I don't know about us. I'm doing as well as can be expected ...

Sasha went out the other day and didn't come home, gave her a couple of hours wandering time and then went looking for for - I wasn't impressed, it was cold out - seems as if she strolled into the neighbors burn hole to see what might be left in the cans and couldn't get out of the hole. I had to lift her up so she could get to the edge and she really doesn't like to be lifted ... in fact I think it hurts her because she yelps ... don't know, old age is a real bear.

Yes. Old age ain't for sissies. I'm so glad you found her! How did you even know to look in a burn hole for her?!!?

Knock on wood, I'm doing better than I have in a couple of years. Walking normally, I can sleep on my side again for most of the night, my breathing is mostly under control. For about 3 weeks, I've been almost pain free. Even contemplating how to start exercising without overstressing anything (sigh. It just takes so friggin long to heal anything these days, I don't want to injure anything.

Hope you're doing better, Al, if I remember correctly, you took a bit of a fall recently?

amymeme wrote:

Yes. Old age ain't for sissies. I'm so glad you found her! How did you even know to look in a burn hole for her?!!?

<<snipped>>

Hope you're doing better, Al, if I remember correctly, you took a bit of a fall recently?

"How did I find her?" Well, she'd been gone too long so I was hoping she was more or less okay; Avalanche was standing on the porch and kept looking toward D's place so I headed that way and heard her 'complaining.' Avalanche is the pits as a guard dog but he's an excellent watch dog. If there's anything going on that's strange he'll watch it / them and eventually he'll bark. And since he doesn't bark very often when he does, I go look.

Yeh, I have a couple of yard chairs - the fold up type that people use at parks - had brought them in and put them in the back room. Came around the corner and tripped on them - face plant time! I cam down on a short stack of boxes and think I cracked a rib or two (or 75 from the feel!) I hate cracking ribs because they take so blasted long to heal! but they're all in pretty good shape now, at least I can sleep on my side again.

Thats good you found her. Here dogs (and elk) have a tendency to fall into old unmarked mine shafts.

Spider is like that.. rarely barks so when she does i come running. Usually its children but sometimes something i cant see gets her going and im in cat country.

Falling sucks im glad your feeling better.

Do with Ami. When he barks, we take it seriously. Do far, it's been over suspicious man late at night at a hotel, a bull in the back yard and bear in the apiary. Nothing else. Well. Except for Zev blocking a doorway or the water bowl. But that is a completely different kinds of bark. And. So funny. Thigh Zev is a little spitfire, in some respects terrorizing Ami, when Ami gives that bark, Zev responds PDQ!

Glad you're on the mend, Al. Let's keep it that way!

Not that I want to take the trip to the "big city" but Sasha and I are going up to see the vet Wednesday. I talked with her yesterday and she's thinking it's time to take an x-ray to see what's really going on with her back legs.
She (er, Sasha, not the vet) is getting around okay as long as she doesn't have to do steps or someone (Avalanche or Sky) doesn't trip her up. Avalanche and Sky were 'fighting' in the living room and it looks like Sky pulled one of Sasha's legs out from under her and Sasha just sat there - in part it looked like she was having a hard time getting up (getting too common) and in part it was "Hey, what happened?!?!"
When I built the ramp out front for her, I intentionally left ½" gaps between the boards going across, so now when I let her out on lead she gets the chain caught in the cross spaces and I have to go out to help her up the ramp.
I've taken her on walks but it takes about 15-20 minutes and she's ready to come back in.
The few times I've tried to lift her, like into the Jeep or out of D's hole, she let's me know it hurts her so Mary's (vet) is thinking it might be something with her spine. Oh well, we'll see.
She definitely hasn't lost her appetite, more than willing to let me know when her meal or treat time is late. She still plays with the other two from time to time and when I get the leash out for a walk she's ready to go so, mentally, I think she's feeling okay - but just not too sure about the physically.

Sounds alot like whats going on with shadow. The meloxicam made a world of difference for him. Well i have him on a few other things also. We had actually discussed putting shadow down before we added the meloxicam. Not saying hes 100% better but it helps. I have noticed alot of similar issues in both huskies and German shepherds but usually it seems huskies have the better outcomes alot of the time.

Well, Sasha's back at the vets ... this is getting old and expensive!

Last Sunday I bought one of those 'personal pies' at the store - it comes in about a 3" pie pan - ate it and when I got home threw the pie pan into the trash. Seems as is Sasha decided it smelled good and drug it out - a very rare occurrence! I heard her chewing on something that sounded real odd so I checked. I managed to recover all except about a quarter sized piece and she's been wandering around, stopping to hack some and then everything's back to normal - till she does it again.

My thought is that small piece is stuck somewhere in her throat so Mary's going to take an x-ray and see. Since I have to go back to town tomorrow for my second COVID shot, I asked Mary if it'd be more convenient if I left her overnight, so Sasha gets a night out - I'm wondering how much of a nuisance she's going to be since she hasn't stayed at the vets for something like three years.

Aargh. These pups are getting to be a hassle! Hope she's ok.

And, your second shot. Hopefully yours will be a non-event as far as side effects go!

My biggest fear - knowing Sasha and knowing that because it hurts her to be lifted, she'll object and they'll sedate her for the x-rays - is that at her age she not recover from the sedation.  They close at 18:00 and it's 17:00 now so I'll wait a bit before I call to see how everything went.

ETA: Well, shit, they close at 17:30 and I called at 17:35 ... Mary didn't call / message me so - well, I have my fingers crossed.

Hope it goes well

Kenzi went through a weird fascination with Q-tips when her blood sugar was super high. I'm not sure how many she managed to eat during that period, but it made me really glad I didn't buy the plastic stick kind. Hopefully all is fine for Sasha. Silly girl.

Maybe it's just me but the more difficult a dog is when I first get them (and remember she bit me like 5 different times over FOOD) the more attached I become to them over time. (( Or maybe she really understood "The next time you bite me will be your last, I promise you that!" ))

Called and was told that there was no indication of aluminum in her digestive tract - I'm more concerned about in her airway since she's been hacking pretty badly.

Need to be up there at 13:00 for COVID shot, then go across the street and pick Sasha up. Hopefully Mary has something for her pain, it's becoming more pronounced when she goes to set / lay down and she whines about it.

Happy to hear things appear to be ok. Good luck with your shot!

I need me some edumacatin; Mary sent me home with what look to be two pain killers:
Gabapentin 100mg capsules and Tramadol 50mg tablets - I can probably sneak either one past her in a piece of hot dog but, really, what's the difference and why both?

Sometimes it's obvious she's in pain, she goes to set / lay down and I get a loud whine; she just went into her crate (it's her safe place, I guess) and lay down with no problem, didn't even hesitate. I don't want to overdo the drugs and since we already know she has an enlarged liver, don't want to exacerbate the issue.

Tramadol is an opiate like medicine, sort of an opiate but not exactly. Originally thought to be not as addictive, now found to be addictive.

Gabapentin is an anticonvulsant and used for nerve pain. Can make some people sleepy.

This may be helpful:

https://homewithdignity.com/treating-pain-often-overlooked-underdone/

Both can make her sleepy, so don't be alarmed if she just lays around a lot and looks a little out of it. Keno was on Tramadol. I didn't notice that it helped anything. Just made him out of it enough to care less. If you think you are only going to get one med down her before she refuses I personally would go for the gabapentin first.

Ive been on both of those. Tramadol is a synthetic opioid has similar side effects to hydrocodone. Gabapentin is a weird drug in that it can be used for nerve pain and as an anticonvulsant, but it can cause groups of muscles to twitch. Not sure about dogs but in humans gabapentin is known for causing mood changes and that why i cant take it.

So with the bloodwork have they figured out what they think it is yet with the off the chart numbers?

@TwisterII I'm going with just one for the time being. I want to see what effect it has before I add the other. She spends a lot of her time in her crate either sleeping or faking it well so that won't be too unusual. With just the gabapentin, she's moving easier so that's an improvement.

@Lostmaniac oh, you mean those twitches where she just starts kicking the hell out of the back of her crate? That's nothing new and she hasn't done it lately - scared the bejeesus out of me the first time she did though.
Marry sent her blood into a lab, she's pretty well suited in her office but there are some things she sends out. We should get the results early next week and we'll see then where it goes. Have an appt on the 2nd so hope to have results in by then.

Yup those twitches

@Lostmaniac Naw, those were before the meds, she'd be laying in her crate and all of a sudden she'd kick it.  Occasionally she'd kick something else and it was obvious it was a twitch of some kind.

She's feeling much better, she's playing more with the cats and when I get dressed - flip my pants out so the legs are straight to put on she'll "try to catch them"  (the quotes are because it's obviously not a serious attempt, it's play)

Yep, obviously feeling much better. Most mornings I let her out after breakfast - before I'm decent to be out - and she'll do her duty and then come back to the bottom of the steps to let me know she's ready to come back in. By then I'm dressed and I'll go out and walk her up the ramp - last evening and again this morning she's been going up and down steps so all I have to do to let her in is go open the door. Now if this would last forever ....

I'm going to start a thread about weather since a lot of our most off-topic posting, it seems to me, to be about the weather.

It's funny, I'm still giving her one Gavapentin in the AM and another in the PM (roughly 12 hours apart) most of the time it seems to do what's needed for her to be able to get up and around without telling me she's hurting. Sometimes, mostly in the late afternoon she complains when she goes to lay down but that's an hour or so before I give her the evening pill.

Wondering about adding in one of the Tramadol but not sure when it would do the most good......???

Maybe if you can figure out when i would say about an hour before the first gabapentin wears off which as you say is late afternoon. It may make her kinda loopy or lethargic

I'd probably do the Tram about the midway mark between the Gab. Give with a little food. AM Gab should still be working while the Tram gets into the system. Tram should be in the system well when the AM Gab starts to wear off and will still be there while the PM Gab catches up. That's the theory anyway. I was giving morning, noon, and night with keno to make sure no gaps.

@TwisterII I'll probably try this method. I'm not too concerned about night time as she seems to sleep well (with the occasional dream) but afternoon / evening seem to hurt.

@Lostmaniac Thanks for your comment. I think I'll try TwisterII's way at first then may move it forward or later as I see the need.

From history the codeine like pills seem to be bitter so I'll have to grab a pack of hotdogs to make sure she'll actually get it down.