Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Rockstar Supertoby


Toblerone
Originally uploaded by Martina
Toby aka The Sweetest Dog Ever is finally home from the hospital. After three enemas followed by a disgusting sounding procedure designed to evacuate his bowels of what in his xrays showed up as multiple 4" in diameter obstructions, the vet released him today.

It all started over the weekend when he stopped eating or being able to go to the bathroom. At first we thought that it was the kids next door feeding him bones, which can lead to constipation, especially in older dogs. As it turns out, the problem was due to something else, something else entirely.

Our sweet Toby's stomach was filled with....

ROCKS

Yes, you read that right, ROCKS. Apparently his mellowness is not, as we thought, the product of a secret stash of pot that he has hidden in the garden. He has been too busy eating ROCKS to be enticed by weed, let alone cultivate it. My furry friend has now racked up a $350 vet bill (thank God for the incredible pet insurance I have as a benefit through work, or it would have been MUCH more).

Now my wallet is even lighter, but it doesn't matter, because he is okay and that's all I really care about. So let all human and non-human Powellhurstians are rejoicing at his triumphant return to the fold.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rocks 4" in diameter?!!

A tennis ball is 2.5" in diameter, a baseball ball less than 3".

4" is a rock the size of a grapefruit. Is it really physically possible to swallow something that size? And then go back for more?

The rocks would make a charming garden feature, more individual than any gnome.

Anonymous said...

After just taking my new cat to the vet for the first time and having my very first pet health anxiety myself, I am very happy to hear Toby is better. Rocks are quite a surprise, though. I'll begin agitating for getting pet insurance through my company now :)(I intend to work on the website tonight.)

Jen said...

Poor Tobes! I'm glad he's feeling better and is home now. (rocks??? what was he thinking, I wonder?)

Martina said...

Thanks for the good wishes, Anne & Jen. He is feeling much better today and even "sang" a bit when I got home tonight. I'm not quite sure WHAT he was thinking eating gravel. He's always been the good one too. From Baxter I would expect this sort of thing, but not Toby! Anne, if you do decide to agitate for pet insurance, I can highly recommend Pet Assure. I have had really good luck with them.

Anonymous said...

Brief update- I've had technical problems and now my website is totally blank. This is not good. My e-mail is shot, too. Looks like I've got a long tech call coming up. Thanks for the advice on the insurance- I picked up some brochures at the vet, but haven't puzzled through it all yet-

Martina said...

Oh, Anne, I'm so sorry about your site. I know that is frustrating. I see you got your home page and your interesting links page back up. That, at least, is good!

In case you want it, here is the website for Pet Assure: http://petassure.com/pa/index.asp
One of the things I really like about them is that there's no waiting time and also no claims to process. The discount just automatically comes off of your bill, like using a coupon. Even if you can't get it through work, it's only $6/month for 1 cat or $59 for a cat for a year, both with additional fees for additional animals. I think this is really reasonable, considering you'd spend that much on one vet visit. With all our animals, it has really been worth it (it also doesn't hurt that I pay something like $6/month for our whole zoo).