If success is defined by being so ecstatic to see everyone that you stress whine until you actually reach them to receive lots of petting and attention,
and then cower from the actual vet, do your best to get away from her at all costs, and pee all over yourself and the floor in the process. Airlie couldn't get out of there afterward fast enough.
No vaccinations due this year, because this county actually accepts and recognizes the 3-year vaccines and doesn't have mandatory annual vaccination laws.
Eyes, ears, teeth, coat, body and weight all good. Negative on the fecal and heartworm tests. Got our new prescription for Revolution ready to mail off so we can fill it.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Showing Our Support for Blue!
If you haven't yet heard the buzz about Blue, you can catch up via the following links:
http://www.koat.com/news/new-mexico/Dog-fights-back-against-Elephant-Butte/-/9153762/14419754/-/as4t9lz/-/index.html
http://www.koat.com/news/new-mexico/Fight-over-town-dog-has-Elephant-Butte-singing-blues/-/9153762/14441060/-/qejuspz/-/index.html
http://www.koat.com/news/new-mexico/albuquerque/Town-dog-learns-fate-in-Elephant-Butte/-/9153728/14858912/-/e6yjlj/-/index.html
http://www.koat.com/news/new-mexico/albuquerque/Invisible-fence-keeps-Blue-off-the-leash/-/9153728/15530282/-/iiogs9z/-/index.html
We think it would be really fun to camp our way across Texas to Elephant Butte, NM to meet Blue in person someday!
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Friday, July 6, 2012
Camping Was Fun
Watching you become more comfortable in the lake and start learning to swim.
Watching you sit up all night, enjoying the panoramic view the open-screen tent apex provided.
Watching you marvel at being allowed to sleep in the big bed with your people, even though I had to keep making you lie down, quit licking your daddy and try to sleep.
Watching you observe your surroundings, enjoy meeting new people, take long walks in new places.
Monday, July 2, 2012
First Camping Trip
Last week I saw an article about ACDs that stated they "had two speeds- extremely fast, and comatose".
I laughed at this, thinking I had never seen an ACD "comatose", definitely not my own. Particularly not Airlie.
We might have achieved "comatose" on the ride home, and again when she was home in her own bed for the night.
I've never seen her so still and unaware.
Of course, she spent Friday and Saturday nights sitting upright in our tent, taking in the panoramic view of the sky, stars and campground. It was like having a little meerkat in the tend. She'd lie down and nap for brief intervals, but every sound had her popping back up (and waking me up in the process). She was very quiet, though. The other two passed right out both nights. We all slept in the tent together. That was a first. Kansas hasn't slept in bed with me since 2004, and Airlie and Leo never have. I worried they'd burst through the tent wall and tear off after a deer or something, but they just slept. Kansas fell in love with the air mattress and slept right by my side all night long both nights. Leo curled up in a corner and passed out. Airlie just kept watch.
That and learning how to swim (apparently she's going to have to actually be TAUGHT to swim...) really did her in. She was very quiet, polite, friendly, active and interested all weekend, met lots of new family members and behaved beautifully. The first day she would only go into the water up to her chest. The next day we got her paddling about- well, sort of... her front legs paddle on top of the water while she walks on her hind legs. She hasn't yet made the connection to paddle all feet just as if she were walking, and to do it without drowning the rest of us. I got splashed in the face alot, and scratched quite a bit when she would try to swim to me then climb up on me. We had to keep her away from the other two dogs (despite how much she desperately whined to be allowed to follow them way out in the deep water) because she would thrash frantically toward them, then try to climb on top of them. DH spent a lot of time walking her back and forth in water just deep enough for her to barely touch, trying to get her brain to connect the walking motion with swimming. I got her to paddle in circles and practice NOT climbing on me. Holding her around the middle and trying to get her to paddle in place didn't work so well. She'll get there- it's just going to take a mind/body connection and developing some muscle memory. She kind of figured out that her back end floats if she picks her feet up off the lake bottom...
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Baby Brat Has a New Trick
Three times, today, I've seen her lift her right hind leg while peeing. She starts out in a squat, though not as low to the ground as she used to, and the longer she pees, the higher off the ground that leg gets.
Copying Leo, I guess? Though, Kansas does tend to raise her hind leg on days when she's overdone it and her hip is hurting her more than usual.'
She doesn't seem to be injured...
Copying Leo, I guess? Though, Kansas does tend to raise her hind leg on days when she's overdone it and her hip is hurting her more than usual.'
She doesn't seem to be injured...
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
New Harness
Airlie, sporting her new Kurgo harness ($18 on sale courtesy of Walgreens.com!). She doesn't exactly love it, but I think it made a big difference in her security & anxiety levels when we used it for the first time this past weekend (I ordered it two weeks ago, and it arrived the day after we'd departed for a different trip). She only puked twice on the way there, then not at all on the way back. But that could have been due to the half bottle of Rescue Remedy that got dumped all over the back seat when I was trying to put some on her.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Another First
After almost a week with diarrhea, Airlie seems to be on the mend. She never acted sick, except for possibly being feverish the first day. Other than that, she ate well, drank well, played hard and was her usual, active, excited self.
It all started Tuesday night, when she woke me up to go out at 11:15, then again at 1:15, then at 4:30 she threw up. At 6:15 when DH came in to tell me he was leaving, he reported that she was sitting up, panting, he thought she was hot, then decided he should take her out, where she pooped bad enough that he could smell it across the yard and "it made me gag" (that's how DH is). After he left, she threw up again.
Both times she puked, it was just bile.
I checked the piles, and the putrid, grey-green, oily puddles looked like what Kansas has experienced a time or two. This was Airlie's first bout with any kind of diarrhea or sickness of any kind, and as it has been quite rainy of late, resulting in standing water in the back yard, I was pretty sure she had just ingested something she shouldn't. If this was typical of the other two dogs, it would only last a day or two. She'd been eating a lot of mud (they all have) thanks to all of the rain. Not sure what the fascination with mud is, but she's pooping dirt clods on a regular basis. The other two, not so much, and since they weren't experiencing the symptoms Airlie had, I still wasn't worried. She'd only been in the house/yard so what could she have possibly come into contact with that she hadn't already been exposed to for the past year and a half?
She was fine on our walk, and had no problems while I was at work. She didn't even poop again til later Wednesday night. Pretty much a repeat of Tuesday night, with less frequency and minus the puking. She went out at 8:30, 11:30 and 4:30, then no bowel movements at all during the day. The puddles looked pretty much the same. Thursday evening she went out at 8:30. DH let her out and left her out there, forgetting that I was trying to limit her ability to be outside eating mud and drinking out of puddles, and forgetting that I had been trying to monitor her bathroom habits and note what she had done, when and the appearance. I was so frustrated at that point! However, she only went out one time during the wee hours, so maybe we were turning a corner.
Still, I was a bit worried, since I hadn't seen something like this go on quite so long before.
Friday morning it rained again (oh, joy) so we didn't get to take our walk until later, but, as usual, she was her happy, energetic self. The puddle she couldn't help leaving in the street during our walk later in the day was dog food -colored, and grainy, but I didn't see any indication of parasites (and her flea/tick/heartworm meds are supposed to treat all but one of those, anyway...). The puddles in the yard that day were of the same variety, with a few mostly solid pieces of dog food in them. Maybe things were finally running their course. I'd given her some banana and yogurt on Thursday, to replace some intestinal flora and electrolytes, just in case, though I really didn't want to slow her intestinal motility. Better to flush things out.
I was starting to worry a bit. This hadn't ever lasted three days before... If it was still happening by Monday, I would have taken her to the vet, just to find out what it was, since then it would have been a full week of diarrhea.
Happily, I can report that we passed both Friday and Saturday nights with no unexpected trips out to the yard in the wee hours, and this morning Airlie pooped two solid poops during our walk (a habit which I hate and am still trying to break her of, but at least in this case it was a good sign). I hope this means she's better, and whatever it was has run its course. I had been pondering Giardia (and hoping against it). But, like I said, she never once acted like she actually felt bad.
It all started Tuesday night, when she woke me up to go out at 11:15, then again at 1:15, then at 4:30 she threw up. At 6:15 when DH came in to tell me he was leaving, he reported that she was sitting up, panting, he thought she was hot, then decided he should take her out, where she pooped bad enough that he could smell it across the yard and "it made me gag" (that's how DH is). After he left, she threw up again.
Both times she puked, it was just bile.
I checked the piles, and the putrid, grey-green, oily puddles looked like what Kansas has experienced a time or two. This was Airlie's first bout with any kind of diarrhea or sickness of any kind, and as it has been quite rainy of late, resulting in standing water in the back yard, I was pretty sure she had just ingested something she shouldn't. If this was typical of the other two dogs, it would only last a day or two. She'd been eating a lot of mud (they all have) thanks to all of the rain. Not sure what the fascination with mud is, but she's pooping dirt clods on a regular basis. The other two, not so much, and since they weren't experiencing the symptoms Airlie had, I still wasn't worried. She'd only been in the house/yard so what could she have possibly come into contact with that she hadn't already been exposed to for the past year and a half?
She was fine on our walk, and had no problems while I was at work. She didn't even poop again til later Wednesday night. Pretty much a repeat of Tuesday night, with less frequency and minus the puking. She went out at 8:30, 11:30 and 4:30, then no bowel movements at all during the day. The puddles looked pretty much the same. Thursday evening she went out at 8:30. DH let her out and left her out there, forgetting that I was trying to limit her ability to be outside eating mud and drinking out of puddles, and forgetting that I had been trying to monitor her bathroom habits and note what she had done, when and the appearance. I was so frustrated at that point! However, she only went out one time during the wee hours, so maybe we were turning a corner.
Still, I was a bit worried, since I hadn't seen something like this go on quite so long before.
Friday morning it rained again (oh, joy) so we didn't get to take our walk until later, but, as usual, she was her happy, energetic self. The puddle she couldn't help leaving in the street during our walk later in the day was dog food -colored, and grainy, but I didn't see any indication of parasites (and her flea/tick/heartworm meds are supposed to treat all but one of those, anyway...). The puddles in the yard that day were of the same variety, with a few mostly solid pieces of dog food in them. Maybe things were finally running their course. I'd given her some banana and yogurt on Thursday, to replace some intestinal flora and electrolytes, just in case, though I really didn't want to slow her intestinal motility. Better to flush things out.
I was starting to worry a bit. This hadn't ever lasted three days before... If it was still happening by Monday, I would have taken her to the vet, just to find out what it was, since then it would have been a full week of diarrhea.
Happily, I can report that we passed both Friday and Saturday nights with no unexpected trips out to the yard in the wee hours, and this morning Airlie pooped two solid poops during our walk (a habit which I hate and am still trying to break her of, but at least in this case it was a good sign). I hope this means she's better, and whatever it was has run its course. I had been pondering Giardia (and hoping against it). But, like I said, she never once acted like she actually felt bad.
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