Hello my humans! It is finally December (2020 is almost over!), and I’ve noticed that you’re bundled up lately, with these lengthy fur-like snakes wrapped around your necks. I wear my fur coat 24/7 and am always ready for winter. Speaking of winter, for those of you who celebrate Christmas, Santa will soon be climbing down your chimney, eating your cookies, and leaving presents. While we all love presents (who needs my address for sending me cat treats?), the problem lies in Fido (stinky dog) getting into the cookies, holiday treats, bacon grease, fatty meats, turkey skin, and the kitchen garbage.
“What’s the big deal?” you ask. The big deal is that anything outside of Fido’s regular diet has the potential to cause pancreatic inflammation or tummy upset, which is often first noticed when he doesn’t want to eat, is vomiting, weak, having diarrhea, dehydrated, or has abdominal pain. If you notice that Fido isn’t feeling well, particularly if you know or suspect he got into non-dog food, call my humans at Tri-County Small Animal Hospital (865) 435-1374 and they’ll get Fido scheduled to be seen by one of our fabulous veterinarians. (Dr. Linda Osborne, Dr. Jessica Hamilton, and Dr. Leslie Carter are so awesome! They love to brush my silky fur.) While dogs are generally stinky and not worth my time, I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t want them to be sick.
Moral of the story: keep Fido on his regular diet of dog food, let visitors know to NOT give that begging dog table food, and call your veterinarian ASAP if Fido isn’t feeling well.
Love bites and ankle swipes, Bella