Dogs with Flu, Cats and Ferrets, too!

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Yes, dogs get the flu!  By now you've probably heard or read the reports of pets getting H1N1 (the first one I saw was around Christmas).  It seems that they are catching it from their owners.  And, it's not just dogs.  Cats and ferrets have gotten H1N1, as well.
From what I've seen, there needs to be some educational efforts made about this danger.  We're being inundated with instructions on how to wash our hands and other common sense disease-prevention practices, but the information we really need is not being spread around.  When you wake up feeling crummy, how do you tell whether it's even serious enough to see a physician in the first place?  If you find out you actually have the flu, do you know how to protect your dog from it?  What symptoms should you watch for?

And that's not all.  I think most pet owners are familiar with the idea of zoonotic diseases-- that is, diseases humans can get from their pets.  Vets certainly have enough pamphlets on this in their offices.  But we don't think about the possibilities of infecting our pets, who just love to lick our hands whenever possible.  We also don't stay current with animal versions of everyday human illnesses, such as influenza that they can get that is not the same as any flu that hits humans.  To make a good start, I think that every pet owner should visit the Center for Disease Control's website on canine influenza, especially people whose pets are often in contact with other animals (my brother-in-law belongs to a group that meets regularly at our local dog park, for example, and it's a busy place).  There is a vaccine for canine influenza (this is the H3N8 strain).

When you have a pet with a chronic illness (a dog with diabetes, perhaps?), even mild infections can become serious in a hurry.  The best advice I was ever given came very soon after Tony was diagnosed with diabetes.  Oddly enough, it came from one of my students, who had a part-time job at an animal clinic.  She told me that after she had gotten a puppy, she picked the brains of everyone at the clinic on every topic that occurred to her.  One of the senior vet techs told her that she should set aside a little time each week to give the dog a little massage and "examination" to have a way to tell if something had changed.  From that point on, I did that, and caught several problems early on.  Of course I totally missed a few serious problems that either came on suddenly or were not really visible.

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A miscellany for a cloudy day

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First of all, considering the situation in Haiti, I can't urge you strongly enough to go to thehungersite.com and click on the "click to give" box, and then do the same at The Animal Rescue Site (use the tab at the top of the Hunger Site page, or click on the icon to the right of this page).  Your clicks produce funds for both causes -- the advertisers' money goes directly to help.  It's free, but if you can afford to make a donation you'll find all the information you need to do so.

When I was looking for information to help Tony fight his cancer, I missed a terrific resource, and I'm sort of appalled at myself, since it's part of Dogtime.  Go to http://dogtime.com/canine-cancer.html for a wealth of information on all kinds of canine cancer.  They also have articles on canine diabetes.

Yesterday was my first day back to work after the semester break, and I was very surprised when a colleague asked me if I had gotten a new dog yet.  In fact, I think my jaw dropped for a moment.  I've already decided that I want to wait until I'm in a better financial position.  It's going to take a while to recover from the costs of Tony's last year. 

Speaking of which, every time my four-year-old niece has visited since Tony died she has asked where he is.  Each time this has happened, I've explained things to her.  However, she was over the day before yesterday, and I finally realized what was going on.  This time she asked in front of her father, who asked her, "Where do you think he is, Caroline?"  She thought for a moment, then she said that Tony was with Bogie and Grandpa, meaning that he was in heaven.  Alex said, "that's right."  She seemed satisfied; what she was trying to do, I guess, was to get confirmation of this idea.  We'll see if she asks again next time she's over.

More about Dorgis

This is a Dorgi, and based on what I've just seen, they are cuter -- and probably healthier -- than either Corgis or Dachshunds.  The picture (used by permission) comes from Dorgi Central, a website devoted to this mixed breed.  There are some truly adorable photos there, plus info about the hybrid.  Brittney, the site owner, tells me that she is working on an overhaul of the site, so I'll be checking back on it in a few weeks.

Her Majesty, Condolences, and Dorgis(?)

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A few days after Tony died, I received a lovely card from Dr. Kroll.  It brought a few tears to my eyes, but then almost anything did.  I'm past that stage now, but I am still being reminded of him constantly.  In fact, this morning when I checked AOL, they had an item about a 93-year-old man, Stan Lee (no, not the Marvel Comics guy) whose 13-year-old Japanese Chin died of shock after falling off a bed.  I'm all sympathy in this case, not just because of Tony dying so recently, but rather because I know that if that had happened to me, I'd be wallowing in guilt over it.  However, what made the case AOL-worthy was not Lee's age; it was a condolence letter he received, from the queen (although it was penned by a lady in waiting -- it's good to be the queen). 

The Daily Mail reported (the story is at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1239244/Queen-offers-written-condolence-pensioner-death-13-year-old-pet-dog.html#ixzz0bDNONFP9) that Lee has been in the habit of writing the queen to ask after her Corgis from time to time, which is something I would not have imagined.  And I find that I am charmed by this story.  I'm not terribly interested in the Royals, as a rule (people I meet are often surprised by this when it comes up in conversation, since I am a Brit lit scholar), but I am fascinated, in an anthropological sense, by the functions they serve in their culture.  I wouldn't have guessed that people write to them about mundane things, but I can see how they might, now that I've thought about it.  The queen's well-known fondness for her dogs humanizes her, making her more approachable and less of an icon.  There is a UK government website about the royal dogs at http://www.royal.gov.uk/TheRoyalHousehold/RoyalAnimals/Familypets.aspx

I was also surprised to learn that she has bred her corgis to dachshunds, resulting in "Dorgis." I tried to find a photo, but no luck.  However, I did learn that my assumption that she would rely on staff to care for the dogs is not quite accurate.  According to the website, "At present, The Queen owns four Corgis: Linnet, Monty, Willow and Holly and four Dorgis: Cider, Berry, Candy and Vulcan.The Queen’s corgis travel with her to the various residences, with Her Majesty looking after them herself as much as possible given her busy schedule."  I find myself consumed by curiosity about the dorgis, and I'll report on them later.

 If you're interested, there is a YouTube video of the Queen and her dogs available at http://lisawallerrogers.wordpress.com/2009/04/07/queen-elizabeths-corgis-and-dorgis/

No Miracle for Tony

I wrote most of the following on December 10, 2009, but I haven’t posted it until now because I was trying to come up with something that would cover all that I was feeling. I’m not sure that’s possible now, after trying again and again to do it.  Grief is not just an emotion; it's a process.



I’m sorry to report that Tony died on Wednesday, December 2. I haven’t been able to write about it until now, but I’m hoping that doing so will help me sort out how I feel. Despite everything that was going on with him, it was sudden, almost unexpected. On Tuesday, I took him to the vet for the follow up on his abscess. He had refused his breakfast, but other than that, he seemed perfectly normal. Dr. Kroll was amazed by how well the abscess had healed, which I was pleased to hear. I had them trim his nails, and I picked up a fresh bottle of insulin. When we got home, he still didn’t want to eat, but he took his usual late afternoon nap, waking briefly to bark with the other dogs every time one of them heard something outside.

He didn’t want his dinner, but he’d done that before from time to time, so I wasn’t too worried. When we went to bed, I couldn’t sleep until I heard his tags clink against his water bowl as he drank. He got me up about an hour later. I took him out, he did what he had to do, and then we came in. But he didn’t want to go back to bed. He went up his steps to his favorite spot on a loveseat. I sat next to him and rubbed his back. After about half an hour of that, he was willing for me to carry him back to the bedroom. I remember being surprised at how light he felt. Before he developed diabetes, he had weighed as much as 15 pounds (my brother Alex was prone to call him “Pomzilla” at the time), and he had lost 5 pounds before he went on insulin. His weight stabilized at 10.5 pounds for over two years, but he had been losing weight steadily since his bladder infection developed. He was down to 8 pounds.



The big change came in the morning. I got up to get ready for my 8AM class, but he didn’t follow me out of the room as he usually did. At 7:15, I took him outside, carrying him to the edge of the patio, since he seemed kind of out of it. Instead of taking a couple of steps off the patio and whizzing, however, he walked a few steps out and made a sharp left turn. He just kept walking, and he was headed toward the pool. The pool is covered, but it hadn’t been drained down for the winter yet, so the water was almost to the top. I went around on the concrete toward the pool, but I’ve been having a truly horrendous year arthritis-wise, and I couldn’t move very fast. I heard a splash just as I rounded a bush. Tony had walked right onto the pool cover, and the water was up to his knees. He was just standing there when I reached him. I managed to grab his collar and pulled him toward me enough to be able to pick him up. He was not reacting to anything; his eyes were open, but he just didn’t seem aware. I took him in and dried him off, setting him on the floor in the den. He lay down and appeared to go to sleep. By this time, I was pretty worried, but my mother assured me that she could watch him for the hour or so that I would be gone.



I have never prepped a class for their final exam as quickly as I did that morning, but as I was driving back home, I found myself slowing down a couple of times. I was dreading what I was going to find there. Tony had never acted that way before, not even close to that. As I came through the door (no Tony barking to greet me), my mother told me that he hadn’t moved but had vomited a bit. I checked and found only a small spot, about the size of a quarter, on the carpet. I went to call the vet.


We’ve been going to the Animal Medical Clinic of St. Charles for so long that everyone there knows Tony. When I identified myself to Nada, the receptionist, she immediately asked about Tony. I said the first thing that came to mind: “I think he’s dying.” She told me to bring him right in, they’d be waiting for me. And they were. I had had to cram Tony into his travel kennel (this normally involves a lot of activity on his part, but this time he just let me put him in), and one of the techs took it from me as soon as I got there. They left me in an examining room for a couple of minutes while they looked at him in the back area. Dr. Kroll came in from the back, and I knew from the look on her face that this was it.




In the weeks since this happened, I’ve been thinking about how different it is when a beloved pet dies as opposed to a human being. It seems that only people who have had pets accept that this is a significant loss, which is difficult to deal with, for me, at least. I just lost my best friend.