Red is sick again, he has a fever just over 105 degrees and we are scrambling to get ahead of his sickness.

This morning, Red vomited early in the morning, and was very still. He didn’t eat the first meal of the day, at 8 a.m. I made him some hamburger and rice, and he ate most of that, so I relaxed a bit and assumed he just ate something yesterday that made him ill.

This afternoon, he refused to touch or go near his evening meal, at 4 p.m., and due to his recent severe illness – he tested positive for four different tick borne diseases – I became concerned and called the Cambridge Valley Vet.

Dr.Suzanne  Fariello told me to come right over and we took Red’s temperature there. I have never owned a dog who got a temperature that night, and I could  see Dr. Fariello was concerned. As she always does, she came up with a plan and presented it to me.

She always asks me if I am okay with her plan, or have any ideas or suggests about it. I didn’t.

First, she and Cassandra Conety, who just returned this week from maternity leave,  put Red on an under-the-skin intravenous IV to get some fluid quickly into his body. Then, Dr. Fariello did acupuncture, which has become a mainstream healing tool in her practice.

She placed needles to reduce the temperature, she said and support his immune system, which may have been compromised by the tick-borne diseases that were so serious. I think they almost killed him. Sometimes, she said, they recur.

Red and the other dogs were boarded at a nearby kennel. It’s possible he picked up something there. Or may be sick from something else. we don’t know. I do know his immune system was weakened from the tick infections. Firs, the fever has to come down.

“I want to be aggressive,” she said. “Are you okay with the plan?” I said yes, I was.

So we also force-fed read 300 mg of Doxycycline.  I brought Red home. Total rest for now, he is sleeping right under my feet as I write this, where he always is when I write. No sheep herding or therapy work for now, the Mansion residents will want to know where he is. I’ll tell them the truth.

And Red needs rest.

Tomorrow morning, at 9:30  a.m. we’ll go back to the vet to have his temperature checked and see if the doxy and acupuncture has worked. If it hasn’t, we’ll do some emergency blood  work and figure out where to go from here.

Red was patient and accepting as he was poked and prodded, as always. He is the sweetest and most accepting of creatures.

A fever that hight is serious, but hopefully quite treatable. There’s no point in speculating, we’ll no more tomorrow. As always, I’ll be open about what is happening. I have full confidence in Dr. Fariello, I like the way she thinks and listens.