More Pet Pampering

Last year my dog Megan started eating grass like she was a cow.  Now, I’m not talking about the occasional grass buffet that your dog may enjoy.  She was obsessed with eating it. You could have offered her a steak and she would have probably thought don’t you have anything green.

She didn’t want to eat her food.  It seemed like all she wanted to do was eat grass all day.  She would wake me up in the middle of the night to go outside and eat grass.  I would have to physically go outside and carry her back into the house only for her to wake me up 3 hours later to go out again and eat some more grass.

On one of my trips to the veterinarian for my other dog Precious who had congestive heart failure,  I mentioned Megan’s grass addiction to him and you can probably guess what he said, ” It’s normal for dogs to eat grass.”  So I returned home trying to think of the positive side of  it, we could probably cut the grass less often.  I could save money on food.  Other strange thoughts came to mind, maybe she was a cow in a previous life. That’s impossible more likely a cat since she loves to play with balls that are made for cats. Back to the real problem.

In the following days Megan continued to eat grass and days later she started to vomit what looked like undigested food in the middle of the night.   With this new symptom I had to take my cow/dog back in to see my veterinarian.   Before my appointment  I decided to do some internet research on why dogs eat grass in the first place.

Most Dog’s Eat Grass Because Of An Upset Stomach

I typed in google why dogs eat grass.  There was a consensus from veterinarians and pet owners that the most likely reasons your dog eats grass is because their stomach is upset. If they eat enough of it they throw up and then they appear to feel better.

Other Reasons Dogs Eat Grass:

Some other reasons for eating grass are bacteria, parasites, viruses,  food allergies, change in diet, motion sickness, intestinal worms, stress or trauma.

There were some things I thought I could rule out right away. I didn’t change her diet and I didn’t believe she had allergies because of lack of other symptoms and was positive she didn’t have worms due to a recent stool sample.  I was not aware of any stress. That left bacteria, parasites and viruses.

Helicobacter A Possible Reason For Dogs To Eat Grass?

Since I believed she was eating grass because of an upset stomach,  I searched for the type of bacteria it might be.  I’m not sure if it was just luck or my tenacity to find the real reason she was eating grass all the time but I stumbled upon  some information about Hpyloric.

Helicobacter is a class of bacteria found in both animals and humans. It lives in the digestive tracts of cats and  dogs.  Symptoms include slight to severe irritation of the stomach.

Symptoms Of Helicobacter In Dogs:

Most cases remain without any symptoms at all.  In others the following symptoms may be seen:

• Vomiting
• Dehydration
• Poor appetite
• Bowel sounds
• Abdominal pain
• Weight loss
• Diarrhea
• Weakness
• Sudden death

Diagnosing  Helicobacter infection in dogs is no simple thing.  Gastric biopsy via endoscopy is the best test. This procedure is done with the dog under sedation.

Since tests to diagnose Helicobacter infection are no simple matter most vets will treat based on symptoms.  Since he couldn’t really say she didn’t have it without doing extensive tests, he just prescribed my dog the two antibiotics that are normally given for Helicobactor.

That night I started the antibiotics with my dog. It was  truly amazing because after the first day on the antibiotics she no longer ate grass.  Without that gastric biopsy I’ll never know if she really had helicobactor or some other bacterial infection that the antibiotics cured but I am convinced that eating grass all the time is not normal no matter what your veterinarian says. Today she only see grass for what it is a place to pee or roll around if it smells bad.

Eating Grass Could Simply Mean Your Dog Needs More Fiber.

If  your dogs eats grass all the time but he doesn’t vomit  he could simply have a  nutritional deficiency or need some fiber in his diet.  When my other dog would eat grass I would notice that she would have stools with blades of grass in it.  Try switching to a better dog food with high fiber.

Do you have a dog that’s always eating grass?

Share

My dog is ball obsessed so I couldn’t help but love this picture.

Share

Is It Possible That My Dog Had A Seizure When She Fell Down?

If your dog had a mild seizure would you recognize it for what it is?  Severe seizures or “Grand Mal” seizures are easily recognized by their symptoms. The dog usually falls and his body becomes rigid. He may appear as if running or paddling his legs.  He will also lose consciousness along with loosing control of his bladder. These seizures usually last from 30 seconds to several minutes. While this is traumatic for any pet owner at least we recognize it and know that it is a seizure.

On the other hand, mild seizures or “Petit Mal” seizures, can look as if the dog has simply fainted and their eyes have a blank stare.  Many of these petit mal seizures are fleeting lasting only a few seconds and you might even think your pet has hurt himself because frequently the pet will cry out before falling.  This it exactly what happened to a dog I recently cared for.

I was pet sitting for this cute little dog when she had a seizure.  I knew it was a seizure because my Pomeranian had many  before she passed.  It was a really mild seizure and the dog seemed fine afterwards.  Since it was an extremely mild seizure and it was on the weekend  I decided to wait until the next day to call the veterinarian. Before we arrived at the veterinarian the next day the dog had another seizure.

How are  seizures in dogs diagnosed?

If your dog experiences seizures some tests that your veterinarian might want to perform  include blood work, urine tests, CT scans and MRI’s.  Luckily for me and the dog’s owners the veterinarian discovered the dog had pancreatitis by just doing some simple blood work.

While seizures aren’t considered a symptom of pancreatitis,  low blood sugar resulting from the pancreatitis can cause seizures.  I did mention to the vet that both of her seizures occurred several hours after eating.

When the dog’s owners returned from their vacation, I informed them that their dog had two seizures.  When I was describing the seizures to them they realized that their dog had several seizures at home before they came.  Their dog would cry out and fall to the floor.  Since they had no prior experience with mild seizures with their little dog they just thought that she somehow hurt herself.

They took the dog to their veterinarian and since he had no idea the dog was having seizures he simply prescribe some tramadol for the dog’s pain.

While it took a little longer for the proper diagnoses, I’m glad to say this cute little dog is doing fine today and the owners are determined not to spoil her with any more fatty table scraps which can trigger an attack of pancreatitis.

Some other causes of seizures in dogs are:

• epilepsy
• hyperthyroidism
• Cushing’s Disease
• liver disease
• kidney disease
• hypocalcemia (low blood calcium level)
• poisons including, chocolate, caffeine, strychnine and others
• heat exhaustion
• parasites, such as fleas and hookworms
• low blood sugar

What should you do if your dog has a seizure?

Try to remain calm if your dog has a seizure, you don’t have to worry he can’t swallow his tongue. You should also keep your hands away from his mouth in case he snaps at you unintentionally. I would always pick my dog up and hold her when she was having a seizure but not really a good idea if you don’t want to get urinated on.  Try to keep track of how long her seizures last and what time of day it was in case the seizure was caused by low blood sugar.

In conclusion  seizures in dogs, mild or severe  should always be investigated by your veterinarian. Untreated seizures in dogs can often worsen and cause irreparable harm.

Was this article helpful to you?

Share

Happy Easter To Everyone.

Share

My experiences with a Wolf Hybrid dog. Six valuable lessons that I’ve  learned from owning him.

When I tell my friends now that I use to own a wolf  hybrid  many can’t believe it.  One reason may be that I currently have 3 small Pomeranians.

When I was younger I owned nothing but large dogs but now I  can’t imagine owning one. Perhaps the main reason would be all the problems I had with my wolf hybrid.  Another reason may have  something to do with the fact that large dogs have large poop, and when my two boys were young it was their job of picking it up.  Now that my kids are grown and gone that job belongs to me. Or maybe it’s because small dogs can be carried around like little babies and don’t take up much room in my bed. Whatever the reasons my love and devotion now is dedicated to small dogs.

But to answer the question if wolf hybrid dogs make good pets my answer is a resounding NO.  I probably could write a book on all the problems my wolf hybrid created but I’ll dwell on just a few of them here.

I’m not sure what prompted me to buy my wolf hybrid some 40 years ago but he was a beautiful dog.  His name was Smoky and he was very attached to me. We had another dog then, a Collie and they were good friends.  But because of the wolf’s destructive nature he couldn’t be left alone in the house, unlike our Collie.  So when I worked we kept them both in our backyard.

Soon we discovered that our chain link fence was not going to keep him in the yard. He would dig holes and crawl underneath the fence. Our Collie must have decided our wolf needed supervision when he was out so he followed.

When I first discovered they were out I was frantic.  Our street could be dangerous and I was worried about them getting hit by a car.  So I got into my car and started searching the neighborhood. When I found them I opened my car door and asked them if they wanted to go for a ride. Great trick when it works.

When I returned home with them my husband would have to reinforce the spot where Smoky dug out with bricks and dirt. Then he would say, “Don’t worry they’re not going to get out again.”

Later that week or maybe it was the next day Smoky managed to get out in a different spot.  So I got in my car again searching the neighborhood until I found them so I could practice my “Go for a ride trick.”  My husband would then get to enjoy his hobby of gardening, although I’m not so sure you could call filling in holes gardening. But you do get to work with your hands in the dirt, right?  Lesson #1 Wolf Hybrids love to dig.

Once I had to take my husband to work and planned on only being gone for 10 minutes. I didn’t want to put them outside because I didn’t want to end up searching the neighborhood this early. When I got home the fairly new couch cushion was torn to pieces. Lesson #2 Wolf Hybrids are very destructive.

As time went on Smoky continued to make his escape taking my Collie with him. This went on for months, he would always find a new way out and  I would always have to cruise the neighborhood to bring them home. Then my husband  once again got to repair the fence.    If your asking me why we didn’t fix the whole fence in the beginning , every time they got out my  husband would tell me that there was no way they were getting out anywhere else.  I wanted to believe.

Naturally I should have realized he was wrong, after all how often are husbands right? Just kidding guys…..seriously though they continued to get  out every couple of days. I think they had  a master escape plan that we humans were too dumb to decipher.   Day 1 dig hole, day 2 dig hole bigger and act innocent, day three make escape before humans find hole.

This went on until one day animal control picked them both up, I had to go to the humane society to rescue them. Had the pleasure of paying a fine for letting my dogs roam the neighborhood and another fine for not having two dog licenses.  Sure it was the law but who had money for dog licenses when we were too busy paying for our wolf hybrid’s destructiveness.

Just when we thought the entire fence was reenforced and we were convinced our sweet wolf-hybrid was never going to get out again he must have been reading a book on teleportation.  Amazingly he found his way out and we spent days trying to figure out how he did it. It wasn’t until much later, quite by accident that we seen him crawl over the fence.

It was then that we knew something had to be done. That’s when we got the idea to electrify our fence. Back then they didn’t have the modern electric fences with collars this was more like they used with farm animals.  We strung wire (or my husband did I watched) around the bottom of our fence so he couldn’t dig his way out and along the top so he couldn’t crawl over.

This was going to be tricky because the wire had to go over the gate also.  So every time you went into the yard you had to duck so you wouldn’t get zapped. Once I guess I didn’t duck down far enough and I learned what people meant when they said they seen stars after getting hit in the head.  The electric wire hit me right across my forehead.  My husband thought it was so funny he told me next time I wanted to see stars he ‘d buy me  a telescope.

If we imagined for even a minute that the electric fence was going to keep Smoky our wolf-hybrid in, we were wrong again.  If  I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes I would have never believed what followed.

My kids had a wagon in the yard which happened to be close to the edge of the fence.  He would pick up the handle and continually drop it until it landed on the wire and short out the fence.  Did I mention how smart he was? How he knew he could then get out well……your guess is as good as mine. Lesson #3 Wolf Hybrids are great at problem solving.

He continued to get out for months dropping sticks on the fence wire or whatever he might find in the yard. We would search for them, bring them home, fix the wire.  Rinse, lather, repeat, rinse lather, repeat…..oh sorry thinking of something else stupid.

I remember once my husband planted a beautiful tree so when it grew it would give the dogs more shade in the yard.  Smoky must have decided the tree needed some pruning so he chewed off all the lower branches that he could reach.  We had to put a fence around the rest of the tree to prevent him from making matchsticks out of it.

We had one of those really large satellite dishes back then that were popular and the best place for it to be located so it had a clear view of the sky was about 100 feet from the house. So we had the dish installed and the wire buried in our yard.  When we had our backs turned Smoky dug up all the wire and chewed the wire in half. Didn’t I already learn this lesson? Repeat lesson #1 Wolf hybrids like to dig.

While wolves are somewhat shy around people they do like to  sneak up on you. One day while he was out he bit my neighbor’s butt as she was walking from her yard into her house. Luckily there was no puncture wound. Lesson #4 check home owners policy for liability coverage.

Another time when he got out he severely injured my neighbor’s dog and I had to pay to have the dog put to sleep.  Luckily for me they were very understanding and did not pursue any legal matters from this event.

And then there was the time he killed my neighbor’s pet goose.  What could I do I was trying to keep him contained. Lesson #5 Wolf Hybrids have a strong prey drive.

I’m pretty sure many of my neighbor’s were getting sick and tired of seeing my killer wolf  in their yard and in fact someone decided to use him for target practice  with their shotgun.  I was called home from work that day and found the police were at my house.  Wolf hybrid or not it’s illegal to shoot someone’s pet.  While he didn’t have any permanent damage from it, I had to take him to emergency clinic and many of the pellets remained in him.

Shortly after that they got picked up by animal control for the second time. It was all I could take. Many people suggested chaining him but that was something I just didn’t believe in and from what I knew chaining makes them more aggressive and protective of  their area.

We decided then that we needed to find another home for him. After a lot of searching we managed to find  someone who lived in the country that said they would take him.  I warned him of the many problems we had experienced but he said he used to own one and understood.  While it was hard to leave him it was the best thing for our sanity. Lesson #6 Never get any pet without doing your research.

I hope I’ve convinced you that wolf hybrids do not make ideal pets but if you’re still thinking about one be sure to check your state laws before you buy, many states like Michigan passed the wolf dog hybrid act (passed summer of 2000) which prohibits ownership of wolf dog hybrids.

Wolf hybrids are  beautiful creatures but wild animals should just stay in the wild. What do you think?

This is my innocent look.

Share