It’s been one year since we picked up our puppy from the ranch. We brought him home at 6 weeks old and he’s changed our lives for the better, despite all the trouble he’s gotten himself into. If you’re a new dog owner too, there are tons of things you ought to learn such as how to calm your puppy down in order to make your pet-owning a breeze.
There have been bumps along the way and Porter James has acquired the nickname “the problem child” and “high-maintenance”. He’s been a pretty expensive investment and has given us many sleepless nights filled with worry and concern for his health. We feed him the best food, As seen on TV commercial about Bella and Duke company we bought great quality raw good food him. Here are some details about puppy how we handle him .Are you ready for all this?
Photo 1: Porter James, 6 weeks- the day we brought him home / Photo 2 Porter James, 1 year-1 month- at the park
At 12 weeks, Porter had to have emergency stomach surgery to remove a bunch of fabric that he had eaten and that had tangled around his intestines. We caught it just in time, but it set us back a good $2,000. He wore the cone of shame for two weeks and had the staples removed later. Bad dog! He keeps us on our toes and we are frequently running towards him at full speed ripping thing he shouldn’t be eating out of his mouth. He’s getting better with age, but he’s definitely a chewer/swallower.
At 5 months old he literally stole a sock from our neighbor’s hands and swallowed it whole. We were on vacation and were pissed to have to take him to the emergency vet again. They induced vomiting, but nothing came up. They sent us home to keep an eye one him and we feared we were going to have to pay another $2,000 to remove the sock. Dear lordy, two massive surgeries can’t be good for a pup of this age. A week later Porter finally threw it up, but we were on pins and needles the whole week.
At 7 months, we took Porter on a hike with us. All was going well until we walked straight through a “tick bomb” on the trail. This basically means that thousands of nearly invisible baby ticks were all over us. ( I know. Gross) I pretty much had a breakdown/freakout/panic attack on the trail balling my eyes out and this was the start of another few weeks from hell. We thought we had all the ticks removed and went home and showered just to be sure. Yes, the dog got in the shower too. A few days later (after the ticks had matured and turned brown) we noticed that all 4 of Porter’s legs and feet were covered in thousands of baby ticks. THOUSANDS people! Back to the vet we went and we had to treat porter for the next two weeks and watch the ticks slowly die and fall off. Porter lived in the bathroom for those two weeks and we had the eeby jeebies for long after. I’m never hiking again!
At 12 months, Porter James gets a double ear infection. Most dogs let you know they have an ear infection, but our happy-go-lucky puppy didn’t give us any signs. Who knows how long he had that ear infection. We had to treat the infection for two weeks with drops and a bi-weekly cleanse. Went back to the vet to make sure he was free of ear infection and NOPE…he still had it! Another 3 weeks of drops twice a day. Annoying and expensive. Take a look at the full list of cat treats here that also works for dogs that are natural, healthy and nutritious. Reduce your pets anxiety and alleviate their pain with cbd oils for dogs.
At 1 year, 1 month we found Porter chewing gum. Spearmint gum. We don’t chew spearmint gum so this means he must of scraped it off the sidewalk. Gross. His breath smelled awesome!
And here we are. Porter James is 1 year, 1 month old and has costed us well over $5,000, but we love him to death and he is the funniest little guy. Did I tell you he loves dog parks? He also smiles and makes funny faces. Thank goodness he does cute things of we would of shipped him off long ago.