Roundworms!

I am quite thankful that I succeeded in getting a stool sample from Secret prior to leaving for the vet's office yesterday. I turned it in for testing and it came back positive for roundworms!

My vet said that he was not at all surprised by this, considering where she came from. The treatment is quite simple -- I gave her a dose of pyrantel pamoate last night, will repeat in two weeks, followed by a stool sample two weeks after that.

The PP came in a dosing syringe that my vet said I could squirt into her mouth or put on her food. That was pretty much a no-brainer! She still inhales anything you throw at her, so I figured putting it in her food would be the least stressful method for everyone. To be sure there wouldn't be any nose-turning, I stopped at the store and picked up a package of Oscar Meyer hot dogs to cut up and add to her dinner. In my opinion, dog food is about all those things are good for. I think they will also make good training treats!

Secret was up to 21.3 lbs at the vet's office yesterday!! Oh my goodness, I can't believe how fast she's growing. Kaiser dropped down to 16.5 lbs from his "dieting" and all the exercise he's getting running around with Secret, so she definitely is outweighing him now.

I didn't realize that I'd made a tech appointment yesterday (vs. an appointment to meet with my vet, Randy), which meant that a tech came out to get Secret for her shot. I really don't like it when they do that. Frankly, I'd rather just do the shot myself. Secret was not pleased at the way Annette originally tried to pick her up, which resulted in Annette scruffing her. I was REALLY not pleased by this. Note to self, never, ever make a tech appointment again. Annette said that Secret was totally fine after that, though, and she didn't seem any worse for wear when she came back to me.

I did get to speak with Randy briefly regarding the roundworm situation and what shots we have left. I made an appointment in two weeks to go in for her first Lepto vaccine. Things have apparently changed since Kaiser was a puppy and they are now recommending it for all dogs in this area after seeing a few cases come through. Since we opted not to vaccinate Kaiser for Lepto when he was a puppy (vet thought it would be hard on him), Kaiser will be getting vaccinated on the same schedule as Secret. She still needs to get started on Lyme, and I'll probably do Bordatella on her at some point as well since we travel so much. It just makes me feel better.

I skipped training last night because of the vet visit & shot. Secret & Kaiser are starting to get into a routine of chase in the back yard that tends to go on for some time. Good for them, it tires them out earlier! Between the outdoor play session and the racing around the couch that has become a nightly habit, everyone actually ended up crashing on the couch by 7 p.m. last night. Definitely an early night for Secret these days!

We ended up having a bit of a sleepless night. I woke up around 2:30 a.m. to Secret retching in her kennel. She gagged, but nothing came up. Since we were all up, I took the dogs outside for a quick potty break where she pee'd and poo'd, then we went right back to bed.

I woke up again to retching at 3:30. Again, no vomit or anything else was produced and Secret seemed very settled, so I turned off the light and went back to bed. At 4:30, I woke up yet again to retching (it's funny how that noise will pull me out of the deepest sleep!). This time, however, we had a "prize."



The nickle is only there for size comparison, but the rest came out of Secret. I'm fairly certain that she picked up the chunk of wood during our daily walk at work yesterday. I had noticed that she was playing with something in her mouth, but by the time I got to her to investigate, it was gone. The other piece(s) has me baffled, but I'm going to guess that it came from one of the stemmy weeds that she & Kaiser have been pulling up from the sand under the deck or from the dirt pile in the back yard. At any rate, I'm glad it all came up safely and that she is none the worse for wear!

Today I ordered several different tug toys from Clean Run in an attempt to build Secret's tug drive. I got one with a squeaky ball, one with bunny fur and I also got the Tug It training toy that holds food and is supposed to build tug motivation for food-motivated dogs. I got the advanced version since she does show some tug drive already, just not a ton of it. I also ordered her a Wubba with a sqeaker ball, since she seemed to show an interest in the Water Wubba that I had out in the yard last night.

So it will soon be Christmas (again) in our house, when all of this arrives. I'm trying very hard to build her toy drive, especially since we can't do anything else in this nasty winter weather.