"All we really want is the turkey"

So let’s talk turkey… Okay mom & dad… We want turkey!  We want turkey!  We want turkey!  That’s what Thanksgiving is all about for us.   It’s all about the bird.  That big, juicy, yummy bird that mommy spends HOURS preparing for us every year (a BIG KUDOS to mommy for doing this JUST for us!)  Wow… she is making that bird just for us and no body else gets ANY!  That’s right!  When that bird comes out of the oven.. we are going to be on that thing like a buzzard on a gut wagon………… huh?  Well… we’re not even sure what that means.. but if it has anything to do with MEAT.. we’re on it!!

Bodi - Enjoying his new toy

Oli - Having a blast his first Christmas with us!

Beautiful Bodi!

Oliver - Waiting for that Christmas treat!

Bodi - Waiting for the Christmas treat from Mommy!

Oli - resting with Daddy and his new toy!

Bodi - Loving his new toy!

The Boys are beat after opening ALL of their gifts!

I still remember the first time that we gave Tucker a Bully Stick – we had taken him to a show about an hour away from home, he spent the day being a great boy, showing beautifully and just being a love. We saw the Bully Sticks that were for sale at the show and decided to buy him one for the ride home.  At that time he rode in his crate on long drives, and so he settled into the crate, having no idea what we were going to give him.

As you can guess, the ride home was filled with the sounds of Tuck moaning and groaning as he got to know what a Bully Stick was.  Nancy and I were laughing as we listened to him eat away at that treat and we have never forgotten the sound of Tucker and his first Bully treat. The first Bully Stick lasted quite a few days, but as he figured out the way to devour them, they lasted no more than an hour.

This was the first Bully Stick that we had given Oliver, and after taking his treat off to a safe location he spent a few hours enjoying the stick, while always keeping an eye on Bodi to make sure that he kept his distance.

Bodi has had the pleasure of the treats before, and being Bodi, he knows he can dust one in about half an hour, and then he will spend the rest of the time that (either Tucker) or Oliver finishes eating their treats walking around at a distance staring at the treat to see if it ever leaves the watchful eyes of its owner. Of course, we always keep an eye on Bodi as well to make sure that he understands that he must allow the owner to finish his own treat.

So, half the fun of giving the Bully Stick is watching the complete enjoyment of the boys as they finish them off, and the other half, is the calm that settles in as they get lost in their treats and we enjoy a nice afternoon outdoors.

Long live the Bully Stick…

This is from our good friend (and the boys vet):

“Here is my take on the matter:
Since Bodi’s injury, there has been some disruption to the dominance hierarchy in your household. I think Bodi’s behavior represents his attempt to re-establish his dominance. As long as no body is getting hurt, I would give it some time and let them work it out without your intervention. If the fighting occurs in your presence, let both dogs know that YOU are the top dog in the household. Put them both in their place and demand that they acquiesce to YOU.
— Dr. B”

Things are getting better slowly, there is still a bit of tension between them at times, but they are playing together more, allowing themselves to be together at times, and the hair takes a little longer to raise up.  A large part of the problem seems to be Oliver’s total lack of fear when it comes to pushing in front of Bodi to get his portion of love and petting, as expected, Bodi gets pissed at these times.  Before all of this happened Bodi would let Oli do this, but now he is quicker to lay into him.

Today Bodi and Oliver played in the yard for quite a while, as usual Bodi spends way too much time barking at Oliver, but Oliver’s speed keeps him out of reach (the benefit of being 15lbs. lighter LOL).

On the walks both are working towards backing each other up – watch out lizards.

We feel it will still take a while to get back to normal, but with a bit of work and controlling the energy everything will get better and these two pains in the butt will be living the good life again.

I know that the boys love each other, there are times that they show that, but at times, especially since the snake bite, things can get tense, and sometimes there is even an explosion or two to deal with.

We’ve had to separate the two on occasion as Bodi uses his size and strength to take away Oliver’s speed.  Luckily most of it has just been posturing as it sounds much worse then it turns out to be in the end, but we still worry.

Ever since the Rattlesnake episode Bodi has been, how do you say, a little off.  He gets quite a bit more tense with Oliver, and us at times, he seems to be more desperate about food, he just seems a little different… like I said, a little off.

Oliver has had more moments then usual where Bodi’s hair goes up and the whites of the eyes start to show.  Oliver has taken to playing by himself more, going into other rooms to find the sunbeam when Bodi is near, actually coming upstairs to sleep in the spare bedroom while I’m working rather then stay down in the living room with Bodi – whereas he was always hyper playful with Bodi and would crawl up onto Bodi to crash out in the sunbeam before the incident.

I feel sorry for both of them at times, Bodi because obviously something is going on in his head, and Oliver, because he has had to change his style to keep out of Bodi’s line of fire when things happen. We work with them all the time, walk them together, they sleep with us in the same bed – but there usually seems to be a little coldness in the air that just pops up in an instant… weird.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all Bodi, Oliver can still be a pain in the butt, stepping in front of Bodi to get love first, or to get out the door, or even food (which can really be dangerous since Bodi outweighs him by 15 lbs.), but Oliver has a tremendous amount of love inside the timid little needy Vizsla frame.

We still treat Bodi with the respect that the elder dog deserves, holding Oliver back at the door to let Bodi out first, giving Bodi his food first, always sharing the love between them, and will continue to do so, but I wish I had all the answers to this one, and could see what is going on inside those little red-heads.

Enjoy the pics…

Tucker - 1999 - Jim's pumpkin Tucker - 1999 - Nancy's pumpkin

Bodi - Just a little Halloween fun - 2009 Tucker - Halloween 1999 Tucker's last Halloween - 2008

Oli - pumpkin 2010 Bodi, pumpkin & the tongue! 2010

Thank you all for your good wishes for Bodi, and concern for Nancy – We all appreciate it very much.

Bodi’s appetite is still not really there, unfortunately he has figured out that we are hiding the pills in the canned food meatballs (he normally never gets canned food, so I think that was suspect right from the start).  Now we give him the meatballs, he rolls them around with his nose, licks them, and walks away,  too smart for his own good.  For the time being we are using soft cheese to hide them, works for now – hopefully will continue.

The swelling has quickly spread down his chest and front legs, through his belly, and is encroaching on his back legs.  The swelling has started to come down on his face and neck quite a bit, which is good – he doesn’t look quite as pitiful, but from there on back- look out.

The bruising has pretty much settled in the lower extremities, his lower chest and the stomach, turning bright red/purple down near his crotch.  It is because of this bruising and pain that we can’t pick him up easily to help him up on the bed or sofa – the screams he let out when we tried quickly changed our minds on that.  Bodi, besides moving very, very slowly – is having a tough time walking, seems to be in a bit of of pain in the front leg/chest from the bruising, so, this makes him walk like a very old dog, definitely not the Bodi we know.

As can be seen from the closeup, the bruising has moved through here.  Bodi is a very fit dog, so those rolls that you see there are not normal, and are all from the swelling in his chest area – it looks funny as he walks, rolling side to side – and I am sure it’s very uncomfortable for him.

We had him back at the clinic yesterday morning and he had a good checkup – they say that the poison is running its course and we just have to be patient.  As long as he eats, drinks, and does he thing outside, he is functioning – and that’s good.

This morning was a tough one though.  Since we are still giving him the Pain Killers and Antibiotics, and he isn’t eating a whole lot… He had the (dis)pleasure of vomiting everything up about an hour after getting his meds – the bruised chest and emptying himself 8 times surely drained him… Trust me, that stuff is not fun to clean up out of a carpet.

End of day 3: The swelling and bruising just keep right on running through his system – to tell you the truth we had no idea how bad this was going to be for Bodi – It’s like pushing meat through a sausage – It just keeps swelling and moving down his body, leaving it’s marks and pain along the way – His face looks much better, but now his crotch is all bruised and swollen, and we are accepting the fact that his back legs will get it tomorrow.

Even 3 days after that little Rattler did it’s thing, Bodi can barely walk, he eats very little, he drools and coughs incessantly – Bodi definitely took the bullet on this one, as the snake was right at Nancy’s feet… And I would hate to think what that venom would have done to Oliver at 20lbs. less weight than Bodi – that would have been very tough for him I would think.

So, as you can see – he is on the mend, it will be a long haul to get him back to normal, and – DAMN – Rattle Snakes suck when they bite your best friend.

As to the info we keep getting on the snake vaccine – As we have said all along, it is not the savior for your dog if it gets bitten – It is not even a guarantee that it will help at all, it is just a little insurance against the laws of nature that may help out in the treatment and recovery of your pet. People will buy aspirin all day long thinking that it knows how to specifically help every ailment that comes along in their body when they hurt – and knows how to find the right pain at the time, but want to throw their hands in the air that the vaccine doesn’t do anything… If the vaccine helped Bodi even a tiny bit – it was worth it to me.

Doing her big loop in an area that we call Valhalla, she was going to cut it short and head back, but felt that as long as she was out and about she might as well take the slightly longer loop through the trail in the field and then back – give the boys a little longer walk since she had not been out as often with the sore foot.

Bodi and Oliver, unlike Tucker, will try to go after anything that moves, seeing a lizard on the trail is dangerous as they will turn on a dime and lunge into the brush, certain that they will catch the critter – and actually never even coming close. Due to this, Nancy always keeps them on a short leash and works hard to keep them out of the brush – smart girl there. I, as men do, let them off leash and deal with the consequences.

Because we take the boys out on the trails so often, and we have seen Rattle Snakes, we chose to get both of the boys hooked up with the Rattle Snake Vaccine. Unlike what most people think – the vaccine doesn’t mean you don’t have to worry if they get bitten, but it does give you more time before the major damage hits, which gives you a better chance to get to the doctor before your dog is very badly messed up. We can’t tell you for certain that the vaccine made a difference – Tucker never had the vaccine, and never got bitten, but if it made this even 1/1000th easier on Bodi by having it – it was well worth it, many times over.

So, back to the walk… Coming down the trail Bodi spots something and dives into the brush – Nancy pulls him back and instructs “LEAVE IT”, Oliver, now at the edge of the brush while Bodi is being reprimanded, starts batting at something with his paws – doing his best cat imitation. Nancy looks at what he is swatting at and sees the tail end of a rattle snake, “beating feet” as they say, leaving the scene.

Nancy pulls the pups close and starts to check them out, all looks well, and due to the fact that neither dog yelped, she feels like she has dodged a big one and things are OK. Taking one more quick look, she notices what looks like a small amount of blood on Bodi’s cheek, and two puncture wounds. Bodi still hasn’t given any reaction that he has been bitten, and is still ready to walk.

Nancy heads back and has to walk the 2 – 3 hundred yards back to the Jeep, her first reaction is that she should carry Bodi – but walking 2 dogs kind of rules that out – and Bodi, at just under 60 lbs. is still a bit of a carry for 300 yards up and down hills, over the trails. Within a short distance, Bodi starts to slow – and by the time he is about 50 yards away, is very slow, and salivating uncontrollably.

Nancy calls me shortly after the bite and lets me know what has happened, I call the nearest Vet and am informed that there are no doctor’s there at the moment – and gives instructions to go to the Animal Hospital. I call our good friend, and Bodi and Oliver’s normal doctor, Dr. Berry and he instructs me that we should head straight to his clinic, Agoura Animal Clinic – he would notify same and since he was off that day, they would be ready when Nancy got there. We would normally head straight to Agoura Animal Clinic, but since they are about 3 times as far away as the nearest clinic – we tried the nearest first.

I was at the clinic waiting for Nancy when she pulled up, and I got Bodi out of the Jeep. He was quite out of it by this time, with drool running out of his mouth. I carried him straight into the clinic and Dr Kane had Bodi on an IV, had anti venom into him, and checked everything out on Oliver as well, just to be sure that he hadn’t gotten nicked at the same time.

At this time Bodi’s face was starting to swell slightly, but they were surprised that he didn’t look worse. Since Nancy got him there so quickly he was just at the very beginning of the swelling that we would see over the next couple of days.

Once they were certain Bodi had stabalized, they gave us the rundown on Bodi, informed us that since we would be watching Bodi closer then anyone else throughout the night, sent us home with Bodi hooked up to a portable IV unit.

Unbelievably, throughout this entire ordeal, Bodi has not yelped, has not growled, has not whimpered – he went through it like a real trooper, and the only time we heard even the slightest whimper from him was when we would nudge his face while working on the IV – or when he had to go out to go to the bathroom and was trying to let us know.

Bodi was placed on the bed hooked up to the machine, drugs running through his system, and he pretty much stayed that way all night, while I stayed up and watched him to make sure that he got his antibiotics and pain killers at the prescribed times. It was a very long night for me – and I am sure, twice as long for Bodi.

The swelling was going strong throughout the night, and as of now – 2 days later, it still hasn’t stopped, it has slowed a bit – but hasn’t stopped. The swelling has moved down his face, throughout his chest, down his front leg, has bruised throughout the chest and leg area, it’s unbelievable how it has taken him. As of now, 2 days later he has trouble even walking from the swelling, and still, not a peep out of him from the pain. His face swelling has come down a bit, but he still can’t eat regularly due to the pain and swelling.

Oliver has been as careful as can be, he hasn’t tried to play with Bodi, has stepped aside when Bodi comes through and has spent a lot of time sniffing his wounds, and licking his face and body. The toughest part was when Bodi was at the clinic and laying on the blanket while they attended to him, Oliver kept trying to slide over to sit and/or lay down next to him, always trying to be a part of everything Bodi is going through.

So now – it’s just a matter of letting the toxins run their course, letting his little body fight what is going on – and spoiling him rotten with our caring and love.