Penny meets a graphic designer

Today Penny and I went to a local park to mooch around, and we met a friend there whom Penny loves. She (the human) and I were discussing 'earthing', so all three of us lay on the grass in the lovely evening sunshine in the hope of improving our emotional welfare. How nice!

I hope I didn't overdo it by taking Penny for this first major outing after her recent illness. She was out in our backyard munching on grass this evening. Back to the vet tomorrow, I think.

But an interesting thing happened while we were in the park. We met the man who is one of the designers of the great signage that I love so much, the signage that explains the fascinating water harvesting that goes on under this park.

And with the Monster El Nino looming over our summer, water harvesting is going to be on everyone's mind soon. Unfortunately. How terrific that Banyule Council has put all this investment into the future.

Here he is with our friend, holding his own dog, Chas. (Chas the Chihuaha - you have to love that name!)

If you'd like to see more of his work, have a look at this.

First day home after the big scare

So, we go to the hospital to collect Penny...

Instructed to make very sure she has a bland diet, so she can recover successfully. We leave...

Oh, no, what is this? She has snaffled a piece of popcorn in the carpark! Grab it out of her mouth, successful because she's not really all that ready to eat. I think it's just a habit to grab anything remotely edible.

In the car. Home.

Check out the bowl to see whether there's any food. Yes, a tiny little serve of boiled chicken and rice.

Out to the backyard to see if she will have a bowel motion. (Why does dog hospitalisation always seem to end up focused on that all-important evidence that the gut still works?)

What's this? A spot on the back lawn with three-day old vomit. How nice. But her super-clever human - me - has taken the precaution of digging over the spot in preparation for Penny's homecoming. Nothing much to be grabbed, except perhaps a smidgen of disgusting soil.

Oh, well, maybe lie down for a little rest, near the delicious smell.

And it's tricky to get anything nice if your human plonks a container of old gardening pots on top of the best place.

At last, a bowel motion! (I'll spare you the video I took of this, dear reader.)

So, inside to rest at the window and check out the neighbourhood.

Penny gives us a big, big scare

Penny's been in hospital. And we were super worried. (She's home now and resting, having eaten small meals of boiled chicken and rice.) Last Thursday she vomited her breakfast, ate it again - and vomited it again.

Later on that first day, at dinner time, the same thing happened, but this time the 'second helping' stayed down. However, she looked so woebegone that we took her to the vet hospital. It was a public holiday the following day, and we knew it would be at least 36 hours before we could take her to our own vet.

So at midnight she was admitted.

It was scary. Words like 'bowel obstruction' were mooted.

The next day, she seemed a bit better, so we took her home. But she sort of 'faded' throughout the day, lying flat as a carpet, and we decided to go back. She was re-admitted.

The hospital was wonderful. All sorts of tests and examinations were done, and we had a phone consultation with each vet attending to Penny. (Lots of phone calls at midnight and five a.m sure take the energy out of a worried owner.)

Hoping for the less frightening diagnosis, I concentrated my internet info-search on gastro-enteritis. Bowel blockage was just too alarming to consider. And the other possibilities that were suggested I don't even have the courage to write.

What I gathered, from the plentiful info from the hospital, and from sites on the internet, is that gastro is diagnosed by ruling out all other possibilities.

Greenbriar Animal Hospital's advice reassured us that we hadn't overreacted by going to emergency:

How is your dog acting? If he's running around [after vomiting] and acting just like he always does, good. You have more time to address the problem. But if your dog is acting ill, is lethargic, doesn't want to do the things he usually jumps at (like a walk), or is spending lots of time just lying around or sleeping, you need to get him to the vet now. Even if this means an emergency visit.

And...

a dog who has vomited 3-5 times in one day has a lot more urgency to the situation and should be seen now.

The Greenbriar Hospital has good advice about how to handle a less urgent case at home.

Bedfordview Vet Hospital compares a canine case of gastroenteritis with cholera in humans, as to its level of severity.

An article on Hub Pages explains the illness and makes the point that if gastroenteritis is caught early, it can be resolved. It gives a chilling explanation of why we should act on this condition quickly:

While the symptoms of this condition may be pretty worrisome for the owner, when caught early, treatment is much easier and effective. Cases left going on for too long may cause complications and also potentially death. The reason behind this is that untreated gastroenteritis will cause major dehydration. With major dehydration the red blood cell count will increase consistently causing the blood to concentrate and thus, become thicker. 

An article at VCA Animal Hospitals is great and lays out clearly the things we needed to tell the vets, the treatments that could be expected, and some possible causes. The stand-out reassuring quote for me was:

Most cases of acute gastroenteritis improve rapidly after re-hydration. If the vomiting and diarrhea do not improve significantly within forty-eight hours of treatment, the diagnosis should be re-evaluated.

I was very impressed at the way the emergency hospital considered all possibilities throughout Penny's stay.


Pet Health Network has a good overview.

Penny chased her first rabbit

Walking in a fresh spot today, I was enjoying the newly-mown grass, and Penny was enjoying the longer patches that had been left to grow.

She was munching on some long leaves and smelling the smells, and didn't notice a rabbit sitting right near her, ignoring us. Fortunately, before Penny realised what was going on, the rabbit leaped into the long grass and hid.

 I won't be letting Penny into long grass in couple of weeks, because as soon as the weather warms up, the snakes will be out.

Because I'd already seen the rabbit, I wasn't too surprised when Penny dashed off from me in pursuit of another one - her first rabbit! I'm super pleased to report that when I called a sharp 'come!', she left the rabbit and headed back to me for her well-deserved reward.

fruit bats, rabies and dogs

We found a new place to walk, yesterday. If we didn't have Penny to make us go exploring, we wouldn't find all the interesting things around us, I reckon.

As we walked along the Yarra River, we heard a chittering noise, and thought at first it was a flock of black cockatoos swirling through the air nearby. Of course, we headed in that direction to investigate. I love cockatoos.

But it was fruit bats. Hundreds of them, swooping from tree to tree. I thought bats slept in the daytime, but these ones seemed to be quite disturbed. Maybe it was our approach, but I don't think so, because at first we were a long way away, and it was their movement that attracted our attention.

Human Number Two kept Penny away while I went closer to snap these pictures with my phone, because we'd heard the rumours about bats spreading rabies.

But on this government site I read:

 It is assumed that any bat in Australia could potentially carry ABLV. The behaviour or appearance of a bat is not an accurate guide as to whether it is carrying the virus. The rabies and ABLV viruses are unlikely to survive outside the bat or animal for more than a few hours, especially in dry environments that are exposed to sunlight. Contact or exposures to bat faeces, urine or blood do not pose a risk of exposure to ABLV, nor do living, playing or walking near bat roosting areas as long as bats are not handled.

Well, we certainly wouldn't be handling them, because they were way up high.

vegetarianism for dogs

Once I had a falling-out with an acquaintance about her decision to rear her puppy as a vegan. I thought she was being cruel to her puppy and wouldn't be able to raise a healthy dog. Now I'm not so sure.

And just the other day, I noticed dog food labelled as 'vegetarian'. I wondered whether it would be as good for a dog as the labelling suggested it was.

So I was most interested to see this article suggesting that dogs can, indeed thrive on a vegetarian diet.

I'm still not convinced it's possible, but this may mostly be because I don't trust manufacturers of dog food. It seems to me it's not likely that feeding a dog one type of food exclusively would  be healthy. (After all, the manufacturers want us to choose their brand and feed only that.)

I'll continue to feed Penny a diet that is a mixture of commercial canned and dry food, as well as meals I cook myself, and a substantial amount of raw food - all of which is a combination of meat and vegetables or fruit.

It's all a bit of a conundrum, but so far we seem to have the right formula for feeding her.

regular Bowen therapy

We are so lucky to be able to go to Deb at Bow-Rei-Me for regular Bowen therapy, because it keeps Penny active and happy.

Yesterday we noticed she had started to head-nod, always a sign that she is in some sort of pain, so I was glad she was already scheduled for a session with Deb today.

I'm not good at figuring out just where Penny's pain is, but I assumed it was at the 'front end', because of the head-bobbing. When we arrived, I told Deb that there was some pain but I didn't know where. Sure enough, Deb zeroed in straight away to the left shoulder, which is actually where I thought it might be.

We can usually tell how Penny's feeling by how she goes down the back stairs to the yard. If she's stiff, she bunny hops all the way down, and we feel bad to see that, I can tell you. If she's just a bit uncomfortable, she'll bunny hop a couple of steps and then left-right, left-right smoothly the rest of the way.

Well, I'm super pleased to report she just went outside for her evening visit to check the possums aren't getting away with anything, and she walked smoothly the whole way down.

Thanks, Deb!

Now, should I admit...

Yep, confession time...

Deb treats humans also, and I follow after Penny's session with a delicious, long Bowen session for myself, usually accompanied by soft woofs and snores as Penny relaxes beside the table.

Then it's off to Yarra Glen Cafe and Store to have a leisurely lunch. After all, if I'm going to drive forty kilometres to visit Bow-Rei-Me, why not make a day of it? If it's hot, Penny lies at my feet, seeing the outer part of the cafe is dog-friendly, but lately she's been happier to snooze in the car, because the weather is so cool. (Suits me fine, because I get to sit inside by the fire.)

On the way home, if Penny wants to get out of the car, we might go for a brief stroll along the river at Warrandyte, or even wander around the gardens of Heide Art Gallery. (Best kitchen garden in Melbourne, in my opinion.) Deb says it's important not to go beyond what Penny feels comfortable with, after a Bowen session.