The Dog Lives On

Last Friday I was watching Holly decline really rapidly.  The specialists finally called and told us that the Valley Fever titre was negative, and that while they were at a complete loss as to what could be wrong, they did know of many thousands of dollars worth of tests we should run!

I took her back to a local vet I really like and she freaked out when she saw Holly.  When she saw the blood results from the specialist she threw down the chart & said an ugly word.  Holly has a huge infection somewhere that was not being treated.  Her temperature had reached 106 degrees F, which is pretty darn high even for a dog.

So we’re on prednisone & an antibiotic.  She perked up for the first 2 days and is now declining a bit again.  As per our experience with the last several things we’ve tried.

I keep thinking about canine lupus, which has come up before and I keep wondering about, though no vets seem to want to check for it.

The local vet that I like looked at her & said, “she is a classic auto-immune, with the muscle wasting in her face, the lameness in her joints, the constant mystery infections, and fever.”  So it could be lupus, or any of a hundred auto-immune things.

This vet basically is of the opinion that whichever one it is, it is bad and unlikely to have a good outcome at this point.

I hadn’t taken her back to this particular vet in a while but now I’m thinking I should have stuck with her.  When she first saw Holly she had no idea what was wrong, but many more symptoms have shown up now.

We’re doing what we can until she gets too uncomfortable, and then we will let her go.  I almost did on Friday night but we decided to give the steroids a try first.

She’s laying in the corner, looking sad.  She will get up every now & then to greet us & she is eating better now.  But definitely not herself.

My two poor decrepit dogs.  One elderly, one ill.

I’m volunteering with a local rescue, going out to a kennel to walk dogs that have been rescued but don’t have foster homes yet.  It was great fun this morning, the first day, and very nice to get to walk & play with dogs that desperately need attention.  We’re getting approved to be foster parents to dogs, too, so that when my girl does pass away, I can help other dogs until I’m ready to have another one of my own.

The only problem with going to the kennel is that I wanted to bring them all home with me.  The logical part of my brain completely shorts out when I see a dog who needs a home.

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I’m now getting pretty suspicious of the vets who keep wanting to run test after test.  When I told the local vet that this dog had nearly wiped out our short term savings & that I didn’t want to watch her linger on with little quality of life, she said, “then I think it’s about time to let her go.”  So much better than the specialists who are all, “wait! wait! I have a kid at Harvard and I think you might pay his tuition this semester!  Let’s check for every stupid thing we can think of!!”