Usually there are fun things on Fridays, but we’ve had life stuff. I try to keep most of our problems away from the blog, and I will preface this by saying that we hope the worst is over and there is improvement, so you don’t get preemptively stressed out.
Update: Mona is home. She is back to her happy self.
Mona, Kid 1’s dog, ended up in vet ER two nights ago with severe digestive issues. I will spare you the details. She is on the mend now, and we are waiting to see if the vet may keep her overnight or if she can come home. We will know more at 5:00 pm today.
Whatever caused this happened at our house, while Kid 1 was visiting. Our house is dog proof and we are very selective about the treats. There is never any rawhide, etc. Regardless of the cause, it happened on our watch, so Gordon and I have been basically nonfunctional for the last two days. We just lost the other dog, so none of us are emotionally okay. Because Mona had to be taken to the Austin vet ER – the only one open at 3 am – the updates were very infrequent. They are always slammed with emergency cases. Nobody slept, all appointments were missed, and we are all exhausted. Yesterday was one of those days when you just wait for it to be over.
So. We’re going to regroup, and we will see you on Monday. We wish you the best weekend.
PS. I’m leaving the comments open, because otherwise people will email directly, but my replies maybe delayed.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Thank you so much for nonetheless taking the time to keep us updated…
May she recover soon!
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
+1
We had numerous vet visits recently with our old cat, Gigi (now over the Rainbow Bridge) and now our foster/soon-to-be-adopted cat, Leonardo (sent by the Cat Distribution System so we wouldn’t be alone). So we fully understand. They are family and going to any hospital is exhausting. Sending be-strong wishes but take care of yourselves too.
the best cat i had came to me via the cat distribution system. sorry for your loss, and enjoy Leonardo.
Poor Mona. I hope she gets better soon and you guys get some well deserved rest.
+1
hoping for Mona’s speedy recovery and a quieter weekend for all of you.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery for Mona, and more rest for all of you soon!
Oh my, just a huge so so sorry, hope things stay calm and the pupper continues in recovery mode! And you know, if she went outside she might have run into something there. Ours always sure seemed to think the inedible was tasty. And always at the most inopportune time, too. Best wishes!
Speedy recovery for Mona and everyone. Get lots of rest this weekend.
Wishing you best of outcomes for Mona.
I’m so sorry kid 1’s dog has been sick, especially after losing the other family dog. I hope Mona has a quick recovery.
It is hard when our furry family is sick, and yeah, pet ER is vital but understandably not terribly communicative which makes everything even more nerve-wracking.
Prayers for Mona and hugs for the family!
Hugs, Hugs, Hugs and more hugs.
Hugs to everyone and speedy recovery to Mona.
Just some love to you.
Dogs love to snack on inappropriate things. Socks, bugs, dust bunnies of unknown content and origin, you name it.
I understand you feel guilty. I would also.
However, you are not, as evidenced by your list of everything you both do to keep your pets safe.
Sometimes, crap happens despite our best efforts.
I don’t understand it. We’ve been so careful and she is everyone’s favorite dog. I’m just crushed. Hopefully, she can come home soon.
Hugs.
We discovered our dog (a year and a half old Siberia Husky we rescued a couple of months ago) eating a hardback book yesterday. Luckily not an HA book, but still… We have had Huskies for 40+ years and this is the first one that has picked up a book from the bedside table and decided to eat it. Best wishes for you to spend a calm and relaxed holiday with your family and animals.
A friend’s goldens kept coming down with bacterial GI infections. She sanitized all their bedding, bleached the floors, used disposable bowls, changed the bag of food, kept them separated, you name it….and they just kept getting sick.
Turns out, the local bunnies had discovered the yard, and the pups had discovered the bunny pellets, eaten them, and gotten sick. They’d only go for them when unsupervised: they were all business when she was watching, but she had to put them out while using the heavy cleaners and couldn’t watch them and clean at the same time. She eventually caught them while watching yard cam footage thinking someone might have been baiting them!
I’m pretty sure bunnies, or perhaps the neighbors’ chickens, are responsible for my dog’s intestinal issues last week. This dog is not left outside unsupervised due to her tendency to eat inappropriate items. However in the dark, she can sometimes grab choice treats before I can even spot them, let alone identify them.
The diarrhea started overnight, and within 24 hours there was literally nothing left in her gut. She was completely unfazed herself however, and proudly kicked up dirt every time we went out (which was nearly every hour on the hour).
I started 25%chicken:75%rice for supper, and took her to the vet next morning. Of course I’d have taken her in immediately had her behavior not been so cheerfully normal. The vet agreed that she’d probably gotten into the wrong pile of poop, and started her on metronidazole and a canine probiotic.
It took her empty gut 72 hours to produce anything more. Never once in this ordeal did she act even slightly sick. I’m frankly amazed. One more pill tonight and we’re done, thank goodness. Bullet dodged. Unlike last month, when she found the Advil that her kitty brother knocked out of an open cabinet, *sigh*. That one was quite expensive, and unbelievably nerve-racking.
One of my friends had an Irish wolfhound mix, very mischievous and clever… Her neighbor had decorated an outdoor tree with tennis balls. Her pup snatched one of the “ornaments” on their morning walk, hid it in his mouth, and proceeded to eat it in secrecy. One emergency vet visit and gallons of hydration later, he passed it. He had luckily flattened it. She didn’t see the snatch, or anything. Only pieced the story together afterward.
It’s so scary what dogs will eat. Our female dog ate a stink bug and before you know it she comes to the door and literally has a frothy phew Manchu beard full od saliva dripping from her chin due to the allergic reaction. The Emergency Vet took care of her and put her on some IV fluids to flush out her system. She has been our 13 years long gastro issue dog so I hope they identify A’s issue gets to come home soon. Sorry for the loss of your dog. We lost one of ours to cancer quickly this year. 🙏
Bless all of you, and I hope Mona recovers nicely. Pets are extended family and their health affects everyone.
Hugs for you.
Sending lots of very gentle hugs to all at House Andrews and extra for Mona!! Here’s to her coming home soon!! May you all get some extra rest tonight!! 💖
You all are in my thoughts. 💐
There’s always something with our beasts. Hope everything turns out ok
Best wishes for recovery!
Sorry that life decided to be dramatic for you and yours. Thanks for letting the Horde know. We will send all the good thoughts your way.
So sorry about Mona, but blaming yourselves isn’t helping anything. None of the other pets got sick, right? Maybe she found something in the yard. You’ll likely never know unless there is surgery involved and nobody wants that. Take it easy on yourselves for a few days. The Hoard will understand if Monday’s post refers everybody to this one.
Hope everyone’s able to take the weekend to recover. Feel better soon.
I hope the news you get is good. Drink some of your best tea. Take a nap. Breathe.
Hope all will be well!
So sorry for the loss of your pet. Hope Mona continues to recover and can come home soon. Hope you can rest and recover.
I hope Mona recovers and everything gets back to the routine pet-normal. No pets allowed where I live unfortunately so I live vicariously through your narrations of your pet-related adventures.
After a stressful day where non-pet-related things go wrong beyond my control, a comfort book to read always helps me de-stress. This year my comfort books purchased for Christmas are a pre-order of Firebird 6 Echos of Insurrection and a new author (for me) A Soul Incarnate by Chris Andrews.
Anywayz, Happy holidays to House Andrews, Mod R, and the BDH wherever in the world you find yourselves this year.
I also hope House Andrew gets a well deserved rest over the Holidays, or the next-best thing with unpredictable pets in the mix.
Firebird!!! Thank you! I’ve been waiting for this!!!
Hugs to House Andrews. Sick fur-babies are scary!
Thank you for the reminder for Firebird 6!!
🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂
Life stuff should always take priority.
Wishing Mona a speedy recovery and the whole family the necessary sleep and resilience.
Thank you for taking the time to share and reassure, keeping horde speculation and stress to a minimum. The BDH manifests as a kind and caring community because of the example you set. And, yes, I appreciate that even exhausted, you can make me smile by posting „No Friday Post“ on Friday.
+1 Well said Alix!
Everything Alex said. Please take care of yourselves as well as you take care of everyone else. Your own oxygen mask goes on first.
I did type Alix. Autocorrupt has gotten very sneaky recently.
Prayers for a speedy recovery and home safe and sound. A pet is a child to many of us!
Last Thanksgiving (2024), our son’s dog ate a popsicle stick. They break apart in the digestive system and not in a good way. We were on dog watch for many hours. And we felt guilty. Thankfully, all was well. Take all the time you need to rest and rejuvenate. The Horde isn’t going anywhere!
Sending good vibes to all of you.
As someone who has a dog that about once a year gets severe GI issues with no apparent reason, I can tell you that some times you never know the cause. It’s highly stressful and expensive. I feel for you all.
I hope she feels better soon and you all have a restful Christmas.
Big hugs to you all!
Hope for a speedy recovery. My oldest cat hates me right now because he is on once a day antibiotics for a lung infection and doesn’t know why I am torturing him.
On a funnier note, a good friend rushed their 6-month-old golden retriever to the emergency vet because she ate an entire bowl of chocolate Easter eggs while they were out at a family dinner. What did the vet tell them after x-rays and other expensive tests?“She’ll be fine. Apparently there isn’t enough chocolate in those Easter eggs to hurt her. However, she will be pooping tin foil for the next few days.”
When my sister was in college, she asked me to leave my German Shorthair with her over the holidays, because her apartment-mates were all out of town. They’d decorated their Christmas tree entirely with milk chocolate ornaments of various kinds. Next morning, my sister woke up to the tree lying on its side, and every ounce of chocolate gone.
She called me (a vet tech) in a panic. I told here there wasn’t enough cacao on that tree to cause a problem. My dog never showed so much as an upset stomach, and lived many years after that. My sister brought the story up this Thanksgiving as we put chocolate beyond the reach of a slew of current family dogs. It was way more traumatic for her than for my dog.
Glad to hear that the pup is on the mend. Pet health emergencies are always awful: you can’t ask them to show you where it hurts, or what they ate, and veterinary medicine can’t always give a fast and effective diagnosis. I’m so happy for you and Kid 1 that Mona is getting better, and I hope she continues to improve.
I’m so sorry, and sending Mona and all who love her good wishes. It is awful when a beloved pet is in danger and distress. Our dog was badly hurt by a loose dog earlier this month. ER visit, back home, declining badly, back to vet, sent to specialty hospital, kept there for three days, home, back to hospital for scheduled procedure, then back home. I was non-functional. I’m glad the people I work with were understanding because I could not get anything done. He demand barked at me two days ago and I was ecstatic because he had not barked at all since he was hurt. I feel like I’m coming out of a dense fog. All this to say we understand. Thank you for posting at all and keeping us informed. I hope you all get to heal and rest.
Sending best wishes to all of you. Hope Mona gets well and safe. Thinking of you. Please get rest. We will be here. ❤️🙏🏽
oh dear! sympathies to all! rest and recover, family comes first… and pets are family too.
I hope the pup makes a full recovery soonest!
I am so glad that Mona is home and all is well.
I know you must be very guilt ridden, but accidents happen, and it sounds like you took every precaution. It makes one wonder how dogs, or children, survive in households which are NOT dog proofed, or child proof, and the watchers really don’t care. And yet most do survive. Which shows that it really isn’t chance, and that God has a plan, and this world just sucks sometimes.
Hope for Mona’s quick recovery. Some dogs are more prone to pancreatitis. Sisters dog had it twice and he never got anything but his food. OTIH, I had a bulldog that in one year ate: firewood, socks, the arms off a chair, the linoleum off the kitchen floor and a green plastic flower pot and 1/2 a pound cake with no ill effects. The next year he ate a Brillo pad. Took a trip to the ER on that as parvo was a big new scare back then and he was loosing from both ends.
Sorry for the loss of your fur baby. It’s always a hard day.
Take care of each other
Understand the abject terror of waiting for answers from the vet. So very pleased things are on the improve.
Be kind to yourselves. All the best
Very much hoping that things sort themselves out for you all soon and nothing untoward results.
Wishing you and your family a very happy holiday season!
Umf; no, not fun stuff. Blessed be.
Dear House Andrews and kiddos and all the animals: Hugs, hugs, hugs.
Life can be so unpredictable. Happy to hear the doggo is getting better. Hoping that continues. Hugs, hugs, hugs.
been there, done that. with my cats, so I know how you feel. hang in there it will get better. hope next year will be better.
Emergencies! How they mess with the rest of life. Quick, happy recovery for all of you and peaceful, warm holidays for all of you.
I am sorry you had to deal with it. I finished my walk and am surprised at how much it still bothers me… it’s very scary and upsetting. Would have been easier in some ways had it been our dogs
If it’s not a blockage, I have been there, done that at my Mothers a decade ago with my son’s brand new service dog. Thankfully it was their vet, regular hours and they billed us regular fees. Then we did another visit a couple of days later with our vet.
The vet agreed with me… we kept that dog away from other dogs, we use a leather leash and a halty…. Other people thought and still do it’s their right to allow their dogs to bother mine even in “working” mode, pet parks are on the banned list… other people’s dogs, including neighbours and extended family. You’d be surprised what bugs they carry.
So nobody’s fault. Hopefully the dog came home yesterday evening, if not today and you, your family and them are on the mend.
I’m so glad to read that Mona is home and happy. I went through multiple visits to the pet ER with my cat last month. Awful. Sending HA many virtual hugs and virtual pats and scritches for the animals. Have a restful weekend!
Hugs to you all and a speedy recovery for Mona. Take care of yourselves.
sending hugs
Prayers for peace & healing all around, for all the family, definitely including the fur babies!
Thanks for sharing! Really happy Mona is back home and on the mend 😊🐾
I’m sorry to hear you’ve lost one of your dogs. Fingers crossed for Mona, I hope it turns out to be something simple.
I am glad Mona is better and on the mend. The guilt when something happens to someone else’s dog/cat/kid is enormous when it’s at your house. I’m so sorry y’all are dealing with that! May your weekend be stress free and y’all can get some rest!
Take care guys. We love you. Hugs to Mona.
My cousin’s dog had intermittent diarrhea and they went to the vet over and over. Finally did exploratory surgery. Brody ate a tiny disk of clear plastic. impossible to see and only sometimes a problem.
Many hugs and lots of hope for Mona’s complete recovery.
Pet troubles, especially the one that involve the ER, DEVESTATE me emotionally. I get it. Focus on you. I send only the good thoughts and vibes your way.
Glad your doggie is home and OK. So sorry this happened. Completely understand the stress and anxiety that a suddenly sick pet brings.
Get some rest. We will wait patiently for things to go back to normal.
Glad Mona is back to her normal self and home. So stressful. Really sorry to hear another dog was lost. They are family members and it’s so painful to lose them. Take care and have a good. Restful weekend.
Having just gone through something like this with our Jester…..I can SO much relate. Hope all continues to be well for Mona.
We just lost our dog this week. It sucks the waiting in the vet’s office room. Coming home to put every thing away. I’m feeling like I am alway a heartbeat away from being in tears. I’m so glad Mona is coming home.
I’m sorry to hear about the dog ER visit. I sympathize with your worry and confusion that it happened at your home, despite precautions already taken. I hope Mona makes a full recovery and you can set aside your guilt and stress about it all.
I always say that you don’t want your doctor to find you or your disease interesting. Same goes for our pets and their vets. I am wishing that Mona has an uninteresting, speedy, and complete recovery
I’m glad to hear that you are all are on the other side of it. May Mona come home soon! We have close friends who come over to work out with us every week and they bring their wonderful doggo. She has free roaming of our backyard and we’ve felt good with it being dog safe. Cue this morning when I walked to one of the side gates with my husband. We both paused and tipped our heads and said, is that a hole? Looks like Kuna (dog) has been secreting away to dig where we couldn’t see her. Grateful to have found it but that moment of looking at it and realizing something could have happened on our property made us both very anxious. Anyways, just trying to say I hope you know you’ve done the best you can and that everyone involved knows it <3
so sorry this happened. fur babies are so important to us and vulnerable (unless they eat the purple monsters in a dungeon). prayers and good thoughts.
Just lots of healing vibes for Mona and rest and recuperation for you and family.
Any time the vet er is needed is awful.
So very sorry you have to go through this. I sincerely hope Mona is much better now and will be just fine. I hope that her health will make your holidays so very much better.
Good rest, And HAPPY HOLLIDAYS
Thank you for taking the time to BLOG. Wishing Mona a speedy recovery and the family a peaceful, no drama holiday.
Sounds like an absolutely dreadful day. Sadly, tummy upsets happen despite even the best care. So sorry for your recenlt loss, since it makes this even even harder. Hopes and best wishes for full recovery for the ailing doggie.
Having been in that situation several times with my little buddy having a serious health crisis, the last one were we almost lost him choking on a dog treat, I can appreciate what you might be going through. The good news is it seems that Mona is on the mend and will hopefully have many more years of good times with the family. I am sorry for the loss of your other pet and hope that you and your family remember all the joys that happened over the years with your departed family member and may it sustain you as you come to grips with your loss. My little buddy is almost 17 years old and we have accepted the fact that if anything serious happens we will grant him peace and he will be gone. When that happens we will call upon the many fun and joyous moments our son Cooper brought us and how much better our lives were because he was there. For your family I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and thank you for all the wonderful stories you have shared and look forward to even more stories to come. From the bottom of my heart I thank you.
Glad Mona is on the mend. Hope you and yours have a Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to the BDH as well.
Could it have been something outside? Are there poisonous toads in Texas?
Hugs and best wishes.
The waiting and not knowing is so hard. I hate not being able to be there in person for my pet. Glad Mona is back to her old self and is now home.
May your weekend be restful and everyone healthy.
(((((Hugs)))))
Oh gosh, I know just how you feel. It really is awful when our fur babies are sick! 😥 I’m glad things seem to be heading in the right direction, but I am still sending all the healing vibes, prayers, and wishes your way(both for Mona and for you!)
💕💕💕
Consider yourselves hugged!
Sorry that you are having a tough time( I originally thought “rough” but, didn’t think you would be in a pun mood). I hope that things smooth out now. Rest up and catch up on your sleep.
We spent one very late night at the ER vet with our cat, Oscar. He had been diagnosed with diabetes about two years prior to this visit, and suddenly began to fail. Lots of franticness ensued. Two days in the hospital and many dollars later, we found out he had gone into remission. That was almost a year and a half ago. He has been in perfect health since. Wishing you all rest and recovery during these holidays. Be kind to yourselves. We all love you.
I lost my little fellow, Sir Ozzy, on December 2nd, he had a heart condition and it just couldn’t keep up anymore with life’s demands. Both my sister and I are still dealing with bouts of being non-functional. Anyone who has had a companion become ill or pass, is entitled to be non-functional. Peace be with you and may the animals all be doing better.
Hugs to you all. It’s never easy when our furkids are sick. Glad you’re home Mona ! X
Grow A Garden: The Power of Unlimited Tokens Explained https://gagtoken.netlify.app
So sorry to hear this. Our animal families being under the weather hurts just as much as our kids. Hugs to you and hoping everything is well soon.
Dear Ilona and Gordon,
Just a note to thank you very much for Ada, Ada’s mom, Elias, and especially Jovo. I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a safe, healthy, prosperous and happy New Year. 🤗
And of course Bear!
Best of luck for the dog’s healing. Poor puppy. <3
PS: Dogs will find something to make them sick no matter how careful you are. My dog Sigma recently started trying to eat the dirt accumulated on the bottom of my shoes. So now I can’t keep my shoes on the floor anymore, or anywhere in his reach. I hope you will stay kind with yourself because this sort of thing can happen to anyone, even people who are extremely diligent. Sending hugs.