Sod's Law.

Sod's law [sɒdz]

n Informal a humorous or facetious precept stating

that if something can go wrong or turn out inconveniently

it will Also called Murphy's Law.

A few weeks ago, to cut costs, I decided to cancel the pet insurance temporarily, my pets have never had any illnesses that warranted a visit to the vet so it made sense to cancel until I have more money coming in.

That is where sod's law played it's part. Only I don't find it humourous. Last week, I noticed spots of blood on the rug in the hall. Closer inspection led to discovering a small cut on Shadow's paw. I didn't think much of it but I thought I should keep an eye on it.

Because of space issues with the move, we have had to confine poor Shadow to the hall. Normally he sleeps in the lounge in a crate but we've had to pack it away to make room for boxes of things.

Last night, there were load of spots of blood on the rug again. A lot more than last week. We couldn't figure out where it was coming from on his body.

Earlier in the day, Phil and I were discussing how guilty we felt that he was confined to the hall so we brought him into the lounge, he struggled to lie down because there's no space. Anyway the cats, devious things that they are, tried to provoke him to get him into trouble so he had to leave the lounge.

Seeing as we're not going to be here much longer we've decided to lift the ban of no dogs in our bedroom and we set him up a bed in our room so we could stop him doing anymore harm to himself.

We woke up this morning and a patch on his bed is sodden with blood and his elbow was a bloody mess. Oh god he needs to see a vet and we can't afford it. We rang the vets and explained the situation and our finances and they refused to help unless we brought him in.

Alternatively they said we could get him treated cheaply at the local RSPCA branch but that's in Salford 25 miles away. Which would cost us even more in taxi fare than going to the standard vets in the first place.

"Maybe I should give Dave a ring, see what he says?" Phil said.

Dave is Shadow's breeder, he's really supportive and knows everything there is to know about Shepherds. We told him that we needed advice because we couldn't afford vet fees.

He said that it sounded like he'd had a reaction to fleas and ticks but we'd only flea'd and wormed him last week.
"Did you use a different brand of treatment?"
Nope.

We told him that we wondered if it was stress induced because of the move and we've practically ignored him, too busy trying to get the house in order.

Dave said that they can easily become affected if their routine and living arrangements become disrupted even more so if their owners are stressed.

So Dave said to make up a tea tree spray to ease his itching and to get back in touch if he gets worse or doesn't get better in the next few days. So, Phil's gone out to get tea tree, bandages and possibly a nice bone for him.

The good news is that he's his normal self, still has an appetite. I treated him to a breakfast of weetabix, chicken stock and kibble and he almost broke down the kitchen door he was that excited about his treat. So although I'm concerned I'm not too worried anymore. I'm going to indulge him with rice and weetabix with his kibble and he's going to sleep with us until he's a stress free puppy. Sod's law is this.