pinewoodcavapoos

The dog drama continues even though we’re not raising any puppies (boy, that’s hard to write. I loved raising puppies! <3)

Last Monday morning I let all the dogs out in their respective yards to play for the day. Since we’ve been having gorgeous weather, they get to stay out all day. I was busy in the garden as I am almost every day right now.

Later I went to bring them all in for dinner. First the girls come in and head to their respective crates and hop in or I pick them up and place them in. (I love that that each have their own crate to eat and sleep in. It helps to know if someone goes off their food or to keep them separate if someone needs something extra or a special supplement). Then the boys race in to get their dinner.

As they all crowded through the door in a hurry, Bonus stumbled in. At first I thought it was just Legend running into him and knocking him off his feet. But when Legend was out of the way and I was heading to open Bonus’s crate, I saw how off-kilter he truly was. He fit the idiom, “walking like a drunken sailor”. Poor boy was so off-balance he was falling over just trying to get from point A to point B!

Oh no! I thought. What is going on?? My first thought was the episode with Reba a few months back. (Reba is doing well, by-the-way).

I picked Bo up and set him on the grooming table to check him over. He didn’t appear to have the same head tilt or nystagmus (eye movement) that Reba had. The vet had offered three different possible scenarios with Reba; a stroke, brain tumor or vestibular disease (which often affects old dogs).

With vestibular disease dogs can improve within a few days and just need some anti-nausea meds. So my thought since it was now after eight o’clock at night was to just let him crate rest for the night (thankfully he gobbled down his food and kept it down) and call the vet in the morning.

In the morning, he looked the same so I carried him to the back yard so he won’t be run over by the other boys, for a potty break. Then he went back in a crate to rest with some water.

I called my regular vet clinic who is short staffed at the moment as my regular vet is on maternity leave and their first available appointment wasn’t for ten days out!! *sigh

I called another clinic who I’ve used for back-up and thankfully they had an appointment for the next morning.

So since I had a day to wait to take him in, I thought I’d bath the little farm dog and remove some of the country dirt from his coat. First I cleaned his hairy Poodle ears (hmmm… maybe he had an ear infection that was causing the balance issue) as he had a huge greasy hairball in one ear. The other ear didn’t look as hairy but as I was cleaning I found a TICK on the edge which I quickly removed.

BINGO! That just might be our problem. Although neither clinic suggested I look for a tick after describing all his neurological symptoms…

And you know what, by dinnertime he was 99% himself again!!! That was an answered prayer for sure.

And in the morning he was his bouncy, enthusiastic, balanced self again, and I was able to cancel the vet appointment.

I’m so grateful to have a now clean, healthy Bonus back!

So this is a reminder if your dog (or cat) is ever acting off-kilter, staggering or off-balance let one of your jobs be to thoroughly and completely check their body inch-by-inch for a tick.

I’ve never had tick issues with the little dogs who have their own yard to roam in. The ticks I’ve found over the years have always been on my big dog who had access to the woods or went out on walks with me. But this spring we’ve had a lot of tall grass growing along the fence-line (before hubby mowed it down) and I think that might have been the access point. So now I’ll be keeping tabs on all dogs, large and small.

And no, I will not be using topical or oral monthly flea/tick meds (aka “poison”; as the second vet office tried to sell me..ugh). If I think I need to use anything on the dogs for prevention it will be Dr Paws and Claws Cedar Spray or Wondercide spray.

Sorry, long story but at least it has a happy ending! And a caution for us all to be aware of these pesky little arachnids!!