This week we had a bit of a health scare with our dog (and very important family member), Sancho.
We first noticed something was wrong when we went for a walk. Normally, Sancho is happy to race ahead, check out the local news and recent dognet posts by sniffing poles, trees, grass etc and then leaving his own messages.
This particular day he was very lethargic and was clearly going out under duress. His tail was down (a sign something’s not quite right) and he was walking very quietly with us wherever we went. This, in itself, was unusual as his normal approach is to make it very clear where he wants to go. This often involves revisiting locations where he’s previously found something interesting to eat. We never cease to be amazed at his prodigious memory for places where there was a bone or someone’s discarded biscuits.
So, by the time we got home from our regular morning walk, Danita and I were a little concerned and thinking about how we’d fit a vet visit into our busy day.
Fortunately, Sancho was clearly not off his food (this would only occur in a life threatening situation) and so we decided to monitor him as closely as we could.
One thing we did notice was that he’d started to give his head a slight shake quite often. He’d once had an ear infection and we recognised this behaviour as one of the early signs.
In last week’s Urban Nomad blog I’d written about our visit to the Moocooboola Fair. One of the stands at this fair was a local vet (www.gladesvillevet.com.au) and they had an information sheet which we’d taken (Issue 63 Winter 2013). When you go to these events it’s amazing how much stuff you can collect, most of which has no relevance for us at all. However, in this case the information was very useful – it had a section on Ear Cleaning in Dogs – just what we needed.
Of course, it recommended commercial products but it did have the following: “If you want to use a homemade ear cleaner, you can make one by mixing equal parts distilled water and white vinegar. Store it in a dropper or oil dispensing bottle to allow dispensing of small amounts into the ear.” This suited us perfectly as we’re big fans of the usefulness of ordinary products like vinegar.
After a few days of these drops in Sancho’s ears he’s back to his normal, energetic self. The odd thing is, whenever I put the drops in his ears he gives his head a big shake (the notes say this is OK) and then smells like salad dressing.
If you want to find out how to use vinegar and its other magical substance, baking powder, for everything from curing fungal infections to unclogging a blocked toilet (and a huge array of other amazing uses) I recommend “Grandma’s 1001 Uses For Baking Soda and Vinegar” by Nature’s Library. Here’s what it says on the back of the book.
“Simple and easy to follow “Grandma’s 1001 Uses For Baking Soda and Vinegar”, gives you step-by-step instrunctions on how to mix these two wonder ingredients together or with other common kitchen items including: lemon, sugar, water, salt, honey and laundry powder, just to name a few. All to help aid your health and beauty, to help out in the garden, to help you bake that perfect cake or scones, to clean and deodorise your home, laundry, kitchen, bathroom, garage, pets and so much more!”
Read this book and you may never buy another cleaning/grooming/health product again.