2010 will always be remembered around here as the year of dog issues. The year Chica, our two-year-old Maltese went from being a fleet-footed, ball-chasing, scampering ball of energy to being a crippled sad-eyed creature old beyond her years. After surgery she's able now to stand and walk on that hind leg, but she still favors it when she runs, and she doesn't run as far or as fast. So much for entering her in the Doggie Olympics, even though she has now learned to toss the ball herself, with quite a bit of accuracy.
It's also the year our other Maltese, Sofia, who's almost fourteen, or 98 in dog years, got sick for the first time. This past week she has become mysteriously ill and is starving herself. She's wobbly and dazed when she's on her feet, which is rare because she spends most of her time in her bed. The vet says she has some kind of stomach infection, and gave her antibiotic injections, following up now with Azitromi antibiotic pills. We're instructed to force-feed her yogurt twice a day to counteract the side effects of the antibiotics, and Pepto Bismol and Nutri-Plus gel that comes in a tube and is supposed to stimulate her appetite and replace the nutrients she has lost. We administer all this in needle-less syringes, inserted through the gaps in her mouth where she has lost teeth. She has no fever, which the vet says rules out tick-borne illness. It's been five days, and I can't help but wonder how long she can go on without eating. Is she going to have to be fed intravenously? Do we want to resort to that?
Chica, Akira and Sofia
As if two dogs in the house weren't enough, we regularly dogsit a Yorkie who lives across the parking lot. She has the misfortune of being part of a family that is seldom home in the daytime because they run a school in Guaymas, which pretty much rules out her ever becoming housetrained. Whenever I'm able to be home most of the day I let them know, and Akira comes to stay with us, so she can spend time with other dogs, get outside to do her business and receive considerably more attention than she would otherwise. She also comes for sleepovers when her people have to go out of town, as they did Friday (forgetting to mention they'd be gone all weekend!) I'm keeping a close eye on her because she's at least eight months old, hasn't been neutered and she's probably due to go into heat at some point. Her owners plan to breed her, but who would take care of her and her pups, if they did? And if they don't actually breed her, are we going to be fighting off the neighbors' two pit bulls (probably also not neutered), which are let loose every morning at dawn? Caramba!
I'm feeling way in over my head, but grateful for friends like Kristin at the Canine Center, who has seen it all and can be counted on for good advice.
