Straydog UPDATE posted MONDAY 2/10/03 at ~9:19 p.m. CT

Pat Arnold's Daily Dog Log

MONDAY FEBRUARY 10 2003

Good News about diabetic Julie: Her eyes are okay!

      Julie, Bill and I arrived at The Animal Eye Clinic in Arlington [Texas] at 9:30 this morning, and Dr. Paulsen saw Julie right away.

      After a thorough examination of her eyes the doctor said Julie's eyes are okay. He said that the slight cloudiness in her eyes is cholesterol (which is not unusual for diabetic dogs, I guess) and that she can see just fine, and there is no need to see her again until June. This was good news. Now we'd be taking Julie home and then I'd be off to our vet clinic to pick up Rottweiler , Betsy--I thought!

Bad news about Davey: He is having severely bloody diarrhea

      After arriving home with Julie (and getting her back to her kennel with Jed) we went to the house. Tina, who was in our kitchen preparing Snowflake's meal, said that Dr. Morton wanted me to call him about Betsy before I went to the clinic to get her.

      Before I could get to the phone to call the doctor, another employee, Rhonda, called me over the walkie-talkie to say that Davey had had very bloody diarrhea all morning (while we were gone), and that Davey was having the same problem right then during his outing in the big play yard. I could tell by the concern in Rhonda's voice that she was really worried about Davey.

      I hurried outside to see Davey, and the poor, approximately 14-year-old fellow definitely had a problem. I went to the house and called our vet right away.

      I told Dr. Morton about Davey's recent bouts of bad looking diarrhea (including lots and lots of blood). What it boils down to is that it could be his colitis condition getting worse, or it could be the colon cancer causing the problem. The doctor and I both agreed that it would be best for Davey to spend the next few days at the clinic where he will be under the watchful eye of the doctor and the vet technicians. Davey had been doing so well while he was eating the grains and veggie diet, but these last two days he refused the food that was improving his stools tremendously, so we fed Davey what the doctor suggested we try next. Davey did eat the food and the diarrhea came back, much worse than ever before--a great deal of blood.

More bad news: Betsy needs more surgery on her broken leg

      Davey being sick wasn't the end of the bad news for the day. After we talked about Davey, the doctor told me that Betsy would not be able to come home today, because she has to have another operation to repair the break in her leg. He x-rayed her leg earlier today to see how the surgery performed last week was healing, before sending her home, and he saw that the bone had shifted, and would need more surgery to "fix it" again. This time he'd have to do something different. It is a very difficult break, he went on to say, and then he explained the new procedure, which he would use this second time. Poor Betsy!

      We ended the conversation with us agreeing I'd be bringing Davey to the clinic within the hour.

Pixie is going on her home visit tomorrow!

      Pixie will be going on her home visit tomorrow, so we wanted her to have a health checkup and her yearly vaccinations, which were also scheduled for today, so Tina, Randy and I put Pixie in the van in a traveling crate, and then Tina sat on the floor in the middle of the van with Davey, and off we went to the clinic.

Davey sees the doctor first

      There is nothing much we can do for Davey, the doctor said, except try new medications and increase one of the medications he is on. Dr. Morton had called the other doctor who performed the colonoscopy, and this doctor agreed with Dr. Morton. There is just nothing more than this that we can do for Davey, and he may not respond to this treatment, but we need to try. If we can get the bleeding to stop, we will try him again on whole cereal grains and vegetables--if we can get him to eat them!

Pixie's next

      After the vet techs took Davey to the kennel, we brought in Pixie. She had her vaccinations and checkup and is all ready to go visit her tentative new home tomorrow.

Pixie's home visit is tomorrow

      Guy and I will be taking Pixie for the two-hour drive to Allen, Texas and should arrive at the family's home by 10:00 a.m. We are all hoping that Pix, and the family's two dogs, and two Cats, will get along.

EVENING UPDATE from our vet:

      Dr. Morton called this evening to say that Betsy has come though the second surgery just fine and is resting comfortably.

      Davey is still not doing well.

      I'll call early in the morning to check on Betsy and Davey before we leave to take Pixie for her home visit.

Photos of Chubs and Cassie taken today