Abby update

Recent news on Abby (July 15, 2021):

• Over the course of a few months, Abby began eating less. It started as a refusal to chew her bones and developed into eating less food.
• After a vet visit, we discovered Abby had dropped from 109 pounds to 90 pounds. The vet also noticed some swelling in her upper jaw/lip area.
• Abby was began a two week treatment of Clavamox for a suspected bad tooth. After two days, swelling was down and Abby began eating a little boiled chicken.
• Three days later, Abby was put under for a teeth cleaning and had two teeth extracted. The suspected bad teeth did not present any pus but the vet thought they were bad. Abby continued the Clavamox for another week and a half.
• During the week and a half, Abby ate very little and developed severe diarrhea. Even after her jaw had fully healed, Abby still was not eating.
• We stopped Clavamox and began prednisone to help with the diarrhea and appetite. Abby slowly began eating again and the diarrhea stopped. She also developed an increased thirst and regular incontinence.
• After three weeks of prednisone, we stopped treatment and the incontinence seems to have stopped as well. Abby is now eating again regularly and we are hoping she will gain some of her weight back.

Update (August 23, 2021):

• Incontinence continued so we but Abby on Proin XR every other day. She seems to be responding well to the drugs and not peeing in the house.
• Three months later, diarrhea returned. Immediately gave Abby 5mg of Prednisone. 36 hours later, Abby had a solid stool. Not sure if that is a coincidence or if the prednisone relieved an inflamed GI tract. We suspect IBS.

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.

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

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.

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...

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.

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

Hip Dysplasia

After a few weeks of treatment for lyme disease, we continued to see Samson occasionally limp on his left back leg, so we decided to have the vet do some x-rays to see if there's something else going on. Turns out there was: hip dysplasia. It's only of a moderate level in his left hip, but it still kinda sucks (though we are relieved it's not something horrible like bone cancer with which pyrs tend to have a bit of a reputation). There's not really anything we can do to fix it, and it will only get worse as he ages. All we can do is pain management.

We may try to get some glucosamine to help strengthen the cartilage in his hip joint, but that won't fix the problem which is the bone itself. Also, Samson's occassional dose of prednisone complicates things because he can't be given anything else while he's on it -- it just doesn't mix well.

We'll just have to take it a day at a time and see how it goes. Hopefully he'll age well, and his hip won't get too bad over time.

Sick Sam

We took Samson back to the vet yesterday after he refused to take a treat. A treat! He never turns down treats! Anyways, he had been acting pretty lethargic for about a month now, especially over the past week, so his not wanting a treat was a red flag that there was definitely something wrong with him. We loaded him up and left him at the vet's for the afternoon so they could do some blood work.

Turns out he has a low platelet count. Other tests didn't turn anything up, but the vet says that every time they see symptoms like this (low platelets, lethargy, fever, and limping) it's a form of lyme disease. Go figure! I'm glad that it's something minor that is easily treated with antibiotics. Sam was already acting more like himself by bedtime last night, so we're happy about that. Hopefully he'll be better before we know it!

Checkup at the Vet

Samson Stats: 5 years old, 128 lbs.
Abby Stats: 1.5 years old

Samson's birthday was August 31st! Happy birthday, Sam! <3

I took Samson to the veterinarian today for a mini checkup so that we could get more refills for his prednisone (used to treat his allergies during the summer months). I came home on an early lunch break to load him up in the car and take him to the vet. I didn't make a big deal out of it, but Abby knew we were going somewhere and she got pretty excited. Unfortunately, she wasn't coming along. When I walked out with Samson and without Abby, she started barked kind of frantically as though she didn't want to be left alone. I felt so bad for leaving her, because after thinking about it for a minute, she's never been alone in the house --Samson has always been there with her -- so I think she didn't want to be left behind. I imagine she was also a little jealous that he was getting to go out and she wasn't. lol I don't know how long she barked after we left, but I don't believe she did it for very long; it's just not really in her personality to do that. By the time I got back from the vet, she was quiet and excited to see Samson. After a little while of greeting and loving on Sam, she noticed that I had come home, too.

As for the vet visit, Sam did ok. The vet is not his favorite place. Though he liked going when he was little, I think that all changed on a particular visit during which they clipped his nails and hit the quick a few times. He never enjoyed going there after that. And really, who could blame him?

Other than the anxiety he was experiencing, he behaved relatively well all things considered. He didn't try to bolt out the door or anything while we were in the waiting room, but he wasn't waiting calmly either -- lots of panting and restlessness instead. The vet finally came to weigh him and give him a good once-over. He weighed 128 lbs, and she said he looked good. So yay! New Rx of prednisone! :D

In other news, Abby likes to climb up on the couch a lot these days. She'll crawl up there usually when Travis is there on his laptop and she scoots close enough to him so that she's sure to be touching hm. It's pretty cute. And yesterday, she decided to just sit up there by herself for a little while. It was pretty funny: