August 21, 2003

SICK AS A DOG

the dogs have been sick for 11 days now. on meds since monday. damned kennel cough.

i thought the worst part was when a dog comes up to your face -- you're thinking hmm dog kisses -- and she surprises you (disgusts you to the very center of your being) by sneezing directly in your face. from 6 inches away. oh god. now, understand. this hasn't happened to ME. this is me empathizing with bill. well sure i laughed. hard and long. i mean who wouldn't? but really, i'm only human. but i feel bad about it now. god, i hope he doesn't start sneezing and coughing.

the worst part, however, is the med-induced dog farts. and not just cuz the experience is shared. oh. my. god. when it first started happening, i thought bill was just pretending to search for a dog accident. you know. you're both sitting there trying to pretend you don't smell it. trying to be polite. oh yes, i CAN be considerate. but between the two dogs, the offensive olfactory experience is nearly CONSTANT. no man -- not even bill -- could produce that much gas.

and the dogs do not seem to be responding to the meds. well except for the the flatulence. it's so bad that i don't think we can have anybody over to the house until it's over. it's that bad.

and sheba has learned how to untie a pill tied up with bacon so she can spit out the pill and eat the bacon. it's now a contest of wills. bill will not give up. he's stopped with the bacon thing. [evidently matt has suffered some sort of permanent trauma from the time we slipped a tylenol in a piece of macaroni in his dinner -- he brings this up to us still. he has trust "issues."] now he just rolls around on the floor wrestling with her and shoves it like 6 inches down her throat. i think he's still mad about the sneeze.

update: the number of comments on this post (1) made me realize i needed to let you all know that the dogs seem to have "turned the corner" with the kennel cough. the sneezing and hacking have decreased tremendously. the flatulence seems to have stopped, too. i do not have any idea why. cuz they're still on the meds.

Posted by Stacey at August 21, 2003 09:01 AM
Comments

oooohhh...poor pups!

Posted by: Kathy Howe at August 21, 2003 09:17 AM

i was too quick saying the flatulence stopped. it has definitely decreased, however. definitely decreased.

Posted by: stacey at August 21, 2003 10:18 PM

I don't know if this helps, but my dog is such a pig we can easily get her to eat pills by having the bacon wrapped pill in one hand and another piece of bacon in the other hand. We give her the pill one while letting her see the other one. She swallows the pill one whole in an effort to get the next piece.

Like I said, she's a pig. :)

Posted by: Iki at August 21, 2003 10:31 PM

iki: great idea!

Posted by: stacey at August 22, 2003 11:09 AM

iki: ohmygod! that worked! way too easy! thanks!

Posted by: stacey at August 22, 2003 12:38 PM

This post made me chuckle - not that it is pleasant to have sneezing, farting dogs around but just the way you went about describing it.

Posted by: Michelle at August 24, 2003 03:35 PM