The What if’s

Have you ever wondered what you would do if, say your pet started choking? If your pet fell from a high place? If, your pet was hit by a car and still breathing? I hope no one or no companions ever experienced these things, but unfortunately, they do happen. I can personally attest to each of these situations, if not one of my bears, but with animals I’ve come to know through working with clients and rescues over the years.

Bernie is notorious for trying to swallow things whole. His jaw is a bit mishapened, and he developed an overbite. His overbite is precious, but it prohibits him from adequately chewing and digesting his food. I often find him working on a treat of some sort, usually the treats which take longer to chew. Then as I look up, I see him putting the whole thing in his mouth and working on covering it with his saliva. As you know, the saliva is the start of the digestion process thereby breaking down the food. Bernie is like an inpatient child licking ice cream. He doesn’t wait for his saliva to work its magic and help make the food more pliable, he goes all in. I’ve seen him put a whole pig ear in his mouth and get it all sopping wet before he tries swallowing it whole. I’ve often been worried what would I do if he started choking. I’ve often wondered what’s the protocol for a choking pet?
There is Jack. Jack loves napping and generally just lounging on the backs of couches or on some of the tallest couches. He loves a high vantage point. Every so often, Jack can sleep like no other. He can sleep like the dead. With that deep sleep comes dreams and with dreams, Jack squirms and moves. There have been a few times where he would squirm so much he would topple off the back of the couch onto the floor. I would hear a thud and I would see him scramble in getting up, but I was also scared he injured himself internally. Thankfully, he never did, but I didn’t know what to do if he fell and hit his head or injured his spine. What do I do? I often thought how ill equipped I am in knowing how to respond.

Then there is a sweet looking dog at Howl A Day Inn whose name is Benjamin. A lady brought him over to Melina to see if she can help him. It looked like the dog was hit by a car. His back legs were broken/dislocated and it seems as though he was hit by a car. Luckily for Benjamin, he was picked up by someone who in turn looked for help. I don’t know about you, but I see so many dogs in and around my neighborhood who get out of their owner’s house or fenced in yard or who are off leash and in the front yard and bolt across the street when they see something more interesting. I’ve been grateful not to have to intervene on a situation where a dog was hit by a car and I would take responsibility and intervene. I often thought, how would I handle this?

Well, the answer is found in Pet First Aid and CPR course. I urge all pet owners to take the program. I successfully completed the program through Animal Behavior College, but I believe the Red Cross offers this course and you may be able to find it at your local community college. Its a great resource and will provide you with the ways of checking for heart rate and breathing and even how to do rescue breathing and CPR for your pet who is unconcious. The course also covers how to provide first aid care for your pet if they are in shock from burns, hypothermia, heat stroke and even snake bites as you transport them to your Vet. This is vital to life information and all pet owners should know how to take the necessary steps in saving their pet’s life. 

A Daily Dose of Mindfulness, part 2

Today, was Jack’s follow up appointment at the Vet. His face looks so much better than last time, but I still kept the appointment as a precaution, in case, the Vet still thought it was a good idea in doing a biopsy.

Jack is Jack. I’m grateful the waiting room was empty and we only had a short wait. I helped keep Jack’s mind off the exam room by having him work his “Find It” and asked him for an assortment of obedience cues. I think this also helped me keep my mind off the Vet. All of the fun went out the door when the Vet Tech greeted us. Jack immediately dug his heels in and I resorted to getting my high pitched voice out and skipping into the hallway. Jack regretfully followed.

After his initial wellness check, the Vet came out and the air seemed lighter. The Vet looked relieved when he saw how much improvement Jack’s face looked. He even admitted to me he was a bit concerned that it could have been some sort of tumor or even cancer. I was in agreement with the Vet on initially thinking this, but since Jack’s response to treatment made the tumor/cancer question move towards the bottom of the list.

The treatment plan for Jack is finishing his meds and see the Vet again in 2 weeks. The conclusion of his fungal test was well, inconclusive. The only thing the Vet saw was bacteria on the sore. The Vet still doesn’t know what happened or the reason for the issue. He does believe on some level Jack had a severe case of ringworm. There isn’t much in the way of science backing up this thinking, but I guess he ruled out anything else severe.

This question mark made me ask a few questions:

  1. Is this an allergic reaction to a sudden change in diet? Our family was without a fridge for the better part of a month, so we were very limited in the way of adhering to the BARF diet. The Vet’s response was allergic reactions are not localized. There would be generalized skin issues and fur falling out on other parts of the body.
  2. Is this an allergic reaction to something in the environment? I’ve grown increasingly concerned about my own allergy sensitivities since moving to OK. I believe I developed a mold allergy, but with me it manifests as a upper respiratory issue. The Vet believes the mold would be breathed in an not manifest on his face. What about mold that grows outside? I know Jack enjoys rubbing his face, maybe that’s a possibility. The Vet did say, dogs scratch not only because they have an itch, but because it releases endorphin!
  3. My last question related to the quickness of a lump of this size growing on him in less than a day. The Vet did say its not abnormal for tumors to grow that quickly in such a short amount of time. He rattled off a host of possible tumor and cancer possibilites like squamous cell carcinoma, mast cell tumor and the such.

Overall, I’m happy knowing Jack’s responding well to his treatment, the Vet isn’t as concerned and Jack didn’t have to go through a biopsy today. Even though these are all good things, the one question still remains without an answer and which the Vet was very open in saying, what is on his face? We may never know. I hope the issue is resolved and doesn’t return. I’m grateful I took Jack into the Vet initially. Only a Vet can find out the issue of a new lump and bump and I’m glad I didn’t ignore it!

Fingers crossed!

A Daily Dose of Mindfulness

Life seems to have a way of sneaking up on a person.  It goes along like the day before and then BAM, something crops up which disrupts our routine, but also causes us to push the pause button. The break in our daily tasks makes us face the reality of life that of which we, including our pets, have a finite time here.

I had a experience like this last week. Jack developed a lump, the size of a quarter, on his face overnight. I didn’t immediately freak out and catastrophasize the problem.  I immediately thought it was a bug bite or a spider bite or otherwise and allergic reaction to something.  I did a bit of googling which eased my mind a bit and I waited on taking him into the Vet’s office.  Well, a few days later, the lump stayed there and it was irritated because Jack kept on fiddling with it by rubbing his face, scratching it and doing whatever else.  I decided in taking him in for an evaluation.

I informed the Vet of what I thought it could be and wouldn’t you know, he thought the same thing, but there was still a question mark and a bit of a cause for concern for him.  He prescribed him some meds and asked us to come back in a week for the possibility of doing a biopsy. I was prepared for this potential, knowing cancer can appear suddenly even with taking precautions and taking care of ourselves and our pets. I wasn’t prepared for waiting.

The past few days, I’ve found myself wondering if the medications are working in reducing the size of the lump or if my own denial of how Jack isn’t going to live forever changes my perception of the size of the lump. Dogs don’t have the life span of a person, mine and Eddie’s life are forever changed because little Boogs is apart of it and the likely hood Jack will depart this earth before us is a real possibility.  I didn’t realize how much so until the finality of Jack being actively a part of it became a reality. Throughout the past 4 years, Jack made me dig a bit deeper and find patience, an open heart and creativity in coping with things outside our norm. I discovered just this when we were at the Vet’s office this past week. The office was packed and I know how Jack becomes a bit high strung when there are strange people and strange dogs. He did well, in the beginning. I first noticed there were many people waiting in the waiting room, so I checked him in and let the receptionist know we would sit outside. We waited for about 15 minutes and this was Jack’s tipping point. He started getting frustrated. He acted this out by barking at people and dogs. People looked at him and at me like “control your dog”. I’ve had those looks before and I’ve often felt a bit of shame or embarrassment because in that moment, I couldn’t control him, Jack was over threshold and I felt a bit out of control myself. That day was different, I just ignored them. I felt a bit freer and less consumed about how others perceive a certain situation. I know how far Boogs and I came in our relationship and I wasn’t so worried about this moment.

The icing on the cake happened after the visit and I was paying our bill. I had Jack’s leash and the receptionist was passing my credit card and receipt back to me when another dog and owner came out through the door. This jolted Jack back to alert mode and he started barking. I know Jack, he wanted the opportunity in greeting the other dog, so I wasn’t concerned. I proceeded in asking the receptionist if I can book an appointment. She looked at me with puzzlement and asked “you want to book one right now”.  Normally, I would be apologetic and immediately remove Jack from the situation and come back and wait for my turn again. Not this time. I said “yes, please”. I felt more relaxed having a JRT as a companion than I ever did before.

The likely hood this is just a blip on the screen of things happening and not having any major life changing implications is pretty high. I guess what it caused me was an opportunity in being present. It keeps me grateful. I’m more aware of my own gratitude for things in my life on a daily basis. The things I’m most grateful for today is, how soft Jack’s fur is, how much he makes me laugh and how much more I’m aware of myself because he’s been apart of my life.

What are you grateful for?!