Medical Update

It seems like the right time to give a medical update.

In the spring we had lots of foot injuries. Lola had a bite on her toe that swelled up to an enormous size. She's all healed now and back to racing around the yard.

Bailey had a pulled muscle in her leg and was on rest and pain killers for a couple weeks. She's as good as new now.

Samba had several things going on. First was a toe injury, then another foot had a cyst between the toes. She promised not to chew on her feet if I removed the hat and she has been a very good girl. Her feet are all doing well.

Samba also beat up her tail and caused lots of blood to fly around. Learning to bandage a tail was a new experience. My attempts didn't work too well, but Dr B showed me the secret of keeping a tail bandage on the tail. Now her tail is healed and wagging freely again.

Morgan has had the worst time of all. She has torn the cruciate ligaments in both knees. Her left leg is still pretty weak, but she's been given the go ahead to start therapy. That means I can start walking up and down the hill with her, weather permitting. We don't do this in 100 degree heat, so maybe evenings. We can only do one trip up the hill to start and gradually increase the number of climbs. She says she's ready.

Speaking of Miss Morgan, we had bad news in May. Her blood test showed that her liver disease was getting worse. Two of her enzymes were very high. We started her on Denamarin which is a combination of SamE and silybin. I give it to her each morning a couple hours before she eats. On Wednesday she had her three month checkup and a blood test. One of the two liver enzymes had come down a lot and the other was normal. Yeah, Morgan !!! You are my Energizer Bunny Dog. Even Dr B said she must be part cat with nine lives.

Sebastian went to the doctor this week, too. He had a Lyme booster and had to have his skin checked. He's very itchy and has a couple of sores on his skin that he won't leave alone. He'll be getting a medicated bath this weekend and we're increasing his antihistamines and fish oil. It may take a little time to get his skin back in condition after his adventures on the road, but we're working on it.

Not all the news is good. Last nigh Noah began acting strangely. He paced all night, whimpering or barking at intervals. Rob and I took turns sitting up with him. This morning I noticed that he was stumbling on the stairs and he walked into the wall a couple times.

I called the clinic as soon as they opened and they took us right in. Dr B says there's some weakness in Noah's back end and though his eyes look OK inside, his pupils aren't reacting normally. His guess is that Noah's in pain and probably has injured his back. He can't rule out poisoning however.

We're going to handle this in a certain order. First he prescribed pain pills and muscle relaxants. If that doesn't work or he gets worse, we'll do blood tests. We came home and I gave Noah his meds. He continued to pace, then after about an hour he laid down and fell asleep. It's the first time he's stopped pacing since 7 last night. He's still asleep and Rob and I are going to try to catch up on some of that lost sleep, too.

So, it's mostly wonderful news with a little excitement thrown in. That's life with dogs.