Taking Care of a Sick Pet
I'm sure you've all been there. Your beloved pet is not acting like his or her usual self. There is a listlessness, a mopiness, and a lack of appetite.
If only they could speak and tell you what ails them! But they can't, and so, you must put yourself in their shoes, or paws as it were, and attempt to read the signs. Or decide that this is above your paygrade as pet parent and get them to the vet.
My latest brush with the vet's office actually had to do with hair. Under the umbrella of "no good deed goes unpunished," I had attempted to shampoo my dog myself, seeing as I just happened to have dog shampoo conveniently on-hand and the dusty dear had seen better days. Perhaps my rinse cycle was wanting, or maybe the salt cast on the snowy sidewalks of Manhattan irritated his leg -- whatever the cause, he took to gnawing on his leg which created an epic knot. This in turn became an angry red appendage which he simply could. not. stay. away. from. On this rare occasion, his own leg proved more enticing than that of a chicken.
I had never seen him so agitated. He couldn't get comfortable, day or night. I tried to reason with him but you can imagine the limitations of that. I had to literally scratch him to sleep as a mental and physical distraction.
Two vet visits later, he's all patched up and on antibiotics and antihistamine and a soothing spray. Plus he's sporting a boot that looks to me to be top-of-the-line, the Rolls-Royce of dog boots. It certainly beats the makeshift bandage I made him and covered with a sports sock. He removed the latter within five minutes flat, in the pitch-darkness no less. (Note the improvised solution of medical tape on the Elizabethan collar -- a 5-minute doggie DIY project -- to soften the hard plastic edge which could cut his open wound.)
Yet this is relatively minor. A dear friend's cat recently received a bleak diagnosis, coupled with a refusal to eat that went on for days. My friend had to wrestle with the tough questions. How much would she put her cat through? Was she willing for her cat to suffer? In a word, she was not. She was crystal clear on this front. If heroic measures were required, such as surgery or chemotherapy, she would not go that route. She explained that it simply wasn't fair to the cat, especially as the situation couldn't be explained as it could to a human being.
And so instead, she visited the vet. She held her cat more than usual. She administered the medication. She willed her cat to eat. And on cue, her cat got up off the couch and started eating again. Time will tell if her cat recovers, and I'm praying that he will.
How do you handle things when your pet gets sick? Do you try home remedies or rush to the vet? How do you balance your own needs and love for your pet with the tough medicine you may have to swallow?
