The other day our dog came into the house and my wife asked me if I let him in; I replied that I hadn’t. We scratched our heads and then figured that the dog opened the screen door and walked in. This is something we’ve wanted the dog to do for years so we wouldn’t have to let him out (our doggie door in our last house was a piece of junk and fell apart requiring me to replace the door before we sold the house).
Defective dog
Our dog had his root canal yesterday performed by Dr. Brook Niemiec. Everything went as planned, except after the initial exam, the vet showed us that Marley had an extra, useless tooth that was encroaching on his front teeth. So, that tooth had to be removed which made the $2000 dog bone even more expensive. Other than Marley being on some drugs for a week and having to eat soft food for 2 weeks, he seems to be doing fine and will be back to his normal self soon. As Marley has been a part of our lives for 3 years, I was very worried about the procedure as he had to be anesthetized. This may be a routine procedure, but anesthesia scares me. I’ve asked for copies of the X-rays and once I get them, I’ll put them up. I figure that for what I paid to repair Marley’s teeth, I might as well let others look at the pictures.
$2000 dog bone
No, we don’t feed our dog diamond studded bones or anything like that. We’ve been letting him chew on a plastic Nylabone. He loves them and goes through them periodically. Well, on Sunday we were playing with him when I noticed a tooth fragment on the ground. My wife looked in his mouth and saw the tooth with the pulp exposed. After reading that this could be serious, I took him into the vet yesterday. The vet said that it was a fractured tooth and the tooth was a major one. The only option is root canal since Marley (the dog) is only 3.5 years old (older dogs he’d recommend just giving antibiotics and depending on the tooth, extracting it) and he really needs the tooth.
There are basically 2 veterinary dentists in Southern California; one here in San Diego (there are less than 100 board certified veterinary dentists in the world). The vet called later in the day after talking to the dentist and gave me the bad news; it was going to be close to $2000 for the root canal plus $250 for X-rays prior to the procedure. Ouch. So, the dog is scheduled for his root canal next Friday. While we have pet health insurance, I think we’ll be lucky if it covers half. (Yes, we have insurance for our dog; while it may seem frivolous to some, the costs as seen here, for some procedures are extremely high.)
I hate that this is going to cost a chunk of change (and will likely delay the purchase of some stuff), when do you say stop paying for your pet? Isn’t your pet family? I know that Marley is a big part of our lives and I can’t imagine life without him. I know that his time will come, but until that happens, we’re going to do all that we can do for him.
What’s a Dog/Cat?
I went to purchase some heartworm medication for my dog through 1800PetMeds and when I went to select which pet it was for, I selected Marley (we only have one pet) and the following came up:
I know that I setup Marley as a dog and when I checked his profile, it said he was a dog. I guess the site was a little confused.
Smart Dog
Last night after I read to our son and was ready to put him to sleep, I kept calling my wife to come up and say goodnight, but she couldn’t here me. So, I told our dog, Marley, to “get Janessa”. He went downstairs and then I hear Janessa say “did you come and get me?”. Wow, Janessa thought it was a fluke. We decided to try it again today and this time, Janessa told Marley to get me. He came into my office and started wagging his tail.
I wonder what else we can teach this smart dog; he already gets the newspaper in the morning.
Made in China, the ultimate warning label
Yesterday I took Marley (our dog) to the vet because of some redness on his belly (yes, I realize we keep taking Marley to the vet, but he’s our first “child”). As I was talking to the vet, I mentioned we just bought him some Kingdom Pets chicken jerky treats at Costco. The vet said that they were made in China and he stopped giving his own dogs anything made in China. When I got home, I looked at the package and sure enough, it is made in China. Looks like the treats go back to Costco (luckily they take just about anything back; I just have to pull up the receipt from ReceiptWallet and print it). Looks like it is back to Trader Joe’s peanut butter treats (as long as they aren’t made in China).To top off my day with Chinese made products, I was grilling dinner and ran out of propane. Why is this a Chinese product issue? I had purchased an electronic gas gauge that shows me if my propane tank is full or needs refilling. As I was grilling, I ran out of gas despite the gauge saying that the tank was full. Yes, the gauge was made in China. That goes back to Costco, as well.
Spoiled dog
Our dog, Marley, is one of the most spoiled dogs I know. I work from home, so he has free reign of the house all day long. He sleeps in my office, outside of my office or on the couch. Some days I even let him roam the backyard for awhile. When we leave, he still can roam the house (we close off a few rooms). He always wants attention and when he doesn’t get it, lately, he has decided to pull the blankets off the couches that we’re using to try to protect them from him. He knows he’s done something wrong when we scold him, but he keeps on doing it.
Dog freaked us out
While I was on a conference call today, my wife brought our dog in and had me feel his underside where he was neutered. She was panicked because it was hard down there, like some type of abnormal mass. She quickly called the vet and they told her that when some boy dogs get excited, their glands swell up and it gets hard. Sure enough, a few minutes later things were back to normal. I’m so glad that we didn’t have to take the dog to the vet; I love my dog and will do whatever we have to for him, vets scare me. We spent way too much time at the vet with our last dog.
My dog was a termite
My wife swears that our dog was a termite in another life. We keep finding him chewing wood that he finds in our yard. The wood is left over from an old fence or something like that; not sticks, woods. Why he eats it, we have no idea. I also think he was an earthworm as he eats dirt as well.