Heart Like a Dog

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

Holter Monitor – Take 1

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When Delilah first saw the canine cardiologist for her heart arrhythmia, it was recommended she wear a Holter Monitor, to see if we could get an idea of what might be contributing to the arrhythmia, and what we could do to help her.

Initially I said, “No.” Mostly because they wanted me to sign a waiver saying I would replace the $1,400 machine if Delilah broke and it, but the other reason was I couldn’t see bundling her up in the heat and humidity of the summer.

As luck would have it, we went in for a check-up August 29th. Delilah’s arrhythmias were down to six in a four minute period, which was really good. Dr. Morris mentioned the Holter Monitor again, and since it was fairly cool with low humidity, and I had already decided I was working 1/2 a day, I said, “Go ahead.”

First Dana had to shave Delilah. Then she put six leads on her, three on each side of her body. Once that was done, Dana attached wires to the leads, and taped the leads and wires to Delilah’s body.

After that was done, the Holter Monitor was placed on Delilah’s back, and more tape was added.

Once everything was taped good, Dana put Delilah in a Thundershirt.

She advised me when removing the device, to not use scissors because I could inadvertently cut the wires.

Delilah didn’t seem to mind wearing the Holter or the Thundershirt at all while I was with her, but I was nervous about leaving her.

Still, I had to go into work, and so I did.

I was pleasantly surprised when I got home, that Delilah was still in her Thundershirt, and she didn’t seem put out in any way.

In fact, there was a lot of this going on.

She had two walks and two meals, and when we hit the 24-hour mark, it was time to remove the Holter Monitor and leads.

Houston we have a problem.

The first thing I noticed when the Thundershirt came off was a wire, just hanging there.

I realize the wire is hard to see, so I added the arrow.

The connector wasn’t there. Just a wire.

Well shit, that can’t be good!

There was nothing else to be done, I had to remove the leads.

Dana had mentioned rubbing alcohol on the adhesive, but I was hesitant to use it just in case any of the leads had agitated Delilah.

Hubby and I thought maybe some Vaseline, but I thought I’d take the tape off first, then determine how to remove the leads.

Unfortunately, the leads were coming off with the tape. I felt bad pulling on the tape, and while I was very careful removing it, I was pulling on poor Delilah, but she was a real trooper, she did flinch a couple of times, but she still let me remove them.

After they were all removed, I found the connector. It was still attached to one of the leads.

Hubby was able to attach the connector to the wire, and I packaged the whole thing up and sent it back to the Cardiologist.

Once they had received it, I called up and explained what happened to Dana. We just couldn’t figure out HOW that one lead became disconnected from the wire. Our hope was the wire came off towards the end of the 24-hour period, and there would be enough data to give the Dr. what she needed.

The best laid plans, sometimes just don’t work out.

Dana called me last week to let me know, the entire 24-hours was complete static. They got absolutely nothing.

We will have to repeat the test. I have her scheduled for the middle of October, but I’m going to see if I can get her in earlier.

Dana has assured me, we will NOT be using the same monitor and there is no charge to repeat the test.

Let’s hope that connector stays where it needs to.

Balancing Act

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This past week I shared how I’m working on being a seeing-eye person for Delilah.

I’m always amazed at Delilah. There are things she just can’t see. Like branches, animals on the side of the road, a treat in the driveway.

There are have been times when she’s tripped going up or down the stairs.

Then there are times when I smile at this.

Watching and wondering how she manages to balance on her back feet, while not even looking.

You make me laugh or smile, the sweet, funny, loving things dogs do, that brings a smile to the face, or a laugh to the lips.

What did your pet(s) do this week that made you laugh or smile?

Seeing-Eye-Person

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Shortly after we got Delilah, Hubby and I both thought she had trouble seeing. When I mentioned it at a vet appointment, the vet took a scrap of paper and let it fall down in front of Delilah and Delilah watched it fall, and that was that.

Now that Delilah has been diagnosed with a degenerative cornea disease, I know I should have pushed it farther, and perhaps taken her to an ophthalmologist right away.

My philosophy of late has been, “When we know better, we do better.” I’m not beating myself up over this, but I am taking mental notes for the future and will be more diligent in paying attention to things with my dogs.

While the ophthalmologist says Delilah will probably not go blind from this disease, Hubby and I can both tell there are areas where she has trouble seeing.

She’s ‘looking’ at me, but I’m actually more towards her right.

We think her eyesight is one of the reasons we’ve never been able to teach her how to NOT SNATCH food from your hands. Well….she is a lab, and labs love food, but she does take it to the extreme. You have to be super diligent with her, show her the treat, bring it down in front of her mouth and say, “Easy” and you’ve got a 10% chance of keeping your fingers. If you don’t (which most times we don’t even think of it,) all bets are off.

I know if I have a light colored treat and put it on a dark background (or vice versa) she can easily find it, but put dark colored treat on a dark background, and it takes her a very long time to find it.

We have a strict rule in the house, “No rearranging of furniture!” 🙂

Walks can be challenging, especially as the days shorten, and more of our walks are taken in the dark. I mean, there are any number of obstacles that can present themselves.

I have seen her walk into a branch, jump when our friend on a bike approached (even though she called over to us and Delilah turned, she didn’t know she was on a bike), jump when a sewer was suddenly there, not see animals in yards or roads, and there was that one time when she walked through a bramble bush, and got the vine stuck on the bridge of her nose.

I decided the best way I can help her, is to be a seeing-eye person for her.

The way I’m doing this is naming objects on our walks so she can easily navigate around them.

Here are the things I’m naming (when I remember to do it.)

Trash Can – This usually only happens on Wednesdays, which is the day our trash is picked up. But sometimes it’s on Thursdays and Fridays too, because we do have some lazy muther-fuckers in our neighborhood who don’t bring their trash bins in right away.

Car – This might seem like it’s silly to name, but really, if it’s a dark walk and a dark car….the combo could be ugly.

Sewer – The smell alone should warn her, but still, we can’t have a dog panicking because her leg went down a sewer grate.

Person – I was going to say jogger, but then what if it’s a walker? Or just a person standing there? I decided to not make this any more complicated than it is. Things are complicated enough inside my head, remembering person is hard as it is.

Branch – Once, she walked through a small branch/stick that happened to be shaped like a Y. She walked a few paces with that shit balanced on her nose before I was able to take it off. And yes, I did contemplate taking a photo before I removed it.

Bike – I don’t know about you, but the bikers in my area always seem to ride with traffic. I don’t get it, but because we are usually walking against traffic, we run encounter these peeps. A startled dog can do any number of things, and I’d just as soon as not have to write about that here.

Dog – Truthfully, most of the dogs in my neighborhood announce themselves, but on the off chance we encounter a slacker, I’m teaching her this.

Dog! On your left! There’s a dog!

Cross (for cross the street) – She’s usually pretty in tune with where I’m going, but if her snooter is caught up with a smell and she’s not paying attention, I’m teaching her what cross means.

I was going to just keep it general and teach, Object, a general term to encompass all things, but let’s face it, walking around a car is a little different than walking around a sewer, and a person is much bigger than a dog…

I suppose with winter coming we’re going to have to learn ice, snow bank, plow truck….

Did I miss any? Can you think of something that should be named on a walk?

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