Fun at the ER

My sister, Gabrielle, predicted that we would be in the hospital the day before Thanksgiving. She figured this would be perfect timing as it was the day most likely to disturb her turkey eating plans. It turns out that Gabrielle was correct; Ryan and I did indeed spend some time in a hospital Wednesday night. However, it was not for babies, in fact, it was not for humans at all. Ryan and I spent a few hours at the emergency vet for our dog Cooper. Why you may ask? Well, it began with a fetish and ended with what I can only imagine to be a painful experience (Don't worry, Cooper is fine). Here is the story...

Cooper is a lab puppy. Lab puppies like to eat things. Ayla, our older dog likes to wear pretty dog collars. Cooper likes to eat pretty dog collars. As a result, Ayla was going through about a collar a week and eventually, as Cooper's skill level increased, a collar a day.

To save Ayla from the torture of having her neck dragged around on a regular basis we invested in a spiked collar. It seemed a good choice, Cooper's chewing fetish was deterred and Ayla was no worse for the wear (although she did look deceivingly tough). This plan worked for about two months. However, the appeal of the collar was eventually too much for Cooper to resist.

We returned home on Wednesday evening to find two happy dogs--only one of them wearing a collar. Ryan searched high and low for the missing collar but could only find the buckle end. We couldn't believe that Cooper would eat spikes (how crazy could she be?) but we took her to the emergency vet just in case. Needless to say the technicians found her quite amusing and they thoroughly enjoyed her x-ray--which showed 13 triangular spikes floating amidst the kibble in her stomach.

The doctor was able to get 12 of the 13 spikes out by forcing Cooper to revisit the meal she had just ingested but one of the spikes stubbornly refused to be removed. It looks like that one would have to come out the old fashioned way. Seeing as excrement is not safe for the handling of pregnant women (oh darn) Ryan was put on "spike hunting" duty (no pun intended) for a couple of days. Luckily, his hunting was not in vain because, as of this evening, Ryan successfully located his prey and Cooper is officially spike-free.

I'm not sure if they have a 12-step program for Cooper's addiction but until we find a better (and less painful) cure than a spike collar Ayla will just have to rely on her microchip and do without.



THE INFAMOUS SPIKE