During the process the girls did not get as much exercises as usual. They have been crazy. Today at the park was full out mayhem. Makin was actually chasing Tessa! That never happens. And during the home inspection one of the little buggers snuck to the front of the car and helped themselves to a jelly doughnut. I didn't realize until today that there were actually two in the bag. Either the doughnuts were not very good or the second was too far down in the bag. I am voting on the latter because whoever did it wasn't thinking, "hey, I will save this one for those fools inside the house"!
On a positive note, I was playing the touch plate game with Tessa last night and was amazed at how much fun she thinks it is. Run to the plate, slam it with her foot and sprint back! She was having a blast. I am not sure if its ok to be touching it with feet or if I need to wait for her to hit it with her nose? I must remember to ask. She is great with hand touches and if I actually hold the plate she goes for it with her nose. I can also get her to weave through my legs using the plate. She is a fun little girl!
Not sure if anyone would like to throw a response out to this question. Tessa has not been eating with her normal tenacity. She will sometimes leave food in her bowl! That is a new one for us. She has been regular and acting normal in all other ways. It may be that the growing process has slowed and she is not as hungry? She can't resist a cookie so I am not alarmed. Is now an appropriate time to reduce food. We are still feeding puppy food and almost 3/4 of a cup more per day than what Makin gets. Thoughts?
We also need to watch Makin's intake a bit. She has added a bit of weight since the beginning of agility. This is a tough one due to the fact that she is famous for skipping meals. The bad part is that when she skips a meal she tends to get sick in the middle of the night. Probably a little bile build up. When she does skip, we give her a few cookies before bed hoping that they will absorb some of the fluids in her belly.
Thank goodness for Lael and the ladies, the last few days would have been impossible without them. I will steal a quote here. I am a lucky, lucky man!
9 comments:
My totally unbiased opinion- get her off the puppy food. And get a lyme test done.
You said you pulled a bunch of ticks off both the girls. With some dogs the 1st sign of lyme disease is off their feed, even before joint stiffness or lethargy.
And with the target plate- in most cases a nose touch is prefered (at least for how we use it in class)
Thanks Katrin
We already have the lyme tests scheduled for next week. This is a follow up to the fall test and a result of the change in apetite. I am going to have both girls tested just to be safe. We spend so much time in the woods I almost feel as though this should be a mandatory for us twice per year. I know their fur is short but it is still difficult to find them. Gosh I hate ticks!
I will work on the nose touch.
Neil: Now you're stealing my lines!! The 4DX test is so quick and easy these days that besides the cost, there's little reason not to do one. But eating a little less for a day or two wouldn't alarm me -- especially since Tess has Makin modeling another of her 'individual' characteristics. That's a great pic -- and I see Momo right there in his mother's face.
Hope the little one is back on track soon. Sounds like she's having a blast. Good for you.
A+M+M+J
Andrew,
Yeah I couldn't help myself in stealing your line. It was very appropriate for the last couple of days.
Thanks for the comments on the eating. Tessa does pick up some her sisters bad habits. Some gross enough that Lael rushes and brushes teeth! We will keep an eye on her and see where this eating thing ends up.
Andrew,
Do you do the 4DX tests at home? If so, how do you get the sample? I know Lael can draw blood on people but her response to the question of whether or not she could do it on the dogs was met with astonishment!
Neil: I'd go visit Kim at ForestKing and ask her... I am the wrong kind of doctor to be asking about drawing blood on anything, let alone a dog. I've only ever had the 4DX (which in case I got the name wrong, because I think it has several, covers Lyme, heartworm, anaplasmosis and erlychiosis) done in a vet's office.
As for bad habits: I think Momo gave me one of those this afternoon.
best of luck
Andrew
Neil, if *I* can draw blood on a dog without totally blowing the vein (me with the ever shaking hands) I'm pretty sure expert Lael over there could! But I don't know that you can get the 4DX test for home since they sell them in like 25 packs and need to be refridgerated over night and such. But they are incredibly simple to run, as long as you can read instructions and not forget to set a timer (I was in on-the-job training to be a vet tech in high school).
The thing is sometimes you can get a false positive or false negative on the snap test, so if you are still questioning, general recommendation is to get a C6 send out to a lab to give the actual titer levels of lyme in the blood for a baseline reading. There are many schools of thought as to what is an 'acceptable' C6 titer on a dogs and such, it's a huge debate in the vet community, has been for a number of years. At moment, last I heard, general consensis is- if symptomatic or a high risk breed for lyme nephritis, then treat with doxy. The recent research has been doxy for 8 wks, not the usual 4wks most vets currently do, and for 10mg/kg, not the 5mg/kg that many vets still use.
Again, I am NOT a vet, I just read vet research papers, amongst other things. (yes I have NO life!) Just points to bring up with your vet, who has a degree!
Rocket is 1 year 3 months and his eating goes up/down with his exercise. But since you've been deep in the woods and have ticks I'd get the vet to do tests for peace of mind. What a great picture!
I know someone who had light hair and, as a young 'un, it was very easy to spot the ticks on her. (Hope we didn't ever miss one!) Unlike her sister who had very dark hair that was a killer challenge to search through. I think M &T would be easy. Is there a word for dog -hypochondriacs????
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