Heart Like a Dog

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

Stud Tail

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Samspon’s had a bald spot on his tail for quite a while now.  At first I thought it might be a lick granuloma, but I’ve never seem him pick at it.  Last week I noticed it was bleeding a little and then it scabbed over.  Sampson had an appointment with the vet yesterday to get his Leptospirosis vaccine and I planned on discussing it with Dr. Soutter.

Here’s how it went down.

This dog cracks me up.  As soon as we walk into the vet’s office, he “Roo, Roo, Roos” so loud the entire office knows he’s there.  Cecelia gets on the phone and alerts the back, “Sampson has just announced his arrival.”

Within a minute, Shannon comes out to weigh Sampson and bring him into the exam room. Sampson weights in at 84 pounds.  This means he has lost a pound in two weeks.  A bit concerning to me, but no-one else seems bothered by it.

When Dr. Soutter enters the room Sampson smiles from ear to ear as she scratches his tummy.  I tell her I’m concerned about that spot on his tail.  She takes one look at it and says, “Oh, that’s stud tail  I don’t know why they call it that.”  Basically it’s a gland in the tail that somehow becomes blocked.  It causes changes to the tail, hardening of the skin and loss of fur.  

Typically it’s not treated unless it becomes infected.  (However I did consult with Dr. Google and discovered there is a particular shampoo you can use that they say will clear it up.   I’ll keep you posted on that one.)

Dr. Soutter gave him his vaccine and we left to check out.  I hooked Sampson up at the hitch while I settled the bill when suddenly I heard, “Roo, Roo, Roo” again.  Sampson had seen his favorite vet tech, Emily.

After their little love fest, we are on our way back home.

I love you Emily. I love you too Sampson.

I love you Emily. I love you too Sampson. You aren’t bothered by my Stud Tail are you?  Definitely not, it’s very cute on you.

Have you ever heard of Stud Tail?  From what I’ve googled, it seems there’s a ton of websites regarding cats and stud tail but very few sites dedicated to dogs with stud tail.

Reminder, the Dumb Ass Dog Owners blog hop is open until next Sunday.  Mary and I hope you will share your stories of dumb assery and link up to the hop.

Did you thank a vet? No, I thought you did it.

Did you thank a vet? No, I thought you did it.

Don’t worry Sampson and Delilah, I’ve got that covered.

I’d like to thank all our service men and women who sacrifice so much to protect our rights and freedoms.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!!

Happy Veteran’s Day!!

If It’s Not One Thing…..

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Some days I swear Delilah is either out to kill me, or out to kill herself.

Saturday she ate raisins!  One would think I don’t watch my dogs, but in fact I do, which is how I caught her before she’d ingested too many.  

All told, I think she only got about 10.

All told, I think she only got about 10.

I was downstairs helping my mom figure something out and didn’t realize there was a box of raisins within her reach.  Delilah is not a sneaky dog, and her enthusiastic slurping sounds alerted me.

The emergency vet advised I should induce vomiting and I did.  Within 10 minutes of eating them, I had them out.  I was fairly certain she’d gotten them all up.  

The emergency vet said I could bring her in to hook her up to an IV but after talking to my vet, I decided to keep her at home with me.   Since Sampson was scheduled for his annual exam yesterday, my vet requested I bring Delilah along so she could check her kidney levels.

Typically I schedule the dog’s appointments for the evening so Hubby can go with, but for some reason I scheduled Sampson’s for early morning.  Which meant I was on my own with the two nuts.

Why must you always call us names? You're a mean one Mama. You give the Grinch a run for his money.

Why must you always call us names? You’re a mean one Mama. You give the Grinch a run for his money.

First things first, the weigh in.  Sampson weighed in at just under 86 pounds, which is perfect!  The vet does not want him to lose anymore weight!  All told he’s lost 25 pounds since we started his weight loss journey.

Then came the examination.  My poor Bubby has a dead tooth.  Dr. Soutter said the blood vessel in his tooth exploded and the tooth is done.   It will need to be removed.  Right now she doesn’t think it’s bothering him, but eventually it will.  I feel badly because I hadn’t noticed the tooth until she pointed it out.

 

Mama....pwease stwop puwing my wip.

Mama….pwease stwop puwing my wip.

I’m not sure if you can tell from the photo, but it’s an upper tooth and it’s gray. 🙁

Sampson’s definitely got some arthritis in his inured leg, and his Ilio Psoas muscle is still tight.  Otherwise he is in good shape.  It was also the year for his rabies vaccine, which he had.  I held off on his Leptosporosis vaccine and will schedule that in a couple of weeks.

Then it was Delilah’s turn.  The blood draw went very well and Dr. Soutter should call me with the results later today.  She’s also checking her liver levels so we can get an idea if we are on the right track or not.

I asked Dr Soutter to check their nails and while she was trimming Delilah’s, Delilah yipped.  We were all surprised because the clipper wasn’t close to the quick.  Dr. Soutter waited a few seconds and went back to trim that nail again and Delilah snapped at her.  That has never, ever happened before.  

I requested the nail clipping be stopped and Dr. Soutter released Delilah AFTER she had relaxed.  She explained that you can train a dog to react to the nail clipping.  Ah, I snapped and it stopped, so the next time I’ll snap again.  By giving her time to relax, with Dr. Soutter holding her foot, she is learning when she is calm, it will stop.  Poor thing, she practically flew to me once she was released. I’m not sure what to make of this, I trim her nails at home all the time with no issues.  She does have some scarring on her feet from her previous life and she is kitchy if you move your foot fast near her feet or while she’s sleeping and I’m wondering if it had anything to do with the fact that a vet tech was holding her and she couldn’t see what was going on. 

So after the nail trimming was stopped we headed to check out.  Our vet’s office has a container with treats on the counter, right next to the business cards.  I made the mistake of hitching Delilah up on the side of the counter with the treats.  She stood up to try and open the treat container and knocked the business cards onto the floor.  After I’d picked them up, I asked if it would be okay if I put the dogs in the car before settling the bill.

I opened the door and as luck would have it, there was a couple coming in with a small dog.  Both my dogs darted for the dog, Sampson to greet the dog and people and Delilah, well I’m thinking at the way she was barking she wanted to eat that dog!  It dawned on me right then and there that she’s not fond of small dogs.

Thankfully I kept my wits and got the dogs back inside and as soon as it was safe, I brought them out to the car. Sadly by the time I got back inside the couple with the small dog had already been shown into an exam room so I didn’t get a chance to apologize.

 I will keep you posted on the liver/kidney values but the one good thing I learned from the raisin incident is not all dogs have toxicity reactions to raisins/grapes.

 Has your dog ever ingested a potentially toxic ingredient?  What did you do?

That’s a Wrap Folks….

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Can you believe 51 days has passed since the Caring for Critters Round Robin started on September 1st?

Courtesy of Jen Dehaan from Pizels.

Courtesy of Jen DeHaan from Found Pixel.

First and foremost  I’d like to thank EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. of you that contributed to this great project.  They say it takes a village to raise a child, and I say it takes a Community to keep our pets healthy. Your enthusiasm and participation made it so much better than I ever imagined!  All told we had 37 bloggers produce 51 posts!  Holy woof!!

Today the last scheduled post in the Round Robin is up on Cascadian Nomads blog.

Please note I said “SCHEDULED” post as I am more than happy to continue to add health related posts to the Community page.  Just let me know when you’re posting and I’ll make sure to add the link.

Speaking of the Community page, have you checked it out?  It is so awesome and every post is so amazing, chock full of great information and tips.  

I'm certain there's one about me in there.

I’m certain there’s one about me in there. She does so love to write about me.

There are posts about so many different injuries, illnesses, diseases.  There are even tips about challenges faced by senior pets as well as tips to help you prepare for emergency vet visits while traveling. 

I hope you will never need this page, but if you do, I can assure you whichever post you are looking at the participating blogger would be very happy to answer questions and provide support should you need it.

If you are a contributing blogger, your posts are listed in the order in which they were posted. I’ve tried to summarize the content of the post in a couple of sentences and have provided links that lead directly to that post.  If you’d be so kind as to check out the page, find your post and review the summary, then let me know if there’s anyt wording you’d like changed.  

Thank you all again, I’m so honored and humbled to have such an amazing turnout.

Jodi

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