Logan
10-13-2006, 02:42 PM
I figured I would start a new thread to talk about my Lil. I feel some relief, this afternoon, and hopefully my sweet girl does, too.
I got slammed on the instant messenger, as soon as I started up the computer, when we got home, so I'm just now able to post! It is so nice to know that people care. Lilly and I have lots of good friends out there in our "cyber" world, and it means so much! :)
First of all, it wasn't anything "horrible", so our minds can be at ease about that. All 3 issues are unrelated.
He feels she is having allergy issues with her eyes, so we have antibiotic drops for that.
He also feels that the diarrhea is not related to the pain issue at all, just coincidental. Lilly has been prone to episodes of diarrhea, periodically, for several years and it is because she tends to eat things she shouldn't (dead things). She got a shot to help her with that and medication.
The hips are the main concern. He truly believes that the elevated temperature was probably due to the inflammation in her hips, so that makes me feel better, and I guess the ER vet wasn't off base on that one, after all. He told me that he did not x-ray her today because we have already established, years ago, that she has hip dysplasia, and there was no need to go to expense of a new x-ray and putting her under anesthesia to take them. I appreciate the fact that he is sensitive about cost and unnecessary anesthesia. He said his hope was always that the hips wouldn't cause her a major problem and had not expected her to have so much trouble when she is still relatively young, but it is what it is. He gave her a shot for pain to help her, immediately, and he observed her while she was there (she was the office dog for the day and was not caged). She said "thank you" for that. He is going to treat her with pain medication, right now (Loritab), and wants to take some time to do some investigating into medication that we can use on an ongoing basis with her. He is not keen on Rimadyl for her at this point because she would have to take it regularly, and it has so many negative side effects. He said if she were elderly, he might take a different approach, but since she is not, he doesn't even want to tempt fate by using it. Again, I appreciate his candor and caring attitude about that. He is going to get back to me next week on that when I take Mack in. Whatever he decides on will probably be a lifelong med for her, so he wants to be careful and also to see if he can find something that won't be so terribly expensive.
We talked about surgery. I asked him if he thought it was an answer. He does not do hip replacement surgeries, himself, and he said the only surgical answer would be a total hip replacement, and he does not advocate it. He said it is terribly invasive and also very, very expensive (that part I knew). He said the only hospital that he would even recommend is Ohio State University because they are the ones that mastered this surgery technique. He said that he believes we can manage her pain with a regular regime of medication, we'll just keep on working on it until we find the right thing to keep her comfortable.
Lilly must go on a more strict diet, too. He would like to see her weigh 70-75 pounds. She was 88 pounds today. Lilly has weighed as much as 98 pounds, before, so we know we can get it off, will just have to ease her into a diet food, rather than the regular food she is eating now. I told her that if she would lose 13 pounds, I would, too! LOL!! She only gets a cup in the morning and a cup at night, so we need to switch to something with less fat, I guess. I'll probably switch Honey, too, just to make it easier. Honey is not "fat", but it won't hurt her to knock off a few pounds as well. Honey is a smaller framed dog, and her best weight is around 60-65. She's about 70 right now. Scott and I will "shop" for dog food tomorrow at Petsmart and online. Mack is still on puppy food and will be for a while, so I'll only have the two to change over at this point.
I've got one med here that I've got to investigate because I'm not sure what it is for. It is called Diphenoxylate and I don't think we've had that one before. Didn't realize I had it until I got home or I would have asked about it.
He also suggested doing the heated bed, so we will do that. He sent me home with two catalogs, plus we will do some checking on that, too. As you all know, my dogs are chewers, so we'll have to watch that bed closely to make sure Honey doesn't chew it up, and Lilly, too, for that matter, when she is feeling better.
OK. I think that's it for now! The sweet girl is sleeping. I swear, she looks just like Zip as all I can see is the top of her head and her eyes. She has those white, raccoon rings around her eyes, just like Zipper did.
I hope that each and every one of you can enjoy the relationship with your veterinarian that I have with mine. He actually apologized for not being available to me Wednesday night. I reminded him that I know he does not work on Wednesday nights!! Bless his heart, he just always aims to please and get to the bottom of these issues.
Thanks again, everyone. Sorry for being so dramatic this week. I was just scared to death, as you know.
Love,
Logan
I got slammed on the instant messenger, as soon as I started up the computer, when we got home, so I'm just now able to post! It is so nice to know that people care. Lilly and I have lots of good friends out there in our "cyber" world, and it means so much! :)
First of all, it wasn't anything "horrible", so our minds can be at ease about that. All 3 issues are unrelated.
He feels she is having allergy issues with her eyes, so we have antibiotic drops for that.
He also feels that the diarrhea is not related to the pain issue at all, just coincidental. Lilly has been prone to episodes of diarrhea, periodically, for several years and it is because she tends to eat things she shouldn't (dead things). She got a shot to help her with that and medication.
The hips are the main concern. He truly believes that the elevated temperature was probably due to the inflammation in her hips, so that makes me feel better, and I guess the ER vet wasn't off base on that one, after all. He told me that he did not x-ray her today because we have already established, years ago, that she has hip dysplasia, and there was no need to go to expense of a new x-ray and putting her under anesthesia to take them. I appreciate the fact that he is sensitive about cost and unnecessary anesthesia. He said his hope was always that the hips wouldn't cause her a major problem and had not expected her to have so much trouble when she is still relatively young, but it is what it is. He gave her a shot for pain to help her, immediately, and he observed her while she was there (she was the office dog for the day and was not caged). She said "thank you" for that. He is going to treat her with pain medication, right now (Loritab), and wants to take some time to do some investigating into medication that we can use on an ongoing basis with her. He is not keen on Rimadyl for her at this point because she would have to take it regularly, and it has so many negative side effects. He said if she were elderly, he might take a different approach, but since she is not, he doesn't even want to tempt fate by using it. Again, I appreciate his candor and caring attitude about that. He is going to get back to me next week on that when I take Mack in. Whatever he decides on will probably be a lifelong med for her, so he wants to be careful and also to see if he can find something that won't be so terribly expensive.
We talked about surgery. I asked him if he thought it was an answer. He does not do hip replacement surgeries, himself, and he said the only surgical answer would be a total hip replacement, and he does not advocate it. He said it is terribly invasive and also very, very expensive (that part I knew). He said the only hospital that he would even recommend is Ohio State University because they are the ones that mastered this surgery technique. He said that he believes we can manage her pain with a regular regime of medication, we'll just keep on working on it until we find the right thing to keep her comfortable.
Lilly must go on a more strict diet, too. He would like to see her weigh 70-75 pounds. She was 88 pounds today. Lilly has weighed as much as 98 pounds, before, so we know we can get it off, will just have to ease her into a diet food, rather than the regular food she is eating now. I told her that if she would lose 13 pounds, I would, too! LOL!! She only gets a cup in the morning and a cup at night, so we need to switch to something with less fat, I guess. I'll probably switch Honey, too, just to make it easier. Honey is not "fat", but it won't hurt her to knock off a few pounds as well. Honey is a smaller framed dog, and her best weight is around 60-65. She's about 70 right now. Scott and I will "shop" for dog food tomorrow at Petsmart and online. Mack is still on puppy food and will be for a while, so I'll only have the two to change over at this point.
I've got one med here that I've got to investigate because I'm not sure what it is for. It is called Diphenoxylate and I don't think we've had that one before. Didn't realize I had it until I got home or I would have asked about it.
He also suggested doing the heated bed, so we will do that. He sent me home with two catalogs, plus we will do some checking on that, too. As you all know, my dogs are chewers, so we'll have to watch that bed closely to make sure Honey doesn't chew it up, and Lilly, too, for that matter, when she is feeling better.
OK. I think that's it for now! The sweet girl is sleeping. I swear, she looks just like Zip as all I can see is the top of her head and her eyes. She has those white, raccoon rings around her eyes, just like Zipper did.
I hope that each and every one of you can enjoy the relationship with your veterinarian that I have with mine. He actually apologized for not being available to me Wednesday night. I reminded him that I know he does not work on Wednesday nights!! Bless his heart, he just always aims to please and get to the bottom of these issues.
Thanks again, everyone. Sorry for being so dramatic this week. I was just scared to death, as you know.
Love,
Logan