May 2nd, 2010 @ 10:45 am
Annie hasn’t been eating lately. This is a BIG DEAL because normally we have to keep Annie away from Jinx’s food as she’ll wander on over to him after she vacuums her own food down and try to eat from his bowl. But lately she’s not been eating any food.
Any dog food that is.
Due to Annie’s tendency to not chew but just suction up her food, pilling her is ridiculously easy. We put the pill in her food and it’s gone in a nano-second with the rest of her kibble. It’s been harder this last month as she’s been sniffing her food, looking at us with disgust and then waddling to the other side of the room and plopping down tragically.
We’ve been trying to decide if she’s just playing the “I want something else” game, or if something is wrong. The vet checked her out yesterday at our annual appointment and she doesn’t have a fever or anything blocking her little doggy bum. It could just be her age. In fact the day she turned 12 (March 7) she seems to have just gotten OLD. That’s about the time she stopped eating her food as often. She’ll eat anything else if offered and she’s not throwing up or anything. So maybe she’s just gone back to her original ways of not being all that food-oriented now that she’s a crotchety old lady.
Jinx has never been one to care much about his food bowl. He’s one of those dogs who could just have his food left out and he’d eat it whenever. We got strict with the meal times due to Annie’s increase in appetite with her allergy medication. We couldn’t leave Jinx’s food down. He had to eat it in the allotted time or he’d get another chance at the next meal (breakfast and dinner).
Neither of them are really eating now, which is just an odd thing in our house. Part of the problem is Jinx tends to only start to pick at his food AFTER Annie has eaten. And by pick I mean eat one…piece…at…a…time. He’s the slowest eater I have ever met in the dog world. He chews each piece individually, walks around, checks everyone out and then goes back for piece number 2. Weird.
So pilling Annie is getting to be a challenge. We’ve been mixing in a quarter of a can of wet food on pill mornings, or if we’re out of that, we’ll wrap it in a kraft single. It’s not that we have to hide it from her, it’s just that we have to get her to EAT in order to get pilled. This morning I had heartworm pill #1 to give her and as she was coughing a lot all night I decided she needed an allergy pill as well. I put some left over hamburger in her bowl (and Jinx’s of course) just to encourage the eating this morning (she only ate yesterday’s breakfast at 4:30 pm that afternoon). And so she ate cleverly this morning and when I looked up I had food all over the floor. Tricky Missy.
She ate the heartworm pill in her gobbling of the meat, but missed the teeny-tiny allergy pill. Drat. Out came the cheese for that one. I wanted her to stop coughing, I could have given her the other pill any time today.
I love that she spits out the kibble from her mouthfuls of beef. (That’s what she said?) She also give me a glare with each piece she spits out. It’s heart warming I tell you. I can just feel her love.
Jinx isn’t as easy to pill. I put it in his food with the burger on the off chance he make a mistake. But that dog examines everything he puts in his mouth that isn’t mud or poop. So I put it in cheese. He spit out the pill and ate the cheese. So I ended up pilling him the traditional way by ramming my finger down his throat. I hate doing that, I feel cruel.
So my picky Belly is lying across the room staying as far away from her food bowl as possible. I’m waiting for Jinx to realize there is food on the floor (because that is the BEST tasting food!) and I’ll let him clean it up. Whether they eat from their own bowl or the other’s bowl I don’t care right now. I just want to make sure they eat. 
March 7th, 2010 @ 10:31 am
My self-imposed promise that I would stay away from the computer this weekend to help my eyes heal is being broken just for this important event. Annie turns 12 today!
Trying to snap a photo of her this morning in the lovely spring-ish sun proved to be difficult due to the fact that Jinx felt he had to be the center of every photo. Each time I snapped a photo he’d push his head in and push Annie away as the shutter clicked. Great. Thanks, Jinx. I managed to get a couple of non-blurry shots of Annie with only a hint of Jinx (just don’t look at the right side of the photo) but I seem to have lost her ears in them. Oops.
It feels like only yesterday that Annie came into our lives, when in fact it was in November 2002, a week after I had my ruptured appendix taken out and had a 6-inch incision in my abdomen which was still glued together. We had our first storm of the winter that month when Linda drove up from Memphis in her huge truck that didn’t have snow tires. Annie seemed like the most beautiful dog I had ever seen. She was almost all black with only the little raccoon eyes that she still has now and she was very pregnant. It wasn’t until the puppies were weaned that she came back to live with me full time at the end of January 2003.
Now? I can hardly think of a time in my life where I didn’t have Annie with me all the time. Annie has filled a part of my soul that no other dog ever has. Yes, I loved Lady, the dog my family had growing up and I adored Kewpie for the brief time we got to spend together and of course I love Jinx Puppy. But there’s always been this connection with Annie that I have never had with another dog. Even in October 1998 when Miriam and I flew down to Linda’s for the first time to adopt Kewpie I met Annie for the first time (only I didn’t remember until she came to live with me). Annie was 7 months old on that trip and she was all black with little brown eyebrows and she stood over me when I got knocked over from all the puppies and licked my face. I remember joking that I was going to sneak back home with her that weekend.
Seems like fate that we ended up together.
And now my Annabelly is 12 years old and she’s a much more dog-like creature than the cat-like one she started out as. Her tail wags (although somewhat stiffly) when we get home. She yips at us when we come home or come down the stairs in the morning. No other barking does she do, not for anyone but us when she’s happy to see us return. She loves to be pet and have her belly rubbed. She’s even started to catch Jinx’s toys if we toss them at her. This has been something in the last year she’s added to her repertoire… I think it’s only because she’s curious as to why Jinx loves these toys (when they are obviously NOT food) and we make such a big deal when he plays with us. She’ll spit the toy out almost as soon as she catches it and then look at the treat cupboard, but still, she’s playing.
Annie sadly is covered in lumps (which the vet says are like fat tumours? I can’t think of the name.) and seems to have a couple of growths on her. This doesn’t seem to bother her much except for being uncomfortable lying on the floor, which is why we got her that big ol’ cushion (which she fails at). She’s still energetic and loves her walks and loves her cuddles, she seems in better spirits and health now that she ever has. But still, at 12 I tend to get nervous.
I believe Annie is the last of her family right now. Her sire George (the first Finnish Lapphund I have ever met) passed away on New Year’s and her brother Dan, who carried our rings, died suddenly and out of the blue last month from a stroke. Dan’s passing had me in tears for two days and I still tear up when I see him in a photo. Her dam, Jessica (who was also Kewpie’s half-sister) passed away a couple of years ago as did her two sisters. George and Jessica were my two favourite Lappies at Linda’s. They have held special places in my heart since 1998.
Happy birthday to my Queen Annabelly. May you live long and healthy in the years to come. I, personally, hope you will live forever. I love you.
August 20th, 2009 @ 1:29 pm
Well, my bone scan went off without a hitch. And in fact, since it was an hour earlier than I was told originally, I was all done by 10:55 in the morning! This of course put a damper on the lunch plans that I had tentatively made with a friend who works at the hospital. I was tired, Annie wasn’t doing well (yes, again! I’ll get to that) and I just wanted to get home. Since she didn’t have a lunch break until at least noon, I stopped by to say hi and then went on my merry way.
I did not glow, nor did I obtain any cool mutant super powers from the radioactive dye injection. I was sadly disappointed by that.
Meanwhile, when I managed to stumble down the stairs before 7AM yesterday morning I was informed by Shawn that there was something wrong with Annie – AGAIN! She wouldn’t eat her food and had thrown up a little. Sigh. So I was anxious to get home from the hospital to make sure she was ok. The trip home was like some reality show challenge. I phoned my Mum after the test to let her know I was walking down the hill toward the metro station. She offered to pick me up when I got to the South Shore to save me a ticket. We decided I would go to the Longueuil metro station and she’d pick me up there. Except when I got off the Green line to transfer to the Yellow line, which would take me where I needed to be, I hear the following message (but in French) “Yellow line down for an in determinant amount of time”. Lovely. So I dished out $0.50 for the pay-phone (YES! FIFTY cents! Money gougers!) in hopes that my mum hadn’t left the house yet. Luckily no one had left yet. So we decided I would take the Orange line, take the bus over the bridge and they’d pick me up there. So, technically this did NOT save me a bus ticket as I had to pay for the bus over the bridge. Ah, well. My dad was the one in the car to greet me (too hot for my Mum, and I agree!) and he kindly bought me lunch as well! Also he came in with me when we got to my house to make sure Annie was ok. I was concerned I would get home alone and Annie would be worse.
She was fine.
She also ate her dinner just fine. (which was actually her breakfast ). However then I thought, huh… what she DID do in the morning was fish out the anti-biotic and break it in half and spit it out. And she wouldn’t touch the food after that. She did the same thing this morning. She took a mouthful of food and then choked it back up and spit out the pieces of pill. Then she sniffed the rest of her food and walked away and lay down.
Smart dog.
Looks like we’re going to have to pill her manually now. I think she’s over-dosed on meds and I know she’s constipated (yes! I’m talking about dog constipation! I know you’re all thrilled!) and she’s having trouble pooping (more so than normal). I think her stomach hurts and she KNOWS it’s the pill.
Why do I think it’s this and not that she’s not feeling like eating? Because I put Jinx’s food in front of her when he was done with it and she vacuumed it up in one breath. Huh.
Also… just when I was starting to feel sort of bad about all the wasps we seem to have caught in our wasp trap (11 +!!!), they were out there in force this morning when Shawn was leaving for work! GAH! Of course the 3 I saw were scoping out the wasp trap, so perhaps they are goners now, too. (Ugh! Sorry, wasps!) but at the same time – WHY WON’T THEY JUST ALL DIE AND LEAVE US ALONE!?
We need to buy some caulking stuff for the wall so hopefully we’ll get some this weekend. Then, I think one more spray of the Raid and we’ll seal up the teeny hole they are coming in and out of. Will that work? Will it trap them in the wall? Wait… do we WANT them trapped in the wall? Will they burrow through into the house? Eeek! Anyone know?
This week off has been far from relaxing. Stupid heat. Stupid public transportation. I need at least another month off.
August 14th, 2009 @ 6:50 pm
First off, I forgot to mention in my Week of Suck post about how it all started on Sunday night with the discovery that water had backed up into our broken dishwasher. Water that had the lovely aroma of rotten eggs. Water that we had to remove with 3 SHAMWOW!s, almost an entire roll of paper towels and a turkey baster. Yes, you read that right. A turkey baster… the water was under the bottom ring thing and there was a LOT of it, but it was too awkward to get at any other way.
And, yes, the dishwasher that broke back in November is still there, in the counter. And my actual dishwasher is sitting in the kitchen being used as a table top. I don’t want to talk about it.
And now, back to today.
The good news is that Annie’s paw was a billion times better this morning after only one application of cream and an extra dose of her cortisone pills. She was semi-walking on it and she’s not holding it up close to her body. When I put the cream on this morning the skin was just lightly pink and not the blood red of last night. Huzzah!
Shawn went to work and I sat around watching Annie to make sure she didn’t have a bad reaction to her antibiotics, which she got this morning with two more cortisone pills and more cream. Shawn phoned at 1:00 when he was leaving work and said he’d stop and pick up lunch on the way home (yay! Because I was starving!) When Shawn pulled in the drive way Annie got up and did a little Daddy’s Home! dance and her paw is being used much more now. I actually think it’s doing better enough that she’s forgetting that it still hurts because she appears to startle herself if she puts too much pressure on it.
Then I see Shawn’s face… uh oh. “What’s wrong, love?” I ventured…
So, this morning, when Shawn left for work, he pulled right back into the driveway after pulling out. I was concerned but he was just checking the front left tire as the car was informing him the air pressure was low. No biggie, I mean we just got these tires about 3 weeks ago, maybe it just wasn’t full enough to start with right? So he just stopped at a gas station on the way in this morning and put air in the tire.
Except, when Shawn got back to the car when he was leaving work the car told him the air was low in the front left tire again. So he looked and… there was a screw in the tire. A screw had punctured our 3-week old tire. Lovely.
You’ll note that it’s Annie’s front, left paw that’s infected.
So our car is having sympathy pains for our dog??
We thought perhaps our plans of attempting to go to Costco would be foiled once more as we drove to Canadian Tire to see if they could fix our tire, or if I needed to put a new tire on credit. Thankfully it’s pay day today.
Turns out they could patch our tire (yay!) and in fact there was no one there waiting and when the mechanic dudes were done their breaks ours was the first car to be looked at. The damage? $28. That’s it. And 30 minutes later we were… on our way home and not to costco. Why? Because the zipper on my shorts broke of all bloody things. And there was no way I was going anywhere else with my pants all wide open!
Then we were off to see if the snobby folks at Costco would let us in. Our membership cards still had not arrived, but darn it all! It was a week since Shawn paid so we were hoping we’d at least be in the system by now. And we were! So we got this temporary pass – a printed piece of paper with a barcode on it. And we shopped! $132 later we’re good to go with toilet paper and kleenex for like 3 months! Shawn’s got enough ketchup to last at least 2 weeks for him.
Sadly they kept our ghetto temp pass when we paid. It would have been nice to have been able to fill up on gas since we NEED gas and it’s only $0.99 a litre as opposed to the $1.09 every where else. I mean, damn, we PAID the $60 membership fee already, we should be allowed to partake of what we PAID FOR. Bastards.
But I have about 3 pounds 2-bite cinnamon rolls with my name on it in the kitchen right now, so I am not complaining too much.
To summarize our week so far:
Sunday – rotten egg water backup in broken dishwasher
Monday – car wouldn’t shift out of park and had to be towed to dealership, who never called us
Tuesday – car would be ready for pick up, but 1 week for part to come in to fix shifter (covered by warranty!!)
Wednesday – Annie’s limping and holding front, left paw up close to body, reasons unknown
Thursday – Annie’s paw is worse and she falls over while eating, rush to vet $166 later learn it’s skin infection
Friday – Car having sympathy pains for Annie, screw punctures front, left tire. Trip to Canadian Tire $28 later patched tire with 100 day or 5000KM warranty
So, now I’m wondering what Saturday will bring. =/
August 13th, 2009 @ 7:26 pm
Do you have any idea how heartbreaking it is to watch a dog who is the complete opposite of sure-footed on FOUR feet try to hop around on THREE feet? Well, let me tell you it is so completely heartbreaking that I want to hid up in my room until this all blows over. But I can’t do that because the second I am away from Annie I have this full-blown anxiety of how she might need me and she’s all alone attempting to hop around!
Last night Annie’s left paw/leg wasn’t any better so we tossed around the idea of whether or not to take her to the vet in the morning, or just phone the vet in the morning and make an appointment for Friday afternoon when Shawn got off work. When we got home last night we took her outside and put her on the patio table so I could examine her paw and leg. I couldn’t find anything wrong, she doesn’t pull away when you poke, pull, prod and so it was impossible for us to figure out exactly what part hurt so much that she was holding her entire leg close to her body. Shawn carried her out back before he came to bed and then carried her back into the house, so she didn’t have to climb down the three steps on our deck.
This morning she was limping but in good spirits. The only problem is that she gets so excited when we wake up and come down the stairs that she was falling all over the place trying to dance around in GOOD MORNING!!! excitement. So we had to firmly tell her to calm down because she would hurt herself more.
We still weren’t sure when to go to the vet. Until she fell over while eating her breakfast. Her back legs gave out (I am pretty sure she’s got arthritis in her hips because she occasionally has some trouble getting up when it’s damp and cold). My guess is that they were just tired from holding up her weight. Heh.
So we decided a trip to the vet it would be. They opened at 9AM and I phoned at 8:57 to see if we could be fit in. The wonderful tech guy who works during the week and remembers me (between Annie and Kewpie (from back in the day) I have had a lot of vet time. ) and he said to bring her in and the vet would try and see us between the two surgeries he had scheduled that morning. If he couldn’t see her then we could leave her there.
So off we went to make it to the vet for 10AM. And we got seen and my vet is just so fantastic. For regular check-ups he’ll sit on the floor with the dogs and cuddle them while examining them. Fantastic!
Turns out Annie’s left paw has a skin infection. Between the pads. I didn’t even notice it yesterday, but this morning her paw was hot to the touch, whereas the other 3 were cool and he said it was slightly swollen. The skin infection is likely from her already known allergies. So we walked away $166 poorer (thank god for credit!) and with a medication routine – Annie already takes 5mg of prednisone Mon-Wed-Fri for her asthma/allergies. So we’re upping that for 3 days to 10mg in the morning and night, decreasing to 10 mg a day for 1 week or so, plus antibiotics (1 with breakfast for 14 days) and some cortisone cream which also has anti-fungal properties (he’s concerned that a fungus might form. Ew.)
After Annie’s dinner (+10mg garnish) I applied the cream to her paw. IT IS SO RED! The poor thing. Even the fur around the infection is reddish (no blood though, I checked!). Now it’s noticeable, if we had waited until looking at her tonight before going to the vet I’d probably be in one hell of a panic.
Our vet hopes this will clear up with the 3-4 days of uber prednisone, and then the rest of the pillings will just prevent it from coming back. I certainly hope so as Annie is in obvious pain. Her panting has tinges of crying at times and it’s just killing me inside. I don’t know what else to do for her!
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i'm darkness and light and bubbles and faerie wings. i love purple and faeries and music and i'm pretty sure that WordPress hates me.
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