21 December 2010

{20dec2010: update}

We woke up Saturday to no power and pouring down rain.  Since I needed a clean pee sample for Darwin we thought we'd take her down to the garage to find a covered spot to do our collecting.  Darwin was so confused as to why we would take her to the garage to use the bathroom.  Even though she hates the rain she found the one uncovered area to walk out to do her business. I quickly slid a tupperware container under her to get our sample.  Of course I read online not to get the first drops, so I waited til she went a little then slid the container under using a rubber glove covered hand, but since she had already gone a little the container slid in pee and I didn't think about it til I touched the bottom of the container with the non gloved hand and got pee on me anyway.  hahaha.  
It took a while to figure out how to get the garage door open since the power was out (thank goodness for Facebook friends who are smarter than we are) but once we did we dropped off her sample for testing.  We had a bunch of errands to run and so Darwin came with us and we walked around the neighborhood by the vet and ran into this cute little Golden puppy tied outside one of the stores.  She REALLY wanted to play with Dar.




I don't think Darwin was quite sure what to make of this hyper leash biting puppy and though they had a small round of bitey face, she was quickly over it and we moved on. We did see another dog tied up outside another store and he was not as friendly.  As we approached him he quickly jumped up and arched his back and showed teeth. Not a friendly puppy.  We crossed the street and avoided him (I was kind of annoyed because I did want to look at the store he was in front of but was unsure of him after that).  I don't understand how people can tie their dogs up outside a public area if their dog is that angry.  It's happened before in our neighborhood when we tried to walk to the store a dog went crazy barking and snarling at Darwin as we tried to walk by.  If your dog is slightly aggressive or scared of other dogs don't leave him where he could cause harm to someone else. 
Anyway it was a good weekend and Darwin had a blast at the park yesterday, then last night she started whining/yelping again.  We were worried about it because she was more vocal than last time so I called the vet first thing in the morning and the vet tech said it could be bladder stones, but no crystals were found in her sample but it could be that they had just turned to stones already, so we made an appointment and I took her in.  The vet said her urine test from Saturday came back totally clean and with normal gravity levels and no crystals or blood so while it was possible stones could have formed it seemed unlikely.  She stretched out Darwin's back legs and checked her spine and Darwin showed signs of pain when she did that.  The vet thinks Dar just strained some muscles from running hard at the park yesterday and said to restrict her off leash play and do hot and cold compresses and massages and gave us some Tramadol to ease the pain.  It has been a few weeks since our last acupuncture appointment so we may need to book another one soon.  Let's hope this resolves the random whining and we can stop worrying about it!

11 comments:

  1. I hope it is all resolved. The angry tied up dog always astonishes me, besides all the other reasons to not tie up your dog, sometimes it's just dangerous; we've had a couple of times where we were scared to just walk down the sidewalk.

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  2. Oh - good to hear that the urine tests all came back clear! Strained muscles are a better thing to deal with! :-)

    Totally agree with you about the tied-up dogs. That really winds me up too. I think leaving your dog tied up alone - in a confined space (where other people are forced into close proximity to walk past) is a bit irresponsible, even if your dog is generally friendly. You just never know when another dog might set him off. And also, if he is tied and restrained - he might react more defensively to another dog (esp if they're a big one and therefore more "threatening") than if they just met normally off-leash. It's just a bad recipe.

    I never leave Honey alone outside shops if I can help it - and if I have to pop in quickly for something, I always make sure I leave her in a corner out of the way of foot traffic, so that people have plenty of room to move around her - without inconveniencing them. Still get a lot of idiots who approach her, though, with their dogs - which is just so stupid coz their dogs are often aggressive to Honey and she can't get away! I don't like to put her in that position - so I try never to leave her if I can. Sadly, most shops don't allow dogs inside so it's hard - you end up leaving the dog at home most of the time, instead of coming with you on errands (esp if you live in a hot country and can't leave them in the car) - which is so wrong. If they could come with you, they be so much better socialised and we'd have to exercise them less!

    Back in Auckland, Honey was allowed into our local bank and post-office - they were great! She used to come up to the counter with me and be tall enough to look over it at the surprised clerk on the other side! Hea! ha!

    Hsin-Yi

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  3. Had to laugh at the pee collection - only because I have been there many times myself.

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  4. I hope Darwmin gets better soon. I understand the sprained muscle thing. My leg still gets sore sometimes when I overdo it. Momma makes me rest and then I am better.
    woof - Tucker

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  5. Paws khrossed that is source of the diskhomfort!

    My mom would be shaking her head as well at the thought of leaving an unfuriendly pup tied outside -

    Of khourse, the Golden Pup was a furiendly one! Khousin Harley wants her number!

    Hugz&Khysses,
    Khyra

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  6. Its frustrating when your dog has something wrong but they can't tell you. Poor things. Lucky for Darwin she has such a caring owner to help her. Hope the Vet is right and its just muscle strain. Take care Darwin. No worries, love Carol.

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  7. Can you send my mom a peemail to backupdogATcomcastDOTnet about the accupuncture? I was supposed to go, but she chickened out because she was worried that it would upset me, but my leg is really sore.

    You know, my Beautiful Raja had the bladder issues and momma was always collecting her pee on walkies. Raja liked to get far from the estate to do her business, so momma frequently had a jar of pee in her pocket. Nice and warm on a cold day.

    Slobbers,
    Mango

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  8. Hope Dar is feeling better with some rest. Glad the test results were normal. We're still waiting on Remi's results. They said hopefully by Wednesday (!?!) At least he seems to be acting normal. I'm just getting tired of preparing his gourmet meals. Remi will be sending Darwin a little Xmas gift, which you should be getting Wednesday.

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  9. wow, glad to hear it isn't anything serious! i haven't had to do a pee collection and wondered how'd i do it if i had to. now i know! :)

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  10. We are so so happy to read that they have found nothing serious with Darwin. Hoping she continues to feel better for santa paws coming.

    Rest up those paws Darwin!

    Big Nose Pokes
    The Thugletsx

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  11. Hi Darwin,
    I am catching up with your news...
    Glad to hear you seem to have identified the problem and that it does not look too serious...
    My owner never leaves me out alone, she does not trust me nor the others, but above all she fears not to find me when she comes out...
    how silly of her ... who might want a debit like me...!!!

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