The Dog Days of Fall

I call this "Elphie with Evil Ears"

So, Niki's colitis has resolved. But. Thursday night, after I got home from knitting, I noticed that Niki was coughing a little. Around 11 PM, it got worse. *Cough, cough, gag, wet sound*. No barf. Repeat every 5-10 minutes. To add insult to Niki's injury, we trained him to throw up outside on the patio (smart, right?), which meant that he didn't get any sleep because he was still amped up from running outside.

When he tried to get comfortable to try and sleep, it was almost funny. He was so frustrated that he would go and "fluff" one of the dog beds, and growl under his breath at it, decide that it just wouldn't do and move to the other dog bed. (We have two dogs, so we have two dog beds.) It would have been funny if he wasn't so tired and uncomfortable.

At 11:30, I took our Dog Book of Doom (the Home Veterinary book) to try and figure out how to alleviate his discomfort. I checked his throat to see if something was stuck, and nothing was. I called the Emergency Vet. "Hi, I brought my dog in on Sunday, and he's coughing. I can't see anything in his throat, and he just sounds terrible. Should I bring him in?" I ask. "No, he probably picked up kennel cough here on Sunday," she replies. "But they're vaccinated for that," I say. "It's a different strain. Just take them to your regular vet in the morning." So, six hours (and fifteen minutes of sleep) later, we went to the vet, and the dogs got industrial strength cough syrup and antibiotics.

Sleep is bliss.

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