Sunday afternoon, I happened to notice Foster suddenly lifting his right hind leg trying to lick his paw while he was walking around in the backyard. I started towards him to take a look, but then seeing me coming, he ran right up to me and gave ma a paw with a big smile on his face. So I concluded that he might have stepped on a rock or something and didn’t think much about it.
But by Monday evening, I decided something was definitely wrong with his rear right paw and possibly also the left paw because he kept lifting his paws off the ground, mostly the right one but sometimes the left one as well. I tried to take a look, but he almost ripped my face off when I touched his paw. So without a second set of hands to hold him, all I could see was a little bit of his paw getting a little raw from him licking. I decided to take him to the vet on Wednesday if he didn’t get better.
Yesterday I dropped Foster off at the vet in the morning, and let me not digress and talk about the receptionist again this time cause it will just frustrate the shit out of me even more. Foster’s paws had been getting worse, not being able to play with Georgia and having trouble pooping since he has a hard time getting into the position to push since he keeps trying to lift his rear right paw off the ground. But I wasn’t worried too much because I thought it was some superficial wound like a little cut on his paw pad made worse by him licking.
The vet found out not only his rear paws, but all four of his paws have skin legions or ulcers that look as if he scraped them on a rough concrete surface. The rear left paw was in the worst condition. The vet thinks Foster has Lupus because not only there was no such occasion for Foster to have hurt his paws like that but it’s very uncommon for a dog to hurt ALL of his paws like that. He’s pretty sure it is lupus since he has seen enough cases like this even though the only way to make sure is to do a biopsy.
I am angry. I am tired. I am frustrated. I am afraid I’m about to crack.
For now, I came home with antibiotics and anti-inflammatory for the wounds. If his paws don’t get better after this round of antibiotics and anti-inflammatory, then we’ll go from there and treat it with steroids. In the mean time, I’m looking into natural remedies that would help with canine lupus, but it looks even the most holistically minded people seem to say the steroid is the way to go (from what I’ve found out in a very short period of time). If you have dealt with canine lupus or know anybody who has, please let me know. I would like to hear about the experience.
how my babies are doing, and also equally dying to see some pictures of them NOT peeing or pooping. There is nothing much to report, but here you are.
Georgia is doing OK. I had a big scare when I took her to the vet for checkup in May when the vet diagnosed her as having level 2 heart murmur. Since she did not have it last fall, we were alarmed when 2 months later even I could hear the swishing noise by just putting my ear on her side. After echocardiogram and EKG, it was determined that the murmur is at the beginning stage brought on by old age, and even though by sound it has become level 3 murmur, the sound is loud because the dent on her heart valve was small compared to the high velocity of the blood circulation. The cardiologist’s suggestion is to do nothing.
Summer in New York doesn’t agree with Brooklyn very well because of the moisture on the ground even when it hasn’t rained. She’s been pooping only once every 3 or 4 days out of absolute necessity. She was absolutely miserable during June when we had maybe 3 or 4 days without rain. She was also diagnosed with heart murmur during her checkup, but the vet could only hear very slight noises. I had not known old age can bring on heart murmur until then.
Brandy’s been doing fine, considering… I hate to acknowledge the fact but I have to admit the side effect of megaesophagus is getting worse slowly over the years. And there is nothing I can do about it. Other than that, she was given a clean bill of health during her checkup.
Foster has not bitten himself and punctured himself this summer! Yet. *knocks on wood* Not only that, I haven’t had to rush him to an emergency vet. *knocks on wood harder* He was also given a clean bill of health.
Now please leave some love for my babies!
I have been tagged by my good friend topsurf, who by the way, I would like to marry when I grow up, in the photo snag/tag. Thank you!
Here are the rules:
- Go to your picture files
- Go to your 6th folder.
- Go to your 6th picture.
- Tell us about it.
- Tag 6 friends to do the same.
Here is the 6th picture in the 6th folder of my pictures folder.
This is a picture of Foster, taken by his foster mom before I brought him home. So I really don’t know the story behind it, but obviously I can see he had been indulging on some plush toy and killed it and destroyed it, as he’s wont to do, thoroughly enjoying the process as is apparent from the maniacal look in his eye. By some “plush toy”, I mean some squeaky dog toy or some fluffy stuffed animal or some throw pillow or some blanket or some comforter or some jacket or some couch seats or any some such munchable things.
And I tag The Moistress, Baja Burrito, The insane one, Tortilla chip face, The vibrating one and The fragmented one. If you’ve already been tagged or you don’t wanna do it, no biggie. I’m just trying to follow the rules for a change. But it’s fun, you know.
Brandy just farted. The cutest thing. She farts, looks towards her hiney and cocks her head to one side questioningly. Every single time. Which means if she farts again while she’s giving her butt an interrogating head cock, she cocks her head to the other side. And of course in the case of the multiple farts, it gets pretty hilarious. After all this time, she hasn’t quite figured it out.
Brooklyn, of course, doesn’t fart in my company because it’s totally beneath her.
Foster, who one would guess as the funniest farter, is disappointingly nonchalant when he farts. If he happens to be standing up, he takes a couple of quick steps forward and turns his head to look at his butt and then throws a sidelong glance towards me as if to see if I’ve noticed it. But if he happens to be lying down, he doesn’t even move his head, but only his eyes move for a quick glance at me for a second.
The most comical is Georgia, who usually tries to blame it on the one situated closest to her butt, who somehow is always me. If she farts sitting or lying down, she jumps up as if scared, with an OMG! WTF! kinda look, turns around and sniffs all around me, then suddenly retreats and walks away and sits down a few feet away from the offending spot, and stares at me for a long time with a disgusted accusatory look on her face.
Aren’t they so exactly like people or what?
Long awaited snow, the right kind –the sticking kind– came Friday. I was ecstatic at the prospect of 4 to 6 inches of snow because my poor deprived dogs hadn’t had decent snow for some time. It snowed all day starting around 10am. Then it changed to sleet and rain by the time I headed home. I was not happy. This was what happened the last time, the time before AND the time before – snow followed by rain. What good is snow when you have to freeze your fat ass while cleaning your car and waste twice as long a time in driving home if at the end all you got is just slush and mud?
Fortunately, when I finally reached home, I found that it hadn’t rained too much in this area. We had a few inches of snow and it wasn’t slushy at all, and the rain turned to snow again. Dogs loved it. They ran around with white snow around the muzzle. I threw snowballs for them. They chased them and got confused when the snowballs landed and disappeared. They pounced on a “snowball” and looked around and pounced on a phantom snowball again and searched for it with their nosed buried in the snow and sometimes dug the snow to see if the ball hid itself. And my laughter rang out quite out of tune with the snow shoveling noise in the otherwise quiet neighborhood.
It was pure joy and happiness I’ve had in a long time.
Serious Stuff. Seriously
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.NaNoWriMo
Yeah, I'm gonna try this time. I must be crazy... not surprisingly.
| Blog: |
| yoonamania |
Topics: |
| Pets, Dog, Cat |