Just Because

Last week when I was at the small animal hospital, we had quite an interesting "sick fit-in." These two ladies had called in about their lab. They weren't clients, but their hospital couldn't fit them in. So, of course, we did. The two ladies were a little older and a little heavyset, and were sisters. Their lab as well was a little older and a little heavyset. The conversation went as follows...

"What seems to be the problem with your dog?"

"Well, she has had really, really awful diarrhea yesterday and this morning and we have a hard time getting her outside in time."

"Do you know of anything that could have caused the diarrhea?"

"Well no... we know she has some problems with dairy, so we avoid giving her that. But I don't think she had any. Of course, she does get her tidbits every night."

"What exactly do you give her?"

"Well, you know when anything goes bad in the freezer, starts to get a little freezer burnt, I just put it in a pot and cook it off for her and then she gets that and the broth every night on her food. You know, just some extra protein."

"You might want to trim down on the extra food. Her dog food is formulated so she should be getting all of her protein and dietary needs from it. She could stand to lose a little weight- she is getting older and if she goes down, you won't be able to get her back up. "

"Oh but she loves it so much! The other night I cut her up her own pumpkin pie, just two or three pieces, you know, and put little dabs of whipped cream on each bite for her. She just loved it!"

The doctor and I stared at her in slight disbelief.

"When did you feed her the pumpkin pie?"

"Oh I guess it was just the other night. A day or two ago."

"You know that most whipped cream and pumpkin pie has dairy in it?"

She looked distraught.
"... Oh dear..."

"We will give her something to help with the diarrhea, and I would really suggest stopping feeding her the extras, or else this might be a continual problem."

She looked at us plaintively. "But what am I supposed to do with my bad freezer food?"

 Neither of us summoned up a response, though her sister slid in with a snide "I told you so."