I love my dog. She is amazing, sweet, smart, and everything in between. This week, however, she decided to "try my patience" a bit. I have to start out with a little background as usual....
Chad and I went to San Antonio a last week for 3 days. While we were gone, we left Emma with my in-laws. She loves it over there. They have a yard and let her roam the house at night (she likes to sleep on their tile floors - and we keep her in our bedroom at night at home). Chad and I went over to pick her up last Sunday to bring her home. Chris (my amazing mother-in-law) mentioned that Emma hadn't eaten anything that afternoon (although there was food in her bowl) so we expected her to be hungry when we got home.
When we got home, we put our normal 3/4 cups in her bowl. Several hours later, she still hadn't eaten anything. I need to add here that Emma is deep into her teething process. Most of her front teeth are gone and the back ones are starting to get loose (dogs loose teeth from front to back). Sometimes their teeth can bother them so bad that they don't want to eat. Thinking this might be part of the problem, I put a little bit of water in her food bowl to soften it up. Oh my gosh! I have never seen that dog eat that fast (or that much in one sitting)! 10 minutes later, she throws up. Not a lot, but some. Puppies can get sick for a number of reasons - one being eating too much too fast. Bingo! She started acting normal after she got sick, so I thought nothing of it.
On Monday, I decided to not wet her food. She was fine all day - and then she got sick before bed. This time it was much more, but still all food. She had never thrown up that much before, but I still wasn't concerned. She was acting fine and "everything else" looked just fine...
Tuesday. I'm sitting on the couch working on my Adobe Flash practical for class (yes, the same class that I am writing this blog for). Emma is passed out on the other side of the couch with a pillow positioned under her head. Suddenly, I hear her heaving. I grabbed her to put her on the floor, but before her paws were on the carpet, she threw up bile on the floor. Okay - now I was a little worried. She had not eaten a drop of food or had a sip of water all day! She had also slept most of the day - and wasn't interested in plating. I was debating whether or not to call the vet, but first I needed to call Chad. He thought I should call the vet as well and that if they thought I should bring her in, then I should. And wouldn't you know the vet told me to bring her in just to be safe...
Three hours and $110.00 later, I find out that Emma just had and upset stomach. No obstruction, no parasites, no viruses - just an upset stomach. We think that her eating all that food on Sunday night just kind of threw her system off a little bit. Who knows? The vet gave her an injection to ease the nausea and sent me home with a box of pills that I could give her should it start acting up again. I have not given her one pill yet.
As explained in my last post - Emma has a "traveling" problem. Because she's not "100%" we got her for free (we won't have the option to breed her or show her - which we never planned to anyways). With that being said - I struggle with spending hundreds of dollars on a dog I got for free. Please don't think I regret taking her to the vet! I am glad I was more safe than sorry! I would do it all over again even if I knew how much it was going to cost me before I left my apartment - it's just a little frustrating sometimes. :)
Since then, Emma has not gotten sick once and has slowed down on the wet food intake. She's now 15. 8 lbs. now at 21 weeks of age (I have no idea if that's normal or not). My baby is growing up! Hopefully we won't be going back to the vet for any unexpected visits until we get her spayed in a month or so...
Until next week...
God Bless!
-Shelley
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Emma's Leg
So if you've been reading my blog, you have noticed I have mentioned that Emma is not... 100%. She has a bad leg. I would have written about this earlier, but her "disability" has never really been an issue or interfered with anything.
When we met Emma, she was only 4 weeks old. At this point, puppies are just learning how to hold their head up and walk around (so they kind of look drunk wobbling from side to side). They sleep for most of the day and haven't really had a chance to show off their little personality too much. One area of concern for us is that Emma would turn out to be an alpha female. This is a personality trait that some breeds exhibit where a female (rather than a male) has the chance of having a dominant and aggressive personality. Severity of this personality trait can vary from growling to literally killing other female dogs that invade an alpha female's territory. Chad and I will have other dogs while we have Emma, so having a dog with an alpha personality was not an option.
About 2 1/2 weeks after we picked her out, I got a call from Ree (the breeder). She told be they had noticed a problem with Emma. I thought, "Oh [crap]. She's an alpha. We can't bring her home." Ree continued to tell me they had noticed that Emma didn't walk quite right. Instead of walking, she hopped. "Like a bunny," Ree said. She told me she was going to take Emma to the vet the following Monday and would let me know what he said, but that this could be a very serious thing that could affect her life. She also let me know that if we no longer wanted the puppy that she would be happy to refund our money and give us the option of choosing another puppy from an upcoming litter.
After I hung up, I was really disheartened. I had to keep a smile on my face because I was keeping our nephews for the weekend, but I just wanted to cry! I called Chad and he was just as upset about it as I was. There were really only two reasons why we wouldn't take this puppy. One would be if we couldn't give her the best life possible. This was why we chose a smaller sized dog as opposed to a large one. This would also cover and surgeries Emma would need that we couldn't afford. The second reason would be if her "condition" were permanent. Chad and I both get very attached to animals and neither of us could handle the thought of having to put her down six months into her life.
I waited as long as humanly possible to call Ree that Monday. She told me the x-ray the vet took showed absolutely nothing wrong with her leg. At least nothing wrong with her bones. X-rays do not show soft tissue. Puppies have something called growth plates. These are areas in their joints where bones form and they show up as empty spaces on and x-ray. If Emma had a growth plate injury, it would be permanent and nothing could be done to fix it. Ree invited us to come out that Thursday to see Emma and help us talk about everything.
We arrived on Thursday and picked Emma up out of the pin. It was easy to spot her because she was the only one with a serious limp. We brought her and her brother inside to play and observe her walking. Here's what we saw...
Seriously, watching these videos takes me back. She's so tiny!
We all concluded that it was her front left leg. You'll notice that she falls over when she tries to walk over a foot. You'll also notice that she is not in any pain. To this day, she has never seemed to be in pain what so ever. In fact, she had this attitude of "why doesn't everyone walk like this? Oh, I guess they're not special enough." She still has this attitude...
In this picture, You can actually see her left leg turned in (it's the all-white one).
After thinking and praying long and hard, we (obviously) decided to bring Emma home. Our rationale was that if this were a child, we wouldn't say, "Oh, we'll just wait for the next one." You love that child for everything they are. Yes, I realize Emma is not a human, but I still wouldn't reject her just because she has a handicap.
As it turns out, the problem lies within both of her legs. I took her to the vet several weeks ago for a round of vaccinations and the vet noticed her limping (she rarely limps and is still never in pain when she does) and waned to look at her legs a little closer. He tried to bend her legs back and NEITHER of them would! While her right leg does seem a little less tight, it is just as much a part of the problem as her left leg is. We haven't done any x-rays since her first ones were taken at 6 weeks, but are planning to.
Every now and then, well notice her left leg turned in completely or limping after a long nap. She hops rather than runs. But as I look at her sleep beside me (in the most awkward position possible) while I write this post, I cannot believe we ever thought about not keeping this dog.
Thanks for reading and God Bless!
-Shelley
When we met Emma, she was only 4 weeks old. At this point, puppies are just learning how to hold their head up and walk around (so they kind of look drunk wobbling from side to side). They sleep for most of the day and haven't really had a chance to show off their little personality too much. One area of concern for us is that Emma would turn out to be an alpha female. This is a personality trait that some breeds exhibit where a female (rather than a male) has the chance of having a dominant and aggressive personality. Severity of this personality trait can vary from growling to literally killing other female dogs that invade an alpha female's territory. Chad and I will have other dogs while we have Emma, so having a dog with an alpha personality was not an option.
About 2 1/2 weeks after we picked her out, I got a call from Ree (the breeder). She told be they had noticed a problem with Emma. I thought, "Oh [crap]. She's an alpha. We can't bring her home." Ree continued to tell me they had noticed that Emma didn't walk quite right. Instead of walking, she hopped. "Like a bunny," Ree said. She told me she was going to take Emma to the vet the following Monday and would let me know what he said, but that this could be a very serious thing that could affect her life. She also let me know that if we no longer wanted the puppy that she would be happy to refund our money and give us the option of choosing another puppy from an upcoming litter.
After I hung up, I was really disheartened. I had to keep a smile on my face because I was keeping our nephews for the weekend, but I just wanted to cry! I called Chad and he was just as upset about it as I was. There were really only two reasons why we wouldn't take this puppy. One would be if we couldn't give her the best life possible. This was why we chose a smaller sized dog as opposed to a large one. This would also cover and surgeries Emma would need that we couldn't afford. The second reason would be if her "condition" were permanent. Chad and I both get very attached to animals and neither of us could handle the thought of having to put her down six months into her life.
I waited as long as humanly possible to call Ree that Monday. She told me the x-ray the vet took showed absolutely nothing wrong with her leg. At least nothing wrong with her bones. X-rays do not show soft tissue. Puppies have something called growth plates. These are areas in their joints where bones form and they show up as empty spaces on and x-ray. If Emma had a growth plate injury, it would be permanent and nothing could be done to fix it. Ree invited us to come out that Thursday to see Emma and help us talk about everything.
We arrived on Thursday and picked Emma up out of the pin. It was easy to spot her because she was the only one with a serious limp. We brought her and her brother inside to play and observe her walking. Here's what we saw...
Seriously, watching these videos takes me back. She's so tiny!
We all concluded that it was her front left leg. You'll notice that she falls over when she tries to walk over a foot. You'll also notice that she is not in any pain. To this day, she has never seemed to be in pain what so ever. In fact, she had this attitude of "why doesn't everyone walk like this? Oh, I guess they're not special enough." She still has this attitude...
In this picture, You can actually see her left leg turned in (it's the all-white one).
After thinking and praying long and hard, we (obviously) decided to bring Emma home. Our rationale was that if this were a child, we wouldn't say, "Oh, we'll just wait for the next one." You love that child for everything they are. Yes, I realize Emma is not a human, but I still wouldn't reject her just because she has a handicap.
As it turns out, the problem lies within both of her legs. I took her to the vet several weeks ago for a round of vaccinations and the vet noticed her limping (she rarely limps and is still never in pain when she does) and waned to look at her legs a little closer. He tried to bend her legs back and NEITHER of them would! While her right leg does seem a little less tight, it is just as much a part of the problem as her left leg is. We haven't done any x-rays since her first ones were taken at 6 weeks, but are planning to.
Every now and then, well notice her left leg turned in completely or limping after a long nap. She hops rather than runs. But as I look at her sleep beside me (in the most awkward position possible) while I write this post, I cannot believe we ever thought about not keeping this dog.
Thanks for reading and God Bless!
-Shelley
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Trials in Dog Food....
As per my assignment (the primary reason for starting this blog), I put a poll up after my last post as to what y'all wanted me to write about his week. "Switching Emma's Food" won by a landslide. Okay, there was only one vote, but 100% is 100%! So here we go...
First of all, there are a few things you should know (if you don't already) about switching a dog's food. For one, the switch should not be an overnight thing. You need to start out with about 1/4 old and 3/4 new. After two days or so, bump up the ratio to about 1/2 old and new. Again, keep this ratio for another couple of days before moving to 3/4 new and 1/4 old. In (you guessed it) a couple of days, you can phase out the old food completely. If at any point your dog seems intolerant of the new food (diarrhea, vomiting, refusal to eat, etc.), give it up - they won't get used to it. However, I would like to add that puppies can throw up from eating too fast or too much.
Secondly, choose a good food! All dog foods have their ingredients listed on the back (or on the side) of the bag. These ingredients are listed in descending order of use. In other words, the first ingredient listed is used more than the second and so on and so forth. A food may claim to use "real chicken", but if it's 10 or 15 ingredients down the list, then it's probably not enough to make a difference. This is one of those things where you get what you pay for!
Third, choose the proper food for the type of dog you have. A puppy needs to be on puppy food for about 12 months. Some formulas are designed for the entire life of a dog (Natural Balance is one of these), but most will have separate formulas for puppy, adult, and senior. Some brands even have breed specific formulas.
Before we brought Emma home, Chad and I decided we were going to switch her to Science Diet. Not that we didn't like what the breeder had her on, but I had never heard of it and I thought Science diet was a good, quality food. When I was in high school, we (my family) fed it to our Bijon per vet recommendation. We started at 1/4 Science Diet, 3/4 PMI Exclusive (the food fromthe breeder). She loved the Science Diet and it didn't seem to cause her any trouble.
But then we got to 1/2 and 1/2. She started having blood in her stool (which ended up being a round worm....) and then an episode of really bad diarrhea. I freaked out. I thought she had Parvo and was going to die (because I'm paranoid like that). After talking to the breeder (Ree), we put her back on PMI and she was fine. Turns out Ree wasn't a fan of Science Diet to begin with, but she felt it should be our choice what we fed our dog. I looked at the ingredients of Science Diet and saw corn was the primary ingredient and chicken wasn't even on the list (chicken by-product meal is not the same thing as chicken). This wasn't the food for us to begin with (every "expert" I've spoken with has told me you want chicken as the main ingredient). At this point, Emma was only 7 1/2 weeks old. We decide that eventually we would try again, but for now we would just keep her on PMI.
I was worried Emma had a sensitive stomach and that was part of why she was so intolerant of the Science Diet. At home, we do not let Emma lick off the floor ever. However, as she has gotten a little older, we have noticed she quite enjoys earthworms and has been known to eat crayons when they are left on the floor. We started thinking that maybe we could try switching her again. She was now 18 1/2 weeks old. If you know me, you know that I research things before I buy them. Usually I only do this with "larger" purchases, but Emma's food was no exception. We decided to go with Eukanuba (You-kuh-new-buh). They use Chicken as the primary ingredient and are known as one of the best foods around. I also found out the brand is owned by Proctor & Gamble, and I always love me some P&G!
The only issue we had picking out Eukanuba is that they have three standard puppy formulas:
When we got home, I pulled one kibble out of the bag and gave it to Emma. She ate it! You should probably know that she is a little picky. She will not take treats from strangers - only Milkbones. Chad went ahead and filled her bowl with 1/4 cup Eukanuba and 3/4 cups PMI. She ate all of the Eukanuba and perhaps a kibble or two of the PMI. We both thought, "Oh crap. She is going to get sick!" All she had on her little tummy was new food that she had never had! We waited. She never threw up or acted like she had an upset tummy. She did nothing but look at us asking for more food. She still had a ton of food in her bowl, but it was all PMI (the old food). We repeated the same ratio that evening, this time mixing the two so the Eukanuba wouldn't just be on top. You see, sometimes when switching food on a dog, they will pick around the new food and only eat the old food that they're used to. We had the opposite with Miss Emma. She would grab a mouth full, spit it out on the carpet, pick through it, eating only the Eukanuba.
Again, when she was done, she just looked at us as to say, "More, please!" We knew she was hungry, but we didn't want to risk her getting sick by just switching over. The next evening, we went ahead and bumped up the ratio to 1/2 and 1/2. She still only ate the Eukanuba. We never noticed any change in her stool and she never threw up - it seemed to be working just fine! By the fourth day, we were giving her all Eukanuba with a splash of PMI on top. She probably wondered why the heck we were still giving her this food she wouldn't eat! We finally just stopped wasting dog food.
Now having been on Eukanuba for a week, Emma seems to be doing great! She seems to actually be gaining weight (she was the runt of the litter - so this is a good thing) and has more energy - although the energy may be a side effect of her growing up. I am really pleased with this food. I feel she is getting the nutrition she needs and is a more energetic pup. So if anyone needs a bag of PMI Exclusive Puppy Formula that has about a cup missing from it, give me a call!
God Bless!
-Shelley
First of all, there are a few things you should know (if you don't already) about switching a dog's food. For one, the switch should not be an overnight thing. You need to start out with about 1/4 old and 3/4 new. After two days or so, bump up the ratio to about 1/2 old and new. Again, keep this ratio for another couple of days before moving to 3/4 new and 1/4 old. In (you guessed it) a couple of days, you can phase out the old food completely. If at any point your dog seems intolerant of the new food (diarrhea, vomiting, refusal to eat, etc.), give it up - they won't get used to it. However, I would like to add that puppies can throw up from eating too fast or too much.
Secondly, choose a good food! All dog foods have their ingredients listed on the back (or on the side) of the bag. These ingredients are listed in descending order of use. In other words, the first ingredient listed is used more than the second and so on and so forth. A food may claim to use "real chicken", but if it's 10 or 15 ingredients down the list, then it's probably not enough to make a difference. This is one of those things where you get what you pay for!
Third, choose the proper food for the type of dog you have. A puppy needs to be on puppy food for about 12 months. Some formulas are designed for the entire life of a dog (Natural Balance is one of these), but most will have separate formulas for puppy, adult, and senior. Some brands even have breed specific formulas.
Before we brought Emma home, Chad and I decided we were going to switch her to Science Diet. Not that we didn't like what the breeder had her on, but I had never heard of it and I thought Science diet was a good, quality food. When I was in high school, we (my family) fed it to our Bijon per vet recommendation. We started at 1/4 Science Diet, 3/4 PMI Exclusive (the food fromthe breeder). She loved the Science Diet and it didn't seem to cause her any trouble.
I guess dinner was good...
But then we got to 1/2 and 1/2. She started having blood in her stool (which ended up being a round worm....) and then an episode of really bad diarrhea. I freaked out. I thought she had Parvo and was going to die (because I'm paranoid like that). After talking to the breeder (Ree), we put her back on PMI and she was fine. Turns out Ree wasn't a fan of Science Diet to begin with, but she felt it should be our choice what we fed our dog. I looked at the ingredients of Science Diet and saw corn was the primary ingredient and chicken wasn't even on the list (chicken by-product meal is not the same thing as chicken). This wasn't the food for us to begin with (every "expert" I've spoken with has told me you want chicken as the main ingredient). At this point, Emma was only 7 1/2 weeks old. We decide that eventually we would try again, but for now we would just keep her on PMI.
*sigh*
I was worried Emma had a sensitive stomach and that was part of why she was so intolerant of the Science Diet. At home, we do not let Emma lick off the floor ever. However, as she has gotten a little older, we have noticed she quite enjoys earthworms and has been known to eat crayons when they are left on the floor. We started thinking that maybe we could try switching her again. She was now 18 1/2 weeks old. If you know me, you know that I research things before I buy them. Usually I only do this with "larger" purchases, but Emma's food was no exception. We decided to go with Eukanuba (You-kuh-new-buh). They use Chicken as the primary ingredient and are known as one of the best foods around. I also found out the brand is owned by Proctor & Gamble, and I always love me some P&G!
The only issue we had picking out Eukanuba is that they have three standard puppy formulas:
- Small Breed Puppy - for puppies that will be 20 lbs. and under at maturity (Emma will be heavier than 20 lbs. - maybe)
- Large Breed Puppy - for puppies that will be 51 lbs. and over at maturity (Emma will be nowhere near 51 lbs. - unless we're the world's worst parents)
- Puppy Growth formula - recommended for puppies 1-12 months (but no weight? Why not 21 lbs. - 50 lbs.? I need more direction!!)
When we got home, I pulled one kibble out of the bag and gave it to Emma. She ate it! You should probably know that she is a little picky. She will not take treats from strangers - only Milkbones. Chad went ahead and filled her bowl with 1/4 cup Eukanuba and 3/4 cups PMI. She ate all of the Eukanuba and perhaps a kibble or two of the PMI. We both thought, "Oh crap. She is going to get sick!" All she had on her little tummy was new food that she had never had! We waited. She never threw up or acted like she had an upset tummy. She did nothing but look at us asking for more food. She still had a ton of food in her bowl, but it was all PMI (the old food). We repeated the same ratio that evening, this time mixing the two so the Eukanuba wouldn't just be on top. You see, sometimes when switching food on a dog, they will pick around the new food and only eat the old food that they're used to. We had the opposite with Miss Emma. She would grab a mouth full, spit it out on the carpet, pick through it, eating only the Eukanuba.
I was left with a floor full of dog food....
Again, when she was done, she just looked at us as to say, "More, please!" We knew she was hungry, but we didn't want to risk her getting sick by just switching over. The next evening, we went ahead and bumped up the ratio to 1/2 and 1/2. She still only ate the Eukanuba. We never noticed any change in her stool and she never threw up - it seemed to be working just fine! By the fourth day, we were giving her all Eukanuba with a splash of PMI on top. She probably wondered why the heck we were still giving her this food she wouldn't eat! We finally just stopped wasting dog food.
Now having been on Eukanuba for a week, Emma seems to be doing great! She seems to actually be gaining weight (she was the runt of the litter - so this is a good thing) and has more energy - although the energy may be a side effect of her growing up. I am really pleased with this food. I feel she is getting the nutrition she needs and is a more energetic pup. So if anyone needs a bag of PMI Exclusive Puppy Formula that has about a cup missing from it, give me a call!
God Bless!
-Shelley
Sunday, September 5, 2010
A Herding Dog in Cow Town
Howdy, everyone! So I must begin this post by saying...
GO FROGS!
After a few heart attacks and some *rowdy* fans, my darling Frogs pulled out a win!
My mom and step dad came up (from Houston) for the game - but mostly to see what my mom calls "her grandpuppy." Chad spent Saturday morning helping his dad out with a football game in North Dallas so I took Mom and Glenn (that's my step dad) to the Fort Worth Stockyards. Chad had pointed out to me that morning that with Emma being in her kennel all night while we were at the game, we probably didn't want to lock her up all morning either. I felt bad that I hadn't even thought about that. Solution: take Emma to the stockyards.
I wasn't sure if there was a policy towards dogs at the stockyards so I went to their website but didn't see anything about dogs. I figured at least the street was (more than likely) public property, so we loaded up the car and went. When we got there, I shortened her leash and tried to sneak past the guard at the parking lot (should he tell me, "No dogs allowed!"). Luckily, he walked away at the last second. We walked down the street to the train tracks and just about everyone made some comment about how cute she was. I never know what to do in those situations. Do you acknowledge that they are talking about your dog or just keep walking? It's awkward.
Once we got to the "train area" (because I don't know what else to call it), I told Mom and Glenn to go into any store they wanted and I would happily wait outside with Emma. Of course each time they went into a store, about 15 or 20 people would swarm around wanting to pet her. Of course they were mostly kids. When Emma gets excited, she tucks her ears back and wags her butt so fast it almost throws her whole body off balance. It's adorable. She would waddle over to the kids and just smile while they covered her with rubs. I was shocked at the number of people who had no idea what breed she was. I have learned that Corgis are not the most well known breed, but seriously. Only about 3 people said "What a cute Corgi!" (and they were all men).
*Side story* I took her into Discount tire a few weeks ago (I was leaving for Fort Worth from Houston - that's why I actually took her with me) and as I was waiting in line, a Father and his two daughters walked in and stood behind me. Emma of course wanted to go play with them. I told the little girls that they were welcome to pet her if they would like to. They looked at they dad for approval as he nodded. While the girls were on the floor petting Emma, their dad asked me, "What kind of dog is she?" I answered, "A Pembroke Welsh Corgi." He then proceeded to ask, "What's that?" I wanted to respond, "It's a dog," but instead I stumbled out "It's a type of herding dog." Honestly, I had no idea what to say! What do you mean, "What's that?" Do you think I made it up? Oh well... back to my main post....
As mentioned last week, Emma has a bad leg leading her to hop rather than run. This gets her tired out pretty quickly. She hopped all the way down the end of the shops (about 1/4 mile - maybe - I don't know) then sat and looked at me as to say, "Alright, I'm ready to be picked up, Mom." I had her walk about half of the way back and then sat to take a short break. My mom bought a bottle of water for her to drink out of, but she wasn't too sure about this new mechanism. We got back up and kept going. About a block away from the car, I decided that she'd had enough and picked her up. At this point, she had walked about a mile and had been out and about for around three hours. I have never seen a more exhausted dog. The whole way home she kept dozing off then would wake up real quick if she heard a noise or something. It made me relax a little knowing that she would be sleeping most of the time we were gone.
She was a champ! Not a single accident (she hasn't had one in two months anyways)! She was a little slow getting to bed last night, but eventually passed out. Every time I take her out, I gain a little more confidence in her. I'm so glad I have a dog that everyone can pet and I don't have to worry about biting or growling. Can I say I have the best dog in the world?
I will leave y'all with a couple of pictures of Emma - some when she was younger (since y'all missed the first 17 weeks of her life). Hope you enjoy!
Taken today - with toys in the background.
Waking up from a nap...
The day we brought her home... What happened to my baby?
Sleeping - still her favorite past time.
God Bless!
-Shelley
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