Gus, Fate and Red have fused and bonded, they have become a pack. Fate has finally figured out that Gus is a dog, and she has stopped tormenting him and trying to drive him away. They are actually playing a bit, several times a day. Gus, it turns out, is fearless.
During this day, we had to sort out some health issues. My regular vet, Cambridge Valley was closed today for the holiday and both Fate and Red were having problems. They had diarrhea, Red stopped eating and Fate was struggling for several days.
Four days is my limit for dogs to suffer without getting to a vet, unless there is a true emergency, and then I go right away, of course.
I didn’t wish to wait any longer and called Hoof N’ Paws, a large/small animal practice run on the far side of my town by Dr. Jack Kittel. They told me they were staying open late today (Monday) in case people had problems before the holiday. We did.
Dr. Kittel was a lovely man, he has been in practice here for years, and we discovered he also treats donkeys and sheep. We will surely use him for that. He checked Red and Fate (I will spare the details,) analyzed a stool sample we brought, and said he through Fate had eaten something that caused an irritation in her digestive tract. He guessed Red had just eaten something today that upset him.
He have us two bottles of pills, gave Red two injections, and said he thought it should be all better by the morning. How simple, and also, relatively inexpensive. He wanted to hold off on blood or other tests until we saw what happened. so I stuffed the huge pills into hamburger balls and fed them to the dogs.
The stool sample was negative, no worms or parasites.
Dr. Kittel is coming to the farm on July 19 to give the donkeys’ and sheep their annual shots.
Red’s appetite is already back, and the diarrhea seeks reduced, although both dogs are still straining to eliminate. This, said Dr. Kittel, should be better in the morning.
Fate has accepted Gus into the pack now, and the three of them are aware of one another and hang out together. Gus and Fate have begun playing. I have been letting Gus out of the crate more and more, he seems quite housebroken and loves to cuddle up with the other dogs.
He is still spending the nights in his crate, and will for some time. I’m glad we got to see a vet. There were the usual scores of home remedies, and I appreciate them, but I get my remedies from trained professionals. They have first dibs on me, and so far, it has worked out.
I’m hope they are, in fact, all better in the morning, we are looking forward to the holiday. I wish my country a happy birthday and will, of course, be blogging tomorrow.