We started the week back at Hidden Valley Animal Hospital for a previously scheduled bath and coif for Dudley. I also wanted Dr. Szabo to check Dudley’s temperature while he was there. He called to tell me Dudley still had a temp of 103 degrees (down from 103.4) and it was entirely possible the stress and excitement of being at the vet’s office caused the spike in Dudley’s temp. I tended to agree with that, not just because it’s what I wanted to believe (it was), but because Dudley’s water consumption had decreased dramatically from the previous Friday. Doctors tell humans to drink plenty of fluids when they are sick, dogs seem to know this instinctively.
Looking good! Smelling pretty good, too!
Dudley was eating, but I was bribing him with chicken, rice, green beans and the occasional can of wet dog food. He had to have food in order to take the antibiotic and his Rimadyl for his arthritis, so I did what I needed to do to get him to eat. If I added broth to soften his dry food, he would eat most of it, so we still are thinking he may have had an abscessed tooth. Friday afternoon he was nosing around his dishes like he was hungry and I dumped a couple of cups of dry food in his dish and he ate it right up without any “bribes” and has eaten his dry food same as he normally did before he started ailing. Carrots are still hit or miss, sometimes he eats it, sometimes he leaves it. He took his last antibiotic today, so keep your fingers crossed he stays on the mend.
Will I be able to eat butcher bones or bully sticks again?
For all intents and purposes Dudley seems much better, he even tried to get on he bed this morning. He didn’t make it, but his attempt to let me know it was morning and time to get up had the same affect, I got up and within half an hour we were out on our morning walk. That’s always his goal when he gets on the bed, a belly rub and get me up and ready for our walk. I’ve never seen anything more excited than a dog to begin a new day. How much better would we all be if we could find the same excitement in a new day as a dog does?
From the dog’s point of view, his master is an elongated and abnormally cunning dog. ~Mabel Louise Robinson
