Garbage can-itis averted

The Villain: Calvin Holtslag

The Crime: Tearing the garbage apart, spreading it wall to wall and trying to eat the meat soaked styrofoam

The Story: Quinn was making out dogs their food. Great food, lots of beef, livers, sweet potatoes, peas, bananas, apples and tomatoes. Whenever we pull out the big turkey roaster, the dogs go crazy because they know whatever we're doing it's all for them. The recipes I listed in previous posts here and here were smaller versions of the ones we typically make at home. If we're doing a beef recipe, we usually start with 10 lbs of meat and it all gets cooked together in a huge turkey roaster. That way, the all of the nutrients stays in the roaster and isn't lost by boiling veggies separately, not to mention it makes an nice gravy that bastes all of the other ingredients. Anyhow, Quinn packaged up all of the beef styrofoam containers, of which there were many because small packages of beef were on sale, in a bag and set it beside the garbage. I guess that makes US the villains for not being smarter about our garbage. None the less, it was the biggest mess I've EVER seen. Styrofoam, plastic, water from the meat packages spread everywhere, you could barely see the floor. We walked in and there was Calvin, hunched over, tail tucked, ears back, walking on his tip toes. We hadn't seen the mess yet but we knew something was wrong Now, when I was in school taking my Veterinary Technologist course, our instructor was adamant that dogs do not have a guilty conscience. She said we over "Disney-fide" pets, gave them too much credit for human like feelings and that there was no way a dog feels guilt. Hmmmmm....

This morning Quinn says on his way back from taking the dogs on their off leash walk, Calvin gave him the slip and took off back to the woods, hid behind a tree and took a fast poop, which was full of styrofoam. Quinn thinks he was trying to hide the evidence from him. Okay...this might be an example of "Disney-fication".

The serious note to this story is that garbage poses a serious danger to your dogs; it can be a lifestyle cause of pancreatitis. Pancreatitis can be caused by obesity, diabetes and some medications but a common trigger of acute pancreatitis is cooked fatty foods often found in the garbage (called "garbage can-itis"). Acute pancreatitis makes the dog very ill and can easily be fatal without immediate treatment which is often IV fluids and gut rest. When I worked in the veterinary clinic, we'd often see Beagles in for pancreatitis due to a garbage raid but apparently Yorkshire Terriers are a high risk breed for the infection. Once your dog develops pancreatits, he is predisposed to bouts in the future and can lead to diabetes since the pancreas produces insulin.

Moral of the Story: Make sure your dog can't get into the garbage. We were lucky. It was a pretty funny scene in the kitchen but we kept a close watch on Calvin overnight to make sure no signs developed...which was Quinn's excuse why Calvin needed to sleep under the covers with him (stuffed animal-fication?)

Comments

[Debbie Strange]

hi guys: We're so glad that Calvin is OK. Hope all is going well out there in lotus-land. We're really enjoying the blog, but it's not the same as having you here!

love,
L&D&Daisy
p.s. haven't got around to sending your Mom the Cash pix yet, but they will arrive at some point! (extra hugs and kisses to our little angel-boy nephew)

[Kal Barteski]

Bad dog!! He's lucky he's so cute. We miss those guys - AND YOU!

I want to know if you can make cat food. AND I want to know if you can give Lucky Dog treats to cats. Can ya?

[Shayla Vokey]

oooooohh! the stupid garbage can!
stella is obsessed with it.
she will try to go in it even if we are standing right beside her!
we're thinking of getting a under the sink one to help.
for now we always leave something heavy on the top when we are not around.
we know when she has been in it when we are not home either. as soon as we walk in the door, she hides from us and keeps her head down. nothing else is wrong in the house, so i assume she tried to get into the garbage and she still feels guilty!!
good luck!

[Garbage Can Dan]

have you ever head of mint-x trash bags? they are EPA registered to keep mice and rodents out of your garbage, but i'm not sure if it would work for a dog. worth a shot though.

check it out for your self: http://www.mint-x.com/

[ドレス]

近年、生活水準の継続的な改善と、人々の欲望が社会活動に参加しても、ドレスは、より多くの人々は、特殊な状況で使用されているされており、増加しており、過去からリースに着用者のいくつかの購入またはコレクションを表します。一方、過去の市場に比べウエディングドレス販売台数が大幅に増加している。しかし、業界カラードレス格安、製品の品質問題の急速な発展は、非標準の市場はますます顕著になってくる。