(post started Thursday, June 21)
My blog-policeman-friend is going to be dissapointed when he returns from vacation to find only one new post about Miss Mallory so I better get something added here quick.
Rick was busy with football camp so I was a single parent again. Cooper decided to see what would happen if he ate three of my socks and a pair of my underwear. Hopefully he learned that it isn’t too fun…I don’t know if he was ornery that we went for two boat rides without him last weekend or what, but his upstairs priveledges have again been suspended (he lost his whole house privileges when I started back to work after my maternity leave and he started eating Mallory’s socks, pacifiers, slippers, etc). Anyway, I came home from work on Monday to an explosion – luckily Mallory slept through our arrival home and the transition into the house so I could spend time cleaning up. That day he threw up the underwear and one sock. No issues during the day Tuedsay, but Tuesday night, at the end of our walk, blech…two more socks.
Anyway, with Rick’s summer finally here, I am so excited to have 5 weeks of “normal” family time before fall football starts. The fireworks are coming up in a couple of weeks, we have a weekend trip to Chicago planned to visit my cousins.
(post continued Sunday, June 24)
I started this post last Thursday, when I was nearing the 5 day threshold of posting absence. We had a busy weekend, Rick’s mom was in town to visit Mallory so I got some good hands-free time, which was nice. Rick & I actually went for a boat ride with just the dog, it was so relaxing!
Anyway, the weekend ended up not being as relaxing as it should have been. This afternoon, Rick started screaming for me from the back yard – Cooper was frozen in a half-pooping/half-throwing up, arched back position. With his taste for my socks & unders from earlier in the week, my first fear was that something else was stuck coming out one end or the other – so we threw him in the car and drove as fast as we could (behind all the *^%^$^$#@*@#$&*:!@#^ Sunday drivers) to the animal hospital. He was still breathing but was panting pretty heavily and drooling quite a bit. But by the time we got to the animal hospital, he was fine.
The vet gave us her opinion: (1) Cooper had had a seizure; or (2) He was still trying to work out something that he ate.
Our options:
- Get x-rays at emergency room vet costs – but the chances of a sock showing up on an x-ray are slim-to-none, so then we’d have to do a barium something or other, also at emergency room vet costs, only to confirm there was something in his stomach.
- Skip the x-rays/barium thing and just open him up and see if there is anything there, also at emergency room vet costs.
- Wait and check in with our regular vet on Monday, and decide then about having x-rays, surgery, more tests.
Seeing as how the dog was now acting normal, and learning that there wasn’t anything life-threatening about a sock in his gastro-intestinal track, we decided to wait until today and call our regular vet. They said he was a little dehydrated and offered to give him some fluids (also at emergency room vet costs), but we decided to take him home and gave him some water/chicken broth, which he drank right up.
We did some reading online about canine epilepsy and seizures and the more we read, the more we think that’s what happened. About 5 minutes before the episode, I noticed Cooper acting funny, and rushed him outside; he peed a ton (which is normal after lots of swimming) but was still wandering around like he was drunk. I headed inside and that’s when Rick started hollering for me. I’ll post an update on Coops after we talk to the vet.
Mallory, luckily, has been easy. She is still trying her darndest to be mobile – the minute you set her on the floor she is pulling herself up on you or pulling herself over her feet to get into a semi-crawling position. She does move when she’s on her tummy, but it’s backwards, which adds to her frustration. She hasn’t yet learned to move her feet when the thing she’s holding on starts to moves (think a newbie waterskier who doesn’t know to let go of the rope when they fall).
Mallory had a “mudpie” at school on Friday – here are some pictures from that.
I have a bunch of new pictures and will try to get them posted soon. Talk soon.
yikes – that does not sound fun! having a dog is like having another baby to take care of isn’t it?? well thanks for posting, mallory is so adorable! (: do you guys live on a lake with a boat – or do you go somewhere to go boating?