With all the crazy busy moments these days, a little friend showed up on the inside of my work building. Nice little reminder to go ahead and dive into the middle of it all and just go for it.
Just Ramblin’
Category Archives: Life through the Lens
My Pup ate a Mushroom
It was a tad traumatic. For Miss Stella and us. I was on my way home from work and one of my girls had taken Miss Stella out for some play time in the yard. Normal. No biggie. Just some time to chase, fetch, and do business. But….
This got in the way. Out of nowhere, this invader shows up. My daughter noticed Miss Stella sniffing and munching a little and not grabbing her ball. Not a good sign so she went to see what Miss Stella was nosing around in instead of grabbing up her ball for the next round of fetch. She found a few mushrooms and one seemed disturbed. She was not sure if Miss Stella had decided to dine a little early, and to dine on something other than her usual dinner fare.
Miss Maggie Mae, our sweet gorgeous lab, had gotten violently ill once on some mushrooms in mulch when she had decided to take a little jaunt off leash and without permission. She ended up ok, but only after a nasty bout of being very sick. Naturally, this flashed through our minds and we became slightly paranoid. Ok…REALLY paranoid. We called the vet.
Now, we have done research on mushrooms before when Mags got sick, but have not had any around here so we have not kept current on the information. Besides, it seems as if it would not matter because the information seems difficult to sort. Is it poisonous? Is it safe? What is the coloring? What is the size? Does it seem round or oval? Tall with a bulb? I. Don’t. Know!
When in doubt, err on the side of caution. The vet recommends that it is time to make the little gal get sick. This is when I really started to get a tad worried. Ok. REALLY worried. Make my dog drink what? Peroxide? Uuuhhmmm… is that not poisonous too? So we had to play the, “Which is the lesser of two evils?” game.
All of this is occurring in a span of about what seems to be two seconds in my head. My daughter in the meantime is searching for the peroxide. I called my vet three times to make sure I had heard correctly. I raised twins girls and never once had I the need to make one throw up because they ate something inappropriate. Believe it or not this was new to me. I am usually very confident when it comes to the care taking, but making a puppy that weighs well over 100 pounds throw up is a different story. And getting her to consume the peroxide provided the neighbors with some great stories to share around the fall campfires this year!
Eight piles of thrown up dog food later, this is what we had…
She snuck her way up on a bed, curled into a little disheveled mess, and started to take a nap. Not too happy of a camper.
I now go out every morning at 5:00 to search for mushrooms to remove from the yard. I repeat the process every time I let the pups out. I have always gone out with them when they go into our fenced (a.k.a safe) yard, but I never knew that I needed to conduct a search and seize maneuver before hand.
I will gladly do so just to do my best to keep my pups safe. Call me overprotective of my four-legged family members, but they are family. And life is way too short to not give them the best I can. Even if it means tromping through dewy clover, grass, and weeds with my pjs rolled up to my knees in rain boots.
Just Ramblin’
(Check with your own vet in your own situations. I am not recommending you do this same procedure for your pet. I am retelling a story based on what I was told by my personal vet. Also, please forgive my sporadic and lack of constant communication and posting. I am now having to do a blog with twitter for work. Trying to allow time for my personal interests, this, and keep up an intense work load is a juggling feat I have yet to master.)
