Skye is an almost 9 year old border collie that I took home from the Ottawa Humane Society when she was just 7 weeks old. She had been relinquished by a family when she was 6 weeks old after one of the kids had brought her home from a ‘farm.’ She had been kept in their kitchen for a week and then they decided they didn’t want a puppy after all. Her relinquisher said on the form, “She’s a good dog.” And boy, were they right about that! Their loss.

Skye is always wondering what we’re doing next, not unusual for a border collie. However (and strangely), she is also a couch potato. She is incredibly polite. We have to tell her about three times that it’s okay to eat before she will dig in. I have, on many occasions, left a piece of toast for her on my plate – on the floor – when I leave in the morning and she won’t eat it until I get back. She is also afraid of plastic bags, ceiling fans and when I turn on our oven.

When we returned from a brief vacation this winter, I scruffled Skye’s neck and chin and was profoundly alarmed to find large lumps. These, our vet, told me a day later were enlarged lymph glands – almost a guarantee of the dreaded diagnosis, cancer.

When we went to visit the oncology vet, Dr. Bravo, at the Alta Vista Animal Hospital later that day, it was clear to her that Skye indeed had lymphoma, even without waiting for the results of the tests. So that day we embarked on our cancer journey.

We heard words like ‘staging’, ‘protocol’ ‘doxorubicin’ and many others we had never heard before. We were also warned about things like diarrhea, nausea, loss of appetite, increased thirst and resulting urination, muscle weakness, changes in personality, depression, etc. These are all the possible side-effects of the drugs used in chemotherapy.

We learned that chemotherapy is the accepted treatment ‘protocol’ for dogs with lymphoma. In fact, some say that this is the kind of cancer that is not an immediate death sentence if treated. Without treatment, a dog can expect to live for 4-6 weeks. With the most aggressive chemotherapy protocol, the kind we opted for, the remission rate for dogs is between 89 and 92%. Remissions can last from 1 to 1 ½ years from the day of diagnosis, and on rare occasions, much longer. Many say it is the luck of the draw. Continue reading →

Last night was scary – we had the closest call with the dogs ever: Corduroy ate her muffin too fast and began choking on it.

Our dogs all have tracheal problems and occasionally their throats temporarily collapse. It freaks them out, but by massaging the sides of their throats gently, they come through it in a few minutes. At first, this is what Thomas and I thought it was. It definitely wasn’t. We began to notice her panicking more than usual and making sounds like she was trying to vomit something up, but nothing would happen.

Then we started to get really worried and I’ll be honest, we began to panic ourselves a little which I am sure didn’t make the whole situation any better.

I had just been explaining to Jane as to what to do if Sonnet ever began choking so fortunitely, I knew immediately what to do. I picked her up, turned her upside down and tried to shake the object out. She got squirmy and I couldn’t do it so Thomas took charge and did it – he said the key was to hold her head.

Thomas saved her life. I am sure of it.

He shook her twice and it dislodged the muffin from her throat and she was able to vomit it up. Thank goodness. She didn’t chew her food and it got stuck.

I wrote an article a few years ago when Corduroy choked on a treat so you can read it here. Another good article is here and I will paraphrase one important bit for how to help dislodge an obstruction from a small and a big dog.

Help your dog to dislodge the obstruction.

Small to medium size dog – Pick up a small or medium dog by his/her hind legs. Hold the dog upside down and try to shake the object out of his/her mouth with the benefit of gravity.

Large dog – Hold the dog upside down but instead of holding the whole dog upside down (next to impossible!), keep his/her front paws still on ground or a bench and lift up his hind legs (in the same manner as holding a wheelbarrow) and tilt him forward.

via WikiHow

This is also a good reminder to make sure to supervise your dogs while they eat food and treats. You can also use dog puzzles and treat balls to slow them down and discourage them from gulping. We know now to make sure to break out dogs’ muffins up into even smaller bits so this doesn’t happen again.

Corduroy was fine after the incident – she just moved on like nothing happened. And she wanted the rest of her muffin that she didn’t get to yet (I made sure to feed it to her in very small crumby bits).

You might lose if you’re playing against these two. They have been training for months…haha

So officially this is a Kong video and I don’t think you necessarily need the official Kong products, but the theory behind it is great. We actually use small kongs for our dogs when we go out.

I make up a mixture of yogurt, peanut butter, bananas and a bit of honey then I put it into the Kong and freeze it to give them more of a challenge. They love it!

For the feeding, with our home cooked diet, using a treat ball of Kong wobbler won’t really work, but instead I fill Wellington’s treat ball with blueberries and she loves it!

Here is an example of a dog in action, eating from a Kong feeder (again, you don’t need the official Kong product, although they are good!). I saw these two kinds at Homesense this week.

You may remember Motecristo from his dog of the week feature in January. Here he enjoys a brisk walk in the snow!

Tonight’s in-store social at Bark & Fitz Westboro is cancelled since no-one registered for this club. Please note that in order for us to host these dog socials, we must have our members register via email. This is the only way that we can group dogs according to their size & needs. For more info write to Stella Social at barkinwestboro@gmail.com