Rescue Journal

you are damned if you do..and damned if you don't..

Carol  ·  Oct 12, 2013

not really. but it makes a somewhat relevant title....while i was worrying about one thing, i found something bigger to worry about. anyway..no one is really damned for doing or not doing at saints...i just need to know if something was done or not.

when i was home for lunch today..owen blew up with liquid diarrhea three times. three times i cleaned his room, three times i hosed him off in the sink, three times i gave him fresh linens.

so i am thinking "what the hell did that dog eat for lunch?" he should have been on canned gastro but i forgot to leave a note about that so whatever he got different would have been my fault. still i wouldn't expect him to blow up like that over one meal in any case, at least not that quickly or that big!. so i was kind of curious to see what he had eaten that messed him up so big. i started calling around to the volunteers to see what owen might have eaten.

well...looks like owen wasn't fed.

so forget the diarrhea...now i am wondering hmm ...how many times do i assume the house littles, oldies, and frails... get fed a canned lunch when maybe for some reason they don't. and this is a concern for me. i have been making the assumption that everyone is eating well at lunch unless someone tells me differently. so if a dog suddenly stops eating on monday and i take them into the vet and the vet asks me when did so and so last eat..i will say he or she ate lunch on sunday..well now i am thinking that might not be accurate. they may not have eaten since friday and if no one said anything, i wouldn't know.

oh..shit...when i assume..i make an ass out of you and me. someone came up with this saying fora really good reason i think!

just for future reference...it is OK not to feed them if time is short or things are too busy or someone isn't quite sure how to feed whoever what... but please, please let me know if any or all of the dogs or cats miss their canned lunch so i know i have to follow up by either trying them again later if someone was sick or feeding the whole crew when i get home if time ran out and they all got missed. some of these guys, like owen are just too frail not to know if they haven't eaten during the day.

anyway..this is not intended to be a beat up on our very kind and hard working and deeply caring volunteers....this is a heads up for all of us..staff and volunteer...i need to know if someone has not eaten for any reason so please leave me a note.

so back to owen.... don't know why owen has diarrhea. maybe he was hungry and pigged out on dry food and it was too hard on his digestive tract..maybe he didn't eat anything at all and his GI tract got too acidic and irritated from being empty. maybe his diarrhea has nothing to do with eating or not eating at all...maybe he has a stomach flu, maybe he has something totally different going on...maybe, maybe, maybe... bottom line is..i still don't have a clue!

i will feed him some canned gastro when i get home and see what happens next...hopefully he is done blowing up.

poor owen, sucks to not feel well....he is such an utterly sweet, sweet, sweet, little old dog!

Comments

Jan

Sounds like you need an animal food list that your staff or volunteers can tick/date/time when they fed them..good luck

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Carol

well if he did have some canned food and that is what is upsetting him..that is actually good news. I don't need to worry so much about something seriously life threatening..like a bowel cancer...maybe it is just the wrong food.

so sorry about deigo lynne...I know how much you cared about him. it is hard to give them a peaceful end but it is part of loving them.

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another Doreen

Oh Lynne, that is rough on you! But it seems like you did what was the best for Diego in the long run. Those are such tough decisions to make, but thank goodness there are people like you and Carol and the other SAINTS and people like them who make life (and death) better for at least some of the suffering animals in the world.
Virtual hugs to you.

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lynne

i was driving home tonight with my husband and was upset. i had just put a dog down that was not mine. carol may remember me talking about diego the dog with the tumor in his mouth. he was very sick i have been walking him for about 6 years, every day and sleepovers. such a good good dog, the kind that people remember and love. people thought he was a teddy bear in the park he was sooo cute. 15 years old. i had a hard time convincing bettie the owner that if she did not do something soon diego was gong to sufocate. finally she reletned but probably blamed me for everything i cried on the way home. my husband jon is very good with our dogs but probably thought oh; well the dog is gone. i feel like shit. not like carol but lost 4 dogs in 10 months 2 of them saints. my husband sympasizes but does not truly understand. it sucks but i guess there are other people out there going through the same thing.

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lynne

well apparently little kim gave him some dog food at lunch, one of diannas nieces saw her, must have been pedigree. owen had some of that so maybe that is the reson. will watch tommrrow will only feed him myself shit life sucks.

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