The joys of pet ownership

Lately it seems I've been having trouble with my pets (actually one in particular-Oscar). Now, boxers are known for creating trouble, and Oscar's no exception. But recently it has been getting out of hand. The most recent incident was June 1 (the day I was stressed about my eye problem, which thankfully is resolved and I'm back to wearing contacts like usual).

While I was out picking up my glasses June 1, I accidentally left Oscar out of his crate. He does very well when kept confined to his crate if we're not home, but if he's left out, he turns into a monster, eating everything, spilling garbage, and creating as big a mess as possible just to tell us that he didn't approve of our absence. On this day, the garbage happened to contain a large amount of food stuff (crab shells, meat packages, leftovers, etc). Also on this day, there was a full package of beef jerky on the counter. When I returned, all food related items were missing and the garbage can tipped over.

In order to prevent problems, I made both dogs vomit, and got back most of the stuff they had ingested. I thought I was out of the woods, but it was not to be. 2 days later, Oscar started having problems keeping his meals down (classic sign for an intestinal obstruction). This lasted for 3 days until I decided to take my dog to my friend's clinic for x-rays and a contrast study. We performed the radiographs and all 3 of us veterinarians decided that there appeared to be an obstruction. We scheduled abdominal surgery for the following day.

So Oscar had abdominal surgery 5 days after getting in to the garbage. And we found absolutely NOTHING (this has happened before, there are a number of theories as to why we couldn't find the obstruction, but it was frustrating none-the-less). I was horrified that I put my dog through such a traumatic experience as an exploratory surgery only to find nothing was wrong (although in reviewing the case there is nothing I would have changed about diagnostics and deciding to go to surgery).

Post-op, Oscar was placed on a Fentanyl patch for pain control. Once he was back to his normal bouncy self, I removed the patch, and he developed a skin infection in the area where the patch was located (on the top of his head). So I spent 1 week trying to keep him quiet (an oxymoron in a boxer) to prevent him from ripping his stitches/staples out and also treating the infection on his head.

I thought he was back to normal, but for the last 5 days, he has now decided to have accidents in the house at least once a day. So now on the way to the lake house, I have to stop by my old clinic and do more work-up to make sure he hasn't developed another medical problem.

GRRRR!!!! Pets, can't live with them sometimes, can't live without them.

Happy 2nd Anniversary

Apparently, the gift for the second anniversary is supposed to be cotton.

The saga continues....

Grr....I have spent all day trying to take care of my stupid eye problem. Good thing I wasn't scheduled to work today. Here's how the day went:
8am: Doctor's appointment. Verdict: Nothing serious is wrong but I have to use steroid eye drops and not wear my contacts for a week. I have a follow up appointment next week.

8:30am: Call my optometrist office. They don't open until 9. Go to Panera and buy a drink. They give me the wrong drink first, then to compensate give me both drinks (woot!).

9:15am: Go to optometrist office. Spend 30-45 minutes deciding on glasses. Go to pay for said glasses and am told they won't be ready for a week. Leave optometrist office without glasses.

10:30am: Sit at computer for 20 minutes researching places I can go that will have the glasses ready today and accept my insurance. I was unable to find a place that fulfilled both requirements. End up deciding on Lenscrafters due to internet coupons.

11am: Go to Lenscrafters. Spend 30-45 minutes deciding on glasses. Go to pay for said glasses, and am told they need my prescription from the first place faxed over. I was told it would take at least 1 hour for the prescription to be faxed over as it was the lunch hour.

12:15pm: Have a pedicure done while waiting for prescription to be faxed over.

1:30pm: Go to lenscrafters. Spend 30 minutes waiting for someone to take my payment for my glasses. Buy the glasses. Told to come back in 1 hour to pick the glasses up.

3:30pm: Pick up glasses.

So, all in all, it took me 7.5 hrs to have my eyes examined and buy glasses. What a waste of a day off.