Vet Visit

Last night was probably one of our most uneventful vet visits in some time - no blood, no fungus, no urine test, no blood test - just your run of the mill annual check up and one vaccine. Chopper even behaved better during his examination.

The vet visit started with the weigh-in though and someone is now a whopping 78 lbs. He's supposed to be 70 lbs. Last year he was 72 lbs - although he had dropped some weight after that. I told the vet how much he walks (at least 40 minutes a day), that he has other activities (the beach, agility, etc.) and the amount of food he eats (1/2 cup dry in the morning and 1/2 can of wet food and 1/2 dry in the evening) and, as usual, they said "that's all." Also I don't think Chopper gets a ton of treats - what may be the problem though is his after dinner routine.

Before you feed Chopper in the evening he is content to lay down, get his neck scratched or bark at a neighbor. Once he eats though he realizes that he is STARVING. He starts going to the treat jars and begging, opening drawers underneath the treat jars (it's a file drawer), crying, poking the furniture, taking his puzzles off the shelf, scratching at the bathroom door (there's no food in there), searching all his treat toys for one tiny piece of food until I get so annoyed that I give him a piece of chicken. Then the process starts all over again and I give him a tiny rawhide with a piece of chicken on it. This can go on for some time until he throws himself on the floor and goes to sleep.

Well, Mr. Chopper, I think your after dinner snack days are numbered.

Therapy Dog Class Week 1

I am now enrolled in my fourth class of the year at the Zoom Room.  I think this may be a little overboard but my mom would like me to be well-educated (and well-behaved) so I endure the endless classes.  Plus she says it is more interesting than American Diplomatic History or Legal Ethics (what was she thinking taking those classes anyway?). 

So last week we started with Therapy Dog Class. For the record, at the current time, we have no intentions that I will actually become a therapy dog.  I'm a little scared of children and some elderly citizens as well.  I'm sure there are other people that need a therapy dog and maybe someday (when I take the class a fifth time) I can help those people.  For now the main objective, according to my mom, is to get me conditioned to different situations.  I say - bring it on!

This time there are only six dogs in the class which give me a little more breathing room - I like it.  I was there early last week and only one dog was there and she wanted to be my friend.  We did the sniff test and I decided she was a good apple.  Next my buddy Mumble got there - I didn't know he was in that class too - we got to sit next to each other so that was good (also he didn't like his dried apple treats so I got to eat all of them - I just love that dog).  Anyway then these very large German Shepards with very serious parents came in. I like serious people - they don't let a bunch of shenanigans go on.  Then there is a tiny dog who seems a little skittish.  There were no barking puppies.

There was a lot of talking that I wasn't interested in - something about finding out which organization you needed to be certified through to work where you wanted to do therapy dog.  And that you could only have one and not the other.  He did say that one thought you should never be away from your dog (I would like to be in that group please).  Then we got the names of the other dogs and their people.  I'm not good with names but there is always a Bella or Stella in there somewhere.

After the introductions we got down to work.  We practiced some stand stays, some down stays and then the hard part  - the props.  The trainer brought out a wheelchair and an IV pole and we had to take treats and not bark.  I did GREAT - you would think I wasn't terrified of the vet (maybe I just need a regular people doctor?). 

We also practiced getting pet by the trainer and looking at our parents when the trainer went by (I went to the trainer instead on this one as he gives me yummy treats).  Can't wait to see what's on the agenda for class this week.

Tonight I have to go to the vet's for a checkup and a vaccination (I am not happy about this).  I keep telling my mom we need to find a belief system that doesn't believe in doctors or vaccinations so I don't have to go through with this nonsense every few months.  She said I wouldn't be able to go to the Zoom Room or daycare though.  I told her I could live with that if it meant no more needles. 

Do Your Ears Hang Low?

Today as I was getting ready for work I saw a piece about a black and tan coonhound on Good Morning America. They were talking about a coonhound in Colorado who was the Guinness Book World Record Title holder for the longest ears on a living dog.

His left ear is 12.25 inches and his right ear is 13.5 inches long. For fun I measured - well tried to measure - one of Chopper's ears this morning. I couldn't get an exact measurement because he was very wiggly and kept trying to eat the tape measure but his right ear appears to be just over five inches.

Chopper's ears are the source for quite a bit of amusement and giggles. Just this weekend Chopper was in the bedroom while a friend was visiting and he must have fallen asleep right in front of the door and one of those ears was sticking out under the door - I guess he didn't want to miss out on the conversation.

Chopper's ears have also been the cause for numerous trips to the vet. Just last year he had an ear infection in one ear that required several trips to the vet. The reason it was several and not one is that Chopper was not a very good patient when it came to getting ear drops - he would wiggle away, he would bark, he hide his head and any other antic that would cause the drops to not get in his ear. Finally I was reduced to putting the drops in while he was relieving himself outside. Inevitably if you did get the drops in the ear there would be a giant shake of the head and the drops would come flying out all over you. After a few visits the vet gave us a pill.

One of Chopper's most infamous ear incidents was several years ago and involved a lot of clean up and a lot of MacGyvering on my part. We had just returned from our walk and he was barking at something on the porch. I hustled him inside to get him to be quiet and all of sudden there were blood drops on the floor. I checked his feet for any scrapes but this was quickly ruled out as Chopper is very sensitive about his feet (he will stop and lift his foot and refuse to walk if he has anything foreign on his foot) so it seemed unlikely that he would not have thrown himself on the floor in screaming agony if his foot was bleeding. After a quick body check I found the culprit - his ear.

He had somehow cut a tiny little nick in his right ear. I applied pressure and figured that would stop the bleeding and we would be on our way. Every time I took the towel off he would give his head a big vigorous shake and the bleeding would start again. Not only that but the head shake and bleeding ear resulted in blood splatter all over everything. EVERYTHING. Tiny drops of coonhound blood were on the kitchen table, the walls, the closet door, the hardwood floors.

I tried wrapping the tip of his ear in multiple layers of band-aids and gauze. He would shake it off. I tried that blood clotting dog first aid stuff. He would shake it off. After a few hours of the tiny drop bleeding I decided that we needed to go to the vet. I wasn't sure if I couldn't get it to stop if he could lose a lot of blood or if he required stitches or not.

Once at the vet they sedated him and got a look at the ear. Turns out the ear had scabbed up by this time and the vet said she couldn't even get it to start bleeding again. She also said no stitches were required. I got a drowsy dog and a bill. Of course as soon as the drugs wore off he started shaking his head and the bleeding started again. I was able to get it to stop this time and the vet assured me that stitches were not necessary. After that we were able to keep it from opening up again but Chopper had a little nick in his ear for some time (one day I looked and it has just disappeared).

Clean up continued for a few weeks. You would all of a sudden see tiny drops of blood on the wall where you thought you had cleaned it up already. I'm sure if you brought in one of those black light blood finder things you see on television that you would still be able to see the spots all over the walls.

A few months later I was at a doggy first aid presentation and thought I would stump the person and asked how she would have kept the ear from bleeding. She thought a moment and said to fold the ear over on top of his head and tie it up with a gauze around his head. Where was she during the blood spattering? Now I know for next time.