Samson Crossed the Rainbow Bridge

 The vet came to our house and put Samson to rest today. Samson would have been 14 in August. We finally decided that it was time after Samson had become very immobile due to the pain in his hips and knees. He rarely moved from his spot on the hill (we moved to our new home last November), and it had gotten to the point that we rarely let him come in the house anymore due to incontinence. He often soiled himself even while outside, and that was just no way for him to live. So we requested that Dr. McQueen come to our house to administer the shot so that Samson wouldn't have to endure a fearful visit to the clinic. Samson died with a belly full of tasty hamburger and surrounded by loved ones.

Tummy Troubles

On June 25, Samson had loose stool and messed on the floor. For the next five weeks, Samson continued to have loose stools. When taken off of Ol’Roy and given rice, stools would improve. The veterinarian placed Samson on metronidazole and propectalin and continued the rice meals. Stools improved within the week. Samson was slowly started again on Ol’Roy. As soon as Ol’Roy was re-introduced, the loose stools would begin. Also, we began to notice Abby having loose stools. I threw away the Ol’Roy, cleaned the food container, and bought and new bag of Ol’Roy but the loose stools continued. That’s when I noticed the bag read “Improved Formula”. We switched to Purina and stools immediately improved with both dogs. We suspect that a change in the Ol’Roy recipe caused the gastrointestinal issues.

Fleas Bite

We visited Travis’ dad last weekend, and apparently their dogs had fleas. After we got home, we discovered that our dogs also had fleas. Great.

We gave them flea baths with some kind of “natural” flea shampoo, but I don’t think it did much. After a few days, Travis got the dogs (and Oscar) flea collars but it seemed to have very little effect on the dogs. So yesterday Travis washed the dogs with a new flea shampoo (Hartz Ultra Guard Rid Flea & Tick Dog Shampoo, active ingredient Phenothrin 0.27%).

The bath seemed to help Samson, but Abby has been manic ever since her bath: constant panting, pacing, and itching. She seems to only find a little relief outside.

We tried giving her enough benedryl for a 150lb dog, but it didn’t seem to help much. She got a little bit better over night, but she is still very uneasy, and she kept us up a lot of the night with her restless behavior.

The last time she acted like this was when we put some of the flea medication on her. It’s got to be some kind of allergic reaction to the medication. Hopefully she’ll get better soon.

Late Night Disturbances

Last night around 3am Samson woke us up head-butting the door and wanting out of the bedroom. It was at this time when Abby happened to barf twice on the floor in the bedroom (totally unrelated to Sam — he just wanted to lay in the hallway). That's the 2nd time she's done that within the last 3 or 4 months, and she's also had diarrhea on one occasion during that time.

Last night we ate bacon and pancakes for supper, and Travis gave her and Samson both a little bit of each, so maybe that had something to do with it. Another possible factor is that we changed to a new dog food (from Old Roy Large Breed to Iams Large Breed) within the last 6 months.

Anyway, just wanted to document.

Intermittent Lameness

Samson has been pretty limpy for a couple of months, so the vet prescribed 100mg doses of tramadol for him. She said what we had been giving him (meloxicam — it was working quite well for a while, by the way) only helps with inflammation; it does nothing for the pain. We just gave him his first dose of the new stuff, so hopefully it will make him feel better. The vet warned that since tramadol is an opiate, it may make Sam act a little dopey or sluggish. We'll see...

Aural (Ear) Hematoma II

The good news: Samson's 1st aural hematoma healed without any problems or deformities. :)

The bad news: Samson now has another one. Same ear.

We haven't taken Sam to the vet yet, but since we had some of the meds left over from last time, we're treating his ears for an infection and hoping that it fixes itself. We first noticed it three days ago, and it hasn't gotten any worse. The hematoma isn't as large as the first time he had it, and we're monitoring him closely to try to minimize how often he shakes his head.

We'll keep an eye on things for a few more days and hope that it starts to get a little smaller as the blood is reabsorbed into his body. If we continue to see no change in the size of the hematoma, we'll just have to take him back to the vet. We hate to do this because Sam is getting on in years (he'll be 8 in August), and we would really rather not risk putting him under anesthesia. We'll do whatever we have to do, though — Samson's health is priority #1.

Aural (Ear) Hematoma

We had to take Samson to the vet for an aural hematoma today. Apparently he had a mild yeast infection in both ears (likely due to his seasonal allergies) which caused him to shake his head enough to cause the hematoma in his ear. A hematoma is basically a pocket of blood that forms in the ear; it's usually caused by excessive head-shaking or by trauma to the ear. People who box often get ear hematomas too; it's what causes cauliflower ear. Samson's wasn't too bad. The vet had to drain the blood by using a syringe, and we were given meds to put in his ears to fix the yeast infection. If the hematoma fills back up, we'll have to consider fixing it with surgery. Hopefully that won't happen.

Sam on Thyroid Meds and Meloxicam

Just noticed this draft and figured I'd publish it. Based on the post title, I'm going to assume that this is when we first started Samson on his thyroid meds and meloxicam. (note added October 8, 2020)

100th Post!

It's our 100th post! So here's a triptych of Samson enjoying a good brushin'. :)

Now back to business... We finished up Sam's prednisone regimen. He did really well while on the prednisone (as expected), but his limp fully returned after weening him off of it. Bummer.

We took him to the vet for a check-up since he's overdue for one of those anyway. The vet said that he'll probably always have the limp and there's nothing to be done about it. He's not a proponent of surgery (in any situation, not just this one), and he says that pretty much our only option is to give him remadyl to help with the pain.

Travis didn't like the sound of that.

After our vet visit and a few days of research, Travis bought some MSM (methylsulfonylmethane, 1000 mg once per day) which works alongside glucosamine to help with overall joint health. He also learned about a common human drug that helps with arthritis and joint pain called Meloxicam. Meloxicam is much gentler on the digestive tract and will not cause upset stomach like NSAIDs; it's also a very affordable $4 for a 30-pill prescription at Walmart, whereas remadyl is $1 per pill. Our vet didn't even mention this option.

Have I mentioned that we're considering switching vets?

Anyways, Travis called a friend at the vet's office and the friend called in a Rx of Meloxicam for us (7.5 mg, once per day). When Travis went to pick up the Rx, the pharmacist at Walmart actually mentioned that it was pretty common for veterinarians to call this in for pets.

We gave him his first pill tonight, so we'll just see how it goes from here. Fingers crossed!

Trying a New Prednisone Regimen

As of January 15th (about three weeks ago), we've had Samson on a new regimen of 20 mg of prednisone twice per day in the hopes of "resetting" any immune problems that may or may not be causing his continued limp. Travis decided to give it a try because his progress has pretty much plateaued. We'll likely keep him on this dosage for about eight weeks or so.

Before we put him on the prednisone, he was itching A LOT. The itching has been a little better since then, but not nonexistent.

Samson's also been pretty ravenous since he's been on the prednisone. Those steroids make him hungry ALL THE TIME! lol

Probably unrelated, but just in the past few days, he's been acting a little more lethargic than usual. According to other stuff we've read, prednisone usually increases energy, not decreases. And two days ago, he had a bit of diarrhea. Don't know if that's related to the prednisone, the lethargy, or if its just nothing at all (probably nothing lol).

We may end up taking him off of the prednisone earlier than planned if he doesn't start acting more like himself soon. A trip to the vet might also be planned if we can figure out how to get him in the SUV...

Howloween 2012

We had our 2nd annual halloween party yesterday. It was a blast. :)

Not so much for the dogs, though. We had to keep them pinned up in our bedroom. They behave pretty well, though. We gave them some chew treats, and pet on them whenever we walked by the door (we just had a tall baby gate blocking them in so they could still see all the goings-on).

Anyways, the dogs have been well. Samson has good days and bad days with his knee. Mostly good, I think, but he'll go through an especially "limpy" handful of days every now and then.

Abby threw up yesterday. She ate her supper then yacked it right back up. She later went on to eat a rawhide treat and had no trouble keeping it down, so I think it was probably nothing.

Other than that, Abby's been fine. Very happy and affectionate as always.

Frisky Sam

Lately Samson has been feeling quite frisky. This is a big change from his usual mopey self, so we're taking it to mean that his knee is stating to feel better. He still limps, but it seems like every night around 8:00 to 10:00 he tries to play with Abby. Their favorite game? The mounting game (it's a dominance thing). Obviously this is not good for his knee or hip, so we have to always separate them or distract them with treats.

Other than that, we're still doing the glucosamine and fish oil, two each twice per day.

Samson After 8 Weeks of CM

We slowly weaned Samson off of his 8-week regimen of prednisone last week. He had his last pill Saturday, so he's been completely off of it for a few days now. He's still limping, but the good news is that the limping hasn't gotten worse since he's been off the pred. Keeping our fingers crossed that it stays that way, and he'll continue to heal. Hopefully he'll be back to 100% a year from now…

We continue to give Samson 4 pills per day of glucosamine+chondroitin and fish oil.

For the past couple of weeks Samson and Abby have been getting playful around 9:30 or 10:00 every night. It's hard making them not play because I know they've both got a lot of pent up energy. It's been FOREVER since we've taken them both to walk around the Square, and even though I walk/jog every morning with Abby, that doesn't help with Samson's boredom at all (and if I'm honest, it only barely helps with Abby's).


To tease you a bit — and to break up the monotony of all this news about Sam's bum knee — I've got a cute video of Abby that I'll post later after I've had a bit of time to cut out the dull bits. :)

Upset Tummy

Not the most savory of topics, but this blog is for documenting our dogs' quirky and funny behaviors as much as it is for documenting their illnesses and problems (if not more so for the latter). So here goes.

We came home to a mess in the living room this afternoon where Samson had gotten sick with diarrhea. It's probably nothing (after all, the same thing happens with people from time to time) and is likely due to the prednisone that he's taking. They say that prednisone can cause all kinds of little problems with the digestive system, so we're not going to worry until there's a need. And he's acting normal, so I don't think he necessarily feels sick. We've given him an imodium to help with the loose stool. Hopefully it will just pass and he'll be back to normal tomorrow.

Other than that, Samson seems to be slowly on the mend with his bum knee. We had a brief setback where he was completely tri-podding, but after about a week or two, he was back to his regular limping. This was about 5 or 6 weeks ago (April 15th). He continues to limp now, but we think it might be getting a little better. He's good to walk on it now, though there's still an obvious limp, but he rarely puts much weight on it when he's just standing. We've been a lot more strict on his conservative management since the setback a few weeks ago, and I think it's paying off.

We continue to give him 4 pills per day of glucosamine and chondroitin, 4 pills per day of fish oil, and 1 pill per day of prednisone.

I think the fish oil pills are really making Sam's fur super healthy. lol It's so shiny and soft now!

Abby has been shedding a lot recently so we gave her a bath last week. I think it might have helped...

WWHHYYYYYY???

I had originally intended to post an update on Samson's bum knee, but Abby presented me with a more upbeat topic:



"Why???" I ask. "MOMITWASSOMUCHFUN!" Abby says in answer.

She got a serious bath afterwards. It was so hard to lather up her fur with all of that gritty mud in it. It took almost a whole bottle of dog shampoo! Thankfully she's all clean now.

As for Samson, we think that we're starting to see some improvement in his walking. He's using his right leg to scratch more often now, so hopefully that counts. He still has a very prominent limp, but we think it might be getting a little bit better.

Torn ACL

Or CCL as it's known in dogs.

We've pretty much narrowed down Samson's right-side limping to a partially torn ACL/CCL. We had an antinuclear antibody (ANA) test done on him and it came back negative. This test checks for any kind of autoimmune problems from rheumatoid arthritis to lupus. Since it came back negative, it narrows things down to some kind of injury; and since we know there's no damage to his bones, it's a soft tissue injury.

Because he already had a bad left hip, he probably overcompensates on his right side which led to him being rougher to that side. I'm sure Abby helped too because she likes to tackle him when they play in the yard. She probably T-boned him one day, and it made him hurt his knee.

As treatment, the only thing we can do is "conservative management" (it's pretty much the equivalent of bed rest). The vet says no running in the yard, very limited activity and to keep him as sedentary as possible, like he's in a crate (if we had a crate big enough, we'd just keep him in it, but alas...). I've been taking him out only while he's on a leash, so that he can't chase anything in the yard. It's also easier to keep Abby off of him this way.

Poor Abby doesn't understand why we won't let her play with him, though. She wants to jump on him and run around with him so badly. I feel bad, but we'll have to keep it up for quite a while. The vet says that if our conservative management is working, we should start to see some improvement at about 8 weeks. He won't be healed in 8 weeks, but we should start to see some improvement by then. If not, then we'll have to pursue other more invasive options (a.k.a. surgery).

We are also supposed to keep him on glucosamine+chondroitin, fish oil and remadyl to both manage his pain and also to promote the growth of scar tissue to strengthen his joint.

Hopefully all of this will work. It's gonna be a long 8+ weeks...

Rimadyl for Samson

Well, we've given him four weeks of antibiotics and about three weeks of prednisone. Soon as we started to ween him off of the pred, his limp returned. He's still favoring his right leg even though we can't find anything wrong with it. Travis is going to call a couple of orthopedic vets for some advice. We're thinking about taking him in to see one of them so they can maybe to an MRI or something to check the soft tissue for injuries since we already know his bones are fine.

His limp is really pretty bad when he's off the prednisone. It's hard seeing him hurt, but we ordered him some Rimadyl (or rather the off-brand version) and it came in the mail today. We gave him his first pill earlier this afternoon, so hopefully we'll start to see him feeling better in a couple of days.

We're also going to continue giving him this glucosamine+chondroitin and fish oil pills. lol Sam and Abby eat those things like Gushers. xD In fact, Abby has already broken into two jars of the fish oil pills and eaten a third of a bottle the first time, and well over half a bottle the second time. After the second time, we decided to keep the pills in the upper kitchen cabinets instead of our bathroom countertop.

Prednisone Kicks the Limp

A week ago we started Samson on a short-term regimen of prednisone with the hopes that his limping is due to autoimmune arthritis (a.k.a. Lyme disease). In theory, giving Samson a round of pred will "reset" his body and get rid of the inflammation and limp. After two days his limp was mostly gone; he hasn't limped at all in a couple of days now. His allergies have also settled down (for a while there he was trying to get a few hot spots).

We're continuing his antibiotics, glucosamine+condroitin, and fish oil. We'll get two more weeks of antibiotics before he finishes these so that he'll have a full month's worth before it's all over with. As a side note, we're supplementing his diet with plain yogurt to help his digestive system while he's taking the antibiotics since they can sometimes upset dogs' stomachs.

So now it's the OTHER leg...

We took Samson to the vet yesterday because we've been noticing for about a month that he now limps to favor his right leg. We know it's not due to hip dysplasia because of his previous xrays, so Travis called up the doctor and was told that we could get a follow-up check-up for a reduced cost as well as a full set of new xrays for just $33, so Trav packed up the dog and hauled him to the vet.

Nothing new showed up on the xrays, but they felt all over his legs and seemed to think that his right knee was more swollen than his left so he may have injured his ACL. They weren't, however, able to get any slippage in the joint like what would be expected with a torn or damaged ligament. Because we can't confirm this theory, we'll just limit Samson's activity for the next two or three weeks and hope that if it is indeed an injured ACL, it can have some time to heal on its own without exploratory surgery.

The other theory is that his limping is due to the tick-born illness that we improperly treated Samson for the last time we took him in. Because the test for Lyme disease can (apparently) easily produce false negatives, we decided to forgo said test and just treat for it anyway. We were given two weeks of antibiotics which we will dispense correctly this time (we did it wrong last time because we misinterpreted the instructions).

Keeping our fingers crossed that he feels better soon! He's having such a difficult time getting up and walking around. :(

Also, peanut butter is really starting to lose it's value to him because of all the pills we've been giving him. lol

Glucosamine & Chondroitin

After not seeing much results with the glucosamine pills, we've started giving Samson glucosamine with chondroitin; we've also started giving him fish oil pills. He's been on the new supplements for about a week now. Hopefully we'll have more success with these.

Samson limps pretty regularly now. A year ago it was only very rarely. I hope it doesn't keep getting worse at this rate...