Big Paws Only Dog Forums

When we pick up our van from the dealership tomorrow, we'll be at least $700 poorer.  You may remember that I've posted that we live in a very, very cool & cloudy climate (ok, it's downright damp & cold, but did I say that?  ), so our pups can safely travel with us a lot of the time.

Well, we just found a big downside to that habit, besides vacuuming off tons of dog hair off of the seats & carpet.  Seems that when we turn on either heat or a/c, that dog hair gets sucked into our van's HVAC system and has caused a hard packed mass of dog hair to plug up the system.  We took the van into the dealership to get the coolant recharged (for when we do see the sun), we thought!  Nope, much more expensive than that!   

So on Monday when we pick up the van from the dealership, we'll be adding some fancy (ha!) retrofitted thinga-ma-jig that my husband is creating out of a small HVAC filter & probably duct tape (gadzooks) to the spot in the car where it sucks in the air to be heated or cooled.  Hopefully, that will filter out the dog hair before it clogs the system again.  Who knew?     Still, it's all worth it.   

It's true, though the apple tree was only about 8" tall to begin with!      Anyway, I think that I'll have a whole new bunch of gray hairs soon!  Gray Baby (our kids named him) is one of our cats.  He came from a feral litter of kittens that we fostered and we weren't supposed to get attached to (hence the generic name)...but of course, we did & he stayed. He's 8 y/o now and recovering from fatty liver syndrome, so he's delicate (though at 15# he sure doesn't look it).  Today I caught him standing on the kitchen counter eating all of the leaves (8 or 10 of them) & 1/2 the stem off of our son's prized baby apple tree that was growing in the kitchen window.  After searching the web, calling our vet, our back up vet & the emergency vet in the nearest city I still couldn't find any real info about whether or not apple tree leaves were toxic, just that the apple seeds are toxic.  So I just called the ASPCA Poison Hotline.  Thank goodness he's going to be fine but it took me almost 45 minutes all together (hold time at ASPCA, too) & $60 to find out.  Sigh....I love that kitty and now I'm worn out and ready for a nap.   

Oh & our son is not happy about his tree (he started it from a seed), but it looks like it will probably make it too.  Though it lost almost all it's leaves & almost 1/2 it's height so it will take it some time & extra careful handling to get it to recover.  It won't be recovering within Gray Baby's reach, either!        

I took Cass to the vet yesterday b/c night before last she started pacing by the door and when we'd let her out she'd squat to pee 3-4 times a minute.  Clearly a UTI, so I gave her 2 cranberry pills before bed, and she drank some of my canned food & water "soup" to push fluids, just to make her as comfy as possible over night and she went to the vet yesterday morning when they opened.  The vet said that Cassie had a little blood in her urine, so yes, it's a UTI.  She's on amoxicillin (sp?) & cranberry pills now so I wouldn't be worried except that she isn't drinking very much liquid and she doesn't like my "soup".    Just my luck, Sam & Daisy LOVE it!      Anyway, I've tried it now with 2 different canned foods.  Have any of you had any luck with other ways to push fluids when our pups aren't drinking enough?  I was thinking of trying beef broth diluted with water, but it's pretty salty.  If necessary, we could give her sub-q fluids at home (I have the fluids & the know-how, I've had to do it with 2 dogs & 1 cat before while they were sick), but I don't think that it's necessary yet.  I just want to be sure that she's getting enough fluid to flush the bacteria out while the meds do their work.  Suggestions?

BTW, I should add that she seems ok other than the fact that she's very sleepy.  She is eating her dry food ok.  Ideas?

Agh!  Here is a new toy recall.  Sadly, some children have been killed by these contaminated toys.    I just saw this on cnn.com and my youngest son was looking over my shoulder and said "Hey Mom, those Aqua Dots are great!  Can we get some?".  Ummm, nope!  Anyway, this includes info on this new toy plus some other toys that are being recalled for other reasons.  You may want to check it out.

www.money.cnn. com/2007/11/07/news/international/toys_drug.ap/index.htm?cnn=yes

Here's an update on the fate of the dogs in the Michael Vick case.

www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/01/vick.dogs/index.html

Castleberry Foods of Augusta, GA is voluntarily recalling both human foods and dog foods due to botulism in some of the cans.  You'll find lists of the affected foods on these links:


http://news.aol.com/business/story/_a/botulism-cases-force-huge-meat-recall/20070722065809990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001

www.naturalbal anceinc.com/

Our lawns are being overtaken by clover & dandelions.  The dandelions are just a little annoying, but the clover is covered (and I do mean covered!) by bees.  One of our boys was stung this last week and it's only a matter of time before more (and we have bee sting allergies in the family), so we're looking for something to kill the clover and the dandelions that are attracting the bees.  Have any of you used a weed & feed product on lawn that is used by your dogs?  If so, how long do you have to keep them off of that section of lawn until it's safe for them again?  I hate to use chemicals at all (and we're on a well, so that's another factor) but the bees have got to go!  Suggestions?