Dog Gripe

Dog Gripe | Dog Rant

Terrible Advice About Affording Veterinary Care

Petsmart Charities released results of a new survey recently that shows a majority of people (52%) struggle with affording veterinary care. Everyone is talking about it, as you’ve likely seen. I will probably write about it in more detail soon, but I wanted to share my thoughts (rant) about some terrible advice I saw from an e-newsletter and website for veterinary professionals. I won’t name it here, but I will say that I, myself, would not respond well or feel good about their ideas of how veterinary teams should pre-ask about paying for veterinary care or handle times when people feel worried about paying for recommended veterinary care. It’s cringe-worthy, IMHO.

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Dog Gripe | Dog Musings | Entirely Off Topic | The Story of Clover

Your Earlobes Aren’t Worried – A Tip From the Anxiety Trenches

I promise the silly title is worth it. You see, I’m increasingly amped up about a number of real-life things, but I recently developed a new coping mechanism for worry.

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Dog Gripe | Dog Life | Dog Musings | Newsworthy | The Story of Clover

Neutropenia in Dogs – A Clover Mystery

Neutropenia in dogs – Our saga with Clover’s weird white blood cell counts continues, so we saw a board-certified veterinary internal medicine specialist (the same one who helped us with Clover’s non-stop UTIs as a puppy). The headline is that, right now, the neutropenia itself isn’t posing much of a danger (unless her values continue to drop), but the possible causes for the neutropenia fall into scarier territory.

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Dog Gripe | Dog Life | Dog Musings | The Story of Clover

Dog Blood Work Why Do It on Young and Healthy Dogs

Question: Why would you routinely do dog blood work on young and seemingly healthy dogs? Answer: Because sometimes you find things and can catch them before the medical issue gets worse. This appears to be the case with Clover. We did routine blood work at the end of February, and we’ve been on a medical mystery tour ever since. She does not seem sick at all, so that keeps our worry on simmer (not boil), but it’s still quite weird.

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Dog Gripe | Dog Life | Dog Training | Dog Training Resources | Dog Training Update | The Story of Tori

Canine Car Sickness An Update

When a puppy gets car sick, many tell you that the puppy will outgrow it. And, you hope. Then, reality sets in. With Tori’s second birthday coming up in July, we’ve renewed our pursuit of a solution to her relentless car sickness once and for all. Below is a list of all the meds and home remedies that have failed and preview of our behavior modification strategy to try and fix canine car sickness.

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Dog Gripe | Dog Life | Newsworthy

Annual Cost of Having a Dog

My friends tease me about keeping a financial spreadsheet for how much I spend on my dogs each year. They argue it’s better NOT to know. Funny, right? Nothing will ever compare to the nearly $31,000 we spent in 23 months trying to save Lilly’s life, but I was still surprised at the 2016 total for Clover and Tori.

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Dog Gripe | Dog Life | Dog Rant

Pet Insurance and Real Life

I remain a staunch supporter of having pet insurance. Yet, the news that our monthly pet insurance premiums were going up — WAY up — bummed me out.

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Dog Gripe | Dog Life | Dog Musings | Dog Photo | Dog Training | Dog Training Resources | Dog Training Update | Dog Training Video | Dog Video | Dog Video Gallery | Hot News | The Story of Clover | The Story of Tori

Where We Are Now in Raising and Training the Puppy-Girls

Everything is a bit of a blur when you’re raising two puppies at the same time, especially two border collie puppies who are just 13 months apart. In the ideal world, I would have had all or most of Clover’s basic training done before we got another puppy, but that’s not how things worked out. So, I’m sitting here with Clover now 2 years old and Tori 1 year old, and I’m taking stock of where we are now on the dog training front. Let’s just say I’ve not reached my goals, and I’m feeling rather bummed about it. Warning — long post ahead.

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Dog Gripe | Dog Life | Dog Rant | Hot News | Newsworthy | The Story of Clover

Canine Genetic Tests Thumbs Up (and Down)

The same day we had Clover spayed, I asked our veterinary hospital to run genetic tests too. My primary goal was to learn Clover’s MDR1 status (multi-drug sensitivity gene). Depending upon the genetic test you choose, you can also find out your dog’s breed heritage and whether or not your dog tests positive for other kinds of disease-causing genetic markers. The good news is that Clover is indeed 100% border collie (cute family tree graphic ahead), and she tested NEGATIVE for all 90 genetic markers. The bad news is that the testing company won’t tell me what all 90 of those markers are, which makes me really crabby.

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Dog Gripe | Dog Life | Dog Photo | Dog Video | Newsworthy | Puppy Pix | Rest in Peace Ginko

Rest in Peace, Ginko Cornelius Hawn

Today, Ginko crossed over. He was 4 months shy of his 16th birthday – by far, the oldest dog in our family history. Rest in peace, Monkey Man, Snuffle Man, Stinko Monster, Golden-Eyed & Good Boy … Fan of toys, fetch, and food. Lover of Rock music. Hater of Bluegrass. Long-suffering brother to 4 sisters (2 super bossy, 2 super sweet). Sofa Captain … faithfully piloting the couch so that it never ran aground on his watch. We never knew which of his potentially fatal conditions would be the one. A survivor, Ginko ultimately succumbed to the ravages of time.

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