Puppy fix

OK all, the girls and I are headed out to a 3 day agility trial this afternoon so here is your weekend puppy fix!

 And one of Summer because she's so cute!

Available for Adoption!

This cutie pie is Lilly.  She's a new MOKAN rescue dog pulled from the Springfield animal control and she is adorable.  She's super sweet but very energetic and fast!  We've only had her a few hours but has pottied outside and not in her crate, ate well and so far we've had no screaming fits!  She is about 3-4 months old and has just enough brown on her to be a tri.

In other news, I actually got in some training tonight before dark and both girls did surprisingly well after their little vacation.  I was especially pleased with how well Legend listened, even more so when you take into account her over the top energy level tonight.  

Still here!

I know it's been a little while but I really am still here. I just haven't had a very exciting week. I worked every day and did no training. Not very interesting right?

I did go to a craft fair today and got this great little blanket-it matches our couch and the back is fleece so it's nice and cuddly as well as decorative. The photo doesn't do all the fabric justice but you get the idea.



I should have more training updates this week as we prepare for A LOT of upcoming trials.

And just for fun here is a funny pic of Zodiac.

Staycation Part 2

I have to say, with four kids and 6 dogs in the house, things actually went pretty smoothly!  I can also say with that many people you go through a lot of dishes and towels!  The kids all had fun-they got to go to Silver Dollar City (my second trip this week, Jerry had to work) do lots of Go-carts, later tag and other fun stuff and also to a show.  We skipped the show because it's the same one we went to with Kelly.  They left this morning leaving us with just extra dogs and a lot of grass to mow.  As you can see here the dog are all making themselves at home.

Here is Jeff using one of the extra beds before Jackie and the kids arrived

Lyric snuggling up to Lexie

Xena is allowed on the couch at home and we have had a hard time convincing her not to do that here!

Lyric posing with the the littler kids

And another picture of Lyric just because she's so cute!

And if anyone is interested in an Icy update she's doing great.  I'm super impressed with the new food.  In just 3-4 days she was back to normal-nice big clumps in the litter box.  I'd like to know how much is related to the actual formula of the food versus just being canned and therefore having more water.  

Staycation

I'm on vacation this week, but staying home.  Sunday, my best friend flew in from New Hampshire to visit for a few days.  We had a great time-visited a local civil war battlield, went through a cave, hit the casino, shopping, a Branson show and Silver Dollar City, plus plenty of frozen custard (you can't get that in other parts of the country).  Today I started the second round of vacations.  I'm watching three of my friend's dogs while she's on vacation and soon my sister will be here with my cousin's four kids.  So should be pretty crazy here!

Meet Jimmy Dean

The other reason we went to Columbia last weekend was to look at a pig.  The breeder we got our pigs from had recently had a 3 year old pig returned to her due to financial reasons.  This particular pig's mother is a half sister to Touchdown, the pig we still have.  So Jerry decided we should take a look at him and see if he might make a good companion for Touchdown.  He seemed like a really nice, social pig so we decided to give it a shot.  So far he is settling in nicely but Touchdown is not so sure she's ready for a new companion just yet.  Here he is enjoying the apple tree and the yard.

I love this action shot of the apple!

And here he seems to be making himself at home

He came with the name Jimmy Dean, but we are thinking about calling him JD for short. 

For family comparison here are some photos of Touchdown

Summer is doing great.  She's very active, not afraid of anything and has been the easiest bunny to litter train ever!  And Icy seems to like her new food quite well, but her Amoxicillin not so much. 

Problem Child

If you have been reading this blog awhile you know poor Icy has been through more trauma and more surgery in her short life than most experience in a lifetime.  So, naturally it was time for her to develop a new problem. 

Over the summer I noticed when I scooped the litter box there was lots of small urine clumps instead of a few regular sized clumps.  Since I was not home much I sort of hoped this would just go away on it's own. Of course it did not. 

So I finally hauled Icy into work to try and get a urine sample.  The first attempt was a no go.  Not enough urine to get a sample.  I did take an X-ray and no bladder stones present.  Tried again a few days later.  She sat in her carrier all morning and did not produce enough urine to get a sample.  To make sure the day was not wasted I did bloodwork-normal, and went ahead and cleaned her teeth (not related to her urinary issue).  Then I let her sit in a cage the rest of the day with a pan of non-absorbent litter.  No pee.  So we went home and I shut her in the bathroom with the special litter box.  Finally, right before bed we got a sample.  I took it to work the next day and ran a routine urinalysis.  The urine was super concentrated, had an elevated pH, high protein levels and lots and lots of struvite crystals.  They look like this under the microscope.

So now we have an explanation-the high pH, crystals, and concentration all make the bladder feel very inflamed-like an infection would feel. The solution is

This food will balance her pH to dissolve the current crystals and prevent new ones.  It also has some altered mineral content to help reduce the possibility of recurrence and has some extra fatty acids to help reduce inflammation.  Feeding it in a canned form, although more inconvenient, allows for additional water intake which further dilutes the urine to help eliminate crystals and make the urine less irritating to the inflamed bladder.

Although I did not see evidence of bacteria I am going to treat her with antibiotics anyway to be on the safe side.  She should feel much better soon, although she never really acted like she felt bad in the first place.  But the clues were in the litter box!

Go Tigers

I had to buy Kennedy this outfit because it's the cutest thing ever. And because we need to get her started out right. It's never too soon to be a Tiger!






Isn't she super adorable? Cutest little MU fan ever!

Summer time

While browsing Petfinder (dangerous, I know)  I happened to notice that the Columbia Humane Society had a Flemish Giant rabbit listed on their site.  Since we were going to Columbia this weekend anyway (that's another post) we decided to check it out.  I'm thinking she's actually a Flemish mix, because even though she may have some more growing to do, she's not nearly as big as Spring.  But she's super cute, friendly, curious, and probably tired of living in a small cage at the humane society, so we packed her up and took her home. 

We are calling her "Summer" because 1) "Fluffers" was a truly terrible name, and 2) everyone knows Summer comes after Spring.  Now to get her litter trained...

Pictures, and lots of them

Here are the pictures from Canine Country.  The cute little BC you won't recognize is SoBe, Trip's sister.