The Labor of Labs

There is practically nothing on earth more pathetic than a miserable Labrador retriever when they aren't feeling well.

They make very poor patients.

Take Girlfriend for instance. Two weekends ago we went outside in zero degree weather to play fetch with a tennis ball.

Back and forth.

Back and forth.

Until she came back with the ball - whining...

Believe it or not - she seemed conflicted about going into the house or the possibility of another fetch.

My first hunch was that it was finally too cold for her. Not a likely hunch - but a hunch. So we went in.

Upon further examination it was determined that she suffered an injury to her right rear ankle. Not a dislocation - but clearly an injury. The dog was terribly preoccupied and not interested in much beyond going outside to attend to her business and laying on her bed.

Inasmuch as having a hunting Lab is fraught with adventure and incidents that call for a visit to the vet we have a regular pharmacopoeia of remedies that we travel with. So I fetched Girlfriend's traveling bag and found a bottle of Deramaxx. I gave her half a tab that night and one more with breakfast in the morning. Following that we made a trip to the vet in Sturgeon Bay.

The doc examined the pooch and declared it a soft-tissue injury and suggested I continue with the Deramaxx for four more days. If not improved - see the regular vet.

Whew! I had been up all night with a groaning dog and visions of surgery for a torn ACL that would have the dog laid-up for the holidays.

Girlfriend is fine. Since then she's been tearing all over the place and fetching logs from the wood rack on the porch and chewing on them.

Not sticks - logs.

Labs will eat anything that is disgusting. Road kill, other critter's scat, baby rabbits - and logs.

And this last weekend she's been puking.

Puking outside and puking in the house. Yes - Lab puke.

Blech.

This is not unheard-of so I revisited the stash of canine pharmaceuticals and started her on Cerenia (for vomiting) and Famotidine (for upset tummy). And we switched to the universal canine bland diet of boiled brown rice and boiled chicken - good for both stomach upset and canine diarrhea.

Sometimes I think my dog does this just so she can have her favorite meal which happens to be boiled rice and chicken.

As soon as I started cooking-up a big batch of the universal diet she shadowed my every moment in the kitchen.

Drooling like Homer Simpson...