These are the "Dog Days of Summer". I've always thought that meant just hot humid days when even a dog didn't want to do much, but this year it's taken on a different meaning. I now think it means these are the days when my dogs are trying to drive me crazy. I think they're succeeding.
Where shall I start? You all know that a few weeks ago my four Portie girls had tummy upsets caused by an overload of fireworks. Well, the fireworks lasted ten days and since then we've had several loud lingering thunderstorms. Three of the girls are much improved but Sunday night Lola refused her dinner. When a Portuguese Water Dog refuses dinner you know there's a problem.
During the night Lola vomited a couple times and she refused to eat on Monday. Monday night she had bouts of vomiting again. On Tuesday she refused to eat her food or even take a treat. When she went outside with the others she just sat down in the shade and waited to come back in again. I remembered last night that I had one Cerenia tablet left from last fall. Cerenia prevents nausea, so I gave it to Lola and she slept thru the night. This morning she ate a handful of kibble, then we went to see Dr B. She had no fever, didn't exhibit pain when he poked and prodded her and was well hydrated, so we started her on Tylosin powder and Cerenia. She's getting several small meals throughout the day and tonight she ate without coaxing. We don't know what the cause is, but we suspect the noise is still bothering her.
Monday evening when I brought everyone inside from a runaround after dinner Bailey was limping. She came up to me, sat and presented her foot. I put her on the table and felt her foot and leg. I moved and flexed it and she didn't pull back so I didn't think it was anything more than a twist or sprain. I started her on Rimadyl and today she's running and playing with no sign of a limp. She'll take the pain pills for another day or two, then she should be good as new.
The two little girls are really putting extra effort into driving me nuts. In my lifetime I've had thirty dogs. I've never been unable to housetrain any of them, though a few were more stubborn that others. These two refuse to tell me consistently when they need to go outside. Rob and I take them out frequently both with the other dogs and by themselves, but they are still having accidents in the house. We've tried any number of methods to get them to tell us but none have worked. I'm having more trouble training these two than all eight Portie pups at once.
I was thinking about it last night and a lightbulb went on in my bran. I rummaged thru a drawer and found the old sleigh bells that we used to train Bentley, my first Portie. We kept them on the back door and Bentley would ring them to go out. We had a few false alarms when he wanted to go out to play but mostly they worked well. We also used them to train Lucy, Monty and Morgan.
Last night I hung the bells on the front door and each time we take Syd and Mac out we ring the bells first. Syd has actually rung them once today but Mac doesn't like them and it may take some extra time to condition her to ring them. Wish us luck.
Even the birds want to help drive me crazy. These four birds have lived happily together for over a year and they seem like pretty good friends. They spend most of their day singing and playing, but Monday afternoon Rob and I raced for the dining room when we heard screaming from the birdcage.
The green bird Stanley and the blue bird Caulder were beating up the small yellow bird Norris. They had him down and would have killed him if we hadn't intervened. We got them on their perches and covered them to calm them. I got the small cage ready in case we needed to separate them but they have been getting along since then. Fortunately Elwood stayed out of the fray and just watched from above. Bird fights are often deadly and I hope this doesn't happen again. All four birds are males so there aren't sex related jealousy issues, but we'll keep a close eye on them anyway.
Now it's not all bad. We have some good news, too. Sebastian started his diet three weeks ago today.
He's eating Hills Metabolic Diet, a new prescription diet. He went in and was measured and weighed, then his measurements were entered in a special program and they calculated his ideal weight, how much he should eat each day and gave us a graph showing how his weight loss should progress. I was skeptical and he's Dr B's first patient on this new program, but we decided to try it
On Monday Sebastian went for his first weigh in. He'd been on the diet for twelve days and I was astonished when the scales said he'd lost three pounds. He's actually eating more of this food than he did his other food so he's happy. He's still a couch potato but maybe as he drops the extra weight he'll find some new energy. So far we're all pleased.
I can hardly wait for end of the dog days. Snow is starting to sound like a terrific idea.
