I should have trusted myself!
Gah, Keeva has just been... weird! For like weeks, she has been kinda dull. It was so vague and so hard to explain to people, but she just wasn't herself. Her appetite was even reduced, which is SO WEIRD. I've never seen a dog that likes food the way she does; ask Lindsey, LOL. Her prey/toy drive was still pretty good, but she just wasn't her usual freakish self. This combined with seemingly random stomach issues - and I mean like, perfect poop one minute, to full blown diarrhea two hours laters, with no respect to what she was eating or when, had me really worried. She also even had some weirdness in temperament, which I tried to attribute to her just going through a phase, but she was acting spooky to new things in the environment, which she had never, ever done before. Loud sounds too - and this dog used to sleep while I used a shop vac at work!
The thing is, all her symptoms were so vague and random I didn't know what to even tell a vet if I brought her in.
Welp, yesterday morning, she pooped and.... worms. Tapeworms, to be specific. I've been so happy to see parasites. :rofl1: Everything makes so much sense now, and it's an easy fix! I have even read that beyond the digestive upset, dogs with a high tapeworm load can present with unusual skittishness, for whatever reason.
She's had one dose of wormer and is already back to her freakish normal. We went for a long walk yesterday and she was back to being my unflappable little tyrant. I live IN the city, so our walks are never quiet. We passed people unloading a moving truck - not a peep or a spook. Truck honked - not a problem.
Got home and she gobbled down her food like maniac and then we played tug and did a little OB, and she's back to her crazy self.
Anyway, I made this thread so I could celebrate my dog's nasty parasites, and also because it has reminded me to always trust my gut. We KNOW our dogs and we KNOW when something is up - and they do the same thing for us.
And just because:
"AWAAAAAAAAAAAY!"
IMG_2275 by Traveling Koolie, on Flickr
"Worms in mah butthole? ...Maybe."
IMG_2019 by Traveling Koolie, on Flickr
Gah, Keeva has just been... weird! For like weeks, she has been kinda dull. It was so vague and so hard to explain to people, but she just wasn't herself. Her appetite was even reduced, which is SO WEIRD. I've never seen a dog that likes food the way she does; ask Lindsey, LOL. Her prey/toy drive was still pretty good, but she just wasn't her usual freakish self. This combined with seemingly random stomach issues - and I mean like, perfect poop one minute, to full blown diarrhea two hours laters, with no respect to what she was eating or when, had me really worried. She also even had some weirdness in temperament, which I tried to attribute to her just going through a phase, but she was acting spooky to new things in the environment, which she had never, ever done before. Loud sounds too - and this dog used to sleep while I used a shop vac at work!
The thing is, all her symptoms were so vague and random I didn't know what to even tell a vet if I brought her in.
Welp, yesterday morning, she pooped and.... worms. Tapeworms, to be specific. I've been so happy to see parasites. :rofl1: Everything makes so much sense now, and it's an easy fix! I have even read that beyond the digestive upset, dogs with a high tapeworm load can present with unusual skittishness, for whatever reason.
She's had one dose of wormer and is already back to her freakish normal. We went for a long walk yesterday and she was back to being my unflappable little tyrant. I live IN the city, so our walks are never quiet. We passed people unloading a moving truck - not a peep or a spook. Truck honked - not a problem.
Got home and she gobbled down her food like maniac and then we played tug and did a little OB, and she's back to her crazy self.
Anyway, I made this thread so I could celebrate my dog's nasty parasites, and also because it has reminded me to always trust my gut. We KNOW our dogs and we KNOW when something is up - and they do the same thing for us.
And just because:
"AWAAAAAAAAAAAY!"
IMG_2275 by Traveling Koolie, on Flickr
"Worms in mah butthole? ...Maybe."
IMG_2019 by Traveling Koolie, on Flickr