jshell

All through the night without needing to go out! And through the morning too. But given how little she ate yesterday, that may be expected. I gave her some Pepcid this morning (thanks Batmom) and she did manage to eat about 1/3 of a can of canned food (with probiotics sprinkled on top). But that was after I had to still resort to forcing pills down her throat, and she hasn't touched anything else aside from some Plato Turkey and Pumpkin treat biscuits. After she had that food, I put another bit in her bowl but she's ignored it. We went on a short-ish walk around the block and towards the end she stopped to drop a single, but solid, turd. She walked pretty well the whole time too. Now she's back in a hard sleep. Still hoping for this appetite (or trust?) to come back soon.

There doesn't seem to be mucus or blood in the stool. She had a few foamy-sounding bursts in the wee hours of the morning and then seemed to settle down. A few hours later her stools were still goopy but one could see the normal shapes. So it seems that she worked the main issue out. Our vet did give us a metronidazole prescription and some I/D cans. His thought is that the diarrhea is most likely stress related. He seems to think Betty is going in the right direction. She does seem to be doing better. My concern as of tonight is that she's not eating much of anything. I had to force pills down again - even the trick of dipping the Pill Buddy in peanut butter wasn't working. And she completely ignored her dinner (although she may not like I/D at all). So the good: shoulders seem OK. The vet pinched and poked them and no Yelp or Yipe ensued; the worst of the diarrhea seems to be abating but she still seems to have to go out every 3 or so hours for this goopy stuff. I hope that settles down. The bad: I don't like when my food motivated girl doesn't eat.

This is definitely diarrhea. . The only difference in her food is that instead of a mix of canned and kibble, she's been having pure canned since the e-vet.

Crap. I just gave her rimadyl and gabapentin before dinner (Pedigree Plus "Healthy Digestion", canned) as I was unsure if she even felt like eating and I didn't want to suddenly stop the meds if she would take them. Unlike an hour ago, she did eat the pill-buddy. And ate the Rimadyl too. Then I read the replies and tried dinner immediately afterwards and she did eat that. It was funny, I didn't know if she'd eat so I'd scoop a slice out of the can and drop it into the bowl to see if she would eat it, and she did. So we ate the whole can that way. All the poop marks I saw on the floor were light to medium brown. Maybe a reddish brown? Well, burnt umber I guess. But I don't think I saw anything super dark or really red (definitely not bloody if that's what's implied, but it's hard to tell what some of the harder, drier patches were). Anyways, vet comes tomorrow, hopefully it's not too eventful of a night. And I'll be a little more careful for morning doses.

Hmm. Our regular vet is coming tomorrow, but probably won't be available to talk to before then. That's a couple of medication times away. Think I should keep on? He was thinking I could increase the meds even more (prior to knowing about the soft stool / house accidents).

Summary of the past couple of days: tuesday night/wednesday morning, Betty apparently suffered a big shoulder injury and we ended up at the e-vet, twice in 12 hours. She's now on a lot of pain meds. But Wednesday, even when all the pain and opiates from x-rays was happening (causing her to not even be able to lay down for many many hours), her stools were surprisingly solid. Even yesterday (thursday) morning. I think last night's was a little soft, but still very well formed. This morning, it started solid and turned into a big gloop-y soft-serve-ice-cream mess. At that point I wondered if I should come home at some point from work and check on her, but yesterday she was so fine that I thought I'd be OK at work all day. But I came home at 5:30 to lots of poo puddles. Some still fresh, some less so. The fresh ones seemed closer to that runny pudding style; the old ones... I don't know how old they were but in any case, it's not pure pure foamy liquid, but getting close. We immediately went for a walk outside and she had a couple of liquid-y (but not explosive/foamy) poops. During all of this she's at least walking ok. But when we got home, I had a hard time again getting pills down her, even using new 'pill buddy' pockets that she's been consuming since yesterday. She's now on: - Gabapentin (200mg every 12 hours) - Tramadol (70mg roughly every 8) - Rimadyl (50 mg every 12) I'm sure that diarrhea is a possible side effect for all of these. Gabapentin is new to us, she's taken tramadol and rimadyl before. She can be a bit sensitive to new medication. I'm just surprised that this didn't show up Wednesday (when Ace/Buprenex was still in her system; and when she couldn't lay down at all) or even Thursday (our sleep/recovery day), but today. I understand Gabapentin can take 48 hours to get to full strength; does that mean it could take that long to have some side effects?

Happy to say that we both had a restful night and Betty is moving better this morning. She finally ate a meal of canned food, but doesn't seem terribly interested in solids yet. And she's very distrustful of Pill Pockets, which she normally devours in one gulp which might mean having to force her blood pressure meds down her throat for a while too. But it's good to see appetite in her. Her movement is still a bit stiff, but seems related more to her inability to sit/lay down for any sustained length of time yesterday. Even late last night, she looked like an amateur marionette when she tried to walk, and all walking was immediately accompanied by panting. She's not panting like that this morning. So after a long and exhausting day, it's looking much better. Regarding the Buprenex: she was given 0.2mg. Sounds like it was too much for her. I'm not sure if they gave her any during our afternoon visit. She didn't seem quite as stoned as she was after our overnight visit, but the effects just seemed to linger and linger and linger until about 6:30-7:00 last night. Thanks everyone for your help!

She finally ate a little bit of canned food tonight, but only a little bit. Better than nothing, I suppose. She seems uninterested in about anything else, including Pill Pockets, which I hope changes soon. Betty also finally seems to be able to lay down and even curl up a bit for long stretches of time and we both got some sleep this evening. Hopefully tomorrow I can schedule a visit with our regular vet and he can see how she's moving about now; it sounds like robaxin could be of benefit. I see a lot of twitching going on, even when laying still. Might it be OK to stagger out the Gabapentin? I only have a fixed amount of it, would it be OK to split the morning/evening dose a couple of hours apart? She gets the 200mg, but maybe spread out the effectiveness of the hours? Or do pills not really work like that?

Our first visit produced two radiographs of her front shoulders, side view and underneath. But on the second visit, I know they got another one focusing specifically on the front right shoulder looking for more details because it was obvious that the pain was in that one and the earlier radiographs didn't reveal as much of what was going on. For meds: - 200mg Gabapentin, twice daily - 50mg Rimadyl, twice daily - 50-70 mg Tramadol, 3x daily Last given between 4:30 and 5:30 today. Between 6:30 and 7:00 Betty finally stopped pacing and panting and started to settle down, and is now laying down and resting for long stretches. She seems to move about painfully and starts panting when she gets up, it looks related to the torture her poor legs have gone through with so much pacing about today. But at least she's finally resting. It's sad to see her having worn herself out like that. Don't think I heard anything about Roboxin, although it may have been mentioned in various phone calls today. Gabapentin itself is new to me.

Thank you

Went back to the vet, as Betty was clearly in more pain than earlier diagnosis warranted. New thought: still the front right shoulder, but a torn muscle... or something that has to be fixed with plasma injections. Anyways, we've got more pain meds but Betty is still just shuffling around the place. I hope the new meds kick in soon and this poor girl can start to relax.

It's been about 9 hours since Betty had 0.2mg Buprenex and 1u Acepromazine. I don't think it was a full anesthesia, just something to help with her pain and for doing x-rays of her shoulders. She's drinking little, eating nothing, and I think because of the shoulder pain can't even lay down. She's less dopey than earlier, but still... I don't know what's going on. It's strange. (Betty is 11 years old, 55 pounds, for what it's worth).

The poor girl's gone about 10-11 hours with very little lying down. It definitely got worse after the Ace/Buprenex or maybe just the exam itself, which was about 9 hours ago. She's mostly still just shuffling around our loft. She's taken in a little bit of water on her own. She tried laying down on her patio bed briefly on her own. I've been getting her to lay down on an old futon mattress she sleeps on downstairs, but never for more than a few minutes. She looks so damn tired! The last time I tried, she laid down on command, but about a minute later jumped up with a deep yelp. I see her little head trying to rest when she does lay down... Maybe there is a new neck problem? Diagnosis was "RF lameness - shoulder pain". This is arduous. She seems a bit calmer than earlier but it's hard to tell if anything is really working. This was so sudden too.

alison: thank you! that's actually a relief to hear. I'm wondering how many of her pills Betty's actually taken. Since she's not touching food, she's not touching pill pockets (which she usually devours). It took a fair bit of cunning to get the tramadol in her just now.

I don't think she hurt her neck, unless her neck getting hurt was a side effect of getting x-rays. I watched the vet check her neck explicitly. It seems to be shoulder, seems to be soft tissue, and sadly she's still anxious. I can force her to lay down for 5-10 minutes, but then she's back up to wandering and crying. On the plus side, she just took her first drink of water on her own since going to the vet 6-ish hours ago. Her Tramadol dosage is 75mg, I believe. This is just so frustrating to watch

I just brushed her shoulder trying to push her towards a bed and she shrieked. I was told this could take a while to transition. The poor girl. I can't give her another tramadol until around 11 or 12 MDT... Hoping that it might help in this cocktail.

Seems to be soft tissue damage in her shoulders, particularly her front left. "mild small osteophytes of left shoulder". She was given some Buprenex and Acepromazine IVs at the vet, and we were sent home with Rimadyl and a choice of Gabapentin or Tramadol. Betty seemed quite stoned when we left the vet and got home, and still refused to lay down; just wandered around in a daze with her feet sometimes partially falling from beneath her. Again: could not get her to lay down. I dragged her upstairs and got her to hop on the big bed and kept here there by holding the leash. Eventually she laid down and stopped panting for a short while. 30-45 minutes? An hour tops? But suddenly she yelped and sprang up again and has been back in the same mode. Still seems a little high from the IVs... I should have asked when those might wear off. I've given her a dose of Rimadyl and finally got the Gabapentin in her but.. I just don't know. I'd love for both of us to get some sleep today.

Found a neighbor willing to take us to the e-vet in the middle of the night. Betty just won't / can't lay down

And now I'm starting to worry. She can't seem to get comfortable. Kindof reminding me of UTI, but she's also dragging that right side... Middle of the night, no car, our vet isn't open tomorrow... We've been outside twice with normal stool (abnormal time)..

Also, I had planned on staying on our main floor but she seemed eager to go upstairs to our bedroom and hop in the bed. So normal for when this flares up.

Betty Joan is about to turn 11 years old and tonight she started limping after our evening walk. I think she may have tweaked something running down the hall, as she ran 3/4 of the way down and then slowed quickly (one door before ours). It's a concrete hallway. I've been bad lately letting her run down it at her age as it's a good gauge of general health and mood and she has fun in the evenings. This limp is in a leg that she's limped on before - her front right. Years ago it seemed to show up when she had been boarded for a few days. It always wore off. It showed up at the beginning of winter (suddenly she really looked like an old dog. Back then, she would run down the hall but then hold this front right leg up right outside our door. I finally started a daily regimen of glucosamine pills and she got better. It showed up again in early March, along with some runny stool (that seems to be an annual, seasonal thing). She's been fine lately. Even this week, she's been stomping her front paws and barking at me every night. Until tonight when this showed back up. Only difference is that a couple of times tonight when she's gotten up, she's cried a little bit right on first standing on that leg. The first time was a bit of a test by me, seeing if she wanted treats. She stood up hurriedly but had quiet cries on her first three steps. The second time, she had been laying in much of the same position for quite a while and just cried a little bit when standing up. As we went out back for nighttime potty, she was moving OK. Anyways, this seems kind of the normal pattern for this thing but it just seems a little sharper tonight. It seems to go away in a few days, but as she's nearing 11, I'm wondering what it's OK. I talked about it with my vet at her annual checkup a few months ago but the symptoms weren't showing then and he didn't seem too concerned. Should I be? (This is also on her leg that has served, and still serves, as her "mean right hook". It's the leg she's most likely to swat at you with, and I'm thinking that living in a loft with a concrete main floor for most of her life and in an industrial area may just be a bit tough on that leg if she hits the right nerve?) Edit: she's gotten back up and down a few more times: stiffly but no more cries.

Betty Joan's appetite remains normal, but she does seem to get some digestive issues in these transition times (aka "the spring runoff"). We're going through a round of that again. Vet once suggested it could be allergy/hay-fever related?

I tried re-ordering some on Amazon and noticed that I couldn't get them via Amazon Prime. Amazon has a listing that's $5 per bag, but also $5 shipping per bag - so $15 shipping for 3 bags! This must be why they're scarce. Maybe I'll try making some.

Thanks. I just realized that Betty's Pill Pockets are duck and we've had no reaction. I think it'll be OK. Good note about the fat.

I've learned with Betty to take at least two bags along on our morning walks, which tend to be longer. We seldom need both bags, but sometimes there's that bonus! On Saturdays when we walk to and around and back from Farmer's Market, I have to take 3 bags; and I just do the best I can to clean the softer ones. It took me a while to realize this, especially after my old poop-bag container broke and I started just putting bags in my pockets. It was embarrassing to run out of bags and get nasty looks from people and all I could think was 'well, I cleaned up a bigger poop just a couple of blocks ago, honest!' So now I just carry bags that I think will be appropriate to our walk.