With medical dramas — human and canine alike — coming at me from all directions these days, I feel woefully behind on our training updates from our new behavior modification plan to continue counter-conditioning Lilly’s fears and retraining a few scenarios where she ramps up her nerves. Here is a recap that I hope does some justice to our efforts so far. …
The daily rain this spring and summer makes the wildflowers pop out like crazy. Even neighbors who have lived in the valley much longer than we have say it’s the most rain they’ve ever seen. And, the flowers? Well, see for yourself. …
Last week, we had an aerial visitor sweep through the valley and cause a flurry of barking dogs. Maybe the person riding waves of warm air looked like a large predator from above. Once when Lilly and I were having lunch down in town, one such paraglider swooped overhead and landed close by. Lilly flipped out. …
Ginko is HOME!!!! We may never know why he was vomiting so much. Tom only got to talk to the doc for a few minutes, so I don’t have much info, but It seems that since the bloodwork was clean, then we’re not looking at pancreatitis. He’ll be on antibiotics for a few more days since he did have a fever and did have a slightly elevated white cell count. He also will take some pepcid each morning (we’ve learned it’s a better/safer choice than pepto for vomiting) for a few days. Ginko is only allowed tiny spoonfuls of special …
I’m still waiting for adequate information on Ginko’s health status. The best I’ve gotten so far is that he’s doing “OK” or “fine” and that his bloodwork was “good.” I’m trying VERY hard to be patient and NOT freak out from worry, but I still have major crying jags when things get to be too much … because I’m the kind of girl who needs details not only on his medical status but his emotional one as well. …
I finished reading the novel Gilead by Marilynne Robinson this weekend. It’s a book about a dying minister, who is leaving a diary for his young son. While the context of these situations in the book are different, I found these excerpts amusing and applicable to my life with Lilly (and even the current medical drama with Ginko). …
We are worried sick! Ginko has not kept any food down since about mid-day Tuesday. Between dinner Tuesday night and lunchtime today, he threw up 7+ times. At first, he could keep the food down for 2 hours, then 1 hour, then only 10 minutes. So, off to the veterinary hospital we went, and the doctor hospitalized him pronto. We don’t know for sure, but it sounds an awful lot like pancreatitis. …
We’re thinking about the fear-recovery cycle in a different way after our follow-up behavior consult. While Lilly’s fear responses are smaller than a year ago, we’ll be working in the coming weeks and months on resetting her fear cycle frequently so that her emotional roller coaster never leaves to station. …
A shout out to my friend Audrey for sending me this research on how women handle stress differently than men. Apparently women “tend and befriend” to overcome feelings of “fight or flight.” …
