This post doesn’t have to do with people romance but rather the loss of our beloved animal companions. Since I own a lot of dogs I also have to deal with this loss more frequently than many pet owners do. Each time I have had a particularly hard loss it seems that a needy dog has appeared, perhaps sent by the other one from across the Rainbow Bridge.

Buster is one of those who I believe was sent for a reason. Buster is a pug that I meant to foster for the pug rescue and find him the right forever home. I was still grieving for my Lily (my first ever pug) even though it had been months since her death. Buster was rapidly dumped off at our home by his previous (and 3rd) owner and it was apparent the frequent switching of homes had left him with some baggage. Despite the baggage (upset/screaming if crated, separation anxiety, hanging on your legs when you tried to go through a door, etc.) he had redeeming qualities, too. He loved to play with my big dogs once he adjusted to them but wasn’t too interested in my other pugs. He was immediately retrieving balls and playing “tug” with toys. A dog like this needs a job, not to sit on someone’s lap and I think my husband expressed the thought first that we really should just keep him. The very first night we had Buster he was so distressed I decided to take him to bed with us and he snuggled up against me in the same spot Lily always did. I realized he had been sent by her to comfort me but I didn’t want to let myself love him. I took him to a couple of obedience classes and then I took him to an agility class. He took to it immediately although we had to work through the distractions of other dogs working and him wanting to just run off and do his own thing. We switched to a smaller class which helped a lot with his focus. At this point he is improving on being crated, we have gone to matches, done some agility demos and even been in a couple of trials now. He has his first agility title but we are still working on being a team.

Today we went to another agility match. He has trialed at this same place and often tries to run out of the ring so I was prepared to deal with that and give him positive reinforcement for coming back to me. Much to my surprise and delight not only did he run both courses fast and accurately but he never once tried to leave the ring. When we left the building after his second run I felt like I now had an agility teammate. I realized that loving Buster does not take away from the love I have for my Lily but it does help her loss not hurt so badly now.

As we got to the car I heard a sandhill crane in the distance. This is in town and I’ve not heard sandhills at that place before. Soon it was closer and it was then I felt my Lily’s presence. Ironically this week was the 4 year anniversary since she left me. I think she was telling me “I’m still watching over you, good job.”. I’m glad no one saw me crying out by the car.

If you are interested, these are two other blog posts about the messengers who my dogs have sent to me in the past.

Messengers From Beyond

Turbo Now Has Wings

Yesterday I had a great opportunity to educate the general public about the fun of dog agility. I was asked to do a demo at a 10th anniversary celebration for Country View Vet Clinic. They had booths, educational talks, vendors and many demos such as dressage, polo, natural horsemanship, sheep herding, canine freestyle and my agility demo. We were given a large round pen to use so it was fenced which pleased my students but a naughty little pug was able to easily slip under it. I ran Buster, my rescued pug, at the very end of the demo when I had finished announcing and said people were welcome to watch me practice with my dogs so they understood he was new to it.

He did the first jump, went off to sniff, did second jump, dog walk and a jump, sniffed, then did the tunnel, then ran under the ring fence to pee, then did a jump, then back to the edge to pee, etc. However this was an improvement since in the past he would have run off to go after other dogs, run after horses, etc. which he didn’t and each time he returned to work he got a bunch of treats. Very humbling but it was a good example to the spectators of how to be positive when your dog does ANYTHING right. My husband, who came to help haul equipment and has never been to a trial, got a lot of laughs out of his behavior……

Of course Jazz was crazy since it was cool out and she had to wait in the car for the very end! The crowd loved her though.

It was a fun thing to do, we had a great crowd and I appreciate all my wonderful students taking time out of their day to run in the demo. And a big thanks to Tracy Jane Photography for sending me these great photos from the demo.

Today was neuter day for Archie, a rescue we took in back in Nov. (terrier/lab mix), nail trim under sedation for Buster (rescue pug) and rabies shot for Sprout (Sprite’s sister). Sprite’s rabies shot is to be delayed for 1 month due to her infection and surgery.

Sprout and Sprite are 5 years old. At age 4 months Sprout had an anaphylactic reaction to the rabies shot a few minutes after it was given (while at the vet clinic fortunately). So at age 1 we gave her benadryl prior to her 1 year rabies vaccine and she was watched all day at the vet clinic and did fine. Sprite has not had an issue with vaccines. I premedicated Sprout with benadryl about 45 min. before she had her rabies shot today. I sat at the vet clinic another 1/2 hour while Buster had his nails done and she was fine so took her and Buster home. I had taken the day off and stayed home and watched her all day. I took her with me when I went to pick Archie up from his neuter and checked her before going into the clinic, no problems. About 15 to 20 min. after getting home from that second trip to the vet clinic, her eyelids started looking puffy and I noticed her itching. I gave her a benadryl, called the clinic and told them if she wasn’t better in 30 min. I was bringing her in. Thirty minutes later her muzzle was swelling so back in the car for the 3rd trip to the vet clinic today and the 7th trip to a vet clinic this week. Her face and head were more puffy by the time we got there and it is only 10 min. away. My vet was gone but another vet was fortunately still there (it was 15 min. away from closing time). So he gave her a benadryl injection and a steroid injection and I sat there 15 min. so we could watch her. The swelling got a bit better over that time and is almost gone now. She will NEVER get another rabies shot — vet said they will give me a letter saying “this dog is not a candidate for rabies vaccine” when it is next due. I just won’t take the chance. She’s due for her 5 in one shot but I’m not sure I will do that one either after this.

Vaccine reactions are not uncommon in pugs. I am on several pug e-mail lists and this subject comes up several times per year. In fact I personally know of pugs that have died from reactions to their vaccines. Most knowledgeable pug people also avoid giving the lepto and kennel cough vaccines due to an increase in reactions to those. As a nurse I do know that vaccines prevent illness and save lives but in some cases the risk of the illness is less than the risk of illness/death from getting the vaccine and for Sprout this is now the case. This is also why I never give more than one vaccine to any of my dogs in any given day — otherwise how would I know which one they were reacting to? Of note is that Marigold, one of the mini-donkeys, also had a similar but even more dramatic reaction to a rabies shot a couple of years ago. We no longer vaccinate any of our equines for rabies.

If you have dogs long enough you will probably see many different illnesses and conditions.  Pyometra was one we fortunately had not encountered until this weekend.

Pyometra is a uterine infection so can only happen to intact female dogs.  Thus if your female  dog is a pet, not being shown or used for breeding, spaying them will prevent this from happening.    Here are a couple of links if you want to learn more:

http://www.squidoo.com/pyometra

http://petcare.suite101.com/article.cfm/pyometra

One of our pugs, Sprite, had been in season earlier in the month.  A couple of days ago I noted that she seemed a little droopy and was not eating as quickly as usual.  Next she started drinking huge amounts of water, to the point she was obsessed with the water bowl and would drink until I either removed her or the bowl from the area.  I knew this was not normal behavior and could be the first sign of pyometra so I started taking her temperature.  Her temperature remained normal but yesterday she didn’t eat her breakfast at all, again, very unlike her.   I checked on her a couple of hours later and her bowl still had breakfast in it so I picked her up and really looked her over.  It was then that I saw drainage from her vulva that looked like pus.  It was a Sunday (of course, any vet emergency I have usually involves a weekend or holiday….sigh…..) so my regular vet was closed.  There are several emergency animal clinics and a vet school within 20 min.

The vet school recently opened a 24/7 emergency clinic so since they’d seen Sprite there before (for eye surgery) I opted to take her there.  Bloodwork was run and an abdominal x-ray done which confirmed a suspicion of pyometra.  There are two types of pyometra — open (where the cervix is open and drainage can flow out of the uterus) and closed (the cervix is closed so infection is contained in the uterus which is much more dangerous and can lead to toxicty and death rapidly).   Sprite’s type was fortunately “open pyometra”.   The option was to have them call in a surgical team and immediately spay her (only cure) at a huge cost or have her stay overnight and they would give her an IV and IV antibiotics then I could move her to my vet’s in the a.m. as they could spay her for less.  I decided, based on the fact her labwork showed infection but no toxicity, to bring her home on antibiotics, monitor her all night myself then drive her to my vet in the a.m. for surgery.

I got her to my vet shortly after they opened.  The vet school had already faxed all the lab work and info.  My vet immediately took her to surgery after starting an IV and giving her IV antibiotics (this is important to do).  A little over an hour later he called me to tell me surgery was over and she was doing fine, even sitting up already.   Her uterus was 6 to 7 times its normal size due to the infection so it was a good thing I got her right in.

She is home tonight and doing well.  I am thankful I realized what was going on right away and had the knowledge to know what to do for her.