Deep freeze

VBB Central has seen its share of winter weather, but somehow this question was never asked by any of our clients until this very morning.

Squirts is a large-breed mutt whose owner is very fastidious in caring for her. Today, Squirts came in with a history of having vomited a lot over the weekend, and then improving and seeming completely normal on Monday, until around bedtime at which point Squirts developed raging explosive diarrhea.

Squirts' owner was up, outside in the freezing cold, with Squirts, much of the night. She brought Squirts in first thing this morning. Luckily, our exam and tests revealed no significant illness at this time, and we were able to send her home with just some supportive and dietary care.

As they were leaving, Squirts' owner said "Doctor, I just have one last question for you. There is a very very large area of my yard that is now just covered with dark brown frozen diarrhea. My street has a homeowner's association and there is a pooper-scooper bylaw. I called my snow-removal man but he won't touch it because it's diarrhea. It's not like I can pick it up and put it in a bag and I am having shoulder surgery and can't shovel. What should I do?"

They did not teach this in vet school!