How Are We?

It was a long weekend trying to keep little Miss Mackey quiet. Dr B prescribed pain meds and a muscle relaxant and once they took over, she felt great and wanted to play. Unfortunately for her, she was leashed to either a person or a chair for five days. She took it surprisingly well though she really wanted to run with the big dogs.

Now her meds are finished and she's been released from her tether, but she's still being walked separately and not allowed to run. Next Monday she can try going out with the other dogs and we'll see how it goes.

 We saw Dr B again on Monday and discussed what may have caused the problem. It could be a disc problem because of her long back and short legs. Dogs built like that are susceptible to disc injuries. Just to ease any pressure on her neck, he feels she should probably start wearing a harness. I have a box of harnesses of various sizes that I bought on Ebay, but Mackey has such a funny shape that none fit her, so later in the week she'll get to go shopping for a perfect fitting harness. She is NOT excited about the idea.

Dr B still thinks it's possible that Mackey actually suffered a petite seizure. He says if that's the case, as long as she has no more than three in a year, we'll just handle them as they happen. These small seizures are difficult to diagnose and to treat. So we wait and see.

On Monday Bailey visited with Dr B. Bailey has been limping on and off for awhile. Last month it started to get pretty bad so I started her on Rimadyl. For the first week I gave her 100 mg, then cut it back to 50 mg daily. Dr B said we needed to check her liver values after thirty days on the drug. Since it was almost time for her annual checkup, I decided on a full senior blood panel.

He gave her a full exam, paying special attention to her legs and spine. He felt no signs of pain in either, so the Rimadyl seems to be working for her. He thinks she has some arthritis in her back from an earlier injury. Everything else checked out great, eyes, ears, teeth, etc. Bailey is a little too squirmy to get blood easily so this time I had her lie down on the table. Dr B took blood from her back leg as I fed her liver treats very slowly. She was so interested in the treats that she didn't even notice what was going on in the back end.

Her lab report came back the next day and was perfect except that her thyroid was a little high. She's already on Soloxin, so we made a slight adjustment form .6 mg to .5 mg. Problem solved. The Rimadyl is not bothering her liver and it's helping her arthritis.

We also had a good talk about Fudge. The boy doesn't handle change very well and has been mopey since Morgan's death. The doc gave me some ideas to help him thru the adjustment. It was a good visit and we had mostly good news.