Catching Up!

Last week of the Spring 2 term for school and I am excited to take 8 weeks off! Between school, work, and professional studies with the normal life stuff sprinkled in, it has been a busy 2012 so far. How are our dogs? Glad you asked! 🙂 They are doing fine and living the life. We had a scare with Chloe last month though. I had taken a sick day and was napping on the couch when I woke to see Chloe not able to get on her back feet. She was laying down on the floor and trying to get up, but couldn’t. She is, of course, 13 now and moving a little slower when she first gets up. But this wasn’t normal at all. She was panting and shaking and I thought for sure something serious was wrong with her. I tried to help her to her feet and she just collapsed. I helped her up again and she went to the bathroom and I knew something was wrong. Off to the vet we go! I stopped at one close to my house that i hadn’t been to before, just because I wasnt exactly sure what was wrong with her. Doc did a blood test and everything looked normal except her blood count was low. He concluded that this was pain in her hips that could have caused all this. So off to home we went with pain medication and iron to get her blood count up. a week later, when that medicine was gone, I took her to Dr. Powell and we did another blood test and the numbers were right. However, he was concerned with why she had a low blood count and discussed the possibility of a ruptured spleen. Next was the Ultrasound and the worrisome news that they saw spots on her spleen and suggested exploratory surgery. After thinking about that for, oh zero seconds, and deciding to go ahead with it, we had a week of studying up on Hemangiosarcomas. Ever heard of it? After reading up on it, the realization that if this was in fact a Hemangiosarcoma, Chloe wouldn’t have much longer to go. In fact, most things I had read only gave the dog about 4 months after discovery of the tumor. Several days of worrying about the surgery and if she would make it through that at her age and then waiting for the news from Dr. Powell was a lot. Yeah I know she is just a dog in some people’s eyes, and I am not an over the top dog owner that treats her like a person all the time. But she is my dog and we have been together for 12 years now. So just the thought of not coming home to her or her being in some sort of prolonged pain from cancer was a lot to deal with. When Dr. Powell called, we were ready for the worst. Of course, Chloe is one strong dog. The surgery went fine and Dr. Powell didn’t see anything in the way of tumors on any organs at all and no sign of internal bleeding, past or present. A clean bill of health. What else should I have expected I guess. When I rushed her into the emergency vet with a twisted stomach several years ago, I was thinking the worst then too. The next morning, after a successful surgery, she practically pulled me, dangling on the leash, out of the vet to the car like nothing happened. This dog is amazing! Bottom line? Good thing I had just got my bonus and a tax return! And I am so happy that Chloe is doing fine and hasn’t had an episode like that since. She is on pain pills each day, but she is 13 1/2 years old and still loves to wrestle with Chanel and run around the back yard.