To vet or not to vet. That is the question you ask when you\u2019re out of town and you have your dog and your dog inexplicably \u2014 I don\u2019t even know how this happens! \u2014 gets stung by a wasp between her toes. And this prompts an insect-induced stupor that makes you think she is either having a serious allergic reaction or joined the zombie corps. <\/p>\n
There is no better way to start a family reunion than with a dog injury and a moral conundrum: Do we take her in or not? Because every pet owner knows that if you take your animal to the emergency vet on a weekend, you\u2019ll find out you over-reacted and your wallet is now thinner. But every pet owner also knows that if you don\u2019t, something will be seriously wrong, your dog will die a horrible death and your daughter won\u2019t speak to you until she\u2019s 35. <\/p>\n
Whew! Talk about pressure. It\u2019s a conundrum. <\/p>\n
My sister was down from Chicago, and a mass of Thompsons had converged upon my dad\u2019s house on the lake in Tampa. There were dogs. Many, many dogs. And when dogs get together, they do stupid stuff that inevitably injures someone in the most preposterous way. <\/p>\n
\u201cDad!\u201d my daughter said. \u201cSomething\u2019s wrong with Lily.\u201d
\n<\/p>\n
The pitiful dog stood there with a back paw held aloft like it was on fire. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think a wasp stung her,\u201d she said. It made sense. My daughter had been stung in the same spot the night before. <\/p>\n
No big deal \u2026 until the dog went from mild-hobbling to strange breathing and general stupor-fication. She had to be picked up, and she looked around as if to say, \u201cI\u2019m going to the promised land now \u2026\u201d <\/p>\n
That\u2019s when the wild theories rang out. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis doesn\u2019t seem normal for a wasp bite,\u201d I mused. \u201cIs that definitely what it was? Maybe she was bit by a cottonmouth by the lake?\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cCOTTONMOUTH!!!\u201d my daughter gasped.<\/p>\n
\u201cOr a wild, deranged coyote,\u201d someone else chimed in. \u201cDad said they\u2019re around here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDERANGED COYOTE!!!\u201d the kid gasped again. <\/p>\n
We did quick Google searches. We tried to force a pink Benadryl down her throat. We pondered mixing up balms. And then we settled on the one thing that every dog owner uses to determine whether a vet is necessary: the cookie test. <\/p>\n
\u201cSee if she\u2019ll eat a cookie!\u201d<\/p>\n
And she didn\u2019t. Gasps all around. That was it. Off we went. <\/p>\n
At the front desk they asked what was wrong. Simple: We think she was stung by a wasp, she is in a deep catatonic state and more importantly \u2026 SHE FAILED THE COOKIE TEST!!!<\/p>\n
\u201cBarb,\u201d the receptionist called out. \u201cAnother cookie test failure.\u201d<\/p>\n
And this, of course, is the dog\u2019s cue to make you look dumb. Because the minute we were ushered back to the exam room \u2013 making us a billable customer \u2013 she made a miraculous recovery. She started sniffing around and acting as if nothing ever happened \u2026 right as the vet came in. <\/p>\n
\u201cUm, so why are you here?\u201d she asked. <\/p>\n
\u201cOh, you know \u2026 just figured you could use some free money,\u201d I said. \u201cDo you have a cookie, by any chance?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
To vet or not to vet. That is the question you ask when you\u2019re out of town and you have your dog and your dog inexplicably \u2014 I don\u2019t even know how this happens! \u2014 gets stung by a wasp between her toes. And this prompts an insect-induced stupor that makes you think she is either having a serious allergic reaction or joined the zombie corps. There is no better way to start a family reunion than with a dog injury and a moral conundrum: Do we take her in or not? Because every pet owner knows that if you take your animal to the emergency vet on a weekend, you\u2019ll find out you over-reacted and your wallet is now thinner. But every pet owner also knows that if you don\u2019t, something will be seriously wrong, your dog will die a horrible death and your daughter won\u2019t speak to you until she\u2019s 35. Whew! Talk about pressure. It\u2019s a conundrum. My sister was down from Chicago, and a mass of Thompsons had converged upon my dad\u2019s house on the lake in Tampa. There were dogs. Many, many dogs. And when dogs get together, they do stupid stuff that inevitably injures someone in the most preposterous way. \u201cDad!\u201d my daughter said. \u201cSomething\u2019s wrong with Lily.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573,555,561,565],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2018-nutshells","category-animals","category-family","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1786"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1787,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786\/revisions\/1787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}