I Think I Need a Cot at the Vet's Office

It's April 3rd.

With that being said, let's just do a super quick recap of my year up to yesterday evening regarding my animals:

1.  MASSAI:  Massai gets attacked in the backyard.  Rush Massai to RIVER.  Vet suspects a dog attack due to the injuries, then suspects one of MINE did it since Massai never left the yard.  A few thousand dollars and three weeks later, Massai is healed and living happily at my parents' house. About six weeks later, Massai suddenly falls ill (not related to the earlier attack), and it quickly escalates into a very serious matter.  About a week and another thousand dollars later, it is determined that Massai likely has a cancerous growth in his abdomen that is growing at a record speed.  Days of stressing and debating on what to do is followed by the decision to put him out of his misery.  I still don't know if it was the right call, but at least he is no longer in pain.

2.  OLLIE:  Ollie is noticeably dropping weight.  I take him to the vet and ask for Panacure (a parasite medication) as I have had success with it in the past with Daisy.  I give him the treatment and double up his food intake.  Two weeks later Ollie hasn't shown any signs of gaining weight, so back to the vet we go.  After a blood analysis, it is determined that Ollie has a blood parasite "similar to malaria".  We go home with a steroid and an antibiotic.  A week later, Ollie goes back to the vet for a recheck and a full dental exam.  When I go to pick Ollie up, he throws up.  For the next two days, Ollie barely eats, drinks water obsessively and throws up every time he eats or drinks.  Back to the vet we go.  It is determined that Ollie has Pancreatitus, which could have resulted from the "malaria" meds, the dental anesthesia, or a combination of the two.  Several hundred dollars later, Ollie is back at home and a new man.  He is currently on meds and prescription food, both which are temporary.  He has a recheck appointment later this month.

3.  ALLIE:  Allie is my diabetic cat, so she is no stranger to the vet.  This last visit, however, was different.  Last Monday night (March 25th), Allie gets cornered by the dogs during a chase down the stairs.  I break up the huddle and scoop up Allie, who is panting and obviously in panic mode.  The dogs are put to bed while I inspect the cat.  Besides a few wet mouth spots, she shows no signs of injury (my dogs have always chased the cats when they've taken off running but have also always been cat-friendly).  After her panting subsides, I notice that she can't walk well.  It's 10:30 at night (OF COURSE), so off to RIVER we go.  Allie is diagnosed as having two small rib fractures and a pocket of air under her skin.  They keep her overnight and the next day I transfer her to my vet for (much cheaper) monitoring.  Tuesday evening and about $800 later overall, she is given the green flag and sent home.  She goes back to the vet that Friday for a recheck.  All looks good so she is sent home with no further instructions or future rechecks.

So that brings you up-to-date from January 1st to April 1st.

How I feel.

 BUT WAIT......THINGS GET BETTER.

Yesterday evening, right around 7:00 (OF COURSE, THAT'S WHEN MY VET CLOSES), a guy knocks on my door.  Here's the basic conversation we have:

Guy:  Hi, I'm one of your neighbors down the road, and I wanted to let you know that your brown dog jumped your brindle dog and they fought pretty good.  I think your brindle dog might be really hurt.
Me:  My dogs were fighting? (I ask because I never heard a thing)
Guy:  Yes.  My dog got out and ran up to the fence, and then your brown dog jumped the other one.  I tried to break it up from the other side of the fence but couldn't.  I'm pretty sure the brindle dog got hurt.
Me:  Thank you so much for letting me know.  I'll check them out right now.  But are you sure it wasn't just a scuffle?  The brown one can be a bit of a brat sometimes.
Guy:  No, this was definitely a fight.  It lasted a good minute.
Me:  Was the black dog involved at all?
Guy:  Nope, just the two other ones.
Me:  Shit.  Ok, thank you!!

Sidenote:  Piper is an Alpha dog.  She likes to believe that she rules the roost here at the house.  But she's only like that here at home.  She gets really bossy if another dog comes over and into her yard, and when an outsider dog comes up to the fence, she "claims" the dog as hers to inspect and doesn't want any of the other dogs near it, so she will snap at them to stay away.  The dogs have had scuffles in the past, but none of them have EVER been hurt.  And if you take Piper out of the yard, she's a great dog.  She's been on community dog walks, walked in parades and taken around downtown.  She has never shown ANY aggression towards any other dogs, big or small. 

Not Piper.  But okay.  :)

So I head to the backyard to see what damage my brown dog (Piper) had done to my brindle dog (Ollie).  After the whole Massai incident, I was really nervous as to what I would find, and I definitely was not prepared to find Ollie on his deathbed from a bratty Piper attack.

Well, turns out Ollie said NO to taking her shit.  Ollie came out of the woods with a couple of scrapes on his nose and belly and some blood on his body, none of which belonged to him.  Piper came up to me limping, disheveled and also covered with a few areas of blood.  After thoroughly inspecting Ollie, I found no wounds besides a raw nose, some claw scrapes and what looked like a few teeth marks on his head.  After inspecting Piper, I found several shallow puncture wounds: two on her right front leg, one on her chest and one on her left haunch.  She didn't seem to be in need of emergency care (it's $115 just to walk in the door at RIVER), so I gave her a sponge bath to clean her up a little and sent her to bed.  This morning at the vet they determined that none of her injuries were serious and that her limp was likely a pulled muscle.  They sent her home with some antibiotics and pain meds.  She cost me $95.  All the dogs are perfectly fine now and act like nothing ever happened.  Ollie has even been trying to get Piper to play with him.

Because we all apparently live there.

At this point, I don't know what I'm going to do.  I'm REALLY glad that the last little incident was witnessed.  If it hadn't been, I might have thought that Ollie had attacked Piper and would have also had no idea if Daisy had been involved (since she is pretty looney-bin neurotic herself).  I would have also thought that maybe Ollie was the one who attacked Massai - that maybe he has a crazy streak behind those snuggle buddy eyes that no one ever sees.  But now that I know that Piper instigated not just a scuffle but a nasty fight with Ollie, and that she is now the likely one to have attacked Massai (my guess is the same type of situation?) and that she injured Allie (which I honestly think was an accident in the heat of the moment, but still), I don't know what to do in the long run.  Lucas thinks that Piper may have learned her lesson, and he may be right.  And Piper is a part of this family.  But I cannot afford to keep going on like this.

No incidents in all these years between the animals, and now in a matter of three measly months, the roof has come crashing down!

2013, you're still suckin'.

P.S.  I entered a contest to win some gDiaper swag, and part of the entry is mentioning the contest in your blog.  So here it is!  My mention of the gDiapers Giveaway!