Daisy’s second follow-up vet visit

I’m SO, SO happy to report that Daisy turned a major corner last week and started walking more normally – she even tried to run and jump! She’s looking like her happy self again, her eyes are bright and she’s very interested in her toys. She even wants to climb on our laps for cuddles. 😀 😀 😀

I’m finally back where I belong! 🙂

Yesterday morning was her second follow-up vet visit and he was very pleased with her progress. We got THE smile from him that we were hoping for!

We still have to finish up the anti-inflammatory pills over the next two weeks and she’s still on “restricted activities” – no long walks, just several short outings per day, and no jumping EVER again. When we pick her up, we have to support her entire length and keep her level with the ground. We can live with that!

And even more good news is that she can have baths again (much to her chagrin and our absolute joy) – and boy does she need one, three weeks is far too long for Daisy! Especially since there were some pretty nasty 90+ degree days during that time. Her hair and nails are all overgrown, her hair is extra curly and feels more like a Berber carpet than a soft Havachon!

Oh no, not this again…

And we can pick her up and bring her onto the couch with us – we’ve all missed our Daisy cuddles, and she clearly did too. During her floor time these past weeks, when we’re on the couch, she’s restless and can’t settle herself for too long because she wants to be with us. She kept standing near us with big pleading eyes, a gently wagging tail and a soft whine. It was so hard to say no.

But why can’t I come cuddle with you like I always do?

Again, thank you all for your POTP, prayers, and well wishes. You helped us as much as you helped Daisy. Our blogging community is THE BEST! 🙂

Daisy’s follow-up vet visit

First off, I can’t tell you how moved we all are at the outpouring of prayers, positive thoughts, and support we received from everyone. You all mean so much to us and it really helped to feel that support. The pet blogging community is the best in the world. 🙂

I don’t know which of our lovely blog buddies told POTP about Daisy’s injury, but some wonderful person did and they put her up on their site. Whoever you are, we send you lots of love and thanks for being so thoughtful. We met some beautiful new friends through POTP, and we visit the site every day to give back the strength and love we received. If you haven’t been to POTP (Power Of The Paw), you can click the link to get there and help other pets and pet parents through difficult times.

Well, we have good news, okay news, and not-so-great (but not terrible!) news from the follow-up visit with our vet.

The good news: Daisy is out of the woods with the paralysis risk. However, if this happens again, she’ll face the same risk. The vet said he looks for any signs of forward movement and no signs of worsening, and he was pleased that she looked slightly improved and definitely not worse, but not enough to make him smile (that’s his tell!) except when he was sweet-talking her. Also, her attitude is much improved and she doesn’t look scared all the time – only when she feels pain. She’s taking an interest again and actually chewed her Nylabone today! She was also able to eat by herself from her food bowl instead of having to be hand-fed. 🙂

I couldn’t take a picture of Daisy when she was at her worst because I don’t want to remember her that way. But here she is yesterday – still not her little sprightly Daisy face, but better than before. This is one of her long lie-down breaks she takes when she goes for a quick “taking care of business” trip outside.

The okay news: She has a slipped disc that’s causing most of the back pain. She’s walking better but still taking very tentative steps and can’t roll onto her back – sometimes she can lie on her side, other times she can’t. When DD or DH come into the house and she gets excited, I have to hold her back but she still starts yiping. I think her muscles must tense with excitement and that causes her pain.

“I remember the good ol’ days when I could romp over grass tufts…”

The not-so-great (but not terrible!) news: She will have this problem for the rest of her life, and it is considered a degenerative condition. She’s not allowed to do any more jumping – since her leg injury, we’ve only let her jump up onto things and not down specifically because we wanted to prevent back injury from the impact of jumping down. Guess that strategy didn’t work! So DH is building another ramp for her (he already built one for the car) to get up and down off the couch, and we’ll be watching her closely. We’ve had our couches barricaded since her ACL/meniscus tear anyway, so eventually we’ll just open up one small spot and put the ramp there when we allow her up with us. But that won’t be for quite a while.

We will be checking into acupuncture to see if that will help. I’m just hoping that after this has passed, she’s not left with any pain and can run like a nut again. 🙂

Our next follow-up vet appointment is in two weeks, and we’re hoping for a big smile from him then. Thank you all again for your prayers, kind messages and good wishes, we’re sure they helped Daisy improve, and they definitely helped us!

Daisy needs your positive thoughts

We had a very scary Saturday. It all started when Daisy let out a yipe when nobody was touching her. Then she did it again a little later. And she was walking a bit carefully, not her usually rompy, frolicking little self.

Then it all hit the fan. She was up on the sofa with us, and she gave another little yipe. DD touched her lightly on the back, and all hell broke loose.

She cried out and kept crying, making her way awkwardly across the couch to me – she always comes to me when she needs comforting.

She tried to sit on my lap but couldn’t get comfortable. She was trembling, whimpering, and couldn’t position herself.

“Call the vet!” I yelled.

DD was on it. You see, I’m good at panicking, DD is good at taking action. After the crisis is over, we both fall apart.

Anyway, our wonderful vet told us to bring her in even though his schedule was packed. He usually closes at 2:00 on Saturdays and he was backed up until at least 3:00, but he still let us come in.

He tested her neck and legs – all fine. Then he pressed along her spine and at one point she screamed.

“It’s her back,” he said. “She has back pain.”

He told us that it’s common for small dogs to get back pain between the ages of 4 and 6 – Daisy is 5. However, it can go either of two ways – either it’ll get better over the course of two MONTHS or it’ll get worse, which would be really bad. I don’t even want to think about that, don’t want to talk about that outcome. It just can’t happen. It just can’t.

He said if her legs start to wobble we have to call him immediately; that would be extremely bad. He wants to see her again on Tuesday morning; it’s never good when a vet wants to do a follow-up in three days.

She can’t go for walks, just a short, slow trip outside to take care of business and then back in again. When we got home and took her out a few hours later, after just a few minutes she had to take a 15 minute break to lie down in the grass. It was heartbreaking.

The vet gave her a shot to help take the edge off the pain and gave us two meds for her, one of which is pretty strong. She was crying when she walked, but once the meds kicked in, she could walk gingerly without constant crying. She whimpers here and there, screeches occasionally, and walks like a cat with its back arched, very slowly and awkwardly. Mostly she’s just lying absolutely motionless for hours, very occasionally looking up at us with big scared eyes.

If I could take the pain from her and put it into myself, I would do it in a heartbeat. It’s so painful to watch such an innocent little pup – or any animal – suffer so much. She doesn’t understand, and she’s scared. Understandably. We’re wrecks, also understandably.

We’re asking our blog buddies for your prayers, positive thoughts, messages to the Universe, or whatever you believe in to pull her through this and let it be something she can recover from and not the worst case scenario.

Because we just couldn’t deal with that.

We’ll keep you updated as the days go by.

And the award for the laziest puppy goes to…

Well, I’ll let you decide. According to Puppy Leaks, both the Bichon AND the Havanese are considered to be among the top ten couch potato dog breeds.

Daisy is a combination of BOTH Bichon and Havanese – she was practically bred for lounging!

Another website, Vet Street, calls the Bichon a “Lap Lounger Extraordinaire”, which is one of our favorite qualities of our favorite little girl. 🙂

So…

what…

do…

you…

think? Does she get the Lounge Crown?

We’re part of the Thursday Barks and Bytes blog hop!