Coastal Reflections

Faced with a big decision about the dogs

I'm sure I'll ramble so if you're reading this I apologize for that up front.

We're faced with a big decision about our dogs.  As I mentioned yesterday, the oldest had a bacterial infection that appeared just before we left on vacation.  While we were gone the youngest dog also developed it.  The middle dog is okay so far.  Dh picked up the dogs from the kennel (at our vet's office) yesterday morning and was told all was fine with the oldest.  Not so!  She vomited 4 times during the day yesterday - twice on the master bedroom carpet (no big deal since it's going bye-bye with the remodeling) and twice on the tile in the living room.  Just before bed last night she had bloody diarhhea all over the tile in the living room and then proceeded to go into ds2's room and vomit all over the brand new rug (his room has been remodeled).  Let me say that this vomit is beyond gross.  It's dark and ugly and stinks like you would not believe.  I cleaned the rug as best I could, but it's stained and I'm upset.

The infection we were told could be from a variety of things from stress to something that was eaten outside in the yard (and the way all 3 root and eat junk outside, there's no telling what they've ingested).  Stress is a huge possibility though and the source is ds1 (I won't go into details, but he's been acting out ever since ds2 was born).

I just lost it last night.  Yesterday was just the final straw.  I love our dogs dearly, but I am so tired of cleaning up pee, poop, and vomit inside the house.  It's not a daily happening by any means, but 90% of the time it happens when I'm the only adult here to have to clean it up.  I know with pets that are inside that accidents will happen, but I am extremely frustrated and broken hearted that now something that was brand new has been ruined as a result.  We have put a lot of $$ and effort into remodeling.  Maybe I'm being too obsessive about my house, but it's something that's mine and I want to take and have pride in it.  Ds2 will be mobile and exploring soon and the thought of something happening and him getting into it (and finding its way into his mouth) has me livid.  We never had all this happening when ds1 was a baby so this is all new for us.  I am overly tired from lack of sleep and feel like I am walking around in a fog most days so I am not surprised by my reaction of just losing it over this finally.

So............. now we're faced with either putting the dogs outside permanently or getting rid of them.  The latter option would be hard on us all.  The first option comes with its own challenges.  They have never been outside dogs.  They go out to play, under our supervision, and to potty, but they are primarily inside dogs.  I cannot see turning them loose in the yard.  The fencing is questionable in areas and I don't know if they would dig out when left outside unsupervised.  The road we live on has a speed limit of 35mph, but most people drive at least 55mph or faster so if they got into the road they would be goners.  There's also the issue of snakes to take into consideration.  We have diamondbacks, pygmy rattlers, water moccasins, and corals to worry about (along with many non-poisonous).  The water moccasins are out in great force right now due to the huge drought we're in.  We do have a quite large open-air back porch where we could keep them.  Dh mentioned getting 4ft. heavy guage chicken wire and running it around the porch as a solution until we have the $$ to screen the porch in properly.

My head is swimming!

On a final note, dh called the vet's office this morning to complain about him being told the dog was fine.  It turns out that she was being fed special food all last week and the person that checked dh out yesterday failed to mention that and failed to discuss what diet she should be on upon returning home.  We fed them regular food yesterday so that was a huge contributing factor in what happened and stress from ds1 was probably the other part.  The person that dh spoke with today (which is someone that has always been great to us and our dogs) couldn't apologize enough and tore into the other girl while on the phone with dh.  She called dh back a bit later and let dh know that the girl had been fired because there was an incident with another client yesterday as well.

Untitled Comment

09:49, 2006-May-16 .. Posted by Carol

Kim, so sorry you are having to make this huge decision. ~hugs~
~Carol