You make me laugh (or smile) the sweet, funny, loving things my dogs do on a daily basis that brings a smile to my face or a laugh to my lips.
Sampson and Delilah, the way you tend to look in opposite directions when I ask you to pose for a photo…..
You frustrate me, but you also make me laugh.
Your turn, what do your babies do when you pull out the camera? Are they posers? Or hosers like mine?
Delilah is a voracious chewer. Give her a beef bone and this dog will gnaw for hours. Give her an antler and she’ll chew until her teeth bleed and you take it away. (FTR, I only did that once!)
What do you do with a dog that likes to chew, but can’t chew traditional bones or antlers?
For the longest time I used those big white bones that come filled with peanut butter or cheese. I’d scrape the filling out and refill the bones with pumpkin, yogurt, Kefir or fruit and refill it and freeze it.
Until at Delilah’s annual check up in June when our vet told us that Delilah had a broken tooth. At that point I switched her over to a frozen Kong. Am I certain the bones were responsible for the broken tooth? No. No I’m not. But I’d rather not take a chance.
My poor girl, the tooth was definitely bothering her as the vet could see that plaque was beginning to build up around that tooth, which meant she was being careful not to chew on that side. We scheduled her dental cleaning for August. (Dentals book up fast in our practice.)
Then the routine blood work showed her liver levels were elevated so we did an ultrasound on her liver, which showed the liver was normal size, shape and texture. We encountered a problem however with our credit card. Wells Fargo sent us a new credit card in March, it had a substantial limit with nothing on it. I activated the card and put it away for emergencies. When the ultrasound and broken tooth came up, we figured, “good thing we have this card.”
Except it turns out we didn’t.
When we went to pay for Delilah’s ultrasound, the card was declined. When Hubby called the bank he was told the account was closed for inactivity. After the card was mailed to us and activated by me. So there we were standing at the vet’s office with a $500 bill for an ultrasound and no way to pay it. The vet’s office agreed to take a deposit from me and future payments, but couldn’t spot us the dental as well as the ultrasound, so poor Delilah’s dental had to be postponed. Believe me when I tell you I felt horrible about this.
It took us a month or so, but we finally got the bill paid and rescheduled the dental for this past Tuesday.
Thankfully she only needed the one tooth pulled, but that tooth was so bad, it had a hole in it and when the Dr. probed it, pus came out. My poor girl! When I first heard about her elevated liver levels I suspected the tooth. However the office manager at our vet said typically one tooth is not going to cause elevated liver levels. (Well time will tell on this one.)
Delilah did very well with the anesthesia and I picked her up around 5:00 pm. I was warned she would probably be whiny and restless, but I fluffed it off. It’s Delilah after-all, nothing phases her.
Until it does.
When I first saw her, I’m not really sure she even realized who I was. After a few minutes of petting her and talking to her, she was ready to go. She booked for the car and launched herself in. Typically she stands in the car for the first couple of minutes but usually settles down quickly. She rode the entire trip home going from window to window. I went slowly, taking the back roads home and let her just be in the moment, at one with life.
Once we got home she went straight to the house, but then wasn’t sure what to do. It was so hard to see her unsure of where to go and what to do with herself.
Shortly after we got home, sorry for the dark photo. I was holding her head with my right hand and trying to snap the picture with my left.
That’s a bit better, but you can see she’s out of it.
She spent a couple of hours standing in the middle of room. Just standing there. Sometimes she would whine too. It about broke me, because she’s so not a whiny dog. But as the night wore on she became more and more like herself.
Yesterday morning on her walk, she was a bit more reserved than she usually is, but she responded to commands, looked for treats when appropriate and danced for her breakfast.
Yesterday afternoon I receive a package from the Holistic Vet (more on that in another post.) Last night she ate some of the packing peanuts from the box.
I’d say she’s feeling more like herself.
Welcome to Thursday’s Barks and Bytes Blog hop hosted by 2 Brown Dogs and Heart Like a Dog.
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Delilah is a Chocolate Lab. She went for her annual checkup in June. At that time she was about 8 1/2 years old. At her appointment I asked to have her thyroid checked as she appeared (to me) to be drinking a lot. (**Note, she does take thyroid medication twice a day.)
What do you mean my liver levels are elevated?
I was floored when the vet called and said her thyroid was normal but her ALT (Alanine Transaminase) liver levels were slightly elevated. By slightly I mean, the range for ALT is 18 – 121) Delilah’s were right around 200.
First it’s important to know exactly what the liver does. According to Pet Education “The liver is an extremely important organ in the body. It is responsible for protein, fat, and carbohydrate metabolism; vitamin and mineral storage; digestion of food and detoxification of wastes.”
Since the liver’s job is to detoxify wastes, we started out with a double dose of antibiotics and a hard dose of Denamarin, thinking perhaps her liver was just feeling sluggish or something she’d eaten or been exposed to had made it angry. Denamarin is a combination of SAMe (Sah-me) and Milk Thistle. Milk Thistle is a natural herb used for liver problems. SAMe is a reaction between amino acids and molecules that carry energy. It is also used to treat liver problems as well as bile flows.
Delilah was on the antibiotics for three weeks and the Denamarin for a month. As the treatment wore down we had her tested again and the liver levels had once again risen slightly. Our vet recommended a change in supplements and suggested an ultrasound of Delilah’s liver.
The ultrasound showed the liver to be the right shape and size with no masses detected. We were advised the next step was a biopsy of the liver.
We stopped the Denamarin and added in Hepagen-C from THORNE Research. I also called our holistic vet who was not surprised that the levels had risen slightly after a course of antibiotics. He liked the Hepagen-C but wanted to add another liver support as well, so we started her on Canine Hepatic Support from Standard Process. He and I were in agreement that a biopsy wasn’t warranted at this stage. Our regular vet agreed we had time before the biopsy was necessary and I also discussed it with another vet in the practice and we all agreed no biopsy at this point.
Delilah has now been on the new protocol for about two months. Since she’s having her dental cleaning this morning, we had her blood work done last Friday and the vet called with her results Saturday afternoon. Her levels have gone up again. Her ALT is now at 236. Additionally her TBIL (Bilirubin) is right on the borderline of normal/high and her A/G Ratio (Albumin to Globulin Ratio) is creeping up to the high end of normal.
I won’t lie and tell you I’m not concerned because I am. But having researched this topic for a number of months, I feel like there could be outside factors contributing to the elevations. Since the liver’s job is to remove toxins, is there something Delilah is exposed to that isn’t agreeing with her liver?
My initial thoughts:
Time will tell. Delilah is having her tooth removed today. We will continue Delilah on the liver supports she is on now, and after her mouth has healed I will begin introducing some different proteins in her diet for variation and I’m thinking of having her checked to see if she might have allergies. Your Designer Dog had a post about an allergy kit that only requires a mouth swab.
Can I eat the swab? It sure sounds tasty.
I have a call in to our Holistic vet to discuss the changes with him and will consult not only with our own vet but another vet I trust in the practice. I don’t know whether I’ll agree to do the biopsy or not, for me the risk is great and I’m not sure what if anything the biopsy would show that would make me do anything differently.
Right now I’m comfortable with the choices we are making for Delilah, but our choices may change down the road. Since this is part of the Caring for Critters Round Robin, I will update this post as the need arises.
Caring for Critters
In yesterday’s Caring for Critters post, JoAnn at Sand Spring Chesapeakes wrote a moving post about her dog Norman and his experience with Osteosarcoma, I think she said it best. “Every medical decision is an individual one, it should be thought out carefully with the help of the Veterinary professionals and family members. To me there is no right or wrong answers as to what or how far someone should go for their pet. Each individual needs to make decisions that are right for them and ones that they will be able to live with.” Thank you JoAnn.
I am now ‘passing the Round Robin baton” on to our next blogger. Make sure to check out SlimDoggy tomorrow as we delve into obesity in pets.
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