Mother always says that your heart is where the love is.  That made me especially worried this week for two of our most loved dog friends; each of them were found to have heart problems.
At first I thought having a heart problem meant that maybe they weren't going to be loved anymore, or that one of their people had left and broken their hearts.  What I found out was that even with all the love in the world from your people and your other den mates, your heart can still get sick.

Candy, a large, regal Doberman Pinscher, is a regular visitor to our clinic.  She's on the old side and has been having trouble for awhile with her back legs.  Pretty soon, she was having a hard time getting around at all, and my Dad had to take a look with the black and white pictures.  Turns out, Candy had bad hips and bad knees.  She had too many parts that were too bad for Dr. Quinn -- surgery woman to help, so Candy's mom wanted to try a brand new treatment called Stem Sells. I never found out who Stem was, or what he sells, because Candy couldn't get the procedure.  My mom listened to Candy's heart on the day the work was to be done and declared, "Candy can't have surgery today; not today, not ever. Her heart sounds sick".  My dad had to get some moving pictures with the goo covered probe, and when the report came back he said, "Candy has cardiomyopathy.  We see it a lot in Dobermans. It's too risky to put her under any anesthesia, but we can start her on some medicine to make her heart work better."  The funny thing about Candy was that even though she has trouble walking, and sitting, and standing and ticking, she acts like there's nothing wrong, but after getting all the news it was Candy's mom's who became heartsick; she had the water from the eyes and everything. 

Another one of our favorite visitors, a little Pomeranian, named Spunkmeyer came in to have a cough checked. His mom said he'd always coughed a little, but now, she told Sweet Sally, "It seems like he gets short of breath.  We can't even finish our walks without him sitting down and panting.  That's not like him".  Mother took one listen to Spunkmeyer and knew his heart didn't sound right.  "Let's get some x-rays and see what's going on" she said, and quickly added "Good thing you brought him in". I know that she says that to make the pet parents feel better, but I always feel worse when I hear it because it means that something is seriously wrong. After taking one look at the black-and-white pictures my fears were confirmed, mother explained "Spunkmeyer has gone into heart failure.  It's not unusual for little dogs to have bad valves in their hearts that get leaky with age.  But Spunky's heart isn't able to compensate anymore and it's failing, so fluid is building up in his lungs.  Don't worry though, there's been some great advances in treating heart failure in dogs.  We have medication now that can really help him."  Mother called my dad in to get some moving pictures with the goo covered probe, so the heart specialist could see inside Spunky's heart. Again, we had the tail wagging spry little coughing dog unaware that anything was wrong with his heart, but an owner whose heart was breaking.
I do have some good news; since starting their medicines both Candy and Spunkmeyer are doing well.  Spunky's not even coughing anymore.  Of course, Candy's mom is still trying to find ways to help Candy's legs. If only love was enough to keep their hearts healthy, those dogs could live forever. 

kittens anyone?

Another busy day at the clinic.  Dogs in, dogs out, cats in, cats out.  Even Vocal Vonnie brought her kittens in for everyone to play with; everyone but me I guess.

.  One of our favorite visitors, Willow came in for a sniff.  She really liked the way those kittens smelled; or at least she did until Vonnie put one on her head.  She was such a good sport about it.....way better than I would have been.  Vonnie wouldn't even let me near those kittens.  I can't imagine why.

The Poodles have it --- problems that is. I know that mother has a special place in her heart for poodles, and sometimes I wish I had the flowing curly hair that her one-true-love-poodle Jessica had; but not this week.  This week has been a bad week for poodles.

Dusty, the tiny silver toy poodle (and by tiny I mean smaller than me) came in to have his teeth cleaned today.  I didn't realize that to clean some of the teeth that meant they had to be taken out of his head and placed in a bowl, but that's what happened to Dusty today.  I heard mother bark something like, "Wow, there are so many holes around his teeth" and I couldn't help but think that teeth are for making holes, not having holes.  "See these dark spots around the roots of the teeth, they are abscesses" mother said while looking at the black-and-white tooth pictures from Dusty's mouth, "that means these teeth can't be saved and have to be extracted".  "They really do look like holes in his jaw" Vocal Vonnie admitted.  "I thought teeth were for making holes, not having holes" Sweet Sally said jokingly.  Funny how Sally and I think so much alike.

After getting his teeth taken out for cleaning, Dusty seemed to wake up surprisingly calm.  Mother was not surprised though, "Of course he's tough, he's a poodle" was all she would say.

The other poodle having a bad week was Lavender.  Lavender was not fully poodle, the way I'm not fully Brussels Griffon, but she was enough poodle for mother to fawn, and pet, and love all over her. 
Lavender had been on hunger strike since her mother had gone away last week, but even now that her mother had returned to the den she still refused the kibbles.  I honestly can't imagine turning down food, of any kind, at any time; even toe nails look tasty to me.  When Lavender first came in last week, mother took some red syrup. Yesterday she got black and white pictures, got some yellow marking fluid and then took more and more red syrup. Lavender even had to stay to get the fluid run into a tube stuck in her arm.  "Well, that all makes sense now!" mother finally exclaimed after looking at the last of three pages of test results, "Lavender has Addison's disease!".  Mother clearly thought that everyone knew what this meant, but I don't think anyone did since it got really quiet.   "Addison's disease is a pretty rare hormone disorder where the body can't produce it's own cortisone, but it totally fits: a young otherwise healthy dog, stomach upset after a stressful event, lab work all out of whack.  Thank goodness we have an answer."  Actually, thank goodness for Lavender that Addie's sons disease can be treated with one poke once a month and a treat once a day.  I was happy for her, and I was wagging my tail that the dog that mother loved to pet and snuggle with would be going home soon; so I could have a cure for my poodle-envy too!

Dog park anyone?

The paw park is here, the paw park is here!! I can hardly contain my excitement, I've been barking about the dog park for days. All of my dreams were realized this Saturday.

As we drove up to the park of my dreams I knew that I had arrived when I saw dogs of every size, shape and color gathered to celebrate the wild plains that the people had reclaimed for us, their doggie companions.  Every pooch was so proud of the park too, they were dragging their people everywhere.

I have to admit the my first visit was a little overwhelming.

My girl, Anna, had to introduce herself to everyone. 

It was nice that there were places to cool off for both the dogs and their people.

I just know that I am go to enjoy every minute of marking these lands as mine.  Hope to see you there!

Which came first, the dog or the egg......

Usually things get quiet at the clinic when Anna and the short people like her go back to their everyday work, called school.  But not this year.  We've had lots of furry friends visiting.  Many of the pets are here for happy visits -- Dancing Debbie and Laughing Laura welcome the pets and their people, Vocal Vonnie and Sweet Sally collect all the samples of yellow marking liquid, brown nuggets and red syrup, while my folks give the pets their massages, and listen to the thumping in their chests.  No one leaves without lots of treats; except those picky cats who would turn their nose up at anything.  It doesn't bother me, though, just more for me to find on the floor when they leave.  Sweet Sally and Brawny Brandon use the roaring machine to suck up all the crumbs, but some always get missed and I know just where to look.  There's nothing better than finding a surprise treat or toenail snack on the way out for a walk.

One of our recent dog guests was not here for a happy visit.  Her name was Ivanka and her family came from somewhere called Siberia.  They must make dogs different in Siberia because Ivanka's problem was that she had an egg stuck inside her.  I caught a glimpse of her in the exam room trying to get it out; she squatted, she strained, and pushed and strained again, but all that came out was a puddle of marking liquid, that smelled and looked more like red syrup.

After a quick ride on the humming table, Sweet Sally looked at the black and white picture and announced the problem ,"Wow! Look at that, it looks like an egg!"  My dad went on to discuss the situation with Ivanka's parents, "She has a very large stone in her bladder, causing her discomfort and not leaving her any room to hold urine.  Sometimes when these stones are small we can try to dissolve them , but since this one is so large, I recommend surgery to take the stone out."  Ivanka's parents agreed immediately.  It wasn't long before Ivanka was sleeping on the table in the no-awake-dogs-allowed room.  Mother did the cutting and then....out came the egg! 

 I could not believe my eyes.  Bea assured me that dogs from around here don't make eggs, they make puppies instead.  She would know, she had lots of puppies come out and never once did she pass an egg.  That made me feel better.  I couldn't help but wonder what else the siberian dog could do. She tried to sing, but I can't really say that she was any good at that.  I hope she doesn't try flying next!

I guess I'm the only one who's sad to see the rain go.  Rain makes the best stuff;  giant water holes to splash in, tons of tiny frogs to chase, and I love the towel rub down I get when I come in from the rain!  Bea doesn't like the rain, she's says it makes her feet too cold and wet, and then she can never play until she's done licking all the water off.  My folks get mad when it rains too 'cause sometimes Bea decides that it's too cold and wet outside to put the brown nuggets in the yard where mother wants them, and prefers to leave them as presents in dad's work room.  Everyone has to hear about that when it happens!  Guess dad really wants to keep his territory all to himself.
This week at the clinic we had a mix of tail wagging and tail dragging stories.  One of our smallest patients had the forever sleep poke -- his name was Alan and he had the problem with too much sugar, the kind that needs pokes everyday to control.  Three days ago Alan stopped eating, a rare event for any dog, much less Alan, and then he got really sick.  "Most people think that any problem a diabetic patient has requires treatment with insulin, they don't realize how dangerous insulin can be when given on an empty stomach" mother commented.  I hardly recognized the tough little Yorkie when he was carried in, he could barely lift his head.  It was something of a comfort to know that he wouldn't have to get poked any more.
This week we also took a bladder stone out of a pug, removed unnecessary girl parts from some lab puppies, and my dad found cancer in a young cat whose kidneys had stopped working.  The best part of that story was that the cancer was the treatable kind and so the cat got sent to the on-call-ogist.  Dad was sure happy to have figured that one out. 
So tail wags all around.....it's good to be back at the clinic again.  I can tell the place just wasn't the same without me.

Summer's over

I'm......bark, bark, bark!  Arrh woo woo woo.  Rahr rarara rahhhr!!!  I mean, I'm BARK, uh BACK.  I'M BACK! 
Sorry my human speak got at little bad over the summer.  It was a good summer too.  Spent lots of time at the den, chasing lizards, chasing Bea, chasing my girl Anna, getting chased by Anna, and then chasing more lizards!  But FUN; down-dog-dirty-tail-wagging FUN. Warroo roo roo (head back) raroooooooo!
Anna had to start school this week, so mother agreed to let me back at my blog.
The clinic had a fairly calm summer.  I will try to fill you in on everyones story as they visit us.
Bea is doing well, but hairy as ever.  One of my parents friends works at removing the hair from the really hair dogs -- trimming them up.  She started visiting my clinic once a month now, so mother said it would be fun to do some before and after pictures.  She says "what a difference a hair cut makes"!  I can't wait until it's Bea's turn.  Less face hair to pull on, but worth it to see her have to spend the day getting soap treatments and her hair all taken off!

Mother says I probably won't get to bark er... blog everyday. But I will be nipping at her heals to tell all the good stories.  Promise.