Bad Ass Bird Handlers

Ellie is better, so we went to the river Tuesday.

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Little Pond

Three Strikes, but still alive.

Ellie walks the river bank under my watchful eye.

Stupid, stupid, stupid! 

Ellie was very ill twice this Spring.  Both times she nearly died.  I've been very carefully watching her every move on the Chemung banks.

Wrong.

Thursday, it was too hot to go out, but Ellie insisted.  I put her out into the enclosure at the back steps, and sat down to read.  She began digging, and I looked up just in time to see her pop out something white and oval.  I tried to stop her with a command, but failed.  She gobbled the darned thing so fast I couldn't stop her.

Next time I will shove my fingers down her throat to make her vomit.

I stupidly figured it couldn't be anything bad, since it was our own back yard.

Guess again.  In less than two hours she was panting, vomiting and shaking, just like the previous times.  Only problem was, I had gone for my nap and didn't know until after two pm.

Back to the vet the next morning.  Dx:  poisoning.  Likely suspect:  daffodil bulb.

Well, now we've spent about a thousand bucks to learn a difficult lesson.  Ellie is getting her sickness from our own back yard.  Could also be the river bank.  There are plenty of bulbs to be gotten on Foster Island, where she walked the first two times she fell ill.

Ellie must now stay on leash in the summer months.  She has a tendency to disappear into the reeds and out of sight near the Chemung.  She must not leave my sight.

And I thought dogs were able to distinguish poisons, you know, on instinct.

No.  And I could not believe the list of poisonous plants we have in our back yard.  I went to the SPCA site and began listing.  There are even bulbs that squirrels eat, but may still kill my beloved Doxie.  I let it happen three times to my poor baby.

Dare I say:  Never Again?

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Little Pond

Mummy's little girl

Ellie in her beddie, next to my TV- watching seat.

Way too close to losing my little buddy.  Bubble girl that I am, I am convinced that all the dyes in her dry dog food may have caused the problems.

Two courses of antibiotics, and numerous tests later, the vet still doesn't really know what the illness was.

Ellie is better, eating mostly chicken and rice, and we are watching her carefully.  She does not leave our home, except in my company.

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Little Pond