My Dog Life

That’s Joey with my mom. He got preferred treatment this week and went into the office with her TWICE! He also got to do something else I didn’t this week. He saw Lady! That’s right. Joey had an impromptu reunion with our former foster sister on the streets of downtown Annapolis. A bonus to my mom’s half mile walk from her parking spot to her office: she sometimes bumps into Lady and her new mom because they live downtown. This time around Joey was with her. I know what you’re thinking…Joey must have been over the moon excited! Umm, not really. Joey was too distracted by the busyness of downtown to really focus on Lady. He didn’t seem to recognize her at first. After they exchanged some sniffing, he relaxed a little but overall, the run-in was more exciting for my mom than anyone else. Seeing Lady is always a treat. She’d had a haircut and looked super cute. Her new momma said they’re working on her separation anxiety. I know the feeling, Lady!

Joey also had his annual vet check-up this week. That’s one thing I was not jealous of. Joey is usually easy breezy and never gets sick or acts sick so my mom thought it’d be an easy breezy appointment. But Joey got some bad news. His kneecaps in both hind legs are popping in and out of the socket. Luxating patellas or funny knees as I like to call them. Finally we have an explanation for why Joey is so clumsy. Joey sometimes falls down when he’s moving fast or takes a quick turn, especially on slippery floors. We thought it was because when he was rescued he was so underweight, his legs were weak and he couldn’t even sit up. He had little muscle development in his thighs and the falling down was attributed to that. His legs were x-rayed before we adopted him and they looked healthy and normal. My mom thought Joey’s falling down sometimes was normal for Joey. But it’s his funny knees.

In speaking with our vet, Joey is close to being in the “area of concern” when it comes to these funny knees. My mom’s going to start keeping a super close eye on him and tracking his falls — how often and what type of flooring/ground it’s happening on. There’s a surgery to fix this, of course. A really expensive surgery, two surgeries actually because they do one knee at a time. But aside from the financial cost, any and all surgeries come with risks. And can you image little 7 lb 15 oz Joey in surgery? Me neither.

If you have experience with luxating patellas, post a comment and let us know. And please send our family some good thoughts. It’s been one thing after another around here.

I had to go to the vet this week. I hadn’t met our new Maryland vet yet so my mom took me in on Saturday to meet him. I’d never been there before and still, I didn’t want to go inside. I had to be carried in and then I hung out on my mom’s lap until we got called back. They weighed me, and ummm, I weigh 8.2 lbs. I weighed six when I was adopted two years ago. That’s a 2.2 lb weight gain. I felt a little embarrassed about it but the vet said I was a good weight, and not overweight so yay to a 2.2lb weight gain.

That’s me hiding in the corner waiting for the doctor to come check me out. You may know this already but I have a liver condition. Something to do with elevated ALT liver enzymes (yeah, I dunno either). I’ve undergone several diagnostic tests and lots of labwork to try to determine what exactly is wrong. The most educated guess is that I have low grade liver disease or hepatitis. Without an invasive liver biopsy — which my mom doesn’t want to do — we don’t know for sure what it is. So, I have been on a dietary supplement called Denamarin for the last year or so that helps support liver function. I’m supposed to get my bloodwork and something called a bile acid test done every 6-12 months. 

I was due for another bile acid test so we took care of that this week. My mom dropped me off at the vet before work on Wednesday — I was trembling and shaking like a leaf when we got there — and they performed the two-hour test on me. My grandpa, Papa Joe picked me up around 2 o’clock so I wouldn’t have to stay at the vet for my mom’s whole workday. Funny thing is my Papa Joe is not a dog person but he sure does like me…even if he won’t admit to it. This was definitely his first every vet visit.

The initial report from the vet was good, really good. My baseline bloodwork numbers were all within the normal range (yay!) and he wasn’t concerned. The Denamarin seemed to be working and he said to keep doing what we’ve been doing. But then he called today to say the results from my bile acid test weren’t good and showed that my liver is worsening. My mom almost cried. But the numbers are so far from where they were last time I was tested, it could be a lab error. What a rollercoaster. 

I’m being put on a second medication and also a liver friendly diet. I have to do another bile acid test in 3 months. My mom also has to monitor me closely to see how I’m doing, basically if I keep acting the same or worse. I must say, even with all this liver drama, I live a good life. I eat well, sleep well, play well and snuggle well. I do have off days and maybe that’s where those elevated enzymes come in. I’m gonna be okay, I’m sure of that. I have good people taking care of me and looking out for me. Let’s all hope and pray for better lab results in 3 months. In the meantime, I’m gonna keep on being me!

Happy Valentine’s Day lovers! You wouldn’t believe how I spent my Valentine’s Day eve. I celebrated with my very first trip to the Emergency Vet’s Office! Yippee. Yesterday evening I started acting a bit out of sorts. The first red flag was when my mom accidentally shut me in her office by myself. (I followed her in, she didn’t know that I had and then she shut the door as she left with me still inside. She did the same thing to Joey the day before!) Normally, I would have barked or scratched at the door to be let out, but after noticing me missing a couple minutes later, my parents discovered me in there laying on the floor underneath her desk. I wasn’t overly enthused that they’d found me and was content to stay in there by myself. It was odd behavior for me.

I continued to act more lethargic as the evening went on. Then around bedtime I started shivering and shaking and licking my lips a lot. I started panting too even though I was at rest. My posture was a bit hunched and I just wasn’t myself. My parents debated what to do. When I wouldn’t drink any water, they decided to take me to the emergency vet. This was around 10:30 p.m. and my mom was chosen for the job. Luckily, the emergency vet’s office is only a few minutes from our house so off we went.

I hate going to the vet under normal circumstances and even though this was a new environment for me, I knew right off the bat I didn’t like the place. I tried to make a run for it when they weighed me and my shivering increased due to my nerves. The “emergency room” was a ghost town so the doctor saw me right away. She was really nice and gentle with me and asked a lot of questions. I was afraid but didn’t resist as much as I normally do since I was feeling under the weather. I didn’t even yelp when she took my temperature. And yes, they take a dog’s temperature there if you catch my drift. The doctor kindly offered me some baby food which I ate up, a sign that my problem wasn’t gastrointestinal. 

I was diagnosed with muscular skeletal pain (likely a sore back) and given some pain medication to take for two days. Naturally, my symptoms started going away before we even left the examination room. I guess that baby food perked me back up! We got home around midnight, I got my first doses of pain meds and we went to sleep. If I’m still having pain in a couple days, I’ll go in for testing for lyme disease and other tickborne illnesses. Remember that tick? But I’m pleased to say that now, about 18 hours after my ordeal started, I show signs of improvement and I think I’m gonna be just fine.

In addition to my pain medication, I was told to rest and avoid running, stairs, playing, jumping. Now if anyone has advice on stopping a dog from running, playing, jumping, please let my mom know because she’s a bit perplexed on how to “rest” a dog. She is carrying me up and down the stairs though. And on another note, that “extra” money — as if anything is extra, ha! — my mom had just gotten from a catering job went to cover half — just half — of this vet expenditure. FYI, an emergency vet visit costs about 3-4x more than a regular office visit. *Sigh*

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to my prescribed resting.

Hey friends! I thought I’d post an update on the vet test I’d told you about. I finally went through with it because you know what? Sometimes you gotta do things you don’t wanna do. That and I don’t have as much say around here as I’d like. Anyhow, I don’t know what the exact problem is — because either does the vet actually — but I have kind of a funny liver enzyme situation going on. I started taking new medicine a few months ago to balance out my enzymes (whatever those things even are) and it’s working! My enzymes are going down which apparently is good. Nobody wants extra enzymes hanging around. Even better news is I don’t have to get poked at the vet’s office for at least another 6 months or so. Phew.

Note: My mom likes to justify the fact that she has stuffed animals in the bed by saying I like them too. I’m helping her prove her point through the actions you see in the photos above. That stuffed dog is about 20 years older than I am.

Well it’s been quite the eventful day around here. My mom scheduled me a vet appointment this morning — without my knowledge, I might add — and schlepped me all the way over to the Mission where my vet’s office is. I thought we were just going to the park or something then when we got in front of that terribly familiar place, I let out a BIG squeal and tried to get away. It was a noise I didn’t even know I knew how to make. You don’t even wanna know what they did to me the last time I was at that place!

Anyway, I was supposed to have a test to see if the medicine I’ve been taking the last few months is working. But the appointment lady forgot to remind my mom to fast me before the test and my mom gave me a couple small treats to calm my nerves on the BART ride over. Imagine my mom’s surprise when the check-in lady asked when was the last time I ate. There was a lot of chit chat about whether the treats would throw off my test results and one doc said it was okay so they brought me to the back room and told me my mom to pick me up in two hours. And then she just left me there! 

But thankfully a second doc decided not to do the test after all and called my mom to come pick me up so I got outta there before they could so any testing whatsoever. My test has been rescheduled for two weeks from today but now I know about the appointment and you better believe I’m putting my paws down and staying home that day. Thank goodness for those itty bitty treats I ate this morning because it looks like I got out of this one free and clear. 

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be snuggling up with my stuffed animals for the rest of the day attempting to get over the trauma of being left at the vet’s office BY MYSELF for about 10 minutes.