Reyna

So the good news is that (up until today) Reyna and I have been walking about 4 miles a day, 4-5 days a week. Occasionally, we walk farther. The cooler weather has been a wonderful thing, because it means we don’t have to be out before daylight, and that means we can walk farther because we don’t have to be home before the morning traffic gets really bad.

The bad news is that Reyna's obsessive licking has set off a nasty infection in her right front leg. Her tail isn’t looking so great, either, but at least it’s not infected. Yet. I took her to the vet yesterday and he put her on antibiotics. He wants her to do a course of about 3 weeks, but since she’s always had trouble with antibiotics, he only gave us about 10 days worth so we could see how she does. She’s also taking Pepcid and a lot of yogurt (probiotics) to help reduce any stomach troubles. I’m thinking she’s not going to do well. She had a dose last night and again this morning. When we went out for our walk, we got less than half a mile before she decided to just lay down on the side of the road. It took me several minutes to convince her to get back up. I didn’t want to push the issue, so we just headed home. As soon as we walked in the door, she went to her bed. I’m not really sure what we’re going to do, other than wait and see for a few more days. If she just can’t take the meds without getting sick, there’s apparently a shot she could get that’s supposed to be very effective. The problem is that it’s also very expensive (for example, the shot for a cat costs about $50, and the amount of med needed is based on weight, so imagine the cost difference between a 10lb cat and a 75lb dog). That may be the route we have to go, but let’s hope not. Cross your paws…