Buffalo'd!

Last week we were at the consignment auction and somebody had consigned a full size buffalo statue, which was probably used in front of a steak house or something for advertising.  As Rowdy and I approached the statue, I wondered why he hadn't noticed it, so I pretended to make low barking noises and focused my attention at it, to alert his attention to it.  It didn't work and we walked up within 3 feet of it and stood there for a few seconds. 

All the sudden Rowdy low barked and took off to the end of the 25 foot retractable leash with a strip of hair standing up on his back.  He had finally looked up and noticed the buffalo!  He didn't want to come close to it and proceeded to make a large circle half way around it, till I pulled him back up to it.  Though we were away from the crowd at that moment, a few others along with myself got a little laugh out of it.  Silly dog!

"No, That Way, You Duffas!"

As sweet as Rowdy is, he is not necessarily the highest dog on the food chain.  The other morning, I peeked out the front door and saw a squirrel.  Of course all I had to do, was whisper,"Squirrel!" and he comes running.  So I open the door up wider and said, "Get-em!" and he shot out the door and ran the other direction, looking for the squirrel as it scurried off the other way and up a tree!  Then Rowdy comes back and looks at me, like he was saying, "What squirrel?"

Did You Just Burp?

You know I've seen dogs gulp and hiccup before, but never known one to burp.  Well I swear Rowdy did!  He had come up to me while I was sitting down and sat beside my leg, holding his head up against me and all the sudden I hear a burrrrrpp!  Then he looked up at me as innocently as he always does.

Gots The Shivers

We've recently had a few days that have been unseasonably cool lately, that is instead of the mid 90's, the high has been in the mid 70's.  When I was gone for a few hours and got home, Rowdy greeted me in the usual fashion, but I was surprised to notice that he was shivering.  Feeling of his extremities, I fount they were cold with very little body heat.  He must have been inactive for that part of the day and got cold.  I just held him in my arms to warm him up and gave him the 'Awh Poor Doggie' chant, as I felt the shivers slowly subside.

Crafty Little Butt!

At the beginning of this blog I told how Rowdy was a stray that showed up on the farm.  Well the farm was his home for several months before I decided to take him, so he knows it well.

About a month and a half ago, when I was bringing my mother home from a weekend visit down to Sarah's and Wrigley's, we were about a quarter mile from the farm and Rowdy started getting excited.  He was in the back seat this time and he got up on the door panel to look out.  Well, he hit the window button with his paw, rolled the window down and stuck his head out.  It was hilarious to see him roll that window down, like a little kid arriving at an amusement park, who cant wait to ride the rides.  When we pulled up to the house, he had to wait for us to open the door, but he was out in a flash, exploring his old stomping grounds!

Another Damn Trip To The Vet

After taking Rowdy to the Vet last week, I had to take him again this Saturday.  He kept us up half the night acting like he was choking.  We were all in bed and he got up and ran down to the back door.  I got up and went down to let him out, because he was scratching frantically at the glass and whining. 

Thinking he really had to go, or possibly throw up, instead he tore out into the yard and started chomping on grass.  After a minute he came back to the door and upchucked a little of the grass he ingested and waited at the door panting, gulping and slobbering. 

I let him in and he immediately started begging up against me as to say, 'Help Me, Daddy!'  I tried to check his throat and petted him till he calmed down some and after the gulping slowed considerably, we tried to go back to bed.  Shortly we were back up with him making more choking and hacking noises and I finally shoved my finger down his throat to see if I could feel anything.  Though I did feel something, the vet said it was probably part of his larynx.  But after I did that, he finally calmed down enough for all of us to get a little sleep at 3AM.

The next morning I observed him for a while and when he started feeling really hot and obviously not feeling well, we took him to the Vet and they x-rayed him and checked his throat.  There were no obstructions in his throat or stomach, but there was some redness and irritation back in his throat to indicate that there may have been something lodged there for a while.  The Vet gave him some Prednisone for the inflammation and some Sucralfate to settle his stomach.  Though tired, he seems to be back to normal right now!    

Might Have Got Poisned!?!?

Last Wednesday, Rowdy was exposed to rat poison, antifreeze and brush killer, none in any large quantity, neither was he seen ingesting any of the substances.  Thursday evening, he threw up his entire dinner just after eating it.  That in itself did not indicate a potential poisoning, because he has thrown up several times in the past and I could chock it up to an upset stomach.  But, shortly after that, there was a spot of fresh blood on the floor, so I checked his mouth and his gums had been bleeding.

I took him to the Vet first thing Friday morning and he did a full blood work up, which showed everything to be normal and in good ranges.  Mainly he wanted to check for his liver and kidney count, because each one would indicate if he ingested either antifreeze or brush killer.  I don't remember which is which without looking it up, but those are the indicators and both were normal.  His exam showed nothing wrong, but the bleeding gums that I reported to him, was of concern and is an indicator of poisoning, possibly the rat poison.  If Rowdy ingested any of it, it would have been a small amount because the bait trap was still pretty full.  The Vet gave him a vitamin K shot and some vitamin K pills for him to take, to counteract the poison if in fact he ate some of it.

The rat poison has been dealt with, so he won't be exposed to that again.  Usually he is not around when I am spraying the brush killer and I will take extra precautions, if I should have him with me when I need to spray the next time.  The antifreeze exposure would have come from leaking tractors and rain runoff at an auction site that I took him too when it rained that day.  His exposure would have been limited and diluted.  I tried to keep him from drinking the ground water and provided my own water for him, but my eyes were not on him 100% of the time.

Crisis averted!