…..and he licked his bowl clean.  Just gave him a 2nd serving and he licked that bowl clean too.  Sweet.

Note: for anyone looking to buy Puppy Gold, unless you only need a little bit (such as we do right now) its MUCH cheaper to buy it in bulk, we got a huge bag from Amazon for something like half the price it would have been to buy that much by the 1lb can.

Disclaimer: I did not get paid, reimbursed, or even asked, to do this post, so the .GOV can go screw itself.