Oh Yeah, You Blend

Well, two weeks to go (+/- a day or two), so time to set up the whelping box in the guest room off our family room so Zhora has a chance to get used to it and get comfortable with it. We put a pile of old towels in there for now, for her to dig in, there are nice comfy fitted pads to go in when the time comes. We can also hang a curtain around it for more a “cave like” feeling. I dug out my supplies and took an inventory and made a shopping list.

Nina helped check out the new digs:

What’s this up here?

Inspecting….

What do you think, mum? All as it should be?

OK! Everything seems to be in order! The Zhora stamp of approval!

Current status:

Zhora: 

Colossal squid:

She is MUCH larger in person than in photos still. She has to kick one leg sideways to accommodate her puppy tummy when she sits. She wants to eat ALL THE THINGS and thinks her lunch needs a lunch. She is happy to go for her walks, we try to go for at least a mile or two almost every day and she has lots of energy when she’s doing things but when she’s not, she’s snoozing. She still jumps around and runs, but is much more sedate than usual. Still very content. We start daily Panacur (fenbendazole) this week, and they are due in TWO WEEKS!

My sister lost her 11 year old Irish Setter Cillian suddenly yesterday, it’s a terrible shock and we are thinking of her.

So yesterday I spent the day in the car, driving Bert the first leg on his long journey back to Arizona, and my brain got to thinking, as it occasionally does. I’d like to write a little Academy Awards speech here, if you’ll indulge me, as this whole episode has really cemented a few thoughts for me.

First, I want to thank Bert’s owner and my friend Michelle Fromm at Caliente Swedish Vallhunds, who became my instant friend when I met her at the North Carolina National Specialty in 2011. Michelle’s dedication to keeping working drive alive, in structurally correct, well-tempered, typey dogs, is exemplary. This breed needs people like Michelle. This is a working farm dog, it needs to retain the ability to be a working farm dog. Michelle’s generosity in lending me Bert for the summer was enormous, and her trust was, I hope, not misplaced. Breeders working together is vital to the health of this awesome breed, especially with a careful eye towards not ending up with a split breed as has happened in so many others. There should not be “show type” and “working type”, there should just be “Swedish Vallhunds”. A correct Vallhund should look like it’s supposed to look AND be able to do what it’s supposed to do, and it should have a temperament you can live with easily. You lose what you do not breed for.

Second, I want to thank Bert’s breeder, Wendy Amon, in England at Pepperthyme Swedish Vallhunds, if Bert is in any way representative of what Wendy produces and raises (and he is, by all accounts), she is doing this breed a huge service. He is sweet, friendly and stable. He’s at home wherever he goes. He is handsome and correct. And he has working drive to spare, including the sometimes-elusive “sticktuitiveness”, which to me means he isn’t afraid to be wrong, and just try again. This is a testament to how he was raised, but also to his innate temperament.

Third, I want to thank Dawna Sims at PSR Stockdogs, for helping Bert get here and back. And Pam Abrath at Fantasi Swedish Vallhunds, who drove all the way to Ohio to take Bert to Purina Farms to meet up with Dawna on his way home. Thank you so very much both of you, for going out of your way to help.

Finally, my tolerant and awesome husband Jim, for becoming Bert’s foster dad for the summer, and my family and friends and work family and friends, for helping and listening and tolerating me in my crazy dog lady mode. Thank you guys!

Now we just wait and keep our fingers crossed. Bon voyage Bert!

Zhora Day 43

So unlike almost everyone else on the planet, the camera actually SUBTRACTS weight from Zhora. In person she looks quite pregnant and round, her belly is almost touching the floor when she sits, and she is so long and lean I described her to a friend as looking kind of like a snake that swallowed an antelope. But in pictures she manages to look quite svelte still. She weighed 28.2 lbs today (her agility lean weight is 24.5), and the mothering hormones are in full swing since her blood draw for her weekly progesterone check today was the easiest, most laid back blood draw she’s ever had (she is a bit of a beast for blood draws, ask Simone). She is very content these days, happy to go for a walk (we just returned from one, in fact), but also happy to just snooze. She is snoozing a lot.

Her progesterone today was 10.2, still perfectly normal and safe number per the repro vet, so retest in a week unless something changes I don’t like. Fluctuation is normal too she says.

Poor Nina has confirmed pancreatitis (we had an ultrasound with the awesome Dr Linda Homco in Rochester yesterday and she confirmed that Nina’s insides mostly look quite healthy, but her pancreas is unhappy). She had a GI panel sent to Texas A&M last week which came back as consistent with pancreatitis, and she was painful in her upper abdomen so we were quite sure, but best to check there’s not something else brewing (I’d planned to take her to Dr Homco for a screening ultrasound soon anyway, since she turned 10, just to make sure there wasn’t anything I needed to do something about, so this forced my hand).

So she continues on her regimen of low fat food (she loves the Royal Canin one), famotidine (Pepcid) 10 mg twice daily (for indigestion), gabapentin 200mg three times daily (for pain, it’s quite painful, she was squirming when the doc was pressing on it with the ultrasound probe), Galliprant 20 mg once daily (for pain and inflammation) and simethicone as needed for gas (her digestive tract is unhappy). She seems to be feeling better and more herself today, so that’s good. She enjoyed her walk and was demanding treats like usual. We’ve been treating it for two weeks now, and the doc thinks it may have started, then started to heal, then come back, and may have been going on for 4 weeks. Poor Nina! She will get the best care.