As we are nearing the end of March we still have lots of icky snow with more predicted for tomorrow. Cold, windy, cloudy and rainy/snowy. I am trying to be optimistic and positive but I’m starting to lose hope.
The last week has been crazy and I am completely exhausted!
Wednesday I had Vada’s appointment with Dr Julia so I brought her to work with me and left her in the van. My department went to a pizza place for dinner so I was able to check on her then. She was miserable. I took her out to potty and she was walking so slow with her head and tail down. I was torn on taking her to Dr Julia or canceling that and going to Dr Jina. It was starting to look like more was going on than just her sore back. I decided to stick with Dr Julia since she is a DVM but I called and made an appointment with Dr Jina for first thing Thursday morning. Dr Julia thought she looked terrible. She took her temp and it was 104.1 so she was not able to adjust her – understandably. So they gave her fluids and an anti-inflammatory (Deramaxx) and an antibiotic (Cephalexin). That helped her feel a lot better and got us thru the night until we could see Dr Jina. The Cephalexin was making Vada vomit. I probably didn’t give her enough food with it.
Thursday we saw Dr Jina and she did bloodwork and a UA. Her WBC was 1.81 (very low) and she had blood in her urine. So we switched her antibiotic to doxy as it would cover a wide range of things. She thinks it’s a bladder infection but this would cover tick born illnesses too. As the day went on she was feeling worse. I kept comparing it to Wednesday night when she was feeling so much better. Her temp was lower but she was feeling so lethargic. I brought her back to the clinic for fluids before they closed. Her eyes were looking like the bottom lids were droopy but we thought that the fluids would help with that. She got a doxy in the morning and then at night.
Friday Vada continued to feel worse and she quit eating and her face swelled up. Mostly her lips and under her eyes. We had a long day of driving down to Prior Lake to dig and chip out the MMBC trailer and load it up with stuff for the CPE trial, then drive to Andover to pickup the newly rubberized contacts and load them into the trailer and then up to Isanti to unload the trailer and setup for the fun runs and then do the fun runs. Since Vada was so sick we brought her along. She just laid in the back of the van all day. I occasionally took her out to potty and she just walked along slowly with her head and tail down. Her rear was a bit wobbly again too like it was on Wednesday. She had gotten a doxy in the morning. I emailed Dr Jina before I left to tell her about the swelling. A tech called back and told me to give her a benedryl. I gave her 1. Hours later she was still so lethargic so we stopped at a store on the way to Isanti to get Zyrtec. When she has her fall ragweed allergies the benedryl doesn’t work but Zyrtec does a little. But now in retrospect I think if I had given her 2 pills then it might have helped – 1 was only a half dose. I called the clinic to give them an update and find out what to do next. I was getting very worried and was starting to wonder if we were going to have to bring her to Blue Pearl. I asked if she could be allergic to the Deramaxx but she had been on it before so they didn’t think so. The day before a friend on Facebook said her dog was allergic to doxy. So I asked what they symptoms were. Turns out swollen lips was one of them! So I had the tech ask Dr Jina if Vada could be allergic to the doxy. I wanted to know WHY her face was swollen and she felt so crappy when she had felt good on Wednesday night after seeing Dr Julia. They didn’t think so but had me stop the doxy for the weekend. I gave her more fluids when we got home on Friday. It was such a goofy day that we didn’t get any of our crates brought up and setup nor did we get to bring our dogs to the barn to work them on the equipment. But everything with setup and the fun runs went really well and we made some money for the club to help pay for the new rubber on the contacts.
Saturday morning Vada was feeling better enough that I was comfortable leaving her home to rest. It’s cooler in the barn so I thought she’d be better at home. Karl was able to run home during the day to potty her also. The trial went really well. Letty was quite distracted by the horses. They had to be in their stalls inside since it was so cold outside. They were very well behaved. However, Letty thought they were all her friends and she wanted to go say hi to them. She only Qd in L5 Jackpot. Narc was super high. On his first aframe he caught some serious air. He settled in as the day went on. He Qd in L4 Wildcard and Jumpers. Seven ran pretty well. He was doing a little stutter stepping though. And, as usual, he popped his weaves in Standard. I forgot to prepare myself to put him back in where he popped too. He Qd in LC Jumpers – he best class since there are no weaves. I also ran Prozac. It took a run or two but then we got better in synch. I haven’t run her in years. No Qs for her. Karl ran Fringe and Sonic. Fringe stopped on most of her contacts. She Qd in L2 Jackpot and Standard. Sonic ran his heart out too. He Qd in L1 Jumpers and Wildcard. He got to run in Specialist and jump 12″. That’s the class that Copper ran when he did CPE. 🙂 We took Karl and Betty out to dinner at Manscetti’s. Our favorite place to bring the judges after the trial on Saturday.
Sunday was going to be a super long day (we ended up being gone 15 hours) and Vada was feeling better so we brought her with. The trial ran really well again. Our dogs ran better too I thought. Letty Qd in L5 FullHouse and Snooker. She also finally earned her last L4 Q in Colors! So new title for her and level completed! Narc Qd in L5 FullHouse and Colors and L4 Standard. I still can’t believe he’s in Level 5 for some classes. He’s amazing! Seven earned a Q in FullHouse. Lots of weird little things with him. Prozac Qd in all of her runs – L3 FullHouse and Snooker. Karl and Sonic Qd in L1 FullHouse, Snooker and Colors. They finished 2 new titles for the weekend! Karl and Fringe Qd in L2 FullHouse and L3 Snooker. They finished a new title too. We finished at a nice early time. We had help packing up the trailer. And we made it to the storage locker while it was still light out!!! Didn’t get home til after 9pm but we were happy with that. Next year we are adding a 5th class so we probably won’t finish as early as we’ll have more course builds and hopefully more runs. So I have to remember to take Monday off to recover.
Monday I called and talked to Dr Jina. She put Vada on amoxicillin. I picked it up on my way home from work. When I got home I gave her a pill and then tried to follow it with food but she refused to eat ANYTHING. She felt crummy all night. She woke me up at 2am with her stomach making crazy noises and she was dry heaving. I gave her a Zantac and eventually her belly calmed down enough for her to fall asleep – and so did I. Made for a short night! I had decided to not go to obedience classes anyways and after seeing how crummy she was feeling I was glad that I made that decision. It seems like something else was making her not want to eat as I don’t think that pill would have irritated her stomach that fast.
Tuesday another friend on Facebook (I know her in person too) suggested an ulcer med for Vada to coat her stomach before she gets her pills. I had decided to not give her the morning dose to let her stomach rest. She ate half her breakfast. When I got home I was able to get her to eat a little food. I gave her the magic pill 2 hours before dinner and she scarfed down her dinner. I took the food away halfway thru it and gave her the antibiotic then gave her the food back. She was feeling much better and we all slept thru the night (but for one potty break). I also taught agility class for Nancy since she was on her way to the AKC Nationals. I was tired but I had a great time. I hope I gave them helpful feedback. It was nice to be doing agility but without the pressure of running my dogs.
This morning Vada was back to being a total nut! Barking, tugging, dropping her Kong off the bed and chasing it around the bedroom. She ate with gusto. I’m so very happy. And also so very exhausted! It has been a long draining week. And now that we seem to be out of the danger zone I am feeling the physical effects. I have a cold sore in my nose on the left. And the left side of my face feels weird like it is bruised and my jaw is sore. So I am staying home from obedience class tonight. It’s the first night of the new session for Narc’s classes but it’s not usually a big class. And we’re on the card system so I don’t think I will “lose” the class.
Tomorrow night I meet some old coworkers for dinner so that should be fun. Then Friday night Karl and I are going to a small concert near home. Saturday is nothing! I get to sleep in! I’m hoping that it’s warm enough that I can take some dogs for a nice long walk. Then Sunday we’re back to IPO training (if it’s not canceled). I’m very glad that I did not get into the AKC trial this weekend. Funny how things tend to work out!
Yesterday was Sonic’s 13th birthday!!! He got to go to agility class to celebrate. And he brought spring cookies and some chocolate candies.