31 August 2009

Nothing Good Starts With Doggy Projectile Vomit

For the past couple weeks, Zero was puking little pukes late at night. Most were so small that he just swallowed them back down, so we only had the glurpy sounds with which to deduce what his innards were doing. Since it it was such small amounts and he has a tendency to lick unidentifiable substances on the sidewalk, we decided to just keep an eye on him for the time being. But before he reached the predetermined upper time limit for discontinuing late night barfs, IT CAME FROM WITHIN!

There we were, walking the dogs when Zero makes the most bizarre noise. SPEW! I'm not exaggerating when I say it landed over a foot away from him. Matt and I just stood there, looking back and forth between the seemingly content mutt and the splatter of puke. It was all liquid, so there wasn't much we could do to clean up the sidewalk. I suppose we could have gotten a hose and hooked it up to a neighbor's spigot, but that would have put us in the seriously creepy category. Feeling a bit guilty, we left it and headed home. My one consolation is that no one will ever know it was Zero since you can't dust for vomit.

Fast forward two days to Sunday at high noon, the first appointment I could get. The vet took a look at Minimutt and declared him to be alive. A couple of Pepcid AC tablets and he'd be done with his reverse eating. Oh, and he has fleas.

"FLEAS?! No, really? Fleas?"

"Yes, fleas. See? Here's one?"

Let the panicking begin! Apparently fleas like really warm weather, such as the blistering August heat in southern California. At the same time, monthly flea preventatives (Frontline, Advantix, et cetera) start fading in the third week after application. When these two forces combine, mutts get fleas and everyone is miserable!

Zero had very recently acquired his since there weren't any eggs or droppings or something else I forgot. We hadn't seen him chewing himself more than usual, so if I hadn't taken him to the vet, we wouldn't have found out for awhile. As for Bigmutt, Tawny was guaranteed to have her own set living in her princess fur. Yay!

There's an amazing pill that kills all fleas in 15 minutes. Armed with one per dog and a bottle of vet-quality flea killing medicated shampoo, Zero and I headed home.

Shocking, the pills were immediately doled out. I barely waited 15 minutes before I got to work with a Furminator (best fur brush ever) while Matt prevented escape. Then came the baths, during which four creatures were thoroughly soaked. That just left cleaning everything in the house.

Finally a benefit to annoying hardwood throughout the house! Only two throw rugs had to be shampooed. Oh, and the couch. The doggy beds were deemed in need of replacement anyway, so they were tossed. The floor mats by the living room doors were falling apart, entitling them to join the beds. The stuffed dog toys, well, they can be machine washed, but that doesn't mean they should be. Out they went. The rubber toys were washed, along with everything else that would fit in the washer.

After ditching half the mutts' stuff, it was time to replace it all! It took three pet stores to find all their favorite toys and acceptable beds. It was horrible. The markup on chew toys is absolutely ridiculous, but that's nothing compared to the markup on the bed. $103 for both, after a 10% discount! Obscene! Outrageous! No way we were going to another store this late on a Sunday!

No tale of new dog toys is complete without pictures.


Zero testing his new bed and purple monkey.


Excuse me? What's this?


I'm not sure I approve.


Tawny has made her decision.

1 comment:

farniks said...

awesome! I'm so glad you put your training received from the school of Spinal Tap forensics to excellent use.