Big Paws Only Dog Forums

Hope everyone and their big paws are happy and healthy.

I've been very busy raising Cody. She is now 62 pounds of pure muscle and every bit as sweet. We went through months of diarhea (sp?). Part of it was Giardia but not all of it. I had her on Eagle Pack for large breed puppies thinking that it was a good food for her. After all, many of the dobie breeders use that brand of food. My vet and I changed her food to ID prescription and after the FIRST CUP she had hard poop. We were dancing in the street. She has calmed down since then. We are going to obedience classes and she is learning quickly.

Here are a couple of recent pictures of her. She is now 8 months but these pictures were made at 5 months.

This is something out of a Charlie Brown show. It goes with, "Where's your homework?" "My dog ate it." I was paying bills and had to go up front to see mom about something (I forgot it was her birthday today. I'm so ashamed. I'm taking her out for dinner tonight - anywhere she wants to go. :^) and left everything on the breakfast room table. I thought I'd pushed it far enough from the edge to keep Cody away from it. Well, I came back and could not find the payment stub to one of my bills. I looked all over the table several times and was looking around on the other table when my mom came in and I told her what was going on. We were talking about what I could have done with it (I'm forever misplacing stuff - I misplaced my cell phone TWICE yesterday, sigh) when I looked down at Cody and saw PART of the payment stub at her feet and her little mouth was just a chomping. I picked up what was left (fortunately the more important part of it) and got the rest of it out of her mouth. We were laughing so hard. I put a note on the left over portion of the stub that my puppy had eaten the other part. I'd like to see the expression on the face of the person who processes it. :^)

My sweet Cody. Doesn't she look so innocent? Here she is at the table - again!

I was outside in the front yard with Cody to use the bathroom (the backyard needs some work) and a car came driving by. From all of the profanity coming from it I heard, "Walk that dog b***h." There were at least 3 or 4 people in the car. It scared me because I realized that I had no way to protect Cody and me if I'd needed to. And they know where I live. And they seemed to know my routine. They started yelling BEFORE they got to us.

Any suggestions in addition to fixing the back yard? (A tree fell on our fence and it will be a while before we can afford to have the tree removed and the fence fixed.) I'm really nervous about my mom and Cody being at home alone at night while I'm at work. We do have an alarm system but that doesn't do a lot to calm my nerves.

I was wondering why they don't let altered dogs in the show.

Thanks,
Terri

Hi, everyone. Cody went to the vet today (Friday). She's had the runs and has been throwing up plus she has been listless. She has Giardia again and some kind of single cell organism. We tested for parvo and x-rayed for obstructions both negative. They put her on 3 medications. One for each of the stomach problems and one to keep her from throwing up. (She kept throwing up the meds I was giving to her Thursday.)

This actually began Thursday. Her first and only symptom was her diarhea. I took her to the vet that morning and they gave me some meds for that. Later she started throwing up. This morning she acted like she didn't feel good so I took her back to the vet. They are keeping her overnight and I pick her up in the morning.

Just to let you all know what is going on ...
Terri

Hugs and kisses back from Cody with many thanks. She is pretty much back to her old playful self. She ate and drank this morning and is playing now.

Terri thanks everyone, too.

Well, Cody finished her meds for the Giardia and now she is getting yogurt once a day. Her poopie is getting harder and more brown colored. But now she is peeing AND pooping in her crate every night when I go to work. I took her out the other night (like I do every night) before putting her in the crate and she pooped a little bit ... like she was holding some in to be unleashed in the crate. The poops in the crate are usually a bit substantial. I'm trying to change her eating times to coordinate with her poop times. And tonight we tried something different. We put her in the breakfast room. We think that she believes she is being punished when put in the crate but she seems to do well in the breakfast room. That is where we put her when we go out during the day (and where I put her when I absolutely have to get some sleep.) She did great today. So far she has not made any mistakes in the house in a while. I'm not sure what messing in the crate is all about but maybe this will be a solution. I certainly hope so. I love her so much. She is such a joy to be with. She seems to love life. She gets excited about everything.

Hope everyone is doing well. 

Terri

Well, Cody's stool sample showed that she has Giardia. That is why her poops have not been very hard. She is on a 7 day course of meds to clear it up. The way she acts you'd never know that she had it.

We went the last 2 days with only 1 poop accident in the house (except for the crate peeing, of course). Her poop habits should improve during the next week.

We had to tape her ears back up yesterday. The right one was beginning to droop a little bit. 

Here's a couple of pics from today.