Heart Like a Dog

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

Blue Sky Day

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Those of you that follow us The Instagram or The Facebook, already heard this news, but I just have to share it here.

Since Sampson did a partial cruciate tear back in January (nine LONG months ago,) our walks have been timed. Initially, we started out at five minutes, and gradually, over time we worked ourselves up to eight minutes out and however long it took to get back. A few months ago, Sampson saw our vet, and she felt he was still struggling with strained Iliosoas muscles, and it wasn’t the right time to increase his walks.

So in the last few months, I’ve made some changes in our routine. Mostly, we are playing with meds and supplements to see what works best for him, but I also started giving him some leg massages, and they seemed to help. (I will have a future post on exactly what supplements and treatments we used.)

It was also a hot and humid summer, and Sampson does not like hot and humid, so he was quite content with the small walks, and visits to his favorite people around our neighborhood.

Sampson has always loved the cooler weather. When he was a puppy, he would often times sit outside in the snow. Just sit there.

It turned cooler this past weekend and Sunday was awesome, I’m calling it “A Blue Sky Day.”

My Bubbers climbed into bed with me, and we snuggled for about 2o minutes.

After that we got up to take our walk. The morning was cool, and crisp. I’m not sure if it was the cooler weather, or the fact that our morning walk took place in sunshine (as opposed to the dark,) or hell, maybe just our hard work and diligence has paid off. All I can say is my boy had such a pep in his step, that when my eight minute timer went off, we were only a couple of houses away from the top of the hill.

Three more houses and we would hit the flat part, and then another minute beyond that and we were at our afternoon turn around point.

It was such a NICE day, and he was SO HAPPY, and peppy.

SO, we went for it.

I watched him carefully, slowing him down when I felt he was going too fast….and…we went around the block!!

I can’t tell you how excited I was. AND we made it around the block in about the same amount of time that Delilah does it.

Yesterday afternoon…we had another Blue Sky Day!  It started out the same way, with that pep in his step, he headed down the hill, instead of up. So when we reached our turn around point, I just kept going and took him a bit further than usual.

Of course, I tried to document it with a photo, but someone just wouldn’t cooperate.

I know what you're doing.

I know what you’re doing.

You want me to look into this camera.

You want me to look into this camera.

News flash, Mama!

News flash, Mama!

It's not gonna happen!

It’s not gonna happen!

Blame it on the Blue Sky Day!

Six Months Post Knee Tear

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Seven months ago,  Sampson did a partial CCL tear on his right knee. The week before the partial tear, he was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat and a heart murmur. So surgery to repair the tear was not an option.

You can see the spot just above his knee where they shaved him for the Ultrasound.

Sleeping off the day at the vet’s office.

Instead, we had to give Sampson time…time to let some scar tissue to build up and provide some support in that knee.

It’s been a very painful process. Poor Sampson has no choice but to walk and use that bum leg. We did our best to limit his use of the leg and have given him a number of different supplements. Even so, you can see by watching Sampson that it’s a challenge. I can’t even watch him walk because it just hurts my heart.

From what I understand, a non-surgical healing of the knee takes a minimum of six to seven months, so I thought now was a good time to have it checked to see where we’re at.

So on Thursday, August 11th, Sampson went to the vet for a check on his right knee.

After examining him, Dr. Soutter said the knee has thickened, which is what is expected, but sadly, both of his Iliopsoas (ill-e-oh-so-as)Muscles are strained.

The Iliopsoas muscle is a very deep muscle right in the crease where the leg meets the hip. Because it is so deep, and does such an important job, it can take a very long time to heal. Iliopsoas strains are very common in big dogs, with CCL injuries.

Now mind, Sampson’s had shaky legs since last October and I brought this to her attention at his annual exam in the beginning of November.  At that time, she said it was old age tremors. But I never really bought that. I really thought it was muscular. So needless to say, I’m a wee bit pissed off that he’s been struggling with this for so long, undiagnosed.

I put my anger aside, and we discussed what types of treatments/supplements/medications we could give to Sampson to help him feel better.

Currently he gets Dasaquan, LigaPlex II, Catalyn and Green Lipped Mussel for supplements. For pharmaceuticals he gets Gabapentin and Carprofen.

I asked about Adequan injections and acupuncture. She feels with the tightness of the Iliopsoas, it really wouldn’t help right now.

So then I asked about muscle relaxers. I mean, the muscles are tight right? In my mind the logical step is something that relaxes the muscle. My vet said she normally wouldn’t suggest it, but she felt in this case, he could really benefit from them. So he came home with a bottle of Methocarbamol, with the instructions to start out with 1 three times per day, but the actual dosage would be 1 1/2 three times per day. She just wanted to make sure they didn’t make him loopy.

I started him out with one twice a day, and have maintained that schedule with him. So far, he’s maintaining his sense of decorum.

Her other suggestion, was stretching and massage. So anytime I think of it, or anytime he sticks his legs up in the air for a tummy rub, I get down on the floor and stick my hand in the crease between his leg and hip, and I massage those muscles, and stretch out those legs.

I’ve been doing this for 12 days now and what I’ve noticed is when I first started, I could feel a lump. One on each leg. NOW, the lumps are much smaller!

I really think it’s helping! I’ve noticed he’s not trembling as much when he’s lying down. Oh, he still trembles when he stands, but lying down, his muscles seem to be so much more relaxed than they were.

Please note, I am not a veterinarian and nothing in this post should be taken as medical advice for your pet. If your pet is injured, you should discuss all of your options, with your own trusted vet.

Cystocentesis a.k.a. A STERILE Urine Sample

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Four weeks ago, Delilah had a Urinary Tract infection. She had a two-week course of antibiotics and my instructions were for a urine recheck a week after she finished them.

Delilah finished her last full day of antibiotic on a Sunday. Wednesday night she was going outside more than she normally would.  Thursday morning I called our vet and asked if maybe we should check her urine sooner than the recommended week.

My vet said she’d like a STERILE urine sample.  The STERILE urine sample is also known as Cystocentesis.

Cystocentesis is a fancy name for a needle inserted through the belly into the bladder, for the purpose of withdrawing a small amount of STERILE urine.

I hate putting my dogs through these types of procedures without exhausting all other options. And since Delilah had only been outside a bit more than normal, with no other symptoms, I felt certain she didn’t have an infection. So I asked my vet if we could check her urine the normal way first.

I was advised to get some wet ones and wipe Delilah’s va-jay-jay BEFORE she peed. SO bright and early the next morning, I found myself with my face down in my dog’s ass, wiping her Hoo-Hah with a wet one.

Either the wipe stung, or the wet one felt good, because right after I finished, Delilah took off doing zoomies around the house. When she settled down, we went outside and using my handy urine sample collection kit, I secured a sample.

We dropped it off Friday afternoon and I was shocked when the vet called me Friday night and said Delilah still had an infection.

WHY A STERILE URINE SAMPLE IS CRUCIAL

My vet was very concerned because either Delilah got another infection while on an antibiotic, OR the antibiotic didn’t work on that particular infection.

It’s also important to find out what type of infection it is as well as where the infection is. For instance, a urine sample can be contaminated in the Urethra (the tube that carries the urine from the bladder out of the body) and not be in the bladder. Without having a clear idea of where the infection is, you can be spinning your wheels trying to treat it.

In Delilah’s case, it’s also important because some antibiotics can really mess with the liver and Delilah’s ALT is already elevated, so we need to tread carefully with antibiotics, not to mention she’d just come off a two week course of them.

My Dr. wasn’t available until later in the day on Saturday, but Dr. Allen was, so I reluctantly made the appointment for 10:20 Saturday morning.

The key to Cystocentesis is having a full bladder, so Delilah had breakfast, went outside and then I couldn’t let her pee again.

I called the vet on my way in and said, “As soon as her feet hit the ground, this dog is going to have to pee. Can you have a room ready for us?”

I have the best vet and the best vet staff on this planet, so they assured my they would be set and if I called when I got there, they’d get her right in.

Sure enough, as soon as I called, they opened the back door and I pulled right up and unloaded Delilah. At first Delilah was excited, because we were hustling her along and talking to her. But when we hit the exam room door, she put the brakes on.

It broke my heart because I knew SHE knew something was going on, because her tail was tucked, and she was hesitant. But like I said, the peeps who work at my clinic are amazing and by the time I’d parked the car, Delilah was back to her happy self.

Dr. Allen came in almost immediately and started talking me through it. Delilah would be placed on her back on padded material. One of the vet techs would be holding her head, talking to her and another would be giving her some belly rubs. If Delilah fussed at all, or seemed the least bit uncomfortable, Dr. Allen wouldn’t do the procedure.

Chocolate Lab

Belly rubs are good, I can’t say I like the needles much though.

While we were talking, Dr. Allen was feeling Delilah’s bladder to make sure it was full.

It was.

At first she was going to do it in the exam room, and I asked if I could hold Delilah and Dr. Allen said, “Only if you can be perfectly Zen, otherwise it will upset her.”

I suggested maybe she should take her out of the room.

So I watched my dog leave the room with Dr. Allen.

I picked up my phone and was going to text Hubby, but changed my mind. Then I was going to text Sue and changed my mind again. So I pulled up a game. I was about a minute in when Dr. Allen came back in the room with Delilah.

“Couldn’t you get a sample?” I asked.

“I got a sample, we’re done, she did amazing.”

Wow, all that worry and Delilah wasn’t even bothered by it.

I thought that was the hard part. No, the hard part was waiting for test results. According to Dr. Allen, it could take up to a week to get the results, as the lab would be checking the bacteria against antibiotics to see which one would work best.

When I got home (less than an hour after I’d left) and was telling Hubby how it went down, I said, “Dr. Allen gets me. She knows exactly how to explain things to me, to make me feel better.” We had a good laugh about that. “She gets me.”

Thankfully we didn’t have to wait the full week.  Dr. Allen called on Tuesday evening and said Delilah has an E-Coli infection in her bladder.

E-Coli? Freaked me out. I mean, we’ve all heard of E-Coli outbreaks, and since she was eliminating it in her urine, I was concerned that Sampson could catch it.

It turns out that he can’t. The way Dr. Allen explained it to me is E-Coli naturally lives in the intestines and sometimes, such as in an E-Coli outbreak, some of that fecal matter gets on your food.

Say it with me. EW GROSS.

In female dogs, because of where the pee-shooter rests, directly below the poop shooter (her words, not mine, I told you she ‘got’ me) some of that E-Coli can get into the urinary tract. E-Coli is very receptive to some antibiotics, and resistant to others, which is why the STERILE URINE SAMPLE was key.

So Delilah is now on a three week course of antibiotics (Cefpodoxime) and we will check her urine at about the ten day mark.

When Dr. Allen and I were discussing the antibiotic on the phone, I made sure to thank her for her care on Saturday. I told her how speaking with her made me feel better (and shared the “she gets me” comment with her). After we laughed about that and she joked the next time I was in we should do a drum circle, I told her I wouldn’t hesitate to have that procedure done on my dog again.  At that point she told me that even a dog that does well with it one time, may not do well a second time. She also said, if we’d done that the first time I brought Delilah in (when she was peeing blood) she may not have done well, because her bladder was so angry.

Sometimes a STERILE URINE SAMPLE is a necessity, especially if a course of antibiotics hasn’t worked.

 

 

 

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