Sickly Tiger worries Teddy

I had Tiger out tonight so I could see how his breathing sounded. He's been sick lately though we haven't been able to figure out what is wrong with him. He sounds worse tonight than he ever has. He's got a vet appointment in the morning and I'm hoping maybe his symptoms are more obvious now that we can figure out what is happening.

Every time Tiger took a wheezing, gurgly breath, Teddy (who had to sit on my lap too) showed deep concern.

I tried to take a video of Tiger's breathing, but he stopped gasping and gurgling every time I had the video feature on. Hopefully he'll do it tomorrow for Dr Folland so we can figure out what is wrong and how to fix him.

Tiger's eyes are hugely swollen and they leak tears/fluid. His nose leaks fluid too. His mouth seems abnormally red. His breathing is labored. This will be the 4th time we've taken Tiger back to the vet in the past 3 months. His blood work and physical exams have all been fine. Perhaps he had an early onset respiratory infection that wasn't showing up yet?? I'm stumped. Dr Folland has been stumped. Tiger is worse now and I'm hoping that will make it more obvious what we should do now. We've tried antibiotic shots, antibiotic eyedrops, flushing the eyes with saline, flushing his nose with saline, anti-inflammatory eye drops, etc.

I'll update you tomorrow.

Noel is also going back in because his eye never cleared up, and Kiwi will hopefully get an "All Clear" report for her MBD and broken bones.

Dreaming of Spring

The high today in Utah was over 60 degrees!!! It was fantastic! My zoo & I are so anxious for Spring and sunshine and warmer temps.

I opened the back door for awhile to let the warm air in. Otis stared longingly into the backyard.

Then Teddy joined him in admiring the snow free backyard.

Teddy decided to go out while Otis wasn't quite ready to try it out. 

Because it was warm enough, I took Smaug with me to go run a couple of "pet friendly" errands. I took a picture of him on my shoulder when I stopped at a stoplight. He stayed very mellow and looked all around him. 

At the vet, he attracted quite a bit of attention. 

Then I ran in to get some frozen feeder rats at my local pet store (my local feeder rat supplier had a virus wipe out their entire colony and I'm anxiously waiting for them to start selling feeders again!). He got a few odd looks. 

I can't wait for Spring! Warm temps! Walks to school! Tortoises pooping outside instead of on the kitchen floor! Woo hoo! 

Today's Vet Visit

In a moment of delusion, I made vet appointments for my warm blooded and cold blooded at the same time. 

Bad, bad idea. 

First, I had to wrestle my dogs into jackets and harnesses. It's like painting the toenails on a hummingbird. Oy vay! 

Then I had to get Drake ready to go in a warm box. Then I had to get Sunny ready. And I had to load my purse, a present for my vet, an ice cream bucket with a snake, my cup of Dr Pepper, a tote with Drake, and two dogs into my van. 

All those things (minus the Dr P) had to get out of the van and into the vet's office 6 minutes later. Crazy!! 

Remind me not to do that again! 

The dogs were a spastic mess and wrapped themselves around my legs in the waiting room and whined and barked. 

The dogs both got their Bordatella booster shots. Teddy was only happy when someone was holding him. Luckily, he's such a cute dog that almost everyone in the vet's office held him. He was happy! 

Sunny, the baby ball python, had a little spot on her belly yesterday that burst like a blister and her skin was very fragile. And she hasn't popped since her surgery. 

Dr Folland got her poop without any problems. He's concerned about her fragile skin, but we can't do anything about it right now. 

I'll be watching her and keeping her in a soft environment until she has a good shed or two. Hopefully she'll grow out of it. But it's also possible the skin issue is a symptom of a more serious problem (like IBD which is a fatal disease). 

The last thing I did was hold Drake while he died. 

Crazy appointment!!! In the future, the dogs will go solo to appointments or I will drag one of my kids along to help me. 

Lap Dogs

I sat down this morning and instantly had a companion. (Apparently I only sit down for the sake of others)

When Belle saw that Teddy was sitting on me, she wanted up. 

I scooted over so she could jump up. That's when Teddy decided that it was now play time. 

I pushed him off my lap so he could play on the floor. He didn't like that. 

For a moment, they both sat on my lap calmly. 

And then Teddy heard something and started getting jazzed up again. 

And we started the play time all over again. Right this moment, we are all calm and mellow. 

I expect that to last no more than 67 seconds. ;) 

Sleepy Time

Midnight--

Drake--

Teddy-- 

Get the Buffalo!

Teddy! This is why we can't watch nature shows or cartoons sign horses or movies with horses or movies with animals! Teddy tries to chase them all down and you can't hear the movie over his barking. 

Good thing he's so cute! It makes up for the fact that he's a dog of very little brain! ;) 

We LOVE our Teddy dog-- even when he's being a dork. 

Dog Sitting

We've been watching my best friend's dog for the past 4 days. It's been SO much fun. Suzie is a great little dog. 

She loves being outside. 

This is her watching me closely because I was eating, but still starting to fall asleep. 

She plays well with my two dogs too. They chase each other around the living room. Belle has gotten older and doesn't like to play as much. Teddy has met his match with Suzie who outplays him daily. The extra playing has worn them both out. 

Belle-- 

Teddy-- 

Silly Dog!

I'm watching the kids movie Spirit with my kids. 

And my dog. 

He can't stop barking at the horses. 

And the horse noises. 

And the birds. 

He keeps coming to me to "fix" it. When I don't move, he runs up to the TV and stands on his back legs to get closer to taking out the horses. 

Teddy's not the brightest bulb in the box, but we sure do love him. ;) 

Random Phone Pics

My ridiculously photogenic dog, Teddy. 

My new frog tank. I've never had tree frogs and, since I had all the supplies to set up a good tank, I bought 3 green tree frogs. 

Our axolotl, a creepy cute fish thing. 

My daughter's beardie Tiger. He's almost 2 and "pocket-sized." 

Found a box big enough for Heidi and Derp so they could share. Sadly, Heidi still pushed Derp out sometime in the middle of the night. 

Dragon looking like a beach ball because he hasn't pooped for 3 days. He pooped this morning and looks fine now. 

I've been taking Smaug upstairs to work with me. He likes to run around and explore. It's the only area without another beardie for him to freak out over. He has been trying to intimidate Junie, the grumpy iguana, but it's not working. 

Smaug is a very sweet (and BIG) beardie. I'm looking for a home for him where he can be the ONLY beardie now and for the rest of his life. Other beardies make him too crazy & aggressive. By himself, he is gentle and mellow. 

And a random funny photo saved to my phone. 

My Dogs

Teddy-- 

Belle--

Teddy-- 

Belle-- 

Random Pics from this Week

I have three times as many pics of my critters than I do of my kids. Mostly because my kids hate pics and run away!

Here's some pics from the last few days. 

Lucky was having his own dance party-- 

Heidi was sunbathing--

Lil Foot was trying to hide--

Pixie actually let me take a pic-- 

My dog is adorable-- 

Simba got a lot of sun time today-- 

Fred is modeling my new line of snake hats-- 

I bought a 4 foot stuffed giraffe at my favor gut thrift store. It fits perfectly in my zoo!