HoundBlog

Monday was not a very good day. I had Ken take Tazz in to Dr. Martin to see about the abcess on his hip that wasn’t healing. Dr. Martin cleaned the abcess out and gave Ken a bottle of stuff to put in the wound and a bottle of antibiotics to give him. Ken gave him the prescribed dosage when he got back home. When he went to feed Tazz later that afternoon, he said Tazz ran off and collapsed in the woods. Ken brought him in the house and fed him. By the time I got home from work, Tazz was breathing heavily and was very disoriented.

I called the emergency vet because it was already after hours and they wanted me to bring him in, so I left to take him to Anderson. It seems that Tazz had an allergic reaction to the medicine that set his body off to destroying his red blood cells. He was so anemic when we got there that the vet took nearly an hour and a half to get a catheter threaded into a vein in his leg. After doing some blood tests and checking his abdomen (because I reported it being swollen and “mushy” feeling), the vet discovered blood in his abdomen also indicating the vessel walls themselves were compromised. After some discussion of treatment and prognosis, we decided that the outcome was not promising enough to try and let him go. He was 12-1/2 which is pretty old for a standard poodle, but still too young for me to let him go.

When I got home, Ken had already dug a grave and we buried him with the other dogs that have passed away during the nearly 11 years we’ve lived here.

Ken left the next morning for Atlanta and the Whippet Nationals. Nikki made the cut in her futurity class of 16, but didn’t get a placement. He shows her tomorrow in breed. Butterfly is having health tests done today and tomorrow in preparation for her being bred in the very near future. So far, everything is checking out fine.

Keep your fingers crossed for us in our respective classes. Ken in 9-12 month bitches and me in brace with Oscar and Butterfly. I’ll let you know how we did.

Love to all,

Margaret