Category Archives: Health & Grooming

Candy’s Award For Bravery

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Candy received her first “award” this week. Clear Creek Animal Hospital presented it to her for bravery during her dental procedure.

When Dr. Lindsey examed her a few weeks ago, she verified that Candy definitely needed her teeth cleaned and probably needed some extractions. Candy went in on Wednesday. I knew she’d be nervous if I put her in the car and took her right to the vet. (It didn’t go so well when I tried to take her to a groomer a while back.) Instead, I took her for her regular walk at the Nature Center, and then we went to the vet. She was calm when we got there but shaking by the time the technician took her from me.

They called me later and said that Candy needed at least eight teeth extracted. Some were mobile and one was cracked. I was surprised and asked how she would be able to eat. They told me that dogs have more than 40 teeth, so she’d be all right.

When I went to pick her up, she looked a little confused. She mainly lay in her bed the rest of the day. The next morning, I thought I probably shouldn’t take her for a walk, but when it came close to the time when we usually leave, she was looking around like she was expecting something. I decided to take her, and if she looked like the walk was a struggle, I’d end the walk.

She didn’t miss a beat. One of the things people say the most when they see Candy is that she “prances.” Someone said that yesterday morning, so the dental procedure didn’t slow her down.

I thought it would be difficult to give her the medicine she needed to take for her dental work, plus the Denamarin she is now taking, but we’ve succeeded.

She’ll be eating only soft foods for the next two weeks. After that, I’m hoping she’ll be less of a finicky eater. I know she’s always been picky about her food, but maybe some of that recently was because of her teeth issues.

We’re Going To Miss You, Nigel

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Today was a heartbreaking day. Nigel hasn’t been in the best of health lately. He had pneumonia in late February. It took him a while to get back to normal. However, he was soon stealing Candy’s food again, begging for treats, and looking forward to our regular car rides together.

Yesterday morning, he didn’t want to eat and started shaking, like he does when he gets sick. I called the vet and set an appointment for this morning at 11. He seemed to be going downhill rapidly. Sadly, he passed away as I was getting ready to leave for his appointment.

There’s more to the story, and I will share it someday. For now, though, Nigel, we love you and will miss you. Candy will miss you too. You enriched our lives since we met you on Sept. 29, 2011, and brought you home to foster. We were “foster failures,” since we couldn’t give you up after knowing you and had to adopt you.

Shih Tzu Vet Update: Four Star Visit

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I wanted to talk about flowers today, but Mom said I should talk about our annual vet exam we had yesterday at Clear Creek Animal Hospital. First, Mom tricked us. She knows that whenever we get in the car we think we’re going to the nice park for a walk, but we were wrong. It was too late to escape once we saw where she was really taking us.

She was happy I didn’t get frightened and pee on the floor like I used to. However, Nigel “marked” his visit and they had to rush to get a paper towel to clean it up. That’s probably why he got to be examined first. Before Dr. Lindsey did that, though, we all got weighed. Candy weighs the least, at 13.40 pounds. When we came to live at the Freeze Hacienda after living at the puppy mill, she weighed 11 pounds. The doctor says she is a nice weight. Dottie is a little more “plump.” She weighs 18.40 pounds! The doctor wasn’t that concerned, though, since her weight has hardly changed over the last few years. Mom says she is a “big girl.” When Nigel came to live with us he had been very sick, and he only weighed 10.80 pounds. Now, however, he weighs 14.40 pounds. Well, now I have to say what I weigh. I weighed 13.60 pounds in 2011. Now I weigh, gulp, 16.60 pounds. The assistant put me back on the scale because she didn’t think that was right, but it was. The vet says I should lose at least a pound so Mom says I am going to get less treats. Bummer!

We all got a Leptospirosis vaccination — whatever that is. Mom and the vet talked about Nigel’s eye scare earlier this year. He had a corneal perforation. We aren’t sure how well he sees out of it. I guess Mom needs to take him in for a checkup at the specialist for that. Beyond that, she thought Nigel was pretty healthy.

Candy might have a food allergy and Dottie might too, because of some problems with their ears. Candy’s ears are a little “thick” and Dottie has a lot of wax in hers. The vet asked if they itch them a lot. Mom said they used to but that she was cleaning them (with Vet’s Best Ear Relief) and Candy and Dottie didn’t seem to be having a problem lately. Dr. Lindsey said that if it gets worse, Mom might have to do some food tests to see what food might be causing the problem. Dottie is 8 years old and her vision might not be as well as mine, but otherwise, the vet said she was in good health. I don’t know why she didn’t say she needed to lose weight!

Besides the vet saying I need to lose a pound, she also said I have to go in to get my teeth cleaned. Ugh. I guess I have too much tartar on my teeth. Mom was disappointed since the vet always told her how good our teeth looked. Mom thought our teeth were good because of the chew sticks she gives us, but they must not be helping my teeth. I hope that doesn’t hurt!

The good news was that the vet told Mom if she had gold stars, she would give them to us! So I guess we did pretty good!

 

Shih Tzu Week 123: Halloween and a Special Birthday

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Oct. 31 – Nov. 6

Halloween 

This Halloween is a little different than last year. That’s because we continue to have house visitors. When I got up this morning, Panda had climbed into a basket in Mom’s room. John calls whatever basket he or Spot is in their “high-rise hotel” or “loft.”  I have been trying to spend as much time as I can with Mom, since she will be leaving soon to go to Florida. We watched “Grey Gardens” Halloween afternoon. I thought she would like it because of all the cats, but the situation was a little too close to home — that is, Mom’s old home.

I dressed the shih tzus up and took them for their traditional Halloween walk behind Wal-Mart. Other than that, it was a very quiet Halloween. The neighbors did bring their baby over for his first “trick or treat.”

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Friday, Nov. 1

Mom and I went to the bank and then to her house to see what else we might need. She wanted her skillet in which she made Buddy’s salmon cakes, but I couldn’t find it. I might have thrown it away because of hard water deposits.

I have been leaving the door to the basement open so Mom’s cats could get to their dry food, but Nigel knows it’s there now, so he tries to sneak down and eat it.

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Sunday, Nov. 3

Mother’s cat, Emily, doesn’t seem to be feeling well. We aren’t sure how old she is, but we think she could be 17 or 18 years old. She has been very thin for a long time, and when she was at Mom’s home in Commerce City, she used to cough a lot. Lately, she just lies down next to the water bowl, with her head against it. I felt so bad for her today that I put a stuffed animal under her head. She put her head on it as soon as I did.

I guess she was too weak to go downstairs to her litter box, so she wandered over to the training pad and peed on it. Too bad she isn’t well enough to teach whichever of our shih tzus still pees on the floor how to use the pee pad properly!

Monday, Nov. 4

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Emily died this morning. Although Mom was very sad, she was relieved that Emily died now, instead of possibly dying on the road trip on the way to Florida. Mom also said that she was happy that Buddy “follows her close so he can pick up the pieces.” Poor Mom. She has gone through a lot lately. I am very glad she has Buddy. She did admit, however, that, “what made me sad made Buddy glad.” That’s because Buddy never seems happy to share Mom with Emily, or the other cats. He tends to growl when they get too close to her. We had become fond of Emily, so John and I shed a few tears for her too.

I am happy to say that Mom still has her sense of humor. Mom spotted some urine on the hard wood floor and decided she was going to pick it up. She got down on her knees with a paper towel before I could stop her. Then, she started laughing when she had trouble getting back up. “Oh, oh,” she started laughing, and you guessed it, said, “Help. I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”

When Mom gets melancholy, which is quite often, she repeats a phrase from one of her past coworkers at Burger King: “What we gonna do, Buddy? What we gonna do?” I sure hope she can find a way to be happy when she gets to Florida.

Wednesday, Nov. 6

This will be the first time I spent Mom’s entire birthday with her since, hmmm, probably when I was a child. I gave her a photo album of pictures I put together from her time with us, mainly of her furry babies, but I included some of our furry kids, so she could remember them.

I think she really liked all the pictures. Spot Collins and Panda were the main stars, but we did get some sweet pictures of Emily before she died, and of course I included some of Buddy and Mom.

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Shih Tzu Week 119: Snow!

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Oct. 3 – Oct. 9, 2013

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Friday, Oct. 4 

It snowed last night. Snow! On Oct. 3! I’m not ready to see my garden die! Also, I have been leaving the backdoor open, since Candy and Dottie still don’t go through the doggy door. So today it is closed.

I have begun to think of myself as Flower’s “Daddy Bridge.” She climbs onto my lap, and without stopping, crosses me to get to Daddy. But I am in no way complaining. I am just happy that she is that comfortable with both of us now. When she isn’t with us, or at Shih Tzu Center, she likes to sit on the back of the loveseat where she can watch everybody from a comfortable distance, and look out the window when she chooses.

Candy also continues to make “couch progress.” I never knew what she wanted before when she came up to the couch. Nowadays it can mean she wants a snack or she wants up. Today, for example, I reached to get her and she stood still and let me pick her up. Dottie was already on one side and Nigel snuggled close on the other. I sat her on the other side of Nigel, and she eventually curled up and settled down. When she was there, I rubbed her ear and realized it was soft inside, not rough as usual. That roughness, or “elephant ear,” is a sign of allergies, although I am not sure to what. I have been putting a little Aquaphor in her ear, thinking if it works for my lips it might work for her ear. It seems to be working. Also, a neighbor gave us a water cooler, so they mainly get purified water to drink, and maybe that is helping.

Flower jumped up on the couch to join us a little later, so I had all four of the shih tzus for company, although Flower definitely looked bored on her corner perch. Candy can only take couch comfort for so long, so she eventually jumped down to occupy the bed she and Nigel alternate in, by the entertainment center. Although he rarely does it, Nigel actually took a bed at Shih Tzu Central.

I have the TV on today, like I often do when I’m working, with the volume down. I just saw an image of an abused dog on an commercial for an animal shelter and it almost made me cry. I am so happy our four shih tzus have a loving home and that there are so many animal rescues and shelters out there trying to make a difference.

Sunday, Oct. 6 

It warmed up enough for us to take the dogs for a walk at Majestic View Nature Center. Since we have worked so hard on our garden this year, I have really enjoyed looking at their plants and flowers, which are usually tagged with their names.

It gives me of ideas for the future. We don’t walk there nearly as much as the shih tzus would like to, since we normally just walk behind Wal-Mart, so it is always a special treat. I tried to walk all four of them once there without John, but it was a fiasco, and I would never try it again.

Monday, Oct. 7

Nigel got a bath today. Hopefully that will stop his scratching. Each one of the dogs took their turns on the couch today again. Of course, Dottie is there most of the day. I was watching Flower roll around on the couch for a while. Not sure why she does that, but it’s fun to watch. Maybe she is scratching her back on the couch? Each time I pick up Candy and sit her down on the couch, I think about the past, when she either hid upstairs or in her corner “apartment” in the dining room, instead of joining us. I continue to be thankful for how far we have come.

Tuesday, Oct. 8 

John gave the shih tzus their pre-breakfast snack (chicken-wrapped rawhide bone) as usual this morning and they were raring to go. For some reason, Candy often doesn’t eat hers right away. She sits it in front of her and guards it. I think she keeps it just to enjoy the game. If anyone comes near it, she sounds her loud siren bark warning. I need to record it, because it’s fierce. Sometimes, like today, Flower sits on the other side of Candy’s bone and growls, trying to terrorize her sister to giving it up. However, Candy instead decided it was time to enjoy it.