Poppy is Sick

I brought Poppy home in August. He went to the vet, where I gave them every bit of paperwork I had received. They clipped his nails and removed his sutures for $35

Poppy had an upset stomach and a lot of vomiting in October, so we took him to the vet where he needed fluids for two days and some antibiotics. I felt like the most terrible doggy mommy in the world! I cried so much that my boyfriend had to hold Poppy until we got in the car. He finished every pill, as noted on my paper schedule and the problem seemed to stop. That was a total of $200

In late October/early November, Poppy was whining whenever he moved his tummy to jump r be picked up. He was also stretching his body a lot. The vet said that his glands were the size of grapes when they should be pea sized. She clipped his nails for us and did his glands for a total of $55.

Now it's the first week of November and Poppy is vomiting. It's a small pile of gray, mostly dry and occasionally a little sticky. He is also a little constipated. I've been feeding him 1/4 cup of Nature's Balance dry dog food 3 times a day. He also eats dime-sized pieces of Blue dried chicken or a half of a square Milkbone once between feedings and a little bit of grass on the weekend. His fluid intake is normal and he urinates outside regularly. His bathroom breaks are every 2-4 hours daily and he passes stool 2-3 times a day. He sometimes trys to mark trees with urine and nothing comes out. Poppy's vomiting problem happens mostly at night. It looks as though he's having a reverse sneeze, but it sounds like a gurgle.

In addition to the $290 I've spent on Poppy's unforseen medical issues, I've also been paying $20 a month for Triflexis heartworm and flea pills for a total of $370 in 4 months. I LOVE my dog and I know that something is wrong with him. I just can't afford to keep spending all this additional money on temporary fixes, especilly right before Christmas. I'm stuck in a place where I have to hope the problem passes, that I can tell if/when it gets worse. As long as he eats, drinks, and passes consistant stool I think we're ok. I just wish I could know what the problem is. Poppy is my baby, my shaddow, my muscular 8 pound Sweet Papa Bear! I'll look onlie, ask around, I'll figure something out, even if it means returning Christmas purchases.We'll do what we've got to do.


UPDATE:

I called Rockingham Animal Shelter and asked them if they offered a lower-cost consultation. They didn't. However, the person I spoke with suggested Poppy may have Pancreatitis. I was told a "Bland Diet" for one week would help if that were the case. I was also told that wet dog food may be better for my small dog's sensative digestive tract. Thanks be to them!

I then called Poppy's vet and told them what Poppy was doing. I explained that I'm not trying to be cheap, but Poppy's vet bills are way more than I expected. She said the bland diet would be a good idea for a week. This may solve our problem and thereafter I will try the dry small breed food and see if that isn't what's upsetting his tummy. Otherwise, I'll have to buy him wet food.

I am currently defrosting 2 giant leg quaters. One will be Austin's dinner. The other will be for Poppy. That piece will be divided into 2 equal parts, one slightly larger for the freezer and the other for the fridge. I will try to use the boiled rice once a day for Poppy's bland meal, but it may lat 1.5 days. The recipe I found online says 1/3 chicken and 2/3 part rice and I should use the stock for moistening the rice .

Riverfest With Poppy!

This Friday and Saturday was Riverfest. I went with the kids Friday and let Austin pick out some treats for Poppy. They were Pumpkin Droolies by Caramel Paws. If you have a dog, I strongly suggest you call about ordering some of these. They're really good. Poppy loves the Pumpkin Droolies and I plan to get him some Christmas Gingerbread too.

On Saturday, I took Poppy with me instead of the kids. I'm sure Poppy consumed a rat's weight in popcorn and maybe a couple of french fries, but the socialization was good for both of us (me for trusting him and him for trusting crowds). It was a total Templeton moment right out of Charlotte's Web! I plan to take Poppy to Madison's festival on September 28th and 29th, which is a little less crowded. Bur Mill Park will also have a big wide fall festival right before Halloween. I can't wait to take Poppy on a hay ride lol. Our entire family are big fans of Bur Mill because it's just so beautiful and open. It's a dog-friendly park. Note to self: Mention Bur Mill to Caramel Paws by phone or walk-in.

Poppy was excellent with the crowd and the slightly humid temperature. He absolutely loves people and big dogs. Two seperate people pet him and he didn't even jump on them. Yaaay! I'm also happy to announce that Poppy did not bark once at any dogs and that he passed by people with food by only eyeballing their meals. As the weather cools off, Poppy can really appreciate these festivals. I imagine he'd be happier in slightly cooler weather. He only peed once, in some grass in a lot away from everything. I only carried Poppy a few times because I wanted to walk up to a stand. The crowds were worse on Saturday than Friday, which I thought would've been opposite. Madison's festival isn't as packed and Bur Mill will be tons of fun.

Poppy's outing bag:
Poppy's poo bag (A hand purse we carry for walks)
               - 3 Walmart bags
               - 6 paper towels
Bottle of home-filtered water
Water bowl
A Poppy sweater just incase it gets cold out
(For day trips)
Food bowl
Pre-measured food in a sandwich bag
A Poppy toy even thogh he rarely plays with it

Socialization is something I had a slow start to with my kid. I thought my child would naturally develop age-appropriate social skills, but when your kid hangs around nothing but adults he expects to always come first and to be viewed as the baby...etc. I don't want my doggy son to be rude or scared of people outside of his tiny social circle. I want him to enjoy attention, be interested in different smells/animals, and trust that we'll keep him safe from anything dangerous. I love my boys!

Poppy Eats Scraps??

I hosted Sunday dinner this past weekend and of course the little boss got to eat some roasted chicken. I only put butter on the skin, but I was worried about the grease getting to him. My mom has given Poppy tiny beef cubes that she fried first and set aside just for him before cooking the family's goulosh. Like the beef, whole foods just make Poppy have more bowel movements. Well, tonight I made chicken noodle soup. Knowing Poppy would be hypnotized by the permeating chicken grease, I set aside a small portion off the bone just for him. Poppy had his dog food dinner at 5 and around 6:30, he took part in a few slivers of freshly cut celery and random teany pieces of chicken until about 8pm. Gosh, my dog is spoild. It's because he's so grateful! He'd eat anything I gave him without complaint. I hope my son is taking lessons.

If I thought I could afford it, I'd cook for Poppy every day. Unfortunately, I know very little about dog neutrition and I don't always have time to make the family a whole meal, let alone my baby. I think that as long as the scraps you feed your dog are safely made and set aside for them in a reasonable snack-sized prtion, it's ok to feed them the same foods you're already going to cook for your family. You can't add the spices, butter, or oil, but it takes such a short time to separate and cook a tiny hand-sized portion by itself.

All of the chihuahuas I've ever seen were fat, like round fat (still healthy and cute of course). I thought Poppy was sickly thin when we first brought him home because he was so skinny. The vet said his coat and body would fix itself with proper neutrition. I've bought him the best dog food I could find, Natural Balance Lamb and rice recipe ($27 for a large bag at PetSmart). I feed him on 1.5 of a quarter cup twice a day to equal the 3/4 recommended. I also use portion control on healthy snacks, like raw baby carrots, 1/4 of a homemade dog treat at a time, and only feed special snacks (beef cubes, chicken, or peanut butter) about once a week. My mom loves to give him special treats, like it's a grandmotherly duty. With all that being said, my dog is starting to fill out a bit. To be fair to his health, I've been making sure he happily gets exercise often.

We have a lovely side road that is blocked off from cars across the street and I just love taking Poppy to walk over there. He is in a wonder lust over trotting through the tall grass beside the sidewalk. He absolutely frolicks through it. He gets to walk about twice a week all the way up there because I don't like to walk him that far when it's very hot out. With the weather warming up and grandma making him all these cute fleece outfits, I plan to walk him a lot more as fall approaches. What will I do in the winter?! When it is too hot out, I make sure Poppy walks a little bit with me every day. We walk to the mail box (around the corner from my unit) and circle the units a few times in the shade. It's very important to me that Poppy gets to enjoy a little exercise outside every day. Otherwise, he runs like a bullet all over my house. He hops over the couch and through all of the rooms usually taunting us to just try and grab his little knitted fish or pull rope. He's so funny to watch when he's running like a crazy monster.

I never ever thought I'd get so attatched to my dog that I'd stand there and prepare special snacks for him just so he didn't have to suffer smelling tastiness without getting any. I never thought I'd have time to take him for a 20 minute potty break every single morning as soon as I woke up and have the kid on the bus at the same time either! I'm diagnosed OCD, which I've learne to manage without medication, and I was afraid I'd start slipping on my dog's needs once he became a comfortable member of the family. Even someone without OCD could fall into that. However, my love of Poppy as a part of the family. He has made me coddle and aim to perfect him in the same way I have done for my son since the day he was born. Poppy has reignited my passion for crafting and researching. He's the friend I've always wanted because he sits on my lap enjoying my soaps and lets me talk to him about everything, like how crazy Nichole is going after Daniel or how his ugly daddy made such a beautiful little boy lol. Of course I will continue to do everything I can to keep my little guy happy, healthy, active, entertained, social, and anything else I can research to find out that a dog needs. I love my Poppy!! He's much better cared for than the rotting Calathea on my porch, thank goodness (In my defense, the Pathos I have is really thriving) lol.

Poppy Sweaters!

I've been knitting a lot lately...a lot of dog sweaters. I've made 3 for Poppy. The first sweater I made him was done in Paton's classic wool. I had some yarn left over from my sock monkey project. I used grey for the collar and red for the body and did the whole pattern on size 6 needles. The first pattern I did was Linus' Sweater, which can be found here:

http://www.knitandbake.com/2012/01/21/linus-sweater-easy-dog-sweater-knitting-pattern/

I'll share a photo on the slideshow for those of you who don't have me added as cloverallovermd on ravelry. The second sweater I made Poppy was by Coats and Clark AKA Redheart. It's mae of blue redheart super saver. I don't think anyone is a big fan of this yarn, but it's 100% washable and the cheapest mass-spun plastic you can buy anywhere. The pattern sizes were really great, but the ribbing that goes around the sides and back of the body require picking up stitches on a curve. My curve is super uneven. Poppy can wear this around the house, but I wouldn't be so likely to take him cruising around town in it. It's functional, but the uneven back grinds me up. If you're a knitter who doesn't mind picking up curved stitches (or you could crohet the boarder to prevent the stockinette from rolling) this dog sweater can be found here:

http://www.redheart.com/free-patterns/dog-sweater

I used the stitch numbers and layout of Linus, the measurements of Coats and Clark, and a cute 17x23 snowflake chart to make Poppy a white sweater with a blue collar and blue snowflake on the back. The snowflake came a little too high up his back, but it's still really cute. I'll put all of the pictures of Poppy in his sweaters on the slideshow. They're very cute. Tomorrow, my parents are coming over my house to share the 7lb roast chicken I will be making. Ray was supposed to make it, but he is very sick right now. Anyway, my mom will be bringing over Poppy's sewn outfits. Yay! I hope they don't require any altering. As soon as they're fitted properly, I'll share pictures of those too. I love my spoiled grateful furry little guy!

Doggie Cookies!!

I finally made a batch! I'm SO proud of myself. These are the ones I made:

http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/Recipes/Dog-Treat-Recipes-680/Basic-Yeast-Dog-Treats-229.aspx

I added all of the ingredients, but the dough was extremely wet and sticky, so I added a bit more of both flours and cornstarch. The dough would've been a little better if I had let it sit for a while. I used Swanson Beef broth, cheap dry whole milk that came in 3 seperate large bags, .50 oz dry active yeast, cornstarch, wheat flour, and all purpose flour.

I used a shotglass to cut them out and baked them at 300* for 15-18 minutes. They smelled really good when I was baking them! When they were done cooling, I tried a tiny piece. They were very dry and had a weird sugarless sourdough flavor. Poppy had two and loved them. I boxed them up and passed them out to 3 of my neighbors. I filled 2 hillshire farms lunchmeat bowls, a butter bowl, and half of a large plastic (Dishwashed several times without in-between-use since emptied) Maxwell house bucket. Point being, I made a LOT of biscuits! Here's a picture of some cooling:

 

 

You can see the coffee bucket and butter bowl in this pic. The sandwich bag box is just there to show how small the biscuits are. They're for puppies and my Chi Mix, so they had to be super small. I'm SO proud of myself for making my own homemade doggy biscuits! I just want to give them to everyone. If I were going to make this recipe again, I'd use half the stock called for with .25oz of dry active yeast. All I need to do is buy more beef stock...or learn how to make stock at home. Wait, I will definitely make this recipe again! Poppy loves them. I just wish the recipe was a bit smaller because there is NO way Poppy would eat that many biscuits in 2 weeks.

 

 



I'm pretty darn proud that I can make my own dog treats. Poppy will never say, "Mom, these aren't as good as Maw's cookies." or "You should've added more chocolate chips to these." He just gobbles them up and I feel like he really appreciates them. It's like he knows that I put extra work into them just for him. My dad asked me if I made cookies for Austin and I told him, "Austin doesn't care as long as he can give the treats to Poppy...If he wants one of those, he can eat them too." My dad reminded me of when I ate colored milkbones with my doberman and I told him, "I ate these too. Dad, they're much better tasting than Milkbones!" My dad has known I'm crazy for such a long time that this comes to no surprise to him anymore.

 

Homemade dog treat recipe attempt #1 was a complete success. All neighborhood dogs are going to be stuffed and happy without byproducts, fillers, or preservatives. Well self, ya did good. :-D 

 

 

 

 

 



Poisons - mushrooms and heart-worm pills

Fungi Are NOT Fun Guys!

In our lawn, there are bunches of tiny mushrooms growing out of the ground. I looked them up and they're not edible, but not poisonous to animals. 50% of the mushrooms that have been identified are non-toxic. The other 50% will make you puke. I HAD to look this up because Poppy almost ate a mushroom.

Ray was walking him and he scooped something up into his mouth. I yanked it out with my finger and scraed his tongue really good. I thought it was a wet used tissue, gross. It was a mushroom. Poppy did not get sick or act sluggish at all. Honestly, I didn't put much thought into the possibility of it being poisonous. To me, Poppy just spit out the same thing as an Asprin. Poppy was fine.

The next day, my neighbor was telling me how there were so many of those mushrooms everywhere and she was worried about the dogs eating them, so I looked them up. They're really common egg-shaped white mold without any spores underneath. You shouldn't eat them, but they wont kill a child or animal unless they eat dozens of them, which would make them vomit. Ta-da, I was right lol. Good to know though.

Perscription Poison

ANY flea medicine you put on your animal is poison. This poison is either obsorbed by the skin or ingested. The way I see it, it's like the seasonal flu shot. A little yuck is worth a lot of protection.

Today, at 2pm, I gave Poppy his heart-worm medicine, which is a $19 pill called Trifexis. The pill takes care of fleas as well, which I really like. Some dogs (perticularly collies) have been known to vomit from ingesting this pill. After an hour, the pill is digested.

At first, Poppy put the pill in his mouth and sucked on it a bit before spitting it out. I wrapped it in a half piece of cheese and he chewed it right up with no problems. I watched Poppy like a hawk until about 4pm. "Please don't vomit my $20, Poppy!" Austin burped and I jumped up to make sure it was (the kid) not the dog. When Poppy feels ill, he has a facial expression in his eyes and he holds his head down. He never actually told me, but I'm pretty sure he was nauseated for a good 20-30 minutes. I did not let him exert himself for the hour. He just sat on my lap and licked my arm off and on while I finished knitting up his snowflake sweater.

This evening, Poppy had a bowel movement and it was a teany bit hard, so I don't think the medicine did anything to his stool. He's behaving totally normal. I'll continue to fear him vomiting for the next 2 days, but over all I think this medicine worked well for Poppy. We'll see how well it works by the 24th day. That's when frontline started clunking out on up.


**With Frontline, I saw a flea or two during the last week before the next dose. They were each a singular pin-like belly flea, but a flea is a flea is a flea!**

Dog Recipes I'd Like To Try

I've been searching and searching for recipes that don't include baby food, citrus/acidic fruits or veggies, nuts, salt, onion, or garlic and don't require a food dehydrator or long oven times. I believe I can make these recipes in half-batches for Poppy. I could always pass some over to my friends dogs.

Bananna Bites - http://www.bullwrinkle.com/Assets/Recipes/Bulldog%20Banana%20Bites.htm

Cinnimon Chicken Treats - http://www.bullwrinkle.com/Assets/Recipes/Cinnamon%20Chicken%20Treats.htm

Basic Yeast Dog Treats - http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/Recipes/Dog-Treat-Recipes-680/Basic-Yeast-Dog-Treats-229.aspx

Pumpkin Dog Treats - http://www.secondfloorwalkup.com/2009/10/pumpkin-dog-biscuits-and-pumpkin.html

Super bsic dog treats "Milk Bone Treats" - http://www.bullwrinkle.com/Assets/Recipes/Milk%20Bone%20Dog%20Biscuits.htm

Now which one should we try first??