Medical Update

Reyna saw the vet yesterday for her senior wellness exam. It was a good thing we booked extra time because we used every minute of it. Overall, Reyna is very healthy (ignoring her mental issues, of course). As always, her hips are the main concern. She yelped several times when the vet checked her left hip, and was a little fussy when he checked her right. The right hip is the bionic hip, so it should be better than the left. What neither of us really expected was just how bad her left hip has become. The vet said there's absolutely no cushioning (cartilage) on the joint anymore - its nothing but bone crunching on bone. Since surgery is completely out of the question at this point, the only thing we can do is try to manage her pain. The vet gave me a couple of weeks worth of Tramadol for Reyna, and if it helps, he'll prescribe a nice big bottle for her. If not, we'll add another med or try something else. She'll also keep getting her full dose of Rimadyl, as well as her regular supplements. The vet also wants Reyna to do her cavaletti exercises three times a week for the next two weeks to see if she'll start lifting her back feet. That's the other problem - she's dragging her back feet (along with falling a lot) and we can't tell if its the start of a neurological problem or just the result of really painful hips. If she's picking up her feet to get over the cavaletti bars within two weeks, then we can assume its just the orthopedic issue of bad hips. If she's still dragging after two weeks, though, we're most likely looking at the onset of a neurological deficiency. My poor little girl. She's had such a rough time of it with her hips. I'd really like to find the people who bred her parents and slap them several times.

In other medical news, Duncan is now being treated for whipworms. The vet checked with several specialists about what might be causing Duncan's issues, and the general consensus is that there's a low-level intestinal irritation (there's a shocker), and whipworms are a potential cause. So Duncan's on meds for three days, and then we'll see what happens (or doesn't happen) after that.