Bad Dog - No Poop!

If you read my blog from time to time, you will have come to know that the one most excited about our new kitties was our dog, Reisha. She has lived with geriatric cats for eight years. She has long wished for a kitty friend or two, but alas, the old ones just couldn't play much. Now, with the new kitties, it is a new story. I believe that Reisha is so thrilled that she may fancy herself a kitty, too. She runs, frolics and plays. She tries to imitate much of what they do.

This desire to be like the kitties got her into trouble late last week. She saw the kitties play with yarn and bits of cloth. Where they mouthed them and tossed them around, Reisha misunderstood and ate them. We did not know this until we awoke to a soda can size chunk of regurgitated stuff that we think must have been string, yarn and cloth. I was amazed that she did not choke, suffocate or die coughing it up. Then we noticed that she was straining when she was let out to go to the bathroom. Poor thing, she was REALLY plugged up! We became panicked. We consulted out friend, Laura, who is a knows-everything-about-dogs person. She suggested that we give Reisha tablespoons of pureed pumpkin on the hour for at least a day to give her body some fiber to work with. If that did not produce results, there were other things we could try. I was becoming very upset. The vet said it could easily be $2,700 to have an exam, some x-rays and a bit of surgery to remove whatever was plugging her up. We simply do not have that kind of money, so we had to try other routes. We started her on the pumpkin, lots of love and many trips outside. (If the pumpkin did not work we would have to go with Karo Syrup mixed with mineral oil, and prepare for an explosion!)I must have spent a few hours over the course of the day trying to see if the dog would poop. I could not bear to tell the children that I feared that she would die if we could not get her to poop. I decided to not feed her that day for fear of simply adding more with which to plug her up with.

I went home to check on her during my lunch break that next day. There I found ANOTHER soda can sized wad of upchucked fiber. I let her out to go potty and small bits of watery stuff began to come out. She began to drink again. (If a dog pukes directly after drinking it CAN indicate that they are obstructed.) Then she began to skip in her little doggie way. I felt a bit more hopeful. Maybe I could look my children in the eye without feeling guilt of keeping bad news from them. That evening she was able to go a bit more. The next morning she was back to her regular self. Who would ever have guessed that I would be happy to see dog poop.

Now, we simply have to keep those fibers away from doggie mouths...