Celebrating a year together

Our Bella beagle has been home with us for 1 whole year and wow how time just flown by!! I remember her coming home and being this tiny little pup who was all ears and howls and was a whirlwind of fun and craziness. 

She is defiantly a beagle in some respects-stubborn minded (my kind of girl) she knows what she likes and wants and takes some persuading to change her mind-for example if she wants to go one way on a walk and we want to go another she will sit down and wont budge for love nor money or a piece of chicken until she decides for herself that she wants to go that way and then acts as if she wanted to go that way all along!! She has the typical beagle "deafness" if she finds a scent no amount of calling, tempting or food will tear her away until she has found the source or lost the scent which is why she remains onlead on all her walks for her own safety. But she is very loving and every day since she came home she has had the family in stitches with laughter with her mannorisms and the quirky things she does. Bella also always has to have the last word and I swear she sometimes answers me back under her breath! And boy does she talk to you!! if you start making noises she answers back and thats it you then have 5 mins of uuufffing and awwwoooing going on followed up by her jumping up and sitting on you!

She is a lovely little girl and so intelligent that I cant keep up with her lol. She picks things up so quickly and loves to learn new tricks. Last week I taught her "get back" which means go sit back down on the rug and wait. Im also trying (and this is the hardest yet!) to teach her "play dead" she kind of gets the hang of it yet wont stay "dead" lol and gets up to quick for her treat!!

I had my first bad experience dog walking at the weekend sadly which marred our 1 year "anniversary" with Bella. I often come across idiotic or lazy (or both) walkers who let their dogs off lead and then have their dog(s) come and say hi to bella who is onlead and more often than not they either snap at her or wont leave us alone. And where are the owners?? too busy on their phones, the other side of the field or just totally unaware!! Ive NO problems with any dog being off lead as long as they are dog friendly. 2 weeks ago Bella got jumped on by 4 dogs a lady was walking and she hadnt seen us and Bella didnt know what to do or where to go. The puppy was just being a puppy and jumping up-which bella doesnt mind and willl happily play with any dog like this but the 2 labs were too full on and big and getting caught up in the lead and the collie that was with them started snapping at her heels and chasing her :( not nice at all although in this instance the owner did apologise and genuinly hadnt seen us.
However Sundays walk was ruined by pretencious idiots and it really shock me up afterwards. We had just been for a lovely walk in a different part of a common we normally walk on and were heading back up to the carpark when a border collie came running towards us and ran back up to its owners who were coming down the track towards us. We then carried on walking up the hill and the collie came flying past us followed by 2 huge dogs (which ive later identified as pharoh dogs) and 1 sniffed Bella and the other ignored her (ok by me) we exchanged greetings with the owners (2 ladies and a man) and again carried on walking towards the car when suddenly one of their dogs was right on top of bella and growling and snarling and bit bella on the neck. Bella instantly went OTT submissive and belly on the floor and their dog was still stood over her so I yelled to the owners to please put their bloody dogs on leads and hubby shouted if your dogs are aggressive put them on leads. Well we then received a barrage of abuse from the 3 of them about how cruel we are, how sorry they felt for our dog being stuck on lead and how if she had been off lead their dog wouldnt of gone to her--is that an admission of having an aggressive dog?? So we yelled back WTF she is a  young beagle you dont let them off with zero recall and she is a long lead (28m) they are in the wrong having their dogs off but oh no they were right and just kept saying how cruel we are and that their dogs are not aggressive and after all the owner would know as she is, wait for it.....a dog behaviourist!!!! OMG where ever she got her credentials obviously hands them out like sweeties if some one like that can call themselves one!! And they walked off saying what ever and byeeeeeee. ARRGGGHHH makes my blood boil now just thinking about it. For starters how the heck dont they know my dog hadnt just been off lead for the past hour and was onlead as we were near the carpark!!

Some people really need lessons in owning a dog!!



Anyways thats enough moaning from me and ill leave you with some pics taken before the walk was ruined. xxx

little pup in a big world

the common we walked round

after digging in the sand lol

1 year old!

I am so daft for not keeping up with this lately! Well Bella is now 1 year old :O and is the most amazing dog ever.

She has settled right back down again after her spay op and is back to being a very cuddly chilled out dog with the odd nutty moment thrown in and is just an utter joy to have around.

I think she has stopped growing now and is just a perfect size, albeit a heavy lump!! But not too chunky and not skinny lol. Her appetite has picked up too-a side affect of the spay op by all accounts. So Im cutting back on food and treats to make sure she doesnt become a porky!

I have also come across the best invention EVER for owners with a dog/puppy who pulls like a frieght train! Its a bungee lead which acts like a shock absorber and when the dog pulls they dont really get anywhere and kind of "boing" to a halt. Its very gentle no sudden elasticated pinging off the end of a lead but just slows them down to a halt without wrenching your arm out of the socket or the dog ending up flying backwards off the end of their lead, which at the end of the day can cause long term damage to both owner and dog. I hope Im allowed to link to this product but I really do recommend it. Its meant to be used as a lead for walking ie. Street walks but I clip it on to her harness and attatch the long line to it to allow her to run about the fields freely. It is also amazing walking the roads as it prevents her from jumping up at people (her new hobby!) and also gives me such control over her. I ordered it from here this is also where I bought her pink harness as im often asked where people can buy one also :)


We recently took Bella to the beach for the very first time and she LOVED it.













We went to West Wittering and here are some piccys of that day.

Its a fantanstic beach for dogs with miles and miles of beach and loads of poo bins (very important for dog owners) and fresh water taps every where to fill up bowls. Sand dunes and flat sand for as far as you can see. And yes Bell really enjoyed as did we all. I dont think ive known her to sleep so much as she did that night and next morning.


I cant believe she has been home nearly 1 whole year now!! how time flies when you are having fun!

Back to normality

Yes FINALLY my Bella is on the mend. She's back to being cheeky and mischievious once again and I am so happy, well 99% happy as she is still a randy little madam and I'm still getting the full force of it!
We took her out on Sunday (our second wedding anniversary and her 11th month birthday) to a lovely place called Hankley common, near Elstead in Surrey. Its a beautiful place although somewhat confusing lol as it has a golf course running through the middle and its on MOD land and we had tanks and gun fire going off whilst we were there! Not sure how you can play golf with all that going on but hey! I took some lovely pics of her and here they are, Bella at 11 months old.This is the photo I am entering in to the Kennel Clubs Dog photo of the year. Fingers crossed we win huh.

Running down the hill to me :)

I have found a real must have for training. Dried duck and chicken fillets from pets at home (and more stores online I would imagine) she will stay by my side through out a walk and when I give her the "go" comand she will run off and come straight back on one whistle and sit down ready tail wagging lol.

I measured her yesterday and she is now 16" tall at her shoulders but trying to measure her length wise proved impossible as she kept trying to eat the tape measure LOL!!

Her belly scar has healed perfectly and is now only a very thin line right down the middle and her fur is growing back where she was shaved although her leg where she had the drip is growing back very blonde which looks funny on her brown leg.

ooo new trick taught the other week. Ive noticed some songs Bella will start to howl to when I sing along (admittidly this could be her telling me I have awful singing voice but we shall gloss over that fact) and one song in particular is Kings Of Leon Use somebody and she will howl along to the chorus and is just TOO cute :) if I work out how to upload a video here I will add that.

Anyways I need to pop to work :( xxx

The saga continues

Bella continued to show little improvement on her antibiotics so I stopped giving them to her and thursday morning I gave her a dose of metacam (painkiller) to help make her feel more comfortable and went to work. I then rang another vets practice to go for a 2nd opinion and to just see if they had any ideas on what to do or if they believed me over the whole BPS theory.

When I got home to a very vocal and waggy tailed Bell I really thought we were turning a corner and she was throwing her food bowl around and she ate a normal meal of kibble for the first time since last tuesday and she was pestering me and my friend for cuddles running, yes running between us for kisses and suddenly began humping me and howling and went to lick her "bits" when I noticed straw colour discharge and within a couple of minutes it had turned to red blood dripping out (just like with season) and so straight back on phone to our vets who said this is not normal post spay and they need to operate on her to see whats going on and looks like foreign body reaction to sutures.

This may be why she has sore neck as bloods do indicate high inflammetary process going on but it could still be that she had a pre exsisting neck problem which was aggrivated during surgery.
We saw 2nd opinion who agreed it could be the BPS and to maybe try some steroids to see if any improvement and they advised to not put her through another operation so soon (9 days after 1st) and to see how she is in the morning.

So I starved her from 8pm just incase she was to be operated on and we took her in to the vet at 8am. She had made such a remarkable improvement in 24 hours and had no more blood loss so we decided to leave her be and finally got signed off post spay. She has lost more weight but fir the first time in over 2 weeks her temperature was normal and her neck was much easier to move and no pain on doing so. Vet was very pleased, as were we and we go back at the first sign of neck pain or any signs of pain again and they will refer her for CT scan and do a spinal tap on her too. We are now allowed to treat her as "normal" so walks are back on and she can have a bath which I must do actually as she stinks lol!!


That evening I got a call from georgie (vet) to say bells vaginal swab results are back which we did mon/tues with 1st set of bloods to see what was going on "that end".....the lab can't identify the bacteria, it's a totally new strain and unknown to them or their database!

it's also resistant to ALL antib's used on it and reacts with them!!! Hence putting her on 3x antib's has made her worse!! I stopped them sun pm she perked up mon, went on new ones mon pm got worse so stopped these weds pm and by thurs she was better! The lab is going to continue to grow the cultures and ring me next week with some more answers.

someone please say this is it as I'm worn out and so confused. The vet said she will ring in a few weeks to find out how she's doing as this is getting weirder and weirder by the day and she wishes she could stay and discover more and if lab proves this is a new virus could prove quite incredible! She says she's not only a walking mystery but a medical one in a million dog!!!

It explains the huge reaction to antib's and ongoing discharge as a pup and inf during season etc but as yet what it is is anyones guess!!!

Im so sad though that her vet has now left and moved practices :( she was SO good and her new practice are very lucky to have her. Today Bella is 100% her usual naughty self :) Shes obviously losing the female hormone as she is as randy as anything!!

So lets see what this week has in store for us and Bell shall we!! xxx

Im copying this from a dog forum I use as im too lazy to retype :D

I'm starting a new thread about Bella and her recent ill health in the hope maybe someone has had similar or has similar happen to them and in future it may prove helpful to someone. I must stress at this moment this is a theory we are working on at the moment and nothing is concrete.

Background info on Bella- She is a 10 month old purebred beagle, she has been with us since 8 weeks and has had all vaccinations required and has been a healthy dog until the last 6-7 weeks.

When Bella was 5 months old she had juvenile vaginitus which is quite common is all breeds of dogs and was treated succesfully with antibiotics (novoclav) She then started her first season aged 9 months old (literally to the day) on 6th June and from day 1 it was a heavy and stressful time for both her and us. about a week into her season she was bleeding very heavily and her vulva became very swollen and a trip to the vets confirmed odema (swelling) and an infection so she had painkillers and antibiotics again and within 5 days things cleared up and she picked up again. We discussed having her spayed 12 weeks later with the vet.

Less than 2 weeks after her season finished I came home to find bella restless and lethargic and with a egg white discharge coming from her vulva, trip to the vets confirmed my worst fears that it looked like the start of pyometra and we started her on a course of 10 days antib's and booked her in for an emergency spay 4 days later to give antib a chance to make the op safe.

She had the spay op last weds (6 days ago) and the vet confirmed uterus wasnt right and lucky to of noticed when I did. Since coming home Bella hasnt been right and with each day has got worse sadly. It took her 4 days of sleeping solidly (day and night) to get a little energy to stay awake during the day. We saw the vet 3 days post spay and she wasnt happy with how sleepy and uncomfortable she was looking and prescribed us another 3 days painkillers and to come back in 48 hours.
Symptoms at this point were-high temp (over 39) loss of weight, sleeping 23 hours a day and no appatite and little water being drunk, shivering and muscle spasms when resting-like restless legs.

Sunday I noticed her looking very stiff on walking and walking with her head hung low, she also was reluctant to eat out of her bowl off the floor so I began hand feeding her. She was eating science hills recovary wet food which is high in calories so should of perked her up--did nothing!

Monday took her back to vets and still no improvement and I showed the vet her lack of being able to bend down to pick something off the floor, and so the vet had a check of her neck and on moving her (gently I must add) bella yelped when her head was lifted up and turning left and right. so this left us with a new symptom and a whole host of unanswered questions.

The vets opinions were that she could of had a pre exsisting neck or back issue which normally bella masked by being awake and not using or moving if it hurt but under a general anesthetic with her muscles flaccid and being picked up by the vets they have caused something to go wrong be it a disc slipping or nerve trapping or something a little more sinister. Or it could be the infection is still on going-her temp is still above 39.c and hasnt come down for nearly 2 weeks now and as in humans when we have flu our muscles ache.

She also mentioned beagle neck pain and said we would need a CT scan to check her neck and spine for damage and in the mean time take her back home and see how she goes over 24 hours. I asked for a full blood test to show if an infection still present (high white blood cells count) check organ function and to rule out any other possibility. So that was taken and we get the results tonight.

On coming home I have been doing a little (lot) more research and reading up on beagle neck pain as its know SRM, she has 99% of the symptoms.
The problem may present with a variety of symptoms and is often misdiagnosed as Lyme disease, cervical/spinal injury, or massive bacterial infection. Cervical pain, shaking, hunched back stance, fever, lack of appetite, stiff neck, muscle spasms (especially in front legs and neck), lethargy, and unwillingness to move can be noted and theses symptoms may appear quickly.The dog maybe hesitant to bark and opening of the jaw seems to be painful.Some affected dogs may cry out in pain with the slightest attempt of movement.There are reports of blindness and limb paralysis associated with this syndrome.

Bella has all of the above and fits this description perfectly, she is also smack bang in the age bracket for this problem 4m-2 yrs. This morning on trying to move her off my bed she growled and showed her teeth when I merely placed my hands on her shoulders so she is def in pain.

The test for this is normally a lumber puncture by can be diagnosed purely through syptoms and treatment is antibiotics and/or steroids. Im going to ask the vet if we can try her on this treatment for a couple of days as all reported cases show a incredible improvement seen within 12 hours so we shall know if its working or not. Whether or not she will agree with me I dont know but what else can I do but try all avenues. If there is no improvement I need to accept maybe it is damage to spinal area and get a ct done.

I will update this after our appointment tonight at 730 and if anyone has any advice or is worried about their own dog (its not just beagles this can happen to) then please feel free to reply here. sorry its SO long

Poorly bug

Here we are 4 days post surgery and Bella is still unwell. I cant remember what I blogged last time so apologies if i am repeating myself at all.

Weds Bella had her spay op and came home at 6pm looking very sorry for herself and still under the influence of the anesthetic. We had a very tense night as she was to keep her cone on her neck and this prevented her from getting comfy and by 3am she was up and miserable and so I came down and sat with her and she just kept standing and sitting, standing and falling over and wriggling and wriggling. She finally fell asleep about 11AM!!

Thursday she perked up a little and took some boiled chicken again and seemed a little better with the cone on, however I noticed she'd yet to have a drink and I offered ice cubes but she refused these also. So I used the water which I had boiled the chicken in to give her a drink and thankfully she took some but only off the spoon by hand!! Spoilt madam!!

Thursday pm she picked up again about 90mins after her 24hrly painkiller and became very cuddly and wanting to jump up on the sofa with us. So after snuggling on the sofa until about 1am I put her collar back on (much to her disgust) and left her to sleep until 7am when I came down and she was laying on her bed looking fed up :(

She has then spent since Friday AM until today (sunday afternoon) asleep!! We took her for a check up saturday and mentioned how sleepy she has been and little she is eating and drinking and she still has a temp of 39.1 (should be 37) lost weight since weds and just generally looking fed up so vet increased painkillers to get us through the weekend and we go back monday evening for another check up.

As soon as we got her home she went to sleep on her bed and didnt move until that evening and only then to go to the loo and have some food and painkiller.

I got so worried that I took her up to bed with us and she slept most of the night ok until 5am when i woke to find her standing over my head!! She woke up about 9am and came down very reluctantly for a wee and some breakfast and meds and has been asleep ever since-its 1420pm now!

Ive rung the vet up as she was oncall this weekend and she has said to keep her resting at home and tomorrow when we go in she will take bloods and see if everything is ok. It could be an adhesion of scar tissue forming or it could be the infection is getting out of control and we are changing her painkillers and antibiotics as its been 6 days of them prior to surgery and no better for them!! Ive got to try and get her to eat as much as possible and keep drinking and just let her rest up.

So worried about her and just hope it will all be ok, will update tomorrow after appointment x

Surgery

My little girl had her operation to be spayed today and omg Ive been on tenderhooks all day waiting for the phone to ring after a very restless nights sleep and stressful journey to the vets (not from bella btw)

We dropped her off at 845am and she was all eager and excited to be going out in the car and as soon as we pulled in she was like ooook I know this place can we go now!! But she went in tail half wagging half between her legs (and promptly pee'd all over the floor *blush*) and was soon being stroked, fussed, kissed and generally adored by both the vet, Georgie and the vet nurse so she was in her element and being the nosey pupster that she is the chance at being lead out back this time proved enjoyable so she was quite happy to leave us teary eyed (me not hubby!) at the reception desk whilst she trotted off behind the scenes. Then began the agonising 6.5 hour wait to hear how the op went. We knew there was a higher risk with this op not only being done so soon after her season when blood vessels are still dialated making blood loss a high risk but also that we didnt know just how badly affected her womb and uterus was.

By 315 I couldnt stand it any longer and so I rang and heard those words she is ok. She is awake and sitting up in her cage howling for her mum to come get her :D Due to working hours me and the husband couldnt get to her before 5pm so it felt like forever from when I said goodbye in the morning until then. As I sat in the waiting room I could hear her little howls and my heart melted at that sound. Soon she was brought through wobbling and shakey legged out to reception wearing her buster collar and crashing into everything love her!!
She was still so drowsy whilst me and the vet chatted she fell asleep standing and began snoring! LOL! She also did a huge wee on the floor so we know her bladder is ok!!

Georgie explained that her uterus had been more enlarged than first thought and also "flexible" so easier to remove than normal? but def signs of start of something bad going on so just as well I noticed that strange discharge as she had no more of it either after that! Very lucky indeed.

Her tooth also came out during the op as for some reason her milk canine tooth never fell out and her adult one grew next to it causing food to be trapped and getting sore so she removed that for me and her belly looks very neat and clean.

Shes currently laying on the bed at my feet just watching me, Ive removed the collar as she was whining a lot and looking uncomfortable-I will add a piccy of her in her "cone of shame" for those of you who have seen the film UP will know what I mean :) but if she begins to lick her belly then im afraid it goes back on :,( so far I have told her to leave and she has done but im sure by tomorrow she will be a nightmare!!

Im just boiling her some chicken to see if I can get her to eat anything as its been 24 hours now since she last ate and that will be gentle and bland on her tummy.

So my little girl is home where she belongs and I can relax somewhat although im worried about tonight and im worried to go to work tomorrow but least she is home again :)

Night xx