Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Follow-Up Friday

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For those new to the blog, my follow-up Friday provides me with an opportunity to update or revise a post from the previous week.

You know sometimes you post about something and you need an update but it doesn’t warrant a whole blog.  Or sometimes someone made a comment that really resonated with you.  Yup, Follow-Up Friday baby!

Be The Dog – Author’s Note

I think this started with Lena West’s “You can do it now or NOW.”  I sat down to write a witty blog post about how Lena had motivated me and boom!  There it was, “Be The Dog.”

I love it.  Be The Dog.

I could see the tee-shirts, bumper stickers, speaking engagements (why not, it’s my fantasy.) 🙂

Then I checked the trademark office and the saying is trademarked.

Boo.  Hiss.

I’m still working out the kinks on this one, so hold tight.

No-One Calls My Dog A Behemoth! – Author’s Note

I should have been clear in the post.  Delilah came to us from a rescue.   The vet who originally examined her said she was spayed.  The rescue took the vet’s word because….well you should trust your vet.

As soon as I realized she was in heat, I contacted the rescue.  Originally they agreed to pay $125.00 which is the normal fee they paid their vets for spaying.

Delilah’s spaying was $325.00.  They told me it was so high because she was a big dog, had already had a litter of puppies and she still had a lot of the pregnancy fat that they had to go through to spay her.

Delilah’s adoption fee was $375.00 and here we were three months later shelling out another $325.00 making her a $700.00 dog.  So much for rescuing I thought.

But the rescue ponied up the entire $325.00.  The vet’s office faxed over the bill and we had a check in hand within a matter of days.

I was not upset with the rescue, they received the wrong information and they made it right.  You can’t ask for much more than that.

As for that vet from hell, well a short time later I received a notice that the owner had sold the practice and it was under new ownership.  By this time I already had my new vet who I love.

Just like the previous owner, I left that practice and never looked back.

My blog was pretty focused on  “Just Be The Dog”  this past week, so that’s it for my Follow-Up Friday. 🙂

Have an awesome weekend.

 

No-One Calls My Dog A Behemoth!

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Kari from Hound Girl had a post this morning entitled, “Breaking up with your vet.”  I started writing my comment and realized I had an entire post.

Once upon a time, I broke up with my vet.  Here’s how it happened.

We used the same vet for Sampson that we had used with our previous dog, Roxanne.

After Delilah joined our pack I had a bad experience with our vet.  Delilah went into heat three months after joining us.  I was stunned as the rescue group had presented her as having been spayed.

We discussed with the vet when is the best time to spay Delilah and decided to wait a couple of months after she had finished her cycle.

We were in the process of buying our current house and scheduled it so Delilah would be fixed and come home to the new house.

The day of the closing dawned and as much as it pained me, I couldn’t give Delilah any breakfast.  I was very worried about how this would affect her, since she is such a food hound, but she survived it.  I dropped her off at the vet and then Sampson off at daycare and headed back to the house to pack up our bedroom.

In short fashion the vet’s office called saying Delilah’s urine test came back indicating a urinary tract infection and they couldn’t do the surgery.

Could I come and get her.

I couldn’t.  I literally was in the middle of moving.  In retrospect there was probably something I could have done, but in that moment I couldn’t think.

After lots of yelling on my part, I finally convinced them to give her some food and water, Hubby picked her up on his way to the new house after the closing and we rescheduled the surgery for after she’d completed her round of antibiotics.

We scheduled the surgery for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  We knew the vet’s office would keep her overnight and we would be home with her for the next four days.

I remember being upset with the vet for not letting her come home the day of the surgery, the vet said she had to stay quiet so as not to tear her stitches.  I asked if someone was staying with her and they said no.   At this point I felt she would be better off with me, who would stay with her throughout the night and even share a bed with her.  But they said no.

I swear upon all that is holy that what I’m about to write is the God’s Honest Truth.  When the vet called me after the surgery she said she had to cut Delilah “from stem to stern” that there was a lot of fat in there because she’d apparently had a litter of puppies and she called her a “behemoth.”

Her poor belly. She ended up with the stitches irritating her and slightly infected.

I don’t know how you feel about this, personally I can call my dog anything I want, but NO-ONE, especially a vet calls my dog a behemoth.  I don’t care if my dog is 50 pounds overweight, YOU don’t get to call her names.

When we went for the follow-up visit the vet said to her vet tech, “This was my spay from hell.”

OMFG are you kidding me?

I didn’t say anything, I was too stunned.  But I did make sure to have the vet squeeze Delilah’s glands and Delilah let her know emphatically that she was out of line in doing so.  The vet commented on how hard Delilah was squeezing her back-end around the vet’s finger.  I can almost guarantee she was channeling my anger.

A short time later, Sampson had an appointment with the owner of the practice and I brought my concern of the unprofessional vet to his attention.

It was a while ago and I can’t remember what he said, but it didn’t appease me.  So I switched vets.

I love my current vet.  She is holistic, she answers any questions I have and is very honest with me about what vaccines she feels the dogs should have.  I have recommended her to anyone who has asked and will continue to do so.

When Delilah was having her episodes, they were very open to anything and everything and had no problem consulting with outside vets at my request.

If they hadn’t been open to alternative treatments Delilah would more than likely be on medication for epilepsy right now.

You’d change Dr.’s if you weren’t satisfied with yours, right?  Don’t be afraid to change vets if you aren’t happy with the care you are getting for your pet.

Just Be The Dog.

It Won't Kill Them To Miss A Day

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But it might kill them if you walk them.

That’s the conversation I had with Hubby last night about walking the dogs today.  Let me just say that Hubby’s not that big on walking the dogs.  Most days I walk them myself, in the park/woods at the top of our street.  Some days he will join us, but most times when I ask (even on the weekends) he prefers not to do it.  If I have a day where I can’t walk them at lunch or after work, I will ask him to walk around the block with me after dinner.   Most times he does this reluctantly.  It is only about an 18 minute walk, but it’s better than nothing.

Yesterday was the first day of summer and the eastern half of the country kicked it off in a big, hot, way.   Here in New England it reached into the upper 90’s and it was extremely humid.  Too hot even for my little grandson to start his first day of baseball. 🙁

There was no way I was going to walk the dogs at lunch.  I debated going to work late and walking them early but in the end decided to shoot for an around the block walk, after dinner.

We ventured out about 8:40 pm and it was still hot, so hot that both dogs were panting half-way thru the walk.  Back into the air conditioning we headed.  Delilah was still panting an hour later.

About 10 PM the dogs headed out for a last potty break before bed.  When I opened the door, it was still like opening an oven door.  I have no idea what the temperature was but it was ugly.

Once everyone was settled in bed, I debated our exercise for today.  Temperatures are expected to reach the high 90’s if not into the 100’s.  Since my niece is graduating from High School at 6:00 pm my choices for walking the dogs are very limited.  There is NO WAY I would walk them in the heat of the day, which leaves later in the evening with Mr. Reluctant or first thing this morning.

As the opening lines read, Mr. Reluctant feels it won’t hurt them to miss a day of exercise.

I disagree.

I opted for a quick 20 minute walk first thing this morning.  We were at the park at 6:40 am, and it was already 73 degrees outside.  Both dogs were panting by the end of the 20 minute walk, so we went home and I had them lie in the bedroom with the air conditioning on to help cool them off, and wait for their tummies to settle before getting their breakfast.

I’m not sure what time we’ll be back from graduation tonight so eating their breakfast a little late will work to my/their benefit, and I figure when I get home I can work a little with them on training.  Specifically Delilah on her drop it command.

I’m pretty sure she ate part of a potato in the field this morning.

How do you make adjustments to your exercise schedule when the weather just isn’t cooperating?

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