Gerry

Hey all,

Well, I – we – have had a rough summer so far.  If you missed it, Mom’s posts about it is here: http://tripawds.com/forums/presentation-and-diagnosis/mast-cell-tumor-and-that-wasnt-even-the-first-thing/

I’ve been tested for giardia, salmonella (and other bacteria), more coccidia – all negative, but I keep getting mucusy diarrhea when Mom has tried to switch me back to my old food.  And no one can tell her why for sure.  One of the vets she’s talked to thought that if I had irritable bowel syndrome, which was suspected a couple years ago when I was having food trouble too, that we should have seen something on my ultrasound back in early June, but didn’t.  I’ve had my two rounds of Panacur, a general dewormer, in case I had more parasites than the tapeworm that weren’t showing up in the stool tests.  Haven’t tried switching foods since the second dose yet though – maybe that’ll do the trick.  The vets thought I should have been good to switch after the first round though.  Maybe that will have made a difference this time though.

I don’t get diarrhea when she cooks for me though – a recipe of yams, chicken and mixed veggies that an Eastern medicine vet (trained in nutrition too) recommended.  Also getting some chinese herbs for diarrhea.  Mom doesn’t think she’s up for cooking for me forever.  Takes a long time to make and doesn’t last long.  I’d rather she be spending time with me too.  It tastes good – but not so good that I don’t mind it keeping her so busy.  Also, it makes my regular vet very anxious and she really doesn’t want Mom to stick with cooking.  Thinks I’ll get anemic.  (I am supposed to go on calcium supplements and a multivitamin, if it were to be permanent and I think we’d get other recipes to try fro time to time to be more balanced).  The regular vet would like me on a prescription low residue diet.  That worked for me two years ago until Mom found a store food that would worked for me.  But after the mast cell tumor I just had, Mom reeeeeallly reeeeeally doesn’t try that except as a last resort, because it’s like the opposite of grain free.  Mom found me a canned food though that’s grain free and as close to my cooked diet’s recipe as she could possibly find (chicken, peas, yams and carrots are the main ingredients).  Phew!  I just started with a spoonful mixed into my meals yesterday.  A little more tomorrow today and so forth.  Paws crossed!!!

Happier news though is that me and Mom were heroes once again – got a another loose dog off the street.  In fact, it was because Mom was out researching foods and supplements at a new pet store that we were in the right neighborhood at the right time.  We got to the store too early – it wasn’t open yet, so we took a walk around the neighborhood.  All of a sudden, she sensed something behind her.  It was a black lab with a good nose.  Mom had her pack with treats and stuff around her waist.  Mom thought maybe the owner was close by – cause we unfortunately have a few neighbors where we live who seem to think leashes are optional in the city.  (Maybe if I didn’t get around so beautifully, people would think to be more careful with their pups after seeing me).  But no one seemed to be her person.  And then she ran across the busy street we were walking along!  Fortunately, a car did stop in time, and she made it across.  Mom whipped out her cell phone, called the non-emergency number (though it seemed like an emergency to me!) and Animal Services (formerly Animal Control) were dispatched.  Meantime though, Mom was worried the lab was going to leave the area and be hard to find, or worse, venture into the street again, so we prepared to cross.  Mom was going to sacrifice my treats to keep the lab in one place, if she could.  But the lab saw us preparing to cross and dashed to the corner like she was going to come to meet us!  Mom called out “Stay!” and put her hand out like one of the Supremes and – it worked!!  Thank goodness she was well-trained.  She had to hold that stay a long time, until we saw a break in traffic.  Mom wondered what the drivers must have thought of her standing there like that, haha.

Finally we got over there and Mom pulled out my treats and had the black lab lay down, who was panting pretty heavily (it was a fairly hot morning and she’d been running around).  She wouldn’t take any water though – only my treats.  Grrr.  I found this a bit rude, so I attempted to mount her a couple times, but Mom wouldn’t let me.  At least she then started giving us both treats (pieces of boiled chicken, carrot and green beans – cause we know my tummy is ok with those).  But between the two of us eating, we ran out quick!  Then mom remembered – DUH!  She actually had an extra leash in her waist bag.  Just a few minutes before Animal Services arrived, she looped it around the lab’s neck and clipped it.

Mom’s going to try to carry an extra leash and treats always from now on!  And her cell phone with the non-emergency number in it.

Get this – when the Animal Services guy arrived, he looked at me and started to say, “Oh, this must be the one -“, but then he caught himself, seeing that I had an actual collar and the other dog didn’t.  (Mom had also told Dispatch it was a black lab, so you’d think he’d have gotten that info from them).

The lab and I didn’t get into personal details as we were waiting for Animal Services.  We were eating after all, and when we did talk, it was mostly me telling her that running loose is not all it’s cracked up to be and bad stuff can happen by accident or on purpose.  Still, it looked like she normally wore a collar (must have slipped it) and she knew her commands, so Mom and I were confident she had people who would be looking for her and would find her through Animal Services and/or the Humane Society.

I got two rewards for my assistance:

In other news, our former housemates came to visit recently.  We fell into our old routines pretty easily, as you can see in this pic of Biggie:

That’s my summer so far. Not all bad.  🙂