Dixie Goes to the Vet and Other News
Dixie was originally a family member’s dog. The family members felt as though they could no longer care for her. She had bladder stones and needed surgery and was having accidents in the house. We have known her since she was a wee thing and couldn’t bear the thought of her living with a stranger so we took her. She is 6 years old and has never known anything else. Her and Jackson love each other a lot.
She came to live with us the day after she had bladder stone surgery in October. She has had continued bladder infections since then. Last week (on Christmas Eve no less) we awoke to Dixie peeing blood. We took her to the vet, they took X-rays and sure enough she had a small bladder stone and what appeared to be a larger mass blocking part of the urethra. From the X-ray they couldn’t tell if the mass was inside or outside the bladder. She was scheduled for surgery today and when we dropped her off we had no idea what she would be going through. Turns out, what appeared to be a large mass was food in her stomach that happened to be in just the right spot to show up on the X-ray. They were able to successfully break up the smaller stone and just flush out her bladder instead of having to do any kind of invasive surgery. She is now only allowed to eat her special food–no table scraps, no treats, no bones–and we will have to bring her in every couple of months for X-rays of her bladder so that we can catch the stones while they are small enough to be flushed out.
When my husband dropped her off at the vet today, she was shaking like a leaf. We have been back to the vet several times since she was surrendered there In October and she has been fine. She somehow knew today was different and she would be left there and she must have been worried that we were giving her away. Meanwhile, Cheyenne was so mad at my husband that she wouldn’t even come to him when he came home, not even for her dinner. She ignored him until Dixie came home. Then she rejoiced in greeting Dixie and immediately ran to him afterwards, completely forgiving him. We think that she thought he gave Dixie away. And it makes sense that she would think that–she lived for sometime in a rescue facility (twice) where many of her animal friends suddenly left one day and never came back. I’m not sure which dog made me sadder today. However, today reinforced for both of them that nobody in this little pack leaves.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
[...] had just finished licking the plate after we had spaghetti for dinner. I’m pretty sure that when the vet said, absolutely nothing except her food, he didn’t mean, oh and leftover spaghetti too. She has no idea the evidence is all over her [...]
February 7th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
[...] out of her food. Now the roles have reversed and Dixie is bullying Cheyenne out of her food. Since Dixie is restricted to her special food only, this is a problem. Chey decided to stand up for herself the other night, and an argument brokeout [...]