More Excuses

There's another reason we haven't been blogging for a couple weeks and it's a biggie. Fudge has been sick and I mean really sick.

It started two weeks ago in the middle of the night, of course. Fudge was restless. Then he peed in the house, something he never does. I cleaned up and took him outside but when we went back to bed, he continued to pant heavily and pace around the room.

I took him out again and he tried to pee, but nothing happened. A couple hours later I decided to take all the dogs to the back yard. As he ran thru the garage to the back door, Fudge was peeing and when I started to clean up, I saw that there was blood. A lot of blood.

As soon as the clinic opened I called Dr B. He wanted a sample of Fudge's first pee the next morning and wanted me to catch it in a baggie so that it didn't get contaminated. He wanted to send it off to the lab for a culture. That day Fudge had several accidents in the house. He'd start running for the door, but couldn't make it in time. He was getting very upset.

The next morning Fudge woke at 4AM. I wrapped a towel around him to get him to the door and grabbed the baggie. It was dark and it was raining and lightning was flashing all around. I wanted to catch some pee in the bag but I wasn't very hopeful.

I caught a little but when we got to the clinic, they said it was just enough. They sent it to the lab and we had to wait four days for the results. Fudge was having a really bad time. Rob and I took him outside every hour day and night, but even then we had to wrap him with a towel to get him to the door. Once he peed on the porch and hid behind the chair. I tried to be reassuring but he hated what was happening.

On Tuesday morning Dr B called, the results were in. Fudge has a urinary tract infection caused by e-coli. Yikes! To say I was upset is a real understatement. I had flashbacks to news reports of people dying of e-coli after eating a hamburger. How did he get this, what were his chances and what did it mean for the other dogs?

Dr B knows me too well and he knew exactly the thoughts that would start going thru my head. He was ready with answers. There are many strains of e-coli, some deadly, some less so. Some are drug resistant, some respond well to drugs.

Fudge has the least deadly type of e-coli and it responds to a number of different antibiotics. He said it didn't come from eating bad meat or drinking bad water, it's just an overgrowth of the normal e-coli in his body. The other dogs should all be OK as they also all have normal e-coli in their bodies.

We started Fudge on antibiotics immediately. Because he has a very high bacteria count in his urine, he'll need to take them for a  full two weeks. After two days on the antibiotics he was able to control his urination again and we don't have to rush to the door every hour. We're still making sue he goes out every couple hours during the day and last thing at night. He's now able to sleep thru the night and I don't have to keep a towel handy to wrap around him. He's much happier. At the end of his antibiotics, we'll retest to make sure the infection is gone.

Then, suddenly one morning Bailey started vomiting. After the vomiting stopped, she developed diarrhea. I was busy caring for her when suddenly Lola started vomiting. Next she also had diarrhea. I called the vet and asked if this was related to Fudge's problem but he thought it was something entirely different and told me how to handle it with medication and special diets. Two days later, just as the two girls were starting to feel better, it was Noah's turn. I put him on the same special diet and finally after a week of vomit and messy poops, they all seem to be on the mend.

 Who knows what happened. Maybe they ate something they shouldn't have, maybe it's just the stress of constant thunder and lightning for two weeks. Maybe it's something else altogether.

Don't dismiss the effects of stress. I haven't had a full night's sleep in two weeks. I know I'm not thinking as clearly as normal. I know my appetite is way off and that my temper can flare up quickly. Stress can do lots of damage. We're all hoping for a night without thunder soon. It would make us all feel better.

Fudge is doing a little better each day, but a little Power of the Paw sure wouldn't hurt.

Excuses

I promised I'd let you know why we haven't been around much in the last couple weeks. You may have already guessed one reason. If you've been watching the news, you may already know that Missouri is flooded. Except for a couple days it's been raining for two weeks.

I don't mean nice gentle spring showers that bring May flowers, I mean torrential downpours accompanied by thunder and lightning all day and all night. When we'd detect a lessening in the rain, we'd rush the dogs outside, but often we'd get caught as the rain started up again.

We're all somewhat damp and our nerves are frazzled from the thunder, but our house isn't in the flood zone. Some cities were cut off with all roads in and out completely under water. Here are pictures of Branson.

 It's true we've had droughts for the last several summers, but getting all the rain at once doesn't exactly solve the problem. Hey, all you climate deniers out there, come here and try living in our rainforest with nine antsy dogs.

 At least everything is bright green in the yard and this bush that hasn't bloomed in two years is alive with flowers now. We may need a goat to keep up with the rapidly growing grass.

 Check back in July when our yard will probably be bare of grass and cracking from the hot sun. Isn't this fun?

What A Month # Chewy Influencer

We haven't been around for a couple weeks, but this time we had good reasons. You'll have to wait till our next post to hear them, because today is the last day of April and we have a Chewy review that needs to get posted. This month we decided to try Nutro Grain Free Seasonal Fish and Potato Recipe.

I've heard of Nutro but we've never tried their products before. This recipe is made with only five key ingredients and contains no chicken, no beef, no dairy, no soy, no artificial flavors or preservatives. My first impression was that there was no strong offensive smell, more important to me than to the dogs, and the food has a nice soft consistency, easy to mix with their kibble.

My volunteer taste testers this month were Tess, Norma jean and Sydney.

The three girls thought this food was wonderful.

 Mackey, who had already eaten, was standing next to me as I prepared the bowls for the three testers. She lifted her nose to smell the Nutro food and refused to move from that spot. She wanted some and she wasn't going to leave till she got some. I had to carry her out of the room and promise she could have some the next day.

My dogs think Nutro is great and we will surely try it again in the future.

We received a case of Nutro Seasonal Fish and Potato food from Chewy at no cost to us in exchange for our honest review.

Happy Easter and Chewy Review

Welcome to our 22nd annual Easter biscuit hunt. Since this is also a Chewy review, I'll be honest and disclose that we held the hunt on Friday. Today we're having thunder storms with tons of rain.

We started our hunts in the living room of our townhouse in Maryland when we had three dogs. It's been fun for them and for us and we've learned a lot about how the dogs think. Over the years we've hidden lots of different goodies, (disclosure # 2, we've never hidden eggs). We've used regular dog biscuits and one of our favorites, Charlee Bear treats. They both worked well. When the pups were little we used baby carrots and last year because of the boys bad tummies, we used chunks of sweet potato. The only thing that didn't work for us was cheese balls. Apparently they have little  or no smell and the dogs couldn't see them in the grass. We had to point them out.

This year because Fudge, Sebastian and Mackey are on diets, we chose puppy sized Milk Bone biscuits. If they were lucky enough to find them, there weren't a ton of calories to upset the diets.

 We  held a preliminary hunt for Sydney and Sebastian. Syd doesn't play well with others and I wanted to avoid tensions. Sebastian moves at a slow pace and though he can find the biscuits, he usually gets beaten to them by the faster dogs. Rob and I hid the biscuits, some obvious and some well hidden.

Then we let Syd and Sebastian out. I needed to show a biscuit to Sebastian to let him know what to do, but then he went around looking for treasure by himself. Syd was a gobbling machine. She may be nuts but she isn't stupid and she knew instantly what to do. She cleaned up.

 Then we put those two inside and hid more biscuits. We made this hunt harder. Again we put a few in plain sight, then really made them work for the prizes.

 I was amazed that they knew immediately what was going on. After scarfing up the first few obvious ones, they spread out to look for hidden biscuits.

 Some worked in groups.

 Bailey likes to work alone, naturally.

Mackey jumped on the roof of the tower dog house to see if there were any up there. There were.

 Tess, who used to have to be led to each biscuit, now knows exactly what to do and even thought to check inside the tower. She was right.

Fudge isn't as fast as he used to be, but he found his share.

Finally the last biscuits were eaten. A few hours later it was dinner time and I'd planned for it. It's not unusual on special days for dogs, or peeps, to overindulge and sometimes tummy aches are the result. Because some of the pack had consumed a lot of biscuits, dinner was simple. Everyone got straight kibble with no exciting toppers, except one. On each bowl of kibble I sprinkled some Solid Gold SeaMeal.

For the past few years we've used FortiFlora as a probiotic. If someone is feeling poorly they get it every meal, otherwise we use it weekly for maintenance. This time we decided to try Seameal because I was intrigued by the ingredients. It's made with red, green and brown seaweed for vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. It also contains flaxseed for omega fatty acids. It promotes digestive health, good coat and skin and boosts the immune system.

 The dogs just thought it tasted great. Eight of them licked up the very last grain of SeaMeal when the kibble was gone.

Disclosure #3: Sebastian did not like the SeaMeal. He doesn't always like to try new things and I usually work them into his diet gradually. I don't know how he did it, but he managed to push all the SeaMeal to one side of his bowl and ate just the kibble. The girls were happy to lick up the SeaMeal that he left behind. I think if I disguise it better for a few days he'll get used to it.

The SeaMeal worked nicely. The Water Dogs loved the fishiness and nobody had an upset tummy that night.

If you're thinking about trying a treat hunt, all the goodies I've mentioned here, Milkbones, Charlee Bears, FortiFlora and of course SeaMeal are available from Chewy. They'll even deliver them right to your door, so you can just have fun.

Disclosure #4: Chewy sent us the jar of Solid Gold SeaMeal Supplement for dogs and cats at no cost to us in exchange for our honest review.

Henry's Happy Ending

Ready for a story with a happy ending? When we moved here 18 years ago we were happy to learn that the Dickerson Park Zoo was only two miles from our house. We became members soon after settling in and visited often. About a year later Rob and I decided to sponsor a couple animals as  our Valentine's  gifts to each other. He chose a warthog and I chose Henry the Hippo.

Let me tell you a little about Henry. He was born in the San Francisco Zoo on August 29, 1981. When he was about seven months old he came to Dickerson Park Zoo to live with an older woman, Patsy. They had five calves together. One was stillborn, three died shortly after birth and one survived. He went to another zoo when he was old enough to leave his parents.

Unfortunately, Patsy died  after a few years and Henry lived all alone in his little enclosure.

 Last year at age 34, Henry's life turned around. The Cincinnati zoo built a beautiful new hippo cove. When it was finished, they brought in a 17 year old female hippo named Bibi from the St Louis Zoo. Then they sent for Henry.

                                                             Bibi
Dickerson Park Zoo had a big going away party for Henry, then he made the trip to Cincinnati to meet his new partner. The keepers said that Henry seemed more interested in food at first, but that changed.

Soon after his arrival, the announcement came that Bibi and Henry were expecting in March of 2017. Little Baby Fiona had other ideas. She arrived on January 24 and was very tiny, for a hippo. She had to be taken from her parents and raised by human caretakers. She was too small to eat or walk or swim by herself.

 We were getting weekly reports on her condition until last week when we saw a video of her climbing a ramp to get into her pool all by herself.

Henry is a happy hippo now with a big new enclosure and a family to share his days with.

In honor of baby Fiona, I made this and am calling her Fiona.

 How's that for a happy ending?