Well... Bailey did it again. Christmas Eve night, 11:45 PM. Ryan and Bailey are outside running around on the hill in our backyard. I'm inside, feeding Taylor. All of a sudden Ryan comes running in the house and says "there's a skunk out there!" I ask "Oh no...did Bailey get sprayed?" Then Bailey comes racing down the hill into the house... and there's NO QUESTION that he got sprayed. He reeked so bad that our eyes were watering. The whole house instantly filled with the horrible skunk smell! Worse than that, Bailey's eyes were shut tight and we knew that the skunk had gotten him in the eyes.
So Ryan, who's still dressed in his nice church clothes, takes Bailey into the bathtub and is trying to rinse him off. He has the door closed, but I can hear Bailey's "toenails" frantically trying to claw his way out of the tub. Meanwhile, I can't really go anywhere because I'm still feeding Taylor, so I fire up the laptop and google "dog got sprayed by a skunk". I find a recipe for a "de-skunker", and it just so happens that we have the ingredients we need: baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, and dish soap. Good thing, because by this time it's after midnight on Christmas Eve, and no stores are open!
So I mix up this "concoction" and go into the bathroom. The bathroom smells so bad... the best comparison we can think of is burnt plastic, the skunk smell is extremely potent in a confined space. (2 days later, we're still not using that bathroom because it still smells!) Bailey hates baths on a "good day", so you can only imagine how much he loves this. Ryan and I were both trying to hold him down and put the mixture on his fur. Luckily Bailey's eyes had started to open, but the whites of his eyes were pure red. I was trying to get his eyes under the water to flush them out, but he was jerking away and kept hitting his head on the water spout. Argh!
After the impromptu bath, he was running around the house, rolling on our rugs and trying to rub his face on the rugs. I called the emergency vet to see what they suggested. Oh, and by the way... a trip to the animal ER costs a minimum of $500! I didn't expect anyone to answer the phone on Christmas Eve at about 12:30 AM, but thankfully someone did. She said that there was no need to bring him in. She suggested the same bath mixture we had already given him, and she said he probably wouldn't be interested in eating or drinking for a while. His eyes might be painful, but it wouldn't permanently affect his sight.
So my mom and sister were supposed to drive 8 hours the next morning to come to our house for Christmas. I called them in the middle of the night to tell them that they probably shouldn't come. Our house was just filled with the horrible smell... and Bailey still stinks too. No matter that we had cleaned the house from top to bottom, purchased enough food for a large Christmas dinner, put up all of our decorations etc. This was also Taylor's first Christmas, which my mom was specifically hoping to attend. Bah Hum-pug, Bailey! We celebrated alone. :(
My mom and sister are still coming, but they're coming for New Years instead. And 2 days later, Bailey doesn't smell that bad... but he doesn't smell that GOOD either. The skunk smell is either out of our house... or we're just used to it! I'm sure we will be telling this story of "Taylor's first Christmas" for years to come!
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Bailey is a big brother!
Taylor was born on October 18th and we Bailey is now a big brother! He's doing great. We were a little nervous at first, Bailey has been wonderful around his new little sister. When we brought Taylor home from the hospital, Bailey even wore his "Big Brother" shirt for the occasion!
He loves to give T kisses!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Sock fun, part 2
Monday, August 10, 2009
Bailey recovering...
After his little trip to the vet earlier today, Bailey is recovering just fine. Curled up into a little ball and sleeping away in his bed. :)
The Great Sock Incident of 2009...
It has been a while since I've last updated Bailey's blog, but today was quite a noteworthy day. Today shall now be forever known as the "Great Sock Incident of 2009"... allow me to explain... this could be lengthy!
My mom had been staying at our house for the weekend, and I planned on taking her to the airport this morning on my way to work. As she was packing her suitcase, Bailey wandered into the guest room... usually no big deal. Before she could stop him, he grabbed a sock from her luggage and took off with it. He darted into the backyard with it and started chewing it up. Ryan and I both ran after him, trying to get the sock away, but that just made him think this was a "fun game". Eventually, he ran into a corner of the yard and gobbled the sock down whole!
At first we were more annoyed by anything. Just when we think he's growing out of his puppy stage, he does something like this. Although he's 15 months old, he is still very much a puppy, and he loves to play "keep away" and chew things. He regularly chews his blankets and even eats portions of them sometimes, but the fact that he ate this sock whole is what concerned us. After I got into work and thought about it for a while, I decided to call the vet.
Of course the vet told me to bring him in right away, after scolding me that I should have brought him in no later than 1 hour after this happened. (It had been about 3 hours at this point). I rushed the 1/2 hour home to pick him up, and then rushed him over to the vet and they gave me the options. I'll list them below with their relative costs in $:
1) Give him an injection that will make him throw the sock up: $$
2) Take him to the pet hospital and give him an endoscopy to pull the sock out manually: $$$$
3) Do nothing, but if the sock causes a blockage he'd need surgery: $$$$$
I decided with option #1, although they warned me that since it had been so long (3 1/2 hours at this point) that it probably wouldn't work. They said the injection was a nasty one, and it would make Bailey "violently ill" within 5-10 minutes. I felt so bad for him, but at the same time ... it was his own dumb fault. I sat in the waiting room and called Ryan, mentally freaking out and trying to figure out how we were going to pay for an endoscopy or surgery. Luckily, after about 10 minutes, the tech came out from the back... the injection was success! They got the sock!!!
The injection they gave him was part morphine so they said he'd be groggy and "out of it" for the rest of the day. It was so funny though... anyone that knows Bailey knows how hyper he is. Right after they warned me that he would be "out of it", he came out and started jumping all over me, wagging his tail, licking my face (eww he just threw up!) and sniffing the other dog in the waiting room. So much for "out of it"! The tech even said "Wow, I've never seen a dog act like this after that nasty shot!" Go figure... we already knew that Bailey is definitely not like other dogs!
The moral of the story is that Bailey will be fine. He is curled up in a little ball right next to me on the couch as I type this. We did have to pay some money today (...that we don't have, with a baby on the way!) but at least we didn't have to pay thousands of dollars for an endoscopy, or even worse, a surgery!!
My mom had been staying at our house for the weekend, and I planned on taking her to the airport this morning on my way to work. As she was packing her suitcase, Bailey wandered into the guest room... usually no big deal. Before she could stop him, he grabbed a sock from her luggage and took off with it. He darted into the backyard with it and started chewing it up. Ryan and I both ran after him, trying to get the sock away, but that just made him think this was a "fun game". Eventually, he ran into a corner of the yard and gobbled the sock down whole!
At first we were more annoyed by anything. Just when we think he's growing out of his puppy stage, he does something like this. Although he's 15 months old, he is still very much a puppy, and he loves to play "keep away" and chew things. He regularly chews his blankets and even eats portions of them sometimes, but the fact that he ate this sock whole is what concerned us. After I got into work and thought about it for a while, I decided to call the vet.
Of course the vet told me to bring him in right away, after scolding me that I should have brought him in no later than 1 hour after this happened. (It had been about 3 hours at this point). I rushed the 1/2 hour home to pick him up, and then rushed him over to the vet and they gave me the options. I'll list them below with their relative costs in $:
1) Give him an injection that will make him throw the sock up: $$
2) Take him to the pet hospital and give him an endoscopy to pull the sock out manually: $$$$
3) Do nothing, but if the sock causes a blockage he'd need surgery: $$$$$
I decided with option #1, although they warned me that since it had been so long (3 1/2 hours at this point) that it probably wouldn't work. They said the injection was a nasty one, and it would make Bailey "violently ill" within 5-10 minutes. I felt so bad for him, but at the same time ... it was his own dumb fault. I sat in the waiting room and called Ryan, mentally freaking out and trying to figure out how we were going to pay for an endoscopy or surgery. Luckily, after about 10 minutes, the tech came out from the back... the injection was success! They got the sock!!!
The injection they gave him was part morphine so they said he'd be groggy and "out of it" for the rest of the day. It was so funny though... anyone that knows Bailey knows how hyper he is. Right after they warned me that he would be "out of it", he came out and started jumping all over me, wagging his tail, licking my face (eww he just threw up!) and sniffing the other dog in the waiting room. So much for "out of it"! The tech even said "Wow, I've never seen a dog act like this after that nasty shot!" Go figure... we already knew that Bailey is definitely not like other dogs!
The moral of the story is that Bailey will be fine. He is curled up in a little ball right next to me on the couch as I type this. We did have to pay some money today (...that we don't have, with a baby on the way!) but at least we didn't have to pay thousands of dollars for an endoscopy, or even worse, a surgery!!
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