A Favorite Video

Sophie would only drink from the hose her last 2 months so we would often find ourselves outside seeking a beverage. Joey believes the hose is the source of "Bite the Water" game and if Sophie is impeding the stream, well it's only more fun for me.

Oh Sweet Sophie

It is with deep sadness that I have to write we had to put Sophie to sleep this afternoon. She actually had a pretty good day. She had a nice walk this morning, rested in the front window with the fan gently blowing her fur and a big lunch. We were thrilled she ate so voraciously. She was waking up from a nap when she had what we are calling a seizure. She was unable to get herself up from her side and when we got her standing she would fall to the floor if I didn't catch her. Whatever it was that she was fighting, clearly found it's way to her brain.

I plan to descend into the cavernous grief I am feeling for a few days. I will cry hard, sleep lots and pack away her things. I appreciate all the interest and support you all have shown towards Sophie all throughout her life. She was a great dog and friend.

Sophie Has Gained...

Three pounds since her low last Tuesday.

Excellent.

'nuff said.

No Can Do. I Have Plans

If you have been following the thread here you know that Sophie has lost a LOT of weight and she had stopped eating. For any animal this is a really bad sign, but for a lab - especially Sophie - there is nothing worse.

So after a very long, very teary discussion Friday night, Roy and I decided that Saturday we would take Sophie to the vet and put her down. The short story is that she can't live if she won't eat, and her trembling was more and more prominent indicating she was in a lot of pain. We decided that we would give her Tramadol for pain and Mirtazapine for her mood (antidepressant) and just keep her as comfortable as possible. Of course as soon as we decided this my brain went crazy looking for another way out. I hugged Sophie and cried into her fur and told her how amazing she is and how lucky I am. I told her I was trying to do the best thing for her and all her pain would stop soon.

Well, Sophie caught the entire conversation and her response to being put down? "No can do. I have plans."

Saturday, Sophie ate probably a 1/2 pound each of sliced turkey and sliced ham. She had at least 1.5 cups of kibble, some crackers, etc. I could go on, but the point is that Sophie has been eating and eating and eating for three days. Last night she ate 1/2 my dinner as well as hers. She is still inconsistent in her eating. There are still times where she completely refuses food - turns her head in disgust - and times where she refuses, but if you can somehow get her started she really gets started. She is swimming everyday, she is napping well and mostly sleeping through the night. The frantic pacing seems to be gone and she enjoys walking (very slowly) around the block. We have taken her with us to the park for a picnic and around town to do errands. She has been pleased to feel the wind in her face.

We are grateful to still have her. We don't know what any of this means or how long it will last or if it is too late anyway. But my world is a better place when Sophie shares it with me.

Lab Results "OK"

We just heard from the vet and the lab results were "OK". There were a few values that were elevated, but not alarmingly. Some could be explained by the amount of steroids she has been on, dehydration, etc. So that is good news. It means that her body is not shutting down.

And surprisingly her HCT, which is a value related to her anemia, is the highest (best) it has been in 2 years. Also, her slight incontinence (that she has been taking medication for since she was 3) has completely disappeared - and not due to dehydration, it's cured. Sophie is busy getting rid of her unnecessary ailments so she can focus on whatever this new one is.

We still don't know why she won't eat. She didn't want to eat this morning so I blended up some "Grammy's Pot Pie" and used the syringe to force it in. She really doesn't enjoy that - neither do I - but she is putting up with it.

The plan is to remove some of the meds from her plan and see if that helps her appetite. Maybe re-prescribe them at a more appropriate dose. Remember, when they prescribed the latest medications, Sophie weighed 53 pounds. Many meds have different doses for under 50 and over 50 pounds.

What do your dogs NEVER refuse to eat?

Forty Pounds? Seriously?

Yep, Sophie was 40 pounds today when we weighed her at the vet. Sophie who has weighed 52 pounds her entire life is 40 pounds. With all the ups and downs she has struggled through since her surgery to remove the fungus she has not eaten like her old self. We knew she was losing weight, I've said that she is skin and bones, but I didn't think we were at 40 pounds. I would have guessed 45ish. That is over 20% of her normal weight, lost. Do the math with your weight and think about what you would look like and how you would feel. Scary.

While at the vet, Sophie gave some blood. We will have the results back tomorrow. The big concern is that there are problems with her organs - one or many. We of course hope that is not the case. We are hoping for relatively normal labs, and that it's the medication she is on that is causing her not to eat.

Yes, that's right. Sophie is not eating. Today is day 2 of her refusing food. After dinner I blended up a 1/2 can of "Cowboy Cookout" and filled a syringe and forced it down her throat. Unpleasant for both of us, but she needs nourishment if she is going to survive and then thrive.

Come on Sophie!!

Sophie Turns 13!

Sophie had her 13th birthday today! It wasn't long ago that Roy and I were wondering if she would make it to see 13. She had a nice day. She went to the park for the first time in two months. She showed her friends at Boot Camp that she can walk around without any assistance. She enjoyed swiming - she was the strongest she has been in the water in a while. She went on errands with us. She was massaged, and stretched. But it was so cool that she stood herself up a bunch of times and walked around. She did several "victory laps" around the pool.

Go Sophie! Go!

Pretty Good Weekend

Last week was a tough one for Sophie. Starting last Sunday, she was unable to put her right rear leg down and subsequently she would hop on three legs rather than walk on four. When we did our PT on Thursday it was the worst it had been. She was barely able to do her ball exercises since she couldn't stand on both rear legs. The PT folks suggested ice, stretching and gentle massage.

We have been diligent about the stretching. Roy, really, has been diligent about the stretching. I'm on ice and on massage. Over the weekend we saw huge improvement in the leg and she has been walking on all fours for a few days now. She will still hop from time to time, but mostly she is walking (as newly defined by the new Sophie scale). Maybe about 65% of the time she can walk without any assistance. She is trying more and more to stand up on her own, but she still has trouble. We will find her in odd places so clearly she is able to stand and walk somewhat on her own, but she eventually falls. She also has trouble standing. She can get planted, but then her hind quarters starts to sway and she melts.

PT was good today. Massage, ice, laser, fitball, and (JOY!) underwater treadmill. below is the side view of her walk. You can see that it isn't great for a "normal" dog, but for Sophie this is a miracle. Also, she is wearing her walkabout harness which you will see me refer to (in other posts) as her "pants".



The fitball is used for Sophie to 1. practice balancing on her back legs (and even remembering she has back legs) and 2. strengthening her legs by standing on them and being rocked left and right, forward and back.


And Finally, a video from the front for comparison against last weeks video should you happen to be one of Sophie's vets. :)

Physical Therapy

Sophie has now had three PT sessions. Each session they do a little massage (more and more now that her right leg is so bad), the hit her with the laser therapy (in her leg), they do some balance work on the fitball, and sometimes they do abdominal work or other stretching. But the BEST part in Sophie's book is the underwater treadmill.

Don't Mess With Sophie...

Or you'll have ME to deal with.

~ Joey

Joey has always been noble when it comes to Sophie's welfare, but she has really taken it up a notch. She has stepped in at the dog park when she felt other dogs were not showing Sophie her due respect. Now that Sophie is "special needs" Joey has taken it upon herself to "just be nearby". She knows Sophie is not a snuggler, but she stays close by, just so Sophie knows she is loved, AND that someone else could watch the house if she wanted to take a nap.

I love these guys.

New Harness, New Hope

Sophie has had a rough few days. She has been holding her right rear leg up - way up - which means it is very painful for her. She still has been trying. Let her be a lesson to all of you. She has never stopped trying and trying hard. She holds her leg up high and hops out to the grass for potty breaks, holds the leg up to take care of business, and hops back into the back yard. If she is sick of lying around, she will hop a lap or two around the pool.

Sophie has started physical therapy. I threw my pride out the window and humiliated myself through pure begging to get her an assessment PT appointment on a day they don't normally offer them. We needed this appointment for Sophie to get started - otherwise she would have had to wait until the 14th for the assessment appointment then therapy would start after that. Sophie will do her third (including the assessment) PT session tomorrow. They consist of abdominal work, stretches, laser therapy, balance work and walking on the underwater treadmill (her favorite). She has been doing well.

So based on advice from the PT vet and her techs, we have purchased a "Walk About" harness to better support Sophie's hind end while she walks. We have been out twice with it and she already has tried to put her right leg down. Our hope are again high. We also have been icing her leg and I've been massaging the muscle spasms 'til they stop. We are also giving her pain medication so she can try to put her foot/leg down without pain. So far she is tolerating it well (you may recall a bad reaction to medication after her surgery).

Finally, just because I think this picture is SO CUTE, here is the swim therapy team:

More to Worry About

We brought Sophie to VSA in Campbell yesterday so she could be assessed for physical therapy. We even scheduled the appointment at a time that gave us the option to do a therapy session - we were hoping with the underwater treadmill.

The (new) vet did a physical and neurological assessment, reviewed all the chart notes and the x-ray. She said that she didn’t want to start therapy because her exam revealed that Sophie is experiencing pain in multiple spots in her body and wasn’t presenting as she would expect a spinal issue dog to present. She felt we would be better served figuring out what the issues were so that a more appropriate therapy could be prescribed – whether that be physical, acupuncture, medicinal, whatever. So we took some blood and joint fluid samples and more x-rays. All her vets will get the results and talk today before contacting us with information and a plan.

She has her good days and her bad ones. Saturday was awful - very painful for her, but Sunday was the best in a while. "Best" is a relative term. It means that she seemed to suffer only one short bought of bad pain, she ate half of what she would normally eat in a day and she squatted for potty breaks. She still has trouble standing herself up, once standing she would collapse if I didn't have her in a sling though she gets better and more aware of her feet once she is about 10 yards into walking.

We'll see what today brings.

The Back Legs Are Trying

Group Therapy

As usual, Sophie directs all of our activity. She was in the pool with me for her second therapy session (Roy does it in the morning) and Joey just could not stand it anymore. She had to join in.


We both think the swim therapy has helped not only with exercise and neruological issues, but also with emotional issues.


Sophie seems to be improving though at a glacial pace. She has been able to stand herself up a few times, but it isn't a regular occurance. She has the most trouble when she first stands. It takes her a few seconds to figure out her feet. But once she gets going she motors along pretty well - especially if she has a goal (swimming, drink from the hose, potty break).

A Bright Spot

Sophie just finished up with her morning swim therapy and is enjoying a nap outside.

Earlier she surprised us by getting herself out of her bed and walking over to the edge of the pool. I we had finished swimming with her and I put her in her outside hammock bed to rest and dry. I was throwing a stick in the water for Joey, but Joey didn't want to go in after it. I was being animated and trying to get Joey to jump when I looked back and Sophie was steaming towards me. I think if I didn't grab her she would have jumped in after the stick! That was the first time she got herself up!

Day By Day

We don't know what to do. Yesterday Sophie had a pretty good day all things considered. She still can't walk, she still suffers extreme pain at various points in the day, she still can't eat or drink out of a bowl.

So the fact that her excruciating pain lasted only for an hour and 15 horrible minutes was a good thing. The fact that she ate and ate without vomiting was pretty good. She actually ate quite a bit - we were thrilled. She did her swimming therapy and napped in the sun. And by this morning, you could tell she wanted to get up and head outside. But that's the thing - she can't get up. When I get her up, it takes her a few steps or seconds to understand where her feet are and what they are meant to do. Once we get going she can eventually walk on her own, but she can't stand on her own.

We are taking each day one at a time, moment by moment. We were given the OK to do swim therapy for 3 minutes, twice a day and we hope that will not only help physically, but emotionally. Sophie loves to swim.

Fused Disk

When we took Sophie in to have her stitches removed we also spent some time with the surgeon discussing the severe limp Sophie presented the day of surgery. We had some x-rays taken while she was under for her surgery so we had the opportunity to review them.

Sophie has two disks in her spine that have fused together. It is not that uncommon in an older, very athletic dog. We had already seen signs of it in that she had stopped holding her tail up high, had a slight arch in her back and showed some sporadic weakness in her rear legs. The vet said that since she responded so well while on Rimadyl, she felt that was the best coarse of action and did not recommend surgery - though it is a possibility.

Last Tuesday, Sophie couldn't walk. She completely lost the ability to use her hind legs. She could not stand herself up, she couldn't stay standing when we got her up and she couldn't walk. We got her to the vet who did a quick examination and felt that there was significant enough swelling around her fused disk to cause the symptoms we were witnessing. She recommended we treat Sophie aggressively with steroids before talking about MRIs and other options. Sophie stayed with them for two days.

She responded well to the steroids. The next day she was able to hobble around with the assistance of a sling. She was carried outside for bathroom breaks, but once outside she could walk a little. Thursday, she walked herself outside - still using a sling. We visited on Wednesday, hand fed her (she had not been eating) and told her how much we love her. We saw the vet a briefly and she reiterated that she was pleased with Sophie's response.

We were able to bring her home Thursday evening. We were given a new pile of medicines, a pamphlet for Scout's House and the OK for 3 minutes of therapeutic swimming a day.

She has not done as well at home as we would have liked. We hoped that she would continue to improve slowly each day, but she has taken a step backwards and has stayed there. Friday she slept all day and barely ate. Today she has had bad pain and has eaten less. She seems to enjoy her walks out to relieve herself and when we opened the pool she was very interested. As you can see, she paddled around - for ONLY 90 SECONDS (if our vet is watching in on us).

We will see what tomorrow will bring for our little Rock Star Sophie. We are hopeful it involves eating, walking and a wee bit of swimming.

No More, Please.

I have not written anything about Sophie for a few days, because not much has changed. She is eating, she wants desperately to be "cleared" for swimming in her pool, and she has less "goo" coming out of her nose. We'll call her "stable" as we head in to get her stitches taken out tomorrow morning.

So. Why relax?

We took the Labradors with us to run some errands today. We stopped for lunch (read:dogs got snacks) and on the way home we stopped at one of Sophie's favorite parks (all of them are her favorite parks). There was a friendly gang of dogs hanging out so we joined in. Joey was quick to find the 1.5 year old who also likes to play chase. Joy! Lucky! They romped around for a good 15 minutes, then it was time to go. We leashed up and headed for the car - Joey leading the charge. Then she stops short and starts to furiously shake her left front paw and she won't walk on it.

I get down and start to search through her toes and pads and fur for what I expect to be a burr, or splinter of some kind. I search and search but I find nothing. No burr, no glass, no blood, nothing. She is still shaking and shaking her paw. We carry her to the car so I can look at her foot without the other dogs coming up to help. I still can't find anything, but now I see a little red spot.

Oh. Crap. Bee sting.

This bee had incredible accuracy. You know the 2nd to last scene in Star Wars (IV) where Luke has to fly along the surface of the Death Star and at the very last second use The Force to shoot 2 photon torpedoes into a 3 meter wide hole which will eventually destroy the Death Star (but not Darth Vader)? You know that scene? That is what this bee had to do to sting Joey's foot. This red mark was deep in between the "palm" pad and the toe pads. The Force is strong in that young padewan bee.

Off to the vet we go. Poor Joey. She hates the vet.

She was a brave little soldier. The vet AND a tech searched her paw and squeezed it and shot her up with benedryl. She got a cookie for her goodness. She didn't feel that was adequate. She is sleeping happily now.

Good Weekend for Sophie

Sophie is improving everyday. The further we get from her wailing and panting the better - and the more we think it was the medication. He appetite is probably 70% back to normal. She shows a lot of interest in food (and she is getting anything she wants) but will only eat "so much" of any one food. Where she used to eat 1 cup of kibble, now she will eat 1/2, then asks to be hand fed, then loses interest with 15 kibbles to go. She has been really good about taking her remaining medicines (thyroid, anti-inflammatory, antibiotic) too.

She has shown more and more interest in her pre-surgical routine. We took her to the park twice yesterday and twice today. She enjoys the trip and carrying around her pink squeaky ball. She's not doing much more than that (which is fine with me).

She still is producing a good amount of mucous that comes out her nose. I'm hoping that is all normal healing stuff, but don't you worry - I'll ask. She is due to get her stitches out on Thursday.

Chicken for breakfast? Why Not?

Sophie is home from rehab. She spent a few days with the vet being observed, going to group, having one on one time with the doctor (to share feelings) and going cold turkey. She’s home now, starting to eat more and eat more regularly. She is resting, finally. It’s nice to have her back!

Last night we saw her appetite coming back, but this morning it has returned almost completely. She is still fussy (she never was before) but she is eating more at a time. We are up to half a cup of kibble and this morning she ate half a cup of baked chicken. She would have had more but I ran out. The next breast is thawing.