Hello one and all.
 
We had another scare this last weekend but I think all is well again.  We
took our 9 fuzzies and our dog in for their yearly check ups and shots on
Sat.  and all were exhausted over their ordeal as they usually are but we
cage them and let them sleep it off for at least half the day or until they
seem more alert and willing to play.  Buddy, our closterphobic (sp) one, who
had been kept in a box when he was a kit, gets real stressed out when
scruffed for ears and shots.  He is now over 5 yr.  of age and needs extra
recouperation time.  All he wanted to do was sleep.  That's fine but by noon
on Sunday we were concerned because he wasn't eating or drinking.  He seemed
alert but showed no desire to do a lot of moving around.  I started him
immediately on duck soup to eat and pedialyte and ensure to drink, and fed
them to him in his cage so he wouldn't have to get up.  He gladly took lots
of it.  This was weired but because of the circumstances we wanted to give
him his space and recouperate from his major ordeal.  By evening I was
really concerned, took him out of his cage and he couldn't walk and he
appeared to have a fever.  His hind end wouldn't work.  To make a long
story short, we took him to the vet on Mon.  and she put him on prednisone
to clear his fever and any inflammation that may be there plus get rid of
any pain that he may have been experiencing.  This is Thurs.  and he is
walking and the fever is gone.  He appears to be back to normal.  I now
have just one concern.  The little brat won't go back to eating regular
food and water.  He's decided that he likes is new diet.  I guess we'll
just have to spoil him a little while longer and hopefully ween (sp) him
back on to his regular diet.  He's worth spoiling though.
 
This brings something in mind that I think we need to all be reminded of.
Get your kids used to duck soup and the like while they are well.  This will
make it easier when they are sick.  As of even last year, Buddy hated this
stuff.  He was getting older and we knew there was no more pussy footing
around.  some day he was going to have to like this stuff and it may as well
be sooner than later.  We had been lucky up to this point.  I force fed it
to him a few days in a row last year because I knew that if he would only
taste it, he would learn to like it.  Sure enough, now he likes it and it
payed off because now that he needed it, he gladly ate it and he didn't have
to be stressed out even more because he hated the food.  Get your kids used
to it.  You never know when you are going to need to feed it to them.
 
Take care.
 
Tryntje Miller.
[Posted in FML issue 2301]