Raising a Puppy: Mia the Blue-Nose American Bully Pit—41 weeks old
A day in the life with Mia the American Bully (Bully Pit) puppy. 41 weeks old, 66 pounds, 18 1/2 inches from the ground to the highest point of the shoulders (the withers).
A day in the life with Mia the American Bully (Bully Pit) puppy. 41 weeks old, 66 pounds, 18 1/2 inches from the ground to the highest point of the shoulders (the withers).
41 weeks old (9 1/2 months)
Mia with her pack from left to right: Spencer the blue-nose American Pit Bull Terrier, Mia the American Bully and Bruno the brown brindle Boxer.
Mia likes to groom her pack. She will lick the humans on their legs and feet, cleaning them as best she can. The way she likes to groom everyone shows she has a submissive mind-set. Even alpha dogs can accept a follower roll if they live with calm, consistent, strong-minded people who understand natural dog behavior.
Mia cleaning out the inside of Bruno's ear.
Mia cleaning Spencer's arm pit.
Mia and Bruno love playing in the waves on the beach.
Spencer likes the beach, sniffing out sea creatures that washed up on shore, but he does not like to get his feet wet. Spencer will swim in the pond at home and walk into small streams on hot days, but he's not a big water dog and if he can avoid getting wet, he will. He prefers to stay dry.
He backs up as the water moves towards him.
He wants to play, but that water keeps trying to get him wet!
Come on Spencer, it's hot. Just get your feet wet.
Spencer decides to go play in the sand instead.
Spencer looks pretty hot out there in the sand. Amie walks Spencer down to get his feet wet so he can cool off while Mia takes full advantage of the water.
Sara splashes some water on Spencer's belly. Spence, if you just hang out in the hot sun you are going to overheat.
Mia splashing in the water
Silly Mia biting at the moving water.
Yikes! Here comes a wave!
Crash!
Run!
Mia loves to sleep with her pack. She is not allowed up on the beds so Sara brings the bed to her on the floor. Good girl, Mia. Submissive, well-behaved dogs earn lots of love and affection.
When Sara gets up she covers Mia up with the blankets. Mia sleeps the morning away. It's hard work playing on the beach. Time to crash.
I was sitting on the side of the van with the sliding door open. Mia was inside the van. I put my arm around her for some puppy hugs and kisses and as I scratched her neck I felt a lump on her throat. Yikes! It was hard and the size of a pinball. Because of the mast cell tumors Bruno the Boxer gets, I have learned not to ignore lumps. I immediately called her vet. We agreed that since Mia was not in any stress and was acting fine I did not have to rush her to the emergency room, which is what I felt like doing. Mia had an appointment to see the vet first thing in the morning. I gave her Benadryl just in case it was an allergic reaction to something, another thing one gets used to when you own a dog who develops mast cells. The next morning Mia's lump was smaller, a good sign. But we still loaded into the van and drove off to the vet's office, skipping her breakfast just in case the lump needed surgical attention. This office has specialist for a lot of different types of ailments.
Mia's lump was aspirated, putting a needle into the lump and sucking out some fluid for testing. To my relief it was not cancer, but some type of abscess that contained puss. I was told it could have been caused by many different things such as swallowing a bee, or other insect, swallowing a stick or something sharp, rolling on top of something sharp such as the burrs at the beach which got me a few times this past weekend etc.. which in Mia's case could have been any of those things. At the beach I witnessed her pouncing on horse flies and finding lots of sea creatures. We are always digging things out of her mouth. Mia was prescribed Clavamox as a best guess antibiotic. The fluid that was extracted is being sent to the lab to be tested to make sure Clavamox is in the right spectrum of infection. Should the results come back that Clavamox is not in the spectrum of her infection we will switch her to something else. The results will not be in for a few days, so it is better to make the educated guess and start her now rather than wait for the results.
Since Mia had not eaten breakfast and we were already at the vet I ran by the idea of spaying her to the specialist. It was explained to me that for health reasons they like females to go through at least 1 heat cycle and sometimes 2 heat cycles depending on the dogs growth. I was told it is healthier for the dog to have their organs fully developed before removing their uterus as it is important for the dog to grow up with normal hormone levels. The spay should be done about 2 weeks after the heat cycle is over so the body parts are back to normal size. A dog who is in or close to heat has extra blood and swelling around their uterus and that raises the risk of complications during the surgery and also makes the recovery on the female harder. Mia is too close to a second heat to spay her at this time. I was told they currently have a dog up on the table who is having issues caused by being spayed too young. The office sees a lot of female dogs with spay urinary incontinence and other health issues caused from not having enough estrogen during the growth period. Everything this specialist said confirmed what I had learned from my past dog Allie the Boxer. I had written about this very thing in an earlier Mia post. I had not expected to hear it from a vet however, as the movement to spay before the first heat for pet over population is very strong. This was not a general vet's office, but a specialist office that sees the dogs with these issues and does not just treat them for symptoms, but tests to find out the exact cause, and then treats the route of the problem to the best of their ability. What I had not known was, the best time to spay is 4 to 6 weeks after a heat. This makes total sense, as it not only gives the body a chance to develop, but is at a point where there is less blood in the uterus. Mia will be spayed about 5 weeks after her second heat. I am not looking forward to the bloody mess, but I want to do what is best for her overall health. If one is going to wait for a dog to have heat cycles before spaying they need to be very responsible and not allow the dog around un-neutered males. Allowing a young female dog to have puppies can be worse for a her health than an early spay, and can even cause death if things go wrong during the whelp.
I'll have to measure those tongues someday to see who's is bigger.
"Mia, I don't think mommy and daddy like it when you chew things up like this."
Yuck, Mia! "No No!" Stop eating that bird poop! And do not kiss me until you wash your mouth out!
Raising a Puppy: A day in the life with Mia the Blue-Nose American Bully