Tuesday, April 12, 2016

A sick Shiba Inu and a Chicken Dinner

Sometimes little stressors poke a hole in your otherwise non-exciting life. You’ll be rolling along, planning a motorcycle ride or a nice dinner or a good dig in the garden and WHAM. Completely disrupts your plans.


aja111

One thing that happened 2 Sundays past was a backup from the septic system.. We had an incredible amount of rain which overloaded the pump to the septic tank. This in turn caused it to shut down, flooding our downstairs bathroom.

We were about to go on a long ride but had to cancel, go to Lowes and buy gloves, another mop, cleaning supplies, etc. OK, so that was unfortunate but it’s handled now. Life was rolling along fine again.

Next stressor: Worse than a septic system failure is having a beloved pet fall ill. Last Friday we arrived home to a seriously distressed old girl. Aja was having a great deal of difficulty trying to pee, evidently had an advanced infection which we were unaware of until we saw blood. We contacted our veterinarian and got good advice, something that saved us a bundle from after-hours emergency care.

We kept her comfortable with Previcox (we had some on hand) and arranged for her to see our vet first thing Saturday morning. The wallet is all that is stressing now, well….mostly……because we think it may be a bladder infection.


ajaSleeping

Just like we need to do for ourselves, you can’t get a good diagnosis without tests, X-rays, blood work and a through exam. People are usually shocked that veterinary care is so expensive because we can use an HMO or our health care and pay a $40 co-pay. Alas, we never did take out pet insurance for Aja so we just deal with it as it comes up. No $40 co-pays. But she’s our baby and we wouldn’t see her suffer when we can get her medical care.

bill

She is improving daily but not at her 100% energy level yet. If you have a pet you know they are family, you know the concern as you watch them in distress or worse, the heartache of losing one. She appears to be on the mend now.

So, yeah….it’s Saturday night and we spent the time at the vet’s office and didn’t get much else done that day. That’s where the roasted chicken comes in. It’s easy and you can change out the tastes and flavors by using so many different combos of ingredients. I just used what was on hand. We had a half bag of carrots left, fresh chard from the garden and three sweet potatoes.

chicken1

That made life easier. A throw together dinner that allowed us to both relax, watch out for Aja in case she needed to go out, and enjoy a decent meal an hour and half later.

chicken2

That’s my stressor story.




8 comments:

  1. Oh my - I would say you had enough stress to last the rest of year!
    I'm glad your sweet Aja is on the mend :)

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  2. It's a life saver meal.
    Poor Aja - I hate pets being ill, glad she seems to be on the mend. It's heart-wrenching x

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  3. Oh Tina! What a week. I live in fear that our septic tank is going to back up or do something disastrous and pour Aja! Glad to hear she's doing better but wow on the vet bill! A roast chicken sounds like the perfect stressful day meal.

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  4. Roast chicken to soothe the mind and body sounds like just the right choice! I hope your problems are all over now.

    best... mae at maefood.blogspot.com

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  5. Too many stressors, for sure. At least the septic is dealt with and I hope Aja continues to improve. Nothing beats roast chicken for comfort :)

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  6. A septic tank back-up would be terrible. Glad you got it cleaned up.

    So sorry that Aja was feeling bad but glad she's getting better.

    I know how it feels so watch your pet be sick. We didn't take out insurance on Patches. Thankfully she was never sick enough to take to the vet (except for checkups etc.) the whole 18 years we had her until her last two weeks. It still only cost us about $2,000 for all the tests etc. I miss her every single day. She was my baby.

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  7. Thank you all so much. Those of you who deal with a septic system know what a "treat" that can be to have a back up or need it pumped out. I didn't grow up knowing about septic tanks, we had sewers, and this can be something to get used to. But I have lived here so long now that I don't feel like a pioneer living in a rural area.

    Vicki, I know you miss Patches. We will miss Kobe forever.

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