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.

Abby + Benadryl = Crazy Dog

So apparently there are a small percentage of people and dogs who don’t get drowsy when they take Benadryl; they experience hyperactivity instead.

Such is the case with Abby.

It’s why she has been constantly pacing and acting nutty the past couple of days. Travis even slept in the living room with her last night so that she could pace freely around the house (he slept out there so he could prevent her from barking all night).

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.