Early June: continuing education

By Liz on June 10, 2018

This photo …

It was taken at Flathead Pet ER last Sunday. All is well.

Emmett started with diarrhea Sunday morning, which turned into the squirts getting worse and worse and then some blood so off we went. He was not lethargic at all so I suspected something he ate, but I don’t fool with that kind of thing!

Short story is that was the conclusion and meds immediately got things under control. He had a few squirts after we got home but slept through the night and had no issue with light meals of rice, chicken and pumpkin the next day. We continued through the week, gradually reintroducing kibble.

I am so grateful that we have such a nice pet ER. Coincidentally, the ER vet this round was Dr. Becky Jessup, wife of my regular vet Dr. Scott Smiley. She could read his handwritten notes on Emmett’s vaccination and well check exams :)

Emmett was stellar!

Things started a bit rough. I went into the clinic without him – I always do that because especially at the ER, who knows what might be going on. I’m especially thankful for this habit this visit. Because of his age, even with Dr. Smiley’s records … they immediately told me to touch nothing … they needed to rule out Parvo, which is highly contagious. I understood but it disconcerted me to say the least. A tech came to the car, took a swab and said it would be 10-15 min.

Emmett and I sat in the back of the Jeep and watched the comings and goings at the next door Equine Vet Center. He was calm and interested and shortly the tech came out with the negative for Parvo news. Even though I was 99.9% sure that it could not be Parvo, I had one of those delayed reactions so sat and cried a bit, holding Emmett, who licked my face. Gah.

Then … some difficult things for other animals inside. I was so fortunate that a young woman I know, was there with her dog. She’d had to put down the dog’s sister about the time I had to do the same with Bear. We shared the current ER experience and a few tears. Through all this, Emmett was sitting beside me and eventually lay down with his head on my purse … that is the view in the first photo. He mostly relaxed, sat up when people went by but did not seem at all bothered or anxious. We waited nearly an hour to see the vet and all went well with that. We got the news that a normal recovery was expected, got our meds, paid the bill and came home. Total door to door time was 4 hours.

I didn’t work on Monday. So many things from the ER experience were on my mind and I had not slept well even though Emmett and Auggie did! Anyway, took a day.

For training, we continued but no click-treat for several days until I knew things were really stabilized. This was enlightening because I did “good boy” vs treats and good behavior continued. I also used the crate a bit more as well as the bedroom pen for at least 1 daytime nap.

The best training advance this week is the Emmett and Auggie play. It has become calmer and there are many times when they are in the same area or pass by each other with just a nose touch and no wrestling. Great progress and I am so happy about this! I think Auggie would like to snuggle with Emmett, but Emmett is still a bit wiggly if Auggie gets very close. Auggie is persistent, though as in CATS ARE PERSISTENT!! Also, one evening, when Emmett got to the “overtired/rambunctious” stage, Auggie did something, Emmett yelped … so that gave me some extra confidence that Auggie will say “Enough!” when it needs to be said.

So, Onward!!

I am unsure if it is Auggie’s example or just Emmett, but Emmett feels that he should see what is on top of anything he can get to. Currently, I am doing a low key “off” … but, it is so cute I have a difficult time enforcing…

The lupins, the lupins!!!

I get such a kick out of the serious observation from Beardog Point. Emmett sits “at attention” and watches. Maybe Karl and Bear have been/are whispering in his ear about the duties of the dog in the fambly Summers!

CSA Week 4 – such bounty in NW Montana … the FIRST week of June!

And the wildflowers: a double Mariposa Lily

After a week of sunny and warm-hot (HOT to Auggie, Emmett and me!), we had a whooshy, thunderstorm-y cold front on Saturday. We all love the cool down!

Yea.