andy in hiding

jenn noticed late on saturday afternoon that andy was missing. i told her to look under the futon cuz sometimes when he gets upset he hides under there. she looked and there he was but he would not come out for her treats which is really unusual. i put a bowl of canned food under and watched him gobble it down...so ok, he wasn't dying but he was upset about something. remember, andy was probably originally a not at all socialized puppy mill caged stud breeder survivor. you just can't learn to live in the real world if the only world you ever know is a cage.

i checked him when i was heading to bed and i saw him in the dark up on the couch so now he was over whatever was upsetting him so that was good. i totally forgot about him on sunday and it wasn't til late that i realized i hadn't seen him underfoot in my travels again that day..so i looked in the dog room and saw he was asleep on the couch so i was happy again.

but...when i was driving to work this morning it started bugging me cuz i really hadn't looked closely at him and i wasn't altogether sure he wasn't just hiding during the daytime. so i called renee and told her to watch and check on andy...was anyone bugging him during the day?...did he look sick? or whatever. she said he was hiding first thing this morning but he came out for the morning run. half way thru she heard him yelp and he ran back into the house. joey was standing near the same vicinity but not really close enough to have bugged him (sometimes joey is a bit of a good hearted bully)

anyway she followed him back into the house and shoo'd him out of hiding and she saw a very red and sore looking wound on his back and then she called me.

i wasn't sure if someone had bitten him or if he had a hot spot which he has never had before. i called the vets but it was a brand new one in that i had never met before. i wasn't too sure i wanted a stranger poking our little feral scaredy-cat dog and they said i could not sedate him with acevet anyway to catch him because if they needed to put him under anaesthetic and the acevet would mess that up. (we always sedate him whenever we have to catch him for grooming or whatever)
hmmm...shit...what to do what to do?...i wasn't there to see his wound for myself....was it big, was it small, was it a bite or a hotspot????should i tell renee just to start him on pain meds and antibiotics til our vet was back in on wednsday????
but then i got all freaky about maggots and decided he just had to go in today, no matter what.

anyway...renee and ryan were able to noose him and slip a muzzle on before stuffing him into a crate without the acevet. he was pretty good down in the clinic and while he did escape from them once..with the muzzle on they managed to examine him, shave him down, give him a bath and clean up his wound and without sedating him there...yay andy!!!

it was a hotspot so that was good...no one was picking on or biting andy. there were no maggots in the wound so that was good too cuz that would have really upset me. he had a long acting antibiotic injection and while he was in i got them to give him a good general check over and do some bloodwork cuz andy doesn't get a chance to see the vet very often (he is simply too afraid unless he really needs to)...they found he has a bit of an ear infection so he will need ear drops for the next week (that should be fun) but other than that and the hotspot he looked pretty good..and yay again cuz andy doesn't need a dental...we have a few more years before we have to worry about putting him thru that!!!!

feral cats...and in andy's case...basically feral dogs, are a real pain in the neck but when either goes into hiding, the alarm bells should start going off and mine should have been going off on sunday. these poorly socialized and fearful animals alway hide when they don't feel at the top of their game...they live in an unsafe world and when they feel vulnerable..like if they are in pain or somehow not well..they always go to ground somewhere safe...like under the futon, which is where he is now because andy had a very traumatic day.

i will force him out and have a good look at his wound at bedtime and i will give him an extra special treat (like a whole cheese stick) to compensate for scaring him a little bit again tonight.

sorry andy..be not worried or afraid, your hot spot will feel much better in a day or two and you will forget your need to hide until the next thing messes up your brain.....people who operate puppy mills ought to locked in a cage for their entire lives.

A cheese sitck? what a rip off. I should get an entire pizza for the atrocities I had to endure--which include and are not limited to being noosed, muzzled, crated, shaved, poked ... doG dam cheese stick ...