Sleep

How do you get any sleep when you have nine dogs in the house at night? The short answer is that sometimes you can't. Last night was one of those nights. The problem was Oakley, but I don't know what her problem was. She often fusses a bit when we turn off the lights downstairs and go to bed. Paige is always in the crate next to her and it generally doesn't last very long. 

Last night it went on and on until I finally got up and went downstairs. I put her outside and she seemed happy to run around. I realized I had not given her the gabapentin that she had been receiving since her surgery last week (that's another story), so I gave her that and we all went back to bed. That was probably about 10:00 p.m. and I slept until midnight when she was barking again. I went downstairs again and pulled some more drugs out of the cabinet, trazadone this time. I was up until about 2:00 a.m. that time, and we finally got some sleep after I had given more trazadone and even some acepromazine. Clay got up with her about 5:00 a.m., and found that she had shit in her crate. I don't know it was the meds or the change of food but diarrhea automatically qualifies for a 24 hour fast, although I hate to do that with a dog who needs to gain weight like Oakley. 

She got just very small portions of food today along with an anti-diarrheal and probiotic. I also determined to leave her outside all day today. It was a nice enough day and I really wanted her to be tired and ready to sleep tonight. It was another beautiful day, sunny and 50s, so Oakley and Paige got plenty of outdoor time and even pasture time. The pictures from today, however, are from Norman's pasture time, which almost didn't happen because I was running out of day.