Puppy Liberation League: Update 1
November 14, 2014
Seamus is still with us, still going strong.
He’s a dear dog, in his own silly ways, and is doing surprisingly well with the transition considering he’s had to be shuttled hundreds of miles and spent a lot of time with near-strangers over the past few months.
We’re working through his health problems, it’s taking a lot of elbow grease, and an incredible amount of cooperation from him. Doggle was always a sweetheart but even he occasionally had opinions about being tended to.
His ears have probably never been cleaned. We spent an hour with his head in my lap as I worked out all the guck with cotton balls, gauze pads and the occasional Q-tip.Ā (Word of warning: Vets don’t really like for people to use Q-tips. They’re easy to lose in long ear canals. But since I’ve done this a million times and have done it both professionally and with professional supervision, I’m comfortable with it.)
His nails have probably never been trimmed. I snuck up on him during a nap and trimmed them… a few minutes after I was done and left, he cracked open an eyelid.
His skin still looks pretty bad. All the scabs and bumps from his condition are still not resolved, but it doesn’t look red, angry and patchy anymore. We think he may always be on some kind of medication, given the as-yet undiagnosed condition and how slow it’s been to respond to a LOT of care.
Regular medications. Without Doggle around, it takes a LOT more effort to get this guy to take his medications.Ā Doggle always lurked during the pill rolling (I use pill pockets so we didn’t always have to pill them), so Seamus was convinced anything I offered was going to be fantastic and he couldn’t swallow it fast enough. No competition = no motivation, apparently! The plus side, though, is that PiC has learned how to pill a fairly cooperative dog, so there’s that š
Needles needles needles. With no vaccine history that I know of, we had to subject Seamus to the full battery of vaccines and he’ll have to get boosters next year. After that, he’ll be fine to transition to a 3 year schedule.
But the biggest thing was his surgery. At his age, I hated to put him under anesthesia but he really needed to be fixed for obvious reasons and as he was at risk for cancer. PiC’s convinced that being the drop-off man means that Seamus held a grudge about the surgery but after a few days on pain meds, the old boy is nearly good as new. The vet gave us a huge discount (about 33%) and the bill still pushed $900. Thank goodness for savings.
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It’s been a rough few months but he’s such a trooper and chock full of personality. I’m still glad we decided to commit to it.
Wow! Dogs are a lot of work, aren’t they?
My vet said it was OK to use a Q-tip as long as you don’t stick it into the ear canal, the part that goes forward into the head toward the eye socket. Somewhere I read (but have not tried) that you can use olive oil on cotton bolls or pads to wipe the gunk out of the dog’s ears. Ruby jerks her head around so much whenever you try to touch her ears, I’m afraid to mess with things like Q-tips.
What do you suppose is the issue with his skin condition? I’ve had two dogs that were allergic to bermudagrass…anything growing in California that might cause rash or hives?
None of my first pack were ever this much work, even with chronic ear and skin problems, so it averages out but here’s hoping a cure will stick!
Qtips: I think YMMV with the vet and their experiences with people who get it right vs. wrong, and with the animals who may be extra sensitive to ear touching. I know a big guy who will slink off scowling if you even joke you’re going to touch his ears and I wouldn’t venture to wrassle him unless the need was dire. He’s sweet but ENORMOUS.
Skin: PLENTY of things growing in CA that he could be allergic to but he’s been pretty well removed from the original environment so it’s nothing indigenous to SoCal at least. Could be environmental still, could be food, could be .. geesh any number of things. Skin conditions are the pits.
Ruby seems to have food issues, too. Right now she’s off beef and grains and is looking better. Don’t know which, if either, of these is a problem but think beef is more likely: her ears really flared after she got ahold of a rawhide chew toy.
Sounds like you’ve slowly been getting these issues under control. Hope they go away sooner or later…or make that sooner THAN later!
S-L-O-W-L-Y. We seem to go back and forth so we’ll keep working at it.
How old is Seamus? I knew he wasn’t a puppy but I didn’t realize he was an older doggy but that much.
I don’t rightly recall/know but I think he’s past the 10 year mark.
Awe it’s so sad to see our pets get older. š I have a cat getting up there in age and relish his cute existence every day!
Isn’t it? I want to remind everyone to give their pets a huge hug every day.
Could it be allergy related? Natures Variety raw food did wonders for Boris. I have my fingers crossed that you keep him forevs.
Very likely allergy related, but we’re working on nailing down exactly what he might be allergic to. We’ll be elimination-testing his food soon.
I’m so lucky that my nearly 12 year old dog is still very healthy. Yes, she’s slowed down a bit and sleeps a more than when she was younger, but her blood work a few months ago was good. A chance x-ray for something else also showed her free of arthritis in her spine, which the vet said was very good for her age. She has had higher anxiety than normal with the disruption to her life because of the move, but she’s been OK. And I’m really grateful she’s on this journey with me because she is such a comfort to me. We’re sort of mutual comfort to each other, I guess. š
That’s pretty awesome – I hope you have MANY more good years together.