Eyes on Pup!

Kila loves to be outside. She loves to run and after a run she loves to dig. She makes a little hole and then stuff her nose into the cool dirt.

Which makes for a messy dog in the dew-filled mornings. She cleans up easily, at least. I make her run back to the house and the wet grass washes her clean!

Kila doesn't mind the wet. She's happy to dive headfirst into wet grass taller than she is!

Loki, on the other hand, hates it. He'll sit on the deck or front porch and refuse to leave unless I force him or say the magic words ("Go-go-go!"). 

Saturday morning, was busy. Shane woke up in the middle of the night. He went back to bed easily, but Carrie didn't. She left early to volunteer at a horse event, so I ran the ranch. I put Shane on Kila duty when he woke up, so that I could do horse chores.

Only there was a problem when I came in from horse chores. "Kila's thrown up, like, five times," Shane said.

I heard her wretch several times myself. She was low energy and clingy (both not her normal).

She had me worried when she curled up behind me to sleep. Normally, she can't stop moving!

Shane said he'd taken her outside for a walk. Carrie cut the grass yesterday and there were grass clippings everywhere. Kila, being a puppy, eats and chews everything. I was reasonably sure she'd eaten grass clippings, and Shane hadn't noticed. Grass clippings break down quickly and aren't good for most animals to eat (especially when they've been decomposing for a day). As a small puppy, too many clippings could block up her system. 

Shane and I were supposed to visit Kim and Ryan. This killed the trip. 

We were going to leave when Carrie got back. Only Carrie was short on sleep, running late, and I feared coming home to deal with a sick puppy alone would be the last straw. I decided to cancel our trip (Thanks for understanding, Kim!). Logically, I figured there was a 99% chance things would be fine. Emotionally, I was still a little worried and worked to project calm.

Kila napped a lot. She started to perk up later in the afternoon. She even pooped on a bathroom break, so Carrie fed Kila some chicken and rice for dinner. It was easy on her system (and much more appealing) than dry food. Tsuki came over to see if Kila would share!

That was as far as Tsuki wanted to deal with Kila, though! Kila showed more energy after her meal. She was hopping around by evening!

I went from worried to wow'd when Kila jumped up on the couch for the first time! She seemed surprised, too. Failed attempts had filled her past (some spectacular ones, too!). Kila was tearing around the room with Loki and must have hit the timing just right! She hasn't repeated the feat since.

There was still one unanswered question: Kila had acne like bumps all over her belly. I didn't mention those earlier. Shane was fascinated. He tried to describe (in detail) about how a couple popped and oozed when he originally told me Kila was sick. Carrie guessed they were a reaction to running through the cut grass. 

Kila had an appointment for shots on Monday, so it was a good time to ask a pro. 

The diagnosis? Puppy acne. Not a problem.

Kila's tummy trouble put an end to my plan to visit Kim and Ryan, but she turned out fine. Carrie said she weighed 7 lbs at the vet. She's a healthy growing girl even when she's causing trouble.