Litter Mates and Swissy Friends
IKC Show
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 | Litter Mates and Swissy Friends | 1 Comment
We had a fun weekend! Well, I did. I went to the IKC show at McCormick Place in Chicago on Saturday. It was nice to attend as a spectator only, (well, sort of) so I didn’t have to stay all day. IKC is a benched show, meaning you must be there by the time you show, and you can’t leave until the end of the day (4pm, I think) or until you are dismissed, whichever comes first. I went to see friends, support the Swissies who were showing, and of course, shop!
The Swissies got the short straw somehow and had to show at 8am. I was there around 7:15am. I’m not entirely sure how that happened.
Here’s the very handsome Robert.
Here are a few more. Robert is in the middle.
Of course I found some cute non-Swissies to photograph…
This guy was showing in the ring right after the Swissies. Can you say adorable?
Gorgeous Dobe!
And this is Lars. Lars and I became very good friends.
I asked his owner if I could take him home and she laughed. I don’t know if she realized I was serious. I was. Can you tell I have a thing for blue Danes?
I know I wasn’t the best photographer on Saturday. I was slacking a bit. I spent a fair amount of time shopping without the camera. And of course, I had to talk to people–that’s a big part of the fun for me. I love love love talking to people about Swissies. Can you tell?
TTFN!
Let them eat cake!
Friday, February 26th, 2010 | Beowulf, Indigo, Litter Mates and Swissy Friends | No Comments
Birthday’s require cake. And lucky for us, the Barkery makes them. Great, because I’m not entirely sure how to make a dog cake. (Note to self, look into cake.)
Indy was a goof for a change. She daintily picked at it in her bowl…
Then proceeded to spread it all over the floor.
Don’t worry, she cleaned up after herself. No crumb left untouched.
We shared with Vasey, of course. Her name was on the cake too! I’m not sure she’s ever had cake before. But she was happy to eat it.
Beowulf being the pig that he is decided to show the ladies how one should eat cake. By putting the entire piece in your mouth at once.
His silly ears get in the way of the pictures. Darn ears.
Finally, we tried to pose the girls for a picture. They were not really in the mood…
Well, maybe just Indy wasn’t…
Happy Friday!
Happy Birthday to the Landhof “I” Litter!
Thursday, February 25th, 2010 | Indigo, Litter Mates and Swissy Friends | No Comments
Indy and I would like to wish all of her litter mates a very happy 2nd birthday! And I’m wishing Indy and Vasey, who is still staying with us, an extra happy day. And you should too.
We will have cake from the Barkery, of course, and extra belly rubs for all. Including Beowulf. He’d just get angry and pee somewhere if we didn’t give him love, too.
Sisters
Monday, February 22nd, 2010 | Beowulf, Indigo, Litter Mates and Swissy Friends | No Comments
There’s nothing better than sisters, right? Ms. Vasey has been staying with us since last Wednesday. Her first few days were quite hectic because she was adjusting and we still had Basja here. She’s pretty much adjusted now, and she’s having lots of fun.
This is what goes on most days.
And a little of this.
Throw in a touch of this.
At least 30 minutes of this.
Still more of this.
And then a smidge of this.
And then a pinch of that.
Fun!
Dog Park Fun
Monday, February 15th, 2010 | Indigo, Litter Mates and Swissy Friends | 2 Comments
Today marked Indy’s first ever visit to an off-leash dog park. The weather was decent (20s) and we didn’t work today, so we packed up Indy and Basja, since she’s still here, and went To Katherine Legge Memorial Park to meet Indy’s sister, Vasey. It isn’t always off-leash, but has certain hours for the dogs. They get a little shorter at the end of the month (sad).
I wasn’t sure how Indy would behave – I’ll admit I was a bit concerned about her recall ability and hoped that Basja’s influence would help. I was pleasantly surprised how good she was. She actually came when we called, which was great. She got the hang of it pretty quickly, and was nice to all the dogs out there.
It’s really best if I just show you, I think
Basja kept finding balls throughout the park. We’d sometimes catch her with 2 in her mouth.
And then the rampaging started.
Then we were joined by Bentley the puppy.
His human was glad to have big dogs for him to play with.
Indy chased him for a while.
I just love Bentley’s face here.
Indy looking all pretty.
They made other friends, too.
Nom.
I’m not sure Basja needed to jump over this dog. She could have just stepped.
And then, once again, the photographer’s hands got cold.
I must mention that I was very pleased with our experience at the park. We’ve avoided them because of some not-great experiences in the past, mainly with people not watching their dogs. But everyone here was involved and careful. I think we’ll be back.
Spay and Gastropexy Review
Monday, January 18th, 2010 | Litter Mates and Swissy Friends | 3 Comments
I meant to post this months ago! I am so bad…
Without further doo doo, here is the “review” of Vasey’s laparoscopic spay and gastropexy, written by Vasey’s human, David.
In July of 2009, we decided to have our dog, Vasey, spayed. Since she is a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog and a deep chest breed, she is susceptible to bloat, so we decided to have Gastropexy surgery as well. Bloat is a very awful disorder that causes Gastric Torsion or GDV.
GDV occurs when a dogs’ stomach becomes twisted inside the abdomen, blocking the flow of food and blood to the stomach. Dogs with untreated torsion will die in just a few hours. GDV is the number one cause of death for larger breed dogs. From what I have read, researchers have not found a specific cause or genetic factor that would cause one dog to bloat and not another. Gastropexy is a surgical procedure that tacks the outer lining of the stomach to the abdomen wall. After fully healing the strong bond prevents the stomach from twisting.
While doing my research I have come to believe that this procedure is not 100% effective, a dog can bloat bad enough to break the bond between the stomach and abdomen. However, we decided that since both the gastropexy and spay can be performed at the same time, we would do both.
We take Vasey to Dr. Holly Hayna at the Village Veterinary Practice in Clarendon Hills, Illinois. During our annual check up Dr. Hayna discussed our options for the two procedures. Dr. Hayna said they could do both, but would recommend us to talk to Dr. Lisa Mikol-Doering at Westgate Veterinary Center in Bartlett, Illinois. Dr. Hayna said that although it is a little further away Dr. Mikol-Doering is one of the few vets that are licensed to do Laparoscopic Spaying and Gastropexy. A laparoscopic surgery is designed to be gentler and provides a shorter recovery time than the more conventional spay. The procedure uses a combination of a small incision and special instrumentation to reduce the trauma to the internal organs and reduce the post-operative pain and swelling.
After talking with both doctors we decided to give the Laparoscopic surgery a try since the cost was virtually the same. The Laparoscopic surgery was about $500 for each procedure. We were told that we would need to keep her activity to an absolute minimum for 10 days after the surgery until the stitches came out. After 10 days the spay was completely healed, but the gastropexy would take another 2 -3 weeks to heal and we would still need to keep her activity limited.
The two outpatient procedures went very well. She looked so pathetic coming out of the back area all shaved and her cone on her head. I read a t-shirt once that said “All is fun and games until someone ends up in a cone,” I now understand that completely. Vasey had two sets of stitches both about the size of a dime. This is one of the other differences between laparoscopic and traditional surgeries, Dr. Hayna told us that it would be one cut for the two procedures with the traditional surgery and Vasey would have had about a 6 of 7 inch incision that would take longer to heal and have a greater chance for problems or infection.
The first few days were very easy as the medication made her very sleepy. Vasey was very good about leaving her stitches alone so everything healed nicely. In fact, her stitches for the spay healed to well that the skin started to grow around them. When they were removed, the skin was cut open slightly so we needed to put some Neosporin for a few days. After she was done with her medicine and was feeling back to herself, (about 5 days after the surgery) we had a hard time keeping her from running around the house and jumping on and off the furniture trying to get rid of her energy. This did not cause too much of a problem.
She did get a little swelling due to inflammation where the stitches were starting to dissolve in her abdomen. This took about three weeks to finally completely disappear. Dr. Mikol-Doering said that this would probably happen and we should only be concerned if it felt like there was fluid in it or it was irritating Vasey. After that was done all that was left was growing back her coat. As of September, the fur was almost back. In the daylight you can still see a small difference where they shaved her.
I would recommend the laparoscopic surgery to any one that has decided to do the Gastropexy. Dr. Mikol-Doering was a very nice young vet with a modern practice and a very helpful and pleasant staff. My only complaint was that she did not see Vasey when we came in to get the stitches out. The two procedures were not cheap and I thought she should have at least stuck her head in the door to make sure everything was going well. She did, however, call the day after the surgery to make sure everything was going well at home.
The only thing I would change was the day we choose for the surgery. We had a choice between Tuesday and Thursday. We chose Thursday but Tuesday would have been a better choice. That way the stitches could have come out on Friday and Vasey would have only had one weekend of VERY limited activity.
I would also like to say that Dr. Hayna was very nice to offer this option to us. If surgeries go well they can be good money makers for the business. The fact that she would refer us to another practice shows that she truly wants what is best for your pet. She was also nice enough to call us a couple of time to see how everything was going. I would recommend Village Veterinary Practice in Clarendon Hills, IL to anyone in the area.
I hope this review is helpful to someone and if anyone has any other questions they can reach me through this blog.
Thanks for the review!
Happy Hanna
Monday, January 11th, 2010 | Litter Mates and Swissy Friends | No Comments
One of Indy’s litter mate’s humans sent me a link to a slide show today. I have to share it because it’s hilarious. I haven’t figured out how to embed it yet, so you’ll have to click on the link below.
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