I've often joked that my smallest (and youngest) dog will be the death of me. She's a Hoover vacuum, sucking up anything and everything in her path. She scarfs food down as if every meal is her last, and most recently she's taken up eating earthworms in the backyard when she's supposed to be going potty.
The first day she was sick, I didn't panic. We're used to her eating treebark and other paraphernalia in the yard and throwing it all up later. So when I saw foreign objects in the mess, I dismissed her upset stomach as resulting from her usual outdoor antics. The rest of that week, however, she continued to show signs of an upset stomach. We finally put together, and I think we're right, that she'd chomp on a few live earthworms during each A.M. trip outside and spend the rest of her day paying the price for it. It became a week of inspecting turds and vomit for the root of her problem, hence the title of this blog post.
It's always something with my sweet little baby. In the spring, she likes to eat little white flowers (weeds) that grow in our backyard. In the summer, it's earthworms--mostly the crunchy, dried up ones--which don't seem to give her any problems. Finally, in the autumn months, we'll see her sniffing out acorns. I try to prevent her from eating any, if possible, since I found out through "googling" that they contain toxins and should not be ingested in large quantities.
The jury is still out on whether she will be the death of me or not, but I do spend a significant amount of time worrying about her health. Pets are like perpetual babies. They can't tell you what's hurting, and they depend on their owners to provide proper care. That's why I invest time and money as needed to ensure that my dogs are properly vaccinated and/or protected from disease, parasites, etc. Likewise, I try to pick up on any unusual behavior that might indicate a serious contition so that I may schedule a trip to the vet if necessary.
On that subject, the vet's office either loves me or hates me. I certainly pay them a great deal for services and medicine, and if I had a couple more pets, could probably keep their practice in business singlehandedly. On the other hand, it's probable that they are annoyed by my frequent calls and questions. I have been known to call the "emergency" number after hours regarding circumstances that end up not being emergencies. But my philosophy is that they shouldn't put one of the vet's phone numbers on the answering machine if they don't want me calling it. Because I will, and I have.
My husband tries to discourage me from researching doggy symptoms on the Internet because inevitably I'll find worst-case-scenario, life-threatening conditions to link them to. Is it possible to be a hypochondriac for your pet? If so, I think I could be certifiably diagnosed. It's both a blessing and a curse that websites like protectyourdogfromthings.com and petmd.com exist on the World Wide Web.
But enough on this subject. I have worried myself into a frenzy.
No comments:
Post a Comment