Here We Go Again

More trouble for Boomer! Last night he wasn't putting any weight on his right back leg -- same one he is obsessed with licking. He's not himself -- while he normally spends most of the day sleeping as he is today, he does it upstairs in our bedroom. He has not moved off the love seat since before Bob left for work this morning.

I called the vet this morning & the earliest they could get him in was at 4 this afternoon. Since he's sleeping, I don't think he's in excruciating pain so I will wait rather than taking him to an emergency vet.

Something isn't right and I don't like it.

I Don't Like

Boomer came home Saturday morning, and for ten days, we must keep him calm, from going upstairs, and take him outside on a leash. This dog is impossible to keep calm so he has sedatives to take for most of the ten day "calm time".

We didn't want to put a gate on the stairs for 10 days so his VERY large crate was at the bottom of the stairs. The only problem was every time we wanted to go up or down we had to move the very large cage and move it back. This got old very quickly. I moved it to the hallway still blocks the stairs from boomer (and us), but it isn't right at the bottom of the stairs. Instead of moving the cage use the front door for access to upstairs & the garage door or access to the main floor. Yes, we have to go out of our house to go from one floor to another...LOL!! And I DON'T LIKE!

Only 8 more days until I can go from one floor to the other in my house like a normal person.

Here We Go Again

Over the weekend Boomer started licking that spot on his leg -- AGAIN! His system must have adjusted to the meds. So it was back to the vet today. However, this time it is not just for that. Monday afternoon I noticed a few drops of blood here & there on the floor. I knew they were from Boomer, but thought it was from the spot on his leg. Turns out it was not -- this morning when I took him out potty I could tell there was blood in his urine. The vet could tell either his bladder or prostate were enlarged when she felt. An x-rays followed by an ultrasound confirmed it is his prostate. They believe he has BPH -- yep, un-neutered male dogs can get it too. Who knew? So Friday he will be neutered.

Bob can explain why Boomer wasn't already neutered...LOL! I don't lose many battles in the house, but that is one I lost. :D Now Bob is freaking out because "his boy" has to have surgery. GRR -- we should have done this in the first place! Can I say I told you so? LOL!!

Wowzer, What a Night

I went to bed around 11:45 last night! Bob was up finishing a little bit of work, but ended up falling asleep in his chair (not unusual...lol). The dogs, Boomer & Chevy came to bed with me. Chevy was down by my feet & Boomer was next to me in Bob's spot. I fell asleep quickly and was sleeping soundly when I heard a loud bang that startled me out of my sleep. I noticed Boomer hunkered down next to the wall panting heavily. He looked really strange and was making no attempt to get up. I called Bob into the room & Boomer finally moves, but he really didn't have control of his body. For a few minutes he could not hold himself up. He would fall over to the right if he wasn't against a wall or being held up. When he did walk, his front legs were really far in front of him and his rear legs were really far behind him.

I called the vet, who I know will be closed, to get an emergency number. Called that number and was told to bring him in. Bob was going to try to carry Boomer, who is 80 lbs, down the stairs, but Boomer didn't like that idea and began to growl & show his teeth to Bob. I went downstairs to get his leash so we have some control of how fast & far he can get on the steps since he was starting to walk a tiny bit better by this time. Boomer decided he didn't want to wait for me to come back with the leash, escapes from Bob & goes down the stairs on his own. Instead of walking down, he fell down the entire flight. He was barely phased by the falling and just got up and walked, as best he could, to the kitchen.

We get him in the car, drive him the 40 minutes or so to the vet ER, and we he gets out of the car he is normal again! Of course! The vet did notice his head was still a bit to the right when he examined him, but by the end of the exam that was normal too.

They aren't sure what happened, but think it was a vestibular episode related to idiopathic vestibular syndrome. A disorder in older dogs -- the disorder causes stroke like symptoms. There are other things that could cause this to happen as well, but since it cleared up so quickly they think this is likely what happened. According to the vet, he may never have one again or it could be recurring.

I spoke to our regular vet this morning. She & the vet he saw last don't think any other blood work is necessary at this point since he just had a complete check a few weeks ago. Neither of them thought anything they would be looking for now would change that quickly in such a short period of time. We are just supposed to keep & eye on him and if it happens again we need to bring him in immediately. If it does happen again, then we will go from there.

I am crossing my fingers, hoping, praying, etc. that it never happens again. That was one of the scariest things I have seen in my life.

Poor Boomer the Sequel!

You probably remember my post about the sore on Boomer's leg. Well, it never healed completely. It was doing really, really well, but we could not take the "lampshade" off for more than 30 seconds without him starting to lick at it again. He ended up cracking the "lampshade" from the vet when he hit it on something after coming in from outside on a very cold day. I picked up a replacement at a pet supply chain & it just didn't work as well as the one from the vet. He figured out how to move it so he could reach that spot on his leg. We obviously can't watch him 24 hours day, but did the best we could when we were home to keep him distracted from that spot. It was starting to get raw again so I called the vet immediately.

We saw the vet today. He is back on the antibiotic and ointment, has a new "lampshade", AND will be going on an antidepressant drug. What he has is called a lick granuloma. There is NOTHING physically wrong aside from the infection he has cause from the constant licking. Some dogs respond well to being on this sort of drug for stopping this problem. He has has always been an anxious, nervous dog so I am hopeful that this will help him with more than the lick granuloma. :)

Poor Boomer

About three weeks ago I came home from running errands, and Boomer was favoring his right back leg. Sometimes he would put no weight on it at all, but other times he walked with a slight limp. I called the vet, and they said to watch him for a day or so and if there was no improvement they should see him. He was fine probably less than 24 hours later.

A little over a week after that I noticed a small round sore the same leg near his foot. He has had hot spots before, and I figured that's what it was again. I treated it with the stuff our vet recommended for when he has one flare up. It showed some improvement until last week -- when he started licking & chewing at it more. It was worsening by the day so today I took him to the vet.

They took x-rays to make sure there was nothing going on in the bone -- all clear. They took some cells from the area (there is a lump there) to check for cancer -- all clear. They think he may have had some sort of minor injury like a bruise or sprain that he made worse with the frequent licking & chewing.

He is now has an oral antibiotic, a topical antibiotic/steroid, and this...

As you can tell from the picture, he's not very happy about the "Elizabethan collar"!