DOGS RULE !!! To share all the good times for being dog lovers.

This past week has been a roller-coaster at the very minimum. After our last appointment for Macleod, the consult with the Vet and up coming holiday scheduling, we set a tentative appointment for for the following Tuesday for amputation of his front left forearm.That, giving us the weekend to absorb this one and speak with our family Vet. He had been limping a bit more lately and we have had to double up on his pain meds on occasion. That weekend was hell, we both changed our minds a couple of times going opposite directions and have decided to go ahead with the surgery. He is still running around on it so well and just sometimes, probably when he has played hard, it gets sore again. We cancelled the appointment for Tuesday, Too soon…

Mya has had it pretty rough last week, really struggling with constipation. She finally got hip to the pill pockets or just got sick of them, and was turning away from the pumpkin as well as her morning meal that had a laxative powder mixed in it. we would have to hand feed the kibbles to her just so she would get at least some of the stuff. I found that I could slip a pill (capsule only) and a kibble together, and as she ate the kibble(s) I left my fingers in her mouth for a second so she would swallow as she tried to check for another kibble in my fingers. She eats slowly now and test what we feed her specially when we change things up. We started mixing in wet canned food and now she is strictly canned. We started using Performatrin Ultra Grain Free, Looks like a can of stew, and doesn’t taste bad… { yup!} … She likes them, (all we’ve tried anyway) but we like the pate style over the chunky for med delivery and now she has had two days of relatively calm bathroom events. She’s back to every 12 hours instead of once every 48. We can see that her sitting on her honches to pee has faded away but still does the army crawl away from her resting spot. She still will get vocal in the morning little bit after breakfast, were starting to think the Meticam or laxative was upsetting her stomach. This morning when she was crying We noticed she was trying to roll over but the rear left leg { X-Ray showed a lesion in the hip } is a little stiff and she can’t tuck it under her belly enough to roll over. We grabbed her magic carpet and got her laying on it then just raised her off the ground, rolled the carpet a bit and shifted her to the other side, then laid her back down. BAM!! out like a light she hasn’t moved or made a squeak in hours, don’t think she even raised her head when we put her back down. Al’ just fired up the vacuum in the front of the house and I noticed Mya kinda look up for a second and shifted her position a bit, then has a deep breath sigh, and fell back to sleep. Going to try and teach her to roll over on her back would think she would just do that anyway but I think there is likely pain associated with a bump on her spine, we can do it for her. We have had some volley with the decision for Mya as well, twice we had her booked for a home visit to put her down. The first time Mya made a 360* turn in appearance as soon as the Vet showed up, kissing and wiggling around to say hi. She had a lot of trouble last few days this week and we were horrified to think if we wait out the weekend we could have the same thing happen as with our Previous Boy Cy. His last days fell on a long weekend and we had tried one last medication to ease the progression of a spinal disease he was fighting. it did not work and his last days were not good at all. We decided to go for it, there’s always the Hospital that did her surgery, 24hrs., if things go sideways on us. She has made a few sounds as I’ve been writing but its because the sun came out a bit {FINALLY} and she was getting to warm. I went out and did the roll over and brought her back under the shade. She rested until Allison and her Mom came home, she heard them laughing and perked right up, squawking away. Mom always has a treat 🙂

So far this weekend we are sailing on smooth waters. If the weather stays nice maybe we can take the kids down to the water and chill with an ice cream.

We hope everyone has a good Easter weekend.

It would seem to be the case here… Any of the news we have been receiving lately has had a “bad news” note attached to it somehow.

Mya has not walked in a few weeks now. We received our Artemisinin delivery and the cookies finally came too. Since we have been giving Mya the Herb, ( 400 mg. 1xDaily), she has shown some improvement in her legs. Over the last week she has got to supporting her weight on the back legs to about half way up, almost standing. Small improvement, she still can’t take a step but can support her self to go to the bathroom, sometimes anyway. She wont s#!+ where she sleeps so she will get very vocal if its that time and she is inside or on a blanket outside. She’s pretty smart, she’ll look me right in the eye, talking away, then look out towards that spot in the yard they both go, or look at her water dish. At dinner time its a look towards the kitchen from where ever she is laying. If we don’t hear her in time she sometimes does the army crawl on her own, that’s the only time she doesn’t fuss much when I help. We’ve now passed the month we had thought there may be left for Mya so every day is golden from here on. She is still “mostly” calm and quiet but does have her bad days, I should say bad parts of each day. Usually gets quite vocal just before she has to pee or poop, specially if she’s inside, then usually gets quiet. She may be getting a gastro issue with all the meds or a bladder infection. If we are out of sight and laughing or talking to a neighbour in the yard or the house and she can hear all the commotion she starts to howl. She still wants to be a part of the action and her pain seems to be intermittent, there is a green discharge from her eyes that doesn’t seem to bother her. I have heard her cough once or twice but usually after eating or drinking too fast. Over all I think she is ok, as long as she wants to be a part of it all, I will carry her around all summer, but if she has had enough and just stops being Mya then we wont push her.

We took Macleod in yesterday for another follow up, he has been limping more in the last few days. Imaging of the shoulder still has not brought a confirmation of sarcoma in his shoulder. Luckily, { if its luck at all }, we chose the CT scan over the X-Ray because there are 3 visible nodes in his lungs…

that would have likely been missed in an X-Ray, because they are still quite small. So Macleod now has seemingly developed metastasises before the osteosarcoma has even been possessively identified. This changes the game and the rules yet again. He doesn’t have any dysplasia issues yet and is very strong, but he is a fare bit bigger than Mya. Allison and some other friends have some doubts about Macleod’s ability to cope on three legs. I disagree, I often see him overcome obstacles , each day, usually its getting around Mya’s Diva thing she throws about. My only concern for him is, will he be able to recover from surgery before the lungs get worse. Today we started him on the Artemisinin ( 400mg 1x daily ) as well. one day at a time…