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 Sees the Vet

I guess they are taking turns. This month it is Pinky who is sick; last month it was Chi-Chi. Wednesday she was perfectly fine. Thursday morning I set out their breakfasts and only Chi-Chi came to eat. Pinky wasn't coming. I called and called, but nothing. This is highly unusual behavior for Pinky. When I found her she was cowering in the bedroom. I bent down to pick her up and she cried out in pain. I put her in front of her food and she ate. I had to carry her down the stairs of the deck so that she could do her business out there.

It seemed to me that she could not look up. Pinched nerve. She has had this in the past, so I made an appointment and she went to the vet last night. Of course, she didn't cry out in pain when she was there, but when the vet was feeling her neck, Pinky tensed up. They gave her an anti-inflammatory shot and took home meds for her to take. It should clear up in a few days.

My dad is insisting that the dog food I am feeding Pinky is the tainted dog food that has been recalled. Even though I know it isn't, he is insisting it is. Pinky eats Hill's Prescription canned dog food that I buy at the vets. Hills Country is one of the brands recalled. It isn't the same brand or company. I had to ask the vet, and she confirmed that none of the food that they dispense is part of the recall. I knew it was a silly thing to ask because I checked the can and manufacturer etc, but when your dad is nagging you....well, you just gotta ask sometimes.

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!

When a Pet is Sick

Those of us with pets know a love like no other. My Chihuahuas were my first babies before there was ever a two-legged baby in my life. Boy did I treat them like babies too. I would carry them around as if they couldn’t walk on their own and I cuddled with them and gave kisses and just spoiled them in general. In return I had two fiercely loyal companions who charged to greet me at the door every day when I came home. They leap into my lap as soon as I was seated. I was rewarded with sweet and sometimes not so sweet doggy kisses. So when Pinky first got sick, I was terrified.

She is a part of me and I simply could not imagine a day without Pinky in my life, and yet that is what I had to contend with. What ifs could drive a person insane, I know, but the reality was that I could lose her. I was not ready for that. Then I was wondering how Chi-Chi would react to not having her older sister around.

Pinky was only 9 years old and had lots of years left in her. She started having pee accidents in the house. This was unusual for her, so I knew something was wrong. The vet thought she probably just had a urinary tract infection (UTI) and prescribed anti-biotic and took a pure urine sample from her bladder. He cautioned that it could be a sign of something more serious like bladder stones.

She started the meds, but I didn’t see a huge improvement. The vet called to say that her tests came back positive for a UTI, so the meds he prescribed should be helping. I said that she was still peeing in the house only now it seemed like she was having trouble peeing. He scheduled a sonogram for Pinky to see if she had bladder stones.

The bad news was that she did have bladder stones, five to be exact. He recommended surgery to remove them and we decided to leave her at the hospital and have the surgery done immediately. She came through the surgery just fine and the stones were really pointy. She must have been in a lot of pain and never let on.

The stones were sent out to see what they were composed of which would tell us how she needed to be treated. Sometimes it would require medication and sometimes a change in diet, but the composition of the stones would let the vet know. The results took weeks to come back and they were mixed. It was highly unusual for the stones to be made up of different substances and that’s what we had.

I had to bring her in for some blood work to ensure she didn’t have liver disease. And no, thankfully, she does not. We are treating her now with diet. She is eating a special dog food and I have to get urine samples to see if the food is helping.

The good news is that she certainly seems fine right now. She actually likes the prescription dog food, which is a miracle because she is a fussy eater. What is the bad news? I had to contemplate a life without Pinky. It is not a happy place and I hope I don’t have to deal with this for years.

Shopping & Eating

As a group, we hired a bus to take us shopping for pearls. I was able to buy a lovely necklace for my daughter. I watched them string the pearls right in front of me. We will give this to her on her 15th birthday I think.

We finished up our shopping quickly and the bus was not going to return for another hour or so. Since it was nearing lunchtime, we decided to get a bite to eat. AR saw a McDonald's on the corner and it was like a beacon pulling us in.

The McDonald's was a three floor restaurant. We went to the second floor and waited on line like everyone else. A manager came over to us and asked us to sit down. In fact, they asked people who were eating to move over so that we could sit and eat there and they did!

The manager sent an employee over to take our order. Everyone orders the same way. They are given a plastic laminated menu and they point to the picture of what they want (locals too, not just us foreigners), so we did the same. They took our money, brought us our change and then our food.

We were pretty puzzled as to why we were being treated like royalty. Others in our group went to the same McDonald's and they were not treated the same way, so we don't know why we were treated so special. I made a bottle for Katrina and she gulped it down quickly. Then she ate some french fries!

Later at night AR went down to the medical clinic too. He came back with all kinds of medicine, including a similar looking herbal tincture. After he tasted that he said he knew why Katrina was screaming when we squirted the medicine in her mouth. It tasted awful!

Since two of the three of us were sick, we decided to eat in the hotel restaurant this evening. Katrina kept dropping food on the floor and the waiters kept running over to pick up the food. I had to drop off some paperwork in our travel coordinator's room tonight. We were getting Katrina's visa photo and medical exam in the morning.