Tucker is Sick -- An Analysis of How We Are Bad Parents

Last Friday, I noticed that something wasn't completely right about our little fuzz machine -- Tucker.

He seemed to be breathing heavily and his little face seemed depressed. His bark was also deeper. In two instances, Tucker seemed to want to throw up, would make the gag noise, and then "vomit" absolutely nothing. It really seemed as though he had something caught in his throat. I didn't ignore it as it didn't seem like something to react to yet. It was also late enough at nighat that it was right after the vet's office had closed...

During the night, his cough got persistent and it still sounded as though he had "something caught in his throat" that he was trying to puke up. He also seemed to be in pain.

Tucker and I "woke up" at 5:00 am and hung around as this persisted and got worse. It was about that time that he also started to cough. I was concerned all night but it was then that I got really concerned.

8:30 finally rolled around and I was able to sneak an appointment at the vet for 10:30 am.

After much prodding and poking and love from the technicians, Tucker was diagnosed with kennel cough by Dr. Rogan.

This diagnosis frustrated us because he was up to date on his shots and we couldn't believe that he was sick again. We should have known better to celebrate the fact that we hadn't been to the vet in almost 6 weeks a couple of days prior. It was something we should have just kept to ourselves.

We purchased the appropriate medicine and took our little buddy home.

As far as we can figure, he picked it up at the dog park. We go there a lot and he has a lot of interaction with a lot of dogs. We also did some research that even thought dogs have the shot, this derivation of the human whooping cough can still manifest itself in dogs.

Ok fine... but here's the other side.

I am extremely surprised by how bad I felt... I knew he was sick... and I was pretty sure that he was going to be diagnosed with kennel cough based on what I was reading on the internet... however... it seemed to hit me hard.

I took it personally as a failure of my own. I caused the problem since I take him to the dog park all the time. He does get real close to other dogs and he runs for hours... but somehow he got sick from it. What makes it worse is that it is really one of his favorite things in the world to do...

I felt horrible... and eventually... I am going to get over it and take him right back there!

Imagine how I would feel if this was an actual kid? damn!