Almost Playful

Box: I had to be gone most of the day today. I still haven't seen any of Rem's #2 so I don't know whether he's still miserably diarrheaic. He was happy to see me but still a bit subdued. When we went out into the yard and I offered him a box, he jumped down into full play/scramble mode, pounced on the box-- and walked away. Got a drink of water. Spent a couple of minutes gagging.

Breakfast and dinner: I didn't have time to make more chicken, so for breakfast I tried the canned chicken-like stuff and some kibble again. He took one mouthful and walked away, but hung around looking like wanted *something*. He ate about 2/3 of an English muffin, then I gave him several handfuls of doggie junk food (Rollover-equivalent (Science Diet version, I think)) and he ate those quite handily. So he didn't have much to eat all day. This evening, gave him the same bowl with the same stuff from the fridge. He thought about it for a while, sniffed at it, looked at the other dogs, then finally ate the whole thing, even the kibble.

That was only half a can of the dog food, though, and according to the label he shd be getting 1.5-2 cans daily. Therefore, I spooned a bit more into his bowl. Sniffed, wouldn't eat it, but wanted to know what I had in the can in my hand. Soooooo I scooped the stuff out one spoonful at a time and let him eat from the spoon. Got almost all of the rest of the can down that way before he turned away and left the room. (These are the big cans. So it actually seems like a lot of food to me.)

Tricks and mixed signals: After a while, we did tricks in the living room. Mixed signals. He looked alert and did what was requested and ate the doggie junk food quite happily. But when standing, his butt looked tucked under, and his tail never came up at all. So front end looked ok, back end not happy. And here's the thing I can't figure out: the limp wrist. I commented last week or the week before that I'd never had a limp-wristed shake from a dog before Rem offered it at that time. Well, tonight, too, the paws were very limp. The high-five didn't get more than about waist-high. And when I asked him to do hang-10 (both front paws hanging over my arm), he'd only put one there, even while sitting down.

Tummy? He's been doing more gagging this evening, but nothing's coming up. Have given him Pepcid A/C and kaopectate today.

Nursing on the Squirrel:Here's the GOOD thing. When I later got out the Special Toy Box and extracted his giant furry squirrel, he didn't get up off his bed. His ears didn't come up. But his eyes looked like he was interested--I don't know how I can tell the difference between ears back/miserable and ears back/interested. But I can. So I wiggled it around on his bed a bit, and he finally grabbed it, pulled a very little bit of tug-o-war, and then settled in to nurse on it for about 20 minutes. That's a GOOD long episode, and he usually won't nurse on a furry thing unless he's feeling contented, and the more he feels right with the world, the longer he nurses. Of course, now, he's probably making up for lost time. But this is the first time in over a week, I think.

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