After telling you about Star' weekend, I'd like to share with your Star's week. Two days ago we let the dogs out for their last toilet break of the day, and they returned as usual to have their last biscuit of the day and settle on their beds. However not long after coming back in, Star started coughing. The couching developed into retching, but every time I checked on her she had only produced a variety of stomach churning noises - nothing else thankfully.
By morning her cough was a lot better, although she did occasionally stop whatever she was doing and spend a minute or so coughing and retching. This did not alarm me unduly as Buddy has from time to time for example got a bit of twig stuck in his teeth and acted in a similar way, so I decided to wait and see what happened, rather than rushing her off to the vet. So night time came last night, the dogs went out for their last toilet break again and we all settled down for bed.
For a few hours all was well, but at around five o'clock I was wrenched from sleep by the noise of Star retching. I always find that nothing makes me so instantly awake than that noise, because I know for the sake of damage limitation I have to spring to life. So I sprang and went to check whether she had actually produced anything - and even in the gloom of the bedroom I could see a small dark area on her bed. I stumbled into the bathroom to grab some tissue to start mopping it up, but was surprised when my fingers encountered a solid lump on Star's bed. My first thought was that I had misheard and it must be a poo. I scooped up the object and carried it into the bathroom to inspect it under the light. It was a dark shape about an inch wide and four inches long. It didn't look like a poo, but what was it? It was smeared in a variety of disgusting material, but underneath all that it looked black. And then I suddenly realised - it was a slug. A whole slug, definitely dead, but a slug none the less. I stifled a shriek as everyone else was still sleeping blissfully, and I flushed the offensive object.
In the past Star has been very interested in snails - I suspect dogs regard them as some form of Kong stuffed with goodies they have to get out - and I think she had managed to wolf down a whole slug two days previously and now even her determined system had to admit defeat and eject the poo creature. Amazingly during the time the slug was inside her Star ate at least three meals and toileted as normal. I am extremely grateful that her intestines weren't blocked up which would have been very serious.
So that was Star's week so far - fingers crossed the rest of it is a bit less eventful!
Take care,
Julie xx