2 baths 2 days… and an eye infection

It turns out that we didn’t just come home with a wet, smelly dog covered in burrs when we left the park last Thursday – we also contracted a vicious eye infection that appeared on Monday.

Poor Lexi has been battling a severe case of conjunctivitis. I noticed it Monday morning when she woke up with her eyes crusted with pus and she was scratching them. I made a vet appointment for later that day – and thankfully I did, as the issue got worse over the course of the morning.

The first question they asked me was if she had been swimming in dirty stagnant water? If by swimming they meant tumbling off a bridge, then yes…. The vet shaved around her eyes (which gives her the appearance of two large black eyes) put all sorts of medications and freezing in her eye and then sent us home with a topical cream (have you ever tried to put cream on a squirmy puppy’s eyeball??) along with a big ole’ cone.



Poor Lexi is feeling much better – and the eyes are almost back to white with almost no crusties. But she’ll go into random whining/crying/moaning fits everyone once and awhile. She has to keep the cone on or she’ll scratch her eyes and either scratch her cornea or give herself an ulcer.

She can’t sleep with the cone on though, she’s so gosh darn uncomfortable and doesn’t fit in her crate, so she lays next to our bed at night, but there’s no sleeping going on. She’s up, crying whining, escaping, banging her cone into things and it goes on and on and on…… last night was the second night of sleep deprivation. I’m grumpy, she’s grumpy, Derek’s grumpy…..

I can’t wait for our follow up vet appointment tomorrow when they tell me she’s back to normal and we can ditch the cone.

Lesson learned: If your puppy falls into a dirty pond, don’t just bathe the fur, flush out the eyes and pick up some polysporin eye drops from the pharmacy.

Blogging pool and vinyard side

I've been at a stagette all weekend in Osooyos, in fact I'm still laying poolside soaking up the 30 degree weather for a few more hours before we trek home to cold and rainy Vancouver. Despite it being mid-June, its been rediculously cold leading up to summer - hopefully it warms up.

I do miss Derek and Lexi this weekend - I keep wondering what they're doing and if they're having fun without me. This resort is amazing and oh so gorgeous - I wish they were here with me to enjoy it. I feel like wine touring is in our future. We visited Twisted Tree and Nk'Mip wineries yesterday and I'm glad to be bringing home 5 bottles to share with Derek.

Anyways, I need to close my eyes and relax some more.

Xoxo

2 Baths 2 Days

(it's tough to get a picture of her playing... she's fast)

Poor Lexi has spent some significant time in the bath the past few days by no fault of her own… well a little of her own.

On Tuesday night we took her to a friend’s house to watch the Season Finale of Glee (Lexi’s a big fan) and my friend asked if she could have a bone as she was feeding her dog one. Thinking that it was a cookie type bone, I said yes, only to realize that my dog was gnawing on a raw lamb’s neck. I was disgusted butLexi loved it.

What I didn’t think about (until the next morning) is that you’re not supposed to change a puppy’s meat protein. If they eat chicken puppy chow, stick to chicken. If they eat lamb, stick to lamb and so forth until their stomachs are a bit stronger. Since Lexi’s on a Chicken and Rice diet – the lamb went through her, causing diarrhea every time she put anything in her mouth for the next 24 hours…. Fluffy white fur and runny poop will give you an idea of the mess I was dealing with. Poor thing.

Last night we took her for a walk around a lake with a friend and her new puppy. The two dogs are pretty close in age and got along famously – they played and ran and chased for 1 ½ hours straight. However, poor Lexi was running across a foot bridge crossing a muddy creek and slipped and fell off the bridge, down approx 4 feet and into the water. Lexi has never submerged herself in water, and we definitely didn’t plan for her first time to be a surprise.

Derek was a hero however, and ran into the water and pulled our poor flailing, panicking puppy out of the water. I'm pretty sure she was the one screaming, but according to Derek that was me.

She recovered with a bruised ego and continued on playing with the other dog, and ran straight through the bushes and came out covered in burrs and sticky tiny green seeds, which are IMPOSSIBLE to get out. So we spent another evening in the bathtub washing mud and smelly water off of her, and cutting and pulling burrs out of her fur.

I’m off to Osooyos for the weekend for a stagette – so Lexi and Derek are having some Daddy-Daughter bonding time. I hope for Derek’s sake she stays clean until Sunday.

Live crab

Live crab could have been the theme for last weekend’s sailing trip. Lexi, a coworker and I all headed to SaltSpring Island for a weekend away with my parents. The boat seems to have this medicinal aura about it, that instantly relaxes you and this weekend was all about relaxation….. and crab.

Dad has always wanted to catch crab, for years he's put down differnt traps, all sorts of bait and always come up empty handed. But I think the drought is over, being the scientest he is, he seems to have come up with a fail proof formula and started hauling in the crab this past weekend not looking back since.

Lexi, not to be left out of anything, also starting crabbing this weekend and experienced her first taste of live crab – she quickly learned that if she flips over the rocks on the beach tiny (and some not to tiny) crabs run about and are fun to catch and eat. I spent half my weekend shrieking at her and pulling fatally wounded crab out of her mouth.

All-in-all it was a great introduction for Lexi to the boat, the sailing was great, the fresh crab dip was great and the company wasn’t too shabby either.