Enough Already!

 Ruby and I made yet another visit to the Animal ER at 12:30 on a Monday Night - no big deal the hospital is only a 60 min drive from my house - so we got home around 4:30 am.  This episode had nothing to do with her "soft pallet" issue from a month ago and was not a result of me picking the purchase of something similar to the photo below - instead of a "soft pallet" surgery - 

 Turns out Ruby Foo also has back/spine problems - they gave her a shot for pain and a series of steroids and muscle relaxers. She spent 10 days mostly resting in her kennel and being carried up and down the stairs to go outside.  She seems much better and I am hoping we have avoided back surgery for awhile...because I have so many other handbags on my wish list.

Medicated Version of Ruby Foo - Awesome!

And in other news.....

We made a return visit to the animal ER on Sunday morning when sweet Ruby Foo had another vomiting passing out, eyes rolling to the back of her head and foaming at the mouth episodes. She aspurated vomit into her lungs and was treated for phenomia. It was a super fun Sunday! She will need to have a surgery to remove part of the soft pallet in her mouth. During this visit they took an xray of her chest to look at her lungs and they noticed that 2 of the disks in her spine are fused together - so it looks like she will need back surgery down the road........she is really the million dollar dog. Good thing for her I like her so much.

Here is a short quiz -

True or false - it is snowing outside

Or could it be in that in the 5 short minutes I left Ruby Foo alone on the balcony has she chewed a hole into a down comforter?
Reminder she has been labeled an indisciminate chewer by the vets at the critical care hospital.

So far there are no signs that I need to rush her to the SLC critical care hospital for feathers in her lungs or stuck in her nose. My savings account is grateful for that.

Strutt Your Mutt 2011

I finally did it! After years of trying to get to this event I finally did it and it was so much fun.

Riley, Kaycie and I took Ruby Foo, Cocoa and Armani and met Kat and Ziggy in West Jordan and did some strutting. While I loved it and thought it was great Riley hated it......"are you having fun Riley? Not very much fun" which later turned to "no I am not having any fun" So despite Riley's lack of enjoyment I thnk Kaycie and I, will be joining Kat and I am hoping the dog groomers seen in the photo below at Strutt Your Mutt 2012.

know to be an indiscriminate eater.......

Last week Ruby Foo made a return visit to the critical care hospital in
SLC. She had been breathing weird all night and then the next morning
she started vomiting and shaking. The vomiting and shaking stopped
after a piece of a Williams Sonoma dish cloth came up. She passed out
on the bathroom
floor. I picked up her limp little body and shook her a bit then she
peed on me and snapped out of it.
I rushed her to the hospital in SLC and they diagnosed her as having
aspirated when she vomited causing pneumoina. She had a catheter with
antibiotics for the pneumonia. She also 2 barium tests
and radiographs to check her intestines for addional pieces of dish
cloth. I am happy to report that she is feeling better and sad to report that I will not be getting a new spring handbag. In her medical report under her history they wrote "Ruby Foo is know to be an indiscriminate eater" Here is a list of the what classifies Ruby Foo as an indiscriminate eater-
Fabric on my couch
Wooden legs on my bed
Magazines
2 Bedroom pillows and 3 large pillows -corners chewed off and feathers everywhere
Hard cover books/soft cover books
Christmas Tree lights
Shoes - tons and tons of shoes
Cardboard boxes
Dvd Cases -project runway seems to be a favorite.
The list could go on and on.

Sent from my iPhone

Guess Who Turned 1?

Sweet little Ruby Foo is one!

We had a fun little party at my parents house. I made dog blueberry cupcakes. I also tried to make a four layer cake from one of my favorite cookbooks........disaster! I am blaming the recipe not my inability to bake on the fact the the batter boiled over the edge of the pans, onto the bottom of my oven. So I ended up buying human party treats at target.

I am totally making the dog cupcakes again they looked awesome and were so easy
1 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup honey
1 egg
2 1/3 cups white flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 375
In mixing bowl combine milk, oil and honey. Add egg blend well. Combine flour and baking powder in a separate bowl and add to wet ingredients. Stir together throughly. Add vanilla and fold in blueberries. Fill muffin tins 2/3's full.
Bake to 20 to 25 minutes.

Frost with cream cheese.

Ruby Foo Update

It looks like Miss Ruby Foo is on the road to recovery. How can I
tell? Well as I was chasing her down the street at 4am in my pajamas I
thought she might be getting her energy back. She is getting stitches
and staples removed Friday night.

The Sick Little Puppy

Sunday afternoon I noticed Sweet Ruby Foo was having difficulty breathing.  I called her regular vet Monday morning and there were no appointments until 3 pm.  I ended up taking her to the vet my Dad takes his sheep and other big animals to.  We waited while the vet checked the teeth of a shetland pony and x-rayed a goat.  When he saw us there was a blood clotting test (over 6 minutes is a bad sign) for rat poison, x-rays, a diagnosis of a huge enlarged heart which would cause certain death and then lots of tears.  He sent us to a critical care hospital in SLC where they have a cardiologist who could provide a more exact diagnosis.  

At the critical care hospital there was more testing for rat poison, an oxygen tank, more tears, ultra sounds, the draining of lung fluid and finally surgery for Lung Lobe Torsion (twisted lung lobe) which included partial lung lobe removal and a chest tube. Once on the operating table this was changed to a surgery to repair a diaphragmatic hernia. Sometime in the last 48 hours a lobe of her liver had slipped through a hole in her diaphragm into her chest cavity.  So she spent the night in the ICU at the hospital with around the clock nursing supervision.  My parents went up to visit her in the hospital this afternoon....in the hospital visiting room of course...and she got to come home with them. 

She is now on lots of drugs, half of her hair has been shaved, she is wearing a fancy yellow body bandage and a Fentanyl patch.

2 bits of information -

1-The hospital we took her to was amazing! AVC Advanced Veterinary Care. They have specialists in Oncology, Critical Care, Surgery, Eye Care and Dermatology.  They are open 24 hours for emergency care also.  I hated being there but they were all so nice and helpful.

2- If you buy a French Bulldog buy dog insurance.  They are a genetic mess! I knew this when I bought Ruby Foo and I just never got around to insurance.  And the amount of money you spend for oxygen tanks and dog ICU is frightful. 

Our lesson in the lung formation of a dog.  They thought the top lung lobe on the left was twisted.

In the oxygen tank.

Resting at home loaded up on pain pills.

Doggy School Graduate

Ruby Foo graduated from puppy school last night.  I have discovered being a dog owner is hard work and expensive. 

Cons of Ruby Foo ownership- 

My house is always a mess-dog toys and shredded paper everywhere.

My carpet will need to be replaced enough said about that.

Chewed up leg on my Pottery Barn bed.

Chewed up antique suitcase.

Chewed the embellishments off of 2 pairs of shoes.

Feeling guilt when she is at home alone all day while I am at work.

Tons of money spent-vet bills to rid her of an unmentionable problem she had early on and tests and x-rays to discover she had a teeny tiny trachea which was causing her to choke and vomit whenever she drank water.  Then there is the growing collection of dog collars, treats and toys.

Pros of Ruby Foo ownership 

So far she is super sweet. 

She forces me to get up early in the AM and take her for a long walk and get to work on time.....well maybe not on time.

She is super snugly and sleeps with her head resting on my neck...I love it

Spending the last 8 weeks going to dog school with Jake and his dog Scout.