More Information

One of the tests they did at the vet school showed that one of the chambers in Reyna’s heart is enlarged and one of her valves is a bit leaky. The vet said he couldn’t hear a murmur, so he doesn’t think its going to be a problem for her for a long time, if ever. He did say its something to be checked at each yearly, and if she gets to a point where the vet can hear a murmur, it should be looked at again. Or if her activity level suddenly drops drastically, her heart would be the best place to start testing.

Oh, and the shaving wasn’t for the MRI, but for the spinal tap. Which makes more sense, really.

Reyna’s getting 90 mg of Pb, twice a day. That’s a pill and a half each time, which sucks, because the pills aren’t scored, and they’re stinking hard to cut exactly in half. When I get her refill in a month, I’m going to ask for 30 mg or 90 mg pills, so that I don’t have to stress over whether or not I’m over or under-dosing her.

The only reaction I’m seeing to the Pb is that she is extremely clumsy. I’m guessing that any normal-energy dog would be snoozing, but when has she ever been “normal” anything? She’s slipping, sliding, and tripping a lot, but it doesn’t seem to bother her nearly as much as it bothers me... I keep reminding myself that it’ll be a few more days before she gets used to the meds. Until then, I’m giving her the full dose of pain meds, because sooner or later, she’s going to realize that her hips really hurt. Mine hurt just from watching hers slide out from under her. I actually feel bad about having the wood floors. Poor girl. She can’t even catch her ball, because she keeps tripping over her own feet.

Duncan is officially the graceful dog of the house now. Not only can he run without falling (usually), he can also catch the red bouncy ball in mid-air. He’s even been jumping for it, and catching it while all four feet are off the ground. Its really cute, watching him drop the ball so that it bounces and he can catch it again. He doesn’t understand why I’m not letting him play rough with Reyna, though. Part of it is because she doesn’t have the fur on the back of her neck to protect her from his teeth, and part of it is that every time he bumps her, she falls over, and that’s just not a good thing.

Good To Have Her Back

Reyna got to come home this afternoon. Duncan spent some time looking at her like he wasn't sure who she was, but after about 20 minutes, he decided he was thrilled she was home.

I’ll get more into specifics later (if I feel like it), but the main thing is that all her tests came back negative for seizure-causing issues. The vet feels 99% confident that she has epilepsy. There’s a slim chance that it might be some type of movement disorder, but only time will tell. Basically, if she doesn’t respond to the Phenobarbital (Pb), she has a movement disorder. If she does, she has epilepsy. The vet said her liver enzymes look great, so he’s not worried about the combination of Pb and Rimadyl on her liver. He said that he wants her to stay on the Pb for at least a year, and if she hasn’t had any seizures in that year, we can consider stepping down the dose or switching to a more mild anti-convulsant.

Poor Reyna’s a bit clumsy tonight, although the vet was surprised at how non-sedated she was when I picked her up. I wasn’t...I’ve never seen a sedative actually make her sedate. Reyna has a shaved leg, where they put in the IV, and the back of her head is also shaved, for the MRI. I’ll post a picture of that in a day or so. The Pb will possibly have a sedating effect on her, but she should be completely normal within a week. If she isn’t, I’m supposed to take her back to the vet. We also go back in two weeks for blood work, just to make sure her liver is still okay. The Pb might have a few other side effects, but they’re all pretty mild, as long as I keep an eye on her. And the meds are fairly strict...they need to be as close to 12 hours apart as possible. Once they’re totally in her system, messing with the timing or amount could actually spark a seizure. I’ve got a call in to the Dermatology department at the vet school for an appointment with them, to try and narrow down the allergy/auto immune issue.

Okay...time to go. Reyna just plowed into the wall... Spinning while on drugs is clearly not a safe activity...

Reyna

Reyna is still at the vet school emergency clinic, and will be there until at least Monday afternoon. The vet said she’s being very friendly and loving with everyone, as long as they don’t try to take her temperature. He also said that her blood work came back clean, and that they were planning to run a few more tests today. The main reason he kept her there, though, is because they started her on the Phenobarbital, and he wanted to be able to monitor her response to it. Tomorrow, he’s going to have a vet from Dermatology come in and discuss the different possibilities and tests for her allergies and auto immune issues, and they’re going to run some more tests and do an MRI and possibly a spinal tap in the afternoon. Fingers crossed that those will all come back clean, and she can come on home. If none of the tests show anything, and she responds well to the Phenobarb, then they’ll call it epilepsy, and she’ll most likely be on anti-convulsants for the rest of her life.

Baby Birds

So, here's a pic of the babies taken on Saturday, the 16th. They're starting to show a bit more fluff (not to mention some actual physical features).



And here's one of Mom (or Dad, I can't tell) delivering a snack.



And this one was taken Sunday morning. The babies are definitly growing up. And apparently upset that they aren't getting fed while I'm standing there taking pictures....

Another Year

Happy birthday, Loki! Hope to have many more!

Not A Good Day

Reyna is spending the night at the vet school emergency hospital. Shortly after 2:00pm today, she had five seizures in a row, barely managing to come completely out of one before the next started. She had another seizure at 5:10, and the seventh at 5:15. The last one was different from the rest, in that she was laying completely on her side, but her head was twisted around so that her chin was on the floor. It even woke up Duncan. In fact, that’s how I knew she was having one. I was in the kitchen, and I heard Duncan move really quick. When I turned to look at him, he was staring at Reyna with a “What the crap are you doing?!?” look on his face. I called the vet school emergency clinic, told them what was happening, and they told me to bring her in. So I did.

The vet said that her seizures are definitely facial focal (partial) seizures. He also said that seven in three hours is very bad, and the fact the she was contorting somewhat on the last one is even worse. They ran a bunch of blood work tonight, and called me about 9:45 tonight to tell me that those tests came back okay, and that the neurologist has started her on Phenobarbital, and will give her another dose in the morning. I’d mentioned my regular vet’s concern about combining the Pheno and her hip meds, and the response was that most dogs do fine on both, but if she has trouble, the Pheno is more important, and they’ll find her a new pain killer. The neurologist will officially be assigned her case tomorrow morning, and is supposed to call me between 8:00 and 10:00 to tell me what’s happening. Depending on the tests they decide to run tomorrow, she may be able to come home and then go back in Monday morning, or she might have to stay there until sometime Monday. It just depends on what they find. The vet who saw her tonight said he’s pretty sure its epilepsy, but they have to rule out the other possibilities before they can say that with any real certainty. So now we wait and see.

Life

They've hatched! The baby birds are alive and (I assume) well. I'm so excited! I'm an aunt! Or a god-mother! Or something along those lines, anyway. This morning, I got to see the parent birds bringing in food for the babies. One adult would fly in with food, the other would take it and disappear into the nest. I'm really looking forward to tracking their progress, so get used to seeing updates!

Even The Best Option Isn’t A Good One

I spoke with the vet Monday, and was able to email him the clip of Reyna’s seizure (which is here, if you’re interested in seeing it). He said that it looks like a pretty classic partial seizure, which is definitely better than a grand mal seizure. The vet seems to think its most likely canine epilepsy, although he did say that the second most likely option is a brain tumor. He told me about a few other potential causes, but said that, based on her breed, history, and most recent blood work, he feels comfortable ruling out those other options. The bad part is that there is no test for epilepsy – instead, it becomes the default diagnosis after everything else has been ruled out. And all those other tests could run about $3,000. Since he’s saying there are really only two possibilities, I’m leaning towards having a test done just to rule out the brain tumor. And then I’ll feel better about calling it epilepsy.

For now, the vet wants to treat her with benign neglect. In other words, he wants me to watch her for a few more days, and let him know on Monday how many more seizures she’s had. I really wish there were some way for her to tell me if she’s having any while I’m at work. She had three on Saturday, and that makes me worry about what might be happening when I’m not home. If we get really lucky, this will turn out to be a phase that she’ll cycle through, like she did last fall. No way to know when they might start back again, of course. And that’s probably what bothers me the most...I really want to know what’s triggering these. Since I haven’t been out of town in a month, I think its pretty safe to say its not stress over me traveling.

If she doesn’t stop having the seizures fairly soon, the vet said there’s a couple of medicine options. The best is Phenobarbital, but she can’t have that. It processes through the liver, and the pain meds she’s on for her hips also process through the liver. Adding the Phenolbarb would basically destroy her liver, which really isn’t a good thing. And the pain meds are doing a good job, so we don’t want to change those out for something new unless we really have to. The second option is potassium bromide, but that takes 30 to 45 days to get in her system. So, if we start her on that now, and the seizures stop, we’ll never really know if they stopped because it was a phase or if the meds did their job. And we really don’t want to keep popping her on and off of meds, especially when they take so long to get in and out of her system.

I just keep thinking that her allergies, her auto immune issues, her OCD, and now these seizures, are all in some way connected. Because I know she just doesn’t wake up in the morning and decide to eat her tail. Something sparks it, but I don’t know what. The vet does a great job of treating the symptoms, but we haven’t found the root cause of her problems. I asked the vet about it, and he said that modern medicine would say no, these aren’t connected, but that Chinese medicine would say yes, of course they are. Anyone know a good vet trained in Chinese medicine?

My Poor Girl

I was finally able to tape one of Reyna's seizures tonight. She had three today, and the most recent one lasted long enough for me to get the camera up and running. I left a message this morning for the vet to call me on Monday, and with luck, he'll have some time early this week for me to show him the video clip. If he doesn't have any ideas, I'm going to try for an appointment at the vet school. When Reyna was having these last fall, she was having three or four a week - that I saw, anyway. But I've seen six so far this week, including the three today, and that really worries me about how many she might be having when I'm not home. Fingers crossed that the video helps the vet diagnose the problem.

Just as a side note, the idiot who called Reyna "dangerous" two weeks ago suggested today that maybe Reyna had a seizure during class and thats why she "attacked" the sheltie. And then she suggested I might want to think about putting Reyna down before her illness causes her to start attacking people. She's lucky I didn't show her how dangerous Reyna's mom can be.....

They're Baaaaaaaack

Poor Reyna. The seizures she had last fall, that went away in October? Well, they've come back. She had one Tuesday, and two last night. The frequency makes me worry about what might be going on when I'm not home. Now, if I can just catch one on video, I can take it to the vet for him to assess. Not that I want her to have any more, but if she is, I'd appreciate it if she'd have one that lasted long enough for me to film. I've started carrying my digital camera around with me, just in case...

Fireflies and Baby Birds

Last night was the first night that the fireflies were really showing off, and Duncan was completely fascinated. He wasn’t even interested in playing with Reyna or his jolly ball. Instead, he would follow a firefly around until he was distracted by another one lighting up nearby. Then he’d follow that one til he was distracted by yet another one. He also kept opening his mouth, almost like he was going to snap at one and try to eat it, but it was all in slow motion, more of a curious action than anything else. And he never got close enough to one to actually get it in his mouth, even if that had been his intention. I caught a couple and showed them to him, and he just stared at them until they flew away. It was really cute, watching him walk around with that rapt expression on his face.

In totally unrelated news, a bird has nested in my hanging geranium, and there are five eggs in the nest. Thankfully, no one has successfully nested in my dryer vent this year. The mama bird and I have come to an agreement. She leaves the nest when I need to water the plant, and I don’t try and take pictures of her while she’s in the nest. She seems to be somewhat camera shy...

A New Surprise Every Day

A couple of weeks ago, I came home to find the remnants of a stuffed dog toy scattered around the deck and yard. As the days – and the toy – passed, I found even more pieces. Enough to be surprised at how much stuffing is sown into those things. I hadn’t given the toy to the dogs, so I figured Duncan had stashed it in his hidey-hole under the deck a couple of months ago. Turns out, I was wrong.

This morning, Reyna decided she was tired of waiting on me to throw her ball, so she walked onto the deck and proceeded to open the “secure” toy chest I keep there. After rooting around for a minute, her head popped out of the chest with a toy in her mouth, and the chest closed as she pulled her head away from it. She and Duncan then had a grand time playing tug with the toy, while I stood and watched, surprised yet again at the extremely nonchalant manner in which Reyna continues to display her amazing intelligence.

Happy Birthday, Belle!

Belle turned 10 on the 23rd (so I’m not too awful late with this). It amazes me that she’s been part of my life for just a couple months shy of an entire decade. Thankfully, the antibiotics the vet gave her knocked out whatever nasty cold/infection she picked up earlier this year. She’s back to her normal, sweet self. Of course, as I type this, I have two nice scratches on my cheek. She nailed me last night in her haste to get away from Loki, who had the nerve to encroach upon her space as she was snuggled next to me.

Sweet Freedom

The misery is over – for 29 days, anyway. And then my next class starts. But until then, I’ll do my best to actually catch up with everything. Including, but not limited to, blogs, house cleaning, yard work, reading, and cross-stitching. During the 29 days I have a 4 day freestyle seminar in Virginia and a 3 day business trip to Dallas. So much to do, and so little time to do it. As usual.

Buried Treasure

I gave the pups soup bones last night – this is one of their favorite treats, and it actually takes a couple of hours for them to finish, so I get a bit of time to get things done. Everyone’s happy. Normally, I’ll put out at least three, because Reyna will choose one, then Duncan picks one, then Reyna takes Duncan’s, so Duncan gets the third one (because he wouldn’t dare take the one Reyna had been chewing), then Reyna takes Duncan’s new one, Duncan takes Reyna’s original bone, and the cycle continues. Occasionally, Duncan will take one outside and hide it first, then come in and pick one to chew, and then the swapping cycle starts. Last night, though, was a bit different.

There were three bones, and before Duncan even got close to them, Reyna put one behind the chair, one on the couch next to me (indicating she would come back to that one), and then started looking for a place to bury the third bone. She tried to bury it in the ottoman first, but figured out pretty quickly that the hole she was trying to dig wasn’t actually getting any deeper. So she went to the chair and proceeded to dig a “hole” between the seat cushion and the back of the chair. And that’s where she buried her bone. She seemed very proud of herself, too.

Thankfully, it was only in there about an hour before she decided she’d rather chew on it than one of the other ones. I can just imagine the stink if I’d forgotten about it and she’d left it in there indefinitely. After all, these bones are uncooked, and generally still have meat on them...

USECO

I don’t think I’ve ever talked about work on here before, but this deserves it. I’ve finally completed something. The four classes I took at the end of last year and start of this year were done in late February. I had a four hour exam March 14. Think SAT. A number 2 pencil, bubbles that had to be filled in completely, four sections of 50 questions and 60 minutes, with someone proctoring the whole thing. Thankfully, I was allowed to use my ITAR and EAR CFRs (books with the export regulations). But I made it through all of that, and I passed the exam. I am a certified United States Export Compliance Officer, which basically means I have something else to put on my resume, and I can put a string of initials behind my name on my business cards. And I’d darn well better get a raise out of it.

Big D, the Demo Dog

Duncan has become quite the popular fellow lately. He did a short tricks/moves demo for the German Shepherd Dog Club last month, and they asked him to demo again last night so they could take pictures of him. I think they just like laughing while he takes his time doing his sits, downs, spins, etc. It’s a good thing I didn’t name him Lightning. The club asked me last night if Duncan would be willing to do a freestyle demo for them next month. I don’t see any reason why he couldn’t Hakuna Matata for them, especially since I’ll have hot dogs.

On March 24, he demoed his routine (sort of) at a dog event in Greenville, NC. Considering it was his first public performance, and there were about 100 dogs and people watching, and there was all sorts of neat stuff on the stage, he did very well. The only real problem he had was that he kept looking back towards the room where Reyna was waiting, and as we were doing our walk-off, he bolted to Reyna. I had to take him back out on the stage for him to bow to everyone. So what did we learn? If Duncan is doing anything that requires he give me his attention, Reyna can’t be where he can see or hear her. But that’s okay. Because that’s something I can work around.

She Makes Me Feel So Old...

Its so hard to believe that Belle will be 10 years old in just a couple of weeks. I remember Sam and I talking about which kitten we wanted while I was still in England, and deciding to take the tortoiseshell tabby, because spots and stripes just sounded so cool. I also remember going to Regina’s house to look at the kittens with Jeff, and laughing at Belle’s poor brother, Earl Grey, who kept running into the closed storm door. I was sooooo tempted to take him, too. I also tossed around the idea of naming Belle Minerva, and calling her Minnie. I’m glad I went with Mirabelle.

As part of the joy that comes with old age – because yes, Belle is technically old – she had blood work done back in January, just to establish a baseline for the vet to refer to if she gets sick later and he needs to check her blood. That sounded like a great idea, up until the vet called to tell me that her white cell count was extremely low, and that that usually meant some type of nasty disease (think FIV or Feline Leukemia). So he did another round of tests, which came back negative. I took her back a month later for a follow-up test, to see if the first test had been a fluke. It wasn’t. Her white cell count wasn’t quite as low as the first time, but it was still well below the low end of the acceptable range. At that point, the options were pretty much do nothing but wait, or do a bone aspiration and run tests on her bone marrow. Because things like leukemia and bone cancer may hide from the blood tests, but can’t from the marrow tests. Of course, there was also the chance that the bone marrow test wouldn’t show anything, and then we’d be back where we started, except I’d be poorer. And Belle would be madder. The vet passed her paperwork on to a specialist to get another opinion, which was nice of him. The specialist recommended holding off on the bone aspiration, since Belle wasn’t acting sick, but to keep a close eye on her, and if she started feeling bad, to get her back to the vet. That sounded like a good plan, up until about a week ago….

About a month ago, Khar’pern caught a cold, and had sneezing fits and runny eyes for a bit over a week. Then Per’la started sneezing, and a few days later, Khar was fine. So Per’la had sneezing fits and runny eyes for several days. I didn’t even bother considering a trip to the vet, since there’s really nothing he could have done but tell me she had a cold, and I already knew that. But then Belle started sneezing. And a few days later, Per’la was fine. Belle’s been sneezing for a couple of weeks now, and isn’t showing signs of getting better. Parm started sneezing last week, but he got over it in a couple of days, but Belle defied the pattern and stayed sick. I talked to the vet about it Monday (when we were discussing Reyna’s current conditions), and told him I was only mentioning it because of the low white cell count. Unfortunately, he agreed that it could be a problem. Most of these colds are supposed to run 7-10 days, and then be gone. But there’s the possibility that Belle’s low white count means she can’t fight it off like the others can. So, I’ll keep an eye on her for a few more days, and then call the vet back next Monday if she isn’t better. The poor girl, she’ll sneeze 10 times in a row, and her eyes look like she’s crying almost constantly. And she’s permanently pissed right now. If one of the other cats even looks at her funny, much less dares to walk near her, she starts hissing and growling. I hate it when my baby doesn’t feel good and there’s nothing I can do about it.

Party Girl

Reyna celebrated her third birthday on Saturday. She got to have a cake from Gourmutt’s Bakery – which she very generously shared with Duncan.

Cadaver Dirt Smells Yummy!

Reyna and I are back in Search and Rescue training with Donny, the same guy we originally trained with when Reyna was a pup. The last time we signed up for this, I hurt my back the day before the first session. Thankfully, that did not happen this time. Donny calls us his two cripples and his walking wounded, so he’s making a point of keeping our searches physically easier than they used to be. In fact, Reyna now only gets one standard search during each practice. I hate to admit it, but its probably a good thing. Reyna is still having some trouble with her hips, even with the new pain meds. And I feel it in my back every time we run a track.

Since we’re not letting Reyna work as much physically, we’ve decided to work that scary-smart brain of hers instead. She started training for cadaver searches a couple of weeks ago. Donny gave me a bottle with some cadaver dirt (yes, that’s dirt taken from around/underneath a dead and decomposed person) so that we can practice at home. Its teaching Reyna the scent she’s supposed to be hunting, since I can’t exactly give her a scent article that smells like a cadaver every time we start working. Basically, I just hide the open bottle, run her through the area telling her to “seek”, and when she finds the bottle, she gets heaps of praise. She hasn’t quite decided that looking for cadaver dirt is as exciting as looking for a live person, since the live person also gives her loads of praise, and the bottle just sits there. So I have to be really goofy about it, and make it as fun and rewarding as possible. She did better yesterday than she’s done recently, so I think its starting to click for her. Thankfully, cadaver work doesn’t exclude her from being able to look from live people, since that’s a different command. We “find” live people, but we “seek” for the dead. A simple distinction, but all-important in doggy vocabulary.

There is one drawback to being goofy...Reyna nailed me right below my nose with the top of her head yesterday. Now every time I blow my nose (which is a lot, thanks to this stupid cold), the sore spot makes itself known. Of course, I’m lucky she didn’t hit me any higher...she could easily have broken my nose, as hard as she hit it.

The Price of Freedom

My most recent class ended 2/21, and my next class doesn’t start until 3/20. That’s four whole weeks of freedom. Four weeks to finish everything that didn’t get done in the previous six weeks, and to accomplish everything that won’t get done in the next six weeks. It won’t happen. I’m shooting for getting a few things cleared off my to-do list, hoping that everything doesn’t just fall apart this year. I also promised Reyna I wouldn’t open the laptop until class starts again, which really doesn’t bother me any...

During these four weeks, I am updating my blog (hence the large number of new posts after weeks of silence), taking two business trips, filming routines for MDSA and WCFO, taking a four-hour certification exam for work, doing as much yard work and planting as possible, and dealing with whatever small chores pop up. One trip is done, and I’ll return from CA the day my next class starts. We’ve filmed for MDSA, and the plan is to film for WCFO March 17th. The certification exam will be during work hours, which helps. I tackled yard work this Saturday, and I am so paying for it. My back started hurting about halfway through the planting. Something about digging holes and moving stones doesn’t make it happy. Oh, well. I was going to rake all the leaves out yesterday, but between the wind and my cold, I just couldn’t see the point. I might try doing it one evening this week, once I can breathe through my nose again. This weekend, I’m planning to aerate, lime, fertilize, and reseed the back yard, in hopes that I can cut down on the amount of dirt that finds its way into my kitchen and living room. I’ve also got some more planting to do in front of the house, but I’m hoping it’ll rain again soon, so the ground will be soft. I don’t think its supposed to rain this week, so we’ll just have to wait and see. For several reasons, I need to get it done by the 16th. The time change is early this year, so that’ll help. There’s only two weeks of freedom left, and it looks like those are going to be busy, busy. Not that busy, busy is an unusual state for me...

Putting His Kid Through School

I love my vet, I really do. Duncan likes him, Reyna adores him, and Belle tolerates him. It just doesn’t get much better than that. I’ve only ever had one problem with him, and that was when he didn’t believe me about Reyna’s hips. Granted, every time he saw her, she was bouncing and jumping like nothing was wrong, but that certainly wasn’t her everyday behavior. But still, one problem in nearly four years is pretty darn good. Lately, though, we’re seeing him way too much.

Reyna’s tail finally cleared up, so she’s off the puppy prozac. Until she chews up her tail again, anyway. Because of the cold weather, she started having a lot of trouble with her hips, and the aspirin just wasn’t touching the pain. It was bad enough that if Duncan bumped into her, she would scream. She wouldn’t even snap at him, because she was too busy shaking off the sudden pain and trying to get to me for comfort. It was really pitiful. The vet put her on Rimadyl twice a day, which has helped a lot. As the weather gets warmer, I’m hoping to cut her dose in half on the days I work, since she’s not as active those days. She has to have blood work done every six months or so, just to make sure there’s no damage to her kidneys or liver. She had her first check-up just before I went to AZ. She’d only been on the Rimadyl two weeks, but the vet said that if a dog is going to have an adverse reaction, it’ll happen that quick. The tests came back fine, so she was cleared to keep taking the meds.

And speaking of blood work... I took Belle, Loki, and Mikey in for their yearlies January 27. Mikey was the one I was actually concerned about, and he came out as the healthiest of the three. Go figure. The vet wanted to do blood work on Belle, since she’ll be 10 in April. That would give him a baseline for her, in case he has to run it as a diagnostic sometime in the future. Of course, she had to be difficult. Her white cell count was very low, which indicated the possibility of one of the four big viruses. She’d not been in contact with a strange cat in years, but these viruses can sit in their systems for 9 years without any indications. So, we had to run another series of tests, which meant I had to wait another few days for those results. I had the option of doing nothing, but I think we all know that was a ridiculous suggestion. Thankfully, her second set of tests came back okay. I took her back up this Saturday for a re-test. If the white cell count is still low, he’ll just note that as her normal level. If its back in what they consider normal, then he’ll just toss out the first test as a fluke. Either way is fine, as long as she’s not harboring some disease that’ll kill off all the cats.

Loki also caused some trouble this time around. I told the vet about his projectile vomiting skills, and the fact that he is demonstrating those with increasing frequency these days. He ended up having to have an ultrasound done, to check for IBS or pancreatic issues. He’s slowly growing the hair back on his bald belly, although I’m sure he was a bit chilled for a few days. The vet said that the ultrasound showed a cyst next to Loki’s pancreas, but he doesn’t think its anything serious. He said there was also some damage to the pancreas, indicating that Loki had probably had minor bouts of pancreatitis at some point. He said that the way things looked, he’d just let it go, and see if dosing Loki with laxatives would help the vomiting. I had the option of letting him do exploratory surgery, but neither the vet nor I really thought that was the best way to go. So, Loki gets his Laxaire every day, and we’ll just keep watching. The frequency seems to have eased up, but the distance is still rather impressive.

MDSA Filming

The deadline for the Musical Dog Sport Association (MDSA) Film Festival was March 1st. We managed to get our routines filmed on 2/24, so I was able to send them in before I left for AZ.

Duncan danced to “Hakuna Matata” and Reyna danced to “Tale Spin”.

Thanks to Jeff for taking the photos!

Where I Will Never Stay Again

I was in Tucson, AZ, the first part of this week for a work conference. My company insists that all business travel be booked through their online travel system, which usually isn’t a problem. For the AZ trip, I booked a room at the Best Western Las Brisas Hotel, as they are one of the company’s preferred hotels (read: we get a discount). Unfortunately, the information the travel site had wasn’t quite up to date, so I blame both the company and the hotel for the annoyances I had to tolerate.

My plane was about 2 hours late getting in, so I was already tired and grumpy. When I got to the hotel, I found out that, not only did they not have room service (which I live on during business trips), they didn’t even have a restaurant on site. This is where the outdated information comes in to play, because I never book a hotel that doesn’t at least have a restaurant. Turns out they’d been doing some remodeling recently, and their restaurant wasn’t quite done yet. After finding this out, I asked for the menus and phone numbers of some places that would deliver to the hotel. Turns out they don’t keep any of that handy, although they were able to give me the names of two Chinese places and a couple of pizza places that deliver. Neither Chinese place had a menu in the phonebook or online. By the time I’d done all that, it was well past my bedtime on the east coast, so I just ate some crackers I had with me and went to bed. The next night, though, I ordered pizza from Papa John’s (and was fed very well for breakfast and lunch at the company site).

The food thing was bad enough, but there were a lot of little annoyances that bothered me. And they probably wouldn’t have so much, if I weren’t already annoyed about the food thing. Gotta love those vicious circles... The only accessible power outlet was in the bathroom. Not exactly close enough to the bed to plug my laptop in, so I ended up having to pull the bed away from the wall to get to the plug behind it. There was no desk or table to sit at while working. Of the 10 available channels, I could actually see 5 of them well enough to be entertained. The ironing board didn’t open all the way. Again, just little annoyances.

The kicker was Tuesday afternoon, when I got back to the hotel from my meeting. I always put my “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door when I’m on business trips. Sometimes I have messages from housekeeping telling me they couldn’t change the towels because I had the sign up. That’s fine, it’s there to keep housekeeping out. And yet, on Tuesday, that’s not what happened. I walked into my room to discover that housekeeping had come in, done their thing, and MOVED MY PERSONAL BELONGINGS. I find that very annoying. I called the front desk to tell them what had happened, and to politely express my displeasure. The guy I spoke to acted like it was no big deal, and told me that since a lot of flight crew stay in that building – and apparently forget to take the DND sign off the door - the housekeeping policy is to just go on in anyway, assuming it’s a crew member’s room. I informed him that: A) I thought that was a stupid policy; B) housekeeping should be informed as to which rooms are being used by paying guests; and C) as soon as they saw my belongings, they should have immediately turned around and left. He told me again that it was really no big deal, and besides, now I had fresh towels for the next morning. Sooooo the wrong thing to say. Prior to leaving the next morning, I filed a complaint with the hotel manager about both the housekeeping incident and the desk employee. I’ve also filed a complaint with their corporate office, and sent a message through the company travel site informing them that they needed to update their information. Never mind that scorned crap; Hell hath no fury like a hungry woman with low blood sugar who has to move furniture to get to power outlets, can’t watch the shows she likes because the channels aren’t available, and finds out that strangers have been messing with her stuff...

Happy Birthday!

Reyna is 3 years old today. My little girl is all grown up... Happy birthday, sweet girl!

Spring Has Sprung...For Today, Anyway

I took a few extra minutes in bed to enjoy the morning. Belle was cuddled against my left side, with her head on my arm. Loki was pressed against my head, trying to decide if he wanted to paw me or lick me. The windows were open and a wonderful, cool breeze was blowing. I could faintly hear the chimes on my porch. I could hear the chirping of the birds, and the Death Chatters of Mikey and the kittens. I could also hear the dogs shuffling around a bit in the living room, awake, but clearly not ready to start their day. The sun was shining in my windows, but not so brightly that I was forced into total wakefulness. I thought of the things I would do today - put my plants outside for some fresh air, open all the windows and air out the house, finish a few small projects, take the dogs for a romp in the woods. It was an absolutely perfect Spring morning - just a little ahead of schedule.

Reyna's Seizures (Update)

I don't think I've mentioned this here (although I'm sure I've told some of you), and I know its a bit delayed, but then again, so are most of my posts... This has been on my mind a good bit the last few days for some reason, so I figured I'd toss it out. Reyna started having seizures back in September. The vet thought she was having partial seizures (as opposed to Grand Mal), but had no idea why they'd started. Then, in early November, they went away. The vet thinks that the stress of all my business traveling was what set them off. Since my last trip was in late October, he figures it just took her a bit to believe I was staying home and for her stress level to go down. Granted, I traveled a lot between April and September, but usually no more than 3 or 4 days a month. In September, I was gone for an entire week, and then October was freakishly insane. Even though Uncle John was staying over - which I thought would be less stressful (not to mention less expensive) than boarding - its not the same as having Mom at home. And Reyna has always been a Mama's Girl. So, periodically, I think of all this and feel like a horrible person. After all, how many people can say they gave their dog seizures? And I find that, as I contemplate various options for my future, I'm factoring that in to my decision-making process. Maybe I shouldn't, I don't know. But I do know I would have a very hard time taking a position that comes with a lot of traveling built in, knowing that it could easily cause my baby girl significant health problems.

Duncan, of course, was totally oblivious to the fact that I was gone.

This Is What Frightens My Dog

The other morning, I let the dogs out the front to walk to the mailbox. Reyna was all the way to the edge of the yard before she saw The Scary Things. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her skid to a halt like that…. Reyna had her hackles up and was barking at the bags before Duncan even realized something was wrong. As soon as he did, though, his hackles were up and he was barking, too. They spent about five minutes sniffing and running around the bags. When we went out this morning, the bags were still there, so Reyna immediately ran over to check them out. Hackles up the whole time, of course. And Duncan decided he really would rather just walk with Mom....

Picture Time

This is one of the portraits John and I had taken right before Thanksgiving. These are the first professional pictures of the two of us since I was a year old.

She Who Runs With Sharp Objects

Reyna has once again proven that she is, indeed, my child. This morning, she cut her nose on her soccer ball. Yes, she was cut by a round object. The ball has a few holes in it, courtesy of her obsession with the ball, and it stayed outside all night. Apparently, frost makes soccer ball edges very sharp. We were outside playing for a few minutes before work this morning, and I saw blood on the ball the second time she brought it back. I figured she’d bitten her tongue, because she’s done that before. But, no. She’d actually managed to slice the top of her nose open with the edge of the hole. Only Reyna...

It's Totally Totaled

John and I spent most of the day before Thanksgiving dealing with our little fender-bender and trying to get back home. Oddly enough, the fender is the only part of my car currently in my garage, and that will last only until I get my check. The adjuster called last Thursday to tell me they’ve decided to total the car. Thankfully. So, if the bank ever cooperates (apparently, they’re being grumpy for some reason), the insurance company will pay off the remaining loan and then send me what’s left of the money. And there’s enough that I am quite happy they’re totaling the car. Once I get the money, I’ll turn in my tag, cancel the insurance, and call it a day. I still have the pup-wagon, so I’m not going to stress over getting another vehicle any time soon.

He's a Ruff 'n' Tuff Pup

I’m so proud of my boy...he showed his protective side in the last preagility class. There’s a crazy border collie (is that redundant?) in class, and he was taking his turn going through a series of obstacles. He ran out of the chute towards another dog, who fiercely protected her toy. That growl sent him veering away from her, straight toward me. To my great surprise, Duncan popped up like somebody’d poked him in the butt and lunged at the border collie. If I’d not grabbed his scruff - and if the border collie hadn’t shown some intelligence and immediately turned the other direction - Duncan might actually have made contact. The official response, of course, is “Bad dog. We don’t do that.” But the real response is “Good boy! Mommy’s so proud of you for protecting her! That’s my good Dunkin-punkin!”

Duncan's First Routine

Duncan performed his first canine freestyle routine last night - it was required for him to pass the class. And he did a wonderful job. He did so well, in fact, that we're entering the WCFO video competition later in December. We'll clean the routine up a bit, find appropriate clothes for me, and submit an entry. I'm so proud of him!

A Sign That I Definitely Need Some Time Off....

Last night, I got home from work about an hour and a half late, which usually isn’t too bad, but it was dark and cold and I was grumpy. So I put on my usual after-work attire – sweats and slippers. I’ve been really sleepy lately, and I think its because my Tegratol (John calls them my “Death Meds”) dose has been doubled, and these are extended release, which is probably why I’m feeling it more in the afternoon and early evening. I didn’t doze on the couch last night, but I did come close to it. I realized about 8:45 that Reyna has managed to lick another hole in her tail, so I made a point of staying awake so I could keep her from messing with it.

But on to why I need time off... When I was getting ready for bed last night, I wanted my slippers next to the bed, because those Pergo floors are freaking cold in the morning (no rugs yet, because I keep picturing the cats horking up all over them and can’t bring myself to spend the money) and I like to put on my slippers before my poor feet hit those nasty cold floors. The last place I remembered seeing them was by the foot of the bed, so I looked around the bed, under the afghan, and then got down on the floor and looked under the bed. No slippers. I looked in the closet. Twice. No slippers. I was getting really annoyed, asking the cats what they’d done with my slippers. I even checked the bathroom. No slippers. As I was headed back to the closet to check one more time, I head a noise that made me look down. Lo and behold, I found my slippers! ON MY FEET. Sigh.

Some Days, I Really Hate Being Right....

There are times when I do things that I know I shouldn’t do on my own. Today was one of those times. I’m working on cleaning up the garage so that I can get my car in there, and one of the ways I decided to increase my space is to hang the dog crates on the walls. One of the garage walls is unfinished, so instead of sheet rock, its just the bare studs, and the occasionally sharp, pointy nail still sticking out. There are 4 crates – 2 big and 2 travel, and hanging them is a good idea. So, I went to Lowe’s and got some big hooks to screw into the studs. I measured the crates, figured out the best way to hang them, and put the hooks in the studs (thanks again, Brian, for the laser level).

This is the point where I told myself that I really should wait for John to get here tomorrow so I’d have help getting the crates on the higher hooks. I knew I’d have trouble getting those heavy things up high enough on my own. And *this* is the point where I told myself, what the heck, you don’t know what you can do til you try. So, I set the ladder up in front of the wall, got up on the second step, and managed to get the crate up to where it was propped on my leg. And I tried, I really did, to get the thing high enough, but even I knew I was pushing it to go up another step on the ladder. After several attempts, I decided that I was right, I needed to wait for help, and that my best course was to get the crate back on the floor without damaging it or doing something really bad, like rupturing another disc in my back.

Well, the trip down didn’t go quite as smoothly as the trip up. As I was stepping down, I slipped, and started to fall forward. I had a quick flash that, if I dropped the crate, I was in a prime position to catch myself on one of those exposed nails, which would be a bad thing. Unfortunately, trying to hold on to the crate didn’t help much, either. My foot came off the ladder, the ladder slid backwards, and I went down. Backwards, which meant no nails, but which also meant no way of stopping myself. When the dust settled, I was on the floor on my hip, hoping I’d not broken my wrist. I hit it on something, the ladder, the garage door supports, the crate, who knows? It’s swollen and purple in a few areas, but it still works. My hip is purple in a few spots, too, and I have a feeling it’ll be sore for a day or two. I thumped my knee on something, and my back has decided that it is also upset with me. No ruptured discs, just very grumpy.

I’ll be fine in a day or two, but the worst part isn’t the actual falling. Its that I’d already given up. Not that I have an interest in falling on cement floors, but I’d rather have done it while I was still thinking I might succeed, when it would have been a real “told you so.” Falling after admitting defeat really is just insult to injury.

The Poor Girl Just Can’t Catch A Break

Reyna’s having a rough time these days. On the up side of things, her tail is beautiful again, she’s off the puppy prozac, and the aspirin seems to be keeping her hip pain to a tolerable level most days. On the way down side, though, she’s now having seizures. The only part of her that shakes is her head. The first time I saw it, I thought for a second she was rubbing her chin on the floor to scratch an itch, but that wasn’t it. She lays down on the floor in a sprawled position, not one she would normally use, and her head twitches and shakes back and forth between her front paws. She looks at me the whole time – at least her eyes are looking in my direction. I’ve not tried moving around to see if she can follow me. The seizure usually last about a minute to a minute and a half, and then she lays still for a bit, and then shifts position to get more comfortable. I’ve seen 4 in the last month, which is apparently enough for the vet to be very concerned (especially since I’ve been gone almost two weeks of the last month). Based on my description, he thinks they are partial seizures, and not something like epilepsy. He wants me to videotape the next one, so I have my camera on the kitchen counter, all charged up. Once he see the tape and decides if what he heard me say and what he sees match up, he’ll decide where we go from there. Most likely, the first step will be a complete round of blood tests, to see if they can find a problem. If not, who knows? I’m hoping that, for some freakish reason, the combination of prozac, aspirin, and glucosamine are what set these off. That’s highly unlikely, but it’d be nice if that was it, since she’s all done with the prozac. Just another wait-and-see sort of thing...

It’s Official…

Duncan really is part pony. He weighed in at a whopping 101.5 pounds Wednesday (and he's only 15 months old). The vet thinks his hips are okay, but he couldn’t really tell, because Duncan was fighting him the whole time. He said that, if they are bad, they’re surrounded by a huge amount of muscle, so there won’t be any trouble with them, anyway. I’m not sure, but I think he was saying that Duncan is really strong...

We're famous! Sort of....

Check out February, and then tell Jeff what great pictures he takes.

The Newest Canine Good Citizen

September 13 (yes, once again, I am a slacker), Duncan took and passed his Canine Good Citizen test. He is officially a Good Dog. Of course, everyone who knows him already knew he was a good boy, but now he has a certificate to prove it. What’s really neat is that, since he’s AKC registered, his certificate has his full name: D’Can’s Dark Warrior Dreaming. Passing this test means that he can now take specialty classes, so he started canine freestyle two weeks ago (we missed orientation the first week and class this week because of my business travel), and he’s signed up for Pre-Agility, which starts later this month. And no, he’s not going to do Agiliy, at least not until he’s full grown, and most likely not even then. But the Pre-Agility class will help build his confidence and get him used to going over, around, under, and through new obstacles. And considering how cowed he is around Reyna, he needs every confidence-builder he can get...

Drugs Really *Are* Your Friend

I started Reyna on one buffered aspirin twice a day on Thursday. The difference is amazing. She’s hopping up and down off the couch again, chasing the birds out of the back yard again, and being more playful (and less snotty) with Duncan. I know that, eventually, two aspirins a day won’t ease the pain anymore, and we’ll have to go up to the next level of pain killers. But you know what? I’m so happy to have my girl back that I’m not even worried about that. We’ll deal with it when we get there.

Reyna's Hips

For the last two months or so, I’ve noticed that Reyna has been having trouble getting in the truck and that she’s been limping occasionally. She even yelped once when she crouched to potty. When I asked the vet about it, he said it was probably just a pulled muscle, because she was acting fine otherwise. I didn’t particularly agree with that, but hey, what do I know? I’m no vet, I’m just the person that lives with the dog every day.

This past weekend, the issue finally came to a head. Reyna fell out of the truck twice because she couldn’t get in far enough. She was having trouble getting off the floor, and moving very stiffly (although it would smooth out after she’d been up for a bit). Marie noticed her limping, too. When she was running circles in the yard – one of her favorite activities – she would occasionally fall down, because her back leg would give out. She was also favoring whichever leg was inside the circle, and she was bunny hopping. So, Monday I called the vet and managed to squeeze in an afternoon appointment.

When we got to the vet’s office, she was just as excited and crazy as always. The exam, though, put a quick end to that. He extended her left back leg first, and she immediately started crying, whining, and trying to get away. When he extended her right leg, she lost it, yelping and crying and struggling. When he messed with her back, though, she just stood there, looking around the room. The vet said he felt some crackling in her hips, which was a potential sign of arthritis. He said he needed to get x-rays, and would need her on her back. I pointed out he’d need to sedate her for that, so we scheduled the x-rays for Tuesday morning. Before we left, he said it could be a back injury (doubtful), or just arthritis (also doubtful).

Tuesday morning, the x-rays showed just how bad the hip dysplasia really is. The right hip is severe, the left is moderate. The bones of her right hip have already become deformed; the ball is flattened (mushroomed) out somewhat, the socket has flattened instead of curving around the ball, and there are several arthritic spurs. Her left hip isn’t quite as bad yet, with fewer spurs and less deformation. Neither hip has any cartilage left, though, and both balls are wedged into the sockets, so she’s running around rubbing bone on bone.

According to the vet, the level of treatment we provide now depends on Reyna. We’re starting with Glucosamine for a month, in hopes that it will rebuild some of the missing cartilage. He doesn’t want to put her on pain killers just yet, because she’ll be on them forever, just at different levels. I think I’m going to over-ride that decision today, because she’s so clearly in pain. When my tough, stoic girl limps and yelps, there’s a lot of pain involved. Depending on how quickly the dysplasia progresses, its very likely that she’ll need a hip replacement – we just don’t know when. So, to help offset the cost, I’ve started a savings account specifically for that. For now, we’re having to restrict some of our more strenuous activities, which are, of course, her favorites. I guess it’s a good thing that its hot and we don’t live near any really tough hiking trails, since that’s something we both enjoy. She’ll never be able to be part of a SAR team, because her hips won’t tolerate that type of activity – long hours and generally rough terrain. I’m checking a couple of places this weekend to see about swimming, since that’s the best exercise for her. With luck, we’ll be able to find the right level of treatment to keep her pain free for as long as possible.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yeah, yeah, I know I’m late.

I turned 30 last Thursday, and while I know that’s supposed to be a milestone, it really doesn’t feel any different than 25 or 28. I guess that’s actually a good sign, since I’m not stressing over being “old” or still single at 30.

Lots happened over my birthday weekend – new floors in most of the house, several projects completed, etc. But the best part of my birthday was my friends. They got together, gave me a party, and sent me to the spa for a day. Huge thanks to Marie and Natalie, who had the stressful part of the whole thing – the planning and coordinating. They did loads of work, making sure the decorations were great, everyone knew what was happening where and when, and setting up the group gift. And during all of this, they managed to keep a good bit of the specifics a secret. Very impressive.

The party was at my place, which I thought was great, because I didn’t have to go anywhere. And while I love the fact that it gave me the push I needed to finish a few inside projects, John may not have been as excited about that. But he survived the experience, and that’s what matters.

Lots of folks came, we had beautiful decorations, the food was great, the dogs were thrilled, Reyna fell in love again with baby Brianna, the “gentle roast” was fun, Brian got lots of photos, and the loose balloon didn’t destroy the fan. I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday.

Drugs Are Your Friend

Reyna’s puppy prozac kicked in about 2 weeks after she started taking it. I noticed it one evening, all of a sudden. There wasn’t a gradual change – one day she was insane, the next, she was relaxing in front of the couch. Its amazing. She still loves to play, and she still spins and chases her tail, but its not as frequent or as constant. She’s been a bit snottier with Duncan, but now that I know what else is going on with her (see Reyna’s Hips), I tend to think at least some of the snottiness is because she’s in pain. And that’ll make anyone grumpy.

The changes have been holding steady for a bit over a week now, and I’m still amazed every evening. If I settle down on the couch or in the office, she’ll spin for a minute or two, watch me for a bit to see if I’m getting up, and then she’ll lay down. I’m pretty sure she’s not napping, and she’s quick to hop up if I start to move, but otherwise, she just relaxes. Its great. I asked the vet if I could keep her like this for the rest of her life, and he said that if we found a nice, low dose where she still has her drive but isn’t totally nuts, he’s okay with it. As far as I can tell, nothing about her personality has changed except for her ability (and willingness) to just relax. I really like this.

Lock Me Up and Throw Away the Key

Its official – I am, however unintentionally, a baby bird killer. Would that be negligent aviacide or birdslaughter?

A small bird has been nesting in my dryer vent for most of the summer, which was fine. I would periodically check it, though, to make sure it wasn’t blocking the air flow. This Saturday I checked it and realized that there was a lot more debris in the vent and that it was blocking the air flow. And as much as I’m willing to help a bird in need, I’m not keen on the idea of my dryer getting messed up because the vent wasn’t working properly. I started pulling out some of the debris, and a nest popped out suddenly. There were five eggs in it, so I put the nest back in the vent, but not the rest of the debris, and I hoped that Mama would be okay with the new setup and not all upset that some human had been messing with her nest.

Sunday, John came over and we did laundry. When we went outside to play with the dogs, we realized that the air in the vent had pushed the nest out. Sadly, two of the eggs were broken. It never occurred to me that all the other debris was there just to keep the nest in place. I now have the nest – and the remaining three eggs – in one of my plant baskets outside, so it will get the warmth and hopefully be protected from any predators that might want to snack on little bird eggs. With any luck, these three weren’t horribly damaged in the fall and will actually manage to hatch. I’ll deal with the feeding and releasing to the wild issues later...

Tail Tips

My poor Reyna has a wound on the end of her tail that just will not heal. Of course, the reason it won’t heal is because she won’t leave it alone. You’d think she would, because it appears to hurt when she bites down on it, but oh, no, not her.

We went through the first round of antibiotics over a month ago, along with bandaging the end of her tail. The wound was starting to heal, and then she tore the skin off of it. So we started round two of antibiotics, as well as a round of prednisone in case there was itchiness that was making her chew on it, along with bandaging the tail again. As far as I can tell, all the prednisone did was make her eat every scrap of food she could find, including Duncan’s, and the antibiotics made her feel bad. But the wound looked like it was healing again. Then one afternoon, I noticed a couple of small cuts under the injured spot. And the next day, she ripped the skin off again. So what was a nickel size injury is now a nickel with three cuts below it and a gouge running from the top over it across the top of her tail.

And thus began round three of antibiotics, more bandaging, and the added bonus of puppy prozac. My dog has been diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (just as a side note, my regular doctor thinks Reyna and I should stop drinking the water – I keep telling him I drink bottled and she drinks tap…). The vet said the puppy prozac shouldn’t change her personality, it should just help distract her from the OCDs. He also said it should take about two weeks to see a real difference, and we’re nearly there. So far, no difference. I’m supposed to call him this Friday with an update, and I have enough pills for two months, so we’ll see.

On top of all this, about six weeks ago she suddenly became very hesitant to jump in the truck. When I realized it was happening every time, I started stressing that now that she’s two, her hips are going bad. The afternoon of August 3 (the same day we went to the vet to get her prozac), she actually fell out of the truck while trying to get in it. Its been pitiful to watch her, because its so obvious that she’s scared to even try. The vet says it may just be a pulled muscle, which would be great, but how do you convince her that she really shouldn’t be chasing her soccer ball at full speed? I’ve seen her limp a few times and show other signs of injury, but she’s not consistent. Most of the time, she acts like she’s just fine. Of course, this is the same dog that didn’t indicate she’d nearly cut off the tip of her tail, and then when I was messing with it, didn’t react at all until I accidentally folded it in a direction it wasn’t supposed to go. And even then, her only reaction was to turn and look at me.

So, anyway, we’re going to try and heal the tail. Again. And then we’ll deal with the potential hip issue. And then I’ll ask for a pay raise so I can pay off the medical bills.

Hippy Hippy Shake

On August 2nd, Duncan and I went to the German Shepherd Club meeting, as we try to do every month. This month’s speaker was a vet from the NCSU Vet School, who specializes in orthopedic problems in dogs. His talk was on osteoarthritis in dogs of all ages, which, while interesting, really isn’t relevant to this particular post.

Duncan was up and down throughout the talk, visiting with folks and trying his hardest to get to a female dog that he likes. Apparently, the vet’s assistant was watching him, and she thought he was having trouble getting up and down, so she asked if I would let the vet look at his back legs. I’m always up for a free hip exam, so I agreed. Duncan’s breeder heard, and she immediately started insisting that he was perfectly fine, just hadn’t grown into his back legs. Which I tend to agree with.

So, the vet watched him trot and then did a quick manual exam of his hips – took maybe a minute. He then announced that Duncan has a disease called genu valgum. He said its mild now, and it might stay mild, or it could cripple him. No way to know without tests. He also said its been a relatively recent discovery in dogs, for vets to recognize it for what it is and diagnose it. A cat scan would apparently prove it, but wouldn’t necessarily show the extent. And for those that are scratching their heads and saying “ge-what?”, genu valgum results in a look that is similar to knock-knees, but instead of the knees coming straight together, the hip is rotated in to some degree. Its caused by a bone growing longer on one side than the other, and the only way to correct it is major surgery that involves cutting out the longer bone, pinning everything together, weeks of recovery, and lots of rehab. Somehow, I don’t think its particularly inexpensive…

While the vet is telling me all of this, the breeder is insisting that everything is fine, he just hasn’t finished growing. Of course, what set her off is that the vet said genu valgum is hereditary. So she’s naturally stressing over the potential for issues with Duncan’s littermates, the litter before his from the same parents, and how to find out which parent might have this gene. The vet also mentioned this might be why Duncan has trouble getting into the truck, although I’m more inclined to think that’s just laziness. But who knows?

After the meeting, I looked genu valgum up on the internet. I found a few articles about it in humans, but nothing much about it in dogs. Since I was at my regular vet’s office the next day, I asked him about it. He’d never heard of it, but he said that this vet is basically God’s gift to canine orthopedics, and that if this vet were to look at his dogs for even 45 seconds (never mind the whole minute Duncan got) he’d take anything he said as the gospel. He did say that he’d probably wait til Duncan is 2 years old and full grown before getting a cat scan, since they would be able to determine the severity a bit better then. So that’s what we’ll do. Sigh.

Happy Birthday, Mycroft!

My sweet Mikey is 6 years old today. His first few months with the family were a bit difficult for various reasons, but he grew up to be a good natured, affectionate boy. Happy birthday, Mikey!

What Am I Thinking??

Clearly, I feel a need to punish myself for something. Not only am I working on my MBA, but I just enrolled in a 6-month compliance certification program. Granted, the company is paying for it completely and it will most likely boost me up a pay grade and title, but still... Unfortunately, there will be some unavoidable overlap between the certification classes and the MBA classes. So, anyway, if you don’t see me much from, say, August to March, this is why:

Commerce/EAR 8/24 - 10/4
State/ITAR 10/5 - 11/15
Operations Management 11/7 - 12/18
Documentation 11/16 - 12/27
Project Management 1/9 - 2/19
Ethics 1/11 - 2/21
Final Exam TBD
Strategy Formulation & Implementation 3/13 - 4/23

Home-grown Shredders

Duncan has developed the fun new talent of pulling papers out of my office trash can and scattering them throughout the house. I’m pretty sure Reyna showed him how to do this (and I know she participates in the scattering and shredding) because she used to do it as a puppy. The reason I’m assuming its Duncan pulling the papers out - and not Reyna – is because he will meander over to the trash can while I’m sitting at my desk and start rooting through it. He clearly hasn’t made the mental leap from being told “no” when he does that to the idea that maybe Mom would say “no” all the time. I hate to admit it, but its really kind of cute. I heard them happily ripping and shredding this morning, and I just didn’t have the heart to go fuss at them. And as long as its just trash from the trash can, I doubt I’ll get upset. Now, if that suddenly morphs into taking stuff off of my desk, we’re going to have a little chat. Reyna clearly thinks she’s ridiculously cute when she brings me a piece of paper. And she’s right, she is. They both just look so pleased with themselves……

It's Not a Tumor

Mikey went to see the vet today to have a lump on his side checked. Doc was able to get a needle in it and suck out some of the ickiness (ew) and check it under the microscope. He said that it definitely wasn’t attached to anything, that he could move it around, and it was just inside the skin (again, ew). He also said that he’s seen that kind of lump a lot before, and it's never anything to worry about. Basically, it's all the crud that normally comes out of the pores, but the pores right there are blocked, and so all the crud is backed up. He said it could get bigger or smaller, it could go away and come back a year later, it could stay the same and never bother the cat, or it could become a huge irritant. He also said that if it gets very big – a size I don’t like looking at – he can lance it or even cut it off. Apparently, that’s almost always a cosmetic issue, and very rarely done because it's actually bothering the cat. So, yay! Mikey doesn’t have a tumor, or anything else really wrong with him. Just a few blocked pores. We can live with that.

Up on the Catwalk, Yeah...

The cats now have a way to get from the back of the house to the front still avoid the dogs. A catwalk was installed - through much hard work and cussing - over the 4th of July weekend. There are three platforms on the hall wall between my bedroom and the guest bathroom, and the actual platform starts over the guest bath doorframe. It runs along the hallway over the library and office, around the corner to the front door, and over to the wall separating the living room and kitchen. In the kitchen, it runs from one set of cabinets, across the bay window, to the other set of cabinets. There’s still a bit of cosmetic work to do, such as caulking and touch-up painting, but it is functional. I thought about painting it some fun colors, and then realized that would annoy me in less than a week. So, the boards match the color of the walls they’re mounted on.

Khar’pern has used it several times…she really seems to enjoy the idea of coming out for a stroll. Mikey is using it a good bit, too, but mostly so he can stay up high and watch everything. He hasn’t used it for a foray into the kitchen (or even out of the hallway) yet. The others aren’t using it, but I figure it’s a matter of time. Reyna and Duncan just don’t know what to make of it. Reyna was very excited to see a kitty strolling along above her, and Duncan just looked vaguely offended by the whole thing. What is really funny is that if someone talks to a cat, Reyna looks up now, instead of at the hall door.

Happy Birthday, Duncan!

My sweet puppy turned 1 year old Tuesday. He's getting to be such a big boy!

News Flash

Gee, here's a shocker....second-hand cigarette smoke is bad. Who'd'a thunk it?

An Epileptic Mouth

The spiking pain on the right side of my head that has confounded doctors for two years finally has a name. I have been tested for temporal artery inflammation (and later told that was impossible – I was too young), had cat scans done on my sinuses, had my teeth checked and my eyes examined, taken antibiotics, endured repeated blood work for who-knows-what possible illness, been told “you get headaches” and given medicine that would eat my stomach if I took it for more than 6 weeks. And then one day, almost two months ago, I went to a new dentist. When I got there, I realized it was a woman I knew when I was teaching at the dance studio – she’d gotten married and changed her last name since then. After my cleaning and x-rays, she said she had no idea, but that I should go see an oral pathologist, and she gave me a referral to one in the area.

I saw the oral pathologist Wednesday. After two years of hearing “I dunno,” he had it pinpointed, diagnosed and explained in under 10 minutes. I love this man. Just knowing I’m not insane (about that, anyway) was a huge relief. The short version is that I have epilepsy in my mouth. The longer version is that I have a tic douloureux of the middle superior nerve bundle in the upper right soft palate. The easy version is that some nerves in my mouth have become exposed and cold temperatures trigger a seizure (the epilepsy connection) that sends a horrible spiking pain up the side of my head. But it can be fixed!!

There are some surgical options, which I’m not nutty about. I mean, really now, who wants to think of some doctor cutting open the roof of their mouth and pulling out nerve bundles??? There’s also radiation to kill the nerves, but doc says that’s not too reliable, that the relief period varies for everyone, but never lasts more than two years. So, first we’re going to try some medication, and my regular doctor will have to monitor the dosage and side effects, and I’ll have to have blood drawn periodically to make sure its not screwing up something else. The meds will basically raise the seizure threshold a good bit, so that it takes a much colder temperature to trigger an attack. Doc says I’ll be able to drink sweet tea and eat ice cream pain free, once we get the right dosage. I’ll probably be on these the rest of my life, but if they work, I’ll deal. And who knows, maybe they’ll come up with a less hideously invasive and yet more permanent solution.

Loki

Happy birthday to my sweet boy! He came from Mecklenburg County Animal Control, so I’m not totally sure of his age, but I picked June 15 as his birthday. Based on the information they had, Loki should be 8 this year.

No Talent Required

Reyna and I entered the Hand and Paw Pet Hospice “No Talent” Talent Show. We were supposed to do our freestyle routine, and were interviewed by a lady from the Chapel Hill News prior to the event. Thankfully, we didn’t get a lot of space in the article, because Reyna refused to perform. It was outside, hot, at 6:00pm (not her best time), with no significant shade. When we started, I got the opening move out of Reyna, and then she walked off. We tried again a few minutes later, and she wouldn’t even do the opener. She had absolutely no interest in doing anything but finding her brother and getting a drink of water in the shade. The coordinator gave me a “My Dog is Better Than Your Dog” t-shirt, anyway. She said she knew that if Reyna had actually done it, we’d have won easily. After all, the dog that won did nothing more that chase his soccer ball between his mom and dad. Next year, I’m going to enter her again, but her talent will be “Digging a hole in the water bucket.” I think we’ll be able to take the division with that.

The Video Taping

We did the video taping for the MDSA film festival a few weekends ago. It just wasn’t fated to go well. When we got to the Elk’s Lodge, the guy that was there didn’t know we were coming. And then it turned out that they’d had a wedding reception there the night before, but it hadn’t been cleaned up. So my good friends - who came to watch, not work – helped clean the place up. The guy who was working there didn’t even come help for more than a few minutes. We had to clear off and move tables, clean up the floor, and take down decorations. Poor Reyna followed me around for a while, and then I put a bowl of water for her, and she just stayed next to it. I had a feeling the distractions were going to be a bit much for her – after all, the place reeked of beer, there were chicken wings scattered around, and the remains of a roast in a tub on the bar. She also kept finding interesting tidbits on the floor.

Once we were ready to go, we tried it first without treats, doing the 1:30 version. I lost her attention so often, it was ridiculous. I always got her back, but it was easy to tell she was focused on everything but me. And the guy kept coming in and out of the little kitchen attached to the main room, snagging her attention every time he opened the door. So we tried it with treats, which meant we had to do the 2:30 version. It felt bad, but after watching it, I realized that even though she didn’t do everything I asked, and even though I forgot a couple of moves, there’s only three obvious times when I lost her. The biggest one was because I dropped a treat, and she found. The second time, we passed by the same spot, and she decided to double-check and make sure she hadn’t missed anything. The third time, she started to walk away from me, towards the kitchen, and I’m betting that’s when the guy decided to leave the room again. I gave it one more shot after that, but she was done. She did the opening “stick ‘em up” and then walked off the floor.

The funny thing was that I had more difficulty with the humans in the room than with the dog. There are parts on the video where, even though I specifically told everyone to be quiet, because there shouldn’t be talking on the tape, certain voices are very clear. Jeff got some spectacular pictures, though. And it was definitely a good learning experience for me. Of course, I was also glad to hear that several other people in the group had trouble getting their dogs to perform on video as well as they’d done in practice.

Our goal now is to really wean Reyna off of treats before the next film festival. I’m going to start listening to music again, and try and find another song I like, but I’m certainly not going to stress over working out a new routine for a while.

Its just too much...

I can't get over how much I love this picture...

Happy Mother's Day

My animals bought me a Mother’s Day card. They pooled their allowance (raided my change jar), and their Uncle John picked it up at the store. After all, its not like one of them could just stroll into Hallmark and buy a card...

Artistic Pups

There was a Dog Painting Booth at the SPCA walk last weekend. Duncan went first, and then Reyna. Who knew they had so much artistic talent inside?

Final (hopefully) Back Update

On the upside, the physical therapist has released me, as I generally feel okay. On the downside, I still have to be very careful about my activities, as certain things will cause my back to hurt for a few days. For example, walking the dogs, which is great exercise, tends to upset my back – mostly because Duncan can’t walk next to Reyna without pulling. Mowing and weed-eating doesn’t feel particularly spiffy, either. The worst part is the sheer frustration of having to ask for help with something I was perfectly able to do just a few months ago.

I went to the neurosurgeon today for my follow-up, and he said everything looks great, but that I need to continue being very careful with my activities and keep up with the stretched the physical therapist gave me. He also wants me to start doing some light aerobics and regular exercise to help strengthen my back muscles (not to mention just generally get in shape). Doc said I don’t need to come back and see him unless I start having significant problems again.

Silly Puppy

Duncan was napping on the couch a little bit ago when he rolled and fell off. He landed with all four legs propped against the couch. Now, instead of getting up and moving, or acting like something was wrong, or even making himself more comfortable, he just looked around, closed his eyes, and went back to sleep.

CF #8

I just picked up Reyna’s performance collar. It’s a pink froufy thing made of different types of material. I think it’ll look cute on her, and I can coordinate my shirt to match. And one of the materials in her collar is a gingham, so we get that little bit of country in it, too.

We video the routine in two weeks, and I’m still not totally positive she’ll do everything without a fuss. I’m really banking on her love of performing. And her interest in the treats I’m going to put in my pockets. And the fact that she’ll be hungry, because I’m not giving her breakfast before we go. I really do think she’ll do fine. I just have to remember to not stress if she changes the routine halfway through (she has one place where she’s supposed to turn around me, but she likes to shoot under my legs instead). I’m pretty sure that, as long as she doesn’t just stop or walk off, we’ll look cute, no matter what. And the audience will clap, and that will make Reyna very pleased with herself.

Wobbly Boy

Duncan weighed in at 92.5 pounds Friday, and the vet upped his full-growth estimate to 115 pounds. It’s a very good thing he’s so sweet natured. Especially since he likes to put peoples’ various body parts (like heads) in his mouth.

Anyway, while we were at the vet’s Friday, he voiced some concerns about Duncan’s back legs. He said that any vet or orthopedic doctor would watch him walk and assume he has horrible hip displaysia. After all, he should have grown out of the wobblies by now. When he walks, he criss-crosses his back legs. When he runs, they straighten out on their own. And when he trots, he has the cutest sashay. After manipulating Duncan’s hips, the vet said they felt okay. He said I should talk to the breeder about him, and might need to consider x-rays. Unfortunately, the cut off for any type of corrective surgery for hip displaysia is a year and a half. Duncan’s at 9 months, so there’s still time, but the vets can do more when the dog is younger. Of course, it could just be that Duncan has “sissy” hips.

I emailed the breeder this morning, and described Duncan’s legs. She said she’s had several large puppies that took longer growing into their back legs, just because they were so big. She also said that the sloped back makes it look worse than it is (but I’ve seen adults with steeper slopes than Duncan’s walking without the criss-cross motion). At any rate, its good to know that she’s not concerned about his legs. I am, however, a bit worried about this “growing into them” thing. After all, how much bigger is he going to get???

Two whole years...

As of the 24th (yes, I'm a few days late), I have been in this house for two years. Seems like it should be time to move again, doesn’t it? Don’t worry…I’m not planning to go anywhere. Its amazing to me that I’ve lived here that long, and that I don’t have to pack up and do it all over again anytime soon.

With the exception of grass (I don’t really have any – two big dogs will take care of that), the back yard is almost the way I want it. I’ve planted some more trellising plants along the fence, and I have some great flower beds and hanging plants. And most of them are safe from Duncan. The front yard is slowly coming along, with a couple of flower beds and a small tree that will hopefully do something this summer. There’s no good grass to speak of, thanks to the previous owners killing most of it and my slack self not replanting in the fall, but one of my coworkers promised to come over this fall and aerate, lime and fertilize.

I’m still working on a few touches inside, but I’m not as stressed over those as I was my first year here. Although, I probably need to get someone a bit more artistic than myself in here to stencil my hall door...I’m pretty sure I would mess that up. Now, if only I could decide what to do about my floors...

Belle and the Door

This is what Sam was thinking of (see comments on Belle's birthday post). When she was a kitten, Belle would jump from the floor to my dresser, and then on to my bedroom door. She would lay there, draped across the edge of the door, like it was the most comfortable spot around.

Happy Birthday, Mirabelle

Mirabelle will be 9 years old on Sunday. She came to me during the summer of 1997, after I returned from England. Belle has been a wonderful cat all these years, very sweet and affectionate, and definitely a Mama’s Girl. She hates the dogs - actually rode Reyna once - but has come to accept (eventually) all of the other cats that live with us. No matter what, tho, she maintains her position of honor as Head Cat, and is the only one allowed to sleep snuggled up to my chest.

Happy birthday to my sweet Belle. May we share many more years.

CF #7

Two lessons ago, Reyna wasn’t particularly interested in working. That’s understandable, we all have our off days. She was really balking on her spins, tho, which was a bit odd for her. As the week passed, my sweet, stubborn girl decided she wasn’t going to do any more spins. At all. No matter the reward (bribe). She would simply stop and look at me. And then she began to stop moving and look the other way. And then she just started walking off when I asked for a spin. I’m not too stupid…I got the hint. At our last session, we totally redid the routine, taking out all of the spins, except for a couple of spirals that she seems perfectly happy to do. She’s still refusing to do any spins, the little snot. Thankfully, tho, she seems happy with the new routine. I’m just really grateful they gave us an extra month to send in our video, since we revamped the routine Saturday, and were originally scheduled to tape on Sunday.

To the Kittens!

The kittens all turn 1 year old this month. I know Khar’pern’s birthday is April 16, so it seems reasonable to celebrate all three at the same time. After all, Parm and Per’la can’t help the fact that there weren’t any people around to mark their entry into the world.

Happy birthday, Kittens!

Scary Thought

Duncan, who is not yet 9 months old, is now taller than Reyna. I haven’t had him weighed in a while, but I think it’s a safe bet that he’s heavier, too. He’ll never be as long as she is, but he could potentially get a bit taller. GSDs usually don’t reach full height and weight until they’re over a year old, so he could easily get bigger. And I’m thinking he’ll hit 100 pounds, easy.

Weekend

Khar’pern actually came out while the pups and I were outside working Saturday. I’d left the baby gate down, so she came under the hall door and wandered out on the porch. Reyna was a good girl and left her alone. Of course, to Reyna, if I’m outside, there’s nothing more important than the soccer ball. Duncan spent most of the rest of the time we were out there on the porch with Khar. He was nice the entire time, nosing at her a bit, and then just laying down next to her. He really wants to be friends with the kitties. He spends a lot of his spare time with his nose and a paw under the hall door, waiting for one of them to come play.

I brought out the wading pool Saturday, too. Reyna kept running through it every few minutes, and occasionally plopped down in it to cool her belly. Duncan wasn’t so sure what to do with it, but he finally walked through it a few times, and once I even got him to lay down in it. Poor guy, his black fur was so hot.

I also started back to putting out birdseed – I put a feeder up outside the bedroom windows for the cats. Turns out a squirrel heard about the new buffet, and has been snacking. The cats are thrilled, but its making Reyna nuts. Every time she heard him with those big satellite dishes on her heard, she would go streaking out the door. I hate to hurt her feelings, but she will never be able to sneak up on it, especially not if she keeps barking.

Moans and Groans

After the epidural last Monday, and a week of physical therapy, my back finally seems to be doing better. According to the PT, all the sitting I do is one of the worst things for it. Unfortunately, being active is also bad for it. So that leave standing, which is terrible for my knees. No winning this one. The therapist (who has already labeled me a problem patient because of my activities, by the way) informed me last week that, because I feel better from the shot and want to go do things, I could actually aggravate the disc and make things worse without evening realizing it. My theory on that is, if I don’t realize it, how bad can it be? So I spent some of last weekend raking, and this past weekend cleaning, raking, putting up some fencing and sowing some grass seed. What can I say? It was pretty out, and chores needed to be done. Yes, my back is now sore, but nothing too out of the ordinary. In fact, it is other muscles that are protesting the most. They seem to be complaining because I haven’t done anything with them in over a month and a half. Go figure. My poor knees got a double whammy, tho...not only did I somehow manage to wrench my bad one a bit, Reyna accidentally caught it with a tooth as she ran by me to get her soccer ball. So now I have a big old bruise on the inside of my knee. Serves me right, for being between her and that soccer ball.