Our Dog Patches

Catherine · **Posted:** Sat Apr 04, 2009 12:08 pm

Just brought Patches home from the vet's. Some of you will recall that Patches is the Australian blue heeler who showed up at our house a little over a year ago, hungry, pregnant, and homeless, looking for people to adopt. Smart dog...she found us, two soft-hearted idiots who already had three cats.

After her abortion, spaying, shots, etc. Patches was given a clean bill of health...including no heartworms. However, this year, Patches's annual checkup revealed heartworms -stage 1, so in order to save her life once more, our vet recommended that we immediately start the treatment process, which is rather complicated...two injections of some kind of heartworm killing medication given at 24 hour intervals and requiring two nights in the animal hospital.

Now, we're in the second phase of her treatment. Patches has to be kept inactive and "unstimulated" as well as somewhat confined for at least four weeks, except for the required pee and poop walks. That won't be too much of a problem as she's got her bed downstairs and her kennel outside for when I have to be gone from the house. The problem is going be Patches herself. She's an incredibly active dog who loves to bark at birds and chase squirrels, both of which we have in abundance around the house.

This is going to be interesting...so wish us luck as we help Patches overcome one more health hurdle. :bigsmurf:

Any advice is also welcome.

lefty · **Posted:** Sat Apr 04, 2009 4:17 pm

I really hope she handles it well. I couldn't imagine how hard it must be to keep a dog from moving. Is it dangerous for her heart if she moves around and gets her blood pumping too fast? Maybe he could give you some doggie tranquilizers or something to keep her "mellow"...or you could shotgun her bong hits when you and yer hubby are tokin up! Hahahaha. God, I kill myself. I am just laughing so much at the thought of you smoking a bong, Cat! But seriously, I know my vet has some sort of tranquilizers for my dog when she gets overly nervous. I think its valuum. Maybe that would help?

Catherine · **Posted:** Sat Apr 04, 2009 5:46 pm

Quote:

really hope she handles it well. I couldn't imagine how hard it must be to keep a dog from moving. Is it dangerous for her heart if she moves around and gets her blood pumping too fast? Maybe he could give you some doggie tranquilizers or something to keep her "mellow"...or you could shotgun her bong hits when you and yer hubby are tokin up! Hahahaha. God, I kill myself. I am just laughing so much at the thought of you smoking a bong, Cat! But seriously, I know my vet has some sort of tranquilizers for my dog when she gets overly nervous. I think its valuum. Maybe that would help?
I really hope she handles it well. I couldn't imagine how hard it must be to keep a dog from moving. Is it dangerous for her heart if she moves around and gets her blood pumping too fast? Maybe he could give you some doggie tranquilizers or something to keep her "mellow"...or you could shotgun her bong hits when you and yer hubby are tokin up! Hahahaha. God, I kill myself. I am just laughing so much at the thought of you smoking a bong, Cat! But seriously, I know my vet has some sort of tranquilizers for my dog when she gets overly nervous. I think its valuum. Maybe that would help?

No, she can walk about, but she can't run, jump, and play; in other words, be Patches! She's really not hard to control when she's inside. She lays around and sleeps for the most part. Outside, it's another story. This afternoon, I had to do some work outside, so I put her into the kennel. She didn't like that at all because she knew that I was still on the premises. She whined and barked for quite awhile, then went into her house and slept. She's not eating very much, which the vet said was normal, but that she would want lots of water and she'd have to pee a lot, so I take her out every two hours and she let's it rip! She also has to take an aspirin a day to prevent a blood clot from forming. Those heartworms are nasty little devils and Patches has to be treated once a month for them for the rest of her life.

Speaking of bongs. :wink:

..I never did smoke those things, but I had lots of friends who did...never bothered me, one way or the other. However, I do have some great incense which is very nice and relaxing. Maybe I'll light one of those incense sticks near Patches's bed tonight and see if it helps her sleep better!

A Proud Liberal · **Posted:** Sat Apr 04, 2009 7:42 pm

Catherine wrote:

Speaking of bongs. :wink:

..I never did smoke those things, but I had lots of friends who did...

Bongs were never needed for those that could hand roll. :wink:

Catherine · **Posted:** Tue Apr 14, 2009 4:23 am

It's been almost two weeks since Patches began her "convalescence." She's done pretty well, considering all the confinement she's had to endure both inside the house and in her kennel.. best of all, no indoor accidents...until yesterday.

We can't have Patches stay in the main part of the house when she's inside because of the three cats...they all really dislike dogs, and elderly Molly freaks if she thinks that a dog is coming near her. So, the basement is where Patches has a bed with her water and food dishes. I have spent a lot of time with her because that is also where my computer is located...I take her out for pee and poop walks down into the field below the house at least every three hours or so, with the final one about 10 pm. I've not changed her food; in fact, the vet said she was overweight and for me to feed her a bit less.

This morning, Patches sneaked upstairs while I was in another part of the house, nosed open the basement door, went into my bedroom, and unloaded a big dump. This was after she'd already pooped once outdoors during her first walk. The smell would have gagged a maggot. (Fortunately, all three cats were outside on the back deck so they didn't see her...and I didn't know she'd pooped in the bedroom until after I'd taken her back to the basement.)

After I'd put on rubber gloves and grabbed a roll of paper towels, I scooped it all up and put it into a garbage bag and took the bag outside to the garbage cans. Then, I had to get out the carpet shampooer and ended up shampooing the entire room as well as the hallway. You can't shampoo just a little bit of a beige carpet. :roll:

Patches pooped again during an afternoon walk, and my husband took her for the evening walk and reported another poop.

Patches was bedded down in the basement before I went to bed about 11 pm. Around 1:30 am, I was awakened by the now familiar, rank odor of dog poop coming from the basement. The heat had come on during the night and the smell was wafting through the entire house. I threw on a robe and went downstairs. Patches was lying on her bed, looking rather sheepish, and over in the corner was another large pile of dog poop. My husband cleaned up that mess, thank goodness, and then he took her for another walk...can't imagine why we both feel as though we've got an infant in the house!

Patches goes back to the vet's Wednesday morning for her two week checkup. I'm going to ask the vet if this sudden onset of pooping so much has anything to do with her body's elimination of the heartworms. If so, will it continue? If he says yes to both questions, then I may be looking for those doggy diapers...in the large size.

lefty · **Posted:** Tue Apr 14, 2009 8:47 am

That's one of the worst smells in the world to wake up to. A few times before my Lady died, she pooped in the house. Several times when she was WALKING to the door with me. I knew she couldn't hold it in, so I didn't get mad, but she always had that guilty look on her face when it happened too. Your Patches sounds like maybe she's just having a hard time right now, and I think your theory is very valid. It makes sense that she would have extra poop after all the poison her body's been dealing with lately.

Our Dog Patches

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