Grizzley stayed at the hospital Wednesday night. It turns out that he does have lymphoma and now it has advanced to his chest cavity. The vet took the fluid out of his lungs a few times so he could breathe better and he finally ate something yesterday after starving himself for 2 days. The vet says that once at this stage, the disease advances rapidly and Grizzley has a couple of months at the most unless he decides to surprise us by responding really well to the medications, in which case I might have a few more months with him.
I took him home last night and so far, he has eaten only 2 oz of canned food while normally he should have finished 9 oz. But it might just be that the dosage of prednisone that we quadrupled just 2 days ago hasn’t taken considerable effect yet. If he doesn’t eat substantial amount by tomorrow morning, I have to take him back to the vet tomorrow.
Please please please keep your fingers crossed, say a prayer and send him good vibes so that he at least sees his 15th birthday, 28th of June, and also that his last days are not too painful to him and that I recognize the time to let him go when the time comes.
Grizzley is going strong. He has the appetite of a tiger because of once a day prednisone. He doesn’t show any signs of the trouble a few months ago. This picture is a really bad one, he looks much better! Nowadays, he doesn’t have that kitty condo because I had to dismantle it to take it out of the livingroom after installing the doors, and wasn’t able to put them together again… hehe…
Georgia is doing well as far as I can see. We’ll get another X-ray taken in a couple of month to see if her elbow dysplasia is getting worse. I just found out she’s been sneaking in some pee on the rug I put down in the livingroom for her. So everybody except Brooklyn is having a blast marking or peeing inside after the new living arrangement!!! *shakes fist*
Brooklyn has been, well, Brooklyn, refusing to step down to the grass to pee or poop EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. This summer has been so humid and wet as to ruin a pair of my Timberlands because they get soaked from walking 10 ft on it to pick up poop. Naturally, Brooklyn refuses to have any of that, so I’ve had to drag her out and body block her from coming back to the deck, to force her to pee. I do that everyday, I tell ya.
Brandy’s poop is still too soft, and we can’t find any underlying cause of the bacterial overgrowth in her intestinal tract. I’ve been giving her plain fat free yogurt and that firms it up a little so that it’s not completely liquidy. But she’s not losing any weight, and actually gaining some and she hasn’t had any bad regurgitating bouts for some time. *knocks on wood* The problem is she acts like she doesn’t have bladder control after the new living arrangement and has been peeing inside.
RPIMFA, aka Foster, is of course doing good. The summer is almost over, and thankfully he didn’t hurt himself or give himself puncture wounds. I’ve caught him a few times following bugs towards his torso again and again, but so far, we haven’t made that second trip to the E-vet yet. Hopefully he gives me a break this year since he’s already caused enough grief by peeing and marking everywhere including my bed.
Grizzley has been doing well on 5mg prednisone once a day. As Dr. L instructed, I tried once every other day before I ran out of pills, but he promptly started throwing up a little everyday. So I tried once every day and a half, but let’s face it. I’m getting old and the gray matter inside my skull doesn’t process this “once every day and a half” concept very well; one dose in the morning, then the next day in the evening, and then skip a day, and the one in the morning, etc. You get my drift. So back to once a day, and he seems to be doing fine again. And I will refrain from talking about how Sheila, my vet’s receptionist, screwed us up this time getting the scribe renewed.
Georgia has been doing well, and I dare say she’s the happiest one among my bunch. She doesn’t care if it’s hot, humid, muggy, wet, rainy, or pouring. She keeps on hopping around pees and poops with joy, chasing bugs, making splashes in the mud puddles. She’s been getting a little used to noises from outside our property, too – I hate to admit, but it might have to do with the fact that the neighbor is so loud so often.
Brooklyn, of course, is miserable. She’s miserable in the hot and humid summer of NY. She pees only once a day, or twice if motivated because she hates to get her precious paws wet. She poops once maybe 3 or 4 days. Being a winter dog, she doesn’t know what to do outside when it’s scorching. The weather has been simply weird for this time of the year and wasn’t THAT bad, but as I pointed out in earlier entries, Brooklyn is a diva. Everything has to be JUST so for her to lead a normal dog’s life. So yeah, it sucks for her this time of the year and all this rain we are getting isn’t helping either.]
Brandy is doing OK; not great, not bad, but just OK. We finished amoxicillin, and she’s not that much better. But her diarrhea is being controlled to just soft stool most of the time. She is gaining her weight back it seems – I’m not sure, but I can’t feel her bones as easily as before when I was worried sick. I’m still trying to find a time to talk to the vet – I called the vet’s office a few times and either Lorraine or Sheila has been answering, so I just hung up because I know the chances are very slim to get to talk to Dr. L.
Foster is, well, he’s Foster. It took me a little over 40 minutes to clip his nails just last night including 5-10 minute break I took since I was sweating profusely trying to clip his nails sitting inside his crate with him. Afterwards he lied down on his side the rest of the night pretending he died from nail clipping.
Today concluded this spring’s round of heartworm tests and wellness checkups for my beasts at last with Brooklyn’s visit to the vet. Brooklyn being Brooklyn, I had to ask numerous times to contain the two resident Rotties and the resident cats, all of whom tried their very best to escape the back room every chance they got. I have to admit it must have been a sight to behold whenever I saw any of them approaching since I turned to face Brooklyn to block her, bending my knees and back in preparation to body block and bear hug her in time if and when she decides to lunge. Picturing myself in that posture would have been funny if I looked fit and slim active type, but it’s absolutely hysterical to picture me the way I am – fat and short couch potato type.
I asked Dr. L to check if Brooklyn broke her teeth, and my suspicion was confirmed. Both of her upper back premolars were broken, but fortunately not enough to expose the nerves. There is nothing we could do about it. I might actually have to start brushing her teeth! I also took home a bottle each of Rimadyl and Methocarbamol to give Brooklyn when her pinched nerve acts up. One good news. She weighed at 54.5lb, which is 1.5lb lighter than 3 months ago. Finally she’s on her way back to her lean and mean self at 47lb, as opposed to being just mean.
I have another appointment to bring Brandy in again in 2 weeks, this time to draw blood for some other tests, especially pancreatic deficiency, to determine why her poop continues to be soft after finishing 10 days of metronidazol. Adding rice and yogurt to her diet did help a tad, but nothing to write home about. I procured a bottle of apple cider vinegar as well some time ago, but yet to crack it open, the reason being that yogurt is supposed to replenish the good bacteria in her system. Adding to it apple cider vinegar, which is supposed to kill excess bacteria in her system, sounds illogical and doesn’t compute at all. So I will continue to give her yogurt for another week or so to use up the yogurt I already have in the fridge, then if her poop consistency is still not satisfactory, I’ll try the apple cider vinegar. I’m pulling my hair out to see if THAT might help to keep weight on her. She’s 15lb lighter than a year ago.
Grizzley will now be on prednisone once a day for a month or so, and we’ll see how he does. If he does well, we’ll try to reduce it to once every other day. He’s been doing great so far, back to his old self trying to steal my food right when I bring food to my mouth every single bite.
Georgia’s allergy checkup and blood panel a few weeks ago was great, and even the vet was surprised how well she’s doing on just the weekly allergy shots alone without any other medication. This was the first time she had not had any yeast infection flare up in between the checkups.
Foster, of course, is healthy… well, at least physically. If only he would stop giving himself puncture wounds that need stitching up, that would be awesome.
Serious Stuff. Seriously
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