THURSDAY, March 13, 2008, continued - Page 3
Pup Travis has been chewing on and swallowing wood
Pup Travis didn't want to eat his dinner this evening, and he was acting a little strange to us. Rhonda was feeding Travis' section of kennels, and I was feeding right beside her in the next section over, when she called me asking me to come and check Travis, because he didn't want to touch his food. He didn't even want to come to the feeding gate, where he always comes and eats. When I got to his kennel, started trying to hand feed him, but he still didn't want to eat. Then I looked around the kennel and saw that Travis had two big piles of vomit on their shelter roof and one pile of poop on the ground. Both the vomit and the stool had little pieces of wood in them, and then we noticed that the board that Jeff had put up to stop them from trying to dig out was all chewed up. That's what it was. Travis had an upset tummy because he had been chewing on and swallowing the chewed up pieces of wood. We also noticed that the posts at the corners of their shelter have been chewed on. We then sprayed the rest of the wood in the kennel with bitter apple, and so far I haven't seen Travis chewing anymore. Now we are hoping that Travis passes the pieces of wood okay. He has been drinking water, and I gave him some Lactulose, which hopefully will help Travis pass everything.
As Blind Mother Laura slows down, her son Jessie will have to learn to live on his own someday
We are beginning to worry more and more about Blind Mother Laura, who has been slowing down more and more as time passes. Every time we try to walk Laura and Jessie to the park, Laura stops before we get all the way to the park and just can't walk any farther. We have to help her and usually carry her on into the park. Jessie stays right beside us not moving away from his mom. It's so sad seeing how Laura is just not wanting to give up, but she just can't walk as well anymore. In the park Laura does walk around a little and does her business, and then she lies down waiting for Jessie to finish his time in the park. She then tries to walk back to their kennel on her own with us, but oftentimes she doesn't make it all the way back, and we have to pick her up and carry her the rest of the way to the kennel. We are keeping a very close eye on Laura for any signs of her giving up, but it is not time yet. Laura is eating with good appetite, and of course, she waits for her cookie treats. I just can't imagine her going and leaving Jessie. I don't want to think about that time and how lost Jessie will be without his mother. We have been more and more successful with Jessie lately, as he has changed a lot. We can get closer to him now, and we can pet him more now than we used to be able to do.
Coco's appetite is perked up with chicken and E/N dry food
Today we had a little trouble feeding Coco again after he had been doing so well for some time eating every meal. We even had to increase his food portion a week or so ago, but today he just didn't want to eat. After we finished with all the feeding, I came in and got a cup of E/N dry with some chicken and mixed it together and offered it to Coco. First I had to put pup Patsy in her feeding gate area since she had already eaten her meal. She got a treat for being a good girl having to wait for Coco to finish eating. Coco sniffed the food and right away started eating it. Yea! Coco is a very good boy. He is just a picky eater, just as Christine, his mom, had told us already.
