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Mercy |
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Dr. Ravis giving biscuits to the dogs. |
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Mercy playing with Samson's dog toy. |
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Samson chewing on the rawhide. BUT when Mrs. Ravis brought out rawhide chips for each of them, when Sam finished his treats and walked towards Mercy, Mercy growled and barked at him, even though Mercy was just holding onto the rawhide with her paws and not chewing on them, and that made Samson really scared. Mercy chewed on the rawhide for about five seconds after she barked at Samson, but she stopped after that. Samson stayed next to his mom for at least ten minutes, even when I went to pet him several times. But later Mercy went over (Dr. Ravis said) to apologize to Samson, and Samson came out to play with Mercy again. But when Samson got near Mercy�s rawhide again, she barked at him again, and he went back to Mrs. Ravis again. So if the person who wants to adopt Mercy has another dog, he/she should understand the dominance/pack order issues about dogs (i.e. feed Mercy first even though they might feel bad about their first dog because Mercy is dominant), and always keep the dogs in separate rooms when they give rawhides, and remove the rawhides before letting the dog back together. Millie said Mercy�s behavior is just resource guarding, and in Mercy�s case it should not be a big problem, because it�s only towards chew treats. Actually Millie said her own dogs do the same thing sometimes too. |
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Over the past two weeks, I've noticed that Mercy's eye is getting better and better. I thought it was just my imagination, but today Dr. Ravis old me that her eye looks almost normal. I'm thinking maybe the entropion was brought on by the dog bite near her muzzle, and it's now healing. There's still a little strip near the outer corner of her eye that's still rolled in, but hopefully she won't need the surgery. I read two veterinary ophthalmology books at the vet school, I knew entropion surgeries are not major surgeries, but they do have to cut a small piece of muscle off when they do it, to relax the muscle that�s doing the contraction, and the dog would have to wear the Elizabethan collar for a week (and I know Mercy wouldn't like to wear the lampshade).
Monday, September 27, 2004
I think Mercy has recognized my routine, that when I brush my teeth in the morning, she would start to go into her crate by herself. I just started leaving her in the bedroom (with the crate door open in the bedroom so she can go into the crate if she wants). When I leave her in the crate or in the bedroom, I always sit silently in the living room for the first five minutes before leaving, and when I get home, I ignore her for the first five minutes. This is to prevent her from developing separation anxiety (to prevent her from getting too excited when she sees me when I come home). Also I want to be there to train her if she does have separation anxiety, because they said that if the dog has separation anxiety, then the destructive behaviors are going to happen within the first five to twenty minutes. Usually now she only whined a little bit for the first five minutes, but she stops after that (as far as I can tell from listening on the audio recorder). But when I came back from school last night, she pretty much moved everything that could be knocked over in the bedroom. But ever since her play session with Samson yesterday, she's been calmer (sleeps more than pacing around the apartment). So I think if her new family can exercise her about two miles a day, then she would be happy, rather than being worried and pacing around the house/apartment all day. I'm going to put Anastasia in the bedroom with Mercy when I�m at school starting tomorrow, and see if that would help Mercy keep calm.
At the vet today, I had the vet do a fecal exam just to be on the safe side. It's negative. He did a urine analysis. He said he did not see any crystals, and bacteria level is within the normal range, but there's enough red and white blood cells in her urine that he thinks she might have a cystitis (inflammation only, not infection), but to be on the safe side, he prescribed ten days of antibiotics to prevent it from turning into a UTI (Urinary Tract Infection). He said the accidents on the carpet might be because of the cystitis, or it might be residual effect from the steroid, and the cystitis might have come from the heartworm treatment. I also had him check Mercy's eye. He said right now he considers the eye not having entropion. He was a little surprised that it healed this fast. He said right now he would not recommend surgery, because then it would make her eye ectropic (opposite of entropion), which would cause her to have dry eye. But he said there's still a tiny bit of hair rolling in, and he said we can sedate her to look at it better if it doesn't get better, but right now he said to wait and see. I asked him what brought on the entropion, and he answered maybe conjunctivitis. Then I ask what about the dog bite, and he said that could be the cause too, he said anything that caused her face area to be swollen could've caused the entropion.. Mercy is 51 lbs, and the vet said she's at perfect weight for her age.
Another thing is that Mercy's left ear used to be droopier and lower than her right ear. But I've noticed that now half of the time, her left ear actually looks normal. Maybe it has something to do with her eye and dog bite thing.
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When I went back to the apartment this morning, everything in the bedroom was the way I left it, and Mercy was sleeping in her bed that I left in there this morning (usually I leave the bed in the living room). So that was fantastic. I think the play session yesterday definitely helped. So her adoptive parent needs to exercise her or have their room redecorated by her. But even with exercise, they would still need to give her chew treats about twice a week to satisfy her chewing urges. But I would not leave her the run of the house when adults are not at home until she's maybe five or six years old and settles down a little bit. Even though my whole apartment is puppy-proof, I still would not let Mercy have the run of the apartment when I�m not around, because I think that would give her too much distractions and thus too many things to worry about (guarding and keeping things in order) when her leader (i.e. me) is gone. Mercy did not whine or howl this morning when I was at school. Last night when I got home, Mercy was sleeping in the crate (with the crate door open), she put a couple bite marks in my new audio recorder, but otherwise everything else in the room was the same way I left it. So it was great. And I assume she did not whine or howl that afternoon when I was at school (when she took the batteries out, it reset the audio recorder, but now I'm hiding it better so she won't be able to play with it).
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Virginia sent a Loopie toy from California, which Mercy played sort of fetch with last night for about 60 seconds (ten more days then she can play regularly again!), and a bag of dog biscuits (Mercy ate about eight of them last night), and a bag of Greenies. Virginia is a cat person, but she thinks Mercy is cute. This morning, Mercy was biting her tail, and the distinct smell of anal sac fluid came out. So I took her to the groomer again. The groomer's shop is actually in the back of the pet supply store. When she was taken to the back, once she realized that she was at the groomer's, she started howling and tried to run out. I think maybe she had a bad grooming experience when she was with her former owner. But they said her anal glands weren't that full. When I was vacuuming this morning, Mercy was curious and came near the vacuum and sniffed it, and actually lied down in the bedroom floor as I was vacuuming it. So she's not afraid of the vacuum anymore.
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Mercy and doggie biscuits from Virginia. I left Mercy with Anastasia in the bedroom when I came to school this morning. Mercy whined for about five seconds, but she was fine after that. I think knowing Anastasia is in the room with her, and not "out there having fun" makes her calmer. I sat silently in the living room for twenty minutes, and they seemed fine. When I got home, Mercy was on the carpet sleeping in the bedroom, and my cat was in her little cat furniture. Mercy did not make any sounds during the entire two hours that I was gone. |
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I asked Chris for some pictures of Mercy and Hope when they were with her, and here they are at her apartment with her Springer, Callie. |
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Here�s a picture of Mercy and Callie. |
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