Much better

Eva's reaction to her stitches is almost healed up and she's 100% acting herself. She will still be on antibiotics for a few more days. I took some cute videos today that I will post later today or tomorrow because I have homework to do now and they are time consuming to upload.

Latest Eva update

We took Eva into the after hours clinic last night because the irritation around her stitches looked much worse today. She is now on antibiotics and an anti-inflamatory. If this doesn't work, they will remove the dissolving stitches and replace them with conventional stitches.

Send some prayers her way that they don't have to do that.

Good News

I am at school and just got off the phone with my Mom who was at the vet with Eva. He said Eva has a mild reaction to the disolving stitches. Basically, we are to observe her and bring her in for a recheck in a week or so just to make sure it has settled down.

Send some good thoughts for Eva

I'm asking anyone who comes to this site (I know this is relativly low traffic) to send some good thoughts or prayers for my puppy, Eva. She is showing signs of localized infecion at her spay wound site. She will be visiting the vet this evening or tomorrow morning. She is still eating, playing, and acting herself so that is a good sign. I will keep all readers updated.

UPDATE: My Dad who is a respiratory therapist and has experience w/ surgical sites looked at her incision and my parents think that she may have pulled her stitches and it healed oddly, but infection is unlikely. We are still taking her to the vet tomorrow to be sure.

Latest news and Eva's FAQ

I hope to have more pictures soon. I am busy with starting a new school year. Eva recovered well from her spay surgery but she pulled some of her stitches so her scar is a bit odd-shaped. It is completely healed though.

Here are a few questions that most people who meet Eva ask me:

Did she just have a bath? Is she a mixed breed? Will she get less fluffy? etc.

Eva is one of the one in ten German Shepherds that have the long coat gene. She will actally get fluffier and it will take up to two years for her to develop her full coat.

How big is she going to get?

Eva is large for a six-month-old female. She was actually put on a special formula to slow her rapid growth to lower her risk of hip problems. She is 55 pounds now and as an adult she is expected to be in the 75 pound range. She is already almost as big as Ollie.

What do you feed her?

Eva eats Medi-cal adolescent large breed formula for her dry food and Blue canned food. She also enjoys liver treats and a few treats from the table.

How are you training her?

Eva graduated from Petsmart puppy kindergarten in August. She is going to be attending basic obedience at a program we found in St. Albert in October. The trainer is experienced with German Shepherds and has trained them for Search and Rescue Purposes. When she is a year old, we are going to enroll her in agility at the same place.

Why do you allow her on the couch/bed? Can't that make a dog dominant?

I have read conflicting advice on this, depending on which article or dog training book I read I read. One of the best ones I read (I agree with this one) says it is best to train them to only go on the furniture when invited (e.g. sit first and then be invited up). We are working on that. As for the bed, she comes up on the bed to cuddle, but prefers to sleep on her bed on the floor.

Where did Eva's name come from?

We origionally wanted to come up with a German female name for her. (e.g. Ziggy was Zigfriet) but we couldn't find one that was pronouncable. We gave up on German names after listing a few bad ones.

I wrote a children's book about a character who goes by the nickname, Evy. I wanted to name her something similar, but the exact same name as the character. Eva means "bearer of good news" and greatly suits her personality.