Next on the Medical Menu.......

Just as I was feeling quite smug and pleased with myself for having figured out that Nana was lactose and wheat intolerant and had brought her inner intestinal track in line, she decided to give me something new to wig over.  Nana had her first small, epileptic seizure last Saturday.  She has had several more since then and we are now off to a neurological appointment on Wednesday of next week.  If that wasn't enough, in my panic/excitement of seeing a seizure and loading her into the car for a trip to the emergency vet clinic I left a pot of chicken in water on the stove.  I am now in discussions with the insurance company over a protein fire and the smoke damage that ensued  But, that story is on my Tired of Being Nice blog, or will be when I get to it.

Back to Nana.  Last Saturday while driving home I noticed she was doing this weird "bobble-headed" dog thing.  Whoa!!!  That is not normal.......while trying to see what Nana was experiencing and not driving into on coming traffic, or into the car in front of me I tried to assess just what I was seeing.  Do I drive straight to the emergency vet?  Do I wait?  The "EVENT" lasted about a minute and then was done.  No more events for 2.5 days.  Then last night, she is lying at me feet while I watch an episode of Dollhouse on Netflix when I notice she is starting to do the Bobble-head dog thing.  I go into over achiever mode, call her downstairs, load her in the car, call the emergency vet yelling:  "INCOMING" and totally spaced on the chicken I was boiling on the stove with the timer on.  Of course she is fine at the vet, neurological exam is normal, and there is nothing to see.  2.5 hours later I am home, discover that I have completely engulfed my home in grey smoke and spend the next two hours trying to clear smoke and apologize to my neighbors, apparently we share the same air duct systems, chat up the local fire department, and am grateful that I didn't kill my cat in the process.  By 11:00pm I am back in the house, Nana is really tired and lays down.  OOPS,  another seizure event;  I grabbed my little camera and filmed about 40 seconds, and called the vet.  The movie file was too big, required real player, quick time, God Knows What Time Player and so couldn't get it to her.  Blech.....   Nana had another event this afternoon, I leased her up and took her outside.  I had noticed that when her interest is completely engaged the episodes diminish and quit.  The seizure abated within about 30 seconds.  I am on the net doing my research and logging any episodes I witness for the vets.  I'm not sure what has caused this but am trying to figure it out.  They are increasing and I am trying to head off a Kindling effect if that is possible.  In other words there is a threshold where a seizure will occur, the Kindling effect essentially lowers the threshold or increases the likelihood of an event.  In the mean time our home is a smelly waste dump that I am told isn't toxic but they are recommending I move out for 2 weeks, not toxic?.......I'm thinking they aren't telling me everything.

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho.....It Is Off To The Vet We Go

Once again we are off to the vet for the same old problem of bad gut.  She was doing so well; for over a week and half her stool was exactly as it should be.  Night before last she woke me at midnight with a need to go outside.  What was that horrible smell - ah yes, a large pile of liquid doggie poop on the floor and yes she did need to go out, and out and out; about once every two hours and then every half hour.  I have no idea what made her go from just fine to liquid ugly.  In every other respect she looks and acts just fine.  She is eating, playing, alert, no extended belly. 

I watch what she eats like a hawk and don't let her free graze anything.  I am really suspecting that there is some kind of impaction; how that would happen I have no clue.  So now I am getting concerned since it isn't going away and the food she is taking in does not equal her output.  I have a noon appointment, pet insurance and a credit card so I will just wait until then. 

Can We Say Lactose Intolerant!

I continue to examine doggie poop with the interest of a duck on a June bug.  One thing for certain Nana is Lactose intolerant, which I can't say without thinking of that wonderful scene between Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline in French Kiss.  If you haven't seen the movie - I highly recommend it.

Once I eliminated the dairy products things were looking up, well actually things were firming up.  Then I added Canidae and things went back to Cow Pie Central.  Argh!.......So back to just chicken and rice and off to the pet store to buy a SMALL bag of the old Controlled Growth Puppy Food by Nutro which is what she has been since I got her.  I will give it a couple of days and then start to introduce sprinkles of Nutro and see how it all works out. 

Best poops she ever had was when she was eating road apples at will while hiking.  Nothing like some pre-digested grass hay to add bulk to the diet.  Probably gave her giardia as well - so not a recommended diet addition, but I did find these vegetarian doggie treats that might do the trick.  Put let's be realistic if the dog treats were created by dogs they would have names like:

Road Apple Delight
Goose Poop Perfection
Duck, Duck, Goose
Road Kill Cafe

They certainly would not be pumpkin and sweetpotatoe based.  When Nana barks at the bowl that has pumpkin in it and runs around to the other side of the ottoman and lays down - you know it is a two paws down commentary on the dinner menu.  No Nana, I am not trying to poison you - it's healthy honest!

The Pee and Poo Report Brought To You By...........

I have recently become a connoisseur of Poop.  I look at it, squish it, and bring samples of it to the Vet.  No this isn't some new strange sexual fetish I have developed.  No, no, no.....Nana has Colitis with a dose of Giardia just to add to the fun.  I noticed a couple of days ago that there was blood in Nana's stool.  Not a lot and only in the first stool of the day.  Why she had blood in her stool is really a toss up.  I could be part of the horse hoof she grabbed at the barn and happily chewed on, and no the hoof was not attached to a snorting, four footed equine. It was part of  the trimmings left behind by the farrier.  Then again, it could have been caused by part of the cloth wrapped, piece of scrunchy rubber band I found in the stool, or maybe it was what looked like a hair ball the cat hacked up and Nana ingested.  Really amazing what you can find while rummaging through scat.  At any rate, blood in stool requires a Vet check particularly when it seems to be getting worse.

Nana does not look sick.  She roared into the vet clinic, barked at a couple of dogs, bounced up and down a couple of times, offered the treating Vet a play bow and bark and expressed trained out of there with new drugs to take.  The stool samples I dropped off also showed Giardia.  This she could have gotten anywhere since we walk, hike and hang out in low places - the kind that have interesting things to sniff and streams next to trails that meander under trees.  So who knows where she got this stuff, I watch her closely, but she manages to get into trouble anyway.  Other dogs can eat anything without problems, but my delicate little flower is a regular at the Vet whether it is for pulled muscles, fox tails in the paw, or blood in the stool.  I've kind of decided to just send them really large checks on the first of the month, because I can just about guarantee we will be there for something before the month is over.

Ah yes, the joys of dog ownership.  There are some moments I have to remind myself why I love it, pawing through scat is one of them.

The Doggy Orthopod

Nana is on house rest and anti-inflammatories after her puppy park trauma of a week ago.  I mentioned in my last post that Nana was lame on a front foot. Well....it just didn't seem to get better and my friend Pat, who conveniently is a vet, looked at her and said, "get her to the Orthopod"  or something like that.  Sigh.....fortunately for Loomis Basin Veterinary Hospital's financial sheet, they happen to have one.  So off to the doggie bone doctor on Thursday for a complete exam and treatment plan.  After some discussion, I decided to pass on the $700 worth of x-rays and try the rest, anti-inflammatories for a week then light exercise the following week.

It does seem to be helping, but try telling a 10 month old Briard with lots of energy that they need to rest and not exert themselves - particularly as they are trying to rabbit around the tiny living room I have in an uncontrollable burst of exuberance.  It was a nice stress test however and she wasn't limping after her zoomie moment which is a good thing.  So...I think she is getting better and probably just pulled a muscle playing with the other dogs.  A little rest, a little Ace at night to try and get her to calm down and we will both survive the next few days of house rest.

Someone commented that they couldn't tell what the picture was of in the last blog post.  It is Nana, upside down with her legs over her face.  I thought it looked like an "Oh no...." picture after all the things that she had been through.  :)