More on Patty and Lance
It's a good thing I can afford Patty. Small wonder she ended up at the Humane Society. More weirdness and much peeing later, she's ended up at the vet with a urinary tract infection. She's feeling so poorly she acted like a nice normal dog there (sans the usual hysteria). No hysterics, good, but sick Patty, bad. She's to get antibiotics twice daily for a week, then they want to spin her blood to make sure she didn't ingest anything toxic. Meanwhile other owners were bringing their dogs in with the same problem so there is a fear that something wrong is being put down on the ice and snow. Lance is totally unaffected by any of it.
Lance has a much bigger problem. He's enlarged heart is pressing on his trachea and making him cough and hork. He coughs when he wakes, changes position, bounces around or basically does anything. It's awful; he sounds like an old man with TB. It's heartbreaking. And it's like water torture for me. He stopped sleeping in my room a while back but I have to close the door and sleep on my good ear to get a decent night's sleep. A day doesn't go by that I don't agonize over the situation. My SiL heard it over Christmas and asked if he was in pain. Laura the Dogsitter asked the same thing. Up until the point, I didn't think he was pain. I didn't think he was suffering. When he's not coughing, he's absolutely fine. I took him to the park during the last snow storm to play with the other dogs. I wanted him to show me how he really was. He turned 16 January 1st, but showed me total puppy-ishness. He actually played with the dogs, bounced around and even ran. (He doesn't cough outside; I think rushing air keeps his trachea open more). I was happy and anguished all at once because still, the coughing just can't go on. The cough medicine the vet gave him doesn't work. Laura said she practically overdosed him on the stuff to quiet him. The vet said he could prescribe much stronger stuff (deemed a controlled substance) to see if that worked. I've been putting it off because I know if this doesn't help, then... that's it.
I've started having nightmares about Lance. He was lying in his own pee and I was crying. Then somehow he was stolen and I couldn't get him back. Of course avoidance resolves nothing. It's not good for him or for me. So I ordered the medicine yesterday; it should arrive in a few days. Then in a few weeks I will know. At that point the question is: am I projecting my own anxieties onto him, or is he really suffering? I'm looking at him right now. He's nudging for scritchies and wagging his tail. I just don't know.
Lance has a much bigger problem. He's enlarged heart is pressing on his trachea and making him cough and hork. He coughs when he wakes, changes position, bounces around or basically does anything. It's awful; he sounds like an old man with TB. It's heartbreaking. And it's like water torture for me. He stopped sleeping in my room a while back but I have to close the door and sleep on my good ear to get a decent night's sleep. A day doesn't go by that I don't agonize over the situation. My SiL heard it over Christmas and asked if he was in pain. Laura the Dogsitter asked the same thing. Up until the point, I didn't think he was pain. I didn't think he was suffering. When he's not coughing, he's absolutely fine. I took him to the park during the last snow storm to play with the other dogs. I wanted him to show me how he really was. He turned 16 January 1st, but showed me total puppy-ishness. He actually played with the dogs, bounced around and even ran. (He doesn't cough outside; I think rushing air keeps his trachea open more). I was happy and anguished all at once because still, the coughing just can't go on. The cough medicine the vet gave him doesn't work. Laura said she practically overdosed him on the stuff to quiet him. The vet said he could prescribe much stronger stuff (deemed a controlled substance) to see if that worked. I've been putting it off because I know if this doesn't help, then... that's it.
I've started having nightmares about Lance. He was lying in his own pee and I was crying. Then somehow he was stolen and I couldn't get him back. Of course avoidance resolves nothing. It's not good for him or for me. So I ordered the medicine yesterday; it should arrive in a few days. Then in a few weeks I will know. At that point the question is: am I projecting my own anxieties onto him, or is he really suffering? I'm looking at him right now. He's nudging for scritchies and wagging his tail. I just don't know.