Sookie had to have an eye surgery. I am not quite clear on the details but flesh around one of her eyes was putting pressure on the eyeball and eye lid. She came through it with flying colors but when we brought her home, she was slightly doped up.
We are in our study, playing computer games. Gordon had fired up Might and Magic VIII and I am trying to find some reasonable way to fit 44 foundries into a gorge in Satisfactory. Suddenly there is a blood curdling howl.
We run from the study, Kid 1 and her boyfriend run from upstairs, we converge on the living room expecting Something Terrible, and here is Sookie lying on the floor and looking at us sadly with her bulldog eyes.
In case you’ve never heard Sookie’s stirring rendition of Woe is Me, I am Bulldog, here it is.
It was like this but worse.
The best we can figure out is that Sookie, disoriented from her meds, decided that she was abandoned. We moved her to the study with us. She proceeded to periodically howl through the evening and I’ve just heard her howl outside, because she went down to the office and presumably got lost.
Unfortunately, Sookie has severe arthritis in her right knee and hip. We can replace the hip, but our vet recommended against it, because we can’t do anything about the knee. So the alternative is arthritis pain meds. This is a dog that used to eat rocks. The arthritis pill is a yummy chewable. Guess who had to stuff her hand into a gross dog mouth up to the wrist to make her swallow it?
On that note, I found a wonderful hack for foaming soap. So I am a soap fiend. I like a variety of nice smelling soaps and the ones from Bath and Bodyworks are my favorite. They come in a variety of fragrances and they foam up just right. They are also normally $6-7, which is a lot for a small plastic bottle and I don’t want to buy endless plastic bottles, because the planet is filled with plastic as is. By the way, I just checked the price, and today all soaps are $4 apparently. Anyway, BB doesn’t sell refills.
I have found a solution to this. If you mix 2 Tablespoons of Bath and Bodyworks shower gel and fill the rest of the bottle with water, you get the foaming soap.
Here is a tutorial for you.
It works like a charm. You can actually get away with 1 Tablespoon even. I use soap dyes – Kid 1 makes hand soap occasionally and I raided her stash and I recommend dumping a couple of bottles worth of water into a large glass measuring cup or bowl, adding your 2-4 Tablespoons of gel, 1 drop of soap dye, and stirring before filling the bottles. The shower gels are about $14, but there is always a buy 2 get 1 free or some other kind of sale, and the last time they had one, I took full advantage of it.
It is amazing how much soap $5 worth of body gel made. Hehehe. Because I want to smell like Moon Light Path instead of inside of Sookie’s mouth.
Moon Light Path. 🙂 Because I am a pretty princess.
You know, that doesn’t look like pretty princess moonlight path. This looks more like there should be a soldier walking to his home village after serving his 25 years or some third son who is considered to be an idiot looking for his lost sheep and then nechist should pop out. Looks like somewhere Roman would go.
Damn it. Now I will think about this all day.
I hope Sookie is back to herself soon ❤️
Thanks for the soap hack! It will come in so handy with two young kids, it’s unreal how much soap they go through ????
Roman trilogy confirmed! Awesome!
Hey Jeff,
Although it would be very exciting, this is not a confirmation for a Roman trilogy ????
I’m with Jeff.
What if we all beg pretty please in the comments?
JK. Kind of.
+1000
Also, Moderator R, love the new icon!
+1 ????
Just a hint on doggy meds – put a little peanut butter on it. Mine gobble it down.
Liz, it was wrapped in a piece of smoked turkey. She spat it out. She is wily.
My border collie was like that. He had hip dysplasia arthritis and the rare diabetes insipidus which involved a nasal spray twice a day. I preferred giving Charlie his nose drops to trying to trick him into tablets when needed because he’d eat the surrounding meat AND lick off anything tasty still stuck to the pill. Or you’d try and diguise something deep in a bowl of mushy dog food dinner and have one empty bowl with a nicely deposited pill at the side. Sheepdogs are annoyingly smart sometimes.
I always say mine’s too smart for her own good, border collies just be like that. My trick that works (so far) is get crunchy peanut butter and cut up the pills to same size as the crunchy bits, but also give her *placebo* peanut butter with no pills at different times so that way she doesn’t always know if I’m giving her the pills or not. Though I’m sure she’ll figure that out eventually as well *le sigh*
Our mare was just as bad. I’d insert a pill into an apple, and she’d chew on it for 5 minutes. I’d be sure that pill was history. Then – pitui! She’d spit that pill ten feet. Only way was to grind it up and put it in applesauce.
LOL. My previous dog was like that. My current dog just eats her pills from my hand without anything. I’m not sure if she’s just being good or they are tasty (contain crustacean shells?? among other things for her joints).
Our Sophie (cat) was impossible to dose. The last time we tried (and we had tried EVERYTHING before that, including treat “packages” where you put the powder or pill inside a crispy cat treat. We gave her that and found a neat pile of slightly damp white powder on the food mat), we shoved the pill down her throat, clamped her mouth shut, and rubbed her throat for an entire 60 seconds (probably just a few more as it took a moment to get the timer going). She swallowed several times. And when I let go her mouth, she turned her head and spat out the pill.
After that, we took her to the vet every two weeks to have them administer her medication via shot. Daily pill, biweekly — and VERY expensive — shot.
(And not expensive because of the shot, but because she decided to lie down and die on a holiday weekend, so the open emergency vet clinic was all the way across the city. They saved her life, and my husband wouldn’t take her anywhere else. The expense was the 30€-each-way cab ride).
Try it in a spoonful of ice cream. Peanut butter is sticky and will cause them to lick at it, which allows them to get at the pill and the spit it out, but ice cream is smooth and cold; they’ll usually swallow it right down without chewing.
Make sure the whole pill is covered with ice cream, though.
Cream cheese works with my labradoodle.
Oh no! I was going to recommend the smoked turkey as that’s what I used when my dogs were on a daily dose of rimadyl (no idea how it’s spelled). Oh well, good luck with finding something that works!
My sister’s dog refuses to eat his supper until a treat is tossed at him. That is how she tricks him into taking his meds. A small bit of meat tossed, gulped out of the air and swallowed whole. Then he goes to his food bowl. She taught him that because he begs when she is preparing any meal.
Is it a pill that can be crushed? (ie not extended release or coated for digestion past the stomach) If so, maybe crush and mix it in applesauce or pudding or PB?
I’m not a dog owner so just spitballing from other medication delivery debacles.
I suggest getting the meds in oral suspension form that you squirt with a syringe into the dog’s cheek. I know. My 16 year old arthritic golden doodle does not eat “yummy” chewables.
my cat has been on steroids for 3 years. Giving pills to cats sucks. I ended up getting dosing syringes and plunking the pill in the syringe and sucking up water. I let it melt and then squirt it back of his throat and hold his head up until it is swallowed and he won’t hide and hork it up where I can’t get to him.
I am feeling very unsettled at how easy it is to give my cat medicine now XD
Was a bit difficult in the beginning, but now it’s 2 different teeny tiny tablets wrapped in a piece cut off from those soft treat sticks, the piece is cut in half, tablet bit goes in, then it is moulded around it, & then mixed in the wet food first thing in the morning when she is especially ravenous.
She used to spit out the thyroid one as the top coating melted off when wet and we used to have to use this creamy “lickable” treat. Haven’t needed it in a while!
I’ve got an Irish Setter and she is the same. I got round this by wrapping the pill in meat and then have several small bits of meat ready. I give her 1 piece of meat without a pill then the meat with pill then 2 or 3 small pieces of meat in quick succession.
She is too busy trying to get the next bit of meat to spit out the pill
Easy for canine tongue to unwrap pill.
Harder to get on off it.
Especially if they are used to get a small spoonful of crunchy on in their food.
Longtime pet owners, they know what they’re doing.
Hope your fur baby is well 🙂
We had a (pure-bred, papered, registered, ADOPTED!) cocker spaniel whose teeth wore away (around 13-14 years old). Before that, we had no problem getting her to take her daily dosage on a treat covered with peanut butter. But once her teeth were gone, she licked the peanut butter off the treat, spit the pill out, and gummed the treat to death!
We throw the pill in a piece of squishy bread, and then immediately throw the next piece of squishy bread so that she has to swallow if she wants the second piece. Otherwise miss dainty paws pitty is also a pill spitter.
Ah yes…singing the sad, sad songs of her people….
I love Roman. Eeyore pajamas. You want me to marry you?
My favotire memory was showing up to help Conlan at school. I hope it gave the local druid kids nightmares even though he was just showed up to have lunch with Conlan and reminisced about how the two are such great friends and family.
I think I missed that scene somewhere! What book was it in, or was it a website snippet?
Hey M,
This scene is in Chapter 8, page 117 of Blood Heir.
Hope this helps 🙂
Never mind putting that monster into the picture of the path. I want to see Roman in his Eeyore pajamas added to it.
Excuse me, Roman in his Eeyore pajamas feeding crackers to a couple of uldra
Thanks! I’m going to try this. I hate buying millions of plastic bottles, too.
Moon Light Path be damned: all hail the pretty princess (and one of our very favorite authors, the other being the husband of said pretty princess, of course!) ????
Ooooh Moonlight Path is my second favorite, only to Night Blooming Jasmine which is retired!
Oh, great ghu, thank you so much for that image..*not*
Please write that story!!
Try giving the dog pills in Pill Pockets made by Greenies. My dogs even took chemo drugs in them, when steak, cheese, peanut butter and other yummies were spit out. Hope your fur baby feels better soon!
Have them, she spits them out.
I am seeing this chart on the wall somewhere in your house of of Pill method, Worked, and Didn’t work. There are tons of x’s in didn’t work and worked is glaring empty.
Bonus points if there’s a map that keeps track of the longest distance she’s spit them.
????????????Had to read that Exchange Out loud to husbsnd, because I laugh so loud…
So after weeks of antibiotics and pain meds my Dalmatian eats the pill pockets around the pill and spits the pill out. Or she refuses the pill pocket entirely. Once no pills were involved she ate the whole bag of them with out a problem.
My dog sings this song when he hears dramatic violins or a particularly sad country song.
The song of their people, indeed. ????
Awe, poor Sookie.
My friend’s 30 year old horse has arthritis too (which I am sure most elderly creatures end up with in some form) and she had already been on a glucosamine supplement (which had helped a bit), but found switching her to one with collagen was key, the collagen really made a big difference in her comfort and movement levels – like, being stiff all day to galloping around like a lunatic when she got let out. Maybe collagen would help Sookie?
Poor Sookie, I hope she (and you!) are all better soon.
Lots of love for poor Sookie. ???? She has to share her pain with you guys. Hope she feels better soon.
The foaming handsoap I’ve been doing for a while. If you are on a budget, 3/4 of the bottle with warm water 1/4 dishwashing liquid. It goes a long way!
Sub-soap-hacks. 1) If you use liquid castile soap (i.e., Dr. Bronner’s) as your base, it has no toxic chemicals. 2) You can add a few drops of your favorite essential oil(s) to create a good smell. 3) If you want a moisturizing soap, you can add some almond oil (or other moisturizing oil) to the bottle, though you will have to shake the bottle before using. 4) I buy larger foaming soap bottles from Amazon to use in the shower because I use up a lot of foaming soap and I don’t like constantly filling little bottles when they run out.
If I remember correctly, James Herriot has a story about a dog coming out of anesthesia that howled for many hours.
You can also use Castile soap for cheap foaming soap. Use 1/4 Castile soap to 3/4 water and then add a few drops of your favourite essential oil, or any combination of essential oils. Personalized scented soap cheap, easy and Castile soap is all vegetable, no animal ingredients.
+1. I do this with the lavender castile soap. No essential oils needed ????
Sometimes, people will scream and thrash coming out of anesthesia. They will also tell you very convincing but utterly false stories.
I miss Roman
Kate is a pretty princess and I can definitely see her walking down that path, lolololol!
I had a dog like Sookie. You could mash a tiny, tiny pill in a WHOLE hot dog, and that donkey’s butt would eat the hot dog and SPIT OUT THE PILL! Ughhhhhh. He was a brilliant dog, but sometimes too smart for his own good and my sanity.
My current dog takes pills like a champ, especially if there is a treat included. Unfortunately, she is dumb as a box of rocks, but sweet as candy, lol.
Poor Sookie! I have a beagle/basset mix (DNA showed she is a first generation mix, so apparently I have a designer mutt) and she LOVES to talk to me…all the time. When I used to go to work (pre-COVID) I had doggie cams and around 2 or 3 in the afternoon she would wander the house singing the mournful song of her people for no apparent reason. Now she talks to me to tell me she’s hungry (and then ignores her food), she wants a walk (and then needs to be put in her wagon, yes I drag my old dog around my neighborhood in a wagon while my younger dog walks), she’s bored, she’s hungry again, she wants out, she wants out but not by herself (younger dog often gets sacrificed to the outdoors in this situation), she…I don’t know what she wants, etc.
I’m a university professor, the introductory slides for all my classes show my girls and warn that there will be interruptions. All of my recordings either have tap-tap-tap as she walks around me or actual whining, crying, barking, and howling.
Poor Gidget is now in renal failure and the KD diets aren’t cutting it so she’s been switched to home cooked meals. The amount of ‘hurry up mom I want my food’ while I’m preparing it is INSANE. But at least she’s eating it (then looking at me like, ‘that’s it?’). Pets: you love them to death and also want to throttle them at the same time.
What about butter? Works for us.
Yes. Please. Think of Roman all day.
Maybe he can show up in the next Iron & Magic…
I have to do the throat ramming with the Sea Bass’s Nexgard. He just won’t take it any other way.
Next month Keyser Söze, the cryptorchid kitten gets his neuter. I am not looking forward to that
Great name for the kitten
You should add a preservative to the foaming soap to prevent mold and mildew growing in your soap. I use Optiphen in mine.
https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/foaming-liquid-soap-kit/
Yes, please do add a preservative to prevent mold, mildew and bacteria from growing the diluted body wash! The body wash already contains preservatives but when you dilute it with water there won’t be enough preservative to effectively stop microbes from growing. In fact having only the diluted amount of preservative could instead create a breeding ground for preservative resistant strains of microbes to grow.
Wandered down the comments to say the same about preservatives since getting cleaner is the point.
I go through a batch of diluted unscented castile soap in 1- 1.5 weeks and use boiled water but I’m guessing distilled would be better. Castile tends to leave some sludge so I clean out the pump & bottle with a bit of rubbing alcohol from time to time.
Thanks for the preservative tip. That might come in handy with some of the less waste mix-your-own concentrated cleaners, too, for those who aren’t going through commercial quantities (or at least check for a “use by after mixing” date).
Whole Foods 365, Target Everspring, and Method (I’ve seen refills at Target) all have foaming soap refills for those wanting a less expensive pre-made alternative.
So does this mean Roman could get his own book? ????
Poor Sookie. I don’t blame you, Ilona, for wanting to get rid of Sookie’s smell off your hand, wrist, and lower arm.
I laughed at the Moon Light Path part of the blog. Anyone of them (Roman, Kate and Curran, Conlan, Julie, etc) could go down that path. To do what, that is up to you. 😀
Thank you for the tips.
I wish I could use scented products. I am allergic to about 90% of the scents, colognes, and perfumes out there.
Luckily, most of the “food scents,” like mint, coffee and cinnamon, are okay, but finding a soap or shampoo I can use is often tricky. Unscented or no fragrance added shampoos and soaps often include ingredients that are scented – tea tree oil, chamomile, etc. Can I use them? No.
I am amused when I wander around smelling like coffee or mint, since I don’t care to consume either one.
Yes, I know I’m weird. At my age (72), I’d better be used to it.
I have the same trouble with a lot scents. Even food scents will trigger a migraine sometimes. Doesn’t matter if it’s a natural scent or man made. Luckily it’s getting easier to find unscented products.
I have to use unscented everything, too. I found shampoo concentrate at Sally Beauty Salon that is supposed to smell like green apples and doesn’t leave that in my hair. Dilute it about 1 shampoo to about 4 water. I have found Oil of Olay soaps and lotions that have a small scent that doesn’t hang around. I have found that anything with PEG in it will make me sick and swollen and cause bumps. It’s difficult to find things that won’t make you sick, but laundry detergents and fabric softeners are now unscented, too, so high praise for that. I cannot stand people who wear strong scents so a whole room reeks of it. You’re not weird to me. You’re normal to me!
I have the same problem – allergies to even a lot of unscented products. I finally found some relief with unscented products by Carina Organics. I had to persuade my husband to switch too as his products set me off even when used in a different bathroom. Air purifiers everywhere in the house too.
Anything scented makes my face break out, and sometimes the rest of me. Dove has unscented bars that I can use. Seventh Generation laundry detergent is also safe for me. In the Before Times, cosmetic reps would try to tell me their products were safe because the essential oils were all natural. Well, so is poison ivy.
Our lab has arthritis too (also terrible allergies). He’s 9, but still tries to act like he’s 2, until he can’t. ????
I hesitate to offer advice because I’m sure you’ll get a lot of it, but ours has done really well with the Martha Stewart CBD doggy things (not sure if I’m supposed to call them a treat or a vitamin). I went with the mobility ones for large dogs. Unfortunately, I can’t get them shipped to my state now, but maybe you can in Texas?
Whatever you do, best of luck to Sookie and I hope she has a speedy and easy recovery. ????
Oh with dog meds the vet gave us a pill crusher. We use that and fold it into a bit of peanut butter. We let the seven year old give her on a spoon. If she thinks he is eating it she will eat it. ????????
I use to work at Bath & Body works… college days. There is always a big sale in June and January. Usually they bring back discontinued fragrances and sell them in gigantic bottles. The main line usually isn’t on sale.
I am sure someone already mentioned it.
For Sookie, have you tried crushing the pill? I always crush the pills for my dog and then do cream cheese mixture.
Someone probably mentioned this one too.
Love your posts, love your books! Thank you for everything.
Poor dog! That Song of the Sad Bulldog was pitiful. Broke my heart, it did.
“Nobody Knows the trouble I bit, nobody knows my sorrroooowwww!”
My dogs are all the same with pills. Nothing works to hide them. They don’t even buy the “chewable” stuff. Act like they’re being poisoned. Spit out everything. We do anything we can to either get liquid (which I can force down in a syringe) or put in a pill shooter. Works well and avoids having to put my hand in with the teeth….
Poor Sookie. And Ilona’s arm!!
Anyone know how to get a tiny bit of liquid Benadryl down a dogs throat? He won’t go near a syringe or cup.
Try Mixing with vanilla beyers ice cream or Stoneyfield plain Yougurt. My manure eater would take his heart meds that way. Only that way. Sigh. Everything else went down in a hot dog.
You can get beef flavored Vetadryl chews which is Benedryl for dogs (maybe other animals, but I don’t know on that). It might cost more per dose, but it’s worth a try, if you need to and can.
I miss Roman. He was entertaining. I imagine him as Tom Hiddleston decked in Loki costume.
ooohhh!!!! Yes, thanks!
Wouldn’t saiman get confused then? That being said, I love the image ????
I love the soap hack! I buy a lot of the BBW foaming soap. I will save a lot more money and plastic this way, as I have WAY more BBW body wash than I could use in a year (or 3).
It’s normal for animals to cry, whimper, or make other scary noises when recovering from sedation. Also a great hack for getting a dog to take their pills is to put a dollop of gravy on the pill in the palm of your hand. I’ve had a 100% success rate with this for my extremely difficult German Shepard who has to take pills twice a day.
Love how your mind works!
Being clever and thrifty is wonderful. Thank you for the tip!
Also: Oh, Sookie… ????
Moringa Pet Balance is great for arthiritis. My 15 year old has been helped. He is also on Metacam…. its a liquid and you mix with wet food. No pills required. Good luck. Old animals are hard (says the girl with a 15year old dog with heartworms and 25 year old horse who just foundered…. I will be a wreck if I lose them both at the same time.)
I just had a hilarious time with the dog. She felt that the bulldog was in the house and also insisted that she need to get into the window of the living room to check the yard. A 50-pound dog in my lap because of a video of a howling bulldog. She is a guard dog when it comes to me and the house.
???? love this!!
My cat has allergy and she has to take 2 pills a day. I have to stuff them down her throat too, and yet she has a way of hacking them up and leaving them like small presents for me around the house.
And when she hears i open the pill box, she runs out and hides in my daughter’s closet.
Poor pet. What I make her go through.
Poor pupper. We have a dog with arthritis who hates pills with a passion, he gets a shot once a month for his arthritis (Adequan) and it’s working wonders. He can run again (occasionally) and is generally happier than he’s been in years.
Yes, Adequan is the best!!! I gave it to my old dog with hip dysplasia. As a bonus it doesn’t effect the dog’s liver, kidneys and stomach like the pills can, but you either have to be ok with giving them an injection or keep bringing them into the vet’s office for the injections.
For the pills have you tried braunschweiger? That’s my final solution, and if that doesn’t work, I feel nothing will.
If you can get those meds in a hard pill form you could use a mortar and pestle to grind the pills into powder and mix them into a wet dog food or a can of sardines in water. It’s the only way I can get my dog to take his heartworm pill every month.
I hope your Sookie feels better. ????
I’m all for you thinking about Roman all day, as it could just potentially lead to more Roman stories. ♡♡♡
I love that volhv. He stole my heart with eeyore pj’s.
Poor Sookie! Excited to hear you’re thinking of Roman on adventures!
We have an old mastiff with severe arthritis from bilateral cruciate ligament repairs, and he has gotten amazingly good at avoiding pills. Peanut butter, tuna, balls of wet/canned food of various types, homemade chicken & rice mixtures, cheese/bread pockets, fancy pill pockets – none of them work anymore.
We were visiting a friend who recommended making meatballs with some canned dog food they had on hand (Life’s Abundance Pork & Venison Canned Dog Food), and we were astonished to find he likes this food so much he takes the meatballs without trying to get the pills out. It’s now our go-to method for getting him to take pills, and has continued working for months. You could try it and see if Sookie likes it as much as our dog does.
(But don’t feed it as a primary food source; it’s grain-free which is associated with heart issues in dogs if given as the primary food source, and I’m not certain that it’s a properly balanced diet.)
Wrap the arthritis pill in her favorite treat. Peanut butter worked for one of our dogs, a slice of cheese for another one, and a piece of hot dog for the third. Good luck!
My Doberman, who used to love cheese, hotdogs, and peanut butter, had to go on 6 weeks of antibiotics. After first learning to suck the peanut butter or cheese off of the pill, and then having the pill tossed down his throat, Ilona-style, and then rewarded with cheese or hotdogs, he now backs suspiciously away from completely innocent offerings of cheese or hotdogs. Months later! All dogs are different, I think can be the only take-away from the funny stories on this thread.
I had a yellow lab that ate everything. From live cicadas to dead fish (long story) to baseballs (that was fun day when it came out the other end), he ate anything that he could. Because he was developing arthritis, our vet suggested fish oil supplements. I tried every trick in the book and that dog would not eat those supplements. He spit it out each time. We eventually gave up because it wasn’t worth forcing it for just a supplement. Thankfully, we had better success with his heart worm medicine and later his prescription arthritis medicine. Best of luck with Sookie 🙂
My lab ate a fork once. ????
Poor puppy!!! Hope she is better soon. Nice soap hack!
Thank you so much for the foaming soap hack and the soap dye idea! I have 10 dispensers I have to refill and can’t find bulk foaming soap. I will send positive vibes and healing thoughts for Sookie ????
Awesome hack! Can’t wait to try it. Please sign up with Bath and Body mailing list, I get coupons in the mail all the time. It can be expensive but with the coupons it makes it easier. My favorite hack is vinegar and blue dawn for cleaning in a spray bottle. The husband complained about the smell, till I started using REAL chemical spray cleaner. ….., no more complaints.