Time for catching up on the life of a senior dog.
First, apologies for not posting last week. I was in the middle of a baking marathon. Wore me out.
Now it’s time to update you on how Rocko is feeling. We’ve had another week of ups and downs.
Two weeks ago when I posted Rocko was doing so good we had extended the time between his appointments with Dr Boswell by an extra week. I wish I could say all went well but at about 10 days he really started to feel bad. Each time I think it gets a little worse. We couldn’t get in for another appointment, so it was a matter of giving him extra pain medication and trying to keep him comfortable. I couldn’t let him come out baking with me because the cold certainly wouldn’t help his old bones feel better plus he was back to following me every time I moved. It was better that he had the house to himself to relax.
I counted down the days with him, Rocko, today is Friday, we only have three more days until we see Dr Boswell, Rocko, today is Saturday, we only have two more days . . . you get the picture. We just focused on getting through the weekend until our appointment on Monday.
There was only one small problem with that. When we walked into Dr Boswell’s office, she said “did you know your appointment is tomorrow?”. Thankfully, more than you can possibly imagine, she moved a meeting to get us in.
I had noticed that Rocko’s lower back was really warm and we were putting cold cloths on it. Dr Boswell was surprised at the extent of the heat and said she believed he had hurt himself somehow. That’s entirely possible, he still runs through the house barking if he sees another dog or if our not-too-smart neighbor cat Dimitri comes up on the porch. After treatment he wasn’t back to 100% but there was a definite improvement. She did say if it returned I should treat just that area with an ice pack but it hasn’t come back.
She and I noticed something strange. Rocko’s lip seemed to be a little swollen on one side and his tongue was a darker color. Weird. I decided to start him on another round of antibiotics. You’ll remember that Dr Habig did this a couple months ago and said we may have to just dose him on a regular basis. I picked that up at Cherokee Animal Hospital on Tuesday and made Rocko an appointment for Thursday.
Dr Grace took care of us. He clipped Rocko’s nails and shaved a little spot on his leg to draw blood. We only do bloodwork when something is wrong but I thought it was time to get some backup on what is going on. The last thing on the list was Rocko’s lip. Remember the post where we worked on looking in his mouth? I was quite proud of the old boy when he let me hold his open so Dr Grace could look in with a flashlight. Wow. Good news – no masses, lumps or broken teeth. Even though this is not a good way to find out what is wrong, I also stopped giving Rocko the drops Dr Boswell had him taking. I always give them to him on that same side of his mouth so maybe he is having a reaction to them. Ack, as I was typing this I realized she told me in the beginning that if he wouldn’t take them to put them on his skin. I’ll start doing that tonight and keep a close eye on the spot.
Dr Grace called me today with the results of the bloodwork. That’s one of the things that gives me confidence in the quality of veterinary care Rocko is getting – Dr Grace always follows up. GOOD NEWS! For a dog who will be 17 next week, he is remarkably normal. His liver enzymes were slightly elevated – always a concern with long term use of Rimadyl – but they were actually less elevated than the last time. He is also slightly anemic so it’s time to pump up with the liver (see the post The Things You Do For Love). We’ll check a stool sample soon to make sure he doesn’t have an ulcer or anything going on in his intestinal system, but it probably goes back to the benign fatty tumors he has.
In other news in the life of a senior dog, I think we’ve found the stair lift mechanism we were looking for. I was supposed to see it yesterday but the seller was tied up so that will happen sometime this weekend. This would be an answer to a dream. MeMa asked if Rocko would actually ride on it – let me tell you, this will rock his world. It will only take a couple of trips before he realizes how much easier his life has become. We’ll get the process on video to share with everyone.
Rocko is sleeping now, dreaming the dreams of a long life. Thanksgiving day marks 16 years since we stopped on the side of the road and he chose to come home with me. Who knew that day would change both of our lives forever.
I love being a part of the life of my senior dog.
Rocko sleeping, November 18, 2011