Father Dougal

It seemed that last night was a good one as far as sleep was concerned. I managed to get to bed at around 10.30pm and was woken once at 12.30am after Ruby had pooped on her pad (in the litter tray). A quick clean up, a trip outside and then off to bed again. Ruby did cry a little when I left her but soon settled down. 

By 6.00am we had not heard a peep and Sarah was thinking the worst. Perhaps the dog was really poorly? Why hadn't she whined and woken us up by this time?

So I went downstairs and Ruby seemed fine. She had clearly been asleep but woke as I came into the living room. It was a bit strange because she had pooped again but this time she had not yelled us to clean it up. 

Anyway, I was about to take her out for a visit to the garden and she promptly unloaded her bowels on the kitchen floor. Worryingly it was almost liquid. Much more so than previously. I had expected a bit of diarrhoea due to the change of environment but it had suddenly got much worse. 

Rhianna spent the morning with her and it had not improved so I called the vet. We took her along to see the vet (the same Irish 'Father Dougal' chap that had seen Ruby a couple of days ago). He has prescribed 2 different medicines; one to deal with campylobacter and the other to treat another apparently common bug (can't remember the name of it). He gave the first dose in his surgery to show me how to do it. He made it look really easy by using a syringe. Ruby was her usual obliging self and made no fuss whatsoever. 

So for the next few days we need to give her the medicine and keep a close eye on her. Father Dougal sees no real need to worry. In fact he is confident that the course of medicine will do the trick. If not, he will take a 'sample' (not a problem given the amount of poop that she does) and will have it sent for testing. 

The only other thing to look out for is if her diarrhoea clears up and THEN she becomes listless. This can be a sign of a serious condition that can best be described as the colon turning inside out. It can be fatal if not treated immediately so we are going to be straight on to the vet if we suspect anything. Father Dougal reassured me that his is HIGHLY unlikely as he might come across 1 case of this a year at most. The encouraging thing is that Ruby is not off her food and between sleeps she is as bouncy and playful as ever. 

Father Dougal seems to really like Ruby and at one point offered to swap her for his rather unruly Border Terrier.......No Sale dude!!

Like I said in an earlier blog entry, it really IS like having a furry baby. Before getting Ruby I would never have believed I could have worried so much about an animal

Ruby has found her Kong toy after a few days of indifference. She now LOVES it. She is also sitting on command, pretty much every time, and she does give us a sign that she needs the toilet (but we don't always react quickly enough). 

It has been a mad week so far but, aside from the little runny poop situation, it has gone better than I would have ever believed.

Here she is chilling out on the conservatory floor.

Sleepy Ruby