Wrapping Up April
Vada had another checkup with Dr Julia. She needed a few adjustments but Dr Julia let us go out 6 weeks for the next appointment. If she’s staying sound then we’ll start reducing her gabapentin! And since the snow just melted I can start doing jump grids with her outside too.
Thursday morning Mom and I drove to the Hitchcock Nature Center to stay in “my” cabin for the Tracy seminar. We had a winter storm starting and Tracy’s flight got canceled so we were starting late on Friday. It was tempting to just not go but we did. There were lots of accidents on the Twin Cities roads but once we got out of the metro area the snow turned to rain and there were less jerks on the road. It wasn’t a bad trip. Our last potty/gas stop was cold and super windy though. We stopped at Pizza Ranch a few miles from the cabin for dinner. It was a little town and the food was very good.
We got to the cabin and unloaded and then let the dogs come in the cabin. Letty hit the wood floor and freaked and started climbing on the luggage. LOL I brought in some crate mats so she could walk on them until she adjusted. Vada promptly started humping the couch pillow. Then we took the girls on a hike before it got dark out. Later in the night Vada was not feeling well. And she was acting odd. Just lying on the couch and she’d lie on the bed on top of my pillows looking miserable.
Tracy’s flight didn’t make it til late Friday night so the seminar on Friday got canceled. I was just auditing. Bummed to miss that information but nothing anyone could do. And everyone tried. Instead we got to sleep in as late as we wanted and go on a few hikes.
Friday Vada was feeling worse. In the morning she was lying across my neck and when I tried to get up she laid her head down and pressed her body against me. It looked like maybe her muzzle was swollen. When I pressed on it she yelped. I contacted Christy and got the name of her vet clinic. I went back and forth on if a vet visit was necessary. Harder decision when you are out of town and don’t know the vet. Having a referral helped. I decided to bring her in so we drove in to Omaha with plans to stop at Cracker Barrel for dinner on the way back. The clinic was really nice and the vet was nice. He thought she was having an allergic reaction – maybe to a bug bite. She’s on a low dose of pred for her allergies and he thought that maybe that kept her whole face from blowing up. So we incresed her pred and put her on Zyrtec since Benedryl doesn’t work for her. We needed to stop at the store anyways so it worked out well.
Saturday was my day to work with Letty – medium dog day. LOL She did amazing! She kept her drive level up even though we kept redoing things and she had weave pole failures. She held her start line on a 4 jump lead out and while we chatted. She handled some difficult challenges. I was very proud of her and her progress. The last session involved a start line by all of the people and dogs watching too. Lots of perssure. And it was the longest lead out.
Mom stayed at the cabin and relaxed all day and started on a new book. Once I got back we went for a hike and then made a fire, grilled hot dogs and made smores. Mom’s first time having smores! It was fun! Vada was feeling better and better too.
Sunday I went to the seminar to audit and then went back to the cabin over lunch to get Mom and pack up the van. She hung out at the seminar and read her book for a bit, watched for a bit and then we headed home. The drive home was pretty uneventful. Light rain off and on. There was less snow on the ground when we got home so we were happy about that.
Last week we had major blockage issues with Narc. Monday morning he vomited all his breakfast. He would not eat after that and kept vomiting bile and water and drinking alot. Tuesday he went to the vet and Dr Jina removed 2 bones from his bum that were stuck to the side of his track. Unfortunately he did not get better. I was force feeding him baby food to try to get him to eat but he was vomiting it back out. He was looking really bad Wednesday night. Thursday he went back to the vet. Another xray showed another bone in his system that we did not see on Tuesday’s xray. Dr Jina was not able to squeeze in an xray that night so he got a lot of fluids and another penicillian show and some pain meds. He seemed to be doing a little better and he got a little better as the night went on. Friday I worked from home so I could bring him to the vet and then bring him home as soon as he was ready. On a whim I put a Gentle Leader on Narc (so he would not eat anything before surgery) and walked him around the front yard. Amazingly he not only pooped but he pooped out the bone! We still went in for our appointment and the xray showed he was clear. He’s on meds and only cooked food for a week to help heal his intestional system. He’s feeling so much better now!
Saturday and Sunday was a USDAA agility trial at On the Run. The courses were challenging and had a lot of the newer types of challenges. I only had 1 Q between the 3 dogs (Narc got pulled). But that Q finished Letty’s Performance Dog (PD) title and now she’s in P2 for everything (P3 for Snooker). Vada had a few runs that were just 1 bar or 1 table from being a Q. Seven had a nice Jumpers run on Sunday but pulled off a jump. Karl played on Saturday only. His 1 Q was with Sonic in P1 Snooker.
The next USDAA trial was supposed to be an outdoor trial this coming weekend and the club decided to cancel it since we’ve having such a late spring and the dead grass would be slippery.
Sunday was also Copper’s birthday. Still miss him a lot but it doesn’t seem to hurt as much.
