ChiSpaniels and Collars

I’ve never collared my ChiSpaniel. Chihuahuas are noted to have fragile necks, so I have always opted for harnesses. Any time I see a Chihuahua or Chi-mix in a collar, I cringe. The last thing you want to do is pull your Chi by the collar and accidentally snap its neck!

My favorite harness for Nyota is a soft one! She barely pulls when she’s on a leash, so there is no need for heavy or bulky harnesses/ leashes. I opt for secure and comfortable ones instead.

Nyota sniffing a daffodil in the Spring time.

My favorite place to doggie-shop is PetLondon.net , but many of their products can be found within the United States if you simply search the manufacturer’s name. When Nyota was under a year old, I only needed a mesh-velcro harness for her. Because she was so small, that was enough to secure her and because she was young and just learning about walking on a leash and being put into a harness, the Velcro closure was super fast to get on her!

Remember, ChiFriends…Harness, don’t collar, and always, always keep identification on your pets! You never know when they will accidentally get lost!

Even more unknown, is the need to properly restrain your dog in your vehicle in case of an accident. Most dog restraints FAIL. I’ll refer you to an informative article as well as a link to the best-rated dog safety harness for vehicles:

Read this for info on what happens when your dog is in your car during an accident:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/hannahelliott/2013/10/28/the-best-seat-belts-for-your-dog/

Read this for info on purchasing SleepyPod’s ClickIt dog retraints:

http://sleepypod.com/clickit

Insect Bite on My Dog

I never leave Nyota alone. She has very bad separation anxiety, even when I leave her with a pet sitter.  Besides that, I’m also concerned with leaving her alone in a house…what if a fire broke out? Is it fair to leave my dogs locked in a house where they would die? No…so, they go to the pet sitter, even if I’m just going to the grocery store. (Yes, I’m paranoid.)

A week after Nyota’s annual check-up, I returned to the pet sitter’s to find that her mouth was swollen. No one had seen her digest or be bitten by anything. I frantically called the vet. I wasn’t very calm, to be honest.  They instructed me to administer her some Benedryl and monitor her.

The Benedryl did reduce the swelling.  Later that night, she vomited three times. I contacted the vet again and they agreed to see her. This isn’t the first time I’ve taken a dog to the vet for a bug bite. My other dog still has a scar from where ‘something’ bit her. (The vet thought it was a spider.)

There was no visible bite on Nyota. She seemed to be swallowing both food and water okay.  They rectally took her temperature and after that, her visit didn’t go well. She was so irritated from having the thermometer shoved up her bum that she didn’t want examined any more. They actually had to take her from me to another room to administer her shots. They gave her IM Benedryl, a Steroid, and two shots for nausea. I was instructed to take her food away for the rest of the night and only offer her boiled chicken/ hamburg mixed with white rice.

We went home and had a diarrhea filled weekend. Thankfully I still had a pack of pee pads on hand from when she was a puppy, because she literally ran to them and had diarrhea every 30 minutes for most of the next 24 hours. I kept her on the boiled meat/ white rice diet for two days, and she was exceptionally sleepy/ not herself. The bite occurred on a Friday, and by Monday, she was nearly herself again.

I still have no idea what bit Nyota. She was indoors when it happened, but any insect can find its way into any home, at any time, so the possibilities are endless.

From this experiment, I learned I needed to always keep a few things on hand, such as Benedryl (make sure it doesn’t expire!), pee pads, and a syringe to administer liquid medications since my dog won’t easily swallow pills.