Tuesday, August 26, 2008

The Incredible Honking Dog

So there we were going to bed last Wednesday night. We had lovingly lured little Penny Lane into her crate with a puppy treat, and she complied with minimal crying. We went to bed. She'd been waking us up every night around the middle of the night crying to go outside. That was cool--she's a puppy so we were dealing with it. It comes with the territory, or so we've been told.

All of a sudden, about the time I drifted off to sleep, I heard a "HONK, HONK, HONK" noise from the crate, like the sound a goose makes. Then it got quiet again. We decided maybe she was coughing.

About 45 minutes later (and about every 5 minutes after that for the REST OF THE NIGHT, or so it seemed) I kept hearing the honking. "HONK, HONK, HONK!"

We got up about midnight with her because it sounded so horrible (and we had had enough.) I googled "kennel cough symptoms" since our vet had mentioned that she might get it (apparently pretty common in pound puppies), and sure enough, HONKING was mentioned as a symptom. So after we decided that the all-night emergency vet clinic might be a little drastic for our dog's sore throat, we gave her a drink of water and put her back to bed.

Immediately the next morning I made Penny Lane an appointment to see the vet that afternoon. I could not take another night of interrupted sleep on top of the fact that she sounded quite pitiful.

All that to say: our dog has been to the doc more times in the past 2 weeks than I have been in all of 2008 so far, and she is currently on an antibiotic and a cough suppressant. Yes. I have a dog that is taking a cough suppressant.

High maintenance, perhaps?

That would be my dog.

5 comments:

  1. We feel your pain. Our dog, Annie, came from the pound.

    Within the first few months she had:
    -kennel cough
    -mange
    -female issues requiring a diaper before we could get her fixed

    But after all that, we'd do it over again in a heartbeat.

    Pound puppies are priceless

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  2. Well, you know Toni and Kyle can no longer have scented candles in their house b/c their dog is allergic to them. And they give it allergy medicine all the time! So, just one cough suppressiant isn't too bad is it? ha ha! LOL Hopefully Penny will be back to sleeping through the night in no time!!

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  3. I understand! We also have a high maintenance dog (Vega is allergic to chicken). The best decision we have ever made (as puppy parents) was to get Vega on the Banfield (the PetSmart vet) puppy plan. For a monthly (or annual) fee it covers all her shots, doctor visits, etc - it's basically like health insurance for the dog. We have used it at least once or twice each year for emergency visits and it has more than paid for its self! Oh how we love our pets! I still can't wait to meet Miss Penny!

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  4. We did the Kitty Wellness plan with Banfield (at PetSmart), too. It covered all the first shots and even getting all 3 cats fixed! We also got a discount on getting them declawed (not that you really need that info. It is defnitely worth it! :)

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  5. Yes, that's quite common. Our 'free' dog that was dumped in the ditch and rescued by Doug, has been more expensive than our registered pedigreed dogs. But those are the dogs that are so appreciative and loving, so it's worth it!

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