God Bless You. You need it....

February 16.  Supposedly on this day in the year 600, Pope Gregory the Great instructed that the correct response when someone sneezes is to say “God Bless You.”  I bet you always wondered who started that…

We dogs have two kinds of sneezes.  The first is the regular old sneeze that happens when something tickles our nasal cavity and we try to get rid of it by blowing air out our nose. And the other is called a reverse sneeze, which is a reflex that happens when we bring air into our noses because something is irritating the upper area behind our nostrils.  When dogs have a regular sneeze, our heads go down but with a reverse sneeze, our heads go back.  When the cause of the irritation is gone, the sneezing stops.

My human had a Labrador who had a reverse sneezing episode once and she thought he was dying.  Of course he wasn’t.  If a dog sneezes frequently, he should probably be examined by a Vet to find the cause.

Dogs also sneeze to communicate.  For example, when playing with another dog, if the play gets a bit too rough, one dog may start sneezing – to signal to the other dog to bring things down a notch.  Dogs may also sneeze if they are stressed or confused.  Sometimes if you watch a dog in the obedience ring, you might see them sneeze.  I wonder if we pick up the fact that our human is nervous – so we also act nervous?  Could be.

Humans have to be good observers of our behavior – to make sure we are feeling OK.  Like the other night….

We were all getting ready for bed.  It was around 11PM.  We had been out for our final pee of the night, and my human was washing up in the bathroom when she heard the urky gurky sound in the bedroom.  That telltale sound that a dog is about to throw up.  She raced into the room and sure enough – Bucket Head was doing his thing.  With Frodo and I anxiously awaiting the results.  My human dragged us away and put us in the bathroom, while she looked after Pax.  He did NOT look well.  She took him in the kitchen and kept watching him.  He kept licking and licking and smacking his lips.  A sign that he was feeling kinda nauseous.  So she took him outside and he got sick again.  My human brought him in – and he could not stop licking and smacking and he clearly looked uncomfortable.  Which made my human panic- because big dogs can get this dangerous condition called bloat – which can be life threatening.  She didn’t THINK it was bloat because his stomach was not distended – but she wasn’t taking any chances.  So she raced downstairs to tell her mother she was going to the 24-hour Emergency Vet Clinic.  Her poor mother said she was coming too – she put some clothes on over her pajamas and got ready to go.  In the meantime, Frodo and I were wondering WHAT was going on – while we were sequestered in the bathroom.  My human DID let us out before she left – and we were QUITE annoyed that Paxton was going for a car ride. 

It’s about 18 kilometers (11 miles for my US friends) to the Clinic.  THANK GOODNESS it had stopped snowing – like it had been all day.   The Clinic takes cases of possible bloat VERY seriously – so he was whisked in.  They did an exam and some Xrays.  The good news – it wasn’t bloat.  And it didn’t appear to be anything serious – just an upset tummy.  My human remembered that he HAD disappeared into the woods for a few short minutes while we were out for our run in the morning – but she hadn’t thought much of it – he wasn’t gone long.  Although she HAD also seen him quickly gobbling some rotten dried grass near the lake too – so it’s likely he just ate something and it upset his tummy. 

The Clinic gave him a shot to stop his nausea – but actually by the time they gave it to him, his lip smacking had pretty much stopped.  He was happy as a clam with all the attention.  His tail was wagging, he was leaning on people – he was totally back to being Paxton.  So off they went back home and they arrived around 1AM– with both my human and her mother feeling tired but relieved.  And Pax thought the car ride was just great.  He jumped out barking and happy.

Frodo and I of course mobbed him when he got home.  What a way to get attention.  I must remember that trick. 

Pax was on a restricted diet on Sunday but yesterday was back to his regular food and he is doing fine. 

So several morals to the story:

·      Eating dead grass is not a good idea

·      When you are owned by dogs, what YOU think is the end of the day may not BE the end of the day

·      If you dogs want a late night car ride, smack your lips.  A lot.

·      Humans need to be good at observing our behaviors. 

·      Erring on the side of caution during a potential emergency is really nothing to sneeze at!

© Linda Wozniak