Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Barks and Bytes – March 10, 2016

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Update:

So I wrote the post, Is it just me? And I laid out about four different scenarios of how it could play out in my mind, BUT I never told you what DID happen.

This is what happens when I don’t write a post in the morning and digest it during the day and tweak it at night. I was rushing to get it finished before bed, decided to add in the bullet points and totally forgot to wrap up the post.

Siriusly, did she just compare me to Cujo?

I don’t get any respect around here…

So here’s what happened…basically nothing.

I hurried Delilah along and once we got on the downside of the hill, the other dog couldn’t see us anymore. Whether that made the dog change its mind or the owner bought a vowel, I’m not really sure. All I know is as suddenly as she began pursuing us, she stopped.

And I spent the rest of the walk playing out that last scenario where I dropped Delilah at home and drove up to the park and punched her in her stupid face, But, once I got home and released my frustration to Hubby, cooler heads prevailed and I settled in to enjoy the rest of my Sunday.

Note to self, read and re-read your posts before hitting the schedule button.

TummyWorks: Last week we had a review and giveaway for TummyWorks, a new probiotic being offered by Finest for Pets. I told you I would announce the winners today and thankfully, I remembered to pull the names.

TummyWorks So without further ado, my winners are:

  • Mandy Imburgio
  • Andrew Barella
  • Jan  – The Poodle (and Dog) Blog
  • Dianne
  • Sandy Weinstein

I’m in the process of gathering e-mails and forwarding them along to Steve. I’m super excited for you all to try it!

Steve at Finest for Pets is generously giving Heart Like a Dog readers a one-time 25% discount on a purchase of TummyWorks, simply use this code HLDWorks at check out.  You can purchase TummyWorks at Amazon, but just a reminder, if you click on THIS LINK and order TummyWorks, we will receive a small discount. And we thank you.

Sampson update: It has been six weeks since Sampson did a partial tear on his ACL. I’ve got him on a host of supplements and medications which I fully intend on writing in a post for you all. I’ve tried to keep him as quiet as I possibly can, and limited his walks in terms of timing and speed.

Yesterday he went to see the Physical Therapist for his first visit. It was worse than I expected, because he basically has no muscle left in his right leg, which means he’s been struggling with that leg well before he did the partial tear.  And I missed it. I’m not beating myself up over it, dogs, especially stoic dogs like Sampson can be very good at not letting you know when they are struggling. I can’t go back and change it, I can only move forward and do my best from this point on.

His therapy consisted of some cold laser therapy and five minutes on the underwater treadmill. The plan is for him to have the cold laser and underwater treadmill twice a week for four or five weeks, with the goal being to add in some land exercises once we build up that leg.

After the therapy package is finished, we will re-evaluate his progress at that time and determine if more therapy will be beneficial to him, or if our money can better be spent in other types of treatment, such as acupuncture or chiropractic.

The therapist and I also discussed other treatments that might help him and I’ll be researching those and of course I’ll let you know what we decide.

 

Heart Like a Dog

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It’s a Small World – Barks and Bytes

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It’s a small world.

I was chatting with my friend Sue one day and she said, “I feel bad for Sampson, his world has gotten so small.”

And she was right. He went from a two 1/2 hour walks (at a minimum) per day, down to two 8 minute walks.

Because his walks are timed, it’s hard to give him a little variety. I mean there are only so many places you can walk to in our neighborhood in four minutes. (I time it for 4 and then turn around, which makes our walks usually between 8 to 10 minutes.) I do try to vary it by making our morning walk down hill and our afternoon walk uphill, but even still, our routes are very limited.

The afternoon walk is where I feel the worst. We are heading towards the woods, and Sampson SO loves the woods. Typically, I’ll turn off before we reach the cul-de-sac BECAUSE four minutes will just about take us to the edge of the park. And that right there seems to be so cruel to me. To bring him to the edge and not let him go inside.

That doesn’t stop him from looking longingly at the woods though, as we make that right hand turn.

I told Sue when Sampson had a healed up some, I’d load him in the car and drive him to the park. I would still time the walk 4 to 5 minutes in and then turn around, but at least he’d get up to the woods.

Last week I thought the time was right, so I loaded the big guy up and off to the park we went.

You know I like being off-leash in the park, don't you?

You know I like being off-leash in the park, don’t you?

He doesn’t look thrilled in this photo, but trust me, he really was happy to be at the park. We walked up the main path and made it as far as the field. As his leg gets better and better, we’ll be able to increase our walk times and he’ll get more days at the park.

Sunrise/Sunset

I’m super blessed to be walking my dogs right about the time the sun is rising in the mornings. There is something so special about watching the changing of the guard, as night turns to day.

Some days the colors are so vibrant, I can’t help but try and capture it.

I took this one on Tuesday morning.

I took this one on Tuesday morning.

While I love standing outside and watching the sun set, I don’t usually get to capture it on a walk. Last Saturday however, was my grandson’s birthday, and I ended up having a late walk. Delilah and I were treated to this lovely display.

I loved the rainbow of colors behind the Rainbow Trail sign.

I loved the rainbow of colors behind the Rainbow Trail sign.

I wonder if someone caught a sunset when they were naming the streets? Do you have a preference? Sunrise or sunset?

 Heart Like a Dog

Welcome to Thursday’s Barks and Bytes Blog hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog. We hope you will grab a badge from one of our websites and join us.



Where We Are – Barks and Bytes

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On January 19th at an exam to remove a dead tooth, our vet discovered that Sampson had a heart murmur and an irregular heartbeat. Subsequent X-rays and Ultrasounds could not determine the cause of the irregular heartbeat, but they did find a nodule/mass on one of his adrenal glands. We were told the nodule/mass could be benign or something sinister. The recommendation was to recheck the adrenal in 1 to 2 months.

To compound the situation, a week later Sampson did a partial tear on his ‘good’ leg. I say, ‘good’ because to me it seemed like he never really walked well after that ACL surgery. In fact, I’m not entirely convinced his poor recovery from surgery didn’t aid in the partial tearing in the other leg, but I’m not a vet. Many, many dogs have ACL tears and surgery for repairs and recover well. Sampson just wasn’t one of them.

We did a lot of soul searching about how we were going to treat Sampson. The two major issues for us were the nodule/mass on the adrenal and the ACL tear.

Of course the heart issues are concerning, but the murmur is faint and the irregularity in the heartbeat is mild, so our focus turned to the other issues.

We decided not to do surgery on the ACL. First, we aren’t even sure they can DO surgery because of the irregular heartbeat and second, based on his experience with the first ACL surgery, well it’s just not something we want to put him through again.

We have a good plan in place to treat it conservatively. Some traditional medications, along with some supplements, acupuncture, short slow walks and physical therapy.

We made our decision based on his age, his previous experience with surgery and we also considered what was going on with that adrenal.

Speaking of the adrenal…

The treatment for a malignant mass on the adrenal is to remove it. From what my vet said, the only way to tell if it is cancerous is to remove it.

Hubby and I decided we didn’t want to put Sampson through abdominal surgery at his age, especially if it wasn’t going to significantly extend his life. Our thought process is, if this is the beginning of the end for Sampson, we don’t want his days to be filled with tests, treatments, missed meals and days away from home. We want his time left with us to be spent keeping his life as normal as possible.

Golden Lab

Missed meals and tests? That doesn’t sound appealing to me.

After many, many telephone consultations with the team of veterinarians at our clinic, we rescheduled his ultrasound for yesterday.

I’m going to tell you something here and some of you may laugh, and that’s okay. I’ve said it before, we are all on our own journey and we all have our own beliefs. If you don’t agree with mine, I’m okay with that.

So here it is.

I prayed over Sampson. I placed one hand on his stomach and I had one hand open and raised and I prayed for healing. While I was doing, I heard very clearly in my mind, “The adrenal is healed.” I said thank you and considered it a done deal.

I told the vet techs this story yesterday and told them they were going to be surprised when they saw the results of the ultrasound.

When I spoke to our vet yesterday afternoon she told me the nodule/mass hadn’t changed, and that the ultrasoundographer didn’t find anything alarming on the ultrasound.

I believe I pounded the roof of my car and said, “Yes, yes! I knew it.”

Then she told me, the next thing would be a blood test that could check for cancer. I then told her what Hubby and I had decided and that I didn’t think we’d be doing that test.

Yes, it might be the best $100 we ever spent if it ruled out cancer, but if it didn’t, I know I’d obsess over it and I’d be stressed, which in turn would make Sampson stressed, and that’s not beneficial to anyone, especially if we are not going to treat it anyway. Besides, you know if you dig long and far enough, you’re bound to find something!

I told her if that opinion changed after I talked to the Hubs, I’d let her know.

I talked to Hubby and we are both in agreement. We will not be pursuing the adrenal.

So that’s where we’re at. We will be working on helping Sampson heal his ACL tear conservatively and not be worrying about that adrenal gland.

Disclaimer:  I am not a veterinarian, the decisions we have made are made after much soul searching, and consultations with our Vet team. If you are facing decisions regarding your pet, you should consult your own Veterinarian.

All that being said, I have stayed at the Holiday Inn a number of times and can highly recommend them.

 

Heart Like a Dog

Welcome to Thursday’s Barks and Bytes Blog hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog. We hope you will grab a badge from one of our websites and join us.


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