I knew I shouldn't have

I made a big mistake this past week... If you follow my blog when I had gotten Whiskey I was in deep crap. My parents didn't want a dog, we already had 3 cats, and I snuck her in.
I have a problem, and need to find an "anonymous" group. I tend to look for cats, dogs corgis on petfinder.com and our local shelter. And the inevitable happened... I fell in LOVE with a baby puppy whose dad was a full Aussie Shepard and mom was a corgi. He was an adorable black, gray, white marble. I was in love, but knew I couldn't have him. My parents would go crazy ballistic! But I wanted him. Another delima- He was being held at AL. I live in SOUTH FLA for those of you that don't know. But I had a loo pole in my head. My best friend lives on the boarder of GA and AL. She could go pick him up and bring him to FL next time she comes (which is in a week and half). If that plan backfired, which it kind of did she said "NO." She would not do that, cause my momma and pappa would kill her. So plan B: they will send the little fur ball on a Delta flight. AH-HA I win!!! Well...not so much. I knew this was all hypothetical, and I couldn't have him. But just for shits-and-giggles I keep looking him up on petfinder. I look today, and hes not there?!?!? NO!!! I go to the website and click the happy we've been adopted link and low-and-behold there is my little fuzz ball, adopted. I am heart broken. I know I shouldn't have looked in the first place. I know that I couldn't have him at all. I know he's probably in a good home. BUT I WANTED HIM!!!!! It was kind of a security thing to know that he was there, and that there could have been a possibility of having him, but now that is gone. There was a litter of 7 or so babies, but he was the only marble/merle puppy. 3 of his siblings are still up for adoption and if you dare look here is the site. And this is him.

Kong Wobbler: Thank You Kelly

Today while reading my blogs I read one by Kelly of Corgi Butts. She reviewed the Kong Wobbler. On a trip to Petco I had seen it, but decided against it that trip. After reading Kelly's review and watching the ADORABLE video of Gibson demonstrating its use. I decided I HAD to get one for Whiskey. She is going at it at this moment of typing this blog, and occasionally she will roll it over my toes and its heavy. I too also have a video of her playing with it that I will upload later. The video is of the first time she ever saw it, and she has a look of desperation on her face. Now she is a pro at it. Although she still tries to eat it and bite it and chew it, rather than knock it over.
Just another update- we are going to our family lake house this weekend, and I am very excited about going with Whiskey for the first time. Our house is right on the lake, and I'm sure she will get plenty of swimming in. That blog/photos/videos will be following the event.
By the time I'm finishing this post she is done with all the treats, and she is now sniffing around looking for it, or any tid-bits she left behind.

Sigh of relif

I took Whiskey to the vet, and after a few pills and some anti itch talcum-like powder she is doing much better! She still has to wear her cone of shame, but that it just until she stops chewing the spots.
Thank you to everyone that gave input and advice.

On another note, Whiskey seems board. I would love to take her to the park, or out for a nice exercising walk, but it is SWELTERING here in FL. Even if I was to take her for a bike ride in her "doggy-pimped out ride" I might die of heat.

And as many of you know I love and following Corgi Butts almost religiously, Kelly has some great insight and great advice. One of her last post was about the Kong Rocket, and she mentioned that Gibson kills the squeaker in his toy in T-10 seconds. So she got him the medium size squeaky ball by kong and it tends to last a little longer. Last time I went to the pet store I picked up a 2 pack for Whiskey. Yeeeeeaaaa..... that lasted 5 minutes, but it was amusing because the ball kept getting stuck in her mouth. Thanks for the idea though Kelly.

Hot, hot, hot

My Whiskey has been itching and scratching more than normal. She finally got groomed and I had them trim the fur around her neck to the lenght of her body fur to blend. When she came home I noticed a bright red spot under her chin. After further investigation, and some good old fashion cleaning and neosporian application, and wrap it was all better the next day. Crisis averted I thought. I tell the people I work with what I found on her (because she is my baby, and everyone I work with has 2-legged, non-furry babies), and they say it sounds like a "hot spot". I kind of ignore and don't really want to believe it. It was just a rash from her collar rubbing the certain spot. Well low-and-behold another small spot pops up in the top of her neck. (And her collar has been off since the first spot). We do the same treatment and that one disappears too. Now yesterday I found ANOTHER one on her leg. After this I start doing my research on "hot spots on dogs". Yup that sounds like it. This one on her leg looks slightly worse than the other 2 we found, it is a small spot maybe the size of a nickle, but its kind of oozy. We preformed the home treatment and hopefully this one will disappear without any further problems. But they just seem to be popping up everywhere, and it has me frustrated. In my research I found that sometimes they are called "summer sores" because they are most prevalent during summer, and being in 100 degree weather in FL I'm sure isn't helping. Also water can cause them especially if their fur is not dried completely, because of bacteria. And due to the 100 degree weather we have been doing a lot of swimming, and with corgi dense fur not all the water gets out. Another thing I found is food- you can add certain things like omega fatty acids to prevent it or help an already formed spot. Corn, gluten, wheat and soy are not helpers either. Meat based foods are best. Annnnnd..... I just changed her food to another brand (that I'm actually not too fond of), but my mom was trying to help out and I asked her to pick up dog food and she forgot what brand it was and just took a guess (the wrong one).

So what am I going to do to fix it?
1. Ask you reader for any advice and help. PLEASE!
2. Change her back to her old food
3. When I take her in the pool make sure she is dried off completely (...how I do not know, cause she HATES the blow drier)
4. Brush her out daily and scan her skin. (Which we corgi owners know is easier said than done with that thick fluffy undercoat)

A Few Updates

So Whiskey did not get groomed this weekend :-(. However she does have an appointment with the first place I ever took her too, and they are kind and full of knowledge and know what they are doing. I excited to get rid of some of the excess fur. As evidence yesterday at the pet store, my black shorts were covered with white fur.
Also I got Whiskey the pink little booties that strap on with Velcro- she keeps them on in the house but when she runs outside they fall off much easier. So the trip to the pet store was to find another kind called Pawz. They work GREAT! essentially they are just thick balloons. The pet store only had one pack left and they were a large, but I put them on her feet and rolled the tops over and they stayed on. Did I mention they were on sale? Well I couldn't pass them up. I bought them and off to the park for a little trail walking we went. They stayed on fine the whole trail walk- I maybe had to fix them twice. After the park we went swimming in the pool again, and this is when I decided she scuffed her little paws the last time. The only was she could join the fun on the porch in the pool was if she kept her "booties" on. She managed to get them off more easily at the pool so I was fixing them more often, but her paws are FINE! YAY! I think she just got more excited and would step on the excess rubber. Pictures of her in the purple lil booties will be up soon.
Just a side note: the medium (which I am going to order online) are blue.....great even more reason to call HER a HIM.

Thank you

Thank you to all that left comments on my Gone Raw post. Whiskey is doing much better. We did get her some doggie booties (that are pink and were on sale).



She also got a new duckie squeaky toy in the process. She starts to limp a little when she has been out of her house for a while and running around. Yesterday we limited her house access to just my room, but today we let her have the rest of it, which she was very happy about, but the cats not so much.



Here are some pictures of her day at the park Memorial Day:











& Whiskey

Gone Raw

...And no I'm not talking about eating "raw" foods. I talking about my poor baby girl's paws. I guess when I took her to the groomers they got to her nail/feet. I don't know if your groomer does this or not but they basically pummel stone her pads so they are nice and soft and smooth. For the most part I like it when they do that because she thinks she is a lap dog and those rough little paws on my inner thighs tend to hurt. Anyways I digress. Yesterday for Memorial Day we took Whiskey took one of the local parks. Yes it was hot day, and usually that doesn't bother her. I try to get her to walk in the grass but this time she wanted to walk on the pavement. We walked maybe 1/4-1/2 a mile to the racket ball courts. Thank goodness no one else was there and it was an enclosed area, so I let her off the leash and she was chasing after the rouge balls, she was having the time of her life. After that fun we found a little pond and I let her wade in it to cool off, which she enjoyed immensely. After that we decided to trek back towards the car. There were a lot of people there (due to the Memorial Holiday) and BBQs-and of course those lovely smells to a dog that go with it. So walking through all this was harder this time around than the first. She would often sit and not move, because we all know how stubborn corgi butts can be. My boyfriend and I ended up carrying her most of the way if we were going to make it to the car before sun down. She would wiggle while we carried her and so we'd have to put her down, she'd walk a few steps and she would start to drag. Finally we get to the car, load up and head home for the pool. We get home and I let her on the porch when my boyfriend notices she is limping a little. I chock it up to she is just tired, and maybe a little sore from all the running around in the racket ball courts. We ignore her and start swimming and running around the pool. Whiskey is chasing us and having a great time, she also took her OWN first steps into the pool and stood on the first step! The floor around the pool is kind of a concrete with holes in it, and after a while it hurts even my feet. We start wrapping things up and get ready for dinner. Whiskey is limping even worse and she is so tired he eyes are closing on her, but she can not get comfortable on anything. I ask boyfriend to check her paws out cause I just get too grossed out, and worried lord can only imagine what I'll be like with my own kids . He says it looks like he paws have been rubber raw, almost like there were callous and they rubber off. My poor baby. We put neosporian on them and sat with her on the floor so she was on her back. All I keep saying is Mommy's sorry. Mommy's sorry... I don't know what else to do. I feel so bad. Boyfriend had to pick her up and put her in her house last night and this morning I had to carry her into the backyard to go pee. She could barely do that, because her front paw, the worse one, she wouldn't put down on the grass. Finally after 10 minutes she went pee and looked up at me saying Mommy can I go inside now. She is so pathetic, and I don't know what to do. I know in winter they make little snow booties to keep their paws from freezing. Are there any little swimming/walking booties to prevent this from happening again?