Hydrogen peroxide and a turkey baster

Why do these things happen to me when my husband isn't at home? Dog crises always happen when I'm home alone. Yesterday, I found that Cassie had lost her ID tag. Not a terrible crisis, but still...

And this morning on our run, an event occurred that led me to panic like I never have before. Even when Greta drank power steering fluid two years ago. (Although looking back, I think that was probably worse).

Some neighbors have left old pizza crust at their curb for days now. We've been able to avoid it until today. Greta quickly gobbled up a piece of it before I could do anything about it. And I quickly remembered an old co-worker telling us about her dog dying after eating moldy bread. The vet told her that the mold attached the dog's insides.

I don't know if the pizza crust was moldy, but I wasn't taking any chances so I wanted to get Greta home and get her to throw up. When we got home, I called the vet's office, and sounded like a loon. I usually do when I call there. The vet said that if the pizza crust was moldy it probably wasn't safe for her. And if there was meat on the pizza still it was definitely bad and she shouldn't have that. So she suggested I get some hydrogen peroxide and give it to her through a turkey baster. Three turkey basters full would do the trick for my 60-pound dog, she said.

I rushed out to the store to buy both items, cursing the whole time. When I arrived back at the house I realized I had no idea how to use a turkey baster. After two unsuccessful attempts, I figured it out and headed outside to the backyard. I instructed Greta to hop up on the crate and gave her a few drops of the yummy hydrogren peroxide. She didn't seem to mind it, so the first turkey baster-full went to easy. The second one was a different story. Only about half of that went down, a little forcefully, with me holding her mouth open. She then jumped off the crate and wandered around the yard for about 10 seconds before throwing up her breakfast.

I guess the pizza crust was in there, it was hard to tell among the kibble bits. I had to quickly clean it up because she wanted to eat it.

And alas, that was my morning. I saved my dog's life.

Perhaps for nothing? Perhaps. But I'm now armed with my turkey baster for next time.

Two years with our sweet Cassie

Cassie's first day at home, Aug. 29, 2006.

Two years ago, on August 29, 2006, we adopted Cassie from the Burlington Pet Adoption Center, where we also adopted Greta, in Burlington, NC. She was only 6 months old.

We had decided that Greta needed a friend, a companion, a brother or sister. We put a lot of thought into it. But we didn't really know what breed of dog we wanted. (Yes, all you dog trainers out there can get on my case now). I think we knew we didn't want a dog that was as big as Greta. A medium-sized dog would be good. We just knew we needed to rescue another dog.

So we headed to the shelter to see who was waiting for us. We also are drawn to nonbarkers at the shelters. I immediately saw this little border collie looking kinda pitiful in her cage. So I wanted to check her out. Then my husband wanted to check out this other male dog. I don't even know what breed he was. So we were able to take both of them out to the play area. The border collie just wanted to play. She was all over the place, bounding here and there. She wouldn't come to us (a sign of things to come I suppose) and was just excited to be free. The male dog was very sweet and cuddly. He immediately won me over. But my husband wasn't sure. He kind of liked the energy of the border collie.

We decided that really, this was Greta's decision. So I stayed with the two pups, while my husband went home to get Greta. About 10 minutes later, he arrived with Greta to let her check out these two options for a new brother or a new sister. There was lots of sniffing, some peeing, some circling. And then a fight broke out between the two potential candidates. The male was on top of the female. And Greta got in the middle of it to protect the female border collie from the male attacker.

So we knew Greta had made her decision on which dog to protect, so based on that we had made our decision on which dog to bring home: our sweet border collie, Cassie.

Cassie lost weight!!!!!!

Cassie weighed in today at 50.5 lbs., that's down 3.4 pounds from her last visit! YIPPEE!!!!!!

I'm so proud of her! Of the whole family really, we've been working so hard for her to lose weight. And the vet said that she really only needed to lose two more pounds to be at a healthy weight. Piece of cake! Errr, green beans I mean!

Good news for sick pups

N.C. State to perform marrow transplants — on dogs

Thursday, September 4

(updated 8:30 am)

By The Associated Press

RALEIGH (AP) — North Carolina State University's cancer treatment program has gone to the dogs.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reported today that the school is about to become the first in the country to offer bone marrow transplants for dogs suffering from lymphoma.

Dr. Steven Suter says the College of Veterinary Medicine plans to begin performing the $15,000 procedures in about a month.

The assistant oncology professor arranged for N.C. State to accept three donated leukophoresis machines from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. The machines harvest healthy stem cells from canine patients and then reintroduce them into the bloodstream.

To be eligible for a bone marrow transplant, a dog must weigh 55 pounds or more.

http://www.news-record.com/content/2008/09/04/article/nc_state_to_perform_marrow_transplants_on_dogs

An amendment...

Yesterday I made a list of the worst things about owning a dog. Today I'd like to add a couple things to that list. When I got home yesterday, Greta was sick. She wouldn't eat her dinner, and she had this dazed look on her face.

So I'd like to add to the list:

Vomiting and Not being able to help your dog when she's sick.

THE VOMITING: I think that speaks for itself. Is it worse than the poo? Yeah, probably. But I guess you don't have to deal with it as often, at least I don't, so I didn't really think about it until last night when Greta was vomiting all night. I don't really know what was wrong with her. We've already established she's our sickly dog. I went and grabbed our neighbor across the street who's in vet school. He checked her out and said she seemed ok, maybe a little dehydrated. He guessed she probably ate something that was just lodged in her abdomen that she was just trying to get out. This morning I did a sweep of the yard and cleaned up all the vomit. YUCK.

NOT BEING ABLE TO HELP YOUR DOG WHEN SHE'S SICK: I assume this is how mother's feel when their child is sick. I don't have kids, so I don't know. But I felt so bad that I couldn't do anything for Greta. And she wasn't acting right. She wasn't looking at me, she didn't want to cuddle with me. She wouldn't lick my face. It was breaking my heart. I felt helpless and it sucked.

I'm happy to report that Greta seemed to be doing well this morning though. She ate some food and licked my face like normal. :)

Worst things about owning a dog

I'd like to take inventory of the worst things about owning a dog. There are just so many fabulous things that I just don't think I have enough space to type them. But I think I have the time and energy to make a list of the worst things. So here goes.


THE SHEDDING. Hair over here, hair over there, hair everywhere. Hair in clumps. Hair in the carpet, clogging up the vacuum cleaner. Hair in the backseat of my car. Hair in my mouth.

THE MUD-STAINED CLOTHES. Greta's a jumper. Always has been, always will be. I have a collection of clothes that will be permanently stained with mud and dirt from her paws because she has jumped on me consistently every time I walk out the back door. I now am sure to change into those clothes before I walk outside.

THE VET BILLS: I would bet we pay more for their medications and vet visits in a year than we pay for my husband and I. It's expensive. Especially with Miss Sickly (Greta). But we do buy their medications through an online catalog instead of at the vet's office, so that cuts down on costs a little bit.

THE POO: This is probably the biggest one. The worst of the worst. Who likes poo? Not me. I wish I had some statistics on dog owners who don't pick up after their dogs in public places. I'm betting it's at least half of dog owners. Well I'm a responsible dog owner. I pick up after my dogs. But I generally don't have the opportunity to. They usually do their business in our yard. It's a rare occasion when they poo on the walks. Cassie has only ONCE pooed outside of our backyard. Greta used to pretty regularly when we walked in the afternoon. But now that we walk in the morning, I just don't think the timing is right. So what happens is, our backyard ends up a stinkfest. A nasty, smelly land of poo. If I was dedicated, I would go around with my handy grocery store bag and pick up daily. But I'm not. I wait until the weekend, until it smells like I put my head in our garbage can. At least the girls generally don't congregate in the area of the yard where they do their business.

So what am I missing? Tell me what your least-favorite parts of owning a dog are.