Leave It

The poops may be gone for now... but who really knows, I'm sure they will be back.

This morning on our Saturday run, Mia met two dogs: Kevin and Ziggy. They are two little white pomeranians or something.  These are the kinds of dogs that typically give Mia a hard time, the really energetic small dogs that think they are in charge or much bigger than they really are.  Of course they were off leash in a playground and came charging at Mia.  I'm so proud of her for not barking or trying to charge back, she just waited for them to come over.  They played for a bit, and they weren't really playing very nice but it was fine.  I was almost tempted for a moment to let her off leash because they were running around and she couldn't really get as involved.  I think that if there are other dogs around she would just stay with them - Unless she saw something like a bird of a bunny or something, and then she'd chase it.  Maybe someday she can be off leash, but I should really just be happy that she's mostly healthy today!

Also, she learned a new trick at daycare during a training session.  The kids there taught my baby how to "leave it".  It's amazing!  They'll get her to sit, and they'll hold a treat and put it on the ground and say Leave It... and she will.  She won't even try to eat it, I'm Shocked and Awed.  Abe tried at home with her favorite toy and got the same result, she's so smart, she learned this in only a couple of days.  I really like that the new manager at her daycare does training sessions a few times a week with the dogs, I think that it really helps and is more productive than just having playtime.  Soon enough, she's going to be able to retrieve and pour beers for us... maybe.

The Pooping

I'm pretty sure that my poor dog has IBS. I've lost count as to how many times Mia has had a bought with diarrhea - cha cha cha. This is maybe the 4th or 5th time? All I know is that she had diarrhea yesterday a few times through the day, and then a bathroom emergency at 1:30am in the pouring rain - which was a total disaster in itself. Imagine buckets of rain coming down on you and your dog who is walking while in a poop squat all over the back yard and looking at you like she wants to annihilate something... and then you lock yourself out and she starts barking at the door because she's like: why won't you open the stupid door?! Yes, Abe is better at these bathroom emergencies than I am. Today when I picked her up at daycare, the poor kid working was like: Mia had really bad diarrhea today. I don't even know what to say to that... I'm a little mortified for her.  I'm also mortified that her gas is super loud and hilarious.

I guess we'll be going back to the boiled chicken breast and white rice?  We're currently in phase II of the parasite meds (they are given 3 weeks apart) from the last time she was sick so that may help, but who really knows.  I just want the poop to stop.  It needs to stop!!

A Tick Invasion

Mia has been in a mood lately.  She's feeling all sorts of clingy and attention seeking, but annoyed just as easily.  I'm pretty sure that we are boring her to death, but really how much time does one spend entertaining their pets?  We did our usual Saturday and Sunday runs in the morning - which she loves, she got some very special treats that took some time to eat, and there was a good amount of play time around the house.  She is never satisfied with the amount of play time.  She is just a really demanding girl sometimes.

Last night, I made a horrifying discovery.  There was a fully engorged tick at the base of her tail where it connects to her back.  OMG.  It was gigantic, like so huge that her hair was puffing out funny and that was the only way that I noticed it.  We removed it with a Tick Key - which is actually harder than the directions made it seem.  I am still not sure if it came all the way out, or if we left the head inside.  It's kind of hard to tell.  Anyhow, Mia got her lyme vaccination just recently so I'm not too worried... it was just gross.  Really, that tick was probably there feeding on her for a full week!  It's just really really gross, and that will likely not be the only one this year.  The ticks are so bad out here, just today I found another one on her but it was really tiny and wasn't actually attached very well.  She probably licked it to death - I only found it because she wouldn't stop licking her leg.  

The issues continue to pile up around here.  Mia's stomach is really upset again today.  Tomorrow begins phase II of the parasite meds, so hopefully this will cure her completely.  

Running Buddy

Mia has been so good these past couple of days.  Yesterday, I took her for a trail run and it was about 1 mile pure running and then 1 mile run/walk.  She did very well, but by the end she was tired.  I thought that it would tire her out for the rest of the day but it didn't somehow.  If anything it may have amped her up more or something for the morning.  She was so good running because she was just going and even though we saw lot of other dogs and people her mind just stayed on the run and she didn't bark or freak out.  Mia has the desire to run, she'd go 100 mph if I let her, but she's a sprinter for sure.  Distance isn't really her thing - which is good for me.

During today's run she did 2 miles nonstop and it wasn't easy, it was trail and many road hills.  By the end she was pretty spent.  Same thing today too, where we saw lots of off leash dogs and people and kids and she remained totally focused on the running without barking or being bad.  She's such a well behaved dog on these runs, it blows my mind.

After today's run, I took her to the park because she loves it there so much.  It was hot out though so all the dogs were staying in the shade and about 20 minutes into the fun her energy level went from an excited 10 to and exhausted 3.  At one point she found a hole and decided to lay down and close her eyes for a bit.  She's never taken a nap at the park before, so we packed it in and I had to help her jump into the car - she was that tired.  A worn out dog is a very well behaved dog!  Since she started running she doesn't bark at people walking by the house anymore, and she doesn't act as crazy.  Exercise is such a good thing.  For her, she needs runs I guess and walks just aren't quite enough to tire her out to the point of not caring about the things that usually set her off.

My legs are really sore from these short runs, they're very challenging.  Do dog's legs get sore too?

Just another night

View from above.  My two buddies.

Delicate Flower

Well her little pink wrap bandage came off of her dew claw last night, and I've never seen her so excited before.  She helped me take it off... sort of.  It was like me trying to avoid her face with the scissors as she tried to bite the bandage off.  As you can see, the claw is really tiny right now and the pink part is the really sensitive area with all the nerves and stuff so that's growing back nicely.  It does still bother her and I'm trying to keep her from licking it too much.

In other news, she has a new bandage... she has had a benign cyst on her elbow for a couple of weeks now.  The vet checked it out and says that it will go away on it's own in a few more weeks.  It's totally harmless for the most part.  The only tough part is because of it's location, it's always getting opened up again and a little bloody - gross.  In order to keep everything in the house clean, I decided to give it a spray it with Neosporin and then give it a little wrap tonight.  it's just medical gauze with wrap tape that sticks to itself.  She doesn't seem to mind it all that much actually, and it is keeping her from licking it.  I hope she keeps it on there because it really is getting awful looking!

I have to say that Mia has had a lot of relatively minor issues lately and people likely think that I'm being crazy or over reacting.  Answer: Yes, and No.  Mia's health issues are nothing compared to cancer, disease, hip or joint issues, or diabetes or something that takes consistent and long term maintenance.  We took her to the vet and they helped us fix her.  My mom thinks that daycare did all of this to her... and it's possible that daycare contributed to all of it, however, if she stayed home in her crate everyday when we were at work we'd have a very healthy yet highly out of control pissed off dog, so I guess a few trips to the vet isn't so bad.

She's a trooper.

The Dew Claw

I got a phone call yesterday from the daycare owner informing me that Mia had somehow ripped her dew claw off and it was bleeding.  She went into great detail as to what could be done, but said that it would be best if I took her to the vet.  Luckily, I was already on my way home since I got out of work early on Good Friday.  I called the vet and got her an appointment and it all just somehow worked out.

I got to daycare and checked it out, and honestly it didn't seem that bad to me... I mean it was sort of like if a human broke her nail a little too short, but it was bleeding and sensitive to the touch.  She would squeal if I touched it, so I packed her into the car and we headed to the vet for the second time in a week.

She was actually super well behaved at the vet, which never happens.  In the lobby she's usually having a nuclear meltdown, but for some reason (maybe because she exercised all day) she really just sat and hung out and whined a little here and there but was a 2 on the 1-10 scale of meltdowns.  I've never seen her so calm at the vet before, or in public even.  She did seem a little worried, like she knew something unfun was about to happen.  They weighed her (they said she is now 50 lbs) and they took her into the exam room.  Like they literally took her away from me because when I'm in the room she turns into a whimpering baby who won't come out from under the chairs or behind me, but apparently when they take her into another room she's much braver.  The vet said that she ripped off 80% of the nail, so actually the hard part was done for them and they had to trim the remaining part, and then they cleaned it.  It's just an open hole of a wound right now, so they disinfected it and wrapped it up.  They said the pink bandage needs to stay there for 3 days while it heals so nothing gets in there.  Mia is thrilled by this...

I'm surprised that it's been almost 24 hours and she hasn't tried to bite it off yet.  They told me to use the cone but I just couldn't bring myself to do it, the thing just makes her so miserable.  We're trying to just watch her with it and if she tries to take it off, then the cone will come out.

Apparently this is something that happens all the time in bigger dogs that are either really active outside, or play really crazy, or just move around a lot.  The little claw just gets caught on stuff and is easily broken or ripped out - this is good to know because Mia plays all sorts of crazy.

More Tummy Issues

Exactly one month ago today, we took Mia to the vet because she was having really bad diarrhea - bad enough for daycare to tell me "your dog has Really Really bad diarrhea..." and they are used a lot of really gross and weird stuff - and luckily we had a vet appointment the very next day.  We took her poop in to be tested but it came back negative for everything but her intestines were clearly inflamed so they gave us a week's worth of anti diarrhea medicine and suggested that we feed her boiled chicken and rice for a few days.  We did this, and she got better for about a week, and then she was sick again.  I put her on an all chicken and rice diet, and she seemed to get better, and then we tried to ween her off of it and she got sick again.  It finally got so bad that Abe heard her crying at 4am from her crate for a bathroom emergency, so he had to take her outside and then again she had another bathroom emergency around 6am.  Guys, it was gross.

Abe stayed home from work and we made her an appointment at the vet for today and bagged a sample.  This time there was indication of a bacterial infection so they gave us 2 weeks worth of a different antibiotic, and also a broad spectrum medicine to take care of any parasites that may be living in her, and special food to eat with her kibble for a week.  Yes, the appointment was a million dollars in case you were wondering.  I'm a little surprised by all this considering that the same thing has been going on for a really long time now, but whatever, at least they found something that they can treat.  We'll see how it goes... she seems to be feeling fine, or maybe just a little tired.  She stayed home from daycare today, didn't get a walk, but is somehow really sleepy anyhow.  Maybe she's really traumatized from getting a thermometer stuck up her butt?  I would be.

Social Butterfly

Today marked Mia's return to the dog park after taking off a couple months due to the colder weather and snow.  She went Buck Wild!  There is nothing more fun to her than running around with other dogs and causing trouble.  Of course there were kids there today too... and she didn't do so good with that.  She barked in their faces and jumped on them and barked and tried to jump up more, but after about 1 minute she got distracted by a tennis ball and got over it.  After that moment she never even gave those kids a second glance, like they didn't even exist to her anymore so that's good.  I thought the father of the two girls was going to yell at me, but like... I would have just been like, "Sir, kids aren't even allowed in this park you freaking Idiot.  Good Job."  So yeah, take that dude.

Mia had such a nice day at the park, and we left when it started to get cold.  She met lots of new dogs today including the funniest basset hound that I've ever seen - he was totally just a walking cartoon character.  There was a super anxious husky type dog, and usually those seem to be very mellow, but this one was totally out of control... and it made me feel a pretty good about Mia's state of mind these days.  All dogs have their own issues.  A little before we left, she met a black lab that became one of her new besties.  They got along so well, they were like inseparable - so cute.  I'm sure they will see each other again!

She was not all that excited about going home...