Scary Story!

 

This little weasel (aka Robin the (sometimes) Good) gave us quite the scare yesterday and we're not entirely out of the woods yet. As is typical, Robin ate, I fed Neko (with Robin's help) and then we retire upstairs to join Bob and look at the news on the Internet. Robin always get a Kong (*1). So we're drinking coffee and looking at the idiotic things that rethuglicans are puling on about when I turn to Bob and say, "Where's Robin?" She had obviously finished the Kong and had debarked to other parts.

I walked downstairs and Lo!! The muffins I had placed on the counter to thaw for breakfast has mysteriously disappeared. Robin was looking guilty and sort of slunk off into the living room, I took three more muffins out of the freezer. (In all fairness, she had left us one muffin) 

About twenty minutes later, it occurred to me that these were bran muffins... with RAISINS which we all know are poisonous to dogs. I took out my phone and gooogled just how toxic are they... turns out VERY!! Like 1 raisin for ten pounds of dog! Like I know Robin consumed more than 6 raisins!!

So I call our vet and they advise to give her a teaspoon of hydrogen peroxide 3% every 15 minutes until she throws up. Anyone want to guess how hard that is? I think I managed to get like a drop of peroxide in her mouth and a bunch all over my face and hands (She wasn't having it). So off to the vet's we went; me hoping that Robin would simply puke in the car as she hates car rides anyway but no go.

I wind up waiting at the vet's for over two hours as they try (unsucessfully) induce vomiting. (*2) I sat with Robin, thinking maybe seeing me would help her hurl in unfamiliar surroundings. Still nothing. So the vet then takes Robin back into an exam room and they stuff her full of charcoal, which apparently helps absorb any toxins, which she will then throw up. They instruct me that when she throws up, it will be a big, fat, nasty, gooey, black mess.

Which it was because three minutes after returning home, Robin hurled copiously all over the living room rug. Personally? I was simply glad she had expelled the offending food (*3). I examined it (yes, that's what dog owners do!) and it looked pretty undigested so I'm at least mostly sure she got rid of everything in her.

Today, she seems fine. She ate with gusto (nothing off our counter), ran around outside, pooped an "interesting" black turd (more charcoal!) and seems fine. She is due to return for a follow-up exam on Saturday to check her blood for abnormal readings. I told her today that those were the world's most expensive muffins: $300 for three muffins!!!

(*1) A large-ish rubber thing that looks like some sort of sex toy that you fill with broken up dog biscuits and peanut butter. Robin is a serious fan of her morning Kong!! Keeps her "busy" for about three minutes...

(*2) Interesting fact: I noticed Robin's eyes were really red and the vet explained the vomit-inducing medication is administered through eye drops! Who would think this?!!?!? It apparently gets absorbed really quickly through the conjunctiva! Weird!

(*3) Lots of it! Breakfast! A Kong! Three muffins!! The dog is NOT starving!!

Dog Dreams

Robin does sleep in elaborate and seemingly uncomfortable contorted poses, wedging herself in a space next to my side of the bed and flinging her legs akimbo. She often has one leg thrown across her face in dramatic fashion... quite the diva! And this little diva has a Urinary Tract Infection!

I thought she was suffering from blocked anal glands when I took her to the vet last Wednesday. She had been dragging her butt on the floor and had rubbed a good deal of hair off her tail (which I didn't really notice until I looked an older picture of her and noticed her tail lookd skinny). They "expressed" them (half full) in a professional manner- oh! Yes! I watched several dazzling Youtube videos on the correct fashion in which to empty dog anal glands but found it not at all easy to locate "two grape sized glands at five and seven o'clock; lift and squeeze". Needless to say, Lil' Robin the Good was deeply disturbed by all of the attention to her back side and spent the next several days with her tail clamped tightly down and spinning if I approached her from the rear, as if to say , "Oh no you don't!"
I was less than impressed with the "new vet" who was on duty that Wednesday that we visited the office. I sometimes think that there's a conspiracy to make vets more like people doctors: they're now very quick to recommend expensive tests and lab work and x-rays. The vet I had been going to for years was much more common sense and was really a nice guy. His son has inherited the practice and is very "yuppie" in his up-selling approach. I suppose they did (expensively) redesign the waiting rooms and exam offices and have to pay for all that antique woodwork somehow! Like when Robin was taking a course of antibiotics for a tick-borne disease this spring. Vet Junior proscribed a "pro-biotic" for Robin... sort of like when I take acidophilus while on Doxycycline to keep my gut moving. I went along with it and then was flabbergasted to see Robin's pro-biotics were waaaaaaaaaaaaaay more costly than the antibiotics and possibly irrelevant. I had actually asked Vet Senior this same question years ago when Frank the Dog was under treatment for Lyme disease. He scoffed and said, "Look your dog is probably picking up all kinds of bacteria from eating animal poop and the like. His gut bacteria is just fine." Doctor knows best.

(There's Robin now, wondering what all the fuss is about. And enjoying the mess that she has helped to create. Way to go Robin!)
Many friends have reported similar experiences with their vets: a rush to tests and much more aggressive interventions, without better results. Friends have dogs on chemotherapy and long term diabetes treatment. It's pretty appalling that our four legged friends are suffering the same debilitating chronic conditions that we do! (Bad diet, awful breeding of "purebreds" with congenital disorders, stupid ill advised medical procedures like spaying and neutering... don't get me started! Much of this is avoidable). And I know several friends who have sprung for very expensive pet health care plans. I read the fine points of a few of these plans and was less than impressed with what was covered for the cost; many of the larger bills are not covered.
So Robin seems fine; ironically her urine test came back negative.... but she's also not waking me up at 2:00 am to go out and pee so maybe she had a very low-grade infection. I've had the same! Symptoms but a negative test. And Robin looks great- very shiny and in good weight and she has more energy than the average dog (although she is far from average!!) so I'm certain her prognosis is good. Long live Robin the Good!