Vet Check-Up

Wednesday afternoon Freja had a check-up at the Vet's office. She has completely recovered from Kennel Cough. She also gained a couple of pounds and is now 28lbs.

The demodicosis, however, has gotten worse instead of better with just the Goodwinol treatment. The vet did several skin scrapings and showed me the mites under the microscope. Freja has many mites when usually a healthy dog has so few that they can't be found with one skin scraping. So, Freja started a 30 day Ivermectin treatment today. This will treat the demodicosis systemically instead of topically.

Relaxing after a long, busy day...

Freja's Kennel Cough is almost completely better. She only coughed once this morning and didn't cough at all this afternoon when she romped around the yard with Rohan. She had a very busy day spending most of the day outside with us while we did yard work and planted Asiatic lily bulbs. For part of the afternoon I had her leash tied to one of my jeans belt loops, part of the time she was loose running with Rohan, and the rest of the time she was in her ex-pen in the shade under one of the huge pines in our back. The ex-pen was only about 6 feet away from where I was kneeling on the ground planting bulbs, so she could see us the whole time.

She's a very tired out girl after such an exciting day. Here's a picture of her relaxing with her favorite toy the un-stuffed fox:

Kennel Cough

Just when Freja's health issues were a thing of the past she started coughing Tuesday night. We saw a new vet yesterday and Freja has tracheobronchitis (i.e. Kennel Cough). She also had a tick on her! She's being treated for the kennel cough with Clavamox, which will also treat Lyme disease in case she happens to get that from the tick. She's also had a little bit of Vicks Formula 44D (yes, the human cough syrup).

The good news is after just two doses of Clavamox she already seems to be feeling better. I think the Vicks helped her to not cough all night, so she was able to sleep too.

Evening play time...

This evening Rohan, Freja and I went out in the back yard to play while Erik was bringing Halle for her evening walk. Freja and Rohan both stopped playing to watch Erik and Halle come back up the street:



Rohan said, "Daddy and Halle are coming!"

Freja was a very good girl and did not leave the yard. She waited until Halle was back in our yard to give her many puppy kisses:



Halle is slightly more tolerant of Freja's exuberance, and Freja is learning to tone it down with Halle.

After many kisses Freja decided it was time for a quick sprint around the yard:



Not to be outdone by a 15 week old puppy, Halle prepares for take-off:



After much racing around Halle needed a drink, so Erik and Halle went into the house. Freja, Rohan and I stayed out for a little while longer. Here's a boy and his Shiloh:



After we came back into the house Halle was in one of her "zooming" moods, so Freja and Halle raced around the downstairs. It was so nice to see them playing together.

Good Girl

Tonight we went out for another walk around the block. I took a few pictures in the yard before we left and this is my favorite of Freja sitting nicely and waiting to go walking. She has such a feminine look. You can see that her saddle is really darkening as some of the puppy fluff has been coming out with brushing.

Stairs

Freja will go up the stairs to our second floor with no problem, but she will not come down the stairs. She goes down the outside back steps just fine now, but there are only a few steps. Last night I spent about 45 minutes working with Freja on coming down steps.

First I coaxed her to come up 5 steps, enticing her with a Wellness Puppy Treat. Once she was on step 5 I gave her the treat and then showed her a second one and went down to the bottom of the stairs. She came down.

So, I went up a few more stairs and enticed her up, but instead of stopping where I was she kept going all the to the top. Here are some photos of the next steps:


The treat looks enticing...


Maybe I can stretch my nose out far enough to get the treat without touching the stairs....

Alas... that doesn't work.

Just around this time Halle, the beagle, returned from her walk with my husband. Halle also had a hard time with stairs when she first came to live here even though she was 5-8 years old. I worked with Halle on walking the stairs and now she runs up and down the stairs often. Halle was very excited by the prospect of any activity that involved treats, so she ran up the stairs to join us. I proceeded to go down the stairs and Halle followed, then up the stairs, Halle followed... Freja observed all of this activity. The third time Halle and I went up and down Freja followed! I told her she was a VERY good girl.

The bad news is this morning she refused to come down the stairs again. I envision carrying an 80lb Shiloh Shepherd down the stairs every day... LOL

She's Home!

Freja came home from the vet hospital last night. She tested negative for Parvo. She is on several medications for about a week, and prescription food for a couple of days, but otherwise she is much, much better.

Freja has a Giardia infection. Giardia is a protozoa that can cause diarrhea in puppies and dogs. There are actually several species of Giardia. The one that affects dogs is called Giardia canis. While scientists are uncertain they believe that Giardia canis does not affect humans. Giardia lamblia is the species that affects humans. In any case, it is spread by fecal-oral contact, so... enough said.

She's doing much better!

Vet Hospital

Our sweet little Freja spent the night last night at the Vet hospital. She was vomiting and had diarrhea yesterday and when we took her to the vet she was dehydrated. They are running some tests, but treating her for Parvo just in case. She also has Giardia, so they're treating that too while she is there.

Freja is vaccinated for Parvo, along with Distemper, Parainfluenza, Hepatitis (a form that affects dogs), and Leptospirosis, but apparently with young puppies vaccination isn't always 100% effective. Parvo is 80-95% survivable now, so we hope that if it is Parvo that we caught it early enough.

I spent the night mopping the tiles in the kitchen and bathroom with bleach solution and spraying down all of the family's shoes with Lysol disinfectant.

Our first warm Saturday of 2008...

The weather was so nice today that it finally feels like spring. This evening we went out for a walk and I brought my camera.

Here is Freja, the pretty Shiloh sitting nicely for her portrait:




Here she is sniffing around the yard:



Here is an angle that shows Freja's little underbite:



And here is Freja with her "I don't really want to go for a walk around the block" expression:

Riding in the car...

This morning we took a test ride from our house to the pet supply store. We had to get Halle's food and a few odds and ends for Freja, so we decided to bring her along. Instead of putting her in the travel crate I put her on my lap in the back seat of the car. She did very well.

I let her walk around in the pet supply store. I was going to carry her around, but the store just opened and the floors were still shining clean. Actually it's always very clean in there. Anyhow, Freja particularly enjoyed watching the salt water fish. We got Halle's food, a crate pad bed for Freja, a Merrick Bully stick, a Nylabone, and a dog puzzle toy.

On the way home Freja sat next to me in the middle seat in the back seat with her head on my lap. She didn't bark, jump, or otherwise make a fuss at all. In fact, she was starting to fall asleep by the time we got home.

I know that she won't be able to ride in my lap for long, so I am going to look into getting her a seatbelt harness.

Housetraining Woes

After her initial accident in the house the first night she was here Freja had no accidents in the house until last night, but she had an accident at the same time tonight about 20 minutes after she was outside and went potty.

She just turned 14 weeks today and according to one of the puppy books I bought we can't expect her to be able to reliably let us know she has to go until she's 16 weeks old. All things considered she is doing very well despite these two accidents.

At least she didn't "go" on the Mongolian wool rug ;) .

Sleepy puppy

Yesterday was Freja's first day at home while we were all at work or school. I came home during my lunch hour to feed her and walk her in the back yard. She did pretty well with the exception of flipping her water dish (twice!).

I was at work late, so I didn't get home until just after 6pm. Freja was very happy to see all of us. She was also had a lot of energy to burn, so while Erik was giving Rohan his bath I took Freja out for a walk around the block. She did quite well on the leash this time.

Her behavior with the cats is also improving. Erik spent some time showing her the less frightened of the two cats, Sam, who will now allow Freja to sniff her. She didn't bark at Sam at all last night!

By 10pm Freja was wiped out and fell asleep by my feet against my rocking chair with her teddy bear. Her favorite stuffed animal is actually her bunny, but she gave bunny a swim in her water bowl yesterday, so he's drying out...