Pupdate #2

Girlie had her follow up appointment with the Vet this afternoon. 

She has been doing very well.  In fact, she is mostly back to her mischievous self.  A few days ago, when I discovered her tearing her paper dinner plate to bits, I knew she was feeling so much more herself.   

I was hoping that we could get back to the usual routine.  And, most of all, back to her regular dog food.  I am not happy with the expensive, filler laden food she is eating at present. Plus, I do not like feeding her canned food.  Her teeth are a mess at present from this canned diet.

But we have 2 more weeks, minimum, of feeding her this diet. 

In 2 weeks, we take her back for blood work.  The vet wants the #s to her Pancreas levels.  He is hoping for a # under 200.  (The initial, diagnosed with Pancreatitis, number was 752, I think.)  Ideally, a 30 would be fabulous.

The numbers will determine what type of diet she will be on. 

We’ve been very good about only feeding her the prescription food.  It’s been hard.  We all feel tremendously guilty.  But, we’ve done it.  Haven’t even been able to give her treats for her good behaviour.  Hopefully, we will be rewarded for our dogged compliance with great blood work results.  If so, it will all have been worth it.

All in all, I was pleased with our appointment today.

Happy Birthday, Honey!

Today is the hubby’s birthday.  There are no grand plans for the day.  A simple dinner & family party.  But, to me, that’s the best kind of celebration.  I know the hubby feels the same way.

Right now, he is out riding his bike.  Over doing it, actually.  He’s been gone for approximately 2 hours now.  Yesterday, he rode  29.4 miles.  Wonder what distance he’ll travel today?

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This morning, pup & I had a very happy occurence.  We finished one of her meds.  The one that makes her foam at the mouth, if we are unlucky enough to not get it down on the first try.

I’m beyond ecstatic.  There is light at the end of the tunnel.  There is about 4 more days and we will be done with all the meds. 

Girlie has been doing so well with having to take them.  She doesn’t really fight me on it anymore.  Amazingly, when I get the meds out, she comes to me to take them.  I think because she likes the one med.  It smells as if it is flavored.  She takes it right out of my hand & chews it up.  My guess, she looks at that one as a ‘treat.’ 

We are almost there. 

Girlie Met a Bee

Poor pup is having a rough month.

She was having fun by the pool until a pesky honey bee decided to fly around her.  She had been snapping at this bee on and off for about 15 minutes.  Dumb bee just wouldn’t go away and stay away.

Unfortunately for pup & the bee, Girlie was successful on the last snap. 

It took 3 of us to keep her still enough to remove the stinger from her gum.

Poor thing!

PUpdate

The pup seems to be feeling so much better & it makes my little heart happy.

Friday morning, she was so energetic & wiggly.  As I came into the kitchen to get her breakfast & meds, she looked as if she were smiling a huge old smile.  And, she wiggled all over the place.  It was the first morning since she got sick that she has shown signs of being better.

Just this morning, she was begging for dh to take her out.  All energetic & joyful.  They played fetch for a while.  She was running & bounding around.  A wonderful sight to see. 

Right now, she’s totally sacked on the loveseat.  She wore herself out.

We are doing so much better with her meds.  We got 2 of them down on the first try this morning. The other one must taste pretty good, as she’ll eat them directly out of my hand. Good thing, as they are the size of a nickel and she has to take 2 1/2 of them.

She’s eating better, too.  She wasn’t eating the dry food at all. Since introducing the canned food, she is now eating.

Things are looking good.  Yay!

P.S. The title was the boy’s idea. 

3 Minutes

Three minutes & the struggle begins.

Three minutes & I have to fight to get pup’s jaws open to shove 4 pills down her throat.

Three minutes until I end up with more bruises on my fingers.  She clamps down to avoid the pills & sometimes my fingers get in the way. 

Three minutes & if I’m successful, pup will not foam at the mouth.  If 2 of those pills do not go down, it’s horrible.  Looks like the poor thing has a mouth full of soap.

Three minutes left.

I hate 8 o’clock.

Today, the boy and I ventured out to find birthday & Father’s Day presents for the hubby.  For the past few years, I have unfortunately been completely caught off guard.  I’m such a slacker. 

Honestly, I’m not much of a planner.  Summertime is really bad because when school’s out, I do not pay too much attention to the calender.  Add to that, the hubby normally takes vacation the week of his birthday, which also falls the same week as Father’s Day.  So by the time that I would realize his birthday & FD was impending, the hubby was home. 

Amazingly, I remembered in advance this year.   

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In other news, the pup still wasn’t eating as of this morning. 

Last evening, the hubby tried to feed her watered down food.  Blech!  She chose to take a few nibbles of the dry food instead.  Don’t blame her.  But, it still wasn’t enough.

So while we were out, we stopped by the vet’s office for some canned food.  She ate a whole half a can of food this evening.  Still not sure it was enough.  But, there aren’t any directions on the can itself.  And, I forgot to ask how much she could be given.  I’ll find that out tomorrow morning.

I’m just so relieved that she ate something more than a few bites.

Pup Update

Confined Girlie to the kitchen last night.  Much easier to clean up after her if she had an accident.  Luckily no accidents. 

Managed to get all 6 1/2 pills in her with out much incident this morning.  She only spit out 2 of them.  Still, it wasn’t the ordeal that I figured it would be.  Took all of 2 minutes to accomplish.

She will not eat anything.  I’ve even sat with her to feed her little bits by hand.  She just spits them back out.  Surely, she has to get hungry enough to eat soon. 

I need to make a market run soon.  We are running out of eats.  Dinner tonight is down to pancakes & eggs.  But, I’m very hesitant to leave the pup.  I’ve been taking her out on a schedule to avoid accidents.  Why am I calling them accidents?  She’s purposefully going in the house. 

Anyway, I’m trying to reinforce that she goes outside.  Until I see her going to the door or indicating in some other way that she needs out, I do not feel comfortable leaving her home alone.

She’s Home!

The boy & I were able to pick up pup this afternoon.  Yay! 

She is on a restricted diet, of course.  She’s limited to a special prescription food & water for the next 2 weeks.  Oh, the guilt.  She looks at you with those puppy dog eyes awaiting just one bite of the good stuff.  And, I’m left redirecting her to her food dish. 

If it weren’t so outlandish, I’d be tempted to start eating out to avoid feeling like a horrible meany in depriving her so.  But, I know it’s necessary.  No worries about us not sticking to Dr’s orders.  Doesn’t mean my mommy heart can’t feel bad for the girl though.

Girlie has to take 3 medicines for the next week or so.  The meds alone were $122.11.  One of the scripts was $93.60, by it’s self.  Holy cow!  We haven’t had the pleasure of shoving any pills down her throat yet.  She ends up with 4 tablets in the evening & 6 1/2 in the morning.  Oh boy!

She’s been very, very quiet since she came home.  So unlike her.  The hubby took her outside while he read the paper this evening.  She just lay there enjoying the sun.  Had no interest in the squirrels.  Evidence of how badly she really feels.  Poor girl.

We do have one bad side effect as a result of her visit this weekend.  She’s tinkling on the floor.  Grrr!  Two days and her housetraining is obsolete.  How does that happen?  Normally she goes to the door or barks like a maniac, depending on the room she’s in at the time.  Now she just goes. 

Ah, well.  She’s home now.  All 3 of us are thrilled to have her back.  Pup was so happy to see everyone.  We made up for lost time.    And, I can retrain her.

My world is whole again.

Off to join the pup, who’s happily sacked out on the sofa.

What a Week

This week started so promising. 

Monday & Tuesday were fantastic.  I got my daily walks in.  An hour each day, as I was trying to not over do it. 

When I got home Tuesday, I felt so good & energetic, I decided to dismantle our bedroom to paint. 

Plus, I was looking forward to Friday, the last day of school.  The beginning of a glorious summer with my boy.  Freedom from the clock & schedules. 

It all went south Tuesday night when the insomnia hit.  Really, I was dead tired.  A good exhaustion from moving & activity.  It felt so good to finally lay down for sleep.  Sleep that would not come.  Argh!

I think I fell asleep around 3 am.  That 6 am alarm was a rude awakening.  After getting the boy off to school, I lay down on the couch for a nap with the pup at my feet.  We didn’t wake up until 1 pm, which of course totally messed with my sleep that night.

By Friday, things were looking so much better.  The last day of school was finally here.  The boy & I were ecstatic.  Not even the rain could dampen our joy.

Unfortunately that evening, the pup got sick.  We came home to find a nasty mess in the family room.  It was awful & terribly scary.  And, unfortunately we hadn’t found the worst of it when we called the vet’s office.

Saturday morning was spent at the Animal Clinic.  Unfortunately, girlie was diagnosed with Pancreatitis.  We had to leave her behind for treatment this weekend.  Hopefully, we took her in early enough. 

We aren’t supposed to hear from the Dr until Monday morning, unless something is wrong.  This leaves me hoping that the phone will not ring.  When it does ring, my hope is that it’s not the Animal Hospital.  So far so good.

Still, she is missed terribly.  The house is empty with out her.  Our family is incomplete with her abscence.

I miss her beside me on the couch.  The thump of her tail off the floor, cabinets & walls.  The click of her nails across the floor.  I miss her constant presence. 

Her absence has thrown my world off kilter. 

Looking forward to tomorrow when hopefully my life will be back to normal.  When my whole family is home where they belong.  When my world is once again complete.