Sick Dog

Tonight's added to this wonderful week. Last night I was out in the garden and the dog usually lays close to where I'm at. Last night she ventured over to behind our garage, and started eating something. I ran over and chased her away but she already swallowed some. It was cat poop. With all the farms around here, the cats don't get proper care. They aren't pets and no one really cares if they venture away and spread their disease around. They are all full of worms and issues. It's sad but I have a hard time finding pity right now when they keep coming into my yard and pooping all over the place and then this happens. Zoey waits till I'm distracted and even though she knows it's bad, she dives on it. I find it really disgusting that dogs will do things like that. Anyway, a little history with Zoey is that when she eats poop, she gets really sick. It's been pretty regular for the past 2 yrs of living here, and hits about every 2-3 months. It ends up needing her to go to the vet, they feel her belly and do a poop test, give anti diarrhea meds and antibiotics and say bland diet for 3 days before weaning her back on dog food. The past few times, they've allowed us to just bring in the sample, get the meds, and save on the office visit because they know she has a sensitive stomach. We've tried extra hard to keep her in the front yard, and if she goes to the back, she stays next to us (except last night when she felt like proving me wrong). She doesn't get any people food, gets meds faithfully to prevent heartworm and parasites, and is on a ridiculously expensive food that the little pet store owner here orders it for me because none of the big stores carry it other than online. It's gentle on her stomach and we've made it 10 months since the last episode. That's a very big deal. So anyway, tonight was the same. Called the vet and said what happened yesterday, and said that the poor dog has gone out with explosive diarrhea 6 time in the past hour, do they want to see her or do we just come down for meds. They reviewed it with both vets, and said they would wait there till 9:30, just bring the sample and come for meds. That works for us. She seems to be doing much better already. She's hungry but she can't start her rice/burger diet till morning. She gets one more pill and a chance to go out, and then it's bed time. She usually wakes me up when she's sick like this if she needs to go out at night so I hope that's the case tonight. The rare times that she doesn't make it, she goes right next to K's door and I'm hoping that doesn't happen!
In the meantime, I need to find ways to keep the other animals out of our yard without having to fence it all. We have almost 2 acres. The only part fenced is along the road out front because we sit so close to it. Nothing comes in there, and I clean up after Zoey every day so I'd notice if something else was going there. We don't have animal shelters around here. None for our county and I just get told that if i catch them and bring them in, it's $40 per drop off or something crazy like that. There has to be something to do though.
Poor dog is sad that she can't lay with me on the couch now but she is going to need a bath and "butt cut" before being allowed on furniture again. The downfall to a hairy dog I guess.