SICK DOG

PICTURE TAKEN A FEW YEARS AGO FOR AN ARTICLE IN GRIT MAGAZINE.  THANKS SUE HANSEN AND OF COURSE DAISY AND BIG GUS IN THE BACKGROUND

Anubis. had been acting funny for a few days and over the week-end was very lethargic.  We took her into the vet Monday and she has a swollen lymph node behind her jaw, although a blood work-up was pretty much down the middle except for a slightly elevated calcium number, which could be a sign of a tumor somewhere.  They took x-rays and one reason for her bloated look is she was full of.......well let's say she hasn't pottied lately.  So the decision was to run 3 liters of IV fluid thru her over the next couple of days and see if that made things progress along.  They ran an IV, sent us home with 2 bags and instructions.  You might know the port wouldn't work for us, so we took her back yesterday morning and it wouldn't work for them either.  Pulled it, and decided to just run the fluid under her skin, like they do with little puppies and kittens.  So that's what we did and it worked out just fine.  She is a very mellow dog and just laid on her bed on the courtyard the whole time.  We have her on the courtyard so we can see if she eats, drinks, poos, and pees.  So far she's eating, drinking, and peeing............still no pooing.  We're taking her in today for further evaluation and to decide what PLAN B will be.  The x-rays showed no tumors or anything out of the ordinary, but with her colon so full, there could be something in there hiding.  It's amazing she is still eating, you'd think her system would say, "don't send anything else down here".  

Pepper got down in his favorite "bed" in the wash yesterday afternoon.  Amy and Morgan were here cleaning pens and heard a lot of grunting.  Checked on him and sure enough he was on his right side.  I was going to get the ropes, but they said they could flip him just using his legs and they did.  That's probably much easier on him, but John and I need the leverage of the ropes and having some distance from his hooves if he thrashes.  Must be nice to be younger and stronger..............!!! LOL  Amy is like me, she likes the old guys, so Pepper is one of her favorites.  Actually she adopted Big Gus in the picture above about 5 years ago, and a few years later Rambo i.e. Bo, so she has 2 of our alumni.  She still thinks Gus is fun and entertaining, not everyone would keep that thought after being around him for awhile.  He is highly intelligent, very curious, and needs to be entertained, which is a dangerous combination........!!! LOL  When he was here, which he was twice, John use to come in with the latest Gus story and say, "I'll be glad when he's gone".  But when he was gone, John would come in and say, "you know I really miss Gus". 

I've about decided to not actively look for a new home for Pepsi.  When he was here before he was pretty attached to Lynn one of the other minis.  When he came back he hooked up with Lynn again and Pancho isn't as important these days.  Lynn, Cheyenne and Justin actually belong to Courtney our trimmer.  She brought them to us almost 7 years ago for weight control and once the weight was gone, well they just kinda "hung" out here.  If she ever takes them back, she might end up with 4 instead of 3...........!!!!! 

Hey, just had an update on Anubis, John came in and said she had been in my tomato vines on the courtyard.  I guess she finally had to go, and wasn't willing to go in the tiles, so the tomatoes were the next best thing.  That's OK, they weren't doing very good anyway.  I don't think she put out as much as I saw on the x-rays, but at least it's progress in the right direction.