Hanna's Paw Ulcer (The Continuing Saga)

Yep, it is back. On the other paw. I kept beating myself why I didn't buy 2 more Thera-Paw booties instead of additional one only. My theory is that since greys are very thin-skinned, Hanna is a typical example, and with all the ash tree seeds with pointy ends (more like needle-like) everywhere, her paw got scratched, got licked and wet and voila, got infected!

We are now on day 4 of having 4 booties on her. We are doing conservative management (conserve money of the owners, kidding, just keeping the wound clean, disinfected and dry) because the first 2 episodes in the other paw racked us up a hefty vet bill to the tune of more than 2K (vet fee, diagnostics, blood work and antibiotics). We love our critters but they get expensive.

So I am keeping my fingers crossed. Even our very experienced vet is puzzled by this. Last thing I want is another hole on my dog's skin (FNAB of lymph node).

Summer & Early Fall Flowers

Our backyard is still a work in progress but husband & I enjoy seeing everything in good health and just going nuts with flowers.







Calendula-started out as a seed from my Seeds of Change packet.


Gaillarda-bought from the farmers' market around July in a 3 inch pot. This is one of our favorites because it has gotten bigger and has flowered abundantly since we added it to our flower bed.


Lobelia-tiny dark blue flowers that just kept going (planted around late spring)


Cosmos


Scarlet zinnia with cayenne pepper (the deer has decimated some of my zinnias and i'd like to enjoy at least some of them, the zinnias, I mean).


Purple coneflower

Bed Envy?

That's Sebastian on one of the dog beds and



that's Hanna on the cat bed.

Spring & Summer Blooms

This spring, we enjoyed the daffodils that we planted last fall. They were a gift from my dear MIL. The flowers were amazingly beautiful and some were so fragrant too. The grape hyacinths that we planted with them didn't do quite well though. Latter part of May, we had the rhodondendrons (3 big bushes) going nuts with light purple flowers, they were such a sight to behold. Summer came and we are now enjoying the dianthuses which suffered a minor setback early on because a rabbit ate more than 10 flower buds.

Then we planted some perennials under our Japanese maple tree, shastas,Japanese iris, feverfew, pentermon husker red, purple coneflower and hostas...

The shasta daisies that we started from seeds 2 years ago is loaded with flowers. And the moon flower (blooms open at night) also has lots of flower buds. The black-eyed susans that we planted last fall are also putting on a good show....

Blooms aplenty--just one of the beauties of summer.

The Catfather

Dear husband & I thought that among our 4 furry family members, Hanna is the queen bee or the alpha. Two days ago, we were reminded that despite Hanna weighing 65 lbs. and Louie 76 lbs., the boss of them all is Ringo at 15 lbs, (yep, he lost a whopping 4 lbs last year!). I was giving the greys their dinner yesterday when I caught Ringo just devouring Hanna's food and Hanna looking up at me as if saying" Mom, uh, help, Ringo is eating my food!". I picked Ringo up, gave him some cat treats and let Hanna eat her meal- peacefully.

Scalibor

As we move into the warmer months, we are back to our routine flea & tick preventive care--once a month Frontline Plus. Our vet though is skeptical about these one time application mode of protection, she even called it kinda like putting water on your dog. We never had any problems with these bugs while we were on Frontline.

And so we were introduced to Scalibor. It is an anti-tick & flea collar that works for 6 months and in the long run is cheaper than buying a 6 month supply of the other drug. Hey, we always love good products and savings!

One of our concerns was its safety to our cats. Our vet said that unless the cats lick the dogs' necks & collars, there shouldn't be any problem.

Update: It is now July, so far so good!

Hanna's Paw Situation

Early this year, we had a recurrence of Hanna's toe problem. This time, we were on antibiotics for 8 weeks. Xrays didn't show any bone pathology, so that was good. Last time we did the wound discharge culture (E. coli) so we opted not to do it this time. Our vet suggested FNAB (fine needle aspiration biopsy) of the enlarged lymph node but we declined and decided to just finish the antibiotic course. It was a grueling & frustrating 3 months, not to mention expensive because in the middle of the antibiotic treatment, the toe got swollen twice! The last time it got swollen (with bloody discharge oozing out), I squeezed the open wound real well. I am thinking it is a foreign body that keeps causing the infection & inflammation. Anyway, by mid-March, the toe was dry and the node, much smaller. We are keeping our fingers crossed. The picture above was taken after the swelling & redness have subsided.