Goats and Greens

We have 2 dogs. First, we’ll talk about Meatball.

Meatball is a 5-year-old white Boxer. He had a heart murmur when he was a young puppy. We took him to Cornell for testing. They said surgery would be $4,000.00 and he may need it twice. I asked what his death would be like. I was told that he would be running and have a massive heart attack and drop dead within a year. My husband and I decided to let him live his best life. That was 5 years ago. If you want a dog that has boundless energy and love, he’s your guy. If you want a dog that stays with you outside and listens to commands, look somewhere else!

Next, we have Abbey.

She is a 10-year-old Collie/Australian Sheperd mix. Both of her parents were pure breed. They weren’t supposed to breed each other. But I’m so glad they did. Because of her breed she is a great farm dog. She stays on our property. If she hears commotion from the animals outside, she has to go and check. She always goes outside with my grandson. It is a rule. She lays under the trampoline when he is on it and follows him everywhere he goes. A few years ago, he was sled riding and heading toward the road. There are barriers that would have stopped him, but she had enough of that and yanked him by his coat off of the sled. She loves that boy and I know she would give her life to protect him. Abbey has been mostly healthy her entire life. She has been on medication for hypothyroidism for 5 years. She started vomiting regularly about 3 months ago. We tried watching what she was eating. She has always eaten non-food items. The vet told us to save our money because at some point she will need something surgically removed. We changed her food, nothing helped. She started to rapidly lose weight. I took her to the vet for bloodwork. We were all thinking the worst. Blood work came back with no issues. The vet suggested a canned food. $53.00 for 12 cans. We tried it and it didn’t help. At that point I was cooking chicken and rice in vats. 2 weeks later she went in for x-rays and an ultrasound. Again, nothing! We paid to have bloodwork sent to Texas looking for any explanation. At this point she had lost 25 pounds. Her feces were the consistency of toothpaste and very foul smelling. It took 2 weeks for the results of bloodwork. They only thing they found was a B-12 deficiency. Abbey was put on 10 days of a strong antibiotic, daily prednisone, and a weekly B-12 injection. She is gaining weight and doing much better.

Abbey’s weekly injection

1. Pull the skin up above the shoulder blades to form a “tent”.

2. Inject halfway into the “tent”. {Take care with very young animals. I have put the needle in and out of the other side.}

3. Depress syringe.

That’s it. It took about 3 seconds.

Abbey will get bloodwork again in 3 weeks. I will let you know the results.