The pleasure of "the kill"

04/16/12 - I thought I'd make a light-hearted post today.  Reo is doing well (steady eddy), back on oral Medrol after her "reboot" injection series.

Since we are back in Denver, with all of the glorious sunshine, all of the dogs love being outside pretty much all day.   I leave the backdoor open (note to self:  get doggie door!) so they can come and go as they please.

Lately, Reo has taken to going into her toy basket to select her favorite toy, which we call leopard mouse. It's a cat toy!  I removed the catnip and added in a squeaker, and it became Reo's favorite.  Well, after she retrieves this from her toy basket, she brings it outside and proceeds to "kill" it all over the yard!  It is truly one of the cutest things!  And, if you try and take it away from her, watch out!  She'll snatch it and trot away with it to a different place.

We're convinced that she is practicing for the day that one of our yard squirrels makes a false step and falls off the fence, or a phone line!

Below is a picture of Reo in the yard with her "kill":

Home Sweet Home

03/06/12 - We arrived back home in Denver on Saturday!  All three dogs, and two cats did great on the drive, despite driving through the storm in southern IL and IN that would turn into all of the tornadoes in IN and KY.  Scary!

Anyway, Reo is doing okay.  Vision still very transient, but am hoping that once we all settle down and are less stressed, she will go back to being more stable.  She has done a great job navigating around - sometimes seeing, sometimes not.  To say that the past month or so has been stressful would be an understatement - for both humans and animals!  Because Reo's adrenal glands can't properly respond to stress by making cortisol to soother her system, it is more difficult for her to manage.  I'm glad we gave her the booster shot of DepoMedrol to help her get through this transition.

The past several days have been amazing weather-wise!  Tons of sun, which makes all of the Pins very, very happy.  Reo has been scavenging in the yard and has found some dehydrated, shriveled apples from our neighbors' tree, along with other various things that she should NOT be eating (I think old veggies from our tenants' garden last season).  Unfortunately, I can't watch her every second, and she's eaten some things I know she should not have (including some of Tula's food she threw up in the yard the other day - GROSS!).

The bottom line is that she is still a dog, at the end of the day, so I'm trying not to stress too much about what she may have eaten and if it will cause her any discomfort (but I will give her a little extra ProZyme in her dinner tonight!).  This kind of "dog" behavior makes her happy, and she's been in a great mood lately, being outside with her pack.  Once we settle into our routine, I'm sure she will be just fine.

I am already a little nervous about finding a new vet here - it will be an extensive interview process!

Toe woes

02/27/12 - Reo's had an infected pinky toe for about a week.  She's a dog that likes to scratch after she pees, and about 2 weeks ago when we were out for a walk, she found a particularly attractive patch of dead Bermuda grass and went to town.  All four feet were involved in the scratching, and she was aggressive about it!  It was funny at the time, to be sure.

Lo and behold, a week later, she started gimping around, and I examined her feet.  Her pinky toe was about twice the size of her other one!  I think she must have gotten some grass or particles between the nail and cuticle.  So I washed it with an antiseptic cleanser, applied Neosporin, and talked to Dr. O about it when we saw him for her Medrol injection.  He said just to keep an eye on it and bring her back if it got worse.

Well, it's still infected.  Over the weekend, I started two-a-days soaking it in Epsom Salts (which she looooves - like a spa pedicure!), which seems to be drying it out very nicely.  Swelling is down a lot, and it's not bothering her as much.  Hoping that we can get it back to normal before we leave town later this week.  If not, we'll have to go and get some antibiotics for the little miss!

Between her toe bothering her, and the packing/moving whirlwind, Reo is feeling off her game.  All of us are really looking forward to getting back into our normal routine!

Dress up

12/20/11 - I've had the Min Pins in the office with me so far this week, which is a nice treat for both me and the dogs (poor Tula must stay home and be a good guard dog Doberman!).  One of my co-workers has brought her daughter in as well (as she's off from school for the holidays).  This little girl loves my little dogs, and this week she had some crafty supplies, and put them to good work on the Mins!

The first picture is Leigh and Reo with their office "bling" - some bead necklaces that coordinate with their existing collars!

The next picture came from today's crafty concoction - she made ribbon "hair" for Reo, secured by another ribbon, of course!  Who says that small dogs are not patient and gentle with children?  :)

I think this new hair made Reo feel sassy - she actually left it on for quite a while!  The ribbon crafts were extended to include hula skirts, as well, but they were not photographed.  ;)

Stinky breath and dental care

11/30/11 - Before we adopted Reo, she had to have 16 of her teeth pulled.  Part of this was due to genetics (teensy weensy teeth), and part of it was because she had some tooth decay/gum disease as a result of poor attention.  Since then, Reo has had an annual dental cleaning under anesthesia at our vet's office.  I've tried the OraVet stuff that our vet suggested post-cleaning, but I find it really expensive, a pain to apply, and it doesn't really work.  Plus, the dogs hate it!

Both of our Min Pins have always had pretty awful breath.  I think this is a small dog trait for some reason, as I can't think of one small dog I've met whose breath smelled acceptable.  It's so weird that big dogs don't suffer with the same frequency.  Our Doberman has incredible white teeth and insanely pink and healthy gums, and we never brush her teeth.

Anyway, I was on the hunt for a product to help make Reo's dental care easier.  Because I will no longer put her under anesthesia for a cleaning due to the stress and possible estrogen spike, and she despises me brushing (not to mention the difficulties of getting a brush in her tiny little mouth), I wanted to see if I could find something else.

I came across this product called LebaIII (pronounced lee-ba three) made by Lebalab, Inc.  I'm not sure how they came up with the name - I find it slightly annoying.  ;)  It has pretty good reviews, so I thought we'd give it a try.  It's a formulation of mint and rose, stabilized in water and alcohol.  It is quite expensive for a product that is mostly water and alcohol, but I figured we'd give it a month and see how it goes.

I give Reo and Leigh two squirts on the mouth/tongue.  It says apply it directly to the tongue (and no food/water 30 mins before or after application), but they won't open their mouths easily and let me spray, so I sort of pick up their upper lip on the side and spray it in there.  After a few seconds of licking, they're right back to whatever they were doing.  They definitely don't seem to mind this, and it's a lot easier than brushing.

It took a while to see/smell results.  I noticed that Reo's breath was a LOT better, and Leigh's was getting better (Leigh has always had the worst breath ever...).  After about 6 weeks of usage, I think that it's easier for me to scrape some tartar off their teeth - I can do it with my fingernail when they let me.  The other day, I used a papertowel wrapped around my finger and a huge chunk came off one of Reo's back molars!  It's definitely working.  It's worthy of note that Leigh did have an annual dental cleaning this year (in the late spring, I think?) and she already had had some heavy tartar on her back molars by the time I started using the LebaIII.  I guess she is just prone.

So, overall, I am going to continue to use this product, as I've found it easy to administer, and it's producing results.  I'd rather not ever have to have a dental cleaning again for our dogs, and so this product's cost is offset by not doing an annual cleaning.