Hello Dogster and Lily's Retraining Commences

Lily has been absent from Dogster for a long time. Her pawther is finishing up law school and I'm going back to school. Needless to say, Lily and Bruno, while still loved, have not been getting as much attention as before. At this current point, Lily has completely healed from her lens replacement surgery and is no longer on medication for her eyes. She was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, but with prescription diet and medication we're managing that fairly well. She went for a recheck in January and had pretty good results. She'll be going back in July to Internal Medicine at MSU for a recheck to see how quickly the disease is progressing. She doesn't seem to have any symptoms except for wanting to drink a lot of water, and I hope to keep it that way for as long as possible.

I've been finding myself nostalgic for our time in Benton Harbor, when we could take the dogs to the beach and go to Fuzzy Butz pet bakery and the Kiwanis Dog Park, where a very nice lady named Vicki used to host free obedience classes on Fridays in the summer. Since we moved to Lansing Lily has had very little socialization or training. This became extremely evident when my husband and I took her and Bruno to the dog park on Abbott on Saturday. Lily wanted nothing to do with other dogs, and while she would follow me around she wouldn't listen to any commands. When she picked a fight with the nicest, shiest Cavalier King Charles Spaniel I knew that she was not ready to be reintroduced to other dogs in a dog park setting. (Bruno, on the other hand, made a bunch of friends and had a great time.)

At first I was very frustrated with her, but then I realized the monumental task I had set before our dog. I had asked her to tolerate a bunch of strange dogs in an unfamiliar setting without any firm grasp of what I wanted from her. So it was my fault.

Right now I'm looking into enrolling Lily in an obedience class. I contacted the trainer of one who sounded promising. I don't want to go into a class with a trainer who is unwilling to work with a deaf dog. Experience isn't completely necessary, Dog knows I didn't have any when we adopted Lily. I'll miss the "free" aspect of her previous class, but I'm willing to invest money in having a dog I can trust, and who trusts me.

Until I get the class thing worked out I'm going to try to do some work at home with both dogs. I worked with Lily today, where I went over some basic commands she knew plus one I've been trying to teach her forever (drop it) at home. Then I took her for a long walk and did different things we used to do in the class at Benton Harbor. I had her heel and walked and ran at various speeds, had her sit when we stopped, had her stay for short periods, had her come to me from short distances, etc. At first she was a little devil, but I was amazed at how her previous training seemed to come back to her as we kept working. I think I'm going to try alternating so that I work with Bruno tomorrow, then Lily, then Bruno, etc. I might change it so I work in the home with one and then take the other for the training walk in the evening. I figure I'll still try to take both dogs for a walk in the morning together, but not do all the stuff. Maintaining a heel position will be ideal. ;)

I worry sometimes that if something were to happen to me and my husband no one would want our dogs. I want to be able to take them places without any anxiety about them getting into trouble. And if I want all this I need to work for it. And I think the dogs will be happier for it, too.

My fifth birthday

My fifth birthday started out kind of lame. For some reason Mom had been telling herself my birthday was August 26th, when my vet records and everything else says the 25th. Silly Mom. So I stared at her while she did all kinds of other stuff- work on her computer, play video games, clean, and none of it involved me no matter how many toys I brought her. Then she got an email from Dogster wishing me a happy birthday! She was shocked a) because she'd forgotten the date and b) because of aforementioned thought it was the 26th. So she felt like a monster when she realized how wrong she was. Then it got to be my birthday! :)

Mom sent Paw a message that it was my birthday. Then we played a lot of tug. She made a batch of peanut butter and oatmeal cookies and stuffed a silicone cupcake cup with some of the dough that was mixed with BilJac treats. Next she found the traditional birthday hat and collar for me. When Paw got home after dinner we took the birthday walk- where I wear my birthday gear for all the world to see. :) After that he had to go to class, but Mom took the time to frost my birthday cake with cream cheese mixed with canned food, plus a dusting of crushed Milkbone. When Paw got home they sang "Happy Birthday" to me and Paw helped me blow out the candles. I had to split my cake with Bruno, but I got the bigger piece because I was the birthday girl. :)

I got to sleep on the big bed with Mom and Paw instead of in my crate (though I woke up a few times and barked, which woke them up). Today my pawrents are taking me to Petco to pick out a birthday gift. It'll be something awesome because they still feel guilty about almost forgetting. So thank you Dogster, for reminding my pawrents about my birthday so it could be nearly as special as me. :)

April 5, 2010

On Friday Mom and Paw took me and Bruno to the dog park again. We had so much fun! I even relaxed a bit and played with a small dog named Whiskey. I'm usually velcroed to one of my pawrents legs, but I'm beginning to understand that the park is supposed to be fun! :) Bruno always plays with a bunch of dogs and has a lot of fun, so I guess I can too.

He didn't have fun the next day, though. His luxating patella bothers him sometimes and after all the park running he was limping pretty bad. Mom gave him some beefy dog aspirins before bed but apparently it didn't agree with his tummy. We woke up to seven piles of puke the next day. He was fine after a while, but Mom still felt bad about trying to help him feel better. We need to get to the vet this month so Mom's going to ask about medicines that'll help him on bad days but not upset his tummy.

On Sunday we all went to Mom's aunt's house in Spring Lake for Easter. She had tied ribbons on my and Bruno's collars for festiveness. When we got there I greeted everyone very enthusiastically. I loved playing with her cousin Kelsey, and Bruno and I even got to have a teeny tiny bit of ham. All in all, it was a good day.

March 27 2010

Today we went to the dog park for the first time in 2010. There were lots of dogs there. I pretty much stuck by my pawrents, but Bruno ran around and played with everyone. We met this nice guy who had a Boston Terrier that had also been adopted through the Midwest Boston Terrier Rescue. That was really cool.

Mom was proud of me for the most part. I was pretty good around the other dogs until the very end of our visit. I snapped at a few dogs that made me mad or startled me, but I didn't get in any fights! :) (mom thinks it's cause the other dogs happened to have been well behaved.)

I kinda forgot how to play fetch at the park though. Mom would throw a toy or a stick and I remembered to run up to it, but wasn't sure what to do after that. I'm sure it'll come back to me after a few more visits. I play fetch in the house and bring the toy back to whoever threw it, but I don't think that's what I'm supposed to do when playing fetch at the park. Or is it?

My pawrents want to try and take me and Bruno to the park once a week so we can learn better social skills and get more exercise. I'm excited about all the people I'll get to meet. :)

March 15 2010

Mom needs to get better at being my scribe. She's been lazy. ;)

Last week the pawrents were on Spring Break and so we did a lot of napping. But now that school's started again they're out of the house. :( They did take me and Bruno for a walk this morning. It was all cold and a little rainy. Mom took me and Bruno again after class in the evening and it was warm and sunny. Living in Michigan is weird sometimes. Maybe now that the weather's warming up and Bruno and I can go outside we'll get to go to the dog park and stuff! :)

September 23 2009

The day started out a little bad. Basically, I kept blinking my right eye funny and wouldn't open it all the way. Mom was freaking out because she was worried I was having complications over a year after cataract surgery. Dad was practical and examined my eye for hair or dust or anything. Then he rinsed my eye a bit and it seemed better.

After our morning walk, though, Mom still thought I was blinking too much and insisted Dad call my opthomologist for a check-up. He did, and it turned out there was a cancellation and they had a slot open in the afternoon. He made the appointment.

In the waiting room I was a little bad. Every now and then I would bark and Dad says that whenever I barked I would set this scotty dog to barking for like ten minutes! He says it's lucky I couldn't hear the scotty dog, or else the lobby would have never known a moment's peace.

The opthomologist said that my eyes were fine, and that I didn't even need medication for them anymore or anything! By the time of the appointment my blinky eye was completely better, turns out Mom was worried for nothing. :) But I was overdue for a recheck, anyway, so yey Mom and Dad! :) Now I just have to have my recheck with internal medicine. I don't like those rechecks as much, I don't get to go anywhere or be petted by new people. Mom just follows me first thing in the morning and tries to catch my pee in a big spoon, which Dad then takes away. Definately not as fun as my opthomology checkups. ;)

Lily's Mom Here

Still nothing conclusive for Lily. The doctors suspect chronic kidney disease but they still haven't ruled out infection or something she got into. We have to take her back for tests in a few weeks, but in the meantime she has to be on a special diet. There is no cure for chronic kidney disease, you can only hope to slow it's progression with diet.

She's on these low-protein, low-phosphorus canned foods. I feel kind of bad because all her life I've been feeding her this premium, high protein food and apparently that would be like the worst thing I could do if her kidneys are failing. The vets gave us three kinds to try. Two of them were unremarkable, but the Purina one did not treat her, or the rest of the household, so well. She was very stinky. :(

I also have to add water to her food, one of the problems with kidney disease is that a dog will not drink enough water to flush out the stuff building up in the kidneys. So Lily gets to have soup for every meal. Imagine a bowl of water with canned dog food mixed in and a few bits of kibble floating on top. Yeah, it's pretty much the grossest thing you've ever seen in your life. ;)

In order to be diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, she would have to have the same abnormal test results for three months. We don't know what the future holds, but we'll do everything we can for her.

Test Results Inconclusive

Mom got my test results on Friday- negative for Addison's. She'd breathe a sigh of relief except that the doctors are still worried about me and suggested I have more tests done with their internal medicine department. They suspect something is wrong with my kidney's. I haven't had anything bad occur since last Monday, but my pawrents still want me to have more tests done. Hopefully I'll know what happened by the end of this week. :)

The Worst Birthday Ever

Though my family celebrated my birthday with me on Sunday, my actual birthday was on Monday. It started out normal- my Mom cleaned the house and I tried to help her (which she never appreciates). She was cleaning the bathroom and she used all kinds of crazy smelling stuff, but she kicked me out every time I went in there because it was, "dangerous."

Moms.

Then she went to work. She works out of our apartment, which is a very good arrangement because with Dad's law school schedule someone needs to be around for me and Bruno. She came out of her office at lunch and took me and Bruno outside for potties and fed us, then she laid down.

I started to not feel so good. Mom nudged me when she became concerned. You see, when she was laying down she noticed a ton of lights reflecting off the cars in the street and onto our ceiling. Usually this drives me crazy and I chase them and bark at them. This time I was just laying around. When she woke me up it was obvious something was wrong. I kept blinking my eyes rapidly and trembling. She asked me to follow her out of the bedroom and when I got up to walk towards her my movements were very jerky and it was clear I was having trouble walking.

She was very worried, so to keep an eye on me she shut me up with her in her office (I'm usually not allowed) to go back to work after lunch. About half an hour later I threw up. She cleaned it up and brought me some water, which I wouldn't drink. I laid down behind her, but it was clear that I wasn't getting any better. She left work to rush me to the emergency vet.

It took us a very long time to be seen, because some other doggies were having a worse day than I, though it wasn't their birthday. :( I laid on my Mom's lap, listless, which made her very scared because people kept coming up to me and petting me and I barely reacted. Usually I wiggle all around, but even laying there like a lump I'm the cutest darn thing around. ;)

After several tests, Mom got the all-clear to take me home. I had pretty much gotten better by myself, so the doctors said that Mom could take me home and bring me back if it happened again or get more tests like an x-ray, complete bloodwork and urine testing. After calling Dad and discussing it with him, they decided to go with basic bloodwork and urine test but hold on any other tests pending those results. The theory was that I had gotten a hold of something and eaten it, even though Mom wracked her brain and couldn't think of anything I could have gotten and Dad had searched the apartment while we were gone for anything suspicious like an open bottle of aspirin or something and found nothing.

I was my regular, bouncy self when we left and this time when people petted me I squiggled my little heart out. It was my birthday, after all. :)

Tuesday morning Mom got a call from the vet- they think something is wrong with my endocrine system. They think it might be something with my kidneys, or something called Addison's disease. As far as we can tell, a dog with Addison's has something where the body doesn't produce certain chemicals correctly and can occasionally go into an Addison's crisis, which would have symptoms similar to what I experienced on my birthday. I had to go to the hospital for more tests. We won't know until Friday, because Addison's is very rare and the only place in the whole country that does the test for it happens to be my vet here, but they only do the tests twice a week. So far I feel completely fine, but that was a very scary experience and I'm glad my pawrents are working to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Happy 3rd Birthday to Me!

On August 25th I will be three years old. :) My family had a party for me today because Mom has work tomorrow and Dad has school.

It's a little different because we're in a new town now. My previous two birthday's my pawrents would take me to my favorite places, Fuzzy Butz Pet Bakery, Paw Mart, the dog park... but here we don't have those things. They made sure I had a lot of fun anyway. :)

Mom gave me and Bruno a bath and then I got to have my pawnails painted. Then I got to wear the traditional birthday hat and collar and go for a walk. Mom assures me there were a lot of oohs and aahs. ;)

Afterwards I got to open presents. I got an extradurable loofa-dog and a brand new collar. It's black and has little pink skulls and crossbones on it. :)

Instead of a Fuzzybutz birthday cake I got to have a birthday steak. I'd be hard pressed to say which I preferred. It took me a while to figure out how to tear it apart and eat it, but once she'd given it to me Mom was not allowed near it to help me. I'm a big girl now. :)