The best thing ever... thats how I think Teddy would refer to rawhide bones if he could talk.
When I gave him one last night I snapped some photos. I find it pretty amusing how he gets so into chewing and chewing and chewing on his rawhide bone, like he's in this zone and he is so focused. So thanks for sending these mom, and keep 'em coming!
When I gave him one last night I snapped some photos. I find it pretty amusing how he gets so into chewing and chewing and chewing on his rawhide bone, like he's in this zone and he is so focused. So thanks for sending these mom, and keep 'em coming!
I've had some intersting moments with Teddy lately.
He is about 10 months old now, and our cat is just a bit older. I really wanted to get them both neutered, and actually we chose to have boy animals so that we could get them fixed, its not real possible to have animals spayed here. I have the number of a vet who can come to the house to "castrate" animals. I also have a nurse friend who had her dog neutered here before, and she has access to and knows how to administer medicine to make animals sleepy for their surgery (because the vet doesn't give any medicine!) So I made an appointment and one fine Monday afternoon we were assembled to remove the reproductive capabilites of our pets - my dog and cat and my friend's cat.
We moved our table (yep the one we eat at) out to the screen porch. My friend gave a shot of ketamine to our kitty and very quickly he became very drowsy. We layed him on an old towel on the table, and I covered and held his head. The process that followed was a bit different from what happens during an animal surgery in the states (or any developed place I suppose.) The only tools the vet used were 1.a clamp (looks like a scissors but pinches instead of cuts) 2. a small razor blade (not surgical looking like a scapel, but like something I'd use to scrape paint off a window) and 3. a cotton ball with alcohol. I held kitty's sleepy head still and tried not to pass out from seeing blood, and it was all over in about 4 minutes. Notice that I didn't mention a needle and thread of any kind in my list of tools the vet used. He didn't even stitch it up.
Before it was the dog's turn, the vet said that it wasn't necessary to give him the sleepy medicine, that he usually does the neutering with no medicine, and we could just muzzle him. I said "yes, it is necessary." The price we paid the vet was $4 each for the cat and dog, and it cost another $2 each for the sleepy medicine. I think $6 each for animal surgery is a price that can't be beat (even if it was pretty low-tech!)
After it was all done with, my animals just slept and layed around for the rest of the day. But the next day they were almost back to normal. Now its been a couple weeks and they are both healed.
Some days after the surgery I took Teddy for a walk in our neighborhood and 3 mean dogs didn't like that we were in their territory or something and they surrounded us growling and barking and one of them bit Teddy! Eventually they backed off and we got away, and I looked at Teddy's back where he had been bit and there was no blood. But two days after that a spot on his back started to swell, and it hurt if I touched it, and then I noticed a couple of scabs, so I had to treat Teddy with antibiotics. I just walked to a pharmacy and asked for amoxicillin and bought enough for a week's treatment for $1.50.
Another thing is that I guess there are a lot of ticks around our yard because I am picking them off my dog every day. I haven't had any on me, and the cat never has any on him. But every day I find plenty on Teddy. JP went to a vet store and got some chemical that is supposed to be used to dip cattle or goats, and I tried mixing it up and spraying it on Teddy to see if it would repel ticks. Teddy didn't like being wet and decided to help by licking his coat. The rest of that day he just layed down and refused to eat. I was fairly worried that he would die and it would be all my fault and people would ask how he died and I'd have to say "I sprayed cattle dip on him and he licked it." But the next day he was fine again.
I have some K9Advantix on its way in the mail from the states - I hope it gets here soon!
We moved our table (yep the one we eat at) out to the screen porch. My friend gave a shot of ketamine to our kitty and very quickly he became very drowsy. We layed him on an old towel on the table, and I covered and held his head. The process that followed was a bit different from what happens during an animal surgery in the states (or any developed place I suppose.) The only tools the vet used were 1.a clamp (looks like a scissors but pinches instead of cuts) 2. a small razor blade (not surgical looking like a scapel, but like something I'd use to scrape paint off a window) and 3. a cotton ball with alcohol. I held kitty's sleepy head still and tried not to pass out from seeing blood, and it was all over in about 4 minutes. Notice that I didn't mention a needle and thread of any kind in my list of tools the vet used. He didn't even stitch it up.
Before it was the dog's turn, the vet said that it wasn't necessary to give him the sleepy medicine, that he usually does the neutering with no medicine, and we could just muzzle him. I said "yes, it is necessary." The price we paid the vet was $4 each for the cat and dog, and it cost another $2 each for the sleepy medicine. I think $6 each for animal surgery is a price that can't be beat (even if it was pretty low-tech!)
After it was all done with, my animals just slept and layed around for the rest of the day. But the next day they were almost back to normal. Now its been a couple weeks and they are both healed.
Some days after the surgery I took Teddy for a walk in our neighborhood and 3 mean dogs didn't like that we were in their territory or something and they surrounded us growling and barking and one of them bit Teddy! Eventually they backed off and we got away, and I looked at Teddy's back where he had been bit and there was no blood. But two days after that a spot on his back started to swell, and it hurt if I touched it, and then I noticed a couple of scabs, so I had to treat Teddy with antibiotics. I just walked to a pharmacy and asked for amoxicillin and bought enough for a week's treatment for $1.50.
Another thing is that I guess there are a lot of ticks around our yard because I am picking them off my dog every day. I haven't had any on me, and the cat never has any on him. But every day I find plenty on Teddy. JP went to a vet store and got some chemical that is supposed to be used to dip cattle or goats, and I tried mixing it up and spraying it on Teddy to see if it would repel ticks. Teddy didn't like being wet and decided to help by licking his coat. The rest of that day he just layed down and refused to eat. I was fairly worried that he would die and it would be all my fault and people would ask how he died and I'd have to say "I sprayed cattle dip on him and he licked it." But the next day he was fine again.
I have some K9Advantix on its way in the mail from the states - I hope it gets here soon!
