Old Runner Loves His Old Dog

Life is full of interesting coincidences .... Having just posted about that great slideshow of old dogs, I had an interesting chat with an older gentleman out on a walk yesterday.

He was in his sixties and just finishing a run. Eyeing Biscuit and Baxter, he stopped me to ask what breed they were. He guessed King Charles Spaniel, and I was impressed that he had gotten close. Most people go with Chihuahua.

Then he asked how old they were, and I told him. He said that he had a German Shorthair who's 14.

"She's run a lot of miles with me," he said wistfully. "It's hard to watch them, you know, decline."

OK, this just got depressing.

He continued, "I just wish they could last forever."

All right. Thank you, Mr. Melancholy Runner Man, for making me feel like weeping. Can't we just go merrily about our business pretending they DO last forever?

That reminds me ... I've been meaning to look into dog DNA cloning. I hear it's getting cheaper these days. I'll report back with my findings soon. It's been a long-standing dream of mine to someday have 4 or 5 Biscuits running around the house. Come on, scientists, let's get to work on the important things!

Get some sleep, Biscuit. You have your cloning operation in the morning.

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Baxter Drinks a Bunch of Pancake Syrup

A couple months back, Baxter sucked down a pretty large amount of pancake syrup. Suffice it say, he's now on a first name basis with Aunt Jemima.

A couple of lucky coincidences kept this episode from being far worse. But, it was still quite messy.

We had some friends over for brunch one Sunday morning, and made blueberry pancakes. Because, who doesn't love blueberry pancakes? Jenny likes her syrup served hot, so we microwaved the syrup and set it on the table in measuring cups. One was regular and one was reduced sugar.

After eating we walked our friends out to their car to say goodbye. Baxter didn't join us -- he sensed an opportunity.

While we were outside, Bax jumped up onto the table and went to town on one of the cups full of syrup, sucking it dry. He must have had his fill, because he left the second cup alone.

We returned moments later, unaware of his latest conquest. Everything was normal for about 30 minutes.

This picture was taken before all this went down. You can see there's
just less than a cup of syrup in the measure on the right. Not for long!

I was in the kitchen cleaning up when Bax came in and got a drink of water with unusual gusto. He was slurping water with such vigor that it struck me as a little odd. Sure enough, within moments he puked in the living room.

This was not a normal batch of vomit. It was golden brown in color, thick and viscous. Kind of like ... hmmmm, syrup? Jenny and I realized it at the same moment. We checked the table and confirmed that one of the cups was empty, even though we knew we hadn't finished it.

Here's a recreation of what we think happened.

Jenny called the emergency vet right away. They suggested that we come in immediately and call a veterinary poison control center on the way.

Oh my god. Seriously? The emergency vet again? We called animal poison control and hoped it wouldn't come to that.

First of all, who knew a veterinary poison control even existed? Turns out to be a great service. For $60 they take open a case for you and a vet reviews your info and tells you how to proceed. (See the Animal Poison Control site for some great info)

We gave the vet all the info, including the type of syrup. Turns out Bax had chosen the low-sugar variety. In a great stroke of luck, the syrup didn't include the fake sugar xylitol. If it had, he probably would have died.

The vet was concerned that such a spike in blood sugar could lead to a serious but treatable condition called pancreatitis. She told us to monitor him, withholding food and water, for two hours. After that, we were to introduce a little water and see what happened.

OK, so far so good. No emergency vet, and no immediate life-or-death danger.

The bad news? I had heard of projectile vomiting, but projectile diarrhea had now commenced. We spent the next two hours in the backyard watching Bax spew liquid from his butt. It was like his body had completely pulled the plug and was bailing everything. It was a mess and a little sad to watch.

Neighbor Phil submitted this recreation of what happened AFTER Bax sucked down the syrup.

As the vet warned, his metabolism was in high gear and he was dying for food or water. He had even tried to drink from the toilet at one point, something he'd never done before or since.

Eventually, the anal leakage slowed and we gave him a little bit of water. He slurped down the little bit we gave him, and we waited to see if he would vomit again. Everything went smoothly from there on out. We were on "pancreatitis watch" for the next 48 hours, but he showed no further signs of sickness.

We had all dodged a bullet. And Baxter learned a healthy respect for Aunt Jemima. ........Read more of this post!

On The Antibiotics Again & Random Pics

So, it seems as if Baxter has had a slight reaction to the sutures. There are a couple of not-so-little bumps on his belly that we've been monitoring for a week or two. Today we decided to take him by the vet to get them checked out.

When the vet said she thought he was having a little reaction to the sutures, we figured she meant the metal staples. But those were removed two weeks ago. She explained that he was actually reacting to the dissolving sutures, something that is not uncommon. What dissolving sutures?

Get this: Abdominal surgeries are often closed up with not one, not two, but sometimes three sets of sutures. The abdominal wall is closed first, then fat and other "subcutaneous" tissues, and finally the visible sutures to close the whole thing up. Yeah, we had no idea either.

The internal sutures dissolve over time, and apparently some dogs have a reaction as they break down. So, for the next two weeks Baxter will be taking antibiotics. The party never ends!

Just for fun, here are some random pics of the kids:

Yes, his shirt says "Security". Biz has one, too. In pink.

After a bath, with full fluffyness.

Biscuit being sweet. Baxter sniffing her butt.

Baxter helping out, trying on a baby gift.

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Dogs Love Fish Oil Pills

We learned this somewhat by accident. A couple years back, Biscuit had some worrisome results from two consecutive blood and urine tests. The numbers were related to kidney function, and all of a sudden we were afraid she was in the early stages of renal failure.

One of the supplements I started giving her was Omega 3, or fish oil. At first I would snip the little gelcap open, and squirt the oil on her dinner. Eventually, I realized she would just eat the thing whole

Baxter took an interest, and now he's nuts about them, too. My vet said it's good for them, even at the 1000mg human dose. So, why not?

Back to the kidney thing ... We had been feeding Biscuit one of those dehydrated chicken strips every morning. I feel guilty just typing that. We cut those out, and her next blood test came back totally normal.

I can't say for certain the elevated kidney numbers were related to the chicken treats, but I can tell you she's never eating those again.

Anyway, normal fish oil pills are fine, or you could grab dog-specific omega 3 gel caps.

Just don't smell their breath for a little while after they eat them.

Salmon sushi photo by adactio.
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The Saga of the Palm Nut: The Finale

(In case you missed it, read Part I and Part II first)

When I picked Baxter up after 24 hours hooked up to an IV, he, of course, had charmed the staff at Szanto Vet. He was a model patient, they told us.

Our discharge instructions included a schedule of antibiotics, digestive aids and pain killers. But, the most important directive was to keep him away from the 4" opening in his abdomen and the 8 metal staples that were keeping it closed.

(this pic is kinda gnarly ... click to see it bigger, if you dare)

Seriously, how nasty is that wound? Metal staples? Oy vey.

So, to keep him from biting the sutures, we put an Elizabethan collar, or E-Collar, on him.


This worked pretty well, but Baxter again applied his superior skills of problem solving. He realized he could reach the wound better with his back paws. Jenny returned from work after the first day we left him alone, and he had managed to scratch up his sutures, nearly tearing one of them out.

There was blood. And pus. (Excuse me while I dry heave)

Back to the vet for a clean up and a pow-wow about our bandaging strategy going forward. Adding a shirt and booties to his feet created extra defense from his roving back paw.

This worked well, and two weeks later the staples came out. He was good as new, and ready for his next adventure!! We could only hope this would never happen again. Wrong!!!

fin

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The Saga of the Palm Nut: Part II

Part II of III

(If you missed it, read Part I here)

Three or four weeks had passed since Baxter went on his palm nut binge when he began vomiting up yellowish white foam once or twice a day.

We weren't sure what was up and thought he might be getting too hungry. The foamy puking continued for a few days.

One night after we fed the dogs dinner as usual, Baxter threw everything up just a few minutes later. He immediately went to his water bowl for a drink. A few minutes after that, he threw up the water.

In a space of 10 minutes, he puked three more times. It was really a mess. It seemed like nothing was getting through, and we decided he needed medical attention.

I called the vet but they were just about to close. After discussing it, Jenny and I decided he couldn't wait. Hello emergency vet!


We described his symptoms to the vet and his palm nut binge weeks earlier. She decided to do a test where he drinks liquid that shows up on an x-ray. If there was a blockage, they would see the liquid stop at a given point. She promised to call us in a few hours with the initial results.

Around 1am the vet called to explain that the liquid stopped before exiting the stomach. She was pretty sure there was a blockage. We had two options: surgery or wait-and-see. It seemed critical, so we gave the go-ahead for immediate gastrointestinal surgery. He would be ready for pickup in the morning.

After sleeping fitfully, I drove to the Animal Emergency Center around 7am to pick up our little patient. Before leaving, they presented me with The Nut.


As suspected, the nut had lodged itself at the exit of the stomach. For weeks, it had jostled around in there (making him puke foamy stuff) until it finally got stuck.

Bax was awake but sluggish as I transported him to our normal vet for 24 hours of monitoring. He would stay on an IV overnight, and we looked forward to picking him up the following afternoon.

... Finish up with Part III: The Finale
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The Saga of the Palm Nut: Part I

Part I of III

In light of Baxter's most recent gastrointestinal adventure, I figured it was time to tell the story of his first surgery.

Up to now, the Saga of the Palm Nut was the feather in Bad Dog Baxter's cap. It was the jewel in his crown, and his shining moment of glory.

Bax's previous coup de grace cost him two nights in the hospital plus two weeks of recovery. It cost us upwards of $3000.

It all starts with a beautiful queen palm tree (like this one) that resides in our backyard.


Queen palms bear fruit annually, producing hundreds upon hundreds of 'nuts' about the size of a large grape.

It takes a parrot -- the only animal on earth that eats them -- an hour to gnaw off the thin layer of fleshy fruit. What's left is a fibrous and inedible pit which the parrot, in its unfailing wisdom, discards.

As our palm starting dropping its fruit, we knew we had to watch the Bax-man. Until I could clean them all up, Jenny and I vowed not to let him out back unsupervised.

This worked perfectly until one fateful Wednesday when our cleaning lady let Biscuit and Baxter run out back for a few minutes.

Baxter had his opportunity.

Jenny and I returned from work, and Baxter greeted us by vomiting up a truly impressive mass of stomach stew. We counted no less than 15 nuts in the barf. We were stunned by his gluttony.

For days, he passed more nuts out the other end. Each time Jenny and I would call it out. "Eighteen!" Jenny would exclaim returning from a walk. "Twenty!" after the next one.

After a few days, the count stood at twenty-one. We were impressed to say the least. Explaining to Manuela what had happen, she swore he had been outside for less than ten minutes. He's like a canine Kobayashi.

As far as we could tell, the worst was over. Baxter acted healthy, and we moved on. But we would soon learn the Saga had just begun.



... Continue to Part II

Palm tree photo credits: mriley58 and Dale331
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Baxter in a Cartoon

My mother-in-law gets a real kick out of Baxter. She's seems to have forgiven him for biting her last year -- that's a story for another day.

She mailed me this cartoon the other day. I thought it was appropriate. He seems willing to, and quite enthusiastic about, eating just about anything.

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Recovery Update

The little man is recovering well, thus far. He's eating with fervor and doesn't seem too uncomfortable. At times, he wanders around aimlessly, stopping to stare blankly at something. Heavy painkillers will do that to you.

Here's a pic of Biz welcoming her brother back home:


After his last surgery, we figured out the best way to keep him from bothering his sutures. We taped baby socks on his feet after he figured out he could scratch his wound with his back feet. The E-Collar keeps his mouth away from it, and the sweatshirt provides one last line of defense.

This is how Bax rolls these days, in full recovery regalia:

Yeah, he's stylin'. ........Read more of this post!

Baxter Discharged from the Vet Today

After about 36 hours in the "hospital," Baxter's coming home from the vet this evening. We're looking forward to seeing him. Not looking forward, however, to dressing his wound, applying various ointments and giving him doses of pain meds and antibiotics multiple times each day.

The sutures stay in for two weeks, so we have to keep a close eye on him until they come out. Last time he managed to get to his wound with his back paw and nearly tore on several metal staples. Yeah, gross. I cringe every time I think about it.

That's the latest on his current situation. Next week, I'll finally publish the story of his first big trip to the emergency vet. ........Read more of this post!

News Flash: Baxter is Back at the Emergency Vet

In a development that defies all logic, Baxter has landed himself back at the emergency vet. Maybe it's an attempt to punish mom and dad for taking a vacation, or maybe it's just Baxter being Baxter. In either case, he's okay and recovering from his second abdominal surgery in less than six months.

I'll write the full story soon. In short, he found and ate three pork baby back ribs that were in the garbage. My folks realized soon after and rushed him to AEC. The vet opened him up and were able to remove all the bone shards and fragments from his stomach.

He's expected to come home tomorrow and make a full recovery in time. Oy vey!!!!

Here's a pic from Szanto after we transferred him from the emergency vet:

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Getting Rid of Dog Tear Stains

When we first rescued Baxter, he had really bad tear stains. They were very dark and looked like they were stuck on his face for good. We didn't want to use Angels Eyes, because we felt weird making him ingest something for what seemed like an external problem.

We tried topical tear stain removers, but the problem is that you have to take the time to put it on regularly, a couple times a day I think. We just didn't do it often enough to make it work. We were good for a few days, but we couldn't stick with it.

It took a while, but we did figure out the problem eventually. We researched online and asked our vet, concluding that the cause of Baxter's tear stains was diet. Baxter's digestive health when we got him was very poor, and it took us a long time to find the right food. We finally settled on Iams Low-Residue, as it was the only thing that Bax could digest correctly.

... before

... after!

For some breeds, such as Maltese, Bichon Frise, Lhasa Apso and Shih Tzu, tear stains can be a consistent problem. The topical products like PETCO's tear stain remover seem to work well when it's not a symptom of something more.

For little Baxter, the stain removers treated the symptom, but we had to correct the dietary issue to fix the problem. After a couple weeks on his new diet, the tear stains were gone! (So was the diarrhea, but that's another story) ........Read more of this post!