Loving the dark
roasted bean ...
roasted bean ...
the teaching ...
and the learning ...
and, one day, the earning ...
and the learning ...
and, one day, the earning ...
To honor the memory of my beautiful dog, I've rescued two dogs. Life begins again with dogs in the house.
Although they're not puppies, it is almost like beginning with puppies: teaching them their boundaries, what is expected of them, walking them (and walking them and walking them) and giving them the love and guidance they need. Now comes the task of insurance. Because I'm still paying off veterinary bills from my dogs who have died, I've vowed never to be unprepared for unexpected veterinary expenses again. I'll post how that goes once I've decided on an insurance plan. ********** Note added later: The insurance the vet recommended was PetPlan. So, that's what will cover them.
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My beloved boy dog died this morning leaving the mystery of what exactly was wrong with him unsolved. Again, if I had the resources, I would want a full pathology report to find out what forces were at play causing his paralysis.
The bigger questions, and all dog owners should be asking them, are: Why are dogs fated to have reproductive cancer if they're not neutered or spayed at a young enough age? Why do so many dogs have genetically linked, life threatening disorders in their elder years? What is it in our lives, in our environment, in our water, in our food (or imported to taint our food) that is causing all these prevalent cancers and disorders not only in our pets but in ourselves as well? Ask the questions. Don't stop asking until someone not only answers them, but makes the changes that will make them the rarity and not the norm. Several months ago, in the middle of the night on the weekend (which seems to be the time that all animals choose to have life threatening illnesses) my dog crashed hard. He collapsed and seemed almost comatose. We thought he was going to die. A trip to the emergency clinic revealed that he had a very low platelet count. The vet at the clinic said he had to have a bleed somewhere that caused his platelets to become exhausted. He had indeed come close to dying that night. We had noticed that his gums weren't as pink as they usually were. But it happened so suddenly that one moment they were a light pink and the next they were white. At the emergency clinic he was put on prednisone and antibiotics. We were instructed to follow up with our regular vet on Monday.
At his regular vet, the ultrasounds showed nothing conclusive except a shadow near his heart. The prognosis then was that he possibly had a heart tumor (hemangiosarcoma, they called it) that could eventually cause him to bleed into his pericardium (the membrane surrounding the heart) and he would die. However, after taking prednisone and antibiotics (and subsequent removal from prednisone due to severe GI bleeding) he recovered on his own. It was a slow recovery but he was able to take walks again and play again and be just like he was before he became ill. In fact, if we hadn't gotten that very poor prognosis, after his recovery we would never have known that he was sick in the first place. However, just a couple of weeks ago he got sick again. This time, he presented with coughing, followed by standing still--as if he was frozen. That worsened to extreme dizziness and lack of coordination while walking. His head tended to veer to the left side so his body invariably followed his head to the left whenever he got up to walk. His gums, however, were the rosiest pink. His appetite remained in tact and aside from his wobbly walking, he didn't collapse. We took him back to the vet's office. They found he had a ear infection. At first, they didn't see any signs of his weird walking. They theorized hip dysplasia (even though it was his front legs, not his back legs, that were giving him trouble). We left him there and after walking him again, they saw his weird head tilt and listing to the left. After all the testing he's had in the past and recently, all they could do was speculate and refer us to specialists. So, he came home again to rest. If I had the finances to do extensive (and stressful for him) testing via the specialists I might know for certain what is causing his paralysis. What I do know is that his heart is doing well and that when he is motivated he can sneak past us to go outside despite the fact that he seems to have lost control of his front legs. Time will tell whether he improves or worsens. |
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