Pawprints, ears and a tennis ball: The runs!

Sorry for not writing in a while, we do have some catching up to do. Let me tell you about Aschiuta's tummy problems...

I think it was last spring or summer when we had to go away without the dogs. When that happens, we leave them at a dog hotel that we had been leaving Aschiuta at before. The owner is a vet and Aschiuta had always been very comfortable there. He even spayed her.

But this time, the vet didn't have time to take care of the dog hotel full time himself like he did before, so he didn't take in many guests. But since we were repeat clients and he was fond of Aschiuta, he took the girls in.

One of the sad parts of dog hotels is that some owners drop their dogs there and never go back for them. The vet was kind hearted though and kept those dogs along, as permanent guests. So there were a lot of barks when we dropped the girls off.

Since the vet was very busy, the caretaker, who was an older man (I think it was his father) was going to take care of Aschiuta and Nightmare as well. We dropped some food, toys and a couple of blankets and left the doggies at the hotel.

Nightmare was also to be spayed during that time. She recovered ok, however she did have a small bump around the stitches which was solved with antibiotics. At this point, our usual vet believed there should be a longer period of antibiotics than the dog hotel vet.

All in all, when we returned, we picked up the doggies. I'm not sure (here is where writing about this sooner would have helped), but I think they did say Aschiuta had softer stools and to take care of that.

And indeed, Aschiuta had a very upset tummy and very loose and frequent stools. We had to run out every couple of hours and sometimes she didn't even manage to reach our usual bushes. We were still living in the old apartment back then, so I did my share of cleaning the building staircase and even outside on the alley pavement. Poor little one!

We phoned the vet at the hotel and he did say that the dogs had received some other kind of food after the one we brought had run out. But it was decent quality food that all the dogs ate without issues. But Aschiuta is a bit more sensitive.

We also called our regular vet and he prescribed Smecta, which is a medicine used to treat diarrhoea in humans. He said to put the medicine in her water and make her drink. She drank some of it (it was the vanilla flavoured kind) and I must say it actually worked. She got better very soon after. I think this whole ordeal lasted a couple of days and I was desperate. It is a good thing that she didn't have any other symptoms. Talk about a miracle cure! And I definitely don't believe in that sort of stuff.

Our vet sure has a few tricks up his sleeve. He has also prescribed activated charcoal (also a brand for humans) when I was afraid the doggies had swallowed some raisins. You must know that grapes and raisins should not be given to dogs. Some dogs eat several without issues, while others have serious problems because of just one. Luckily, our poochies hadn't actually eaten any. I also gave Aschiuta charcoal when she ran away from home and dumpster dove around the supermarket nearby. Just for precaution, the charcoal is supposed to absorb any bad chemicals my crazy pooch must have eaten.