Every day I receive emails from pet lovers, who hope to help others through their experiences.
Received this week, from Candice:
"Like many people I have relied on the ease of a doggie door and a fenced back yard for my dog's potty needs. We have a large backyard our gardener cleans up all the droppings each week. I seldom get my hands dirty when it comes to my dogs.
A couple of weeks ago, out of the blue, I decided my dogs and I needed more outside time together. Now I look at this motivation to change my behavior as being due to an angel giving me the gentle nudge, knowing I needed to pay attention to something. We have beautiful trails near our home so the walks can be breathtaking.
Both of my dogs seem to love the new adventures on the trails, and even though I kept them on leashes, they explored, sniffed, and watered every leaf, twig and blade of grass along the way. I was prepared to clean up any droppings they might leave on the trail, dutifully carried doggie poopie bags and plastic gloves. It's amusing to me that I had no problem changing very messy baby diapers, but I needed plastic gloves to clean up after my dogs.
Halfway through our second walk I discovered something that caused me concern. When I stopped to clean up after one dog, Buster, I discovered he had severe diarrhea. His personality was still as loving as usual, so I first thought it was just a temporary sign of indigestion, but I wanted to check with the vet when we got home, to be sure.
Buster seemed to get worse as we walked, stopping frequently and sitting down (something new). He still seemed to respond normally with his tail wagging when I could coax him to come to me. But something was definitely not right. I called the vet and we abandoned our walk in the park, went right over.
Good thing we did. After several tests, the verdict was that Buster had pancreatitis, and he was going to need to stay a few days at the vet’s office for fluids, medication and more tests. As the vet explained the seriousness of the diagnosis, she also questioned when I first observed the symptoms. The severity of Busters condition indicated that he had been suffering longer than just this one day. He is such a well behaved dog, and since his personality seemed normal, I had no suspicion that anything might be wrong until I saw the diarrhea.
I was so sad leaving Buster at the vet and returning home with only one dog, Charlie. When I returned home, I decided to visit their potty area in the back yard. In several spots, I discovered what appeared to be diarrhea.
Since I wasn't around when my dogs use the yard, and I don't do the clean up, I hadn't seen the early signs. I felt so guilty. I needed to make some changes.
I now schedule walks at least 3 times a week with my dogs and I pay closer attention to any change in their behavior. Looking back I can remember small changes in Busters behavior that I didn't consider significant at the time. Now I know differently.
I'm also watching my dogs a little more often when they are in the back yard, and my gardener has been instructed to tell me if any of my dogs poop appears suspicious.
I know it was an Angel that got me out of the chair and onto that trail with my dogs. If I hadn't taken that walk with Charlie and Buster, the result might have been different, and I would be wondering (and feeling terrible) when Buster would have gotten sicker, or worse.
It's easy to fall into lazy habits, and it does take conscious commitment to change, but my boys are worth it. I am grateful for that Angel."
