Straydog UPDATE posted FRIDAY 7/18/03 at ~8:15 p.m. CT

Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

FRIDAY JULY 18 2003

A pack of five coyotes in the field next to Straydog this morning

     They were big coyotes, and they mostly sniffed the ground, probably looking for rodents, and two of them even began tussling with each other just like dogs. After a while they were gone.

Five big coyotes in the next field over, about 500 yards from us.

 

 

Julie and Katie to the vet this morning

  Julie

     Because diabetic Julie's blood sugar has unexpectedly dropped way below 100 over the past several days, Dr. Morton has lowered her insulin dosage (as we've already reported--see the Monday, July 14 update) and has had us take Julie in for a reading every day since that first low reading on Monday. (Julie has also had very bad diarrhea for the past few days.)

     Today's 11:00 a.m. reading was 57--still way too low. Now the doctor thinks the pancreas is not producing enough of the enzymes normally produced by the pancreas, which enzymes are necessary for proper digestion, the lack of which is causing sugars not to be digested, which causes very low blood sugar.

     Dr. Morton prescribed and provided us with a bottle of a medicine (in powder form) containing these essential pancreatic enzymes, and we are to mix in a teaspoon and a quarter in with each of Julie's three daily meals.

  Katie

     Old, Sassy Katie hasn't eaten anything in two days (tho she's drinking water). We took her in to the clinic along with Julie today, and Dr. Morton ran tests and could find nothing wrong, but we're leaving Old Katie at the clinic till Monday so she'll be able to rest in an air-conditioned kennel. When she comes home, we'll probably put her inside a small, individual house kennel along with Julie, Bobby and Emily, who are enjoying (as much as possible) the air-conditioning.

Fuzzy finally eats her entire meal after two days of refusing to eat anything

     Caregiver Tina called over the walkie-talkie right after the one p.m. meal announcing, "Hey, y'all! Fuzzy ate her entire bowl of food!" and we all cheered.

Bobby gets hydro-therapy three times a day

     Bobby doesn't really like getting into a bath tub and having warm water poured over his incision, but he tolerates it.

Bobby gets his hydro-therapy.

Jason carries Bobby back to his kitchen kennel.