And the Goods Just Keeps on Coming

Whoever thinks that taking care of a puppy is easy work, should definitely babysite Azuki for 2 weeks. After that I DARE YOU TO GET A PUPPY. Trust me, it will instill the fear in you.

For over a month and a half I was so worried about Azuki's bad leg, and then when surgery finally came, worried about the procedure itself, and when the surgery was over, worried about her staying by herself in the hospital (okay fine, we still went to Kyoto, but I was worried in between all the fun that we had. hehehe), and then after we got her home, worried about her rehabilitation.

After her stitches were removed, everything seemed just peachy, until one night, she started to puke out all her food, and then suffered through bouts after bouts of diarrhea. This continued for two days, until at the end she was letting out blood. It stopped for two days after I took her to the vet, but then promptly started again. Except, this time, there was no vomiting and only diarrhea, and the diarrhea only happened in the middle of the night.

That's right. In the middle of the night I would hear her get up, pace back and forth, and then go potty. I would have to get up right away to clean up everything (thank goodness the pup never missed---always on her potty sheet), and then wipe her butt real good because all that liquidy poop surely gets stuck in all that hair around the butt.

The pup would go back to sleep, but then 15 minutes later, have another bout of diarrhea. I get up and the whole process is repeated. Everytime she lets it out, the amount of poop decreases, until she has absolutely nothing left in her intestines anymore. This may take 3 or 4 times.

Needlyess to say, when she has a bad night, I don't sleep either. This happened for a few days, until I took her back to the vet again, because I was truly worried that she was perhaps infested by some weird alien worms that are eating her innerds and forever colonizing the lining of her stomach causing diarrhea everyday for the rest of her life. Well, they said she was probably fine, just left over side effects from too much antibiotics. So they gave her a special diet and more medication (does that make sense to you? Treating an over-dose of antibiotics perhaps with more antibiotics? I know I never went to vetinerary school...but something about it makes me go hmmmm). We have been to the vet so much, that I feel like we should just live there. Now when we go to her local vet (not her surgery vet), they are like, oh, Azuki, what is it this time??

So her diarrhea has finally gone away (third day and no poop in the middle of the night! woo hoo!), but now I have discovered a new problem--worned down footpads.

I am not sure why, but all three footpads on her good legs have been worn down, exposing the tender pink part of her skin. I don't know if it is because she has been outside too much, or just that all her weight has been on three legs instead of four. it doesn't seem to bother her, but research on the web tells me that without proper protection, her footpads can get infected, and in the worst case scenario, the dog might need SKIN GRAFTS to replace lost footpads. SKIN GRAFTS?? Geeze, nowadays, these pets have ample access to orthopedic surgery, orthodontic care, radiation for cancer...I mean, whatever happened to the good old, dumping a defected pet in the park method? Okay, I am totally kidding. Like I would ever do that to my sugar booger. You know one day I am going to write a blog about Azuki getting a kidney organ transplant.

In any case, this whole worn out footpads thing seems small, but it just adds even more work for me.

Today, she goes to kindergarden, and I was hoping for a whole day to myself where I can do work. But this is how it happened:

1. Wake up to pup in the morning pacing around
2. Take her to puppy school
3. Ride bike to pet supply store to buy doggie socks (yes, doggie socks) to protect her little feet
4. Go back to puppy school to drop off doggie socks so she can go for her walk later with the trainer
5. Now writing in her doggie blog because her pa was asking why there hasn't been another blog (he is on a business trip) because obviously he doesn't realize that taking care of the pup is a full time job
6. Still hasn't written my article yet but in a few hours gotta go pick up the pup again from school