update on gustavo's health

well, the good news is that it looks like gustavo is just fine.

this morning i kept an eye on him (he was acting like his normal self) and i was relieved when i saw he had another yellow pee this morning (sorry if this is TMI... too much information... for some of you!). so i left him at home in the company of penelope and went to work, feeling like the worst was over.

i rang our vet clinic to speak with one of the vets just for some reassurance. when i described what had happened our vet seemed quite worried. she said that it could be poison (as in gustavo ate something with poison in it) or it could be a serious infection. keep in mind that i have a really good relationship with our vets and when i call for little things oftentimes they'll tell me what medication to buy and how to administer it so that i don't have to drive all the way to their office. in other words, they aren't the type of vets that always say "come in!" so that they can charge for the visit. so when she told me to come in ASAP i started to get that worried sick feeling in the bottom of my stomach again.

i picked up gustavo from biassa and we drove to santo stefano (where the vet clinic is located... it's between la spezia and sarzana). francesco came as well but drove his scooter because he had to be back at work by 5pm and we didn't know how long things were going to take. gustavo ended up getting the works today! first they shaved his forearm so they could withdraw blood for the exams. then he had a thorough exam of ALL his body parts. then we had to take him into another room where they shaved his stomach and slathered gel on him for the ultrasound. what a strange way to see your dog's insides.

luckily gustavo's bloodwork and ultrasound on his bladder were all within the norm. i still have to turn in a urine sample tomorrow but at this point all signs seem to point to a burst blood vessel caused by a mild trauma (i'm sure having your bladder filled to the brim doesn't help much!).

it was an expensive day but i guess you can't put a price on peace of mind.

the big scare

maybe you're starting to figure out that we have neurotic dogs. if you haven't yet arrived to that conclusion maybe you will now...

gustavo is a creature of habit. if he were human he'd probably be diagnosed with OCD. he only likes to go to the bathroom in his special spots. period. when he was a puppy he had to have eye surgery and even after pumping him full of liquids through the IV he refused to go pee until we got home. it was the longest pee EVER. and he was a PUPPY. they aren't supposed to have THAT much control, right?

well, this is the next best on gustavo's pee list. today he came with me to the office for work. after lunch we headed to forte dei marmi (a little over an hour away from us) for his lesson with his dog trainer. we actually got there an hour early so we headed to the seaside to go for a nice long walk (& to practice on everything he's been working on). at 5:30pm we met his instructor at the field for an hour and we didn't get back to biassa until about 7:30. keep in mind that during the day he was with me nonstop and didn't pee once. when we got back to biassa he stopped in one of his "special" spots and finally peed. and peed. and peed. keep in mind that it was getting dark and he was peeing on gray cobblestones and i STILL could make out that something wasn't right. it was bright and i mean BRIGHT red. it wasn't thick like blood but everything else about it looked like a puddle of blood. this is NOT normal. i'm worried that he's brought on a UTI or even worse that he suffered some kind of trauma (jumping into the car? at his lesson?) on a very full bladder and perhaps damaged some tissue? i have no idea. when penelope had her bladder infection she had just a little blood in her pee... nothing like gustavo's tonight.

the good news is that he's peed twice since. one with blood (the second) and one without (the third). third times a charm, right?

we flipped him over and pushed around on his stomach to see if he was having any sensitivity but he wasn't showing any. i'm hoping this is just a fluke and that he'll be fine tomorrow but chances are we'll be making a vet visit.

what's next? i think i need a dog psychologist. sheesh.

easy how-to

here's an easy how-to on how to leave comments on this blog...

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thanks for commenting. now i won't feel like i'm talking to myself. heeheehee!

is anybody out there?

does anyboy really read my blog? i honestly have no idea. i started blogging because i thought that it would be a great way for me to keep in touch with everyone back home. i just don't know if anyone is really reading what i write. hmmmmm... i've played with the settings so now you should be able to leave comments. please let me know that you're out there! and if for some reason you can't leave a comment drop me an email so i know! grazie :)

5 a day

some people think that "five a day" is all about eating your fruit & vegetables... not in our house! i hate, hate, H-A-T-E ironing. *sigh* so i have to set up a 5 a day program for myself to get through the piles & piles of clothes i need to iron. if i try to iron it all in one day i get VERY grumpy (just ask francesco... ha!) so i focus on ironing 5 items per day until i get through the entire pile (after which i go on an ironing strike and wait for the piles to accumulate again... aren't i sly?). :P

in the states you hardly ever have to iron because clothes come out of the dryer in relatively good shape (& once you fold them you can hardly tell if they're a little wrinkled). not the case here in italy where we don't have dryers and we hang everything to dry. aside from the fact that everything is a little "crunchy" (read: not soft) after being hung to dry it's also wrinkled. and the worst part? in italy (or at least where we live in italy) if a man goes out looking wrinkled and frumpy it's not a reflection on him... but on his wife. yep. you read right. no comment.

francesco's mom & grandma iron EVERYTHING (as is the norm here) from underwear (what's the point?) to sheets, shirts, jeans, etc. etc. i draw the line at what can be seen (if you can't see it then it's NOT getting ironed!).

so far i'm on day 2 of my 5 a day program. so i probably have a good month to go before i get through it all. sheesh.

one ugly spider

we have a houseguest. well, i guess technically it's not a houseguest because it's living on our terrace but you know what i mean. i have no idea what this thing is but i have a feeling it's like the black widow of italy (just a hunch, for all i know it could be completely harmless). it has a really, really sticky web (i accidentally walked through part of it the first day) and for whatever reason i associate sticky web with poisonous spider (hey... why is that?). anyway, i have a soft spot in my heart for charlotte's web so i'm not going to do anything about it unless it starts invading MY space! ha! if anyone knows their spiders and wants to tell me what it is (and most importantly if it's poisonous!) please do tell. :)

p.s. did you see that my succulents are still alive! wowowowowowow!

a week of ups & downs

Dog Training

vs.

this has been a week of ups & downs for me...

the good: wednesday afternoon francesco & i took gustavo to his first ever meeting with a dog trainer. even though the trainer seemed a little rough around the edges he was great with gustavo. i think gustavo & i will learn a lot together. :)

the bad: wednesday afternoon when we were at the training field with gustavo i noticed my eyes were acting/feeling funny... thursday i woke up to a swollen eye that was practically glued shut. ick. guess what it was??? pink eye. i have no idea how i got it (i've never had it before) but since then i've been having cortisone eye drops and it has really improved (thank goodness because the very first day i was sporting sunglasses even indoors! ha!).

tomorrow is julie's baptism (julie is my friend martha's baby) so i'm looking forward to having an excuse to dress up and hang out with the girls. :) hopefully i will remember to take my camera so i can share some photos afterwards...