When I picked up Gracie from the kennel after my family lake week there was the typical overabundance of furry joy, excessive panting, and a fair amount of stink rising off her. We didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, really. Not until later that night when Bear spotted something odd on her neck.
I peeked, BrightSide poked, and the (un)official conclusion was that our Gracie girl had a hot spot. With a bit of team effort I managed to snip away some hair then hit it with the magic spray, and I went to bed happy that the girls already had an appointment lined up for their bordetella vaccines on Tuesday. I figured an official diagnosis wouldn’t hurt.
Monday brought with it a day of school shopping with Bear. No, that’s not hyperbole, we were literally gone for seven hours that day. But that’s a whole nother post. T-man texted me midmorning to say that Gracie wasn’t doing well, and by lunchtime his rather dire commentary included the descriptions puss and unnaturally droopy eyes. When I got word around four that she wouldn’t move, even for a treat, I told Bear to wrap it up and we headed home.
It was worse than bad. That hot spot went from 0 to 200 in less than 24 hours. It was really, truly, hideously, oh-my-god-it’s-eating-her-head bad.
We rolled home from the vet toting an antibiotic, a steroid, and a topical spray plus an ointment for Gracie’s goopy eyes. If the sheer volume of druggage wasn’t enough, the dosing schedules set my brain on fire.
- antibiotic: two pills, two times a day, for two weeks
- prednisone: one pill, twice a day, for five days; one pill, once a day, for five days; one pill, every other day, until gone
- topical spray: twice a day for two weeks
- eye ointment: ¼ inch strip in each eye, twice a day, for ten days
Whyyyyyy, Lord?! Why are you testing my math skills like this??
It took about thirty seconds to realize I’d be slapping four sheets of paper up on my cabinet detailing these doses because who on earth can keep this kind of thing straight?
It took about four hours more to realize I had to drive through a torrential thunderstorm to buy Gracie a cone of shame to save her pitiful neck.
It’s been a rough week. Gracie’s struggled with losing her peripheral vision, and we’ve all struggled watching her bang into, well, everything. But slow and steady wins the race.
Plus an arsenal of drugs doesn’t hurt.
Poor thing! I know what you mean about keeping track of pills, especially day after day. Was it a spider bite or what??
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The vet says just a hot spot that got infected. Though now that you mention it, she came home with a few itchy bites down her back. I wonder…
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Awww, poor Gracie. It’s so hard when your pets get sick beccause they can’t tell you what hurts. I literally freaked when Shasta refused to eat one morning, because she is a walking stomach normally. Turned out to be nothng of import, but in the meantime I was a wreck.
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No appetite is a HUGE red flag for our Gracie girl. She eats when she’s sick all the time so if she’s not interested I know something’s wrong. We’re so glad to see her getting back to her usual self!
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This is one of the reasons we never kennel our dog. Whenever we go away (and can’t take her with us), we get a pet sitter to stay at our house to walk the dog and feed her (and our finicky cat, as well — not the walking part, just the feeding). We’ve had too many bad experiences with prior dogs after boarding them in kennels.
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We got the name of a pet sitter our good friends *love* and are thinking about trying that. The dogs adore the kennel we use but clearly something happened. Maybe Gracie got stressed out or got into something…
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Oh, poor baby! Hope the meds have kicked in and she’s doing better today.
Yeah, that schedule … sounds about like mine, for different things, so I have to write it all down to keep track!
I remember those days of back to school shopping. Fun, but wears you out.
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Thanks, Gracie’s feeling tons better already. Which is why they add that “finish the medicine even if you feel better” warning!
The shopping almost did me in. My saving grace is that my son has ZERO interest so at least it’s only for one kid.
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Awwwww. She looks happy in that last picture, but we feel bad for her (and you). The schedule with the meds is necessary. Otherwise, you’d be at a day that called for two pills and you’d only have one left. I hope she is well on the road to recovery,
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She already looks loads better, thanks!
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