Good, Bad And Worse

I dropped Duncan off at the vet school shortly before 8am this morning. He was scheduled for anesthesia at 10, and the procedure was scheduled to take about two hours. At 1pm, the neuro vet called to tell me that Duncan was awake and moving around. I picked Duncan up around 3:30, chatted with the vet student for a bit, and got home about 4:45. Poor Duncan was so agitated when I got him – he was definitely very ready to get home.

For some reason, Duncan thinks that the chair is the safest place in the exam room…


So, the good news is that they didn’t find anything untreatable. The bad news is that they also didn’t find anything specific or treatable. The worse news is that the neuro and ortho vets have absolutely no idea what’s wrong with my sweet boy. The next step is….nothing, really. Just waiting to see if Duncan gets worse. They want to see him again in three months to evaluate any deterioration that may occur.

We are going to run two more simple tests. They’re sending off blood to do a genetic test for Degenerative Myelopathy. The vets are all in agreement that he doesn’t have it (or, if he does, it’s the oddest presentation ever), but they also agree it doesn’t hurt to check. After all, if he doesn’t have the two genes required, then we can pretty much mark DM off the list of possibilities for good. They’re also running a fairly extensive tick test. Again, no one (including me) thinks he has a tick-borne illness, but its just one more thing we can officially rule out. And then we’re done. Unless something dramatic happens in the next three months, we’re scheduled to go back to the vet school in November.

In the meantime, I get to be entertained by a very groggy puppy…

Duncan insists he’s wide awake.


But then again, maybe not.


No point in pretending any longer…