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...

Oscar Tries the Nip

Gave Oscar some catnip for the first time. Well, technically it's not the first time, but it's been years because the REAL first time I gave it to him, he was a kitten and seemed completely uninterested. He enjoyed it pretty well this time around. :)

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