Friday, January 22, 2010

Day 38

Life would be a lot easier if the dogs could talk. Dash woke me up at 3 AM this morning. He was whining and pacing around in an agitated state. Was he just whining because Dot stole his place on the bed, or was something wrong? I let the dogs outside, but all they did was start barking and woke all the neighbors. We repeated this exercise three times at twenty minute intervals before Dash revealed the true nature of his problem. He had diarrhea.

In the morning he threw up and had more diarrhea. I took him to the vet, suspecting that his colitis might have returned. Sure enough, that was the diagnosis. I wonder if the missing pumpkin might have caused this? Increasing the amount of fiber in your pet's diet is a common way to manage colitis. It's only been a week or so since all the pumpkin disappeared from the grocery shelves in Dallas, but maybe that was enough to make a difference. On the other hand, maybe Dash just ate some nasty crap in the park while I wasn't looking. It seems easy enough to diagnose colitis, but pinpointing the exact cause is apparently very difficult. At any rate, I can now add Metronidazole and Famotidine to Dash's growing list of daily meds.

It took me a while to figure out how to use the Microsync strobe sync system that arrived yesterday. There was a big warning sign on the receiver that said never to use the unit with power packs that had high sync voltages. To be safe I plugged the receiver into a WEIN Safe-Sync adapter, and turned everything on. Nothing worked. I changed the transmitter to a different frequency, and still nothing worked. I was about to give up when I noticed a picture on the Microsync package that showed the unit plugged directly into a Norman power pack just like mine with no voltage reduction adapter at all. I got rid of the safe-sync adapter and set up the unit just like it looked on the box. Everything worked perfectly. None of this was mentioned in the instructions, of course.

Dash is sleeping peacefully now. Hopefully the worst is over.

Dalmatian of the Day


    Watch of the Day