Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log
TUESDAY August 30 2005
5:00 P.M. UPDATE
Juana reports ...
You may remember that last week we took Bobby in to be groomed, but I wanted the doctor to check him first. Doctor Morton run a T4 blood test to check his thyroid. He also suggested to us to make an appointment with the Dermatologist Clinic in Dallas, which I did and our appointment was scheduled for today, but everything changed. Yesterday Dr. Morton called, and told us that the results from Bobby's thyroid test had come back and that Bobby has Hypothyroidism, meaning that he has a hormonal imbalance. His thyroid count is .4, which the doctor said it's very low. I asked the doctor what a normal count is, and he answered .8 to 5.0 or higher is a normal range. The doctor wanted us to start Bobby on a thyroid pill (.6 mg) twice a day for a least one month, and let's recheck him again. I told the doctor that we had an appointment with the dermatologist specialists tomorrow, and would this matter or what should we do? He said, Juana, I suggest for you to cancel for now, because anything that they might do, could throw Bobby off because he has this other problem. And he might just get over his skin and fur problem giving him this thyroid medicine. So as soon as I got off the phone with doctor, I called and canceled our appointment. I explained the reason to the receptionist and she understood. We already have .6mg thyroid pills because our old girl Happy use to take them. We made a new chart for Bobby, and we started him on this medicine yesterday noon. Is going to take a while before we see any change on Bobby's skin problem (which is one of the reasons doctor thought it might be a thyroid problem) and we are hoping that this will help him. We still need to take Bobby sometime to see Dr. McDonald in Mesquite again to see if we can help Bob with his hip and leg problems. But it'll have to be after newsletter comes out as we're so low on funds right now.
From: Rover
To: straydog147@yahoo.com
Subject: August 31st will be my anniversary
Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 17:30
Well, one year has come
and gone since I was adopted on August 31, 2004. Mom says
thank you for the 10 years of good care Straydog gave me.
Mom says to tell you she will take care of me for the next
10 years of my life. I went to the Vet last weekend for a bath
and ear cleaning. Vet did a weighing - 35 lbs of cute doggie named
Rover. He felt my legs and hips which are good. Please give all
my doggies an extra pat on the head for me. Oh, I forgot to tell
you there is this little girl that is always petting me. She calls
me Grandpa, because at first she wanted to pet me but her Mom
looked at my Mom, and my Mom said I am a nice older grandpa that
does not bite. So every time we see her she runs over and wants
to pet Grandpa.
My love always,
Rover (XO)
From: Kathie W., Albert's mom
To: straydog147@yahoo.com
Subject: Albert
Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 02:29
Good news about Albert. His heartworm test is still positive, but the color (not sure what this means, but vet says it is good!) is fading, which means the herbal remedy is working. Albert is such a great dog. We just got back from Shreveport, and he always goes where we go. He's pretty spoiled!! He makes friends wherever we go. Just FYI. Talk to you soon,
~*Kathie*~
Dad was so glad to see me this morning that he held his arms open and I leaned down and we hugged each other. He asked where I'd been, and I told him I got there as soon as I could. He said, "Okay," and he calmed down right away.
Right after our greeting the physical therapist came in and said Dad had just had a good session. He'd been wide awake and focused and seemed to try hard to do his stretching and other exercises.
Although his speech still pretty unintelligible, he seemed to be trying to pronouncing many more words today, and some of it we could understand pretty well.
Later I was told by my brother that the speech therapist got Dad to sing "Happy Birthday" all on his own after she got him started with the first line of the song!