Pinky is Home

Pinky is home and resting comfortably. Actually, she isn't resting at all! She is back to her normal self and is chasing Chi-Chi all over the house. Chi-Chi chasing is one of Pinky's favorite games. Chi-Chi is so happy to have her big sister home that she doesn't mind a bit.

The second that Pinky walked through the door, Chi-Chi was all over her. The hospital gave her a bath and she smells wonderful, but I think that Chi-Chi doesn't like the new Pinky scent. She's looking for her old smelly self. Just wait a few days Chi-Chi and she'll be back!

Pinky is in the Hospital

Poor girl. She woke up two weeks ago and the left side of her face was swollen so much that she looked like an Akita! I took her to the hospital for an emergency vet visit on a Sunday morning. She was in SO much pain that she would not even let the vet look inside her mouth. The vet suspected an abscessed tooth was the culprit.

We were sent home with pain killers and anti-biotic. The swelling went down after a few days and I made an appointment to go back so that they could get a look at her mouth. It appeared to be an tooth abscess, so Pinky was scheduled for dental surgery. They were pretty booked, but we managed to squeeze in. I didn't want to wait until the end of March which was when they originally booked her appointment.

I brought her in early this morning and she was not happy. She was not happy that she could not eat her normal breakfast (but she was absolutely gleeful when I gave her a bonus meal last night at 10:30 pm!). She conveniently forgot about the bonus meal. I thought it would make skipping breakfast less devastating, but I was wrong. However, Chi-Chi was able to gloat that she was eating a meal that Pinky had to skip!

The vet called and told me that Pinky was already awake. They had to pull five teeth, one of them was here canine (the big fang) that was the one with the abscess. She is resting and they will try to feed her later tonight. I won't be able to take her home until tomorrow sometime. They want to monitor her overnight and I think that is a

Pinky is Home

Pinky came home last night and Chi-Chi was all over her the second she walked through the front door. Chi-Chi really missed her sister and was sniffing Pinky and licking her and trailed her all over the house. Pinky didn't even seem to mind. Pinky walked all through the house. I guess she just wanted to know that everything was the way she had left it. She immediately went to her water bowl and drank some water. She ran around a little with Chi-Chi and then curled up on my lap for the night.

This morning I attempted to give Pinky the new food. It definitely smelled different from the other food. Pinky ran to the bowl, but didn't like what was in there. I tried several times in the morning to get her to eat, but she wouldn't have any of it. One of her meds has to be given with food, so I had to get some food into her stomach. I poured her some Cheerios. She devoured them! At least I was able to get her to eat something. I left food for my dad to give her for dinner.

She refused the dog food for dinner. I called the vet, but had to leave a message. I decided to feed Pinky some egg beaters. I figured they were low in fat so it should be okay for her. I cooked them up and let them cool down a bit. Pinky gobbled up the eggs. She seemed fine and there was no vomiting. The vet called me back and I explained what had happened with the food.

She recommended boiled chicken with some rice for Pinky. In the meantime, she was putting together a bag of various dog foods for me to try on Pinky to see what she likes. Pinky is a fussy eater. I don't know how easy it will be to transition her to another new food. I think I will try here and there, but I will not make a real effort until she is done with her meds. The vet will work with the nutritionist to come up with a diet for Pinky that will meet all of her nutritional needs from her pancreatitis and her bladder stones.

Is Pinky Ever Coming Home?

I really miss my doggy! I spoke to the vet several times today. She called me at 10 am to let me know that Pinky's temperature was back to normal and they were attempting to feed her baby food. If she ate the food and held it down, I would be able to bring her home tonight.

I was on pins and needles all day. I left a message for Dr. Hall, but she didn't call me back. When I went home I spoke with Dr. Hall at 5:30. She said Pinky ate the baby food in the morning and they were trying to get her to eat dog food now. They wanted to see if she could eat it and hold it down without spiking a fever. Would I be willing to pick her up even if it was later at night? ABSOLUTELY! I told her it didn't matter what time it was because I just wanted Pinky home.

The call finally came at 8 pm. I was out the door by 8:02 headed over to the animal hospital. I was in the examination room waiting for Pinky. The vet came in and Pinky jumped out of her arms and into mine. She would not stop licking me! I think she was just as happy to see me as I was to see her. The vet gave me some dog food to feed Pinky. They said she ate the dog food, but not willingly. Dr. Hall would call me tomorrow to see how Pinky was doing.

They sent me home with a liquid antibiotoc that she needs for 10 days and an anti nasuea pill she nees twice a day for 5 days and she needs a 1/4 Pepcid daily.

They didn't have my bill ready, so they said they would mail it to me. I bet it is s doozy!

Diagnosis~Pinky Day 2 in the Hospital

Pinky is spending another night at the animal hospital. Her fever was nearly 105 last night, which is very high. Her UA came back that she had some crystals forming, but that is because her urine was so concentrated due to her being so dehydrated. The vet did an ultrasound and her pancreas is inflamed, which fits with the diagnosis of pancreatitis.http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=2&cat=1580&articleid=335

Dr. Hall's main concern is getting Pinky's fever down and finding a food that she can eat immediately. They did not feed her today and she vomited once. Long term we will need to find a food that will meet her needs as far as the bladder stone problem she has, but short term the pancreatitis is more life threatening and so we need to deal with this first.

Pinky should be able to go home tomorrow if she eats without vomiting and if her fever is down. Keep your fingers crossed. I miss my Pinky, but I want her to be well.

Pinky is Sick Again

Pinky had a bad weekend. She has not been able to eat her food without throwing up. I gave her oatmeal this morning and she immediately threw it up. I don't know if it is related to the colitis from 1.5 weeks ago or not. I know she is dehydrated because she keeps drinking water. I went to work this morning and called the vet at 9 am to make an appointment for the evening.

The vet http://www.oradell.com/home.htm always asks what you are coming in for so I explained what has been going on since Friday night and her bout with colitis not that long ago. She asked if I could come in at 10:30 because they had a gastrointerologist specialist at the hospital at that time who would be able to see Pinky and she thought that might be the best bet for what she has been going through. I agree to the appointment and thankfully my boss is a real dog person and so it wasn't a problem for me to leave and then come back.

I went home to pick up Pinky, and Chi-Chi is always disappointed when I take her sister and she gets left behind. She has no way of knowing that we are going to the House of Pain. All she knows is that she is being excluded and doesn't like it one bit.

We drove to the vet and Pinky was stnding on her hind legs to look out of the window. She didn't seem to care that we were going to the vet. The specialist who saw Pinky was Dr. Hall. She was very nice and read Pinky's complete chart so she could get up to speed on her. I explained what was happening and she examined the Pinkster. She pulled on her neck skin and said she was very dehydrated. She wanted to give her antibiotics as an injection and to inject her with fluids. She thought that I should leave Pinky overnight, but said I could take her home if I really wanted, however she took Pinky's temperature and it was 104, which is very high. She recommended that I keep her at the hospital so that they could monitor her and hook her up to and IV to re-hydrate her and give her anti-naseua meds through the IV.

I was kind of stunned, because I wasn't expecting to leave the animal hospital without my precious Pinky! I know it was the best I could do for her and so I agreed to it. They gave me an estimate of $1200 which included a complete blood work, meds, overnight stay and urine analysis. They were concerned thate her bladder stones would come back (an earlier problem she had surgery for last year). Depending upon the results of her UA and blood work, they might do an ultrasound tomorrow, which was not included in the estimate. Dr. Hall said she'd call me later in the day to let me know how Pinky was doing.

Pinky Update

Dr. Hall called me to tell me how Pinky was doing. She hasn't thrown up, but they also have not given her any foods. Her temperature was still high, but she didn’t start getting the antbiotics until around 3 pm, so it could still go down in the morning. She spent the day pretty much just sleeping and resting. Pretty normal though considering how dehydrated she was. Dr. Hall will call me tomorrow to let me know how Pinky was doing.



10/9/2007 5:15 pm

Emergency Hospital Visit for Pinky

I woke up this morning and fed the dogs as usual. They ate well and went outside to do their doggy business. When Pinky came in I saw she had pooped on the deck. This happens quite frequently with her because her sphincter muscle has lost a lot of elasticity and she often doesn't even know the poop is coming out of her butt until it is too late, or in this case, she just couldn't get down the stairs quickly enough to make it to the grass, so she just poops on the deck. Anyway, I went out to pick it up and it looked completely normal except that it was covered in mucus. I picked it up and flushed it away. I figured she must have something going on, but I didn't see anything else amiss.

I put the dogs in the bedroom and told my husband that maybe Pinky wasn't feeling well so he should keep her off of the bed and then I took a shower. When I came out of the shower I saw a pile of, for lack of a better word, stuff on the carpet. In fact all over the carpet there were piles of stuff that looked like raspberry jam & mucus. I picked it up with a paper towel and it was blood and mucus. I assumed this was a very bad sign for Pinky. I called out sick and then got dressed to take Pinky to the animal hospital.

First I made sure my dad didn't feed Pinky anything unusual yesterday because you never know with him. He denied giving the dogs anything unusual except a little bit of egg. I knew the egg would not cause blood to come out of her butt. I didn't know what it could be, except that I just knew this was the end for Pinky. I mean, I really thought I was taking Pinky on a one way trip to the vet. I made everyone say goodbye to her, "in case of anything." My husband refused to acknowledge that there was a real problem and that there was no possibility other than Pinky coming home from the vet with some meds.

I cried all the way to the Oradell Animal Hospital http://www.oradell.com/home.htm
Pinky was just laying on a blanket on the front seat. She wasn't even trying to sit in my lap or look out of the window. I couldn't imagine my life without this sweet chihuahua. I love Pinky with all of my heart and couldn't believe that she might not be coming home with me.

At 6 am you wouldn't think that there would be many people at an animal hospital, but there were. We were seen my a triage vet technician who would assign priority to the emergency cases. Pinky seemed pretty normal other than there was dried blood on her butt. They took her temperature and she had a slight fever of 102.7. When the doctor came in I pulled out a sample of the bloody mucus that I put into a zippy bag. I didn't have the poop because I had already flushed that before knowing there was a major problem.

The vet said that Pinky had colitis http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_colitis.html
He prescribed an antibiotic and told me to add some rice into her food for a while until she started having normal poops. Colitis can be bacterial or viral. Because she had a fever, he thought it was bacterial. I was so relieved that she would be cured with some pills and was coming home! See, I am such a worry wart. The vet said that Pinky can still have the bloody mucus poops over the next 12 hours, so I shouldn't be alarmed if it keeps happening, however it should not continue after that so if it does I will have to call the vet.

Does Your Dog Fart?

Chi-Chi and I were cuddled on the couch last night. She was in my lap curled up into a little ball. I was rubbing her ears and if she could, she would have been purring. She was in Ecstasy. All was well until I heard a soft ppppfft. I wasn't even sure what that noise was at first. Then it hit me. The smell of rotting garbage was emanating from my dog's butt. OMG! It was the most horrific stench ever. The best part? She didn't even move! I guess the smell had not wafted towards her sniffer. This scent needs to be bottled, patented and shipped over to drop as a bomb in Iraq. Might end the war a little sooner.

It made me wonder whether anyone else's dog farts too?

Pinky never farts. In fact, she runs away whenever she hears a fart. That's right. Even when she is curled up next to me fast asleep, if my husband should fart (and he does) Pinky jumps high into the air and jumps off the bed. The fart doesn't even have to smell. As long as it rumbles, she is outta there.

I had a mini-schnauzer would would fart and then stand on his hind legs sniffing the air. It was as if he wondered where the fart came from. Yes, it was a sight to see. He didn't really have a gas problem. I recall that he was on some medication and the side effect was severe farting.

Pinky Update~All Good

Oops, sorry it has taken me so long to post this. Thanks for all the emails. Pinky's urine analysis came back great! In fact, it was better this time than last time. The vet asked me if she was drinking a lot of water, but I said that I really didn't see her drinking a lot. As instructed by the vet, I add a lot of water to her food. Then I put in in the microwave for about 13 seconds to get the chill off. She drinks all the water in the food and then eats the food up. I think this is her main source of water these days, so I was worried about it, but the vet says it is fine.

Since she is 10 years old, and Chihuahuas are notorious for having bad teeth, I asked when she would start losing hers. The vet always remarked that he was surprised that she still had all of her teeth every time I had brought her in. He looked in her mouth and said that she already started losing them! Geez, I hadn't even noticed that, but sure enough he was correct. He opened her mouth and two of her bottom teeth are gone! I said that I never saw them on the floor or anything. Guess what? She probably ate them! Yuck.

We started using those tooth wipes instead of brushing her teeth and I can see that they aren't as good as the old toothbrush. As much as she hates it, we will start brushing her teeth again. It definitely gets the tarter off better.

Pinky Update

Pinky recovered fine from her pinched nerve. Obviously had nothing to do with the food! Guess my dad was wrong, imagine that!

Anyway, I sent her urine sample to the vet last week and she goes in tonight for her annual exam. I am hoping the analysis is clear and all looks good for her. She has been so spry since her surgery and the new food. It is almost as if she is a puppy again.

Will post details on Pinky's update tomorrow.

Good News for Pinky

Dr. Boren called from the animal hospital to let us know that Pinky's urine test came back and it was good. No signs of a urinary tract infection, which we must avoid so that she does not get those stones again. It was such a relief and at least we know that the diet change is working.

I need to collect another sample in 4 months. Yikes!!! It took me so long to get this one, that I think I ought to start collecting now! Well, at least I know how do do it. I just have to give Pinky a lot of tea and then follow her out in the yard. Of course, in 4 months it will not be cold and so the urge to pee immediately may not be there. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.


1/20/2007

Psycho Chihuahua

Pinky is a total pyscho when it comes to wrapping paper. She loves to rip it and tear it the shreds. This is a photo of her just after she tore up paper from my daughter's birthday. Once she is done with the ripping, Pinky gets into a frenzied state. This frenzy makes her run around the house like a lunatic. I captured this one as she was tearing around the dining room table. As you can see, she is airborne here and is chasing my other dog, Chi-Chi. Chi-Chi was less than thrilled to be the object of Pinky's attention at this moment.

Pinky 20, Me 0

Pinky had some medical issues earlier this year. As a result, we had to change her diet to some specially formulated food. Luckily, she actually likes to eat this food, so that has not been a problem. What has been a problem is that I was supposed to have brought a urine sample to the vet to ensure that the food is working properly. I have been unable to obtain a urine sample from her.

Why is that? Well, she is rather skittish. I have taken her on several walks and every time she squats to pee, I am right there with my mini Tupperware trying to shove it under her. As soon as I get there, she stops peeing. She is quite adept at this dance by now. I have changed containers, but still with no luck. I estimate my attempts at 20 and I have been skunked each time.

I MUST get this sample. I know I can bring her to the vet and they can extract a sample from her, but that will cost beaucoup bucks. Since the sample doesn't have to be "pure" the vet suggested I save some dough and get it myself. Up til now, the attempts have been fruitless. I am determined to get this pee sample. I am setting a deadline of obtaining it by December 31st, 2006. Wish me luck!

Fleabag!

My dogs have never had fleas. I used to put these chemicals on them to prevent fleas. However I stopped using this last year because Pinky had a bad reaction. She was doing all of these odd movements. I don’t just mean trying to get the medicine off of her, because they both did that, but she was doing these jerky motions. It scared me and I bathed her to try and get the meds off. Chi-Chi seemed unaffected.

Someone told me to give the dogs garlic pills. It is a natural flea inhibitor. Guess they don’t like the smell of garlic, kind of like vampires, huh? Pinky LOVED the taste of the pills. Now the pills are very big pills. They crumble easily, so when I tried to cut them in half, they powdered. She ate them without the aid of peanut butter, which is indeed rare. Normally I have to hide the pills in cheese or peanut butter to get them to eat the pill, so I was happy she ate them like a treat.

Chi-Chi, on the other hand, did not like the smell at all. Even doused in peanut butter, she would only eat part of the pill. I’d find the other half, and sometimes all of it, under the couch with the peanut butter licked off. I thought about crumbling it in her food, but then I figured that she wouldn’t eat her food, and as much as she needs to slim down, I didn’t want that.

When Pinky had her bladder problem, I stopped all the supplements I was giving them for fear that the supplements were causing her stones. This was in May-June. So I got out of the habit of giving them their all-natural flea repellant. Do you see where this is going?

I notice Pinky was scratching a lot. I pulled her fur to see if I could spot a flea and I didn’t see any. Still, I decided that I’d better give them a bath. They both went into the sink for a bath, but all I had was regular doggy shampoo. I didn’t have flea shampoo. Why would I have that? They never had fleas!

I kept them both off the bed for a few days, which was a feat in and of itself. Pinky was easy because she cannot jump onto the bed. Do you know how many times a night I had to deflect Chi-Chi as she attempted to hurdle herself up there? 4-5 times every night. She was a persistent doggy!

I’m petting Pinky a few nights later and I feel something hard on her back. I literally had to pull it off of her. It looked like dirt. I kept petting her and I kept finding more and more of it. I sat her on a piece of paper and started brushing her and this dirt was coming off. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew it wasn’t good. I examined her again and then I saw it. A FLEA. It was too quick for me to get it off of her. I figured that the dirt I pulled off was from the flea and it turns out that is a telltale sign that your dog has fleas.

I gave AR a list of things to buy: flea shampoo, flea spray for the room and flea dip. I remember years ago they had flea dip that you would put on your dog and it would get the fleas off. I also started the garlic pills again and settled on only giving Chi-Chi half a pill since that was all she would eat anyway. I checked Chi-Chi, but she did not have the dirt on her. I didn’t see any fleas either.

The pet supply store recommended a flea & tick liquid that you put between their shoulder blades. It was a different brand than I had used in the past, so that was purchased along with the room spray. They refused to carry flea dip as it has been known to cause blindness in some dogs. They also advised not to use the medicine and the flea shampoo, just one or the other or the dogs will get over-medicated.

No bad reactions from either dog, I am pleased to say. Within three days, the flea dirt is now gone from Pinky. Chi-Chi still is dirt free. Poor Pinky felt so rejected though because I refused to pick her up and tote her around the way I normally did, plus she wasn’t allowed on the bed even though she let me know every morning and evening that she wanted to come up. I had to tell her to Go TO YOUR BED and she was not pleased.

Lesson learned. Don’t stop flea treatments during flea season!