Sunday, July 24, 2016

Final Post

I know it's been a long time since I posted. I wanted to make this the final one.

On Thursday, July 21st, I had to let my boy Lucas go. The couple weeks prior he was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and had fluid in his lungs. He was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. After just over 2 weeks we finally got him stabilized. Five days later he didn't want to get up to walk. He's always had issues with his rear, with arthritis and whatever neurological issues he had with his right side. X-rays showed severe arthritis in his left hip and two fused discs in his lower back. He was a strong boy. Never showed no pain, but his body showed it to me. I couldn't let him suffer so I lost my heart that day. We adopted him November 6, 2004 from rescue.  I will be lost without him for awhile. My life revolved around him for almost 10 years. May he rest in peace and I pray I will see him again.

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Hearts and Hips

Lucas has been struggling with his arthritis, and his back end in general. I decided to talk to my vet about Adequan injections since I have a few friends who have used it on their pups and have good results. He had his third injection today. I think I might have noticed improvement this morning as he was doing things he hasn't done in awhile. I've read that it could take up to the first months treatment to really see improvement. He gets 2 shots a week for 4 weeks, then once a month. Hoping for good results for my boy.

He also had his six month cardio workup done about 10 days ago. He shows stable which is great.






Last year both my dogs were in a DCM study at the University of Florida. About 7 months ago Holly had a gene test done which at that point, they didn't do further tests. This past week I received an email from the UF stating that they sent a holter monitor to my vet for Holly. We had it put on her yesterday, and boy was she relieved to get it off today. She was stressed yesterday it zonked her out for the night. Hopefully we will received good news after they review it. Here's Holly sportin' her UF colors with the vest they sent to cover the holter.





Here's my two little piggies, Pugsley and Gomez (he has his head way down deep in the bowl). I've cut their food down as Pugsley has just blown up since I have them on this prescription diet. Don't know where else to look for the right food. They're on Royal Canin SO Oldfactory. It's for cats that are prone to crystals and it has no chicken or chicken meal in it (Pugsley gets the runs from chicken). I tried before to switch them back to their previous food but crystals came back in the urine. So of course now I'll need to keep them on special food.





Here's little Miss Wednesday looking all cute. She has many names in this house. The most current one is fleabag. Going on 3 weeks now and we still find a couple on her just about every day. They all get their flea meds next week again, and we'll set off a bomb again. I've been using Borax on my carpet (which is only in the bedroom). The rest of the house is tile. I've let her out into the population (as my husband puts it) only a few times. I just don't want them to spread any more then they already have. In 24 years we've never had to deal with fleas like this. Little bastards.





Hope everyone has a great weekend! Can't believe it's already February next week!

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Happy New Year - Welcome 2016

The holiday have come and gone and I hope everyone had a beautiful, safe one!

Lucas and Holly in some costumes that the rescue bought them. The elf one was so funny.






Our new addition, Wednesday. She is about 9 weeks old now. Just a little thing full of so much energy. Bouncing, running, biting...repeat a hundred times. I didn't want a kitten, but long story short, she's here forever. She hasn't met the boys (Pugsley and Gomez) yet. Need to get her tested for disease in about 2 weeks. She has no problems with the dogs. Holly just loves her and wants to play with her. Unfortunately for Holly, one swat of her paw might break or kill the little one, so I have to watch her. She's only 2 1/2 pounds. Lucas isn't too fond of her as she has a tendency to go near his face, which is a big no-no with him. He's snapped at her several times but never got her. The other night she was bouncing around the bedroom and she was getting too close to Lucas so I put my hand down to block and push her away. Well she did jump towards his face and he went to snap and bit my hand good. I've never felt that pain before. I'm finally able to close my fingers. I've never left them unsupervised, and I never will. Accidents happen and she is like lightning. She loves playing with toys. Especially a purple mouse that was given to Pugsley and Gomez by The Quilting Doberman. Here's some pics of our new girl.





Friday, November 27, 2015

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Well I'm not sure about the "having fun" part of the post, but time sure does fly by.

Went down to my parents to celebrate my dad's 82nd birthday. Took him to the casino to play slot machines, then we had lunch. It was a nice day. I also took my mom to her heaven...a huge candy store. I'm sure I'll be taking her a lot since we know about it now.






We've had a couple of dog visitors over recently. The little puppy is my brother-in-law's. He got him for his son's birthday. He is a GSD/Aussie mix. He was the darn cutest little thing. Holly just had a ball playing with him which really shocked me. I'm glad she had fun, even though it was only for 10 minutes as he was just passing through. Lucas wanted nothing to do with him. lol Gotta love my Lucas.






Yesterday a friend came over to have my husband do some work on her truck. She brought her aussie mix named Pepper. She was very, very sweet. Both Lucas and Holly got along with her, which was another shocker. Lucas really liked her. Here she is giving my husband a kiss.





I've been struggling with work, still. Won't go into a long boring description. I'm just trying to hang in there for as long as I can. My boss has mentioned a couple of times about getting a bigger bonus at the holiday this year, so that motivates me more to see the goal to make it until then at least. I did put on my list of things to do, to do a resume. I haven't had one in 20 years. The hardest part is to figure out what I'd like to get into. That's why I'd like to get a resume done soon, in case I do see something that perks my interest.


It's a rainy afternoon here as usual. I love when it's overcast. Way too hot when it's not.
Hope everyone has a great rest of their weekend!

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Happy 4th of July!

We started early (as usual) with the fireworks. Those started last weekend. Today is going to be a rough day for Lucas. Even worse since it started thunder and lightning about 8:30a.m. It never starts this early, yet this is the second time this week. I put a Thunder Shirt on him to see if it helps, and I have Benadryl for backup later.


Thankfully I closed the office yesterday. No thanks to my boss. He never called to tell me to close, so I made the unanimous decision to close. :) I'm starting to burn out and need some days off.


In a couple of weeks Lucas goes in for his 6 month cardio workup. I finally made a decision to find a local Cardiologist to take him to. My vet did his first one. They had people come in to do the tests then sent the results out for a Cardiologist to read. The University of Florida did the second one as they did the free DCM screening back in January. I was debating to go back to UF, but an 8 hour road trip really doesn't make sense to have them be his regular Cardiologist. I really did like them though.


Holly was actually called back by the University to continue with the other tests she had done, even though her first came back normal. They had us do a swab test on her first for the PDK4 gene test. These were her results, along with explaining the results:

Results:
DOBERMAN DCM Positive - Heterozygous
COMMENTS Positive Heterozygous (1 copy of the mutated gene and 1 copy of a normal gene) Dogs that are positive heterozygous should be carefully evaluated for signs of disease (Holter monitor and an echocardiogram). If abnormalities are detected, possible treatment options should be discussed
with your veterinarian. Adult dogs that do not show signs of disease and that have other positive
attributes could be bred to mutation negative dogs. Puppies may be screened for the mutation and
over a few generations, mutation negative puppies may be selected to replace the mutation
positive parent and gradually decrease the number of mutation positive dogs in the population.
GENETIC INFO Dilated cardiomyopathy mutation (dcm) is a form of heart disease in the doberman pinscher dog. It is inherited and our laboratory has identified a mutation responsible for the gene in some doberman pinscher. However, it should be noted that in human beings with the same disease,
there are many different genetic mutations which can cause this disease. We do not yet know if
this is the only mutation in the doberman pinscher or if there will be many different mutations.
Please keep in mind that we are continually learning about this disease and recommendations will
be altered as we obtain more information.
Currently our interpretation of the test is:
Negative results:
The absence of the mutation in this dog, does not mean that it will never develop the disease. It
means that it does not have the only known mutation that can cause the disease in the dog at this
time.
Positive results:
Dogs that are positive for the test will not necessarily develop significant heart disease and die
from the disease. Some dogs will develop a very mild form of the disease and will live quite
comfortably, some may need treatment.
Importantly, breeding decisions should be made carefully. At this time we have do not yet know
what percentage of doberman pinscher will be positive for the mutation. However, removal of a
significant number of dogs from the breeding population could be very bad for the doberman
pinscher breed. Remember that dogs that carry this mutation also carry other important good
genes that we do not want to lose from the breed.


Really doesn't make all that much sense to me since even negative result dogs can still develop the disease.


Took them both to work the other day for bring your dog to work day.





Yesterday I had a peeping tom in my bathroom window. This happens once in awhile. I have to laugh while I'm on the potty seeing them. It's a lizard, if you can't tell what it is.


Well I hope everyone has a fantastic 4th! Be safe, and remember, don't drink and drive!








Saturday, June 13, 2015

Saying Hello

Nothing exciting going on this last week. Holly just wanted to pop in and say "Hello". Notice Lucas in the background. That's where you'll find him 90% of the time.




Hope everyone has a great weekend!