An Easter Scare

 

On Easter Sunday (April 4) I decided to give Olive a treat for Easter. Someone had given us a chew stick for dogs which I gave her at lunch time. Later that evening I opened a package of lamb flavored treats and gave Olive a few with her supper (they were very small).

The next morning Olive was very low energy and did not want to eat her breakfast. She did not want to play Frisbee or even go for a walk. That is very unlike her, as she has always been a high energy dog. When she showed no improvement by noon and still hadn’t eaten anything I called the vet and made an appointment for that evening. She finally did eat around 3 p.m., but was still low energy. The vet checked her digestive system for any obstructions, but found nothing. Thinking that it might have been the chew stick, I was told to monitor the situation and call back if there was no improvement. Perhaps if it was something she ate it would pass through her in a few days.

Olive seemed to eat well over the next week and on the following Sunday seemed to perk up a bit. She seemed to improve little by little after that, but I was concerned that she did not seem to be interested in going out back to play Frisbee, which had always been one of her favorite things. I resolved to call the vet again the following Monday. That seemed even more imperative Monday morning. I had given her one of the lamb treats Sunday night, figuring that they were so small one could not do any harm. Monday morning, she was back to where she had been the previous Monday, not eating and very low energy. There was some improvement as the morning went on, but I made a vet appointment for Thursday (the first opening they had).

On Wednesday afternoon Olive suddenly came alive. I started to take her out for what I thought would be a leisurely walk, when she suddenly started to pull me to the back of my house where we play Frisbee. I let her lead me there where she grabbed the Frisbee and ran around the yard with it. I gave her a few tosses which she caught (something she hadn’t done since Easter). A neighbor who has a dog named Donner about Olive’s size who gets along well with Olive came by, and the two started playing together. It looked as if they were getting a good workout until, not wanting Olive to overdo it right away, I ordered Olive back in the house and she obeyed. Since then, Olive seems to be pretty much back to normal (whew!)

I kept the vet appointment. The vet took a blood sample and a few x-rays. Everything looked normal. I am waiting for one test result, but it looks as if we may never know what was causing the problem. I brought the wrapper from the chew stick and the package of lamb treats. The vet saw nothing obvious in the ingredients, but cautioned that dogs could have sensitivities to ingredients, just as humans can be sensitive to gluten or other normally benign ingredients. I discarded the lamb treats and resolved not to give her any treats or chew sticks from Wal Mart ever again.

I am just glad to see Olive back to her old self.

 = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

 I finally got my second Covid shot in mid-March. Now I can finally go to the mall, to a museum, grocery shopping, or even out to a restaurant without fearing for my life. I do wish everyone would get vaccinated so that the world could get back to normal. Those Covid variants and mutations are most likely to develop and occur in un-vaccinated people.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

This is a short posting because little has been happening with the Covid pandemic still happening, though hope for an end has never been higher. To me, online festivals and events are a poor substitute for actually being at a gathering and interacting with others.

To end, here is something I cam across on the internet recently. To border collie people, and I suppose to dog people in general, this is very relatable. To non-dog people, it’s a dog person thing.  😉