Tag: puppy

  • Dogs Get Older But Their Love For You Never Changes

    Imagine Xmas morning. You get a puppy! Shes so cute. You take 100 pictures. Share all over Instagram and Facebook. You can’t love this puppy enough. You take her everywhere. To the store, to friends houses. She rides shotgun anywhere you decide you’re going. Everyone stops to pet her and cuddle.

    She is perfect in every way. Later on she starts to grow up. Still cute and starts to get an entity of her own. She has good days and bad days. You’ll come home and she will have ripped up your favorite pillow or peed on your carpet….but shes till soooooo cute, it’s just a mistake, she didnt mean to. You cuddle her and fall asleep just like you’ve done 100 times before.

    Then… she gets a little older. A little “less cute”, she’s trained now. More on auto pilot if anything else. When mistakes happen they are harder to oversee. I mean you’re an adult now, there is no reason for this. You scold her and run out the door. Your friends and family are waiting, of course! After hours alone in the house you come back, she’s peed on the floor. This time it isn’t laughs and cuddles that follow. Its yelling and smack on the butt, she’s old enough after all. She knows better. Then its lights out and off to sleep. You have a busy day tomorrow and she’s an afterthought.

    8 years later now, shes grey in the face. Shes an afterthought in your home. A piece of furniture. You knows shes there, as long as her food and water is full, you’ve done your job right??

    Every few weeks the vet introduces another medication to her regimen. This is becoming a chore! More and more money is spent keeping her healthy. Yet every day she greets you with a wagging tail! Even when shes obviously tired and in pain, she’s there. You brush her off, after 10 plus years the novelty had expired right??

    At night she cuddles alone, wondering what she did wrong. She isn’t the puppy with fuzzy fur anymore. She cant see as much as she used to, she has aches and pains. Shes confused and feels alone now. She knows you’re there but it isn’t the same. Her love for YOU has never changed. In 10, 12, 15 years. Its always been the most love she has always had to give. The question is have we done the same?

    Have we given all of our heart to her? It’s easy to get wrapped up in the day to day, to forget the small things that mean the most. The fact is shes loved you from day 1. The same love will continue until her last breath. Please! Especially this holiday season. Let’s not forget the ones who have been there. The ones who have seen us at our worst and continued to love us. Maybe their fur isn’t as smooth.

    Maybe they aren’t the pup we took home that night, but their heart has NEVER stopped loving us. Until they day they leave us they’ll never stop loving you!!! Here is to all the ones who are overlooked. The ones that have become an accessory in their own home. You are loved and know that you have served a purpose. Sleep well old friends!!!! Please please share this post. I know so many of us understand! Share please!

     

  • You Do Not Want That Puppy Its The Runt

    A farmer had some puppies he needed to sell. He painted a sign advertising the 4 pups and set about nailing it to a post on the edge of his yard. As he was driving the last nail into the post, he felt a tug on his overalls. He looked down into the eyes of a little boy.

    “Mister,” he said, “I want to buy one of your puppies.”

    “Well,” said the farmer, as he rubbed the sweat off the back of his neck, “These puppies come from fine parents and cost a good deal of money.”

    The boy dropped his head for a moment. Then reaching deep into his pocket, he pulled out a handful of change and held it up to the farmer.

    “I’ve got thirty-nine cents. Is that enough to take a look?”

    “Sure,” said the farmer. And with that he let out a whistle. “Here, Dolly!” he called.

    Out from the doghouse and down the ramp ran Dolly followed by four little balls of fur. The little boy pressed his face against the chain link fence. His eyes danced with delight. As the dogs made their way to the fence, the little boy noticed something else stirring inside the doghouse.

    Slowly another little ball appeared, this one noticeably smaller. Down the ramp it slid. Then in a somewhat awkward manner, the little pup began hobbling toward the others, doing its best to catch up…

    “I want that one,” the little boy said, pointing to the runt.

    The farmer knelt down at the boy’s side and said, “Son, you don’t want that puppy. He will never be able to run and play with you like these other dogs would.”

    With that the little boy stepped back from the fence, reached down, and began rolling up one leg of his trousers. In doing so he revealed a steel brace running down both sides of his leg attaching itself to a specially made shoe. Looking back up at the farmer, he said, “You see sir, I don’t run too well myself, and he will need someone who understands.”

    With tears in his eyes, the farmer reached down and picked up the little pup. Holding it carefully he handed it to the little boy.

    “How much?” asked the little boy…

    “No charge,” answered the farmer, “There’s no charge for love.”

    Credit https://www.facebook.com/delynne.schneider

     

  • Heatstroke Warning For Dog Owners

    ***Heatstroke Warning for Dog Owners***

    This was posted by a vet; they have given us permission for it to be copied.

    Today a dog died of severe heat stroke – exercised at 9 o’clock in the morning. If it was a child, the parents would be convicted of man slaughter and sent to prison. The long coated dog was being exercised in the local park at 9am this morning – it was already 21˚C.

    The owners where throwing a ball for the dog. Our loyal faithful friends will still pander to our requests of going with us for a walk or fetching the ball thrown even when they are under extreme stress of excessive heat. They don’t know to self regulate, because their pack leader has instructed them to walk with them or chase a ball etc.

    I turned up to the local park to park my car and walk to work. It was in the car park that I discovered the dog with the owners next to their car, suffering from severe heat stroke. The scene was; the dog lying flat-out on his side, semi-conscious, with extreme panting.

    His mouth and tongue were swollen up and a dark red/purple colour, there was a white frothy coating of saliva, the tongue and gums being fairly dry. The owners were trying to get the dog to drink some water, but the dog was entirely unable to do so.

    His belly was distended from panting and gulping air; this in itself can then restrict breathing. I was not equipped to take the dog’s temperature, but I could feel it was dangerously high. His pulse however was unusually slow.

    I had water in my car and doused the dog’s coat down and we wetted a towel to stretcher the dog in to the car and for him to lay on in transit. The dog was not registered with my practice, so I instructed the owner to take the dog to their own vet immediately.Once I had finished my shift at work, I phoned the owner’s vet to see if they could tell me how the dog was.

    He was dead. A 5-year-old, fit and healthy dog – dead. A death that was completely preventable. I asked the vet for details explaining that I was going to write this post. They were in support as long as names weren’t mentioned.

    Names are irrelevant, as this story will be happening all over the country.The owners took the dog straight to their practice were he was treated immediately. His body temperature was just shy of 42˚C. A normal temperature range for a dog is 38.3˚C to 39.2˚C, a rise of just 1 – 2˚C can have major effects on the dog’s body systems.

    The nurses commenced cooling of the dog and the vet put him on a drip with rapid infusion of fluids and electrolytes. However, within 10 – 15 mins of being admitted the dog began to seizure. Seizures are caused when the electrical impulses in the brain misfires and cause like an electrical storm in the brain so the muscle fibres of the body rapidly twitch uncontrollably.

    In this case, the excess heat in the brain disturbs the electrical impulses. This is an added issue as the activity of the muscles then acts to increase the dog’s temperature even more. It was at this point that the vet went to gain consent to administer anaesthetic to the dog to try to reduce the seizure and lower the respiratory rate.

    But as the vet was talking to the owner, approximately 20 mins after arriving at the practice, the dog began to vomit and pass diarrhoea. The vomit and diarrhoea were full of blood. This even to the untrained reader, you can appreciate is bad news. Once this was discovered, the dog’s gums were checked and small red/black spots were present, along with areas of bleeding on the abdomen.

    At this point the vet had to return to the owners and request consent for euthanasia.The dog was suffering from disseminated intravascular coagulopathy. This is a fancy veterinary term that means the dog’s body systems was unable to clot his blood and therefore he was bleeding internally. In the veterinary world, it is nicknamed Death Is Coming. The process is not fully understood, but it is thought that the excess temperature prevents the body from performing the myriad of chemical reactions that allow it to function normally. Loosely, this causes the body to activate clotting, causing hundred of clots within the body. Once all the clotting factors are used up, the blood can no longer clot, so widespread haemorrhage ensues.

    It causes major organ failure; the kidneys, the liver, the heart and the lungs cease to function effectively. With a bit of luck, the dog is unconscious by this stage, as this must be hugely uncomfortable and a terrifying death. For all those dog owners who think this was because the dog was chasing a ball and that is why he overheated, this can happen with your dog sat in the sun in the garden.

    It can take up to 60 days for a dog to acclimatize to a change in climate. I am pretty sure 60 days ago it was pouring with rain.Once the dog becomes mildly overheated, unless they are cooled, they will continue to overheat. Dogs cannot sweat effectively and can only really lose body heat through panting. The process of panting can in itself cause excess body temperature if it is prolonged or laboured.

    So, if you think it is too hot to put a thick coat on and go for a run, don’t make your dog do the same. If you think it is too hot to sit in direct sunshine for more than a few minutes whilst wearing a woolly jumper, then don’t make your dog do so. If it is too hot to stand on the pavement with your shoe and socks off, then don’t make your dog walk on it. If you don’t want to sit in your car without the air con on even if you have all windows wound down, don’t leave your dog in the car.If you are ever in any doubt of how to care for your dog in the warm or hot weather, speak your local vet practice. Better to speak to them now than your vet speaking to you to request consent for euthanasia.”