Pets

 I'm posting this on this blog - one I haven't posted to in more than 13 years! - because I want to talk about something and don't want the person it's about to see it.

 

A friend of mine has had a rough time with her pets recently.  One of her cats got sick back in October.  It turns out he had a tumor behind his eye and he didn't survive it.

 

Then in late December another one of her cats got sick.  She initially thought he was still mourning the death of the other cat.  When she took him into the vet she was told they thought he too had a tumor.  A series of tests showed that wasn't the case - he only had an ear infection.  But, during the tests they discovered he also had a heart condition, something they didn't previously know.  Between the sedation for the tests and the antibiotics, the can got backed up.  He wouldn't eat.  After a couple of days of him not eating, she took him back to the vet.  They decided to give him fluids.  A serious mistake for a cat with a heart condition because his heart couldn't pump out the fluids like it normally would.  So the vet said they needed to do something (I can't remember exactly right now what it was) to force the fluids out.  Whatever it was that they did was a fatal mistake.  Her cat started having seizures, followed by cardiac arrest.  They revived him once but he didn't survive the second heart event.  And all he had was an ear infection.

 

Well, a couple of weeks ago they took their third cat to the vet for a scratch on her nose.  It seemed to be getting infected.  During the exam the vet thought they felt a lump and did a bunch of testing.  Several things were found on the test.  Most were benign but she did have cancer of the lymphatic system - a terminal diagnosis.  My friend told me that she may only have weeks or months left if left untreated.  But, if they do an aggressive chemo treatment, she may add six months to her life.

 

My friend didn't ask for my advice but I offered it anyway.  I tried to steer her away from the chemo treatment if it wasn't going to do more than she told me because otherwise, in my opinion, she was just putting her cat through torture and making the quality of life her cat lived in the meantime worse than it would be. 

She's doing chemo anyway. 

Over the weekend her cat was throwing up and not eating.  This is pre-chemo treatment - the cat has not had any chemo yet.  She took him back to the vet who, after doing tests, says the cat has pancreatitis that needs to be treated before she does chemo.  She's going to contact the oncologist to see if they agree and do whatever the oncologist - who makes no money until they start treatment - says to do.

I hate that my friend is going through this but I wish she wouldn't put her cat through anything more than is necessary because the end result will be the same and will likely make the cat's last days more of a nightmare than they already will be.  I think she will regret it later.

Don't get me wrong, I know she wants what's best for her pets. And I know I would move heaven and earth for mine so I get why she's doing it.  I just think she's too close to the situation to consider the toll it will take on her cat when the result will be the same.

I hope I'm wrong and that the cat will do well and recover nicely, I just fear it's not likely.

New / Old Vets

Well, it looks like I'm going back to my old vet with my dogs. I think I may have mentioned that my changing vets had nothing to do with being disappointed in my vet, but rather how far my vet was.

Anyway, I was a bit bothered by the fact that when I took Brewsky in, the new vet (and her staff) couldn't keep his name straight. Plus, when I scheduled Harley for his neutering surgery, they scheduled it a month out.

Okay fine. Then there was the dog food scare. Initially it wasn't clear to me exactly what was being recalled. I knew IAMS food was (which is what I feed my dogs) but was it wet food or dry food or both? All the news reports, and even the distributor's webpage, showed dog food bowls with DRY dog food. So, what was the deal?

An online article said there were 23 (I think) states the tainted food was delivered to. Texas was not among them, although Walmart, Kroger and some other food store all were on the list. Did I need to be worried? Didn't know. I called my local Walmart (where I buy their food) and they are buying back the recalled food. Not a good sign.

I finally called my vet - the new one - and asked them what they know. The conversation went like this.

Me: Yes, I'm calling about the dog food recall.
Them: No, no. It's cat food that's being recalled.
Me: Uh, the news reports are saying dog food is being recalled too.
Them: We don't sell the dog food that's being recalled.
Me: Ooooookay. I didn't buy my dog food from you. I'm trying to find out what dog foods are affected by the recall.
Them: We don't sell the dog food that's being recalled.
Me: Yes, I understand that. But can you tell me about the dog foods that are being recalled?
Them: We only know about the foods we sell that are being recalled. And we don't sell any dog food that's being recalled.
Me: So you can't answer any questions about the dog food being recalled?
Them: No.

I don't know about you but that left me with a bad feeling. It came across like their only concern was their liability in the matter - not the well-being of other animals that might be affected.

Then comes today. I'm still wanting to give them the benefit of the doubt, right? Tomorrow is supposed to be when Harley gets his "no bitch can blame me if she gets knocked up" surgery. Well, I've been sick and I wanted to be sure that it wouldn't impact Harley adversely. Would he be more susceptible to illness immediately following surgery? I called my new vet to ask, you know, since they hadn't called me to remind me of the surgery.

They didn't know. They didn't know! But they want me to go ahead and bring him in for the surgery anyway. I cancelled and asked for their next appointment. She says, "We schedule these things a month out. The next available time I can fit him in is (I hear her flipping pages) May 1."

I said, "You can't see him before then? That's your first appointment."

"No. Well, there's an opening tomorrow. (the one I just cancelled, in case you didn't catch that) Or May 1. What do you want to do?"

"I think I want to go back to my old vet." (Yes, I actually said that.)

"Oh, okay. So you're cancelling tomorrow then?"

"Yes."

"Okay, bye!"

So I called my old vet and said I wanted to bring Harley in to be neutered. They could fit him in tomorrow. Tomorrow! Not next month, not in May - TOMORROW! Which, okay, wasn't going to work for the same reason I wanted to cancel the appointment with the vet closer to home but I wasn't being put off and I know he's a busy vet (although he seems to be having a lot of turnover with his staff and I had to give my name no less than three times! when I called).

Anyway, I explained that I'd been sick and asked if he had anything available for next week. And he does. Harley's getting his sexual reassignment surgery next Tuesday, with my new, used to be old, vet.

Yes I'll be driving a lot further to get this done but you know, it's worth the drive to have the confidence in the person caring for your babies. That's all I'm going to say.

Leash Laws

There is a reason we have leash laws - so people can control their pets!

Personally, I have no problem with someone letting their dog run loose PROVIDED at least one of the following two conditions apply.

1. The dog remains in their own yard, and/or
2. The owner can and DOES control their dog if they are outside of their own yard.

I took Max into the front yard this afternoon when I went to get my mail and bring in my trash can. We go out through the garage so I can't see what's out there before we head out and Max goes out first. We do this all the time. I know that's probably not the best situation (Max going first, that is) but we haven't had a problem...until today.

We get outside and there is a young girl riding her bike with her young dog following along. Our two dogs see each other and go to greet each other. No problem so far, right?

Well, I notice that hair on Max's back goes up - never a good sign - so I went over to restrain him. And maybe it's my restraining him that brings this on but he became "aggressive" Max at that time - which of course scared the young girl.

I, calmly (at least the first time anyway), asked her to get her dog. All she did was call him. He obviously hasn't been trained because he totally ignored her. I get that, he was just doing what dogs do. But meanwhile, Max is working up to serious aggression and he's 110+ pounds so restraining him was not easy.

I asked her (not as calmly) several more times to get her dog and all she did was call him. I finally yelled at her to get off her bike and get her dog! She did once and the dog seemed to be willing to follow her but I told her to grab his collar. She didn't and the dog took off - towards Max. She went back to her bike so I told her, again, to get off her bike and get her dog. This time she started to get off her bike when the dog came up to Max again, causing him to appear mean (he really is a sweet dog...really!) again so she ran back to her bike and rode off, leaving her dog behind.

I finally grabbed Max's front paws and "walked" him (kicking and screaming mind you) back into the house. When I went back out to get the mail and trash can, the girl was long gone but her dog was still in my yard.

I'll say it again, if you cannot control your dog, you should not allow them out of your yard without a leash. It's the law!

Okay, rant officially over.

My baby is NOT fat!

I took Brewsky to the vet today. All he needed was his toe nails clipped (but he needed that bad!) and his anal glands expressed - he isn't sick or anything, and it's not shot time for another month.

Anyway, I recently made the decision to change vets. I'm not unhappy with the one I've been going to but he's so far away. It takes a good 30 - 45 minutes to drive to his office, if there's no traffic. So I decided to try one that a friend of mine - who I trust completely when it comes to pet decisions - uses.

I wasn't all that impressed. She (nor her staff) could keep his name straight. They kept calling him Harley. Why, I have no idea. This was our first visit and Brewsky had an appointment. Seemed like a no brainer to me, but what do I know?

She also mentioned that he needed to lose a couple of pounds. While I agree it wouldn't hurt, nobody likes to be hear someone else say their baby is fat. We discussed what I feed my dogs (although I forgot to mention the canned dog food) and she said the extra calories would be coming from the milkbone dog biscuits I give them (Max is overweight too).

I give them the large dog (because they are large dogs) milkbone treats. She said I needed to bump them down to the small dog treats - no more than two per day - until they lose the weight.

They have two of the large treats before I leave for work every morning and she wants me to cut them back to two small ones - per day!

Something tells me that before this is all over, Harley won't be the only one feeding on the furniture.

*sigh*

It's Called a Vacation, Harley

My workday schedule starts with the alarm going off at 4:30. I'll hit the snooze button every nine minutes for around an hour and then get up. That's my routine.

Well, Harley has decided that if I don't get up by 5:30 (even if the alarm doesn't go off), he needs to wake me.

That's on weekdays. On weekends he seems to have a bit more sympathy for my sleeping in (until about 6:00 or so anyway).

Anyway, I took today off, because we're having such wonderful weather here (nobody should have to work when it's this nice outside!), and decided not to set my alarm (even though I wanted to get up fairly early). Harley decided I wasn't waking early enough so he started his early morning bark/jump on the bed routine.

Apparently he doesn't like to see my lazy (vacationing!) ass wasting daylight.

Hope everyone is enjoying beautiful weather wherever they are. Have a wonderful weekend!

Bed Hopping

I have no less than four beds in my master bedroom, only one of which is made for humans (although, the one bed I MADE for the boys is rather long and could reasonably be used by a human, it was intended for the boys).

One is cubbied in between the bed and a window. Another is in front of a window but more out in the open. The third is cubbied between the bed and the other wall (I'd put a bed there because Max likes to sleep there when the weather is bad or he's a bit uncomfortable).

None of them were intended for any specific dog (unlike their dog bowls which are, kind of) but it's funny how it works each night. Each night as we go to bed, the first dog in the room takes the cubbied bed by the window. The next dog in takes the uncubbied bed by the window and the third dog, after a long-suffering sigh, takes the cubbied, windowless bed. Which dog initially gets which bed varies nightly. What's funny is that, regardless of how the night started out, when I wake in the morning - without fail - the dogs sleep in this way...

Brewsky has the cubbied bed by the window. Harley has the uncubbied window bed. And Max has the cubbied, windowless bed. Without fail.

I'm sure it's the location of the bed they covet and not the actual bed because two mostly identical (if you don't count the Harley damage to "Brewsky's" bed). But it would be interesting to find out. Maybe I'll move their beds around and see what happens.

If that goes well, I'll move around their bowls. All in the name of science and research, of course. LOL

Congratulations, it’s a puppy!

I recently “adopted” a new puppy. New, as in to me. He’s actually somewhere between eight to ten months old - which still qualifies as a puppy.

But we’re not talking about a little puppy. No, last month he weighed in at sixty pounds and, by the size of his feet, he’s far from being done growing. Definitely gonna be a big dog. Which means lots of adjustments have to be made. (Apparently by me...not him.)

I can no longer keep things out that I used to. The trash is never safe. Furniture isn’t safe. Walls aren’t safe.

Seriously.

With that in mind, here is my list of top ten signs you know there is a puppy in the house...

10. If you look out in the backyard and think “hmmm, that kind of looks like my black bra”.
9. You go in the backyard and realize it WAS your black bra (“was” being the operative word in that sentence).
8. “Personal space” is a thing of the past....even in the restroom.
7. You’re on a first name basis with the phone repair man.
6. The phone repair man no longer believes that an “unknown critter” keeps eating through the phone line.
5. You’ve rearranged your furniture so that company doesn’t see the new whole in the back of the sofa.
4. You can’t remember what sitting alone in your favorite chair is like.
3. It only takes the length of a (short) shower for your house to be destroyed.
2. Door-to-door salesmen leave you alone because they can’t yell above the barking.

and the number one way you can tell a puppy is in residence is.....

1. When you lose your water pressure your first thought is “oh crap. What’d he do now?”


What would your list look like?