Poor Shuki! She's got a couple of medical problems now that she is approaching 15. (By the way, the old formula of 1 dog-year equals 7 human years has been modified, so she is not really 100-something years old, but I'm guess from her usual behavior closer to 70-something.) Anyhow, she had the misfortune to be bitten by a presumptuous flea last week. By the weekend she was frantically licking and biting the spot, and by Sunday morning it had become bald and swollen. I took her to the vet, who pronounced it a "hot spot," dog variety rather than wi-fi variety, injected her with antibiotics and prednisone, and imprisoned her in the lampshade collar to prevent her from further self-destruction. A flea allergy, exacerbated by scratching.Needless to say, she has not been ecstatic with her new accessory, bunking into corners and tripping up the stairs. She cried and whined for the rest of the day on Sunday, trying to guilt me into removing the unwanted restraint, but I hardened my heart. I told her it was for her own good, and she reacted just as anyone would: continued whimpering until she tired herself out and went to sleep.
I've been administering her daily prednisone dose embedded in a chicken liver, which she devours lustily, so her depression has not yet affected her appetite. Today I took her back to the vet for a review of her hotspot, which is healing but not gone. Another four days of collar, with a few hours' freedom prescribed on Shabbat (only in Israel!) I hope I have the strength of character to reinstall the thing.
Then the vet hit us with the coup de grace: "Do you know she has an eye infection?" Sure enough, I saw the red eyelid: my doggie has conjunctivits. "Put this eye cream in her eye three times a day." We trundled home to add eye cream to the domestic pharmacy residing in my fridge. Now I'm dispensing meds three times a day to my dog, not to mention the new skin treatment (Enbrel) that I'm administering to myself!
The dog days of summer have hit hard at the Savta Dotty residential treatment facility.
8 comments:
Poor Shuki! Please give her a big kiss and an extra doggie treat for me. Hope she's feeling better soon!
Sounds like Shuki is being treated very very well by her loving owner. Lucky doggie.
Liza - she is so disgusted that she hardly even looks at me any more. It's pathetic. Our only communication is via doggie treats.
Shari - at the moment, "lucky" is not how she views it (see above), but I soldier on. The trouble is, I don't feel like her owner, I feel like her life partner who's betraying her trust. We are both equally eager to be rid of that ^&*(% collar!
Poor baby. :(
As a pet lover, I am sending you positive good-luck vibes in the bucketful.
We had a cat that stripped most of the hair off her entire body because of fleas. She looked like a very large rat with a fur collar.
I hope Shuki is feeling better.
Your blog interests me in a number of areas. I have a small dog that looks much like yours and he's been visiting the vet this week also.
I've had occasion to visit Israel on four occasions and found it fascinating. I'm always interested in reading about Israel and life there.
I also enjoy knitting.
I'm new to blogging and could be pleased if you visited my blog "Texas to Oregon" http://texastooregon.blogspot.com/
Gila - She's playing the invalid role beautifully, and getting lots of TLC and treats. The ordeal is almost over.
Nizo - vibes from you must be especially powerful: we're both healing beautifully!
Fred - a hairless cat does not sound attractive at all. A tiny flea can certainly do a lot of damage.
Linda - Welcome! I read your blog and will comment
further there :-)
Post a Comment