exciting news for us!

So..we're moving away for the summer - just Hope and I. I'm quitting my job(last day is this Friday). We'll be back in September....


Can you guess where? Hope doesn't think you'll ever guess....

cutest work-to-eat in the whole wide world.

Hello! We've been very negligent and for that I apologize. Life gets busy. We said good-bye to our 16.5 year old dog and have had some other issues health-wise for Hope to deal with.

We went four weeks instead of three between groomings and a rash bloomed around what someone told me is to be called the "fortune cookie" aka her vagina. Needless to say, it was unpleasant for us ALL to deal with that. We did cream, powder, and oral antibiotics. So far so good, but we'll never wait 4+ weeks again.

Hope has always jumped off the couch on her own and I have continually cringed when she does it because it is so far for her - she is so tiny. She's been very reluctant to stand up on her hind legs or take the outside stairs up - I suspect injury. It is hard to see because she "bippity bops" around so fast but she is definitely favoring a leg. I am giving her a boost here and there to encourage her to rest her hips/knees and hoping it helps heal whatever is going on there.

Never ends! We won't even get into the self-induced puncture wound on her neck that is healing from one of our other dogs(she started it).

Now, pictures of cuteness that relate to the title of this post!!

We'll have some exciting news in a couple of days...

hopedate!

I just love her, don't you? Look at that little face.

We're doing much better now that the eye meds aren't oil based. Her skin has cleared up nicely. She is also on OSTRICH for food now. She hated the Duck we tried. She loves the Ostrich. Bravo! makes an Ostrich that has Ostrich necks, meat, and liver - perfect. I don't have to fuss trying to get her to eat turkey liver(which she dislikes).

All in all, good things. She gets another haircute on Sunday - just to clean up her face and bum(at her Papa's request, imagine that). Wonder what color bows we'll get this time? :)

we are rockin'.

that is all.

more meds and a haircute!

So last time we checked in we were a yeasty beastie. Dr Ringle switched our eye meds(haven't arrived yet) to a water based solution to prevent more yeast growth. He also suggested we do a MONTH of the Fluconazole. Hope actually seems to like this medication(not so much she'd just take it but enough to suffer it well) so it isn't horrible.

The horrible part is the diarrhea it is giving her. Awful, hourly diarrhea blasts. They are really lovely in the middle of the night. God bless her little heart, she gets up and walks to the edge of the bed to cry "Need to poop, Mama!" Needless to say I'm a little sleep deprived today.

Her face itches her fierce so we're back on the Temaril-P as well. She also started some Pepcid. Will it ever end?

As for Hope's fur situation....I decided to get her groomed today!! I have been hesitant to do it because A. Hope has been ill, cut open, and healing B. She is naughty and bites people. I happened into a shop called Fins & Feathers in Red Bank, NJ to drop off birds for rescue earlier today. I discovered the shop also does grooming. They were having a special on grooming($15 off!) so I inquired about it. I spoke to the shop owner's daughter first. She told me they don't advocate leaving the dogs there all day for appointments because it was too stressful(bonus point #1), they don't use cage driers because they are dangerous(bonus point #2), and that they actually owned a chihuahua who bit them all the time - which she shrugged off with a laugh (bonus point #3). I promptly made an appointment.

I found Hellen, the owner and a groomer there, to be very knowledgeable and kind. I told her about ALL of Hope's issues, medically and behaviorally, which she was familiar with. She was also very gentle with Hope and did not hesitate to handle her despite 'her rep'. Hellen sited that she wanted Hope to enjoy being groomed and not hate it so it would therefore, potentially, take up to 3 hours if Hope needed breaks during her time there. Bonus point #3. To quote her, "I could have 3 people hold her down and shave her but what good would that do her or me? I want her to like being groomed." At that point, I could have kissed Hellen right on the lips. I knew Hellen was the groomer for us.

Hope looked this like on the way to the groomer:


And 2 hours later, they called and brought out this cute creature.. we weren't sure who's dog it was...


Hellen said that Hope was better behaved than the other Maltese that was there earlier. WOW, that dog must be truly horrible if Hope was "good" compared to it.



I mean, how cute does it get? Of course being groomed was still stressful for little Hope. She was all tuckered out on the ride home.



Yes, those are BOWS in her hair. GLITTERY BOWS!!



There was discussion of Hope's breed. Prior to actually grooming her, Hellen said she was a Maltese. After spending 2 hours with her she said that Hope definitely had Chihuahua in her. We figure she is a Maltipoohuahua. :) She is special, that's for sure. Of course, not everyone got by unscathed by Hope. She was very adept at removing the muzzle at the groomer and did manage to nail Hellen once, but no broken skin.

At least she is a polite miscreant.

dun dun DUNNNNNNNNNN...bathtime!

Hope has had some weird "crust" around her eyes. I spoke to Dr Ringle, her eye-guy, earlier this week about the problem and he thought that it might be YEAST from her cyclosporine. Yuck. He told me to have Hope come in to see Dr B and check for yeast.

Guess what... it was yeast!!!!!! So, MORE meds - big surprise. We're giving her 1ml of Fluconazole once a day for 14 days. It smells like oranges; Hope wasn't impressed.

We're going to have to reconsider her cyclosporine also. It is currently oil based and we might have to move to water based.

You might notice in the picture of the meds the LAXATONE. Yes, that is the stuff they give cats for hairballs. In fact, the only instructions on the tube give CAT dosing. Ladies and gentleman, my DOG gets hairballs. Hope hacked up a hairball on our bed, at night, 3 nights this past week. For the first 2 nights I blamed the cats(sorry, cats) but on the 3rd I actually saw her do it. Yuck. The laxatone will hopefully help her "move it along". We're going to have to consider some OCD meds if this keeps up. The licking thing is getting old. Thankfully, she LIKES the taste of this so it was super easy to give her.

Hope also got the dreaded B-A-T-H today. The skin around her eyes, from the yeast, was super irritated with the water but we moved some of the crust out. Yes, she still has to wear her "mouth mitten".


She would have rather been 90 other places, obviously, than in the bath tub. I was super happy because this was her first real bath since the surgery. P-U.

After her spa treatment - complete with blow-dry at no charge - she looked like a little white cottonball. We can say that proudly now because, hey, she has fur and stuff finally.


We'll recheck next week to make sure the yeastie beasties are vacating. Say a little something I don't get the nightly hairball upchuck tonight.

the ideal diet? maybe.

As I type, Hope is sitting between my legs obsessively licking our couch. That is her favorite hobby, licking things. She has a borderline OCD with licking things, in fact. She licks whenever it is time to 'settle down'. At night, she licks for at least 10-15 minutes. She will lick the sheets, blankets, couch, my laptop, my pants, my arm - you name it. If you try to prevent her from licking by distracting her, she cries. I am not sure what to do there quite yet. One thing at a time.

Hope is very attached to me - and I to her. With her recent diagnosis of the "Big C" we are prepared to go the long haul with her. We haven't actually spoken about it, but Chris and I both know that this is destiny. It is extremely hard to adopt out a dog that bites, let alone one with health issues - let ALONE one with CAN---. We don't really speak the C word in the house. Mommy gets very upset.

On another note, I would like to share what Hope has finally decided is "her diet". We are feeding Primal Buffalo Grind(hearts, organ meat, bone) - .2-.3oz in the morning. Yes, .2oz is right. She also gets 1oz of ground buffalo meat three times a day. She isn't as boney as she was when we got her and the weight she has gained is what I would call "good weight". The last weigh in on Friday at her at 5.4lb!!

To prepare these tiny amounts of food we use a scale. I line it with waxed paper and then wear latex gloves to handle the meat to avoid contamination. I then spoon little 1oz portions onto the scale, check the weight, then transfer it to a cookie pan lined with clean waxed paper to freeze in smaller lumps. For the grind of organ and bone I fork pieces onto the waxed paper in the same fashion but then I drop it onto the cookie sheet and smash it with a fork into a flat cookie type form. This is a little time consuming but I can get a lot of lumps and cookies out of a chub of frozen raw food so we don't have to do it more than once every 2 weeks. It's also a "zen" process for me.

The supplements that Hope is currently on are pictured here:

We follow the 1/4 1/4 1/4 rule - 1/4 teaspoon of each of these tubs, twice a day. I've mentioned them before - B-Natural's Berte's Immune Blend and Herbsmith products. I'd testify to the effectiveness of any of these. They have really helped Hope a lot to overcome her mange.

Final dish before smashing the supplements in:

We rarely have an issue getting Hope to eat at this point. Sometimes she will balk but heating it up a little bit more usually does the trick for her. It is MUCH easier than 99 kibbles, canned foods, etc that she eventually refuses.

We heart raw.

fitting in.

Hope is doing well here. We have realized she hates having a "big dog snout" in her face and will react, as well as her other aggression triggers. Thanks to that, we have hardly had any outbursts from her in a week! Chris's thumbs are intact.

We saw the doctor on Friday(Hi Dr B) for a recheck and to have her stitches removed. She was not happy about being touched by strangers but I held her, with her muzzle on, and forced some love on her while they did what they needed to do. She did pretty well, considering. We will continue to work on her being more comfortable there; even with her few short stays there she has improved each time.

And now - gratuitous photos proving she *does* like the dogs, but only on her own terms - which is okay by us.

recovery update, raw news, a little touch of heart.

Our recovery update is as follows: good! Her incision infection is healing and her overall outward appearance fur-wise is amazing. She looks like a different dog.

Raw news: The raw ground buffalo diet with the supplements is doing her good. Her fur is filling in nicely, she is putting on 'good' weight and isn't as bony. We've also had zero instances of her refusing her food - phew.

The heart-part: She is getting so much fur she looks like a hot mess. I took some quiet time tonight before Chris got home to get a brush and go very slowly with her. She loved it!! She leaned into the brush, which I was careful to move so I wouldn't pull on her skin or press too hard. I brushed her little face and she just held so still and closed her eyes.

She was sweet for a second there. :)

back to the vet.

Hope took a trip back to the vet today. She hadn't gone #2 since Tuesday and her incision started to look "weepy" in one spot. Sure enough, infection. We got some antibiotics and I traded out her giant cone of shame for a much easier to wear and deal with "Donut of Slight Embarassment"(DSE). She seems much more at ease.

While at the vet she also pooped! Yay. Chris says we can't keep taking her back to the vet to make her poop, so hopefully that doesn't become a trend(joke).

Here's hoping we're on the mend. We are still waiting to talk to Dr B as she is in Las Vegas at a conference.

worst comes to worst.

Fears realized today. The results of the meatball came back: cancer. Between that and the horrific diarrhea Hope has been having since yesterday morning it's literally been a sh**ty day.

and so I don't forget..

My friend, Patricia, posted this on my Facebook wall and it was so touching to me it made my eyes water.

Hope

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
...And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me. (Emily Dickinson)

muchly!

It has been a bit since I wrote - I apologize. We battled with Hope's eating issues, mainly eating something for a couple of days and then rejecting it, but now we are on a good path. We gave in and went raw, Panacur and all. The diarrhea instantly cleared up and she had zero gastro distress. Duhhhh, I should have just followed my....gut.

She has been pretty much the same as far as behavior is concerned. She adores me and follows me around - what's not to love when a little dog looks at you like that. She is good with Chris but has her moments. The most tasty part of Dad is his thumbs, apparently.

Her hair is growing in great. Whether it was fleas, malnutrition, or sarcoptic mange we'll never know. I do know that sarcoptic mange is very contagious and nobody in my house got any of it - myself or the other animals. Hard to say but I am joyed to see her sprouting some fur, in any regard!

Hope's big day was Friday. I couldn't sleep for 2 days leading up to it, imagining how invasive and battered she would be afterward. I was imagining what a beast she would be to the staff but I was completely wrong on that - she was easy to handle and "good" for everyone as long as Mom wasn't around. Shucks - she is only a monster when I'm around? I swear I didn't teach her that!!


We had her mass removed(good-bye Meatball!), she was spayed, and her teeth were cleaned. She was under for a pretty long time - over 2 hours. She came out of it like a trooper. They had to remove one molar so she has a stitch or two in her mouth.

The care at RBVH is and was phenomenal for my little dog. Some might think that just because it is an employee's pet they would get lesser care because we've been through the drill but I did not find that at all. Dr Badamo called to update me during the procedures changes(spay first, then mass, then dental). She called to let me know a tooth had to come out so I could be a part of it. Her tech, John, was very gentle with Hope as I watched him bathe her after her dental, blow dry her hair, and trim the fur between her toes. I was really blown away by their care for this little dog.

Now - graphic! The meatball in the raw, literally.

Yuck!! Can you imagine having that giant thing hanging off you when you are a 4-5# dog? (btw we're still hanging in at 5#, 5.09 in fact)

Hope woke up very fast after her procedures were done. It seemed I said a few things to her and she perked right up so they could un-tube her. Then she started barking her head off once I left her - whoops. There's that little white monster thing again.

She was doing so well Dr Badamo "let" me take her home. I think it was either that or the staff would have to wear ear plugs and I would get no sleep. We all won in the end, I think.

The mass is gone so now we wait to find out just what sort of mass it was. It can take up to a week. Gonna be a longgggg week.

inspiration

Hope and I are happy to see that some of our friends are starting blogs now, too. We hope we have been some of the inspiration to share thoughts and ideas with others on the internet.

One is here, written by Paula about her dog Earl(no posts yet but soon hopefully) who is very fearful.

The other on the radar is by Alison Waszmer about dog chew reviews!

In other Hope-related news, she's been having some soft stool and even diarrhea intermittently. I decided to feed her EN for a couple of days to even her out and then try again with the Orijen(which had been going down steadily with some EN mixed in). I don't want to feed her the EN but she cries and chases her hiney if there is a remnant of diarrhea and then she bites me when I try to clean her off. A no-win situation there.

We bought her this CUTE cupcake shirt today at Target. $1!! Little dogs sure have cute stuff made for them - and it is cheap! I think she looks adorable in clothes, I admit it. I think her sheep pajamas are my favorite. I keep scouring ebay for more pajamas and outfits. I ordered a custom harness for her on Etsy but we'll wait to talk about that one for when it comes!!

We'll also be receiving samples of Honest Kitchen's Zeal formulation. They posted a Facebook announcement a few days ago about giving away samples and some whole boxes of product. We didn't get the whole box deal but they are shipping us samples. We'll report on that when it arrives as well.

I am super anxious to go raw with Hope. I know she'll love it. She is due for her second round of Panacur VERY soon and her Oma's Pride buffalo is coming in this week!! Yes, I am totally excited about raw meat.

it's been a few days.

Today Hope and I are reading a lot on www.caninecancer.com. They have a lot of ideas and references for diets, supplements, treatments, and, ultimately, end of life stuff.

We're not reading so much on the end of life stuff.



Some interesting things are something called "Essiac Tea". The person writing the website claims that it "cures" cancer. I am not sure how true this fact is but I'm willing to consider it once we get Hope's meatball removed. It cautions that this tea can cause tumors to increase in size and I'm thinking Hope's little buddy is already big enough so we'll wait.

The nutrition portion of the site is neat. It references Dr. Greg Ogilvie's cancer diet and theory which I have seen and read a little bit about before. You can read more here if you are interested. It also mentioned Monica Segal and her webpage on cancer. I am actually already on Monica's yahoo group for nutrition and natural feeding so that was a pleasant surprise that I'm at least headed in the right direction.

In any event, many supplements are suggested. My only thought to this is "how the heck would I ever get this dog to take all that". We are still struggling to get her to eat. The Orijen 6 Fresh Fish is still being eaten but it is a chore to get her to actually ingest it(think: breaking all the pieces in half, sometimes mixing with cottage cheese, and hand feeding it piece by piece). It hasn't been fun, to say the least. I'm really ready for her to go raw but I worry about the whipworms and causing any more digestive upset.

Just after midnight last night Hope had some awful diarrhea. She's never had that before. She was given a tiny piece of bacon yesterday morning(like a crumb) and then "half of a tater tot" - says her Dad. I'm thinking it was one of those two things. Chris was the lucky one to get up with her and he said she sneezed and 'sharted'. Hilarious but in an "awww poor baby" tone. This morning's output was normal, however.



Hope is still itchy but we gave her the first Revolution dose on Thursday and it is one of those things that gets worse before it gets better(or so I'm told). The mites dying off cause even MORE itching. To combat that Dr B had given us a script(yes another one) for Temaril-P. It seems to help but you can tell when it has worn off.

So the list of medications is dwindling - we no longer have to give her Cephalexin or Benadryl. She gets her ear meds, eye meds, and now the Temaril-P(which she takes pretty easily hidden in something).

Her disposition has been good but she is still shaking and crying most of the time she isn't asleep. One day at a time.

lightening the mood....

Hope just ate the rest of her dinner. Thank god.

Chris took this picture/made this joke earlier...


"Thing1 & Thing2" Hope and her cousin, Lost Hope. (the pile on the left is the remainder of a stuffed toy)


tee hee.

this DOG!!!!!!!!!

She is driving me crazy. Really.

Last night she insisted on sleeping where my feet go. with her antics on sunday night(bit me) I tried to avoid moving her or disturbing her. Result is a zig-zag spine. Ow.

She also is being finicky about her food. She doesn't want the Freshpet anymore. I tried Orijen - success..until tonight. She ate some but not most. I resolved that maybe she isn't as hungry at night. I don't know!!

To top it all off, she has this freaking red angry section on her neck that showed up suddenly.

What am I going to do with this dog!!??

She is incredibly itchy and miserable tonight. I feel so bad for her. She also gave us "the business" during meds tonight so I know she is not comfortable. Tomorrow I am going to talk to Dr B about some itch meds since the Benadryl isn't cutting it.

We set the date for the meatball move-out: February 18th.

luxuriousssssssssssss!

To borrow the words of infamous Bobby Trendy(from the Anna Nicole Show), Hope's fur/hair is coming in luxuriousssssssssssssss-ly!! We can't give her the first treatment of Revolution until Wednesday(3 weeks from the shelter giving her Vectra) but her skin is doing so much better. There is a spot on her face, however, that has an angry looking pimple and some crust on it. We washed it gently to clean it off and are hoping it resolves itself. If not, back in we'll go!

Hope hasn't really been snarly or bratty all weekend for meds. Picking her up out of Mommy's lap, however, is another story. Just ask Daddy.

special delivery.

Today it was my turn to feel under the weather. I stayed home to lay low and in turn was here to intercept the B-Naturals.com package that came(finally) for Hope. Inside were Berte's Immune Blend, Tasha's Detox, and the Yucca Intensive.

For lunch, Hope had a couple of wedges of Fresh Pet Vital Salmon/Whitefish with 2 drops of the Detox. It was recommended to start very light with it to avoid GI tract issues. She scarfed up the food without an issue.

The food thing is still bouncing around here. She ended up disliking the Paw Naturaws big time. We'll be using it as a food topper for the big 'uns. She REALLY likes Freshpet. I figured, "okay, Freshpet. We'll do the Vital(grain-free) type with the Bison in it then so we're still on the Bison/Buffalo". Wra-onggggg. She didn't hate it, but she didn't want to necessarily eat it either. That will also go to the big 'uns. She does, however, enjoy the fish version of the Vital. I dislike it a little because it has fruit in it and with the big C looming sugar/fruits are a no-no. It also stinks to holy hell. She needs to gain some weight so we'll take what we can get for now.

We're ordering some raw buffalo from Oma's Pride that arrives 2/10 so we'll start a raw diet then(if she'll eat it). I also grabbed up a couple pounds of ground duck, tripe, and buffalo bones - but that's for another post.

I'll use the next few weeks to do the detox and get her whipworms under control.

little bo peep.

I went to The Hungry Puppy today to pick up Hope's buffalo guts(Primal Buffalo Grind). While there, I spotted the "50% off" bin of clothes. 'Hellooooo, Hope totally needs clothes' I told myself.

She has hardly any fur, right?

I bought her 2 items. One of which being labeled an "athletic track suit", size small. Silly me thinking size small would be the right one. Apparently it is not small enough, she almost drowned in it. For the price, I'm willing to try to shrink it in the wash.

The second fits perfectly, really. Just ask her.


bippity bop tiny tot.




"baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"


xoxo.

5.1 lbs of fun

We had our one week check-up tonight with Dr Badamo. I was a little paranoid that Hope may be getting kennel cough due to some sneezing that had started Saturday but her lungs sound great and we think maybe just the dryness and dusty winter house air might be doing it to her.

Bad news first - we didn't gain any weight!! Damn whipworms. We'll keep plugging along with the Panacur to get rid of them. I am hoping in another week we'll see some gain.

The good news is that she is LOOKING great. Her fur seems to be coming in more and more. Her eyes look amazing. They are no longer dry and you can see a sliver of her iris. The inflammation is much less and she seems to be a lot more comfortable. We don't use the muzzle anymore for meds, either.

The game plan is more Panacur in a month and we'll talk about getting the meatball removed soon. The meatball itself is kind of an angry color which is worrisome. The fluid we had aspirated from it filled in again. The meatball's gotta' go!!!

one more...

gives new meaning to 'furball'.

the 8th dwarf, sniffy.

I have said it before, but I will say it again - Hope has the best nose EVER. She can be sound asleep, suddenly sit up, sniff the air a few times, and then shoot like a rocket(well, bippitybop rocket) toward the kitchen. She is hysterical.

In other health news, Hope's fecal sample came back positive for whipworms. We are already treating her with Panacur so a couple rounds of that and she should be good. Her blood work had also come back last week - lots of white blood cells and low red blood cells - anemia. We suspected whipworms or cancer. Hopefully it is the one and not the other!

Hope has also been sneezing a lot. We're on day 8 post-shelter so the incubation of a respiratory bug is coming due. I am praying and pleading she doesn't get sick. She seems very off today, having to be coaxed to eat her food. She got a worried Mom thermometer up the butt, though(normal temp). She got a little fresh about that but I told her it was in her best interest. She begged to differ.

For my birthday(today) Hope let me medicate her all by myself. Yup, I held her AND gave her eye drops and oral meds. What a gem.

From earlier today, Dexter and Hope! Dexter had been laying on the couch and Hope snuggled up to him. Most excellent. Our dogs are being super awesome with her - being gentle and respectful.

we had dinner in, now we'll have it out - with hope.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cks1HNJHPfA


I am positive that french fries aren't on a recovery diet, but what the hell.

The weekend with Hope has been great. We've had zero snarling, zero muzzle, and all the meds on regular intervals. Things are looking good. She's started sneezing here and there, but I can't tell if it is from excitement or not. It's not chronic and it seems to be around times of food. :) Say a little something she's not getting the dreaded KC.

Dinner with Hope

BippityBop.

Chris thinks how Hope prances around the house is hilarious. I think it is adorable. He calls her "BippityBop" or, alternately, "BoppityBoop". He talks to her with animated voice - the two of them are quite a pair. The whole thing brings me big smiles.

Hope may not be able to see, but she can sure as heck smell and hear. If there's even the slightest bit of a scent of food cooking she is up and off to investigate. She has this cute little whine when she wants something we're eating(or thinks we're eating). She knows how to work us.

Here she is, sound asleep in "the nest".


And here she is, after she heard the fridge open up...



:)

(we talk to the vet tomorrow about the blood work results, will update then)

the big day came.

Today I took Hope into work with me. I work at a veterinary specialty center in New Jersey - Red Bank Veterinary Hospital - that has some of the best and brightest in the veterinary field. We had our first appointment with Dr. Maria Badamo, a general practitioner, and our second with Dr. Michael Ringle, board certified veterinary ophthalmologist.

First - almost everyone thought she was adorable. I forewarned them about her being fresh and everyone was respectful.

Dr. B was great, as was her tech - Tara. It was assumed that the skin issue is either sarcoptic mange(more likely) or Cushings disease(yuck). For that we got a prescription medicated shampoo and a few doses of Revolution to kill the mites. Hope was amazingly calm during most of the exam, other than trying to look at her teeth. Ironic, considering she likes to flash them as much as she does. Her teeth look pretty good and we don't think she is a senior but rather around 7-8 years old. Dr. B did a swab of Hope's ears to see what the chunky gross stuff was that smelled like yeast. Big surprise - yeast! We got a script for ear wash and medicated drops for those.

And drum roll... Hope weighed 5.1lbs!!! We gained! You can still count her ribs but we're going to get there.

Dr. B also aspirated what we're affectionately calling "Hope's meatball" aka mammary tumor. She and Dr C, another GP doctor, felt the margins were pretty clear and removing it should not be a problem. If and when she is under we can have a teeth cleaning done at the same time as long as she isn't having a problem under anesthesia. They did a quick peek under the microscope to see if it was mast cell - it wasn't - but saw something that concerned them and asked the onco doctor to look. He advised it should be sent in to be sure. No answers there.

Tara and I trimmed some more mats and then clipped her nails. There was a dew claw that was a DOOZY. Wow, it was long. Hope wasn't very cooperative for this portion of the visit but thankfully she trusts me more and more so her opinion of me didn't waiver even though I had to squish her head multiple times when she was being fresh. We also drew blood, for which we opted to muzzle her. She was fairly well behaved after some mild gremlin noises. Her poor little body is so fragile she bruised from her aspiration and blood draw. It really amazes me how fragile these little bodies are.

So the basics of the general exam were the itching will get worse before it gets better as the mites die. The ears will clear up with meds and time(mites in those too). 5 prescriptions for the little hot mess.

We then saw Dr Ringle - what an amazing doctor. He was very gentle with her. We opted to muzzle her here, too, but there was nothing really invasive and she was extremely well behaved for this. He said there was no need to really do extensive testing because he could tell she had little to no tear production, no eye infection, and lots of corneal scarring. Basically, she is mostly blind. Sigh. She'll need to be on medication for her eyes for life - artificial tears and cyclosporine.

So the rundown is:

Cyclosporine eye drops - three times a day
Artificial Tears - as often as possible, at least 15 minutes outside of the other eye drops
Revolution - one every two weeks starting on the 26th
Epi-Otic - clean ears twice a day
Mometamaxx - 6-8 drops in both ears twice a day at least 30 minutes after cleaning
Welactin Fish Oil - double down for dose while she gets fixed up
Cephalexin Suspension - 2 mls twice a day, with food
KetoChlor shampoo - 1-2 times a week

We talked about adding a steroid/anti-itch type pill once her bloodwork is back. This might become my second - or third - job. We'll wait to hear on the blood results and her heartworm test, most likely tomorrow.

Onward - cute shots from bath time tonight! You can see her meatball pretty good here.





As one can imagine, this all isn't cheap, but her little personality is really coming through now and it is so worth it.

Still waiting on our B-Naturals.com order. Once it gets here we're going to start the detox and then the real fun begins!

houston, we have a dog!

Today was so much better than yesterday. Hope is really coming around and trusting us more and more.





She allowed me to clip more mats today from her fur. She still wasn't thrilled about the eye drops and the liquid medication but she argued less.



She seeks out our hands for petting and didn't snap(other than med time). Progress!


Tomorrow we have an appointment at the vet - to see both the general practitioner and the eye doctor just to make sure we have the correct meds to help heal those little peepers up quick!



My husband even slipped and said, "Aw, that's cute" about her sitting on a little tea towel for a piece of food. :)

Progress all around!

not exactly as planned.

Today was the day! i scooped hope out of the PSPCA ACCT this morning. Special thanks to jill sweeney and natalie smith for helping facilitate all of it.

Hope - what can you say. so much worse than her pictures ever lead me to believe. Her nails are so long she has trouble walking, her eyes were crusted shut, her ears are full of yeast, her coat was mats, and to top it all of - a DANGLER of a tumor.

I didn't get many, if any, pictures of her in the shelter. Hope was not doing well there and was a little fresh to anyone trying to handle her. We'll take it slow for a few days and let her warm up.

A heartbreaking point of the trip was when she was in the front seat of my car - she rolled and pressed her face into the soft blanket I'd brought for her for at least 10 minutes of driving time. She then stopped, sat, looked up at me, and cried this mournful noise that made my heart hurt. I invited her into my lap with a pat and there she went, curled up in a ball, and slept for the rest of the ride content. She did not, however, want me to pet her. Small steps.







We have eye meds, antibiotics, and derm caps for her issues. It's only about half of what I know she truly needs. We'll schedule the appointment with the vet tomorrow at work.

A few pictures from today, all cellphone shots, sorry.