Straydog UPDATE posted TUESDAY 1/28/03 at ~9:21 p.m. CT

Pat Arnold's Daily Dog Log

TUESDAY JANUARY 28 2003

Good News for Davey!

      As I reported yesterday, Guy and I took Davey to see the new doctor, Dr. Deen, yesterday morning so the doctor could prepare the fellow for [what we'd been told would be an "ultra-sound" but turned out to be] a "videoscope" exam (similar [or exactly the same as] a colonoscopy) which would be given today. This afternoon Dr. Deen called to say the videoscope showed that Davey has chronic colitis and that it isn't as severe as he'd thought it might have been. The scope also showed that Davey had many little ulcers, which have begun to heal due to the medication Davey has been on, so this is very good news too.

      All in all this is a very good report. Davey is on a special high-fiber diet now and will continue the medication for several more weeks while his health continues to improve, and then we should be able to gradually reduce the medicine as he gets better.

      The doctor took biopsies from his colon and will contact our regular vet when those lab reports come in. We're hoping all is okay there too.

      Guy made the ~100-mile round trip to pick up Davey, who is back here with us now and is looking and feeling good!

Tomorrow will be a really busy day

      A whole lotta dogs and pups are going to see the doctor Wednesday morning. He has the whole morning booked solid for Straydog Inc. dogs and pups.

      Molly is going to have another set of stitches removed. Toby is going for his checkup. Chubs and Cassie are going for their puppy vaccinations--plus Chubs has the "runs" again, which seem to flare up every two weeks. This is the third time this has happened to Chubs, and I've begun to treat him with the same medications I used the two times it happened before. So the doctor will be giving Chubs a checkup instead of vaccinations. We may need to look in depth at what could cause the bacteria in his system to disappear every two weeks.

      Puppy Pepsi is old enough to be neutered now, so he is going for his operation, and new arrival, Heather, is ready to come home, following her "stitch repair job" from her spay surgery. I have a long list of special foods for the special needs dogs, and prescriptions that we need to have refilled for Happy and Misty and a few other fellas. Our vet bill is over $3,000 now and with this vet trip the bill will soar much higher and Davey's vet bill at the other clinic (including the "colonoscopy") was $424. We're lucky Davey doesn't have some cancerous tumors and that we can bring him back to good health with a wholesome high-fiber diet.

      Our vet bill is like the little Duracell Bunny Battery: Many of you make extremely generous donations directly to our vet bill, often bringing it down to zero, but it just keeps on going and growing and going and growing and going and growing!

     If you would like to help directly with the vet expenses, you may send your tax deductible donations directly to:

Morton Small Animal Clinic
1404 E. Tyler Street
Athens, Tx. 75751

and please make a note on your check that the donation is for Straydog Inc. so they'll be sure to apply your donation to our Straydog account. (Or you may send a donation directly to Straydog Inc., P.O. Box 1465, Gun Barrel City, Texas 75147.)

     As always we thank you, very, very much, for your help.