border collies do not do "rest" well...

It's been a week since Ezri was spayed, and her recovery has gone well for her, although not so well by the vet's standards. We started off with her wearing just the softcone that Ben lent us, but unfortunately on Thursday evening she got around it and pulled out one of her stitches. This meant a quick trip to the vet on Friday to check on it, and that she then got to wear the big plastic cone around the softcone. The vet was very impressed with her healing so far, and saw no problems with the incision or remaining external stitch, so she was let be without any additional modifications.

Then the vet noticed how active Ezri was, and how excitable she was, and finally agreed to give me tranquilizers for her to keep her calm/quiet for a few more days. She had been pretty zonked on Wednesday, and sort-of calm on Thursday, but by Friday she was happily trying to leap up stairs and goad Curzon into playfighting with her. The tranqs worked to contain that, neatly taking the edge off her with a half-tablet and sending her to snoozetime with a full tablet, and so she made it through the rest of the weekend without much more activity.

Yesterday Chris came home from work to find Ezri had some diarrhea in her crate, poor thing, likely due to a combination of the tranqs and two meals of sheep organs on Monday. He cleaned her up and put her bedding in the wash, but didn't put the plastic cone back on her as he figured since she'd be sleeping in the bedroom with him, he'd hear her tags rattle if she went after the incision. This did not work out as intended, as puppies who are itchy are very sneaky, and when I got home her second stitch was long gone. I was already planning to stop by the vet today with her, as I'm going to Bellevue to pick up this quarter's order of dog food, but now it will be an incision check instead of a stitch removal. The incision looks pretty good, it's neatly healed up on the lower part where the first stitch was pulled out, and mostly healed at the top except for a small knot where the second stitch was. It's no longer open at all, and is no worse than a scratch on the arm as far as I can tell.

Ezri will be on half-tranqs today as she is in the car here at work and through her check at the vet this afternoon. Assuming no issues at the vet, I'm planning to return her to normal activites tomorrow (i.e. going out in the kennel) and back to running and racing this weekend.

Oh, and the tech at the vet said that they've only given out tranqs for one other spay recipient in the past...and that was apparently Ezri's sister Indigo.

ten months, and a door closes

Ezri turned ten months old last Friday, and yesterday she had her spay surgery (i.e. a hysterectomy). She is officially out of the gene pool, and will not be having any puppies. It was a hard decision, as I think I've written on here before, but it is done now.

When we walked into the vet yesterday, Ezri weighed 33.8lbs, which is an increase of 1.8lbs in seven weeks. I think she's very close to her adult size, and will probably not go above 35lbs as a healthy running weight. Her surgery went very well according to Dr. Obando, and she recovered nicely at the vet during the day. When I picked her up she was definitely stoned and instantly clingy, not wanting to be away from me by even a few feet. She will stay where I put her right now, which is a new experience, and is minimizing the movement she has to do at all times. She's had no problem with her soft cone collar, and slept quietly through the night. The incision is much smaller than I expected, only about 2.5" long with two stitches, and is looking just fine so far. We are carrying her up/down stairs and putting her on the couch with us, as she is not supposed to do stairs or jumping for a few days.

Ezri ate a few cookies around 7pm last night, and happily ate 1/2 of a normal meal at about 9pm with no problems. I put her back on her full meal size this morning, and she was rather thrilled about that. The only problem right now is that she needs to poop, but apparently this hurts and so she tries and then gives up and just looks at me pathetically. Poor baby! She is in her crate today and tomorrow, with Chris letting her out when he gets home. I gave her a chewy stick this morning and left the radio on, so hopefully she will just chew and snooze the day away.

This weekend will probably prove to be challenging, as she feels better but still needs to be restricted. We'll see how it goes!

first swim of the spring

Yesterday was a beautiful day (as is today), with bright sunshine and temperatures in the mid 60s, so I took the three border collies to the nearby park to play. They all heat up pretty quickly, and since it was warm enough I walked them over to the swimming hole on the other side of the park to cool off and get a different form of exercise. Curzon and Jadzia are well used to this routine, with me usually having to pull Curzon back multiple times from simply sprinting off to the water without me - all it takes is looking at him and saying "Do you want to go swimming?" and he's off like a shot. I wasn't sure what Ezri would do, as she liked playing fetch in the pool well enough at her first swim back in January, but this was natural water and she had hated climbing in and out via the ramp.

I shouldn't have worried.

As we got to the swimming hole, both the adults ran right by me and flung themselves into the water, trusting a ball would appear in front of them to fetch. After the first two were thrown, I turned to Ezri to watch her follow her older sibs right into the water with only a little hesitation. It took a few tries to get her to be OK with getting the ball (the technique does take practice), but she was enjoying herself greatly by the time we were done. I managed to take two videos of her with the camera (you can see Curzon swimming around in both of them as well).

Video one - learning to pick up the ball in the water

Video two - showing a nascent dock dogs jump

After playing in the water, I returned to the meadow to run them some more to dry them off a bit, and took a couple pictures of them as they ran. The one of Jadzia did not come out well, but the ones of Ezri and Curzon that did and are posted here and above. I'm glad that Ezri is willing to swim without the intensive bribing that it took to get Curzon to swim for the first time.

In other news, I have scheduled Ezri's spay appointment for Wednesday, May 20th. I spent a lot of time thinking about this decision, as while I do not intend to become a BC breeder at this time, she is such a sterling young dog that the thought of having a pup of hers was awfully tempting. Realistically, however, we would not be ready for another puppy for at least 5 years (whenever Curzon is ready to retire), and it's not fair to Ezri or to ourselves to keep her intact and going through heat cycles for 5 years in case we wanted puppies from her. I also don't think I would have the time to ensure the puppies got the best start they can, nor do I want to ship Ezri off for her pregnancy and whelping, so that was another mark against keeping her intact. Her full brother Remy and her 3/4 sisters Sprint and Hex are all definitely being kept intact for breeding, and I'm sure at least another few puppies from Race and Dazzle/Prancer are also being kept intact, so I'll be able to get a neice or nephew when the time comes.

But being logical doesn't mean I can't wish that I could do something. It would be a joy to have Ezri's puppies...just not practical. Le sigh.

Ezri's flyball career is official

CRN 090660 assigned to Ignited's Ezri Dax
RUN 5093 assigned to Ignited's Ezri Dax

Just over two months until she can race!