9. Blushing Bella!

(Apologies! Blog numbers 8 & 9 got left behind and only discovered when posting No. 10! So this one should have been about 13th Jan 2012!)


       Bella is, according to the estimation of the Blue Cross, about 11 months old. Unfortunately she’s no stranger to the place that smells so incredibly interesting, that almost certainly has new friends to meet and old enemies to terrorise, the place that has really nice people to look after you and the place where someone like Bella is nearly always put in an embarrassing situation!

      Bella was handed to the Felixtowe Blue Cross in about September last year with a broken leg. They arranged for her to be treated and now she has a pin and plate in her right back leg.  X-rays on dogs, even just to check everything is knitting together, is not as simple a procedure as for humans. Animal X-rays are done under anaesthetic; so she’s done that too.

      This week we decided to take Bella to the vet (different to the one the Felixtowe Blue Cross use) because she was biting and nibbling her tail quite a bit which, having had dogs before, we knew may have been mites or maybe the flea treatment wasn’t working.

      Unlike some dogs who just know that climbing into the car means “VET!!!!” and start dancing on the end of the lead trying to escape, Bella was calm. Inside the waiting room, we were the only ones there for about a minute until a cat was brought in a cat-box.  As far as Bella is concerned cats are friends - who keep running away! There’s a ginger cat who I’m sure saunters deliberately across the muddy pathway when she sees Bella coming back from a walk.  (Unfortunately I didn’t see Ginger Cat one day and Bella did, and the jerk on the end of the extender lead nearly pulled my arm out of its socket!)  But then again Bella is very responsive and very obedient and soon lost interest in the cat-box.  A young lady sat down next to us with a little Yorkie in her arms. Yorkie was obviously not well as he didn’t show any interest or emotion in Bella’s excitable dance just under his nose.  Next in the waiting room was a dog called Stella, which got a little confusing as both dogs only heard the ‘ella’ bit when spoken to! While Yorkie’s owner simply said she was grumpy (dog that is not owner!), Stella’s owner said she didn’t like dogs (again, dog, not owner!) Our turn to weigh in - 20.2kg, that’s 4kg up from last time, a growing puppy!

       With the problem explained to the vet, Bella realised that she had a potentially embarrassing situation on her paws!  Vet lifted her tail, felt around her belly, legs and bum and then thankfully let go. Whew! That wasn’t too bad. So vet told us he didn’t see any evidence of fleas or mites, but that as a matter of interest, they had stopped stocking Frontline as some dogs had become immune to its effect and as a practice they now recommended Stronghold – something to keep in mind for the next flea treatment in about a month’s time. 

       One of the main causes of itchiness, he told us, was allergies; allergies to house-dust, grass, pollen, etc.  We live in the country with open fields all around us which Bella loves to jump around in, long autumn grass which camouflages her in the dawn light walks. Imagine a dog being allergic to grass!

       By this time Bella was lying quite comfortably on the examining table, unperturbed by the talking – and what was about to happen.

      One other thing, said the Vet, that could make her bite her rear end and her paws, is maybe her anal glands are blocked. Bella’s comfort was immediately disturbed and she was lifted to her four feet.  As she obediently turned her backside to the vet, her ears went back, her head lowered into my chest to hide, and if a dog could blush, her eyes said it all!  The vet stuck his gloved finger up her backside – now how embarrassing is that with her owners present!  But it was all over in less than a minute and no-one else seemed to be bothered, except the still blushing Bella.

     Fortunately we were able to answer the vet’s question about pet insurance in the affirmative as, he said, allergy testing could cost hundreds of pounds!   Let’s hope that we don’t have to go that route and that the finger up the bum helped!