About a week after I revived the blog, I was going to post about all the ongoing health issues we’ve been dealing with here with Yuki. We’ve been battling toe cysts/abscesses for about 2 years now, a recurring rash under her chin, and sometimes her eyes get all crusty and itchy. The week I was going to post about it, she was having incontinence issues and I suspected it was from the Zyrtec we were trying. Around that time the Chicago Cubs were also in the MLB post season and as a life long Cubs fan, that was a pretty big deal so most evenings I spent on the couch wrapped in a blanket in disbelief.
I told myself to post after the World Series (Holy Cow! It finally was our year!), and that got pushed off until after the election, to after an out of town wedding, to today. So lets get up to speed. Our vet suspects Yuki has developed allergies. For the last 2-3 years we’ve been treating numerous symptoms. We’ve had blood work done multiple times, seen a doggie dermatologist, and tried numerous ways to combat her symptoms. Her blood results don’t show any abnormalities to make the vet or the specialist think it is anything other than allergies. I’m at my wits end she’s been on antibiotics, steroids (which we had to stop because she lost all bladder control), and allergy meds. The next suggestion is to try the prescription allergy drug Apoquel. My vet doesn’t sell it so I have been looking for an online retailer I can trust. In the meantime Yuki’s paws get soaked in epsom salt as often as she will let me. Whenever I think they are healing, another sore pops up on a different toe. I feel so bad for my pup. If anyone has any suggestions please contact me! PLEASE!!!!
So rewind a little to us stopping the Zyrtec for Yuki. I was going to call my vet about it, because I wasn’t noticing any changes and she was having accidents almost everyday. The day I decided ok, if it happens again, I’m calling the vet today, Bacio has this freak accident or something. I still to this day do not know what happened. We went out in the morning and he did his business and ran up the stairs. He didn’t eat his breakfast but sometimes he doesn’t so I didn’t think anything of it. After getting some work done, it was time to take the dogs out for a longer walk. Yuki got up all excited to go out. I put her leash on, and called Bacio to come over. He didn’t come, but whatever he’s weird sometimes so I went over to him and put his leash on. Usually he’ll pop up and be all excited to go out after that, but he just laid there….
I tried to coax him up and as he tried to lift himself with his front legs, he started trembling. He could barely get himself up. Ok maybe he slipped earlier going up and down the stairs, it happens sometimes, he always goes way to fast. I carried all 65lbs of him down the stairs to see if he would start feeling better once he got in the fresh air. By the time I was at the bottom of the stairs with him I could barely walk anymore… (This dog mama needs to not only update her blog more often, but also hit the gym more often). I got him to the sidewalk and he started slowly walking. He only made it 2 doors down before he walked into the parkway, sat, and then laid down and wouldn’t get up. Queue the panic, but trying to stay as calm as possible for the dog. I immediately called the vet, of course it was 12:02pm and the vet closes for lunch at 12. As soon as I could I called them, and they got me in ASAP.
Dr. Andy did a full blood panel and X-rays of his shoulders. He could see that the dog was in very visible pain. The X-rays shows some minor arthritis but nothing to make him react in the way he did, so I opted to have the films sent to a specialist for further review. Maybe it was a tear or a pulled muscle? He was also running a fever, but I was told that could have been because of all the pain he was in. He got a shot of Rimadyl and was prescribed lots of bed rest for the rest of the night while we waited for the other test results.
When we got home, it was almost as if he was getting worse. He actually yelped in pain, something he very rarely does. The only other time I remember him yelping like that was when he fell on the stairs after his surgery. Queue panic numero dos.
So by now the vet is closed, and my options are to wait it out with him or take him to an ER. My friends came over to keep me company keep me sane. For the first time in the whole day Bacio finally drank a little water. He also was able to fall asleep. I set up a bunch of blankets and had a slumber party with him on my living room floor, prepared to take him to the ER if he woke up in anymore pain.
I woke up the next morning and immediately called the vet to tell them about the yelping, and also that I noticed that Bacio wasn’t turning his head to the left. He seemed to be physically unable to do so. By the time the vet called me back, Bacio was able to sit up without shaking in pain. He said the only other option we had was to put him under anesthesia and do an MRI, but since he was sitting up and drinking water, he recommended seeing how the next day or two went and to keep him on the Rimadyl pills he prescribed. The good news was that he did not believe it was his spine, because he’d seen that in his own dog, and Bacio would have been in constant pain, with no improvement.
Towards the evening of that day Bacio was standing on his own when he felt like it and ate all his food. His blood work came back along with the specialists review of the x-rays. The X-rays showed no visible damage to bones or muscles, as far as tears went, but it did show muscle deterioration which is a bit concerning. His blood work showed low thyroid levels.
Bacio is now on a thyroid medication, and in another month we will test his blood again to see if his levels are improving. As far as the freak accident, we just assume it was a pinched nerve, and the anti inflammatory meds helped it heal. We’ll never really know I guess? It was scary nonetheless and I hope it never happens again!
