Talk about your emotional roller coaster. As mentioned in the last post, Cheeks and I traveled to Minnesota to get her breedings done to a dog that my heart just LOVES. I mean look at these two. Are they not the cutest?!
So how to recap the last few days…it’s a lot. Wednesday we did a semen check on Goosie — 1.2 BILLION swimmers. OMG. The repro vet here in Minnesota didn’t want to “waste” the good semen, so she asked if she could train one of her techs on how to do an AI. So very kind. Early, but Cheeks would be “covered” for a few days as we waited for her progesterone to catch up.
They wanted her back on Saturday for a progesterone check after seeing she was only at 3.04 on Wednesday. I tried to push for a Friday check, but was denied. So, instead I focused on catching up with friends. I met up with Jill (my Karma tie in Minnesota) for lunch. Ever just get to vent, laugh, and cry with a girlfriend?! That’s what this lunch was with Jill. And like any good girlfriend, she rallied the troops and organized a dinner. I got to see and laugh with Paul, Kathy, Jill, and Mark. It meant so much that all these buddies would drive so far out of the way for a dinner. I laughed so hard. And after the events of the last few weeks, I really needed those laughs.
Friday, we got Goose and Cheeks together to see if they wanted to make things happen on their own. Timing wasn’t quite right, and so Claire, Trish, Sandy and I grabbed some yummy dinner and laughed about the antics of the desperate Cheeks and the clueless Goose.
Saturday, the Land O’Lakes Kennel Club show was happening. So fun, soon-to-be (hopefully) Daddy Goose went Select Dog in a huge entry. After he showed, my friend Trish and I took Cheeky and Goose to the repro vet in anticipation of a progesterone check and maybe an AI. However, when we got there, they just pulled Cheeky’s blood and then said we could take off as they had a bunch of scheduled TCIs and it would be at least a couple hours before they had Cheeky’s progesterone back. Mind you the office closes at Noon on Saturday, but they assured me they would stay open for us after hours if her progesterone came back high.
Well spoiler alert…. they did not. Instead they taped an AI kit to the front door and wished me luck when Cheeky’s progesterone came back at 11.8. OMG. Stress city. I was literally in tears at the dog show. I’d just driven halfway across the country, stayed in hotels for a week, and on her breeding days you aren’t going to help me?!!! Why didn’t I just stay in Colorado and ship the semen where I have 24 hour repro service?!!
Luckily, I had friends to pull me out of my hysteria. Trish was cool, calm, and collected. Claire and Sandy started figuring out everyone they knew that might be able to do an AI. And Melissa, my amazing friend, confidently said she could do it. So Trish and swung by the vet office, removed the AI kit taped to the door, and then Melissa did the (dirty) work. Phew. Saturday over, AI done, and hopefully, we could get a live breeding in on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.
But when Melissa was wrapping up the AI, I noticed Cheeky’s wrist looked a little swollen. The next morning, it was definitely worse. So off to the emergency vet we went on Sunday morning. The veterinarian diagnosed a sprain. He told me to ice it. So we spent Sunday doing 10 minute icing sessions with wet paper towels and frozen peas. In between we let Cheeks and Goose try to go at it, but Goosie still couldn’t quite figure out how to make it happen. Cheeky was SO cute and patient with him. I think he knew timing wasn’t totally perfect.
Monday morning, her leg looked WORSE. I was borderline freaking out. Luckily we had the appointment with the repro vet, so I got there as soon as they opened. The repro vet thought it was an abscess. She did not want to do the scheduled breeding. (I personally didn’t think one thing had anything to do with the other, but what could I do?!) Instead, I drove straight home to Denver. I got images to our vet here, who immediately said spider bite. Sure enough, a few hours later her skin started getting necrotic. We got a better antibiotic on board yesterday and she is getting it all cleaned up this morning.
Bummed the breeding didn’t go as planned, but so very thankful to have Cheeky back home in Denver with a correct diagnosis, and hopefully she will be keeping all 4 legs. UGH. Most likely, she will not have any babies, but at this point, all I want is to have a healthy, happy Cheeks. When does life get easier?!
