Friday, January 9, 2009

Enough Already!

Ok, I love my dogs as much as the next person, maybe even more than the next person (anyone who knows me knows I REALLY love my dogs!), but enough is enough.  It started a couple of weeks ago, with Maggie having an ear infection.  We've been down the ear infection road hundreds of times with both dogs, only to discover years ago that they both have food allergies and that Foudy also has inhalant allergies.  So we switched to prescription food (two different kinds, because it would be too easy for them to be on the same food), we give Foudy allergy shots, we don't feed them anything from the table, etc.  No big deal most of the time.  For Maggie the food was the magic trick.  Then she gets this ear infection a couple of weeks ago.  I get in to see the vet, whom we unfortunately know very well (I say unfortunately because us knowing them so well is a direct result of the many issues we've had with our dogs, i.e. torn ACLs, allergies up the ying-yang, stomach bugs and extreme constipation, terrible ear infections that required sedation to help take care of, UTIs, etc.), and we get Mags on some medicine.  Later that day I was home, and I realized that Foudy kept needing to go out and potty every half hour or so, and when she did go out, she would squat, walk around, squat, walk around, squat, etc.  So I knew it wasn't good.  Got her in to the vet the next day (after following her around out in the freezing cold to get a urine sample), and sure enough, she had a UTI.  Of course, between the time I noticed something was wrong and the time I could get her into the vet, she pottied a little here and there on the carpet.  

Well, then we go to Colorado, and as I mentioned in a previous post, the day after we left, Foudy started throwing up at my in-laws' house.  That seemed to be just a one day thing, though it was 5 times in that one day.  We got home from Colorado, and I took Maggie to the vet for a recheck on her ears.  The infection was getting better, but she was reacting to the medicine (something I forgot to mention- my dogs also tend to have sensitivities/allergies to certain medicines and ear cleaners), so we quit the medicine and got her on some Prednisone to take care of that problem.  That was last Wednesday.  Thursday morning, Jan. 1, Foudy threw up again, but not somewhere convenient like the wood floor, the bathroom, or her kennel, or even on the carpet.  No, she threw up on my bed, and I was standing right there.  So, I got the comforter off and washed it, which is no easy feat, given it's a king-sized comforter.  The next day, Jan. 2, I get out of the shower and come into my bedroom and turn on the light.  It's about 6:45 a.m., and I realize there is a huge wet spot in the middle of the bed.  Hoping that it's from a dog licking the bed, I peel back the freshly washed comforter to discover that the blanket and sheets underneath are all wet as well.  Great.  Somebody peed on my bed.  So, I strip the bed down and wash everything again.  What a pain.

Fast forward to last night.  Mike and I head upstairs to go to bed at about 10:15 and turn on our bedroom light.  I notice another suspicious spot on the bed.  "It's just from a dog licking," Mike says.  So I pull back the covers, and the sheets have a huge dark circle on them.  I start cursing because not only do I not feel like washing the comforter for the 3rd time in one week, but I also don't feel like remaking the bed at 10:15 at night, and I know that we don't even have another set of king-sized sheets to make the bed with.  Plus, I'm mad that somebody peed on the bed; it's gross, and I wonder what is wrong with my dogs and which dog did it!  As soon as I got mad, Maggie high-tailed it to the door, which was shut, so she couldn't get out.  We sent her to her kennel, because no dogs were sleeping on the bed with us!  A little later I called her out of her kennel and checked her out, and sure enough, her hair was somewhat wet and matted, so I know it was her.  Maggie has had this happen a handful of times in her life, where she just wets herself while she's sleeping.  It's weird, and definitely very frustrating.  I'm hoping that's all it was this time.  I don't know if it's a side effect of the Prednisone, or what.  But again, I say, "Enough already!"


And just to show I love them, here are 2 recent pictures of my dear, sweet, puking, pottying, sock-eating dogs, Maggie and Foudy.  God love 'em.



And I know I haven't posted Drew's 10 month photos yet.  Maybe tonight or tomorrow.  Sorry.

2 comments:

fredecker said...

Sare - it is a side effect of the prednisone per the vet whom we saw for Lucy yesterday. They drink more and need to be let out more. Sam

zinncaulfield said...

Maybe it's time to put pull-ups on the dogs. :)