Week in review – wasps, Pokémon & ducks Pt 1

I’ve only been away from blogging for 5 days but there was so many great posts to catch up on so I thought it was only right to do some catching up on my side! I have so many posts I want to write so I need to get my butt in gear but for now I thought I would fill you guys in on our kinda eventful week. I decided to put this into a two parter because it got so long!

The start of this week I began my healthy eating through My Fitness Pal (showing my support for Bonnie and her excess 2kg xD) and so far so good. I get lots of exercise from walking Bonnie, walking to and from work and going for walks at lunch but I have a terrible sweet tooth and really struggle with portion sizes so hoping I can stick to it and make some healthier choices!

Monday also brought a text message from our dog walker that Bonnie had a case of the runs so we left work early and had a lovely present to come home to! Her new tags also arrived in the post which we have attached to her red dingo and ruffwear palisades harnesses so we have the option to go collar-less but to still have tags on. They’re from Identitag, we bought Bonnie’s original tag was from here and since it has held up perfectly for coming up to 2 years in October we decided to purchase from them again. The engraving is really good, I couldn’t be bothered editing out my details so sorry no photo, but the examples on the site show the quality accurately.

On Tuesday it was a beautiful sunny day so we had an extra long lunchtime walk up the glen, she was great on and off lead and we had such a lovely time. We also came across an apple tree that was just heaving with apples all over – it put the apple tree in our back garden to shame!

On Wednesday we received another text from our dog walker than Bonnie had been stung twice by wasps while out walking. She had pulled out the stingers and applied vinegar but informed us just in case she would require a vet visit. Honestly good dog walkers are worth their weight in gold! I immediately left and when I got home Bonnie was so distressed – she had dug up her bed, her water was everywhere and she was panting. She just kept pacing, biting at herself and shaking off. I put on some ice packs onto the areas she was stung (I could see the 2 areas as she had been biting at them) and then asked my partner’s mum to bring over some vinegar as we had none in the house and I didn’t want to leave her.

Very irritated Bonnie with an ice pack

Trying to distract her from biting herself

After applying the vinegar she started to settle down and finally have a nap, but later on once my partner got home she started to get seriously agitated again even after applying more vinegar and ice packs. We were really worried at this point and decided to double check all over her (I hadn’t been able to do this myself earlier as she was so reluctant to stay still for fussing and wasn’t taking any food – after the peanut butter in the kong above was gone she left it which is really unlike Bonnie) and found 3 more stingers, 2 in her back and 1 on her ear!

Poor pooch no wonder why she was still feeling so miserable, we quickly took them out and put vinegar on those areas. You could see the relief from her immediately and for long afterwards she lay in our arms as if to say thank you for making the pain go away – it was very sweet as if she knew exactly what we were doing as although it must’ve been painful for her she listened to me trying to calm her and keep her still while my partner extracted the stings and applied the vinegar.

Trying to hide away from the pain – it’s one of her safe spots

For the rest of Wednesday night and all day Thursday she slept most of the time with just potty breaks and walking to the water bowl as she was still recovering from the ordeal. I am just so thankful she recovered okay, that she didn’t have an allergic reaction which would’ve definitely required a vet visit and seriously so thankful that we have such an amazing dog walker that knew exactly what to do in such a situation. So to end this post always remember Vinegar for VVasps and Bicarbonate of soda for Bees, hopefully you will never need to use this info but it’s always worth knowing!

Recovering pooch – pretty much snoozed here all Thursday

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Bonnie is okay!!

I just thought I’d update you all and let you know Bonnie is okay and perfectly healthy! I am so relieved! The vet said that the “lump” is just larger mammary tissue which can be caused by overactive mammary glands which is more common in the teats further down their body towards the back legs. She says it could have been caused by a false pregnancy in the past, we hadn’t noticed it previously but it may have only become more noticeable as she has gained weight – 2kg in 2 months! 😮

I’m not tubby am I?

She’s usually around 14kg but was just over 16kg on the scale today. Since she was last weighed we had changed her kibble, added her morning wet food for her supplements and her morning salad so we definitely need to rethink her meal portions as we don’t want her to gain any more weight. We would prefer to get her back down to 14kg as we don’t want any undue pressure on her joints especially as we do long walks and agility with her.

I am just so glad she’s okay, I was so worried waiting to find out. I think we will celebrate tonight but not with extra treats – sorry Bonnie!

So glad my wee chicken is okay ❤

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A bit of a worry

Recently I noticed something slightly worrying on Bonnie’s stomach – at her abdomen between her back legs she has some loose skin sagging down but only on one side. It feels a bit tender and like there is a slight lump in it. I have only noticed it recently and I don’t believe it was there before as we regularly check her over for ticks etc because she’s long haired. We made a vet appointment for Thursday so fingers crossed I’m just overreacting and it’s nothing serious!

A bit ‘TMI’ but you can see how it’s a bit like a lump here – don’t mind the thing on the right that’s her nipple xD

When we first brought her home she had a slightly infected spay wound and we had to treat it with salt water and some antibiotics so wondering could it be related at all to that? Anyway I’ll let you guys know what happens at the vet appointment, I’m seriously hoping I’m just freaking over nothing!

You’re okay little pup aren’t you ❤

 

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Vet Visit and Diet Updates

So after Sunday’s series of events brought to light Bonnie’s true level of anxiety we made a plan of action to change about our routines to help decrease her stress levels through diet, training etc and also set up a vet appointment for yesterday to ensure nothing physically was wrong with her which could be exasperating her anxieties.

We went to the vet and I explained how Bonnie was acting recently and how I wanted to do a full “MOT”. The vet did a physical check over of Bonnie’s ears, eyes, teeth, body and checked her heart. She said that she was in perfect health, a great weight (around 14kg consistent as always) and it would be unlikely that blood tests such as liver, thyroid etc would bring back anything as she was in such good health and eating and drinking normally. She said that it was most definitely behavioural and that these issues are super common in rescue border collies which made me feel quite upset at how these sweet and sensitive dogs are being failed by their previous owners or by backyard breeders 😦

She recommended we try Nutracalm for a month and see how she get’s on with it in conjunction with training. We are going to a behavioural consult for Friday 10th June with a positive reinforcement trainer with a ton of experience and who has 5 border collies himself so he should be understanding of the breed’s quirks such as their tendency towards sound sensitivity etc. So we are looking forward to that to see how best to move forward with our training. The vet said to expect to see effects in about 2 weeks and that she has seen great results with it. We are due to go back in a month to see how Bonnie is getting along and to get more capsules. It is quite an expense at around £45 for a months supply but if it’s what works then we can make sacrifices else where, after all she is family and her mental health is important to us.

I also insisted on getting her fecal tests done as although the vet didn’t believe anything would come back I wanted to be sure as she sometimes gets dodgy poops, although we usually attribute that to her eating dodgy things on walks (why do people just drop scraps of food everywhere!)  I might have also insisted on getting it done since I went to the bother of scooping it into the test tube container thing and brought it all the way with me haha

 

We have also started making some positive changes to her diet as it is inevitable that we are what we eat!

We are in the process of changing her food gradually from Skinners Duck and Rice to Eden Country Cuisine which is a much higher quality food with better ingredients and better nutrient levels as high carb foods can be linked to increased cortisol due to regulating blood sugars.

Since I know how sluggish and generally “off” I can feel when I’m eating junk and not real foods we have have started adding some fresh veg and fruit to Bonnie’s diet. She pretty much loves all food so we will keep it varied and stick to foods known as safe for dogs – no grapes here!

We also found these cool treats Pooch & Mutt Calming Crunchies specifically formulated for calming properties. It has L-Tryptophan, chamomile and other ingredients known for their calming purposes. Bonnie definitely approves of them anyway!

Also I am pleased to report that Bonnie is definitely coming around to her old self after Sunday’s event. She will now take food from my hand inside and outside on walks, although I am not pushing it, I’m only doing it infrequently and only when there are no dogs present or barking. As I believe what may have happened was that instead of the usual conditioning where scary thing = treats, so over time the scary thing  becomes less scary and more associated with treats, the opposite seemed to be happening with Bonnie where she started associating me giving treats = scary thing about to happen like dogs barking or going past.

Back to her usual cute and cuddly self 🙂

She’s also still loving her cuddles and we even had a massive zoomies / chasies game in the house after our walk earlier so it was great to see her have so much fun and be back to her usual self 🙂

Although it is early days and we will have a long road ahead, with set backs no doubt, I am still feeling hopeful and re-energised from starting to put these positive changes in place.  I’ll have more updates soon as we have ordered a few different products to hopefully help us out in addition to training. Also thanks to those who commented on my last post, I was feeling quite low so it was really nice to have that support especially from people who have went through/are going through similar issues.

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DIY Dog Nail Scratch Board

For a while now I have been thinking of making a nail filing board for Bonnie as a fun, stress free way of keeping her nails short and healthy – she already knows and loves her “dig” trick so I thought it would be an easy transition to get her to use the scratch board.

As far as DIY projects go this is as simple as it gets, which gets a thumbs up from me! All that’s needed is a bit of wood or other material that will stand up to your dog pawing against it, fine grit sandpaper ( not coarse as it would be too rough on their nails and pads -we used a 120 grit) and double sided tape or other adhesive. Simply stick the sandpaper to the wood and voilà your very own dog scratch board!

Easy Peasy!

Of course it’s even easier when you have a doggy helper! As soon as I started taking photos Bonnie came over to pose and looked at me as if to say “I know this game now, where’s my treat?”

When we introduced it to her she pawed at it straight away so we were able to reward her and she kept offering it. Bonnie is used to offering behaviours as we do a lot of shaping in our clicker training but if your dog isn’t used to that or you haven’t done clicker training before you can always try to get them to give their paw so it hits the board, “good dog” and treat or alternatively, lure them with a treat so hold it close to their mouth then slowly pull it up so their paws end up on the board .

Her first attempt at scratching

Bonnie soon got into it and was scratching like a pro, it seemed like she really enjoyed it as she was properly extending her nails out so maybe it fills some need for digging? If your dog likes to dig or scratch the grass after they use the bathroom then hopefully they should find this easy to get into and enjoy.

From our first session I’m really impressed with the results, after about 2 minutes her nails were much shorter and it took much less effort than nail clipping and then filing the rough edges. The only downsides is that it’s not really possible (for me anyway, a better trainer might disagree!) to use this for their back paws and also as the nails file down so fast it could end up hitting the quick, so check carefully to see that the nails aren’t getting too short or that they are not damaging their pads.

Overall I think it’s a brilliant way of keeping dogs nails short and healthy as well as being much less stressful for dogs, especially if they already have a fear of nail clippers.

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Dog First Aid Training with Rhodes2Safety at Mid Antrim Animal Sanctuary

I recently attended a Rhodes2Safety K9 1st Aid Workshop which was held at Mid Antrim Animal Sanctuary. I seen the event on their Facebook page and it made me stop and think, if I was ever in an emergency with Bonnie I wouldn’t have a clue what to do except to phone the vet, so I decided to book a place there and then.

The workshop lasted around 4 hours and covered everything that could possibly (but hopefully won’t!) happen – from performing CPR and the heimlich maneuver to treating cuts, burns, stings and much more. There was a lot of information and theory to take in but it was split up with practical exercises like finding the dog’s heart beat and using vetwrap. Also her two dogs Axl and Chi, beautiful rhodesian ridgebacks, provided some definite aww factor as well as being super demo dogs and so well behaved.

Kerry was a brilliant instructor and explained everything in simple terms so you don’t need any previous knowledge. She was friendly, knowledgeable, made it fun to learn and had lots of anecdotes which definitely helped the information stick in my head. She also gave us printed notes to take home too which is great for future reference.

She offered a few different items for sale so I bought the first aid kit and a roll of vetwrap (pink of course!), both of which will be going into my “doggy car kit” which I’ll be posting about soon.

Overall I am so pleased I attended and would highly recommend going to her workshops if one comes to your area. For 4 hours of your time and £40 it is worth far more than that, just for the peace of mind knowing that you can handle an emergency situation that little bit better and not go into a blind panic not knowing what to do. Also you get a pretty cool certificate at the end!

If you can’t attend a session definitely have a look at their Advice & Tips section on their website as it has tons of useful info to check out.

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