Me first, me first! I always stop here and look for coyotes when we're walking. They come right up to the creek and say rude things...it makes the hair on my back stand up!
Mom went to Yellowstone and left me with Grandma! I was so bored that I unstuffed the couch and buried the vegetable garden. Grandma said that I am a naughty girl but I'm not so bad, really.
In this picture I have my favorite stick. Grandma throws it off the deck into the creek bed, but I always find it again. They try to trade a carrot for my stick, but No Deal!
When mom got back, she brought elk jerky and buffalo jerky for Jaeger and me. I got most of the buffalo jerky because I opened it myself!
Jaeger got a Kool Koat to wear when the weather gets really hot. I don't think I like it, but Jaeger does when it's warm. And mom thinks it's great. It's a wet chamois cape that buckles on. Mom got it from Mindy Wilson, KiasRKid on Flickr because she worries about Jaeger getting too hot on our walk. I told Jaeger that he can always stay home, but he doesn't want to do that. He wants to spy on me.
Note from Mom: Mindy's Kool Koats can be seen on Flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kiasrkid/sets/72157600648946716/
Blanche was bitten by an unidentified snake and rushed to the vet, who said Blanche would be at the clinic for about three days. Blanche’s vet used an aggressive intravenous (IV) fluid protocol she’s had good luck with previously for venomous bites.
“They gave Blanche a shot of some type of anti-inflammatory, a shot of pain killer, a shot of antibiotic, and then started her on an IV for fluid therapy. The drip was set pretty fast at the beginning in order to get it to the kidneys quickly, and then I suppose it was backed off after a time. They kept the fluids going for about 24 hours and then checked her blood work and level of swelling.” Blanche was very lucky and the swelling went down; she was even released from the hospital a day early. “Then she was on antibiotics (Baytril) for 10 days and pain killers (Metacam) until I could see that she wasn't in pain and the swelling was totally gone, which happened a few days after coming home.” Snake bites are quite painful.
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While antivenin is available for veterinary use, it would have cost Johnson in excess of $800 style and the veterinarian has to know what type of snake bit Blanche if the antivenin were to have a chance of doing any good. “You have 72 hours to make the decision about antivenin,” says Johnson. “If after a day or so there is no progress with fluid therapy, it might make sense to try the antivenin if you have the money to give it a try.” Since Blanche did well with fluid therapy, there was no need for antivenin.
