Bracing Herself & Walkabout

Claire’s brace arrived…

She will spend the next few days getting used to it and making sure the fit is good. When Claire is with her puppies, she will not wear the brace — the purpose is to stabilize the knee when she is moving around.

The brace also offers a hint about the litter theme.

Meanwhile, Dear Husband has been off on a walkabout through southern Utah and northern Arizona for the past week or so.

I think that shot is at/near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I certainly cannot begrudge him an adventure before he settles into his role as Chief Nighttime Puppy Nanny for the next several weeks.

Have a wonderful and happy day — make it so!

Pregnancy Updates

If you receive a text or email from me that seems unintelligible, just know it is in Kitten Code…

This is Daisy from yesterday.

And her measurement this morning…

Daisy is due on January 28. She is growing well, and remains happy and hungry.

Claire is also growing well — this is her measurement this morning with a week to go.

She is big and awkward and still requires very expensive items on her daily buffet of potentially edible food — and then she will consider whether they are actually edible at that particular moment.

For example, kibble is never ever EVER edible for breakfast but she will condescend to eat some later in the day if the following conditions are met: 1) No more than three pieces are offered at one time; 2) The kibble must be fed from the hand; 3) The hand may not have slobber on it (even though the slobber is hers!); and, 4) she cannot possibly stand when eating said kibble.

This morning’s breakfast was a small amount of shredded chicken breast, hand fed in small bites. All you moms out there can relate — morning meals are just not the thing when pregnant.

Yesterday I did an online consultation with a rehab veterinarian — Claire is apparently in the 1% of dogs whose CCL injuries are acute. There is no way to know whether hers is a partial or full tear because of the pregnancy hormone, Relaxin, which loosens everything and likely is the culprit in Claire’s injury. Her brace arrives today and we will use that until Claire can have a Relaxin-free work-up to fully assess the injury — likely in April or May.

I suspect Claire’s pregnancy journal would include a lot of swear words.

Have an outstanding and swear word-free day!

Just Things

I am working exclusively from home, which means I am teaching classes and doing meetings via Zoom. I just looked over at my office assistants to see this…

The cats have apparently staged a successful takeover of the dog bed.

I took Daisy and Claire to their veterinarian this morning for blood work, which I then sent off to the Companion Animal Vaccine and Immuno Diagnostic Service Laboratory (CAVIDS) at the University of Wisconsin for Canine Nomographs.

What the heck is a Nomograph, you wonder?

It is a test done on the mom to be able to pinpoint how to effectively vaccinate her puppies. You can read all about it HERE.

We are definitely NOT Anti-Vaxxers! Rather, we are Smart-Vaxxers.

Results from the Nomographs will tell us when to vaccinate the puppies so the vaccines will not be blocked by maternally-derived antibodies, which are (is?) a leading cause of vaccine failure.

I want puppies protected — that is the point of a vaccination, right? And so that means sorting out the best timing — and that is why we do the Nomographs.

We weighed the girls at the clinic. Daisy has gained 10 pounds with 16 days to go, and Claire has gained 12+ pounds with 9 days to go. The biggest weight gains are in these last 2 - 3 weeks.

I hope your Tuesday is going well!