Yes that’s right, protection. Protection against tick borne diseases and other transmitted diseases.
You may shrug it off and say, “we check our dog for ticks,” or maybe the classic line of, “it’s too expensive to take the dogs to the vet or buy tick medication.” Or maybe you forgot or choose not to vaccinate your dog.
Well, let me tell you what happened to my family yesterday.
Rewind to earlier this week, our German Shepard who is normally rambunctious, playful, goofy, and needs his water and food dish filled every time you turn around, suddenly became lethargic, not eating or drinking, depressed looking, and groaning.
We thought maybe he got into the trash again and ate a baby diaper. But, this behavior continued. A trip to the vet in the evening proved that he had three super tiny ticks lodged into his skin that were almost impossible to get out.
Blood tests, pain shots, and three hundred dollars later, we don’t have an answer yet. We are still waiting for blood results. Two days later our dog still is not eating or drinking. I’ve had enough, I call the vet and am told the first lymes test is negative, but I can make a recheck appointment for my 80lb dog today. So I do, after checking with my amazing parents to see if they can watch my almost one year old boy and almost three year old daughter. Dragging my kids and dog to the vet would be quite a challenge since my 80lb dog tries to run towards the door to escape the office. Meanwhile, I’m sure my daughter would want to pet everyone’s animals!
So I finally pack everything up and head into the garage to my SUV. My little one is packed up in his seat, and my daughter has pushed her way past his car seat to jump into the front seat and pretend she’s driving the car. Okay harmless enough I say, since I have the car keys and she keeps jumping from the front of the car to the backseat when I try and get her to her seat.
I go to the trunk and open it up and try and get my 80lb dog to jump in. He is struggling with his pain to jump up. Meanwhile, I hear and see the garage door coming down on the trunk above us. “Stop,” I yell to my daughter who had innocently found the garage door remote and had no idea what she was doing. She hits it again and it stops, phew. Then, suddenly it comes down again and I quickly escape the trunk from smashing me and the dog; however, the dog is confused and scared and in the direct path of the closing garage door (we need to invest in sensors). I scream come to him and pull his collar and he is frozen. And again, he is 80lbs, so it is not an easy task to move him. Finally he runs out from the door that has almost crushed him and we are safe, for the moment at least. I looked into the car and loudly told my daughter to get into her seat. Since she isn’t quite 3 yet, she still doesn’t understand exactly what she did and that she could have seriously injuried us. (Also now the garage opener is hidden).
I finally get to the vet and more blood tests, a pain shot, and a couple hundred more dollars spent, and we find that our dog has two types of tick borne diseases including lymes disease. I’m told the medication for large dogs is very expensive (like 200 dollars for a month), and the dose is very high. Also I’m told the medication is best taken on a full stomach; however, my dog has not eaten in days. The doctor warns me the majority of dogs cannot tolerate the medications’ stomach side effects including vomiting. The doctor then assists with using a pill gun to get the medication down the dogs throat. Don’t worry it’s nothing like a gun, it looks more like a tampon inserter!
We are done at the vet and my dog walks me to the car. It takes him a little while but he finally makes the jump into the car. We head back to my parents to see how well they are surviving with the kiddos.
Nap time rolls around and I am balancing kodi trying to make a bottle and whoops, it spills all over the floor. At the same time, I hear a loud thud from the other room and then my daughter screaming.
My daughter was playing kitchen with a fake birthday cake and runs around the table when grandma sings happy birthday. She was running, and unbeknownst to everyone, the dog vomitted on the other side of the table.
I run in and see my daughter in her pink dress covered in yellow bile dog colored dog vomit. She stands up and it is dripping down her hair. This is serious dog vomit, a huge puddle of yellow bile that has now been slid through.
Immediately I pick her up and take her to the bath. She plays in the bath and repeatedly asks what was behind the table. Once she understands, she feels compelled to tell everyone for the next couple of days, that she fell in dog vomit.
The dog is now feeling better, his appetite is back, he can keep his food down, and he’s back to his old energetic self.
This could have all been avoided with a vaccination. You can bet I’m getting him his vaccinations and medications now. Don’t be stupid, get you’re dog protection. Your dog, kids, parents, and wallet will thank you.
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