But I need to backup a couple of weeks. The weekend before we left, Ruby's feet broke out with these strange sores. Much like the eyes on a potato, lumpy, protruding, and horrible. There were dozens of them, and they were bleeding. They didn't seem to bother her a lot that Saturday, but by Monday, the 5th, they weren't getting any better. I apologize for the ugly picture. But believe me, the pictures didn't do them justice. It being Fourth of July weekend, of course the vet was closed. But by Monday, I'd had my fill of cleaning blood out of carpet. I got an appointment with one of the two vets open in town. That vet (ironically named Dr. Burks whereas our regular vet is Dr. Burk) took a culture of one of the active sores and looked at it under a microscope. She couldn't find anything to indicate warts or bacteria so chalked it up to skin allergies. Of all things. The Rx was to add Benadryl twice a day and hope they cleared up. The concern being that in two days, she was to go to camp for a week. Fortunately the Benadryl worked (and made her blessedly sleepy) and she went to camp without issues.
I picked both dogs up from camp on Friday morning. Ruby was so excited to see me that she managed lunged forward, scraping my hand on something and removing all the skin from my middle finger. So that was a nice greeting. Her feet have cleared up, and when I forgot the Benadryl, there's a noticeable change in behavior. So Dr Burks was right. I hope once she gets out of the puppy phase, she'll be a little more resilient. But for now, Benadryl it is.
She's been very good all weekend, until about an hour ago. Allan had friends over and, being the nice Mom that I am, I made a batch of cookies. As they were cooling on the kitchen counter, I lost track of Miss Ruby for about 5 minutes. She and her short, chubby accomplice are now in their kennels in a seriously long timeout. And Allan and his friends are at ColdStone for dessert.
I can't even imagine what this is going to do to both of their stomachs tonight. Wish me luck.
All for now. Hoping to have regular updates for awhile.
