Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Poor woof

This past week has been a total nightmare involving steroids and pee.

Last Monday, as I posted last time, Rufus was put on steroids since his neck was pretty much clawed to bits. I still think, despite what the vet thinks, that he had an allergic reaction to the diet dog food that he was on. The last time we fed him this particular company's regular dog food, he developed an allergic reaction and we finally narrowed it down to corn. Well, guess what the first ingredient in said company's diet dog food is? Corn. Kind of funny how I even have on his chart with the vet that he's allergic to corn, huh?

Now I don't feel bad that my doctor isn't the only one that doesn't read my chart.

They took blood to check his thyroid. Thursday night, I came home to a message on the answering machine from the vet who said that his thyroid was normal. So his recommendations?

1. Put the dog on prescription diet medication.
2. Keep the dog on the diet dog food.
3. Bring the dog in weekly to meet with his staff physical therapist to develop an exercise regimen for him.

Um, excuse me? I'd be doing things for the dog that I don't even do for myself. Next thing you know the little bastard will be getting manicures, bikini waxes, and colonics.

So I've kind of taken things into my own hands, starting with changing his food. I spent a few days gradually introducing it and now he's on it 100% and doing very well. It's all-organic, low calorie dog food and he loves it. No more scratching or licking or rubbing his eyes, either. Strangely enough, there is no corn in this food. Coincidence? I think not.

One thing that has been problematic this week is that the steroids are making him drink literally gallons of water a day. The first day he peed on the carpet next to my bed. Then he did it the next night while we were sleeping. We went the rest of the week with no accidents, but he stayed outside during the day because it wasn't hot. Today, he was inside and I had the foresight to actually put him in our bathroom so he wouldn't pee on the rug.

So he peed on the bath mat. Oops.

We are down to every 24 hours with the steroids instead of every 12 hours, and then this weekend we go to every 48 hours. I am hoping that my carpets (and bath mats) will survive all of this.

You can tell he's finally feeling better. Last night he spent a good 20 minutes scouring the baseboards under the kitchen cabinets just looking for any speck of edible dust he could. And licking the carpet under the coffee table, hoping for one tiny molecule of Oreo Heaven. It's downright pathetic, but a sure sign that he's feeling better.

*****

Today, I had to run home to meet the plumber. Our fabulous porno shower had a clogged drain (they pulled out a big wad of Builder Mama hair, gag) so despite three bottles of various drain-unclogging environment-killing chemicals, I gave up and called Cat Door to get the plumber back out here.

Rufus was outside when the guy pulled up, so I ran outside to try and get the dog inside before he attacked the poor man. Not that he would bite anyone, but he can be pretty ferocious.

Upon greeting the repairman, I noticed that he had a very distinctly British accent. We chatted a bit as he eyed Rufus warily, who was circling him like a bloodthirsty hyena.

"Not a big fan of the Corgi," he said.

"Is it that you're not a fan of corgis? Or because you're not a fan of the Welsh?" I teased.

And with all seriousness, he answered: "Both."

All righty then.

6 comments:

Tree said...

Poor Rufus!!!! I bet he is better soon.

Freaking hilarious plumber.

g-man said...

Sorry I was stuck on licking carpet.

Glad the little mongrel is feeling better.

MamaMaven said...

I swear I replied to this earlier--of course I do believe I was in the car on my crackberry at the time.

Poor Woof! I am impressed by your vet detective skillz.

Mitzi Green said...

aw, poor rufus! i guess this makes him a "poorgi." as well as just plain "hungri."

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Esmerelda said...

oh your wit SLAYS me!!