Time4ANap

Hey Lila, Petunia wants to know if you need the Union Rep?

Happy Gotcha Day, Logan. Kate says you should come on over for Spin Class.

Happy Birthday, Tiger!

Cletus in his best Joe Pesci voice : " Once again, I was in Chicago at the time, with my lawyer."

You've obviously met Kate.

Good boy, Aiden!

Kate and I went for a "walk" and we saw our friend Zoey, the Weimaraner from the next street over. Kate's walks consist of going to the shade tree across the street, about 2 houses away before she wants to go home. I gave Zoey and Kate each a small Milk Bone. Zoey scarfed hers down as usual, and Kate took off for home. Apparently, treats can only be eaten in the slumber ball. She walked the whole way home like this and lay down in the slumber ball before eating her treat.

Coyotes....obviously.

Jan, Check with Home Depot or Lowe's. (Not sure what's near you there.) Many of them allow dogs but it is up to the manager what their policy is. I'm sure Val would let you take her to PetSmart every day to buy treats and toys. Since we are almost to the "burning asphalt" time of year on the parking lots, that's the other obstacle you have to workaround going to those places.

I'm so sorry. Run-free, Eureka.

The way we were alerted to Petunia's incident was that she apparently got up from her slumber ball and immediately crashed into a step stool that was nearby. The sound of a crashing metal step stool and a GSOD is not a good sound at 3:30 AM. She scared herself enough that she somehow made it to the living room before her back legs collapsed again. We found her in the living room with her butt on the ground and standing on her front legs only. She stayed that way for quite a while and we gave her about 20 minutes to see if she could get back up before deciding to scoop her up and take her to the E-Vet. She seemed to be pretty much with-it mentally as she responded to us, and took a treat, but remained in that position for quite a while. Her back legs were definitely not lifting her up at that point. When I picked her up and took her to the van, we had a little talk about it being nowhere near her time to leave yet. The tail was wagging the whole time I was carrying her and sitting with her. The vet said it may happen once, or it could happen again randomly. There is no real rhyme or reason to the frequency of occurrences and it can be a one time thing as well.

Petunia's primary episode was over pretty quickly. Afterward, what I will call the secondary phase was when she continued with the rapid blinking and the head tilt. She did let me pick her up and carry her to the car, she wagged her tail the whole time so I'm pretty sure that she was over the primary phase where she couldn't stand up or find her balance. She let the E-Vet take her inside on a cart and the vet pointed to both the head tilt and blinking as evidence of the vestibular incident along with what we described about her being unable to find her balance earlier. We left the E-Vet at about 5:30 AM and she stayed there for observation. They called us at 7:30 and told us to come and get her since she was back to normal and complaining about the accommodations (that really meant she was back to normal.) Good to hear that Violet is doing well this morning.

Aren't we all?

Maybe an episode of Vestibular Disease. it happens in older dogs. Petunia had one that sent us to the E-Vet at 3AM about a month ago. Was her head-tilted? Head tiliting and jerking eye movements are two of the signs, and the dog will be off balance, maybe unable to stand or sit. It scared the crap out of us, but within a few hours she was fine and complaining at the E-Vet about the accommodations and the lack of breakfast being served. So far, fingers crossed, she only had the one episode.

I had Rocket overheat one time when we lived in IL. The day was more sunny than hot, but the sun had warmed him too much. Fortunately we caught it before it got worse. We started cooling him down by putting a wet towel on him and continually wetting the towel with the house AC blasting and a large fan blowing on him. We had to change the towel each time it warmed up. We used the towel because he would not let us pour water directly on him, but wetting the towel didn't seem to bother him. Using the fan we basically had a swamp cooler effect going to get him cooled down. If you dog will allow it in this situation, applying cold wet towels or washcloths to the belly, head and neck will help to cool them down faster. We had to be a little more careful around Rocket due to his space issues.

There are lots of us in Phoenix. Now that temps are in the summer ranges, you need to finish your walks by about 6:30 AM - maybe 7 at the latest. As the sun rises, the direct sun here overheats most dogs. Walking later in the day is largely impossible due to both heat and sun, and walking in the evenings is a no go in the summer as pavement temps can still be 120 after sundown with air temps in the 100's at midnight for many of the summer weeks. Best bet is to start at or near sunrise and get the walk done as that is the coolest part of the day. From about November - March we can walk later in the morning, but still try to be back inside by 10 or 11 AM due to the direct sun heating up the dogs. If we can't do the early morning walk, then we either don't go that day, or sometimes will drive to a location with trees and walk in the shade, just going back and forth under the trees. Usually it;s too hot to do that much after 10-11 AM. My dogs have never liked walking in temps much past the 70's. Our Kate has a black coat and gets hot instantly in the sun. Rocket was a red brindle and had super thick fur for a greyhound. He started panting hard when temps hit the 70's.

Kate is extremely "special" and we love every minute of it. Petunia is our stubborn little worry wart and Kate could care less about anything except meal time and treats.

No pics, but this morning as I was getting dressed, something caught my eye in one of the bedroom slumber balls. I don't know how or where she got them, but there was a dime and a penny in Kate's bed. There is no logical explanation.....

Agreed. Anything growing like that or that causes a pain reaction needs to be checked by the vet ASAP.

Petunia does the same. She would stop and look at me as if to say, "You can call Mom with the car now," because that was the only I could get her back home. We figured out that she had corns. You've probably checked that, but look again just in case. Hers were not only hard to see or feel, but eventually an errant nail popped out through one of her pads also. That nail was probably pressing on the inside of the pad and hurt after walking some distance. Now she gets that errant nail dremeled off when she gets her nails done. We've significantly reduced the distance of the walks due to this.

A lift assist harness or a Help Em Up harness is probably your safest way. A regular harness will not work - it needs to made to lift the dog without causing injury. Help Em Up has a measuring guide on their site and you customize the back part of the harness according to how far forward or back the penis sits on his body.

The responses above are spot on. We had a big boy for 10 years who did not have a mean bone in his body, yet was reactive like this if you tried to pet him when he was laying down or if he was startled. The only thing I want to add to the above is that you need to institute a rule for everyone's safety that there is no petting unless he is standing up and comes to you for pets. No exceptions for anyone on this. These guys can look like they are awake and be sound asleep with their eyes open. Implementing that rule can be the difference between preventing an injury to someone and having Animal Control show up to quarantine your dog after a bite. I've been there and it's a visit you don't want to have to deal with.

Glad she's feeling better this morning. Hopefully something minor!