An Encouraging Monday Update

Some good news to report!!! Miss Aspen seems to be improving!!

She ate almost a full 13oz can of food today (2 spoonfuls at a time) and the last two meals she ate almost entirely directly out of the bowl! I’ve been “chasing” each meal with a spoonful or two of plain non-fat yogurt and so far everything has stayed down!

I did add some homeopathic remedies for pain and nausea to the mix today. I dissolved them in some coconut water and syringe fed them to her twice today and they really seemed to give her a boost in the right direction! I’d read that for dehydration, coconut water is better than regular water, so I’ve been giving her syringes full of that a few times today and plan on continuing that until she’s drinking on her own a little more regularly. I did see her take a few licks from the water bowl today, which is also totally awesome!

Keep those prayers coming – they’re working!!!! ❤

Sunday Aspen Update

Miss Aspen has been hanging in there today. We had a really rough morning… So rough, in fact, Wade and I had purchased an urn for her and were getting ready to take her to the vet :-(. Right before we left I let her go outside with Derby and then tried to feed her. One last effort to get her to eat. And she must be one tough cookie because damned if she didn’t take a few licks of food out of the spoon I offered her. Then a few licks of non-fat plain yogurt.

That urn may be a beautiful tribute to her, but she’s not ready for it quite yet.

She kept that food down, and slept a few hours. I gave her two of her meds in a pill pocket around 5:30pm, and she actually ate it out of my hand instead of me jamming it down her throat. I waited about an hour then offered her two more heaping spoons of food and then some yogurt. She ate most of that and kept it all down. Around 9:30 tonight I gave her her last two pills, again she ate the pill pocket out of my hand. Woot!!! We finished up with another little bit of food (she actually took one small bite out of the actual bowl instead of licking it off the spoon!) and some yogurt. I’ve been sitting with her and she seems to be keeping that down too.

She seems to get stressed when we leave her alone so we’ve been staying real close today and I plan on staying that way the next couple days.

Please keep her in your prayers! I’m hoping she’ll get past all this and enjoy a little more of life before it’s time!! ❤

Aspen Update for Saturday

Wellll, I wish pancreatitis was a simple, quick fix, but unfortunately it’s not.

We had our appointment last night for more fluids and her injectable medications, and she has been looking pretty good.  Up, moving around, alert, etc.

About 4am she woke me up whining and grunting, and I assumed she needed to go to the bathroom – I mean, with 1000ml of fluids on board a 29lb dog, who wouldn’t need to go to the bathroom??  Out she went, and yes she did need to go, but that didn’t stop her from whining over and over when she came back in.  I figured she was just hungry, since she’d had nothing to eat or drink (fluids only) for about 2 and a half days, and as I laid there in bed and listened to her wander around whining I hoped fervently that the vet would look at her during her recheck this morning and proclaim her cured enough to start eating.

8am this morning, we were back to the vet for her recheck.  Her hydration is great, her pain level seems to have lowered exponentially, and she’s walking about pretty good!  The vet worked out a plan with her medications and food with me, and I was free to go and give her 2 spoons of canned I/D ( I hate that crap, but if that’s what they wanted her to have, that’s what she’d get) per hour for the first day.

Got her up to work with me, cracked open a can of I/D and….. nothing.  Not interested at all.

I let her think on that for a little bit, and then went and got a can of her senior out of the car that I’d brought with me.  Two spoons of that….. not interested.

I tried begging, I tried hand feeding, I tried everything.  No dice.

About an hour later I was able to get her to eat just a tiny bit by actually opening her mouth and putting it on her tongue.  She still won’t eat the I/D (smart girl, I guess, that stuff is awful) but I finally just a little bit ago got her to eat the entire two spoons of her senior food by putting it in my hand and letting her lick it off.  I also have some chicken broth and some of the crockpot chicken at home that I’ll try later this evening if she still won’t eat on her own.

I have a feeling this road to recovery is going to be a long one.  =(  Still, thankful that the rest of her seems to be doing really well!

 

Aspen Update

It’s been a week of ups and downs for Miss Aspen, starting with the emergency clinic on Sunday where we found out she has pancreatitis, then to the regular vet Monday, yesterday, today and tomorrow.  She would perk up, then go back downhill, then perk up, then back down again.

Starting yesterday we began a regimen of fluids and injectable meds 2 times a day.  She seems to be perking up, so I’m hoping it’s a trend!!!  ❤

Call Me Crazy…

By now most of you know our old doggie, Aspen.  She’s 13 and a half years old, and the last few months she’s been having more and more problems with her arthritis.  Other than crippling arthritis in her back left leg, she’s been in REALLY good shape for an old lady!  When the arthritis started getting worse the last few months, back to the vet we went…

They put her on tramadol, rimadyl and gabapentin – I was hopeful that we would see a huge improvement on these medications, but instead we started to see a decline.  Her arthritis was just as bad, if not a tad worse, but now it seemed like she was entering the early stages of a doggie dementia…  She seemed confused a lot of the time she was awake, she’d go outside to do her business then stand there like she couldn’t remember why she came out there, I’d have to show her where her food bowl was (which is a HUGE deal, as this dog has always LIVED for food), and sometimes she didn’t even seem to know who Wade and I were.  I wasn’t sure if it was the meds affecting her or just bad timing, but I started to get really concerned.  When she stopped eating all her food the last couple days, my concern turned to panic.  Wade and I always joked that we knew she was dying if she stopped eating, and all of a sudden, that joke was becoming a reality.

I decided at this point to try something different.  I got an appointment with Dr. Amanda Florsheim, who is a vet that specializes in alternative therapies – she was so kind and saw us last minute this morning before the holidays.

In the waiting room!

I’ve done acupuncture with my horse before, but never the dogs, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.  She was so thorough in investigating what meds Aspen is on, the dosages, any supplements, and diet.  We decided to tweak the dosage of the medicines one at a time, so we can see for sure if it IS the medications causing the cognitive problems, or if it’s just another stage of her getting old that just happened to come about when we started giving her the meds.  We’re also tweaking her diet some, and she did have acupuncture done!

I have to say, I really loved Dr. Florsheim and Aspen really seemed to as well.  As we were leaving, I noticed Aspen bearing more weight on that back leg than I’d seen her do in a long long while, AND, as we were walking to the car instead of walking at a snail’s pace, she was actually trotting along.  TROTTING.  I couldn’t believe it!  Hoping this is a huge sign that we’ve taken the right path and perhaps the alternative therapies will give her some relief!  Couldn’t be happier!!!  ❤

Yay Aspen!!!

You know…

It’s really hard to chase your dreams when they keep running from you….

What’s cuter than my dog in these dinosaur pajamas?

Not much!!!

And now I shall flood your computer with adorableness….

Who has the cutest dogs ever?  (And the MOST well-behaved?)  Well, I DO, of course!  😉  Merry Christmas from….. THE DOGLETS!!!

 

And just in case you absolutely MUST see all the rest… Here’s the link!

https://plus.google.com/photos/111290182317687401101/albums/5955984913497884177?authkey=CKqUpdeKkYiFlgE

Special thanks to Sarah Cranmer Photography!!!

Bah Humbug

This is one of my little buddies up at work – our photographer was doing Christmas pictures and so I volunteered him. 😉 I love this shot, I think he looks so put out! Bah Humbug!!!

Ice Storm Dallas 12-6-13