Sadie's Back To Normal

If I am writing this post now, it's pretty obvious the hounds and I have not hit the road yet to hunt down some tick prevention weapons as planned. The ticks are the worse I've ever seen in the 19 years I've lived here next to this field.

Sadie is just a firm stool away from being back to normal. Everything else was a was a good for her this morning. Great appetite, she was doing her normal 'hopping' in excitement before being fed ... but she did take her time for the 2nd day in a row when eating. I'll have to check the inside of her mouth and see if there is something there that is the cause for her decreased eating speed.

Heidi had 3 doses of the Wounded Warrior Ointment yesterday but I left it off right before she when to bed last night. She curls up when she sleeps and all of that irritated skin is not exposed to the air. First thing this morning her skin looked good, natural color, no redness, no chewed spots. Two hours later, a couple of chewed spots and all of her skin that she hides when sleeping, was red and irritated.

Consequently she turned down the offer to go on a walk this morning, even with my suggested leash tug. When the bloodhounds didn't move away from the house when we went outside I knew they were letting me know it was time for the walk, no matter how wet the field was. It was wet. With Sadie's stare down, I knew she was feeling good again.

Both of them went into their immediate tracking mode. I could tell by the way Sadie had her tail curled upward and her head buried in the ground while she walked that she was feeling normal again. Oh, she did wake me up to go outside at 3:30am again, but she was back in 5 minutes.

Stella found something so interesting during the first part of the walk that Sadie and I had made the first right turn before Stella even showed up. I turned around at the right time to catch her running to catch up with us.

The focus of the walk for both of them this morning was tracking scents, more than running. That is Stella with her head buried in the gully. Then Sadie found something that led her in all kinds of different directions. It was good to see her back to her normal self.

They both made it back home safe and sound, with little excitement but a walk they always enjoy. Now we are off for some generic vet recommended tablets for Sadie's diarrhea and some tick prevention.

Before making the 25 mile trip to PetSmart for the Seresto Collars, I called the 3 local vets ... all the vets carry that collar and all are sold out of that collar. It must be good stuff. 2 of the 3 vets recommended I use NexGard.

Of coarse I had to see the differences for myself so that led me to the internet to read product labels, customer reviews, and where it's in stock. It took hours. After all of that I am still not sure which direction to go. About the time I chose, there pops up a negative review that makes me 2nd guess my decision.

Otherwise ... it's perfect weather in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana today.

The Ticks Beat Sadie Today

Something didn't seem right with Sadie right from the time she was eating breakfast. What normally takes her less than a minute for her to finish eating her food, took almost ten minutes. We had to wait for her to finish before we went outside ... usually she is waiting for everyone else to finish and the first to run outside.

I thought it was part of that indigestion she has been having. No symptoms of bloat, but some diarrhea. There had not been a change in her food so I figured she had eaten something from the field that didn't agree with her.

Mid-morning I cooked some rice, mixed it with cottage cheese to give Sadie. That usually works for diarrhea problems. She didn't care for the rice but ate it. Stella in the mean time was going crazy trying to get to Sadie's food bowl to help herself.

So all three hounds slept most of the morning, low energy but that was something I had seen before. A little after noon I thought we'd take a walk. As we got to the edge of the field/yard, Heidi turned around and walked back to the house ... I guess that meant she wasn't interested today. 

Sadie looked normal but didn't act normal. I felt around her stomach area to see if she would yelp or show any signs of discomfort, she didn't. So on we for an after lunch walk.

 Stella was all over the place with her nose and none of the usual spots. Sadie did a lot of slow walking and standing ... something is wrong. On the way back both hounds walked behind me almost all the way home ... until Sadie saw Heidi next to the house. She was sitting looking at us just barely over the tall field grass.

She had been enjoying the sunshine while we were gone. Sadie and Stella ran toward her to check to see who was in 'their yard' ... they have short memories at times. After all ID'd themselves it was time to return inside for some afternoon siesta's.

While they slept, I got online to do some reading at PedMD. I needed to find out if Sadie was showing any symptoms of intestinal blockage. She wasn't. She did get up in the middle of the night last night. I let her out on her own and she always comes back to the door when she is finished. She did that but I have no idea what she did or if she was successful. 

She was acting different though and that concerned me. Such as sleeping in areas that she never sleeps in, moving from different spots, never quite comfortable. She came to the door while I sat at the kitchen table to go out. I went to the computer room and looked out the window to see what she was doing.

It was strange to say the least. She walked over to the very south part of the field, walked slowly in a circle as if she was looking for something and a little disoriented. Then the shock of all shocks, walked to the edge of the yard and laid down. She never lays down by herself and only does that when chewing sticks or being with Stella.

I snuck out of the house quietly to get a photo before she would get up. I thought she would come running if she saw me.

She didn't move. I moved my chair out to sit down and zoomed in on her to take a photo ... she still didn't move ... that isn't the normal Sadie.

Stella came outside later and barely got to Sadie when she turned around and headed for the opposite side of the yard. Sadie never moved.

I moved the camera back and forth taking photos of each ... Sadie looks normal but she never acts that way outside. She is always hunting something, cruising the field ... I mean I have never seen her do this in the 8 years I've had her.

Finally Sadie sits up ... but doesn't walk anywhere. I decided it was time to go out and see what was up. So I sat the camera down and walked out to see what was wrong. As I am petting her upper neck talking to her, I feel something under her collar ... a tick that had been there long enough to fill itself with blood!!  I went inside to get my "ticked off" tool ... but that is not all I found ... as I took off the tick that was full, I found 4 more ticks under that one on the same spot. ... No wonder she was acting strange.

I normally check the inside and outside of their ears and then run my hands along the tops and sides of them and can usually feel if they have a tick somewhere. But I rarely if ever check under their collar. I will from now on.

As I get up to go back inside to clean off the tool and throw away the ticks ... she gets up and follows me to my chair. I left her outside as I went inside. When I came back out in a few short minutes she had ran out to the field, hopefully to relieve herself ... she has been having problems doing that ... then she came trotting to the house with her tail up ... normal Sadie is back.

The tick story doesn't end there though. By this time both hounds decide they want to take early evening walk. It's after 7:30 pm. Sadie doesn't look like it but she was wagging her tail before and after the camera went 'click'.

Stella heads for her favorite spot in the far corner of the field.

Sadie is not running anywhere but spending most of her time walking next to me. We are both fighting off the first gnats of the season.

After we finish the walk, we get back inside and I am for sure going to check under their collars for any ticks .... what do I find????

On the left side of Sadie's collar, not quite under it, but just on the edge of it is another tick filled with blood and 3 more in the same spot under it. So that was a total of NINE ticks that were attached to her either under or at the edge of her collar. They may have been there from our late walk last night ... I have no way of knowing.

What about the Seresto Collar I mentioned? Why aren't the hounds wearing those today? Three different Walmarts in a 30 mile radius are sold out of that collar until May 2. I am making a morning trip with the hounds to PetSmart tomorrow to pick up a couple of those collars.

The reason I no longer use the pills and liquids for fleas and ticks ... they have never worked that well for me. All bought at the vet office, their recommended brand ... but none of them have worked.

Just now looking out at the window at Sadie ... she has her "bounce" back in her step as she moves around the yard and field. She looks normal again.

It's been a quiet but strange day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Heidi's Skin Is Improving

It turned out to be a beautiful day yesterday. All 3 hounds had a relaxed walk, the temps were perfect and I got a lot done.

I was so busy I didn't make it back to the blog late yesterday but did take the trip in the car I had an urge to take ... not what you expected.

Before I start, those are all yellow weeds I am told but they are great looking yellow weeds. I left two of them standing while I cut weeds near the bank after mowing. Last May I walked over to that field to take more photos of them before they were plowed under for planting. I think the horse trailer that is parked there this year adds a little touch to the photo.

After seeing the changes in Heidi's skin Friday and early Saturday morning I decided to give Heidi's skin a day off from the ointment. It was red and inflamed. Her stomach was reacting in some way that concerned me. I wanted to see if it would be red and inflamed without it. I was also going to find out if the grass had anything to do with her skin reactions because Heidi wanted to go on the walk yesterday.

I could tell early on by her pace and amount of exploring that she would not make the walk with us. I would let her lag back into her own little world. She did just that and enjoyed the time it seemed, just to be exploring the area around here.

Sadie and Stella were not their normal energetic selves either. They walked most of the way, never ran and didn't not go to their normal areas.

Heidi was pretty far back in this photo but my 200mm setting finally worked. It has not been working must past 135mm most of the time recently.

You can tell that the bloodhounds were not too excited ... a general checking the areas. The most excitement was on the way back where Sadie saw Heidi but didn't know what she was. Sadie took off running and Stella approached cautiously because she was a little spooked not knowing.

They were wagging their tails once they realized who it was.

Needless to say, it was a slow walk back home for the hounds. At least their tails were up but you can see that Stella is walking slower than slow.

A little after 1pm I took this photo of Heidi. Remember the last dose of WWO was the prior afternoon. Those dark spots are coloring caused by the ointment. I am seeing improvement and not because there is no redness.

The spots are not inflamed. I can see where the skin on her chest and neck are drying out, flaking off like dead skin. So today I will be applying multiple doses throughout the day and night. I am going to give her a bath this afternoon to clean off the dead skin.

By this time of day I still had not taken that drive to somewhere I had spoke of early Saturday morning. I couldn't make up my mind where I wanted to go ... so I didn't go anywhere. I had the urge to enjoy the day outside and pick up the remaining tree limbs blown down by the last storm. The grass was dry enough to mow ... and with all the rain in the previous days ... the grass was really tall. I can tell the seeding I did last year has made a difference this spring ... more grass, less weeds in the front and back yards.

So where did the hounds and I go for a drive??? No further than the local Dairy Queen downtown for a large Hawaiian Blizzard ... a great treat after the workout of mowing up and down that hill in front.

After spending more time outside to enjoy the afternoon, cleaning up and having dinner, it was already past 7:30 pm. I got involved with two games on tv. I had the Reds/Cubs game on one channel and then at 8pm turned it on to the Chicago Blackhawks hockey game. For the next few hours I rotated back and forth between games during the period breaks in the hockey game.

The hounds snored through both games and not much was done afterwords. The yard mowing is a good workout. It always puts me to bed before midnight which is rare for me. The mower is only a push mower and since I like mowing the front in different directions each time, two out of three trips will be pushing that mower up that hill in front.

I can tell it's going to be another beautiful day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Some Saturday Morning Rambling

If you thought my blog was boring yesterday you will hate it today ... it feels worse. It's to the point that I decided to write one of my "rambling" posts that I do from time to time.

As you can tell from the blog appearance I was a little bored this morning and did a little redesign work. I was about to change to a totally different template and colors but after spending time looking at the different options and playing around with colors and different fonts on this template ... I deiced to make a minor change to the date color so it would show my different posts a little better. I also added a little gray to the sidebars so they would not run into the posting part of the blog ... separate them a little.

I like to write so that is one reason I write these "rambling" posts every once in a while and writing is another reason I have two other blogs that are set to the private setting. Some say even that is not safe so I had to ask myself when I decided to go that direction, "is there anything here that I would not want the public to see?" ... the answer is always no.

If you feel like reading on, I have some photos of Heidi's skin and my thoughts as we start Day 4 of the Wounded Warrior Ointment. I don't have any photos of the hounds except this one of Stella ... because we have not done anything outside and it's already 12:30pm as I write this.

So ... for those that want to cut this post short and not waste your time, I may have something more in depth tonight and with more photos. I do know I have the 'itch' to do something today that involves driving, I just don't know yet what that might be or where it will lead us.

As you can see Stella wasn't much more enthused about this morning as I was.

I noticed on our late evening walk we ended up taking last night after I posted it was not going to happen, Sadie was having some digestive problems. Nothing had changed in her food so it hopefully is just a 24 hour bug. Still at 3am I can't say that I was happy about getting up to take her outside.

My little LED camping flashlight wasn't strong enough to see her in the field but the sky was bright enough that I could barely catch her as a dark figure roaming the field. She has never requested to go outside at that time of morning except when she was a 12 week old puppy and we were house training.

I couldn't see if she was dumping tanks or just locked onto a scent ... she was trotting fast all over the field but she also does that at times when she is looking for her perfect spot to relieve herself. She must be okay today since she has been sleeping all morning. At least there have been no accidents in the house.

Consequently after waking up and getting up in the middle of the night I needed coffee and I needed it bad this morning when the hounds finally woke up. They let me sleep in until 8:30 am. I did wake up on my own when I THOUGHT I felt something crawling on me ... like one of those small ticks.

As you see in the upper left corner, our tick count continues to increase at a rapid rate. They seem to love Stella's ears, they don't like Sadie and Heidi isn't out enough to collect them. Most of mine if not all of mine are caught crawling before they attach themselves.

I emailed Stella's previous owner last night asking her what she used for tick prevention on her outdoor herding dogs that live on a Kentucky horse farm. What a better place to have a tick problem. She said she had great results with this collar, the Bayer Seresto Flea and Tick collar. She didn't see a tick on her dogs or Stella at all during the summer or about 6 months total time.

Remember that all my links I put in my posts are not affiliate links, only links that provide information. They are safe to click.

Somewhere during my coffee I decided I was going to get online and look for a game store locally where I could by the old board game Strat-O-Matic Baseball. I knew it had gone to an online game or a computer game ... but I want the board game. Actually while reading Greg's story about his puzzle last night ... that was when I started thinking about the board game.

I mean I can't sit all day at the kitchen table, while looking out the large window at the traffic passing by ... playing Mahjong all the time. I use to love playing that baseball game, keeping score and then writing out the stats for the Top 10 in different categories like the newspapers use to do.

So took most of my morning, looking online then calling a lot of game shops in central Indiana trying to find the board game that I could bring home today. After hours of doing that, wanting to drive somewhere in the back of my mind ... I'll have to buy the game online and have it shipped. In the meantime I'll give it a day or two to see if I really want to start playing that game again or try my hand at putting puzzles together.

Now on to Heidi. I've been taking photos at different times so I can see any differences in her skin as we use the Wounded Warrior Ointment. Yesterday around 2pm I had a scare when I looked at her stomach and noticed it was not a smooth texture but each little piece had it's own boundary.

Because of this plus it was a little more red than the photo shows ... I did not apply the ointment for the rest of the night.

 
This morning around 8:45 am when I looked at that same side of her stomach a lot of those, what I called "individual" pieces had moved back to a smoother texture although still evident. In the area on the far left, the skin was dried out and rough ... I took that as her skin is healing from the use of the ointment. I cannot explain what was going on yesterday in the first photo.

I wanted to wait until now to see what her skin looked like before applying any ointment today. We have had only 5 doses since it arrived on Wednesday afternoon in the mail.

There is another possibility ... most of the time she sleeps curled up on that side of her stomach. That skin is always hidden underneath her and not exposed to the air. The opposite side of her stomach is normal with a smooth texture. Did the confined ointment make her skin react that way? I don't know.

Sadie and Stella have passed their normal time for their lunch. No begging, no howling for food ... both sound to sleep. That proves today is not lined up correctly with the moon and stars. The whole day is out of whack.

I had other things on my mind to write about in my next "rambling" post and now I sit here trying to remember them. I hate it when that happens to my memory and it seems to be happening more and more.

I saw on one of the news sites that more and more consumers are moving back from smart phones to flip phones. I did that for the first time last November. So far so good but I do miss a couple of things from the iPhone ... the camera capability for those unexpected shots. Also the "note" program that helped me during the times my memory lapsed.

Still when I can see after a year I will have saved $444, I am still quite hesitant in going back to the new iPhone SE. Of course Verizon sent me an email yesterday telling me "you can buy the new iPhone SE at FULL retail price" ... 2 months before my upgrade month.

On one  of the pages I follow on Facebook, called Juicing for Life, it had an article about drinking water decreased your chances of a heart attack. I read on. After figuring out how much water I needed to drink every day to reap those benefits I realized they don't know how my bladder now operates ... LOL ... no way can I drink that much water every day.

How much do you need?  Take your weight and divide it by two. That number is the amount of ounces of water you need to drink every day. Take that number and divide my eight and see how many glasses that amounts to. Good luck!

I don't need two vehicles since I am barely driving either of them since being retired. Yet, I like having a different car to drive at times when I need a change. Is that a bad thing?

Well I need to get going. It's already past 1pm ... the hounds are eating ... I want to go somewhere but don't know where ... it feels cold today with the temps in the 50's. ... none of the hounds have ever lost their appetite.

It's a cold, damp, dreary day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.