Doggie Update

Thanks to everyone who wrote in about Spike and sent good wishes. As mentioned, he’s home and we are trying to keep him comfy. Overall, he’s doing ok.  I’m cautiously optimistic. This last week has been emotionally rough on both Apple guy and myself. Him more so than me I’m sure. Spike’s been in his life a lot longer and they’ve been thru a lot together.

Our biggest concern was Spike’s hacking cough. The Opiate based pain pills the Veterinarian prescribed seemed to be suppressing it so far. We have him on low doses at the moment and I’ve only heard him cough a couple times. Keep your fingers crossed that we can go for awhile before having to up his dosage. The longer we can go before upping his doses, the longer he’ll be with us.

Unfortunately, he’s still limping quite a bit as his joints are bothering him. We were hesitant to start him on the prescribed steroid pills because of side-affects. The specialist that initially examined him called me on Wednesday with some additional test results. After a lengthy conversation, she assured me we could start him on’em and they’d help. We went with a very low dose and he seems to be responding so far. While he still limps, his energy level has come back quite a bit. He even got a little excited and tried to run the other day. He didn’t go far but it was just so wonderful to see him feeling a bit like his old self. His eating has come back too. This one really had me worried. He loves to eat ^[1]who doesn’t, right? lol and wasn’t eating much before his vet visit.

I think he suffered a bit of separation anxiety after the vet visit. For the first couple days, he was very clingy even on his walks. Normally, when we go out, he walks around and does his thing, sniffing, marking, etc. For the first few days after his visit, he’d just pee and then follow right behind me until we were done. On the other side of the coin, he definitely knows something’s up. He’s been getting extra attention and allowed to break several of his old rules. lol  He knows how to work it too. Of course, seeing him like that just makes me smile more because it means he’s feeling better.

Thanks again for everyone checking in on him. At the current level of meds, his still very alert and active. We’re happy he’s doing well. Keep sending good wishes that he stays that way!