Thursday, January 14, 2016

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.

8 comments:

♥♥ The OP Pack ♥♥ said...

Overall, not too bad. We hope all the little things get better soon. It takes some dogs a long time to get over a loss. Phantom was like that with Dakota and Ciara with Thunder. Are you still able to get Soloxine? We had to switch Ciara to the generic and we are having some very bizarre results. We hate it when something that works well is not longer available:(

Woos - Ciara and Lightning

~Kim at Golden Pines~ said...

It's always good to have pretty good news from the vet -- Isn't that what we pay them for? :-) I hope things keep going in the right direction, and it's great that the rimadyl is working! I'm handing it out at our house like it's in a pez dispenser....

Two French Bulldogs said...

Poor baby. Sending lots of good vibes your way
Lily & Edward

Ruby said...

Oh gurl! I hopes you are feelin' 100% soon! I'm so sorry you can run and stuffs...I don't knows what I would do if I couldn't chase the tree rats...sendin' TONS of POTP your way gurl!
Sounds like everyone else is doin' pretty good (knock on wood! ☺), I gots my paws crossed for my adopted pack! BOL
Kisses,
Ruby ♥

Bella Roxy & Macdui said...

Mostly good news! That's positive. We hope Mackey is running around with the others very soon.

Matilda the Boxer said...

Things are always exciting at your house! I hope you find a good blinged out harness for Mackey.

Marjie said...

The fact that Mackey is trying to get out and romp with the others is a good sign, indeed. I hope poor Fudge perks up soon; I'm sure he misses his longtime friend, Miss Morgan.

Lapdog Creations said...

YAY for vet visits full of mostly good news! :)