Owen Swims!

 

 

Spoiled or Privileged?

As you may know, Joey has only recently discovered her courage and love of swimming. This has brought out her curious side and anything in the pool she must investigate. Add to that she is very attached to me and below is what you get.


I am very thankful for her mother's genes (she is an agility super star) since Joey had perfect balance. Otherwise we would have tipped over for sure.

Dance Party At the Beach House

It takes a certain confidence for a man to cut up a rug with his Auntie.

Second Step Scary No More

This isn't exactly the very first time Joey conquered her fear of the 2nd step (in our pool), but it is maybe the 3rd or 4th. I'm sure there will be better videos to come.

Watch the video.

One Hour at the DMV

As many of you know, Roy and I got a new electric scooter (SO FUN) a few weeks ago. Well contrary to what the sales guy said, we feel it does require a M2 license and perhaps even a M1 license. Being responsible people and general rule followers, we set about getting ourselves in order. Roy called AAA to see about insurance (that is a story in itself) and I made appointments at the DMV.

My appointment was today, 2:50pm. First lesson I learned is that everyone has to check in and get a number, BUT if you have an appointment, you get to go in the short line. I didn't realize that at first. The very efficient, nice lady behind the check-in desk gave me a form DL-44 to fill in while I waited. Basic stuff, name, DL number, check the box that you are adding to your current license, check the box to be a donor, register to vote (last two optional), etc.

They called my number and I yelled "Keno!" and ran to window #5. "Joe Montanna" (he was wearing the jersey) punched in my info, took $28 in fees from me and told me to go to window #16 to get my test. He explained with great exasperation that I would have to take a 15 question drivers test as well as the 18 question motorcycle test and this was because it has been over a year since my last test. That was the second thing I learned. Thanks Joe!

Window 16 turned out to be a popular window that served various purposes. Not only could you get your tests there, get your tests corrected there, but you could also leave a thumb print, and get your photo taken. Lots of people were waiting for window 16.

When it was my turn, I surrendered my paperwork which was reviewed thoroughly. I was then directed to stand back for my photo, no, come forward for your thumbprint, no step back for the photo, no come forward to sign the electronic pad, no step back for the photo. etc. and oy. Thankfully the photo I took was only for my photo receipt, not for my license, because I looked like I was robbing a Kwiki-Mart.

I got my test and joined the others in the boxed-off area complete with lots of signage about how you are not permitted to talk to others and use of cell phones is punishable by death. I did the test questions for the regular license first to gain confidence. When I started on the motorcycle test, I quickly realized that thumbing through the manual once may not have imparted all the information. Question #2:
Most crash-involved riders:
A. Overbrake the rear tire.
B. Underbrake the rear tire.
C. Were experienced riders.

I have NO clue. OK skip it for now. Get to question #4 - no clue, not good. Question 9, 10, huh? This is bad news, you are only allowed to miss 4. I start to look around to see if there is security in the testing area. Will they notice if I make a call? Who would I call? Roy is out of town.

I make my best attempts at trying to think like a DVM question writer and I join my friends in line for lucky window 16. Long story long, I missed two (including the above question, which was "A") and I proudly took home my new learners permit!

Sophie Is In Remission

We took Sophie to the vet earlier this week to recheck her bloodwork and vitals. She has been on Prednisone and Azathioprine to manage her AIHA and we have been taking her in every 2 weeks to recheck all her values and reassess her treatment plan.

Sophie continues to do well. Her PCV is holding steady and the reticulocyte count is low indicating a stable remission of the disease. She gets to dial back even further on the Prednisone and will recheck now in 3 weeks.

As you can imagine, we are over the moon about this. When we first took her in and got the AIHA diagnosis, we were preparing ourselves for the worst. But in fact, just the opposite has happened. Sophie is bugging us all day for food, ball, pool, trips, walks, you name it. We are all doing our best to keep up with her. It's so nice to have her back!

New Toy!

You may remember a year or so ago Roy and I were investigating getting a scooter. We looked at Vespa, Honda, Paggio and others, but finally concluded it was too expensive, we didn't have a place to store it, and we didn't want to get the M1 license we were told it required.

Well throw all that out the window. There is a new place in San Carlos that sells electric scooters, cars and other vehicles. Say no more, especially since I had just returned from the gas pump and celebrated my first $100+ charge. Yay. I'm now considering getting rid of my car, getting a Smart car, and another scooter so Roy and I can scoot together.

As you can see we selected one in a nice minty green (you can click the photo to see the enlarged view), we really liked the red one but thought I would catch the eye of the police. Frankly, the color does not matter. The only thing either of us can tell you about it is that it is SO MUCH FUN to ride!! We take it to the health club, we take it downtown for errands, we take it up Hull just to see how it does. There is definitely a learning curve (Roy dumped it over once - no injury) and the throttle is touchy, but we are eager students.

The Pips

Of the entire 2008 season of American Idol, there was one moment that stood out as the very best. Enjoy.

Sophie is Hopped Up

Sophie is doing better and better in terms of her energy returning. She is running around like she is four years old. She is back to playing ball with me on walks, she is increasing her number of throws when she goes to the park, her speed has picked up. We are very hopeful that much of this remains when we start to dial back her medications.

We are really enjoying this return to the "Good Ole Sophie". The only drawbacks are she is obsessed with eating dirt, and she isn't interested in napping. Because of this combination, we can't let her hang out in the yard by herself. We read online that eating dirt is a symptom of low blood iron. We'll get the vet's opinion about this on Wednesday.

Stitches, Smitches

Joey has been feeling GREAT the past 2 days. Ever since the last vet appointment, when she had some of the fluid drained off, she has been reabsorbing just as fast as a little labra can. Last night and this morning she was doing doughnuts in the computer room and racing around the house with her pheasant.

She was scheduled this morning for a resuture. That was going to be a quick procedure, but still she would have to be put under and be at the vet all day. First of all, she broke my heart when we arrived at the vet and she wouldn't come out of the car. I climbed in the back seat with her, just to talk and the poor little tyke was trembling. I finally had to pick her up and climb out of the car with her. We left her at the vet with a hug and a kiss and her Bite Not collar.

Well the vet called just as we were finishing up with Sophie's appointment (good news!) to let us know that Joey was cleared to come home! Dr. Blount said that she rechecked the abdomen and concluded that the indentation she felt was not a tear in the internal stitches, but rather remaining inflammation. She had two other vets check too and they all independently came to the same conclusion.

Instead of surgery, Joey got a pedicure. Fair trade.

RBC is Up

Sophie had a vet appointment this morning to be reassessed. She gave some blood and had her vitals checked. Her heart rate is good, her weight is good her pulse is good. The in house RBC showed that she is up to 27% from 15%!!! 30% is considered normal so she is nearly there. They send the blood out for a more accurate and complete reading. We will know those results this afternoon and that will determine our course of treatment. It seems as though we will stay the course for the next two weeks anyway.

In terms of how she is acting, she is sooooo much better. She is getting all of her adjectives back. She is hungry, interested, playful, and sweet. She is still slow on walks, but I'm not so sure that isn't due to boredom with walking the same old routes for 9 years. It is so nice to have her back.

Joey is Full of... Fluid

Joey just came back from a trip to the vet. She is much improved over yesterday. She is much more comfortable and less... fluid. Her incision from her spaying leaked a bit last night and this morning. Clear, no infection.

The vet was very impressed with Joey's ability to create fluid in vast quantities. Joey has always excelled at everything she attempts you know. The vet poked around Joey's tummy and feels that Joey may have torn her internal stitches (I learned there are three layers) and she wants to play it safe by going back in to re-stitch her.

So, Joey goes back in on Tuesday. Then, yes, I have to try to figure out how to keep her inactive for yet another 5 days. Our vet was very nice to me by telling me several times this was not my fault - that a birthday trip to the beach 8 days after surgery should have been absolutely fine. This was dumb luck.

Sophie is Home!

Sophie is home! She is in no way out of the woods, and she is pretty wiped out, but the doctor said she was happy with how the lab work came back. Sophie is producing her own red blood cells, and in great number. I was told that she ate a nice breakfast, so I'm hoping she will eat her dinner. She is napping on the cool tile floor now. She goes back in on Tuesday for more lab work and a vet recheck.

We'll be learning a lot about AIHA in the next weeks and months. We've already learned that Sophie can never be vaccinate again for anything. That is going to make travel tricky if not impossible without her. She can't stay in a kennel if she can't be vaccinated and as of yet, Joey doesn't know what to do with my parents cats (of course that is making a huge assumption my parents would take care of my dogs.)

She is on prednisone (40mg/day), azathioprine (50mg for 3 days, then off 4), and prilosec OTC (20mg/day). The goal is to get her stable, get a normal red blood count (and other lab values) then cut back on the prednisone and hopefully get her off it completely. Keep your fingers crossed for her!

Sophie is Anemic

If you know Sophie, you know her to be fun, playful, ravenous, and energetic. Well, this week she took a nose dive. Each day she lost an adjective. She lost her energy, she lost her interest in games, she lost her prankster side and finally she refused to eat. I can tell you there is nothing sadder than a Labrador that has lost her wag, nor anything more terrifying than a Labrador who won't eat.

I made an appointment for Sophie to see her regular vet on Friday. She continued to decline so I thought I should take her in for lab work before her appointment so we could move more quickly toward a treatment. The vet took her in the back to take the blood and urine samples and when they returned her to me the vet (not her regular vet) came out to look at her gums. The lab tech reported that Sophie's gums were pale, and the doctor was coming to check it out. She said they were quite pale and then told the tech to run a portion of the CBC in house so we could get some of the results more quickly.

What she found is that Sophie was very anemic. This isn't the same thing as being human and being anemic, it is much deadlier in dogs. It is WAY more serious than just taking some iron supplements. Her values indicated she was somewhat close to needing a blood transfusion. Yeah, I felt nauseous too. We took an x-ray of her so we could have a better picture. We talked with the vet for a while about what this means. It could mean: she was bleeding internally; she was bleeding into a tumor, her immune system was killing her red blood cells; the list goes on and it is merely shades of bad.

The vet recommends we take her for an ultrasound - it gives a better picture and more information. Hopefully that would show us if there was bleeding or a tumor or some other abnormality. We scheduled the appointment for Friday.

Friday morning was more of the same in terms of Sophie's behavior. She wants to go on walks, but she has a hard time walking. She wants to swim, but she has a hard time shaking off. She still doesn't want to eat. That is the scariest part.

We took her to VMS in San Mateo (they are phenomenal there), meet with the vet there and get the ultrasound done. The remainder of the lab work was complete and now we can diagnose and treat. The good news is she has regenerating anemia (Autoimmune Hemolypitic Anemia, or AIHA) caused by her immune system attacking her her blood cells. Now that doesn't sound like good news but it gives more hope than a bleeding tumor. And her blood work showed that she was already starting to fight this on her own... she just needs help.

So, Sophie is spending the night at VMS. She has a nice fluffy bed and an IV and the same nurse and vet that talked with us are on shift this weekend (happy coincidence). She is going to be treated aggressively with IgG Gamma Gard, and prednisone and another medication that protects her GI tract (which has a tendency to bleed in anemic patients during this treatment). She may end up spending the entire weekend depending on how she does.

Sophie is by no means out of the woods. Fingers crossed she will do great and be home with us soon, but it is possible she won't ever come home. Once home she will remain on predisone and another med for the rest of her life. Should she get a recurrence of this, it usually comes back much more virulently. But we hope she will be in the group that does well on the cocktail of meds and is back chasing down Frisbees in no time.

Suffice it to say, Roy and I are a mess. This has been a tough, teary week watching Sophie, our beacon of light, slowly but swiftly dim. She is my angel. I can't believe we might lose her. And as this was happening to Sophie, Joey has been fighting a dramatic reaction to her spaying. Her abdomen has filled with fluid and the incision is hard. The vet gave us some antibiotics and pain medicine for her. Recheck tomorrow.

Really tough week.

Amazing How Wonderful "Normal" Is

When I was younger and it's still true somewhat today, it was of monumental importance to me to be different. Not over the top different, but I didn't want to be exactly what everyone else was.

We took Joey in yesterday to recheck her urine, and …. YAY! Her pH is better, she is concentrating her urine better, no culture grew! YAY!!! She goes off all meds and her food (which was changed to c/d because her pH was acidic) should be 50/50 as of today. YAY!!! We still need to recheck her in a month and watch for signs of trouble, but WHEW! It’s nice to know she CAN get normal results.

Typical Morning

Joey is getting into the routines around here. She understands that when Sophie is asked, "Do you want to go swim?" that BIG fun is about to ensue. She isn't willing to brave the 2nd step, but she is still able to have a WONDERFUL time.

More Joey Photos

It's been a while since I posted Joey's slide show... I know you all have been searching my blog for it. There are lots of new pictures for you to enjoy!

Joey Update

We took Joey in for an ultrasound of her kidney and bladder last week. At the same time, we had a urine sample taken so they could run every test that could possibly occur to them. :) All of these tests were follow up from the last time we did them 2.5 months ago. Joey finished up her antibiotics (clavamox) 2 weeks prior to these tests so it was time to see how she is doing.

The ultrasound was basically unchanged from last time, which is to say there were abnormalities/inflammation in the kidneys but the bladder looked good. The ultrasound doctor felt the abnormalities were secondary to an underlying infection, but neither he nor our vet can conclude that w/o any doubt. The urine culture showed no growth, indicating the clavamox did it’s job on the infection we were after. However, the urinalysis showed a VERY low specific gravity, a high pH, and some crystallization. The pH and the crystals indicate bacteria which lead us to believe that there IS still an infection, possibly in her kidneys, that has yet to re-present itself in the urine. What makes the vet nervous is the low specific gravity paired with the abnormalities seen in the ultrasound. These two pieces of data could mean kidney damage. We just don’t know.

We have all decided that the best action to take is to treat her as though there is an infection in her kidneys while at the same time investigating a specialist. We are changing her kibble to c/d to treat the high pH issue and we have a new antibiotic (baytril) that she starts today. We will do this for a month (at least) and retest to see what has changed.

Other than this somewhat disheartening news (I would MUCH prefer to be reporting “All Clear!”) Joey continues to be a beacon of joy and love. She is in an intermediate class Saturday mornings in which she is doing really well. She goes to the park every morning with Sophie and Roy. They meet me there after my Boot Camp class and Joey and I run off to play. She hugs my ankles while I work (as she is right now) and she and I have perfected how to arrange the lap duvet on the couch so we can both fit and MAX OUT our cuddle time. She is very sweet and mischievous – she learned how to unlock her crate this morning – and we love her more than words could ever express.

I Didn't Know That

I know most everything anyway, but now I REALLY do. Thanks to a book I was given this past Christmas, I Didn't Know That. Here are a few gems to sink your teeth into...

Armed to the Teeth
The first to be armed to the teeth was an ancient Nordic tribe known as the Berserkers, whose teeth were their most deadly weapons. These particular tribesmen were known for filing their teeth into sharp points and savagely attacking their opponents, who most often carried more civilized weapons like swords, spears, or clubs. Originally, "armed to the teeth" meant to be barely armed at all, but historically, its meaning of "being on the attack, prepared for any confrontation" carries over today.

Cahoots
Cahoots were, quite simply, little cabins, or kajuetes, as they were called in medieval Germany. Often known to be occupied by bandits and robbers, these little cabins became the planning centers for attacks. So in reality, it was the goings-on inside the cabins that became known for what the cabins themselves were called. Today we use cahoots to refer to any shady partnership or less-than upright scheme.

Red Cats Galore