The Book of Ramblings

The day started off with taking Dahlia to the vet's (at 8:30am on a Saturday morning...argh!) for another lyme titer. Another $80 down the drain. I'll find out on Monday if the levels have come down far enough to not worry about it or if she needs more antibiotics. I hope this is the end of it. I know Dahlia would very much like to avoid another blood draw until her heartworm/lyme titer in April. And my purse would very much like to avoid it as well! We also found she had gained 1.4 pounds. I was afraid she had with the addition of the wet food so we're going to try to redo that a bit, give her a bit less in with the dry and see what that does. She's getting more active with the drop in temperature so she ought to be able to easily lose some weight this winter.

Then we visited with my folks for a little while, gave my Dad his birthday presents and just relaxed with them for a little while. By about 9:30am Dahlia was getting antsy and ready to get on our way, so we headed off to the Erie Canal Park for a 2 mile walk/run.

She had a blast! She only met one dog (the rest were either too aggressive or just too busy running with their owners to get to meet). The dog she met was some little schnauzer/poodle/something or other named Boomer. He looked like a tiny fat little sheep. Dahlia was off leash when we saw them coming and so was Boomer, so I let her stay off leash. She did something she's mor and more doing. She remained calm but then dropped into a sort of border collie crouch and froze. Absolutely froze. And then took off running at the poor little creature. Stupid me didn't tell her to stop and she barreled up to him like a crazy dog. Luckily she immediately set to sniffing and all calmed down but phew! Boomer's people were really nice and just adored Dahlia. They were a little freaked out by her intensity at first, but then saw her come out of it and relax, so they were fine. We met them on the way back too and I kept Dahlia under better control the second time around.

Dahlia ran a LOT of the two-mile trail. At one point she was sniffing and I kept walking. I was a couple hundred feet away from her when I called her name. She came barreling after me, then whipped around me and spun to face me, laying down. Then she jumped up and rushed me, trying to get the leash I was holding. We played a lot. IT was great fun.

On our way out we ran into an old family friend and a woman who just thought Dahlia was an amazingly awesome dog.

After the park, we ran to Petsmart to get some canned food for the Vermont trip (well those Nutro toppers so she can just have the one topper and nothing that needs to be saved for the next day). We got chatting with the Blue Buffalo rep for awhile who was very impressed with Dahlia's soft shiny coat and her personality (we feed her Blue as her kibble). The Nutro rep was almost most impressed with her and both oo'ed and ahh'ed over her. It was nice to have her so appreciated. At one point while they were petting her she just laid down and they both thought it was cute.

We met a 6 month old Aussie mix puppy there whose person asked if she could meet Dahlia (she's in the puppy class there and trying to socialize her pup with adults too). They met and had a nice time. Dahlia also met a nice boxer and a Pomeranian who growled and snapped at the puppy and the boxer but who was fine with Dahlia since Dahlia approached and immediately laid down in front of her. Cute.

So overall an exhausting morning of running around, but a lot of fun.

This afternoon, not so much fun. I spent WAY too much time at Walmart getting my oil changed. Ugh they were SO unorganized! But now the oil is changed, I have new windshield wipers, and new floor mats. All set to leave for Vermont!

Tomorrow I transport two 3-month old Aussie puppies. Can I keep one?

*sigh*

So Dahlia's test came back positive for Lyme. And apparently rather high (253, whatever that means). Now we have to somehow get across town to get her antibiotics (how I'm going to do that when I've got CGC tonight, class tomorrow and Thursday I don't know) and have to give her pills twice a day. Yeah that's going to go over well.

Then, to top it off, we have to RETEST. The one fucking test cost $80! I've spent $410 on her in the past week, now another test plus antiobiotics. *sigh*

It seems like it's one thing after another. I just want some GOOD NEWS for once with this dog.

So far since getting her she's had hookworm (twice -- she had it when we got her), some fungal thing on her nose, and now Lyme. Just WTF. I thought we were doing everything right but so far it seems like shit just keeps happening.

Yesterday we took Dahlia back to the vet. I mentioned in a previous post that she's been losing some of the hair by her nose. You can see it in this pic:



It started off as one little spot -- just a missing patch of hair. The skin was pale, not red, not scaly...just looked normal but without hair. We thought maybe she got bit by something and had scratched and took away some of the hair. But then a second spot appeared below it and we started to worry that it was something else.

So yesterday it was off to the vet.

I'm very glad that she has NO issues with going into the vet's office. She traipsed right in like "ooo new place new smells new people!!" She was wagging her tail and couldn't wait to get in the door. She settled down really well and a few people came out and oo'ed and ahh'ed over the pretty dog. We went in and she got weighed. 55.4 lbs. Just one tenth less than the last time. I guess she's supposed to weigh that much as she doesn't look heavy at all. She's getting plenty of exercise and not too much food, so I guess she's ok. 50lbs must have been a little bit too light for her. I sometimes still worry that she's too heavy, but she looks good. I thought she had actually lost some weight as she looks thinner than before, but I guess not!

At any rate, the vet came in. She was a really nice woman. She came over and examined her nose and then had us turn off the light. She waved a blue light (apparently called a Woods light) over her nose and discovered that she had some signs of fungal infection. After that, she took a few sample hairs (which meant using tweezers to pluck out hairs). David and I sort of held Dahlia, petted her, while the vet quickly grabbed her muzzle and plucked out a group of hairs. Dahlia did SO WELL. She just flinched a little but, didn't help, didn't panic. She was back to her smiling self and still trusting the vet, especially since she offered her a treat. They apparently received whole slews of heartworm med treats without the heartworm in it (they're sample treats to see if the dog will eat them). Of course, she scarfed it down without even batting an eyelash.

The vet commented on what a good dog she was and came over to just pet her at one point. She said she was really relaxed, did really well, and she was impressed at how gently she took the treat from her hand. Our Dahlia is a good girl she is!

So now we wait a couple weeks to see what the culture says. In the mean time, she gave us the treatment, which is an antifungal lotion we apply once a day. She said if the culture doesn't grow, two weeks ought to be enough. If it does, we'll have to do it for about four weeks all together. Either way I'm glad to have some treatment for this. I hope the hair starts growing back soon.

I know...you've all been dying for this one, eh?

( Monday )

( Tuesday )

( Wednesday )

We had a really nice several days with her. Now I'm back at work (*sniffles*) and David's out walking her in the woods. Lucky David! He gets to spend a lot more time with her. I'm admittedly nervous that she's going to come to see David as her person and me as "that other person." I wish I could be around more often, but it just doesn't work that way unfortunately.

( Some pictures from the other day at the dog park )