Bailey and Friends

Yikes, Susan :(

Coming from a tick invested country I know what a nuissance they can be and all the preventative work you have to put in it to try and avoid those nasty tick born diseases.

A red circle that will rapidly grow in a few days is a sure sign you are bitten by a tick! We learn all that already at school since we have so many ticks here. Also, when out in nature (doesn't mean just woods and so but also gardens, a lawn that wasn't mown for a while, bushes, etc we will always wear socks and long trousers and put some DEET on them, at least 30%. I will always treat Yunah's harness with garlic oil and DEET as well apart from the fact she also gets the spot on tick and flea treatment as well.

And be aware, if you don't recover as fast as you should, many ticks carry more then one disease so you might be infected with more then one disease.

Oh, and whenever you noticed you are bitten by a tick? Write it down. Symptoms may occur many weeks later and you could easily forget about that tick bite :)

Hope you feel better soon!

Sas and Yunah :)

Hi Sas-
Thanks for your empathy.
I first noticed circles on 3/2. It was not one getting bigger. They were all mostly the size of a quarter and there had to be several dozen....I didn't have anything in the morning. When I went to change clothes there they all were.
It's 4:30AM here and I just got up to take a Nausea pill, a sleeping pill and my temperature.......seeming to hang pretty consistently at 101.7. I've not been able to fall asleep. I should be able to get asleep in another hour or so.
I visit my IM doc on Monday and should have a better picture of what's going on after that. I'm quite concerned that I am having such labored breathing if I move around.
I never did see a tick-or I would have reacted back in early March.
Thanks for writing.

-Susan

I sure hope your fever goes down soon and you start feeling better, Susan. I'm going to go read your link so I understand the disease.

When I took Zoe to the groomers yesterday they had a big sign up about finding ticks on dogs coming in for a groom and to make sure to treat for ticks. It has been so cold and wet here, I haven't even been thinking about ticks. It feels like winter and the leaves are first starting to come out on the trees. We have frost warnings again tonight.:mad::mad::mad: I'm still wearing a winter coat:eek:

Brain fog might be good to have for awhile, no worries then;)

Oh honey, feel better soon. I'll check in on you again later today.

Love,
Addy

Hi Addy-
"Brain fog" - I like that!
Thanks for your last line especially.
Tonight Bob said "This (Bailey) is the biggest mistake we've ever made. I have had it."
Now-we have had a rough, rough day.After 4:30 and going back to bed and still not sleeping, I got back up and was coming back upstairs. Wooden staircase in an upside down l shape. Straight up, landing to your left, 6 or so stairs straight up after that. Well on the top section, with a large cup of water in my hand, I started to feel myself loosing balance. I've had periodic trouble with my equilibrium-since this started. Well-not one had was free, I have all this water in the cup and if I ever sense I am going down I try my best to protect my titanium knees. I have a 4" square gauze pad covering the middle of my back....I think I did get myself turned around. (I did share that I fell out of bed one night last week,l maybe 5 days ago and have a huge bruise on my left knee. I fell into the crate on the way down.
On top of that, all Bailey has wanted to do today is bite. Saying "No!" is not working at the moment. We have passed her back and forth about two dozen times just to get through the day.
Bob wanted me to go back to the hospital today, but I'd rather wait until tomorrow.....if my doc says it's necessary. All of tis has frightened him pretty much. He got enough upset talking abut it today that he was crying. This is a pretty serious disease......and I realized I get tremors in my hands not infrequently. I plan to get one of those loose muzzles in the AM if only for us for a short while.
We go back to see the my doc in the AM as soon as we can get as appointment,
I'm sorry your weather still calls-for winter coats.

Night sweetie. I love you.

Oh Sus, Bob is worried and overwhelmed, he doesn't really mean it about Bailey. What would happen if when she starts biting you just walk away or put her down on the floor and ignore her her five minutes? Just a thought. Don't say no, don't say anything, just ignore her bad behavior.

Perhaps Bob is right and you need to go back to the hospital, if anything just to touch base with your doctor. From what I read on your link, it does sound that it can be serious so why take any chances?

Sending lots of love and prayers for all of you. I'll check back on my lunch hour.

Hope you got a bit of sleep. Not sleeping is hard.

Love,
Addy

Hi Addy-
I actually slept the best and the longest last night....longer than anything recent.
If you ignore Bailey she keeps bouncing away from you and toward you. On the toward part she nips. If I walk away, she's nipping at my pant leg.
The nips are getting more sharp.
If we need to take her outside to go, she won't let you catch her. It's the bouncy thing again. The only way I get it to work is to ignore it and eventually she will stop bouncing back either so far or so fast and I can grab her collar and attach the leash.
We are off now to go see doc. Temp still the same. Monster headache.
After doc-if I'm not sent to the hospital, we're going to pick up a nuzzle. After fighting to attach that, I will call obedience training.
She's lucky she is so cute.
-Susan

Oh Susan,

You sure have a lot going on--stress level high. I hope you on the road to recovery, but if it takes being in the hospital then do it--better safe than sorry as we all say. :o

I want to let you know that Maddie was a holy terror as a puppy and she turned out to be the best amazing dog in less than 2 years--haha. Remember Bailey is a smaller dog so the time to settle down is less than it was for Maddie (Sas said this). Maddie was a bitter and jumper. What really helped was training and giving her a job (running with my husband on the bike). She mainly only jumped on & bit me -- I am the one who fed and took care of her; so go figure... It will get better--just exhaust her then train--haha!!

Get Better!!! ((HUGS))

Oh Susan,

I am so sorry to hear you are still not doing well at all. Fortunately you finally had a better night, that's a start :)

Bailey is probably too cute for her own good ;) But cute dogs should not get away with things like all others dog shouldn't either. Good for you that you are going to start obedience training with her <thumbs up>

My friend, who also has a puppy, the Welsh Springer, was complaining he was biting her all the time as well. None of the usual tips and tricks worked (ignoring, walking away, etc...) But also, that pup would not mess with her adult female dog. When she brought the pup home and he was trying to mess with the adult dog, that dog gave him a good piece of her mind :D And of course, the pup now knows better as to missbehave around her. She has another adult dog and that dog is less "firm" and the result is that the pup still tries to bite and roughplay with that dog. And ofcourse, with my friend, the pup is being even worse. And eventhough some may not agree with me, it is so obvious. The oldest dog, showed the pup what she tolereated and what not, in dogstyle. That is the message the pup understood and so that's the dog he leaves alone. Yet, it's also the dog he sleeps with and curls up with. The dog that behaved the "toughest" toward him him, is the one he respects and wants to befriend. As young as he is, he knows that's the dog to be friends with, the "topdog" :D So I told my friend, next time he was biting her to grab him in his neck and hold his scruff untill he relaxed and stopped fighting her. She had to do this 3 times and it was over and done with. He now no longer bites her, no longer "bumps" into her, no longer avoids her...instead, he's more loving and affectionate then ever before, he WANTS to be in her good grace. His behaviour changed from "I do what I want and I don't care what you do or say" to "I admire and respect you and I want to do whatever I can to please you so we become best friends" In fact, the same behaviour he showed toward the oldest dog which he respected from the start. And eversince she was "firm" with him, he learns two new commands every day...:) I really do not believe you harm a dog by grabbing him in the scruff...if needed. I actually think you harm a dog more when you let the behaviour get out of control. And from the interactions between the puppy and the older dogs, one can see that thats how dogs do it amongst themselves. There are dogs that will never need to be grabbed in the scruff...but then again, some will need it. It's not something one should do with every dog and under all circumstances, but there are situations where it's needed, in my opinion. (unfortunately, it's usually needed because the owners weren't "firm" from the start and the dog could get out of control...so basically, the owners should be the ones held by the scruff :p) Especially the smaller (and cuter) breeds can grow up to become real terrors. They will often be carried around constantly, held and cuddled and for some reason, basic rules of proper, polite dog behaviour often don't seem to apply to small dogs :) If you have a Great Pyrenese puppy that's nipping you when you walk away, I bet most owners won't tolerate it, not even when the pup is just 2 or 3 months old...because they are big puppies and the owners are (usually) very aware that this puppy will be a huge nipping machine in just a few months. So, very generally speaking, larger breed puppies are often better trained and raised then the small toy breeds :) I can't stress enough that people should not "baby" a new dog. (talking strictly about "normal" dogs, not traumatised rescues and such) Start strict and depending on the dogs character you can loosen the rules down the road. I know and understand it's all done out of love but if you have small children and I expect you love those too, you have to be strict with them as well at times otherwise they do not devellop in healthy independant adults. There comes a day where you have to bring them to school for example and they may cry their eyes out, pleading with you not to leave them there. But you do...because you know it's for the best. It would be silly to keep them home for the rest of their lives....even when your motivation would be that you love your child so much and don't want it to feel sad or upset. You teach your child to dress himself, you wouldn't want to be still dressing your child when it was 30, right?

So love...is more then holding, cuddling, sleeping with you in the bed, etc...love is also teaching them, learning them to become independant and self assured dogs that know what's expected of them, that know how to behave in a world they are part of. That makes for happy owners but above all, it makes for happy dogs :) And that's the goal, raising happy dogs that are not frustrated or fearfull, dogs that know how to act socially so they can interact with other dogs (something I feel every dog deserves)

And eventhough dogs are not little people, that's what they share. We, as parents, both of children and dogs, are the ones responsable that both can grow up in the best possible way for their respective species, of course :D
The fun thing is, that it's basically the same, we want both to have respect, to be independant and selfassured and for for kids to enjoy "kids" things like playing baseball and for dogs to enjoy dog things like playing fetch.

But first, get better and I really hope you will feel better soon, Susan :)

Sas and Yunah :)

Hi Again Susan,

I totally agree with Sas, we had to grab Maddie's gruff and hold her until she calmed down. The teaching like you would your child played a big part also. I think some of it is common sense in the end. We treated Maddie like a dog and she earned her independence like a child (of course we didn't treat the daughter like a dog :D). It was the exercise, disipline, affection program that worked. This is what we will be doing when our new furball comes home soon, but I am a little scared myself to go through this stage again, but they are soooo cute...:D:D

Get better!!! I hope you have good news when you get home from the doctor's or you are in the hospital to be closely watched. :o

Hoping you have turned a corner and have good news from the doctor.

Love,
Addy