Before I tell you this story, I will say that everything ends happily.
Sookie is our elderly Ye Olde English Bulldogge, otherwise knows as the orc dog. She is beauty, she is grace, how can you not love that face?
She is going on 13 years old. Her hips and her knees have arthritis. She moves around solely because of the steady regimen of fivovet, gabapentin, and osti, a joint supplement, which Gordon administers to her every morning via a hot dog. We started her on smoked sausage at first, because Sookie, despite eating rocks and random crap, is a master of spitting the pills out. Hiding them first in her favorite sausage and then in hot dogs is the only way we can get her to take it without shoving a hand down her throat. The morning pill ritual became known as sausage time. Occasionally Sookie will drag herself into the kitchen and sit because it’s sausage time and she would like her treat, please.
Several days ago, I woke up at 4:30 am and couldn’t go back to sleep. After rolling around for a while, I checked my phone and it was a good thing I did, because Kid 2’s house had sprung a leak and she was in a panic. That’s a fun story for another time, but to summarize, it turned out that a 2×4 fell because of a faulty nail and dented her AC pan. It ended happily, but threw me into a sleep deficit for a few days.
A couple of days later, I wake up in the middle of the night again. I check the clock. 4:30 am. What is it about the 4:30? I hear a choking sound, which, as any dog owner will tell you, is code for get up and let your dog outside. I open the primary bedroom’s door, let Sookie out, and flick on the lights, resigning myself to cleaning up some dog vomit.
Blood. It’s like a crime scene from a gory police procedural. There is blood on the floor, blood on her pillow, blood, blood, everywhere is blood.
OMG, our old dog is dying.
The other two dogs are like, “Hey, there is blood. How cool.”
I check on Sookie. She is standing in the yard in the dark. I grab peroxide, drown the worst of the blood on the floor – yay, tile, mop it up with paper towels, so no cats or dogs decide to taste it. Then I wake up Gordon, tell him there is blood, and then we both go to get Sookie in.
Sookie walks very slowly because of her arthritis, so it takes awhile. Finally we bring her in and she takes two steps inside the house and collapses. Her paws are bloody, her chin is bloody, everywhere is bloody. I’m sitting on the floor, with peroxide and paper, my hands in latex gloves, and frantically trying to clean her up to see if it’s a wound of some kind.
There is no wound. The blood is coming from her mouth. It must be internal bleeding.
By now it’s past 5:00 am. The only emergency vet in range is on the other side of New Braunfels. It will take almost an hour to get there, and when we do get there, we will have a long wait. She is 80 lbs of dead weight and Gordon, who normally would pick her up and carry her, can’t do it because of his shoulder.
I’m crying because the dog is dying. Cleaning and crying and cleaning and…
Sookie sighs, gets up, and goes to the kitchen to drink water.
We watch her drink and then she sits by the island.
Sookie: Sausage time?
Us: WTF.
Gordon gets a chunk of chicken and tosses it to her. She snaps it out of the air and eats it.
Clearly the news of her demise was greatly exaggerated.
We decide to wait for our regular vet to open. There is no point in going to the New Braunfels vet, because not only will it take forever to get down there with traffic, but she took food and water which means she will be triaged to the middle of the line, so dogs hit by cars and bitten by rattlesnakes can get life-saving care.
Our vet opens at 7:00 am, I call them, they get us in first thing in the morning.
Sookie has infected teeth. There must’ve been an abscess. It ruptured. How did a cup and a half of blood come out of it, I have no idea, but that was the answer.
Sookie was scheduled for the dental surgery. This was very stressful all around. We weren’t sure if she would come through the surgery okay because of her age, but her quality of life was a factor and unchecked tooth decay can lead to gum disease and jaw infections. Cue a week of tense waiting.
She had the surgery yesterday. 13 extractions and almost $3,000 later, here she is back to living her best life on her pillow.
She is very mad at us. She occasionally groans, and right now she is not in the study with us because she chose to lay in the living room by her lonesome. However, she took soft food and water today so we are on the road to recovery.
In other good news, the final edit of This Kingdom was accepted and we are off to the copyedit. Much rejoicing all around.
Here is hoping for a few days of not waking up at 4:30 am because of some crisis.
First?
certified 🥇
Cool!
Also, poor Sookie! Dental problems are the worst. Glad she is all fixed up and hopefully feeling better soon.
A related question – why do cats cough up hair balls at 4 am? When sleeping on your bed.
Always! I laughed at IA’s comment that a dog choking sound at 4 AM means getting up and letting the dog out. That never works for a gagging cat. Trying to get a gagging cat outside means vomit all over your house, and if you succeed in getting the cat outside, they will immediately stop vomiting and save it for when they are back inside on the carpet.
+1
+1
I have “trained” my cat vomit on a tile entry way in our bedroom when she has a hairball. Either she goes there directly or i pick her up and toss her off the bed (the tile is near the bed) on the tile. Works about 80% of the time. Now if i could convince her to do it at a more convenient time of the day
+1
+1
Yessssss. I can tell the difference between hairball cough/vomit and the asthma cough. I will drag my carcass up at 4:30 am for asthma but hairballs can wait. So glad I am not the only ‘bad’ pet parent out there.
As I was reading this comment, the cat, who is sitting next to me on the couch, starts the hunching and hacking of doom. I immediately put down my phone and try to urge her onto the nice LVP floor to do her thing. She doesn’t want to go but I get her down and she immediately spews and then proceeds to the next room where I can hear her continuing to spread the joy. One reason I love LVP–so easy to clean up cat up-chuck.
After 17 years of random hairballs/vomit I now just roll over and make a note to watch where I step in the morning as long as it’s not on the bed. *sigh*
exactly!
+1!
THANK you, I had hoped I am not the only one. I feel so bad for not cleaning it up immediately but at a certain point, you pick your battles and in the middle of the night, that’s not an emergency. I never had it happen on my bed *knocks on wood* but one of the usual spots is under the bed – my bed is in a corner and yes, that’s where she does it. Very hard to reach. My other and older cat almost never vomits because he is my angel and he has his own set of… adorable habits.
+
+1
Skin, fur or scales, nothing is as stressful as sickness in our lovies. Wishing Sookie the quickest, easiest healing possible, and a minimum of stress for the rest of the household!
FirstKingdom? Which book is this?
This Kingdom, full title : This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me is the revealed title for the first instalment of the Maggie the Undying series – more details https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/maggie-the-undying-title-reveal/ 🙂
OMG! So stressful! Such an anxious time with an old innocent friend. Sending hugs all around.
Such good news! Old dogs bring us special joys like this. My best friend has a tiny old lady with no teeth for a super similar story to Sookie. She’s hanging in there on her soft food, deaf, kinda blind, but very loved. Her name is actually Suki but said the same as your orc dog 🙂
You had a very traumatic morning. Glad to hear it ended on a good note.
+1
Oh, glory!! I hope everyone has gotten some naps!! Miss Sookie, get well soonest!! Mama and Papa, it’s 5:00 p.m. somewhere – put a shot of Bailey’s in your morning coffee. You earned it!!
Sending Sookie “get better quickly” vibes. And, for Ilona a good night’s sleep.
Alrighty!! This Kingdom is off to the copyedit. Closer and closer…. 😄
+1
I’m so sorry your furbaby gave you a fright. We had our cat scheduled for a teeth cleaning today which was cancelled due to her bloodwork coming back with her having unknown liver issues. So now we need to figure out what’s going on with that first. She was a rehabilitated feral that we adopted and she spends 95% of her time hiding in our bedroom. I wish she could talk and tell us how she is feeling and if there was something we could do to make things better for her.
Glad things turned out alright after scaring years off your life.
Very glad for the happy ending with Sookie; sending love and hugs.
Woohoo and congratulations on getting the edits accepted! I hope the stress/ weight that’s been on your shoulders is feeling lighter.
Sending zzzzzzz’z and hope for a better night’s sleep. LOL
Have a great week.
Ever dog owner is nodding her/ his head reading this.
So glad it turned out OK.
get well wishes for Sookie and a “self care and rest” prescription for you two! Glad she’s better.
I’m sorry for all of you but maybe more for the dog since I was recently reminded how bad an abscessed tooth can hurt. A few years ago my old cat that was more grumpy than usual and it turned out that she was reabsorbing some of her teeth. What the heck? They can do that? A few extractions later and she was back to her normal grumpy. It hurts when our babies hurt.
yay sookie is okay. can she still eat sausages after the extractions?
But that face!
Hopefully there will be no more 4:30am wake-ups. But, if you must, may it be “oh, look it’s 4:30” . . . and roll over and go back a deep and restful sleep.
One afternoon my dog, who had a habit of swallowing things, showed signs of being in pain (her eyes showed me her pain), which was rare for her. I called my vet who first said lets wait and see how she feels tomorrow, and then he said, this is DD, bring her in. He started working on her and then had to run to the airport to pick up the best man for his upcoming wedding, a man who happened to be an ER surgeon. So they both worked on DD and called with updates. I was sure she was dying, but then he called to say she would make it. Somehow, her intestines had gotten twisted and the had to unwind them. They worked into the evening. I love my vet, and DD is a wonderful dog.
Oh wow! So glad you know your pet. Your vet sounds amazing. So glad DD made it through.
Seconded. That could have ended very badly. This is why having a vet who knows you and your animals is really helpful.
Glad you started with “everything ends happily” because absolutely nothing is worse than a pet crisis. Also glad Sookie is on the mend, the edits are accepted and things are settling down.
Now you and Gordon need some R&R — even if it is just relaxing around the house, puttering outside, crocheting, gaming, just TAKE A BREAK! I don’t know anyone who deserves it more.
I’m glad you’ve had a happy ending.
My twenty-year old cat threw up and stopped eating for a day, so we went off to the vet last Friday. It’s a good thing vets don’t have translation software, because I wouldn’t want the yowls of rage while she was rehydrated and given an anti-nausea injection translated. She’s fine now, but I spent a couple of days crying because I was sure I was losing her.
I’m glad to hear she’s doing okay. It’s hard when they are sicker and harder still when they are getting up there in age.
Go Sookie…… feel better soon.
Yay to Maggie…… one step closer to publishing. Next March will come soon enough.
Poor Sookie. Poor you! Middle of the night/early am crises are the worst. I am so glad the issue was something that could be fixed and that she came through surgery okay.
Feeling solidarity because I had a family crisis late Sunday night that went into Monday morning past 2am. We have emergency teams that know us all at this point. While we’re now okay again, I am still trying to regain lost chi from that one.
Yay for good news re: edits and fixable leaks that don’t break the bank. Yay for our pets and coffee! Looking forward to the Kate GA releases and spontaneously rubbing hands in anticipation of Maggie To Come. I hope you both get a chance to rest this week.
Aww. Poor Sookie. I’m sure her snorgle is sore, bit glad she came through everything ok.
OMG! That would terrify me too!! Poor Sookie! I’m glad it wasn’t MORE serious (not that it’s not serious, but there are varying degrees of seriousness). I hope she feels better soon.
I recently had to put my big dog down because of a burst tumor that was bleeding into his belly. It was the absolute worst day(s) of my life. I still cry when I think of him.
I’m so sorry for your loss. That is heartbreaking. 💔
Sorry for your loss, and wishing you wonderful memories of him.
I am so sorry for your loss. Nothing I have done has ever been harder than deciding it was time. You were Kate levels of brave and I wish you happy memories of him that will gradually tear those tears to bittersweet rather than sorrow.
Yes, many thanks for including the “happy ending” phrase. I clicked onto the page and immediately thought “Oh, no, they’ve lost Sookie.”
I am so glad to be wrong.
Congrats on the “Maggie” progress! I really look forward to the new book. (Of course, I will eagerly be anticipating the sequel soon after the release date of This Kingdom. Such is life in the Horde.)
Get some rest if you can and hopefully sleep past 4:30 AM.
What she said, every bit of it.
Ugh, I feel this. My 14-year-old pit bull mix has been having seizures for a year and a half. At his age, it’s not epilepsy but something incurable. We give him anti-seizure meds, and against all odds, he is still with us. Woke up in the middle of the night once when I heard him seizing, and there was blood everywhere. Turns out he had chewed off a skin tag.
Omg, Sookie!! So glad she is ok.
What an awful thing to wake up to!
Last night I was woken up by my cats saying”mom mom mom mom” on these short high pitch meows. I thought oh god they’ve brought me a mouse again. Nope, they carried the bag of treats upstairs after retrieving from up high on the counter (lol, I know). I had to reward them for being so clever. “Temptations” brand are some kind of irresistible I guess.
Clever cats! 😂😂😂😂🐈
Our cat is currently taking a round of antibiotics and protein supplements. My husband grinds the pills down, or opens the gel shells and dumps the contents into her favorite pâté. It’s soft, pungent and easy to mix. She scarfs it down and is none the wiser about the medication (which she’d otherwise refuse point blank). Just offering my 2c in case other pet owners need them. 🙂
Glad to hear Sookie is on the mend, though I guess it’ll only be soft food for her from now on. Pets do have a way of blowing through their humans’ budgets at unexpected moments. But they also have a way of making their humans feel better every day. 🙂
My Mom puts the pill in a hot dog and lets it sit for a couple of hours or overnight. Her dog does not even know there is a pill in it. Only way to get a pill down her, she is a ‘get rid of the pill’ expert.
Glad Sookie is doing good.
Hurray for This World! Take a break, do something fun!
Get well soon, Sookie.
Congratulations on getting to the copy edit stage. Each step gets all of us to the finish line.
Take some time to rest and relax. The Horde can wait.
So glad everything went OK for the baby. I wish you sleep. Also, I love that green wall color.
Feel better orc girl! Sausage time!
Grateful she’s ok, sorry for your wallet
Oh wow… I am glad Sookie is ok, and I am so sorry she scared yall to death. Kids and Pets will get you. My idiot orange cat had a round HOLE in his side and I freaked out because I had thought he may have been shot! Called the vet, got him in. Vet said it was just an abcess probably caused by a tick bite that got infected (he is inside/outside cat). He got a shot of antibiotics and my wallet lost weight. We also switched his flea/tick prevention after gettinga recommendation from the vet. Did I mention he was GLARING at me the WHOLE time he was getting the shot??? Not giving Dad who was holding him down stink eye but ME? He forgave me after a few dats. I love that dumba$$…
Our cat hisses at us whenever we take her to the vet. Last time I told her in no uncertain terms to stop it. After that, she only hissed at the vet. 🙂
She’s on the blacklist at the vet’s b/c of her ‘problematic behavior’ that requires an assistant. We usually push the assistant to the side and hold her ourselves. The vet was impressed that she allowed us to hold her without biting, which kinda shocked us to hear. Our cat doesn’t bite. Apparently other cats do. Which raises the question, how come our baby is on the blacklist for misbehavior? 🙂 Methinks the problem is the vet. Last time we went to another vet who had a much easier time with our baby. By the end of the visit, she wasn’t even hissing (much).
Oh boy. You had me all choked up. We just lost all three of our dogs (of old age thankfully) last year. It’s so hard to see those pups get old, but they are still so full of love that it’s worth it.
You guys are amazing pet owners. An inspiration.
I am sorry for your losses. It sounds like the past year was difficult. We love these critters so much.
So glad to hear all of the heartache and angst ended with the fur baby recovering, even if you’re getting much side-eye and sighs.
Aww, poor Sookie. Glad she was able to be treated. Also, yay! re: This Kingdom.
I remember the post where Miss Sookie misidentified the pool cleaner as a chtethulu. She was very excited about this new person and your complete indifference to said chtethulu.
Sookie: MOM! THERE’S A CHTETHULU IN OUR POOL! WHEN DID WE GET A F**ING CHTETHULU???
I’m so glad to hear she’s back home and well.
Here’s wishing Sookie a quick recovery and that she gets over being out of sorts with you soon.
Whew, I’m so relieved to hear Sooke is recovering nicely!! Hopefully, you will soon be forgiven, ha ha.
Thank you for letting us know from the get-go that all’s well that ends well!
Glad everything worked out and Sookie is doing better.
Here’s to a brief respite and a life without immediate crisis. Oh and sleep!
I am glad Sookie is on the road to recovery. I hope you can catch up on sleep. And congrats on getting The Kingdom into copy edits.
I’m pleased Sookie is ok. One of our dogs had arthritis and he got an injection from the vets for it. It was like a new lease of life for him! Was running around like he was 10 years younger. He was so good my mother wanted the injection as well for her arthritis, but unfortunately it’s not available for humans yet.
Oh man I’m so so sorry that happened. My cat had a bad health scare last year on top of my other cat developing a chronic condition (which took ~7 months to diagnose) so I understand. I became an absolute WRECK for a couple months until they were all okay. Pets are beloved family members.
I’m so glad she’s recovering <3 and congrats on edits being accepted!
I hope you guys have a wonderful no-emergency, no-stress week. Fun cozy hobbies and beverages to the rescue!
lol!
Our pets-love them and it’s highly entertaining to live with them.
Sweet Sookie in the Living Room. and they say dogs don’t have good long term memory, lol!
thankful she pulled through, surgery can be dangerous for older animals, so it’s stressful all around.
teeth cleaning not just for humans 🙂
May she continue to live comfortably on sausage and love.
Glad she’s OK!
Sending hugs to you all. Our baby was the same after having a procedure done at the vets( say it quietly). Charlie wouldn’t talk to us for a few days as if it was OUR fault that he’d had to have this intrusive procedure done in the first place!!!!!!
He’d come around in the end but slowly, making us suffer for as long a period as possible.
Bless him. I wish he was still here so he could be as infuriating as could be 💔
I’m so sorry Sookie is having a struggle, but it sounds as if she is well on the road to recovery.
Here’s hoping she is well soon and her family gets to sleep in for a few days!
Glad Sookie is okay now. Probably for the best the abcess burst as otherwise it would have continued to poison her internally but it’s like scalp wounds in a human — the blood leakage is completely out of proportion to the actual seriousness of the wound.
But I just noticed: She lost a tooth for every year of her life? How many does she have left? Enough to gum the future sausages at least?
Dogs start out with more teeth than humans – she got plenty left to happily chomp! No need to worry on that score. But if she ever reached the no teeth point, I’m sure her humans would figure out how to safely give her treats on her cushioned throne. Isn’t she adorable??
My dog has been limping badly and I had no idea there were other meds other than gabapenten and T-relief that we could use. Thank you so much for listing out Sooki’s medicine regiment. Off to see the vet soon.
Best wishes for Sookie and 🎉 congratulations on being finished with the edits!
I am so glad that Sookie is on the mend! Sounds like a scary experience! Also, I have been around the blog long enough to remember when Sookie arrived as a puppy!
I hope you can get a full night of sleep soon! Tonight even!
So glad that Sookie is okay, if grumpy. And thank you for letting us n
Know at the beginning that everything turned out fine. I’m one of those people that checks to make sure the dog doesn’t die before watching the movie.
I have a neighbor from across the street who likes to park in front of my house. There are multiple people living in that house and no one parks in their driveway. Needless to say not happy about the situation. At 4:30 am he is in the car and warming it up for his daily commute. Do you ready need to rum rum rum the engine so much at 4:30 am in the morning for 10 to 15 min every day?
Sausage time?!? Do you toss it to her? That is the way another dog owner has to feed the pills. Eva is very good at find pills in her favorite treats, so they have to toss it to her and it is down before she knows. And, sometimes, she looks for more.
So you have to have 4 pieces of hot dog or sausage. You split the pills between two pieces and then you give the other 2 pieces to small dogs, so she sees they are getting treats. Then you hold 1 pill piece in front of her and show her that you have the second one. She will gobble the first one up real quick, because she is greedy and she doesn’t want to miss out on the second piece. The second piece usually only has the supplement in it, so she doesn’t notice.
yes! we do that too. meds in the first treat, unadulterated second treat as a chaser ready to go. Doggo is so into getting treat 2 that they don’t think too hard about treat 1.
We also give more than one treat for training (outside of pill time) so that our animals are used to paying attention to us and excited for more. sit gets a treat, then a catch or paw or wait or touch or go find it gets a second if there’s no meds. so our dog is used to the idea of getting more than 1 reward. (She’s 70 pounds and we give her fingernail-sized trainer treats, so you don’t need volume – just the habit)
My first thought when I read this was “I bet the small dogs are paying Sookie to pretend she hates the medicine so that ‘the sausage process’ will activate…sausage time for everyone!”😂
I’m so glad Sookie is fine. I always share the Sookie stories with my daughter….we love Sookie! 💕💕💕
yes! you can’t give them time to think! or time to taste.
just rapid-fire TREAT! TREAT! TREAT! TREAT! so they practically inhale the food and don’t pause to notice the piece with the pill stuffed in it. too busy swallowing in anticipation for the next treat.
The joys of having an elderly pet:) Here is the crazy thing: your pet can (most likely) receive a CAT scan, MRI, surgery, X-Ray etc. far more quickly than you, the human would do if you showed up at the local hospital. There are days I’ve wondered if perhaps people should line up at the vet clinic & ask for aid instead of trying to get help at the local emergency room. Glad to hear Sookie is still going strong & yes, know all about the post vet visit grumpiness by the pet(s). I’m resigned to burning in pet hell for many millennia for our many transgressions!
I am very happy everything worked out with Sookie. I had to say good-bye to my Pom, Sir Didymus ( the Bold) last weekend. I only cry two or three times a day now and not for as long as last week. It’s tough having an older dog.
Sorry for your loss. They leave such a hole in our lives. I still occasionally find myself watching cellphone videos of the one I lost two years ago.
❤️ I feel for you. Sir Didymus was clearly loved. I bet he was trouble with that namesake! hugs to you. may the treasured memories soothe the longing sooner rather than later.
I’m so sorry for your loss. The silence left after a beloved companion leaves is deafening. I hope your very good memories of Sir Didymus can outpace the tears.
You take such wonderful care of your fur babies; so glad she is okay. Hope you catch up on your rest soon.
Thanks for all you do.
Glad everyone is feeling better.
So relieved for a happy ending! Good rest to you all for multiple jobs well done.
Oh man. Poor Sookie. Poor you.
Even as I’m cringing and halfway to tears because of blood and elderly beloved dogs, I’m snort-laughing at hot dog time. You have a gift. Thank you for sharing.
Cuddle your pup and indulge in some fancy tea for me.
In spite of the $$$, I’m glad it was fixable.
Hugs
Poor Sookie, and poor you. Anyth(no with our pets is always so upsetting. Glad she made it through the surgery and is on the mend.
Occasionally I sleep all night. The last time that happened, I laid there thinking it’s 6:45 am and I slept so well! It’s going to be a great day! Swinging my legs out of bed I stepped right in dog barf. Reality is cruel, ya just can’t let your guard down.
Is it wrong that this post made my day? It’s the most I’ve laughed in at least a week.
I am so happy Sookie made it! That must have been super scary and I hope everyone gets a sausage treat and feels better.
My Cat Overlords send healing purrations for everyone’s well being and say Sookie should sue for more treats due to inconvenience and having to go to the pokey place where they stole her teeths.
They add that they won elebenty billion churus this way and the pawyer only charged them 3.
I am so happy to see it all ended well.
Michial has become adept at getting pills down the throat of cats and dogs. We had a thing like a syringe and you put the tablet at the end of it and then opened the mouth and released it down the throat. The other thing was that our vet used to get any medications for one of our dogs made up in liquid form so again it was easier to get it down the throat. It was more expensiv
e but so much easier
Thanks for the caveat about the happy ending! Ok so brutal story! Glad she is on the mend. Sending happy thoughts of delicious tea, gorgeous yarn and restful nights of uninterrupted sleep!
So glad she is better and edits are done. Congratulations.
Oh no! Poor Sookie. i remember when she was a puppy. I can’t beleive she got old. no more 4:30 emergency!
Tonight was first night of late night lambing check. fingers crossed for easy births. good Kerry Hill color and healthy twins, and ewes lambs, mostly ewe lambs
so glad there was a happy end and you told us ahead of time.
So glad that baby is okay. That is some pricy teeth. Thank you for giving the tip at the beginning that the story ends well. I am so glad for happier endings. My time of day for waking up panicked is 3:00 am. Welcome to morning.
As a veterinarian can I just say you guys sound like amazing pet owners from every story you’ve shared? Poor Sookie and poor your vet…13 extractions is no joke!
Whew! Glad to hear she’s…well, aged, arthritic, but it was just a dental problem and she came through OK!
So glad Sookie is ok. I recently lost my best buddy kitty and I’m glad you don’t have to deal with that right now. I can sympathize with the 4 am wake ups though. Being a middle aged woman I am intimately familiar with being awake in the middle of the night. I will now be very thankful that at least I’m not dealing with blood everywhere or sick fur babies!
Congrats on the edits!
I’m sorry for your loss, Erika. I hope you had a lot of time with your kitty to bring you oodles of good memories
Older dogs are special that way ❤️ Lately my 13yo Golden gave me an instant heart attack. Suddenly and out of nowhere her muzzle twisted in a weird way. My brain immediately went to „Oh no! All we needed was a seizure to top all of her medical issues 😭”. And guess what? It turned out that she just decided to sneeze in an extra slow motion… Senior dogs – love them to pieces ❤️
When I was a kid we had a cat who got an abscess oh his head after getting in a fight. It exploded! There was blood on the ceiling, all 4 walls of my parents bedroom, and all over the bed. We were all amazed that there was that much blood in there and very confused on how it could have exploded with that much force.
So happy that Sookie is ok. We all love our fur babies. She lucky to have such good parents
Sorry to hear of the problems Sookie is having, I hope she gets better. Glad to read that This Kingdom is a step closer to my greedy little fingers.
And best of luck with catching up on sleep.
What a relief! My heart goes out to you, cleaning up dog blood and crying. We lost our poor kitty in November, and I’m still not over it. (Kidney disease. She was 18, and we had her for 7 of that time: she just showed up one Thanksgiving and adopted us.)
So happy Sookie is on the mend. I totally identify with the crying because of a bloody soaked dog in the middle of the night and then an early morning trip to the vet. Dogs are our furry children and the thought of them being in pain or dying grieves us beyond measure. Enjoy and treasure the time you have left with her.
I’m so happy Sookie is feeling better and on the road to recovery! I love English Bulldogs and miss my Attila the Hun (aka Tilly) every day!
I hope you got a few full nights of sleep. During a time when we had two small dogs, I once started posting a sign indicating how many days it had been since someone in the house vomited. It was usually 0.
On the bright side…her breath probably smells better
I also have an older dog. Recently my vet told me about Librela It is a monthly injection of a monoclonal antibody that binds to a pain receptors I apparently only helps 70% of dogs, but, she says it has saved some dog’s lives by allowing them greater mobility.
Anyway, I have not used it but thought it might be of interest.
Oh my heart. I was so worried at how this was going. Her feisty attitude is the best.
We just put down our border collie Dax on Saturday. His back end was mostly gone – we had to lift it to get him up, and then he would walk a little…but mostly he would lay there, as happily drugged up as we could make him. We took him to the beach in the morning – his favourite place (which is weird for a Torontonian to say, but he would swim in all water warm or icy). And then he went to sleep in my lap. They are our hearts. (Grendel love)
I hope you get many more fabulous feisty Sookie days.
I’m so sorry, Pepper. It sounds like Dax had a beautiful last day and knew how much he was loved.
I’m so glad she is okay. I too am a pet parent that will pay the vet an arm, a leg and an organ to give them the best care. YAY to the final edit.
As the owner of a 15yo pupper, thank you for your first sentence.
I can well understand how traumatizing all of that was. I feel horrible that all of you had to go through that. I’m so happy that Sookie is recovering well.
Also, I adore that picture of her in the greenery.
There should 100% be an alarm clock with a dog vomiting sound. Nothing gets a pet owner up quicker!! Wide awake, alert and already reaching for the kitchen roll and spray cleaner !!
I’m so glad Sookie is doing better…best wishes for a speedy recovery!
Glad he’s fine. Very scary.
My son’s 11.5 yr old lab (retired service dog) is headed for surgery next week. A lump on the eye lid and some teeth. You wouldn’t know his age, because except for a few small things that a Mom might notice, he neither looks nor acts his age.
So next week when I get the “you’re the meanest” from him… I’m going to tell him he’s not the only older dog in for repairs. Knowing him it’ll not go over well. Not as easy to flap your ears when ticked, with a cone on. 🙂
does Sookie now get a cameo on the Maggie cover? with the timing of the edit acceptance and the blood everywhere maybe she’s trying to tell you something and is pouting that you didn’t get her message. 😜
I’m so glad she is better and you have more time to spend with her.
Omg! All I can say is congrats all around! Elderly pup is ok, ac repairable, edits finalized. Whew
That poor sweetie. Doesn’t your heart just flail around when they seem seriously hurt or ill? It’s good to see she’s back in her rightful queendom. Of course, all Sookies are bad asses.
Liver wurst is softer than sausage and works really well to bond to the pills and hide them.
Poor Sookie (AKA Orc Dog). I am so sorry this happened to her and you both. There seems like a lot going on, even kid AC trouble. I hope you get your sleep and look forward to future positive updates on Sookie. I love all your pet posts and can completely relate to the humor, frustration, and anxiety they provoke.
I also want to report that I am in renovation hell. My poor dogs will not have access to the backyard for the next two weeks until the cement is cured and the deck is completed. I am getting all the sad doggy looks. I tell them it could be worse, but they would just prefer sausage.
So glad to hear Sookie is doing well! That’s a really scary thing to deal with.
My older guy is 11 and also struggles with arthritis. He was on Carprofen for a while, which worked really well, but then had to go on a steroid for lung inflamation and so couldn’t be on the NSAID. The vet switched him to gabapentin, which worked okay but definately wasn’t a long term solution. When he was done with the steroid I asked my vet about other pain relief options, since I’d rather not have to put him back on the NSAID and then have to pull him off again if his lungs flared up.
She got this huge smile on her face and said “Let me tell you about my new favorite thing!”. Librella is a monthly injection that targets arthritis pain, specifically, and doesn’t interact with steroids. She said that it can take up to 8 weeks to kick in, but most people see the effects as early as 2-3 weeks. Of course it took the full 8 weeks to be able to take Maytag off the gabapentin, but he’s been on the Librella for almoast a year now and it has done wonders. Now that he is able to move properly without compensating for pain, he’s using his body more and building muscle and is more active. He definately doesn’t look 11!
OMG at the stress of finding so much blood. 😱 I’m so glad it wasn’t life-threatening and that Sookie is on the mend. Hope you get much-needed sleep, Ilona!
I’m rejoicing with you for for Sookie’s recovery and the final efit of The Kingdom! faithful.member of the BDH. enjoy your break.
We have a cat lucky we only had 2 teeth pulled with our cleaning and no blood
oh bless! sooo much drama! happy everyone’s ok. hope y’all have much needed rest and calm.
Yay for Sookie!
Yes, dogs can hold a grudge like no one else, except maybe cats. Well, unless that dog is a Lab, and then they don’t know how to hold a thought for 2 seconds, much less long enough for a grudge (the loveable derps).
Aww, glad she’s OK but yes, that sounds pretty nerve-wracking.
Also YES to tile floors. The place I’m in now has slate tiles and it’s such a relief when it’s hairball time for the cats. (It’s also hard to heat in winter, but excellent in summer.)
Oh. I have so much sympathy. In our case, it was stinky pus drool that came out, not blood. But it was terrible and frightening.
I have since found that a small sheet of nori (for our large dogs) twice daily, keeps their teeth much cleaner.
Wife finding a claw in the floor “This the biggest claw I’ve ever seen. OMG, someone has lost a toe. We need to count Toes”.
Me after puzzling over it for a few seconds “That’s not a claw, that’s Orangies Tooth. Right Tooth. Sissy has punched his tooth out. ”
Sissy is the only lefty in the house, so the culprit isn’t hard to figure out. She punched him, and it got infected and we missed it.
eek, and did you not know 430 is the new 730 – I am there each morning trying to gain at least an extra 10 min of sleep a day…..groan.
aw, i’m so glad she is ok! and i totally understand the panic at seeing that much blood! especially at her age.
i had a dog who never walked anywhere, he always ran at top speed. ZOOMZOOMZOOM!!! he would ‘superman’ over the 4 steps down from the porch to the backyard, just a flying leap. that goofball cracked or broke off one of his nails 8 times over the nearly 14 years i had him. 8 times!!!! i can’t tell you how many times i saw a blood trail on the carpet and had to track him down wondering what the hell he did THIS time. and checking all his paws and all his nails to find the bleeder. the worst it ever got was when he figured out how to wiggle and push his cone far enough back on his neck to be able to reach his back foot in spite of the cone. he kept removing the bandages and licking the nail until it got infected and then i had to soak his foot twice a day and pill him with antibiotics. in the end he had to wear a muzzle for a week so he’d leave the darn bandage alone. i learned that taping baby socks over the bandage with elastikon tape made the bandage harder to get to and remove. i have a HUGE box of dog wound supplies because of him that will probably last the rest of my life.
i am also familiar with waking up to the gagging sound and grabbing the dog and yanking them to the edge of the bed (before trying to get them outside) so if they puke it lands on the floor and NOT the down comforter. nothing wakes you up faster than that sound!
and thank you for the adorable pictures!
Oh, poor Sookie! Teeth are the worst. We just had our Pema in for her regular dental check (always under sedation in case they have to do an extraction), and for once in her six years, she did not need an extraction. Yeah, us! However, brushing a dog’s teeth is not easy, even with one who’s been having it done since she was a wee pup.
So glad Sookie is on the way to recovery. And yes, how could we not love that face?
I’m so glad you gave us the heads-up that all would end well. Poor Sookie! That absess must have hurt like the dickens. And how horrible/terrifying/traumatic to wake up at that ungodly hour and find puppy’s blood all over!
I’m so glad she did well in surgery and expect her forgiveness will come soon.
And hopefully the 4:30 a.m. wakings will now end!
My elderly dog used to be good at taking medicine, but has gotten pickier as she ages. Her arthritis had gotten bad enough she was having trouble just standing up or lying down. her vet suggested a new shot called Librela. It has to be done at the vet’s office once a month, but my dogs health an d quality of life has improved immensely. I can actually see the difference the day before and after each shot.
Wow! Yay for happy ending! I will offer a maybe-strange answer to the “why always 4am?” Question. I am a natural medicine doctor (Naturopath) and part of my education included a peak into Classical Chinese Medicine, which is fascinating & a whole system unto itself. Part of that system is tracking the flow of Qi, the vital force through the body & has resulted in a “Chinese Medicine Body Clock.” (Images may be googled.) At 3am Qi transitions from Liver to Lung (Chinese Medicine organ names are not the same as Western medicine organ names & carry a wealth of different meaning, hence the capitalization). This transition from Liver to Lung is the re-setting of the body-clock cycle & SO OFTEN I hear people say that they wake up around this time (3, 4, 4:30am). Do I know what this means diagnostically? No. Is it even significantly diagnostically? I don’t know. Is it a massive coincidence? Maybe! Or maybe it’s about cosmic energy and we’re all just destined to wake between 3&5am for dramatic energy shifts. You’re welcome. And happy Spring.
Aww poor Sookie and poor Sookies’ parents. I love your animal stories almost as much as I love your book (oh the books). Whenever you are feeling it, an update on all the pups and cats (including your grand-pets the German Shepard’s and the 6 toed cat) would be so awesome (paw-some?).
Glad Sookie is on the mend. That must have been terrifying. So much easier if they could tell us what hurts and where the problem is!
My 16 year old cat has arthritis and Stage IV kidney disease. I no longer get his creatine levels checked because if I go by that he should have died six months ago. He views lab results as a personal insult. IV fluids every two days and he’s only a little wobblier than this time last year. He hit his 14th adoption anniversary yesterday which I did not think would happen. I have cried rivers over him.
In Canada you can get Solensia injections to treat arthritis in cats. Not sure if they are for dogs as well. A little pricey at roughly $100 each month but Kinsey is able to move a lot easier. And by easier I mean he bounds up the stairs to fetch his favourite toy (Baby) and then drags it down every last stair screeching so loud the neighbours must think he’s being tortured.
Our furry, scaled, feathered friends are amazing. Everyone here is amazing for the love we have for our friends.
Sookie is a lucky girl.
Ugh. That’s awful. I am so sorry. That’s the icky side of pet ownership.
I will pray you can get some sleep. I need to go to bed EARLIER but like, it’s that bedtime revenge procrastination thing of I can’t wind down until the kids are out and then I need to enjoy the quiet and maybe my partner and then it’s stupid late and I’m awake but don’t worry I’ll be up early anyways bc work and kids. *sigh* May we both get good sleep, and less drama.
I’m happy Sookie is going to be fine. It’s so scary when an older dog (or cat) has an issue because you’re never ready to face the thought that this problem can mean saying goodbye.
I am glad your Sookie will be ok.
So glad Sookie is okay. Thank you for the ‘alls well’ at the end.
I am also glad to hear that The Kingdom is moving to the next stage.
For those of you with animal companions with joint pain, a frankincense & myrrh supplement recommended by her vet helped my elderly pup.
I am so glad Sookie is okay!
Most of the costs of life are in the last few years, people or animal.
That abscess must have hurt! Poor girl.
And YAY on the book getting approved!
Your dog has a beautify colored pelt. As another old thing I think she has a right to be grumpy the older we get the less we like to be messed with.
I totally relate to this post! I have two labradors, both with hips and elbows, and on regular medication – theirs is via pate – I shove the pills in and feed on a suitably blunted knife. It used to be cheese triangles, but one of them got fussy….! He’s the one that also winges for cuddles!
So glad to hear Sookie is OK.
Sookie’s okay, YAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now, for the humans ……*offers calming tea and restorative tasy biscuits*
Thank you SO much for the happy ending spoiler!! I love your stories, but don’t think I would have made it through this one without it. Best to you and Sookie!
Prosciutto is wonderful for wrapping pills in because it sticks to itself like plastic wrap. Far better than any other cold cut. Yes, my dogs are spoiled.
Our animals are important to us. I hope for all good things for Sookie.
Very happy to the hear the outcome of Sookie. Beaker (Mandy) is 13.5 now, and every night I wake up to check she is breathing. Don’t get me wrong, other than every tooth in her head being broken (the evils of raw bones in her younger days) she is very healthy. She’s part of the Loyal Stay Program, and I’m thinking she didn’t get the placebo. But, she’s slowing down, she’s either deaf or she is ignoring me, and she’s so gray. Still, she’s training, and trialing, and loving all the things. You might want to investigate this for Sookie. I’m VERY impressed with it, though I’m not sure how they handle variables.https://loyal.com/clinical-trials
Our cats have had tooth resorption problems and occasionally have to have extractions–surprisingly well tolerated with good interest in food within a day or two. Apparently it’s a Thing with domestic shorthair cats. I hope it turns out Sookie’s arthritis improves with getting the chronic infection out of her system.
I started my cats on Cerenia for arthritis and back problems, which comes in a monthly injection. Less Gabapentin. I sympathize.
My heart goes out to you all. Had something similar happen 4 years ago and I made a full recovery!!!! No one gives me hot dogs though!! May your sleep be dreamless for the next couple of weeks.
I love Wookiee and you and Gordon for being awesome caregivers. Keep up the love circle.
I’m a nurse. And while I can’t truly explain the physics of how 6 drops of blood can cover the floor of a 12 x 12 room, I have cleaned up the evidence of it doing exactly that over and over.
At first I thought you were going to say she died! I almost didn’t read it all😁 My Chihuahua-Pug is almost blind, deaf, and a little senile at night.She’s almost 18 and I’m now frantically checking if she’s breathing every time she sleeps even though she’s pretty healthy.The last years are so hard.
🥰🥰🥰
That’s why I said that everything ended happily up front. I wouldn’t do that to you.
We had an emergency pet visit about a month ago (ended happily). I am so glad that it worked out for you. Fur baby’s- so stressful when things go wrong.
o my gosh… you must be an author, despite knowing there was a “good” outcome, I was reading that whole description of the scene and getting all concerned and anxious…. I’m glad she’s OK.
Elderly dogs are tough. We have a 13 year old English Mastiff. We call his hot dog treats “scooby snacks”. Last year he had a series of nose bleeds, we spent a fortune on bleed clot, vet visits and trips to Texas A&M (an excellent Vet school in Texas) that suggested tying off his carotid artery on one side😳. It finally stopped but mobility is now becoming an issue. He’s such a happy dog, in spite of everything. Dogs are like your children. You just love them.
solensia injection, not cerenia as I commented earlier. 🤦🏻♀️ Yes, just pulled up at the vet so at least I know what to get them at the key moment.
Now it will be mashed hotdogs or sausages in the morning. I hate when the pups are I’ll. At least with kids they will tell you in graphic detail( once they reach talking age). I have a son with Apraxia of speech so I now know ALS for vomit, diarrhea, and other fun bodily problems. Hopefully things will settle for you soon.
Monthly injections of Librela for my arthritic dog have been a godsend. 12/10 recommend.
My 16 year old dog has perfect teeth. Her ver said so.
Her secret?
Go to a butcher and buy beef tendons and marrow bones.
The tendons act like brushes and floss and the marrow bones are extra nutritious. Take the bones away when they get too small.
My butcher gives me the tendons and the bones are a $1/lb.
Impress your vet!
what could be happening at 4:30 that’s waking you??? was it the equinox???
I wake up at 4:30 am during tax season, when there are all those tax returns that I have to do something with before April 15
Bless Sookie what a sweetheart xxx Sausage time is a good sign 🥰🐾
I have lived through a few of those early morning adventures. I so happy for you that the story came around to the pillow life for Sookie. (and all the pics were fab! ty!)
I’m so sorry that Sookie gave you such a fright! One of my cats did something similar by randomly tearing off a toenail and also getting blood everywhere. He did not appreciate me grabbing him to swab the sore toe with vet-approved antiseptic spray.
Gotta love pets and their emergencies!
So glad Sookie is okay.
Wish you peaceful sleep and fast recovery for Sookie! My older dog is 13 years old and I understand perfectly well how terrifying can be even a small bad change in their health and you were faced with blood bath, so I wish you fast emotional recovery too.
So glad Sookie is recovering!
sHE IS bEAUTY THAT RuLEs THe nIGHT! hER sINGINg THE sONG oF HER pEOPLE iS a cAlL TO gREATnESS…oH hAIL oUR orC qUEEN! mAY sHE lIVE A lONG lIFE!!!!
If I could her Cry of Solitude would be my official Alarm ringtone! I’m very happy to know that she is healthy despite that scary morning…Long Live Sookie!
I am glad to read she is recovering. It is stressful and expensive to provide care for elderly pets, you always need to weigh the benefits versus the risks of care, like the dental care your orc dog just had. It seems she lucked out and her bloody crisis at 4:30 am had a simple and fixable solution. Deep sign of relief…
Way late to this post, but big hugs on old dog love! My boy is 13 and a half and he FINALLY ate a regular serving of undoctored kibble last night a month after his recent extractions. I keep reminding myself every day is an adventure which I’m grateful to have as I’m dodging wet spots on area rugs and inspiring him to eat with cheese. Our fur kids are the best of us.