Chip doesn't feel great

SUMMARY: Chip is not feeling well. Off to the vets we go. It’s one of those weeks.

Backfill: Posted partial on Facebook June 15; added here July 3

Appetite dropped way off suddenly on Friday. Now it's Monday and worse. Even though Human Mom has been trying to feed him an attractive but bland diet.

Da heck, Human Mom, whut dis nasty whites you is hide da chicken yums in?

Side note-- my comment on FB about what could be going on: Maybe too many plums. That is my working theory. And I’m thinking that it’s not an issue with the plums themselves, but with the salicylates that they contain, because that can trigger pancreatitis in a dog who’s already had an episode. I learned that this morning online (It almost seemed like the pancreatitis acting up, but he has been on a low-fat diet, and I haven’t been giving him anything other than that, so I looked up what could trigger pancreatitis, and it listed the 10 most common things, one of which was salicylates, and I said, a-ha!), but we will check with the vet to see what’s up.

How Are We All Doing?

SUMMARY: Reporting on Human Mom, Boost, and Tika.

Tika is refusing food more and more often. I'm not happy about this. Don't know whether it's her meds or her health. Need to call the vet to discuss. Not convinced that taking certain drugs to help her heart or her cough is good if it means that she loses interest in food. Until this morning, she was happy enough to eat the new fancy expensive kibble that I just bought--as long as I didn't intermingle regular kibble, which really ruined the whole thing, you know. But hand-feeding still worked. This evening she didn't want to eat much of it at all.

She even almost turned down her guard-the-house-goodie this morning when I left for work--and she's not rejected that before. (It's just a dry biscuit, but until now has been eagerly accepted.) No problems tonight in class, though, sucking down those Zukes minis!

Human Mom had a rotten night last night, what with back/leg pain, a cough that wouldn't quit between about 2 and 3 a.m., two dogs that needed to go out in the middle of the night at different times, and a sometimes coughing dog. H.M. got most of her sleep between 7:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. Amazing I made it through the day. But work was interesting and urgent today, which helped.

And then, even more interestingly, felt really good in class tonight running Boost. Was able to actually run, fast for me anyway, without pain. That bodes well for the weekend. Still, the back and connected leg pain are such a...pain. Standing there, watching someone else's run, turned my head or some other innocuous minor movement, and whack! Sudden pain in lower back and I had to take steps to ease it out. So we didn't do a whole class this evening; want to save myself for the Regional Championships this weekend in Prunedale.

Boost--well, wow, what a great night in class! Not a single bar down! No nasty runouts (except pretty obvious handler errors) or refusals. Wow! Well, OK, couple of missed weave entries, darn it, she will just never be as good as Tika at the weave entries. And that's the thing we've most practiced through the years. OK, anyway, maybe it was because I was moving more comfortably and faster, dunno, but what a pleasure it was! Hoping that it lasts through at least some of the weekend.

See folks there Saturday through Monday; I bailed on Friday's events for various reasons. Weather should be great, people should be wonderful, maybe we'll get a Q or two.

Tika Goes To the Vet

SUMMARY: Things are a bit better.

We checked in with the vet this morning.

Have I mentioned lately that Tika hates going to the vet?  From the moment when I open the car door to see her quivering, to the moment when she races to the car afterwards and does NOT want to take a little potty walk thank you very much, she hates being at the vet.

So she gets tranks, one pill an hour before we go. We tried a new one this time that isn't supposed to be as potentially disruptive to her heart. It worked better.

First, the de rigueur sniffing everything at a hyperspeed rate. But this time, not so much whining as usual and took more time sniffing instead of immediately racing into--

--the pacing around and around. This time, not so frantic, and when I'd get my hand on her, she'd actually stop to be stroked (not the usual reaction at all).

Then, obsessively checking whether the door will open over and over. This time, no throwing herself at the door and screaming.  (And the tranquilizer we'd been using mitigated that behavior some but didn't eliminate it.) So this is also good.

Also, with the other trank, she'd be dopey and tripping over her own feet for a couple of hours afterwards (even at a lower dose). This time, she's pretty normal.

So.

Her heart rate is back to around 130/140, which is often where it has been in the recent past, but her pulse is still mismatched, about 90, which means that the heart is still pumping too fast for it to be efficient in its weakened state. But that's much better than over 200 with a low pulse. So the digoxin seems to be helping.

She's still been coughing more than I'd like (especially the half dozen, sometimes more, sometimes fewer, times during the night that wake me up, thanks a ton), but there's still no evidence of an infection or fluid build-up (although we didn't repeat the x-ray this time), but yes a bit of congestion. Sounds a lot like me when my allergies or asthma flare  up a bit.  Tried Tussin DX for a couple of days but (a) she HATES it, shakes her head wildly after I squirt it into her cheek flap, so have to give it to her outside to avoid having a house decorated with cherry-red spatter, and (b) not sure it was helping anyway. So will be adding yet another pill to her regimen to try to alleviate some of her coughing.

A little concerned about how little interested she's been showing in her regular food. Hand feeding the uneaten parts sometimes works, waiting 30 or 90 minutes and trying again sometimes works, but not always. She's not missed that much food, probably less than a cup total over the last couple of weeks, but her weight is down a couple of pounds. (Vet says that this is typical for many kinds of chronic illness, and also that the digoxin, started 3 weeks ago, is notorious for making dogs into picky eaters.)

She still takes treats, canned dogfood, and other snacks with the old gusto. I've ordered a bag of the food that she got at the housesitter's house (Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream Canine Formula with Smoked Salmon), which she apparently was willing to eat when she wouldn't eat her regular food over there. We'll see whether that helps--would have to really start monitoring her weight to see how much of that she needs daily.

So, as much as she hates going to the vet, her Human Mom is happy to have more information and reassurances and possible treatments and all.