Prednisone Out — Six Weeks Post Op

One of the Yahoo Group experts mentioned that pred might be slowing his healing.  I think she may be right.  He’s been off it now for three days and is doing real good.  Not perfect, but there is a definite improvement in energy level and strength in the legs.  Hmmm.

I got the timing all screwed up on this blog.  I looked back at my appointments and TODAY is six weeks out.  The nuero thought at six weeks we would have some kind of baseline and this state, I can take.

Currently he’s only on Nuerontin x3 a day 600 mgs.  He’s 75 lbs.  We are going to scale him back to x2 a day soon.

I know this is a crazy condition and that he won’t be perfect, ever, but having a dog that interacts with his environment and me is great.  If the rest of the symptoms can be controlled with meds I’d be thrilled.

He chased, and almost caught, a racoon today.  After, he was completely thrilled with himself and traced the scent for a while.  I didn’t know racoons were so slow.

He Brought Me a Toy!

He’s not perfect, still a little trembling but it seems now to be confined to his right side on the top of his head.  He’s much more comfortable generally.

Today he brought me a toy for play and wagged his tail, which he hasn’t done forever.  I loved it. 

He’s off pred now and he seems no worse, in fact, his back legs seem stronger.  He’s galloping two steps instead of carefully walking up them. 

Progress slow and small.  I’ll take it.

Maybe Not 25%

So the nuero and I come to the conclusion that Dante is probably in the 25% who aren’t stabilized or get relief from the surgery and….

something changes.

The trembling of the head and clicking of the jaw have almost stopped.  Over the last 4 days I’ve noticed one, slight tremble. 

In addition he’s jumping back up on the bed to wake me up in the morning which has not done in a long time.

Sure this could be one of the ups of the ups and downs of this condition, but this particular improvement is a good one even if it’s only on good days.  The majority of his pain is preceded by head trembles and jaw clicking and then crying out.

Also, he is at 80% full shake which is better than since post surgery.  The dog shake is equivalent to a good human sneeze.  Where you sneeze and say ‘ahhh’ because of the relief provided by the sneeze.

All of that being said, he’s mad as a hornet at me.  He got groomed yesterday.  He hates it.  Even though my groomer is my next door neighbor who is in and out in 30 minutes because we don’t do a serious poodle foof.  He’s shaved except for head and tail.  Regardless of that he hates me for a day or two afterwards.  He will just sit infront of me, glare and sigh.  Not like he has to go out but he does this all day long.  He is spoiled.

A reader on the Yahoo group mentioned that pred can slow down healing.  My nuero had already asked me to scale back the pred and the last dose will be tomorrow.  Hopefully this will accelerate things.

I know he’s never going to be perfect but I just hope he is well enough, comfortable and able to stalk a bird and or squirrel or two!!  He loves that.

Being in That 25%

Being in the 25% of dogs who don't improve or maintain as a result of the surgery sucks.

But that is the conclusion that his nuerologist came to today.  We are four days from 6 weeks out.  There is still crying and head trembling, even with meds he wasn't on before surgery.

So, that's where we are. 

We are going to try accupuncture next as we scale back his meds to find a tolerable dosage.

My biggest problem is that I have no idea what tolerable is.  My maternal instinct is fierce and I don't want him to be uncomfortable at all so I have to figure this out.

I don't care if he simply lazes around or isn't the dog he used to be, but I don't want him to be uncomfortable.

Well this rots.

Bad day.

Dante’s IBD

Since I began this blog I’ve wanted to write about Dante’s other problem. 

Irritable Bowel Disease.

Dante has always had a rotten bum.  He had tons (ick!) of diarreah as a pup and was on and off antibiotics for the first two years of his life.  He was also dewormed frequently.

He didn’t come from very good breeding circumstances.  I answered an ad in the Washington Post and went for a visit to see five puppies.  This was in early September of 2001. 

I went to see the puppies and found a puppy/dog farm in the woods.  A woman had bred poodles on land they had bought just north of Richmond VA.  There were at least 40 dogs out there including the five pups (five weeks old), breeder dogs (in a shed in stacked with crates that contained the adults) and pens full of poodles of various ages. 

The owner tried to get me to take a “three month old” poodle.  That dog was at least 8 months old and very shy.  I didn’t think I could get the dog socialized.  I also was living in an apartment at the time and since this dog had essentially been raised outdoors and with lots of running around space I didn’t think it was a good idea. 

She let me examine the pups and said I could have a male (which I wanted anyway.)  She described them to me and I picked up the runt, Dante.  He fit in my hand.  He was shaking and licked my chin.  That was it.  Then he peed on me.  Those big brown eyes won me over.  Plus I figured no one would take the runt so I figured I would.  We marked him and I was instruced to come back in 3 weeks to pick him up.

I spent the next three weeks preparing.  I spent hundreds of dollars on a crate and doggie things including “Raising the Perfect Puppy” by the Monks of New Skeet.  Toys galore, a leash and collar.  I couldn’t wait!!  Finally I would be a Mom!

I picked him up and he was pissed.  He had doubled in size (9 pounds) and the breeder handed me a ziplock full of vials.  She claimed he had been through the first two rounds of shots.  I took the ziplock, loaded him in the crate and he howled his head off.  I was very doubtful as I drove off.  Was I awful for taking him from his pack?  He calmed down when I pulled into the gas station and I looked into the back at the crate.  I saw two eyes, glaring at me.  He was pissed off.

When we got home he was thrilled to play with a ball on the back lawn.  He was, of course, in my estimate, the smartest dog ever.  He was retrieving a ball at 8 weeks!  His charm continued to work. 

I took him to the vet with the ziplock the breeder had provided and the vet discovered he was infested with fleas (big ones, I had already figured that out) and that the vaccines the breeder had given him were expired.  Dante had to start from scratch.

My point in mentioning all of this is that Dante started out with the deck stacked against him.  Who knows what his breeding protocol was?  He was sick from day one.

But…. I wouldn’t change a thing.  He’s the best dog I’ve ever known.  He’s given me so much joy and happiness.  He’s a guard dog extraordinare.  He’s also smart as a whip.  Too smart.  He and I are dirty-old-shoe and dirty-old-sock.  We fit.

So back to the original point.  Dante’s IBD. 

After the first two years of bum problems a vet did suggest he might have IBD but said that this never develops at an early age.  He did clear up.  Occasionally I would see a little problem with his stool (a slight amount of blood) but it would always clear up.

This last October, when we sold our first house and were preparing to move, he just turned a bad corner.  Bad gas, barfing and general discomfort.  I thought it was stress due to the move and he wasn’t feverish so I tried to distract him with fun and exercize.

After we moved into the new house with the big back yard, things didn’t get better.  Over last Christmas at my Mom and Dad’s house he was just not right.  When I got home, I took him to the vet.  That lead to six weeks of different antibiotics and trials of food.  Nothing worked so my regular vet sent me to an internal specialist.  Long story short, he has IBD confirmed by biopsy.  The weird bit is that the biopsy showed a mild case.

We tried food alone, Purina HA, which helped but didn’t solve the problem (mucus and blood in the stool) which eventually led to 3mg of budesonide and 3x a day of 10mg of cisapride.  This seemed to help.  His bum doc was mystified as to why a mild case of IBD couldn’t be controlled by food.

Enter SM.  His bum doc is convinced that his IBD is extremely aggravated by the SM and pain.  We shall see. 

Next Tuesday we are five weeks out (I think, I need to check the calendar.) 

As of the last post he has a slight up-tick in interest in life.  More trolling around the yard, barking as the guard, etc.

Yet he cried out twice today and had a few clicking and trembling episodes.

What to think?  I don’t know.  Yes he’s better; but not better.  I have no illusions that he will be perfect but I’m very confused as to what the baseline should/will be.

If anyone ever asks you about good treats for IBD dogs:  raw asparagus, green-beans and any other crunchy veggies.  Also, meds are easily given in solid packed pumpkin.

For whoever might read this.  Please pray, cross your fingers and keep my Dad in your prayers.

Thanks.

Dog Digs Hole

Well he's getting a bit more life in him.  For the first time in a very long time he got his sniff on in the back yard and very aggressively dug a hole.

The progression of healing after this surgery definitely goes very slow.  He's still not in the mood to do any jumping but his shake factor (a full poodle shake off) is at about 60% so there is still more healing to go. 

Next week we reduce the Nuerontin to twice a day instead of three times a day.  We'll see how that goes.

It is encouraging though that however slow the progress continues.

A Bit Better

He actually wanted to just meander around the yard today while I gardened.  Since the surgery he has just seemed to want to go and get back in, unless he spotted a squirrel or bird ripe for the picking.

I don’t know if that is because the weather is much cooler and dryer or he feels a bit better?  Who knows?  He actually took a long roll in the grass and hung out for a while on his back sunning his belly.

Love it.

Dr. Bush decided to pull back to 10mgs of pred.  It doesn’t seem to have made him any worse at all.  If fact, tonight he’s very comfortable which makes me very happy.

The one thing he has learned not to do is jump.  It must cause a spike in pain.  I cajolled him into getting into the SUV today and he didn’t cry out but clicked a little.  I lifted him out.  I will also lift him in for a while. 

Status Quo

Things are status quo. 

We went for a 1/2 mile walk yesterday which he seemed to like but he definitely doesn’t have his stamina back.  By the end of it he was done.  It was hot and humid yesterday so maybe that had something to do with it.

The interesting bit to note is that he has the will but he realizes that if he blasts across the yard after a squirrel or bird that he’s going to hurt afterwards, medicine or not, so he’s guarding his actions.  Smart beast.

One thing I’ve noticed is that he drinks a TON of water.  He’s been doing it for a while and has a dry nose.  I don’t know if this is due to his IBD/meds and/or a combination of what he’s on for SM but I need to have a conversation with his vets about this.

Cheeky Update

Cheeky is cute but THE BATHROOM GARBAGE?

He hasn’t done that since he was a puppy.  Good Lord, what do I have on my hands? 

And not a bit of guilt about it.  He just spit out what was in his mouth, stared at me, turned tail and walked away.

Be careful what you wish for.

Slow Progress for a Newly Cheeky Boy

Thank God for Nuerontin.  It really has helped him.  As an example, with all that is happening with my Dad, I fell sound asleep around 10:30 p.m. last night infront of the t.v. in my recliner.  I woke up at some point and went to bed.  Dante’s last dose of his every 8 hour medications are given at 1 a.m.  So, I skipped one.  When I woke up, he trotted out to see what I was going to do and to request that I take him out and he cried out, but only slightly, which is a huge improvement over the non-Nuerontin time. 

I also think there is physical improvement because when I skipped pain meds before he was a mess, big spells of crying, weak legs and extended head trembles with jaw clicking.  I hope so anyway.

Three more weeks until 6 weeks which should establish some kind of baseline.

In terms of attitude the big change has been in the last 4 days.  He’s just his cheeky old self.  In other words, he’s beginning to do things just to manipulate or irritate me again.  He will be relaxing in the yard and I call for him to come.  He looks me dead in the eye for about 10 seconds and then tunes me out and turns away.  In addition he’s exploring the counters again.  He hasn’t done that for at least a couple of years.  This dog usually follows me everywhere.  If he doesn’t I know something is up.  I went downstairs in the basement and he wasn’t following.  I’m calling and calling, no dice.  So I go back up stairs because I’m thinking he is writhing in pain or something and he had pulled down paper towels from the counter and shredded them to bits.  He wasn’t guilty, he just stared at me like, “SO THERE!”  I still don’t know what he was mad about.  He’s done it a couple of times since.  I can’t read his mind but I sometimes think he’s now telling me how he feels about everything that has happened to him recently.

I’ve always loved it when he displays his ‘tude.  I’m going to have to be more careful about what I leave on the counters!

Hopefully this continues.  I’m going to begin to have to get him more active (walks) now to burn off some of his attitude.