Trudy

It's not the expense, it is that to me, the therapeutic level is not the deciding factor on renewing his meds - his organ function is. Or at least with every other vet he's ever been to it has been. Just seems they are testing the wrong thing. On the bright side, I have plenty of KBr left until we are somewhere else so at least they won't be making me have a KBr level done on him too.

That's what I thought, but the vet tech is telling me no. She's also telling me it isn't required. I said fine, but I want it done anyway. This vet won't refill his pb rx until they do level testing every year. Um, making sure his organs are still ok would be a much bigger concern to me. Can't wait to have vet choices again!

which one requires fasting? Or is it just for the human chem panel that requires fasting

From veterinarypartner.com The most common side effects of meloxicam are nausea, appetite loss, vomiting or diarrhea. If any of the above are noted, meloxicam should be discontinued and the pet brought in for a liver enzyme and renal parameter blood test. In most cases, the reaction is minor and resolves with symptomatic relief, but it is important to rule out whether or not the patient has more than just a routine upset stomach.

Used to be April/May - November when I lived in the northeast. Don't need to use either here.

Go to the SS forum for details.

Ryan was on 1000mg 2x a day. We halved that and the vet went to 1x a day. And like Judy said, expect a drunk dog for a bit until they adjust. Poor Ryan couldn't stand up without almost falling over. He was falling into doors/walls or anything else he was near. Neither of the vets we've been with have carried it, I have to order it from a compounding pharmacy We were also able to reduce the amt of pb he was on when we added the KBr

Ryan is on pb and KBr. He used to still have occasional seizures and for a while, he'd have at least one a month. His seizures last at 5 mins and then he'll have another within a couple of days. He's not had a seizure in 16 months (following the once a month for 8 months) Having a seizure every 6 weeks doesn't seem controlled to me. Time to check his med levels and either increase the pb or add another med to go with it (KBr is usually the second choice, but there are others as well - gabapentin is another option) Aim for control, not seeing another seizure is a bonus.

Ryan had his an hour before or 2 hours after other meds/food

Be there when your vet opens and I'm sure they will see you guys right away.

I have 10 year olds that run. Well, one of them still runs like a crazy 2 year old. The other one not so much for quite a while, but he will happily trot along at times. Jet happily races T down the beach and back a few times until she's tired and then she goes on her way to poke around while T keeps going and going and going. If he's fresh off the track and was still running before he was adopted out, he should not be so out of shape that he can't run for 30 seconds. It's likely where he ran wasn't perfectly flat or free from something to step on or trip over or stumble into. I'd personally give it a few days, unless the limp gets quite a bit worse, before going to the vet.

Jet was a great only dog. Ryan can not be an only dog.

As Judy suggested, if you happen upon one you don't know, just ask and somebody will give you an answer.

Kat See if any of your vets have a remote one. That was an option with my vet, but unfortunately, camping outside the vet clinic the day he was scheduled didn't work well since it was so cold. Or see if there is a way they can move it to another area that isn't a place you have to go through the front door to get to it.

Ok, maybe there is something else I will miss when we leave here... We don't do flea/tick or heartworm stuff here - it isn't needed.

If it is full blown bigD, then I'd skip a meal, let his stomach rest a bit and then give a bland meal the following day and go from there. Has he been to see the vet since you have brought him home? If not, you should schedule that apt.

$150 for bloodwork here and unless I'm dropping off an animal that had bloodwork done in recent weeks, they are not doing surgery on a dog of mine without bloodwork. No idea what the price is here for a spay or neuter. When we dropped T off for his neuter, I signed paperwork saying he was to have bloodwork done before hand and if the shelter didn't normally pay for it, I would. When I was looking at adopting an unaltered female, I think I was quoted around $300-400 in Salem, MA for the spay.

I'm well aware that you said ask your vet - that's why it's in the quote. But so many people just give their dogs aspirin willy nilly so it was worth repeating and emphasizing IMO. And since I have experience with a dog that pees out more protein than his body can make on Enalapril, again, I felt it was worth repeating as to why aspirin could be a very bad choice.

DO NOT do that without first making sure it is ok with the vet and s/he's sure it won't be a problem. Giving Ryan aspirin could have killed him because he was so FULL of clots. And there's no way I'd even chance it now for anything - who knows how he's clotting now. His values are low enough that I personally really wouldn't be too concerned about any issues.

Are the vets aware of this? Since she's drinking some, I'd get some pediolite (I am pretty sure you can give that to dogs - check with the vet first) and maybe some ensure or the kid version of nutrition in a can. Maybe she'd be willing to drink some of that until you can calm down her gut so she can eat some real food again. Just look at the ingredients first - if I were to give it to one of my dogs, it would screw him up since he's allergic to many of the ingredients. But if your dog will do ok with the stuff in there, I'd give it a try.

Before we started Ryan on the Enalapril, we did a blood pressure study to make sure he'd be ok taking it. Hard to do for a dog that gets stressed when he walks through the door to the vet. So we came armed with a marrow bone to occupy him and the vet gave us some blankets on the floor of the OR and we hung out for about 45 mins with the door mostly closed - Ry's bp reading would spike each time the vet came in the room to check on us

RobinM will see this - she's had these issues with one of hers and can give you some tips on what worked for her and what didn't as far as getting them to eat when they know it hurts to do so. Is she drinking anything? If so, that may be the route to go - find something you can process the crap out of and add liquid so she can drink it.

Ryan's last protein creatinine ratio was above 6. He was put on Enalapril when that value was over 9. It isn't being used as a hypertensive, it's being used for the kidney's - it can help decrease protein loss and possibly slow the progression of kidney failure. Ryan eats Solid Gold Mmillennia - it's lower in protein and phosphorus - not as low as an Rx diet, but not nearly as costly either.

Do NOT limit his water intake. All that can describe Ryan for the last 2 yaers. Cushings was ruled out. So was everything else anybody in the country could think of. We still don't know what's going on with him.

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