Tuesday, October 26, 2010


Trees take years to grow so it is always such a pity when I see a big and majestic tree go down. We have this really tall and healthy oak tree in our yard (the tree in the background) which was cut down last week to give way to the installation of water drainage pipes. I don't mind having tons of leaves to rake during the fall, I just want my trees. But I guess it's that or our yard will be flooded come spring.

Well, I guess another advantage of having that tree cut down is having more sunshine in our yard--our bonsai trees will be very happy.

Bastian's favorite perch



It wasn't his birthday (since he & Rings were rescued, we don't really know their exact bdays) but he decided to sit on my chair just as I was preparing a brownie. I just think he is so cute.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Nasty Toe Situation


A week ago, I suddenly noticed Hanna's toe (rear paw, right) looking like it was going to burst--it was shiny red and three times as big. I didn't hear her cry (if she stepped on something sharp or injured it while running/playing) or seen her limp. No visible signs of trauma or foreign body. It was just like she grew a big vine tomato on her toe (tomatoe!)... It didn't help that it was raining the whole week (the Pawz rubber bootie kept getting punctured). I was thinking infection so I nursed (povidone-iodine and topical antibiotic) it and kept it dry (those Wegman's medicine plastics proved to be very useful!). Fearing that it would get worse, we brought her to the vet 3 days later. Vet was stumped. She'd never seen anything like it in her decades of practice. At this point, there appeared to be a slight oozing from a small cut at the base of the toe. The vet also considered osteomyelitis. CBC was normal. Wound discharge culture was done. Hanna was started on Baytril and an anti-inflammatory. We did Betadine baths (soaking paw in Betadine & water solution) for 15 minutes 3 times a day. Hanna was such a trooper, just very patient.

Fast forward to 3rd day of antibiotic, + slight decrease in toe swelling. On 4th day on oral antibiotics-there was marked decrease in swelling and redness. On our check-up, we learned that the wound culture grew E. coli ( must be from the sidewalks where we walked on). The toe continued improving but our vet placed us on 4 weeks of Baytril just to make sure.

It helped that Hanna loved peanut butter so giving her the meds was so easy.

Lesson learned: inspect paws daily for cuts/bruises.