08 April 2018

Sometimes, I pretend I'm a doggy doctor.

My sweet tiny Madden was feeling mopey the last week and a half or so. I somehow have become super-hovering-mom with the pets - probably since I've been dealing with feline leukemia positive cats for the last three years now, and every sneeze is a potential problem. With the dogs, it's generally different - they're pretty easy to deal with, and I've been lucky to not really have issues with them (other than Madden breaking her leg as a puppy, and occasionally using that fact to guilt me into getting extra treats). So of course when Madden started acting differently, I was at first just thinking that it was a fluke, and then as the days went on, I realized something wasn't quite right.

I searched for ticks first, or for sites on her body that look like they could have been bitten by ticks. I know I had to pull one off of her last summer, and now that I live in a much more tick-ridden area, I immediately wondered if Lymes disease could be the culprit. There was no sign of any parasite, so I was pretty stumped. My poor girl wasn't eating, and wouldn't go outside unless I carried her. She'd sit on my bed, and bark when she needed attention - barking even more than usual. When she was in her crate, she wouldn't want to come out, so we'd have to pick her up and take her out. I was pretty stumped for a few days, and was figuring out in my head how much it was going to cost to run a full blood panel, plus pay for an office visit. I worried because our vet's bedside manner isn't the greatest (I very much miss my vet in Maryland when there's something wrong!), and I wasn't in the mood to hear him be snarky at all. I just knew, though, that I'd end up at the vet soon if she didn't start acting like she felt better.

And then I figured it out. On Thursday night, I was holding Madden on my lap, cuddling her, reassuring her that I loved her and that we'd figure out what was wrong with her. And THERE IT WAS. I looked at her feet, and her dewclaw was hanging off, sort of sideways. She'd somehow snapped it near the base, so it was just hanging on. Luckily (I guess), we'd had to deal with this same thing before. My boyfriend of course looked mortified when I told him to grab the pliers so I could rip off her nail. I'd seen it done before - I could handle it. I had him distract her with a spoonful of peanut butter, while I quickly ripped off her nail. One quick motion (after I psyched myself up to do it). She yelped, I cleaned it up (a tiny drop of blood where the new part of the nail was already pushing through).

Within half an hour, she seemed a little bit better. By the next day, she was exponentially better. Now she's been running all over the house, jumping, playing, eating... And this dog-mom is thrilled because she just saved herself at least fifty dollars in vet bills by just taking care of it herself. Plus, after talking to a customer at work about dog food, I decided to start supplementing Madden's meals. She's always been underweight, though she does eat, so I decided to start making her chicken and rice and mixing it with some wet dog food (I was primarily doing dry food for all of the dogs, with canned as an occasional treat). She's starting to look HEALTHY. It's been two days, and I swear she's already put on weight (but when you're only seven pounds to start with, an ounce or two will actually show up). So excited to be making my sweet little baby feel better and be healthier and happier. I need her to be around for a very long time - she really is my best friend.

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